Chapter two
This chapter is dedicated to Motherofdragons1227 and twztdwildcat. Thanks.
Lucy rushed out of the guild and back to her apartment. Her father had paid for it in full for another three months and while she was glad that she wouldn't have to worry about rent for three months she knew she would be gone longer than that so Lucy pried up her floor boards under her bed for where she hid her money. Natsu didn't even know she hid her savings in there because her scent was so strong on her bed he couldn't tell there was a place under the floorboards. She opened the box and inside it was her savings, everything she had managed to scrape together after months of Team Natsu destroying everything they touched. She lived on a tight budget but every chance she got she managed to save a few jewels here and there for a rainy day. It was years worth of savings and it was 350,000 jewel. Lucy went to her landlady and gave her enough money to cover another 4 months that ensured she would have at least 7 months to return home. She was left with 70,000 jewel and while she could have paid another months rent, she would likely need the money for her expenses when she left. Lucy packed light, only taking a single bag and leaving a note on her table for her team. She brushed her hands over her keys and felt their approval and smiled. It was time.
Lucy took the train as far as it would go and found herself in Cedar. She decided that she would spend the night there before travelling on foot towards the forest. In her little room in the crappy in that she booked into she summoned Grandpa Crux, "Where can I get more information on celestial magic?" she asked him.
Unfortunately there was nothing he could do to help her. Celestial magic was not recorded the way normal magic was recorded. The only way she would advance and explore the magic would be if she trained and advanced herself. There were books but he had no idea where those books were anymore. In the seven years that they had been gone celestial magic had become even rarer and he was unsure of what happened to the few books that had been created.
Lucy sighed in disappointment, this was going to be harder than she thought, it seemed like she was never going to find any sort of instruction. The next day she travelled into the forest. She found a beautiful clearing with a waterfall where she had Virgo set up camp. Lucy summoned Capricorn and he excitedly had her begin meditation. All of her spirits were eager for Lucy to begin training. Once she was done with her morning meditation, she would summon Loke to spar with her. Loke took this very seriously and the first thing he did was set her up on a balancing beam and blindfold her.
"You need to learn to be more aware of your surroundings. The meditation helps you to focus and feel your magic energy and with time you will begin to sense magic but physically you need to be aware as well. The purpose of this exercise is to feel my attacks coming. The hits that land will sting for a little while but after a soak you'll be fine but if you want to avoid the pain, don't get hit."
Loke and Lucy would spend hours on the balancing beam with her blindfolded. He would jump over head and touch her back, thighs, arms, stomach and chest. Loke was the lion and he could move like a freaking cat on the balancing beam and he was true to is word. Loke didn't hold back. The first two days she had been covered from head to toe in bruises because she was unable to sense his movements but she soon began to understand what he wanted her to do. Loke wanted her to sense the shift in the air when he was poised to attack, he wanted her to hear his rustling of his clothes the sound of his feet landing when he jumped and soon she started to avoid the attacks but then came the other problem she would fall of the beam when she moved to doge him and so she was forced not to doge but block his attacks. It took her a week before she was able to hold her ground for more than 15 minutes and then Capricorn advanced her magical training.
Lucy was to open more than one gate at a time, with the meditation that she had done she could feel her magical reserves expand but she was still unsure about opening two gates at the same. She called both Aries and Loke and for the first time she could feel the drain that Loke spoke about when he told her about regular mages. She was able to keep both gates open for 5 minutes before giving in and releasing them but Capricorn nodded approvingly.
"Opening two gates could probably save you from death even if you cannot maintain it for long. We will work on stamina as well and trying to keep them out for longer periods of time."
Another week passed and Lucy now held in her hands twin daggers. The blades looked like the night sky, it was given to her as a gift from Virgo who had given her, her first weapon the whip. Lucy was able to use the whip well for long distance but once an enemy got in close she was almost defenseless. She had taken to strapping the daggers on her thighs for easy access.
Loke was proud of Lucy. For someone who had been a complete novice at martial arts Lucy was progressing well. It helped that Lucy knew battle and she had picked up a few tips from her friends but this was proper instruction and practice can only take you so far if you don't know what you're actually doing. She was also an exceptionally bright student and she was a fast learner but then again she was also stubborn and she was not afraid of hard work. Lucy trained hard all day every day, she was almost constantly covered in bruises but she never complained or asked him to slow down. She trusted him to work her to the best of his ability so he refused to let her down. He would work her hard and Lucy never backed down, every time she fell and every bruise she got, she got back up, adjusted her blindfold and tried again.
Lucy was taking a soak in the waterfall. Virgo had gone out of her way to make the campsite as comfortable as humanly possible but then again she might just have been bored. Lucy had taken to calling out Virgo and Aries trying to keep both gates open for longer periods of time, every day she lasted a little longer however Capricorn once told her that she should time how long she could keep a gate open before she felt the drain so she would have an idea of the difference between holding open two gates.
Lucy had summoned Virgo and the spirit was heartbroken when there was nothing for her to do so instead Lucy told her to use her magic as she wanted to do whatever she wanted so Virgo transformed the campsite. She cut the grass, fetched another tent from the spirit world, this one much larger, got a cot for the tent, created a proper fire pit, stocked up on healing herbs from the spirit world and then she got sun stones from the spiritual world and created a hot tub in the waterfall. All Lucy had to do was move a rock to let the water drain everyday and she had a fricken hot bath everyday. Food and drinking water was provided for by Virgo via the spirit world.
Lucy had to admit this place was pretty freaking perfect but it was lonely. Her spirits kept her busy but two weeks had passed and she already missed her family. Lucy bit her lip as much as she missed them she couldn't go back just yet. She still had so much work to do.
Lucy suddenly looked towards the edge of her campsite. She could hear heavy footsteps which meant that there were a lot of people running towards her. Lucy grabbed her robe, once more given to her by Virgo. It was baby pink and since it was sheer material, it was mostly see through but Lucy hardly noticed. She tied the tie and grabbed her daggers as several men ran into the clearing.
The large fat one licked his lips, "Well, well what do we have here boys?"
Lucy narrowed her eyes when a beam of yellow light, hit at least 7 seven of the men and left them unconscious. The fat man leering at her stopped leering and looked in shock before shouting, "He's still chasing us."
There was a reply from other guy somewhere near the fat man, "He should be dead already. Master got him good."
Another beam of light and the fat man was the only one left so he lunged for her and held some sort of sword to her neck and Lucy growled an honest to God growl like the one Natsu makes if someone tries to take his food. She was not some freaking damsel in distress and she absolutely hated the fact that he had just taken her hostage.
Jellal had been careless and he was caught while surveying the dark guild forcing him to confront them without his team which led to this disaster. Some of the weaker members managed to get away while he fought the master and the bastard got a lucky hit to his gut and he was currently bleeding quite badly with no help in sight but he couldn't let them get away so he chased after them and then he saw the blonde.
It was obvious that they had stumbled upon her campsite and she was probably taking a bath of some sort. She was wearing a pink see through robe and he could see every inch of her and well if he was going to die then he was dying a happy man because that was probably the best damned sight he had seen in a long time. He saw her eyes widen when she saw him and a thought flashed by that she was familiar when she growled and fuck him if it wasn't the sexiest thing he ever heard but he was just about to save her, when she twirled in the mans arm, jammed her elbow into his gut and then round house kicked him in the head knocking him unconscious.
"Do not touch me you piece of filth. I just took a bath." She muttered.
Lucy stared at Jellal. She had not seen him since he had been taken away by the rune knights and now here he was near death it looked like from the look of the amount of blood on his clothes. Lucy ran to him and helped him further into her camp. She laid him next to fire and then went in search of medical supplies. Once she had tended to him, she tied up the guys that were passed out around her campsite. Better have them on leash rather than free to move around and kill them in their sleep.
The next morning Jellal woke up in a campsite with the blonde. This time she was wearing a mini skirt and a tube top. Didn't she own any clothes that covered her?
"I'm Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail. We met briefly just before you were taken away."
Jellal remembered her now, she was one of Ezra's friends.
"Thank you for helping me." He told her. Then he looked around and found that she was all alone and raised an eyebrow in question, "I'm alone here. I'm a celestial mage but I never really had any training. I'm trying to learn more about my magic by training it. I'll go back to the guild when I'm done. What's your story?"
Jellal realizing that she meant how come he was free explained about his guild that he created with Ultear and Meredy to take down dark guilds and try to repent.
Lucy smiled softly, "It wasn't your fault. None of you would have made those decisions if you had all the facts however guilt is not something that can easily be cast away and if you feel as if you need a reason to keep going then I'm happy you found something to devote yourself too."
Jellal found himself in awe of her forgiving nature. He also couldn't help but think that maybe she was wrong, "Devoting myself to doing something good won't change all the bad I've done."
Lucy rolled her eyes, "You cannot change your past and you cannot hold yourself accountable for the actions of others. While it is true that nothing will erase your mistakes you cannot just roll over and die."
Jellal was looking up at the clouds in the sky while listening to her, it was so peaceful here, "Should I not die for my crimes? Is my life worth anything after all the suffering I have caused?" he wondered out loud.
"Death would be too good for you. It would release you from this pain and suffering and overwhelming guilt and since you believe that you deserve to suffer so your punishment is to live. A part of you did die in that tower, the part that had been consumed by insanity and hatred now all that is left is your humanity."
Jellal looked at her in surprise. He did not know why the hell he said what he did but he said it and instead of giving him some sappy story of how he needed to forgive himself she told him that living was to be his punishment something that he often thought was true.
Lucy noticed the look of shock on his face and she gave him a bittersweet smile and said, "I could have told you to forgive yourself but sometimes that isn't what you need to hear. You went to jail because you wanted to be punished for your sins and Ultear and Meredy broke you out and now you feel as if you are living a life just for the sake of living. You carry a burden of guilt for everything that you did wrong and you still want to be punished. Telling you to forgive yourself is hopeless because you can't save someone that does not want to be saved."
Jellal almost smiled at her because she understood. He did not want someone to tell him it wasn't his fault and say he deserved to live because he knew differently. It was too tiring listening to Ultear and Meredy try to take responsibility for what he had done and whether he was insane or not he remembered what he had done and the worst part was that he remembered liking it and now he didn't know what to feel. He remembered being a monster and as far as he knew monsters did not deserve to live.
"I'm glad you created this guild though. I've heard the rumours since we all returned about how the guild had crushed many dark guilds and while the lives that you saved will not bring back the ones that you had taken, I'm glad you used your power to protect people. Living is a sign of strength Jellal, we are human, we stumble and fall and make mistakes but our ability to own up to those mistakes and try to correct them is something that separates us from those who wish to walk the path of darkness. Live, suffer; stumble, fall and one day I hope you find it in yourself to forgive yourself. You were a child and you got lost but now you have finally found your way home."
Jellal smiled at her and the two shared a moment of peace together, for some reason he had a feeling that she understood him far more than he thought.
Lucy on the other could understand where he was coming from. Much like how she wanted Loke to tell her the truth about her weakness Jellal did not want someone to say forget about it because you were controlled. Her weakness when it came to magic and Jellal's past, were all things that neither of them wanted sugarcoated nor did they want pity all they wanted was someone who was honest about it.
Jellal fell into a peaceful sleep while Lucy went back to her meditation. Her patient would need at least a days rest before he could leave and the thugs that she had tied up were not going anywhere anytime soon so she decided to continue her training until he was ready to tell her what to do with them.
