"Run faster Nix," Zo shouted towards me as I ran laps around the gym. I picked up my pace and let out rigid, uneven breaths. When I finally finished the last lap I collapsed from exhaustion. "Tired Nix, as you should be, no one has ever ran that much in their first week of training."

"I hate you so much," I muttered.

"I'm sure you do Nix, but I'm teaching you how to survive."

"How is this teaching me how to survive."

"This simulates the pain you will feel if you actually fight, and conditioning your body how to not be as affected to this pain. The exhaustion you feel, is suppose to simulate what would happen if you exert yourself for too long in a fight."

Silently I listened to Zo's words. "When you start to spar some of the other people here, you'll see what I mean."

"You knocked her out," a man shouted.

"She wasn't going to come if I didn't," a female voice sternly said.

"Still, you knocked her out."

"What would you have done Gray."

"I wouldn't have knocked her out," Gray shouted.

"Guys do we really need to fight right now, once she wakes up she's going to be hurting from the operation," another female voice said.

"Still can't believe you fucking knocked her out."

"Hey Romeo, have you had any luck getting ahold of them," the stern female voice said.

"No, nothing yet, I'm starting to get worried, Wendy usually answers right away," Romeo answered.

Slowly I opened my eyes to see that I was laying on a table. Erza and Gray were leaning against the wall closest to me. Levy and Romeo were sitting in front of a lacrima on the wall opposite of me. Gray's eyes met mine and he let out a tired sigh.

"How you feeling Lucy," he asked walking towards me.

"Like someone knocked me out," I growled shooting a look towards Erza. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and felt a sharp pain shoot through my right shoulder. I quickly grabbed it to feel a smooth metal there. "What the fuck," I muttered as I looked to see a full metal arm coming from my right shoulder.

"It's a magic powered arm," I heard Levy say when she saw I was looking towards the piece of machinery attached to me. "We've been working on it since the incident," Levy added after several moments.

I remained silent and looked towards the shiny silver arm. I then attempted to make a fist with it, which after several attempts did. "We've been trying to make it like a natural arm, but there's only so much we could do. Gajeel made sure the metal was the best out there, won't be affected by the weather. If you turn your hand around, we put something special on the back of it," I obliged and turned the robotic hand to see a Fairy Tail emblem was scorched into the metal.

"Levy told us that you were looking into getting surgery to fix it, so we've been rushing to get it done in the last few months," Gray said with a soft smile. "So do you like it."

"Thank you," I finally managed. I met their eyes and saw they were all looking towards me in high hopes.

"Oh, there's also a feature we thought you would love," Levy said walking towards me and grabbing the robotic arm that was attached to me. "We placed your celestial keys in here and gave the ones that need elemental resources to summon the best element we could find so then you could summon them whenever you needed to." The machine then began to move and showed several compartments with my celestial keys in them. Aquarius' compartment had water in it that was clearer than I have ever seen before.

A ringing then filled the room, and Gray quickly grabbed his communications lacrima. "Hello," Gray said into the lacrima as he started to leave the room. Then he stopped dead in his tracks. "You saw what," there was a pause. "Oh god, we'll be there as soon as we can." Gray then haphazardly stuffed the lacrima into his pocket.

"Who was that," Romeo asked.

"Gramps, apparently Alzack and Dux saw the dragon slayers being taken out of town," Gray quickly said. "We have to get to the guild." Everyone's eyes went wide but mine, I stood up and started towards the door.

"Where the hell are you going Lucy," Gray asked when I was already out the door. I didn't answer and kept walking towards my home, my robotic fist still clenched.

"I'm going home, when you see Dux send him home too," I answered after several moments. With that no one called after me as I walked back towards my home. As soon as I was inside the safety of my home as slid onto the floor. My eyes were on the robotic arm.

"Lucy, I've talked to Gramps about it, he's going to talk around and see if there's anything anyone can do," Laxus said as he sat by my hospital bed. I was silently looking towards the wall when I felt Laxus' hand grab my left hand. "You're strong Lucy, don't let this drag you down, we'll get through this together. Right."

"Yea," I said softly looking towards the man that sat next to me, I smiled softly. "We'll get through this together."

"That's what I want to hear," Laxus said smiling back, he then pressed a soft kiss to my cheek.

"Makarov never did find someone who could help us, and you ended up paying the price," I said softly making another fist using the robotic arm. After several moments I got back to my feet and headed into the bathroom and looked towards the large mirror that was over the sink. I could tell by the look on my face I needed a nice shower, then my eyes drifted to the metal arm I was using to prop myself up. "Levy said it should be able to withstand the weather and stuff, so the water shouldn't hurt it."

Then I heard a bark outside the door. I let out a sigh and went to the door to find Dux sitting on the porch. He quickly stood up, trotted in and jumped onto the couch. I returned to the bathroom and pulled out a pair of scissors. I could've called Cancer to give me a haircut, but for some reason that didn't feel right.

I started cutting away the hair that had grown past my liking. I could see the version of me, Nix, starting to appear as my hair was becoming shorter and shorter. Once my hair was short enough to my liking I got into the shower. Watching the water hit and run off of the metal arm was somehow mesmerizing to me. The sound of the water hitting the metal also pleased me.

Once I finished my shower and got dressed again I looked outside, snow was coming down.

"It's so cold," I murmured as Zo and I walked through the snow. "Why did you only let me have a thin hoodie."

"Because I'm going to show you how to deal with the cold. Now fall into the snowbank," Zo ordered. I just looked towards the pile of snow and shook my head. "Nix," her voice becoming sterner.

"Fine," I muttered, falling back into the snow. I felt the cold seep through the hoodie and his my body from all sides.

"How do you feel," Zo asked after several minutes.

"Cold."

"Good."

"How the hell is that good."

"That cold you're feeling, is it hurting you," Zo asked softly.

"It's giving me frostbite so yes," I answered.

"Really I don't feel anything," Zo said, when I looked back towards her she was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. She didn't look cold at all and smiled towards me.

"How the-"

"Ice mages learn how to control their body temperatures and adjust to the cold, we're essentially going to do the same, but without magic."

"So are you going to just make me freeze out here."

"No, I'm going to show you the warmth of the cold. Now take your hoodie off."

Reluctantly I stripped off the hoodie and layed back down into the snow. "Are you colder than before."

"No not really." Then Zo started kicking snow over my body, causing me to shoot up. "What the hell was that for."

"Were you colder than before."

"No, not really."

"How about now since you're standing."

"No."

I then noticed I stopped shivering and that even though I felt the cold tingling on my skin it wasn't cold enough to really bother me. I then again flopped into the snow, and realized I was actually warmer than I was when I was standing up.

"I assume you're noticing that the snow is warmer than just standing."

"Yes."

"Good job Nix, now go inside and change into some shorts, we're going to be training outside today."

I quickly pulled out a bag and started stuffing it with some shirts and jeans. I grabbed my old hand wraps from when I was known as Nix and wrapped my left hand, I also grabbed my worn out, thin hoodie and pulled it on. I slung the bag onto my back and started walking towards the door.

"Come on Dux," I said, waking the dog that was sleeping on the couch.

Almost forgot today was Sunday, whoops.

Anyway I hope you like the story so far with integrated flashbacks.

Gives you an idea of what made Lucy Lucy in this world.

I hope you all enjoyed this update and I'll see you next time.