Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
They were trapped.
Lucy didn't know how the 3 vulcans had crept up on them, but, they had, and they were officially blocked on each of the three sides.
What made it even worse was that one of them was making swipes at her butt and the other was making heart eyes.
God, she was pissed.
That didn't last long though because heart eyes made his move and stretched his large hands to take a grab at her.
Panic set in and she grabbed her keys, ready to summon Taurus and send the pervert into oblivion with a mighty swing of his ax.
But, then again, it wasn't like Taurus wasn't exactly appropriate, either.
She didn't even have to do anything though, because Natsu was in front of her in a flash, and already sending the monkey into orbit and having it crash land a couple miles away.
Natsu was already running after it, eager to beat something up.
It seemed the other two decided it was their turn for a go, too, because they suddenly made a mad dash for her, and tried to grab at her before the other could.
Lucy barely had any time to react when a sickle shaped glowing mass of water came over her and smacked the first Vulcan away.
Jets of water flowed around her and forced the second one into the trunk of a tree, rendering unconscious.
Lucy turned around only to see Erza in her Sea Empress Armor, standing in the fairly wide river they were walking along just earlier.
She grinned at Erza and called out her thanks before she was suddenly lifted up by a hairy green hand.
"GYAAA!" The monster swung her around in joy and the blonde saw stars in her eyes.
Gray and Wendy were immediately taking him down when others began to appear. Soon, they were surrounded by ten more and Natsu was nowhere to be found.
Erza furrowed her brows before looking to the others as they ran down the riverside, attempting to shake off the many Vulcans that were now chasing them.
"Gray, I'm going to go into the forest on the other side, you go the opposite way and take care of the any new Vulcans that are coming."
Gray looked at her and nodded, jumping over a stump and firing some icicles at the monsters, making them follow him into the right side of the forest.
"Wendy! You stay here and fight off this batch. If it's you, I'm sure you'll be fine!" She smiled at her and she gave her a nod before stopping and giving the Vulcan group a Sky Dragon Roar.
"Romeo, Lucy!" The two immediately looked at Erza, waiting for instructions on where to go.
"Follow the stream into the forest, find a route that we can escape to without having the Vulcans on our tail."
Lucy grinned and nodded, and she was given a smile back before Erza leaped over the river and into the forest on the other side, about a dozen of the monsters going after her.
"How the hell did all of these Vulcans even get here?!" Lucy yelled out to Romeo, as more and more Vulcans trailed after them.
Romeo suddenly stopped after she asked that question and merely stared at her.
Lucy also stopped and tugged his forearm.
"Romeo, what're you doing? We got to keep going and find a safer way out of this forest."
Romeo suddenly smirked, looking up at her with an unimpressed expression, "I honestly thought you'd be something more than just a pleasant view."
Lucy's eyes widened at his insult and her grip on his arm slackened.
"N-nani? What the heck is wrong with you, Romeo? What're you saying?"
She completely took her arm off of his and backed away a bit, feeling a cold sensation on the back of her neck.
Why did she feel like she wasn't safe?
She was with Romeo, after all, the boy she thought of as a brother, even if he was acting strange at the moment.
Romeo looked at her, his eyebrow arched in amusement, before he let out a long and airy sigh.
He gave her a smile and she thought for a moment that he was just playing around with her before she got chills down her back.
It felt as if somebody had poured ice water all over her when his expression had turned malicious.
It terrified her even more when his eyes turned from their usual shade of ink black to light red.
"Lucy Heartfilia… the girl with the power to change the course of the very universe, itself."
Lucy looked at him in horror, her teeth gritted.
For a few seconds, the only thing that could be heard was the swishing of the river.
Then it hit her.
She swung her head, checking the area surrounding them
Where had all the Vulcans gone…?
Her confusion must've been clear because the fake Romeo's face split into an even wider smile-if it could even be called that.
"The Vulcans? I made them leave and go to those friends of yours so we could have a little chat."
Lucy had had enough of this and decided to just be blunt. "Who the hell are you?"
He was about to respond when she cut him off.
"Wait, scratch that. If you're here, then where's the real Romeo?"
The boy walked around her slowly, his hands clasped behind his back and his face cocky.
"And why is it that you assume I'm not Romeo?"
His eyes flashed, his smile taunting her.
"Romeo is my precious nakama. He would never send monsters after the others or purposely insult me."
She straightened her posture before setting her eyes into a sharp glare.
"Those ruby eyes of yours are also enough to justify."
The imposter stopped, his smile smoothed down into a teasing smirk.
His voice suddenly changed into a slightly deeper and accented tone.
"Bingo, Miss Heartfilia! My name is Morris and I am an acrisius, a high ranking servant of m'lord. If you couldn't tell, I use Transformation Magic!"
Lucy's eyes narrowed even further and her she took a battle stance.
"You didn't answer my question. I don't care about you, or your magic, or any evil lord of yours! I just want to know…Where. Is. Romeo…?"
Morris chuckled and his gem like eyes sparkled in the bright light of the sun.
The heat suddenly felt a little too intense for Lucy.
She felt as if she should back up and run away from the ruby eyed servant.
Because, for some reason, she felt as if she was getting herself into more than she knew.
"Oh no, Miss Heartfilia!" the boy was chuckling as he sat down on a rock, his posture make his aura seem even more arrogant.
God. He was over-dramatic and an asshole.
Lucy practically growled at the boy, her annoyance rising because of this boy.
Morris seemed to see her almost murderous rage though, because he got up from the rock and started slowly walking to her.
"Romeo is alive, that, I can assure you, but, then again…"
"What?! What have you done to him?!" she grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up to meet her face, her worry increasing with the way Morris was grinning.
"He's alive… but barely. We had to…" he paused to let out a chuckle and sigh almost dreamily.
"Play around with him a bit, but, yeah, he's still breathing."
Lucy's eyes widened as her hands started trembling.
"You…You…"
"Oh! But no worries, he didn't say a word! The rascal has quite tight lips, I was actually quite impressed."
He seemed quite pleased with himself, and that served to only fuel Lucy's rage.
Before Morris could even open his mouth to say another sickening comment, she had punched him in the face and sent him straight into the river.
Morris sat up, his expression almost happy, and Lucy pulled out her whip.
"How-how could you?!" her blood was boiling and her fists were white while she practically choked the life out of her whip.
Morris merely got up and calmly wiped himself off before walking to Lucy and slapping her across the face.
"Fucking bitch." He spat, his mouth still quirked in a smile.
But his expression suddenly became hard and cold as he uttered his next words.
"Know your place."
Lucy saw red.
Next thing, she was flinging him around on her whip and hitting him as hard as she could, demanding to know Romeo's location.
It infuriated her even more when he smiled and said she was too late, before flipping her off.
She hadn't even realized how much damage she had inflicted on the boy in her rage, until about 5 minutes later when she stopped to breathe.
He was soaked from when he landed in the river, and bruises covered his body from top to bottom. His mouth and forehead were bleeding and he had several large scratches and cuts on his arms and legs.
His clothes were also torn from his meeting with the trees.
The water did not help at all, making his injuries look much worse than they were and giving them a swollen and blotchy look.
Although Lucy felt he deserved it for taking Romeo, she couldn't help but feel the guilt run through her veins.
She, after all, was a normally peaceful person and never purposely beat somebody up to such an extent while in a rage.
She went over to the boy, dragging him to the gentle river so she could flush his wounds and get him to spit out where Romeo was.
Lucy had just gotten the barely conscious Morris next to the river when her team mates appeared, smiling at first before seeing her dragging the wounded lad towards the river.
Why were her team mates looking at her like that?
She was just trying to clean out the sadistic brat's wounds.
Oh.
Lucy realized what it looked like, Morris not having shown his real form and staying in Romeo's body.
The only thing different was his eyes, and those were currently closed for the moment.
She was rambling for words, trying not to cause a misunderstanding when Natsu looked at her, tears in his eyes at what looked to be the barely conscious Romeo.
Team Natsu looked at her, horrified, and at the scene- an angry looking Lucy dragging an injured and innocent Romeo into the river.
Lucy was about to explain when "Romeo" suddenly croaked out.
"Natsu-nii… Save me… Save me from her…!"
Lucy's eyes widened in shock and horror, his eyes were ink black, the same shade as Romeo.
"Lucy…? How could you…?"
Pain flashed through her chest as she heard him utter those words.
Natsu…?
"This isn't what it looks like!" she screamed out to them, panic setting in.
Why was this happening?
"Lucy, you didn't do this, right?" Erza was the one that had spoken, but even then, she sounded worried.
Morris was doing an awfully good job, moaning and groaning in pain, while calling out for his Natsu-nii to save him.
Lucy couldn't lie, for her, a celestial mage, she couldn't bring herself to.
"I…I did do it…but…!"
She wasn't allowed to finish because Wendy stopped her.
"W-why Lucy-san…?"
The others looked shocked and hurt and Morris had already been taken to Wendy by Happy while she hadn't been paying attention.
"I-I…It's not what it looks like! I can explain!"
Tears speckled the corners of her vision as she tried to explain herself, her voice failing her.
"I-I…"
"It's enough, Lucy. Just stop." Erza hadher head away form her, her bangs shading her eyes as she gritted out the words.
"NO! Please…! Listen! That's not Romeo! I-"
"SHUT UP ALREADY!"
Lucy practically felt her heart shatter as she heard the words echo throughout the forest.
"N-Natsu…?"
She barely had any time to react before he'd walked up to her and slapped her across the face.
Nobody said anything.
"How could you…?"
His words were soft and gentle, but bitter and angry, too.
Why?
And when she looked at Morris from where'd she'd fallen to her knees, she saw him smirk.
Lucy's eyes widened and everything around her seemed to shatter.
He had set her up.
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