Chapter 2:
NORMAL POV:
"Nice place you have here." Bickslow said as she gave him the tour. On the bottom floor the front door led into a small lounge with one big couch and three small ones, a coffee table and a TV stand with a small lacroma TV on it next to the open kitchen. The path between then leads to a hallway that had three doors and a set of stairs leading upwards, the first door led to a huge study with an oak desk, the second to a small library and the third to an art room stocked for; music, painting, drawing, dance area and room for any other form of art you can think of.
The necting kitchen was pretty big with cupboards on the walls above the counters, a microwave, fridge, freezer, a stove and an island with a staircase hidden behind the counter against the wall with a doorway at the bottom leading to an underground garage housing three heavy duty vehicles, a motorcycle, a huge vault, a training area in the back and a cupboard full of army type clothing and lots of bulletproof items.
On the top floor where five identical bedrooms and two bathrooms and one locked door which Lucy skipped over completely along with a little sun room that looked over the whole clearing at the front of the house.
She made her way over to one room next to the bathroom closest to the staircase and walked in.
"You can share with me. They may not be here but I don't want to touch the other girls' rooms." She said as she sat on the bed. He sat next to her and looked around.
"Sure but why is it so bland?" he commented.
"This is where we escaped to. The other four girls and I hid here, we didn't exactly have any belongings to bring along. My mom gave it to me after the first outburst my dad had around me. He broke my arm and damn near killed her. She said it was a place to go to if I didn't feel safe at home." She said as she tucked her feet under her. "I came here often to practice magic and to run when he got angry. He didn't know about it, at least I didn't think so but just before I ran away he told me if I'm in trouble he put a spell on this place so that only people with the password could get in."
"I changed the password after I went on that solo and left a note for Love. My dad put in all this new stuff after I was enslaved. When I saw him again he made me study all this stuff about guns and magic-less vehicles and protection spells. He was trying to help but my mind started shutting down about a month after I escaped." She was in tears as she thinks about her dead parents. "Only Love and I are still free."
"Love is free?" he asked. "She was in the cage next to mine. I tried bargaining her freedom into my fight but Kizei refused saying you must fight for your own freedom."
"She spoke of you often, though always slipping in joke insults. 'He snored so loud the building shook' or 'maybe he cracked open his skull and realized there was nothing there' and my favorite 'his face was so ugly a troll would run from him'. I was always laughing around her."
"She was brought in a year after I was and that was the method I used with her. She always called me a sociopath but in the sense of I was pathetic at any attempt to be social. It was a crap anagram but it made her happy so..." he pouted. "But really? A troll? Cruel."
"Having met you I would have to disagree with her. You are actually quite handsome." She said shyly. He looked at her and then grinned widely.
"Thanks Cosplayer." He leaned over and hugged her tightly. She smiled and hugged him back.
"This is not what I was expecting to walk in on when I got home, Lu." A voice sounded from the doorway. They jumped away from each other and swung to face the door.
"Love." They both exclaimed Lucy in embarrassment and Bickslow in surprise.
There stood a girl with a brown pixie cut and chocolate brown eyes. She wore a kind smile, ripped jeans and an army green tank top that covered her d-cup boobs paired with a pair of clumpy biker boots. She held a gun in her hands, it's holder strapped to her upper left thigh.
"You really thought someone would get in?" Lucy grabbed the gun. The safety was on. "Or you just had it on you*sigh*."
"What?" the girl asked innocently. "I heard Jace was in town. Some girl put him in prison. He escaped two days later though."
"That girl was me. He's the reason my memories came back and I left you that note. Young master came after me and then he suddenly went back to being Julian. He'll come here in a few days time. And you know how I feel about you carrying a gun around. You could get arrested and then he'll get you."
Love looked at Lucy in shock as she spoke.
"How long have you remembered?" she asked the blonde.
"Since the day before I changed the password. Where were you?"
"I was chasing down a lead on Dynasty. Rumor has it they are back up and running and it has been since about a week after Leo and Karen saved us, I didn't believe it until a week and a half ago when I went to check on the others but they were gone. I thought leaving them there was a good idea no one would attack a guild as famous as Blue Pegasus." She was shaking. "But when I got there Bob told me Karen died and Leo left. He knows where he went but he wouldn't tell me and I'm assuming it was for a reason."
"It was and I'm sorry. It was because I didn't make contact with him after I remembered about everything. After Karen and Loke saved us she became almost possessed, and now that I think about it I'm almost convinced that's what happened, and she became abusive towards her spirits, people she once saw as friends."
"They tried to bring her back to her senses but she didn't so Loke opened his own gate and refused to leave until she terminated all her contracts, she refused. She went on a job and tried to open a second gate but the drain on her magic was immense and it killed her." Lucy sat on the bed once more, the gun still in her hand. "The spirit king saw this as Loke's fault and forced him out of the spirit world and banned him from returning. He stayed in our world for three years. As a normal spirit he should have died but he is the leader of the zodiac."
"Loke?" Love asked.
"Yeah that's part of the story." Bickslow said. The other girl nodded.
"Ok so when he stayed in our world Leo changed his name to Loke, the immense flirt. He joined the guild Fairy tail and only master Bob knew of this. When I first met him, he avoided me like the plague and I never really believed his shit excuse of 'I'm a celestial spirit and I was scared you would realize it and try to force me into a contract'. He explained to me that it was really because he didn't know how I would react to someone from that part of my life and that he only realized I'd lost my memories after I saved him from disappearing and thereby gaining his key-"
"Almost killing herself in the process." Loke supplied from the corner.
"Yeah, almost killing my- LOKE! You know you shouldn't open your own gate unless it's an emergency." She shouted as she dropped the gun into her lap, grabbed a pillow and threw it at his head. "Anyway, after that we spoke properly."
"Yup." Loke said as he put the pillow back on the bed. "I had Virgo get your things from the house and terminate your contract with the landlady. And she got the freaks stuff too." he said in a joking tone.
"Thanks lion king." Bickslow said.
"Hey, Leo. Nice to see you again." Love said. Said spirit looked over and his eyes widened.
"Hey can I start calling you Love or are you going to insist on being called 18 again." He asked her.
"Love, please. I put 18 behind me long ago. She was an idiot to get herself caught all those years ago." Loke looked at her in understanding but it seemed Lucy wanted a better explanations. "Unlike you Lucy, I was not in the best place before they got their grimy hands on me. Drugs, guns, prostitution, even gangs. I did it all. And I mean I did drugs I stole and sold guns and I hung with prostitutes and gangs." She said as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket along with a lighter. She stuck it in her mouth and lit it. "Let's move to the kitchen I got to eat. Lucy you look like shit by the way."
They all moved from Lucy and Bickslow's room to the lounge/kitchen area.
"Let's just say Lucy had it worse because all that shit was new for her while me and the troll-repellant were very much used to all that shit." She said after she took a long drag from the cancer stick.
"How are you involved Bickslow?" Loke asked.
"Well Cosplayer and I have 23 in common. Until about a year and a half before she got dragged into Dynasty twelve years ago I was their money making 23. They had me there for five and a half years and made a fortune selling me off. About a year after I was 'recruited' the Master initiated his test to see if I was going to join the guild freely or forcefully." Bickslow removed his helmet.
"If that is the guild mark shouldn't it disappear if you force it off?" Loke asked. Bickslow and the girls nodded at him.
"But these are not simple painless stamps. We got branded and then after it healed and scarred they tattooed it in black so that we know we are permanently theirs." Lucy said as she touched her mark through the shirt she woke up in. Love touched the area between her bellybutton and her crotch. While Bickslow touched his face visor lying forgotten on the counter. "It's like every slaves one year anniversary present." She let out an emotionless giggle.
"My god you are as morbid as ever Lu." Love said as she made her way over to the stove. She pulled out a pot and a bottle of water from the fridge. "Come help me with dinner. We are having spaghetti." She handed the bottle to Lucy as soon as she was in the kitchen.
"Ok you can continue Bix." She said as she poured water into the kettle and turned it on. Love was pulling out all the necessary ingredients from the fridge.
"Ok so the old piece of shit did the damn test to see how my body was and then he asked were my loyalties lie. I told him six feet under." Bickslow rubbed his shoulder. "My answer was less than satisfactory so he had Jace punish me. I walked out with a dislocated shoulder, deep gashes all over, whip lashes and serious poisoning. That was the first time I met Julian. He came by and gave me a pill, against my will the cheeky bastard, to heal my wounds and poisoning through the night. He fed me and Love and then he left. He took care of us when we needed it and we probably owe him our lives ten times over."
"He continued to look after us until just after Lucy got marked. Don't know what happened he just didn't show up one night and the next day he grabbed us and he seemed different. He thoroughly beat the shit out of us and found all the ways to make us submit. He told us to call him young master or sir because it was a huge turn on." Love and Lucy both shivered in disgust. "He changed so drastically in one day it scares me."
"I can explain that part." Bickslow said to the obviously disturbed girls. Lucy removed the boiled kettle and handed it to Love who was busy frying off some onions. "He was possessed by the spirit of a dead pirate. Possession doesn't happen often because you have to do the most evil of spells to summon that spirit from the depths of hell."
"Anyway basically what happened was that after Lucy was safe, I noticed his soul had flashed two colors. Not abnormal I admit but it concerned me that it happened in two separate locations. I had to get the intruding soul to become the dominant soul so I got him real pissed. Then I pulled that soul from Julian's body thereby bringing back the Julian we know and love."
"You must sacrifice the life of a loved one to make sure the spell works and my guess lies with that disgusting Kizei doing the spell and sacrificing the life of his wife. She was a kind, gentle soul. I met her twice before I was enslaved though counseling. My village elder thought with counseling I could get rid of my magic."
Lucy and Loke both threw him shocked looks and seemed disturbed by the fact that someone wanted to get RID of magic. He sighed and went into more detail for them.
"They saw soul magic as a curse. They called it stealer magic. They said the books were wrong about the fact that there are only two types of magic. There are holder, caster and stealer types. Body snatch magic, seith magic and rune magic were considered as stealer magic's by my village. So the village elder sold me off to a man who was traveling through, he sold me at the docks, I was then sold to another man in a different country who then sold me to one of Kizei's men. The man was none other than Jace."
"Ok now that our depressing pasts are known, why does your face look like someone tried to put it through a meat grinder?" Love directed to Lucy.
"Pirate."
"And the shirt?"
"Dunno actually. Woke up in it after that pirate guy knocked me out."
"Looks like one of the spares Laxus keeps at the guild for when Master sends him off to meetings." Bickslow said as he looked closely at the material. "He won't be happy."
"Love can take it back if she will do me the favor I was planning on asking."
"And that would be?" Love drained the pasta and set it to one side as she finished off the sauce. Lucy got some bowls and forks and put some pasta in each.
"First things first where did you hide the booze?" Lucy asked just as the last thing went into the pot to simmer for a few minutes.
"Cupboard under the stairs." Lucy walked over and opened the door to the cupboard hidden under the stairs leading to the top floor.
"Woohoo, when did you stock up? You got whiskey. And brandy. Vodka, Tequila, Jeagarmeister, Wine and bitters too." she was excited about alcohol. Neither Loke nor Bickslow knew how to handle this. She sounded like Cana.
"Yup after that note, I got all your favorites. So who wants what? Actually Lucy make that thing won't you?"
"Ya sure can you get me the mixer, ice shavings, coke and lime." Lucy grabbed a bottle of brandy and some glasses while Love did what she was asked. While Lucy made the drinks, Love cut the lime and crushed some ice.
"Anyway so about that favor. I need you to go to Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus and tell them we are ok but we won't be coming back for a while. Tell them we will be putting Dynasty out of business for good. Well I will. I'm not planning on dragging you guys into this."
"On one condition." Lucy turned to look at her. "I'm coming with you. I have connections and friends in high places as well as low. Also you will teach me to use those damned weapons you keep in the vault."
"Ok."
"I'm coming too, but Love I need a favor from you too. When you get to Fairy Tail I need you to get something from a friend of mine. His name is Freed and what you are retrieving is a moving angry object. Can you do that for me?" the girl nodded her head. "It's the soul I removed from Julian's body."
Lucy finished making the drinks and handed one to each of the people around her. "Ok then. To Dynasties ultimate demise." She held up her drink. They smiled and did the same then they all took a sip.
"Wow, Cosplayer you could be a bartender with this talent." Lucy gave him a look.
"Who do you think came up with all the mixes at the guild? Cana?" she smirked at him.
"Actually yes."
"No, Mira caught me one night making a salamander for myself. She almost died of shock, said she's never really seen me drink at the guild. Then she tasted it and made me make her eleven new drinks and teach her how then put them all on the menu."
"So sunrise surprise was yours?" Lucy nodded her head. "Holy shit. No way. I love that one it's my favorite."
"Yup came up with it for Love. She always complained she liked drinking in the morning but nothing ever tasted good. So the mix of vodka, yogurt, fruit and some time in the freezer was born. The recipes are some of the few things that kind of just always stuck in my brain after the memory loss. I'll make some tonight."
"Yay!" Love and Bickslow said.
Love turned and took the sauce off of the stove and ladled some over the pasta. They ate in a pleasant atmosphere. They chatted about lots of things and they even had dessert.
"Ok I need to go back and that freak needs a shower. So goodnight princess and goodnight Love." Loke said after a last drink.
"Bye." The girls chimed happily as the lion spirit vanished in a flash.
"Well it seems the king has spoken so mind if I use your shower Cosplayer?" Bickslow asked as he stood up and picked up his visor.
"Sure ours is the one closest to our room. If you need anything just stand in front of the mirror cabinet say it and then it will appear inside. Got it?" Lucy said to him. He nodded and made his way up the stairs.
"Ok let's take care of your face." Love said first aid already in hand.
She took the blondes hand and led her over to the big couch. She sat down on the couch and sat herself on the coffee table.
She cleaned Lucy's face thoroughly and put some bandages here and there. Her one cheek was bruised as well as cut. But all in all it wasn't as bad as Love made it sound which is probably also the reason why she hadn't insisted on cleaning it earlier.
They both settled onto the couch and talked for a while.
"So what have you found out about Dynasty?" Lucy asked the older girl.
"Not a lot but they are definitely looking for the three of us." She said as put away the supplies.
"How do you know?"
"Lu, just trust me ok. There are flyers asking for our return for a huge reward all over the dark forests. I even got arrested once because a warrant had gone out for my arrest but my one call went straight to Bob. He got me out but only because the guy that arrested me was a good guy who knew something was off."
"Once he heard my story confirmed he took off my cuffs as if they were made of fire and apologized for making me feel at all confined or imprisoned. He was so worried he had made me feel enslaved again and he even let me go without any paperwork being filled out. I felt so bad and went to say so but he was sacked. When I saw him again he was so much happier working for Bob. He is their bartender now and he is one great kid and so young. He will also be targeted now but I will tell Hibiki when I see him again to keep a close on him."
"Oh I know him. His name is Jamie or something right?" Love nodded at her friend and was about to say something else when there was a knock at the door.
Both girls sat up straight and looked at the door in fright.
"Expecting someone?" Love asked as she pulled a gun from under the pillow behind her back.
"Nu-uh." Lucy replied as she pulled another gun from it's holder under the couch.
Love walked over to the door with her gun behind her back as Lucy leveled her own at the door. The brunette looked at her friend and only opened the door when she received a nod of confirmation from the blonde.
The man on the other side was blond and huge. His face was handsome even with the huge lightning shaped scar over his right eye. His eyes were a stormy grey color and stood out against his suddenly pale skin as he stared at the gun pointed at him.
He looked at the girl behind the trigger and put up his hands, dropping the duffel bag he previously held. The other hand held a bag that seemed to be moving and making weird sounds. Above him were five floating totems and they seemed oblivious to the danger.
"Cosplayer, Cosplayer." They were all so busy staring at one another they didn't notice the water going off upstairs.
"Ok how about NOT killing me yet. I still have a lot of stuff on my bucket list." The blonde man said hoping to defuse the situation.
"Jesus Laxus. What the hell is wrong with you?" Lucy said as her brain finally provided a name for the frightened face in the doorway. She dropped her gun to her side. "Bickslow get down here!"
Just then the door to the bathroom opened revealing a startled, half-dressed seith mage towel drying his hair. He made his way down the stairs and stood staring for a second before his startled expression turned into one of amusement.
"Calm down, Love. He's a friend." The brunette at the door dropped her gun to her side as well.
"Entrasemsis." She said in exasperation before she grabbed the slayers collar and dragged him inside, the totems right on his heels. The five floating totems flew over to their owner while Laxus ended up on the couch.
"Thanks." Laxus growled at his treatment but tried to be as polite as possible.
The girl humphed in response. "Drink?"
"Sure." He replied under the other blonde's intense glare.
"Explain, Sparky." Lucy said to him.
"Ok so gramps got worried after the whole hitting Bix thing and then the whole coming back unconscious and undressed thing and then the whole freaking out thing and THEN the whole Julian thing." Every time he said 'and then' Lucy got a little more impatient and let out a growl each louder than the last. "And then the whole tracker thing and then- gramps sent me to sniff you out and protect you with Bix." Lucy had lost her patience and snarled at him.
"Lu. Calm." Love said as she handed the slayer his drink and stuffed a drink in Lucy's hand for good measure.
"Lucy doesn't dri-" Laxus started to say but was cut off when Lucy downed it in one go. "Since when do you drink?"
"Since I was seventeen to be honest and now that I'm nineteen it's totally legal."
"I haven't ever seen you drink."
"For a good reason too. It's not something I do often but I do enjoy a drink every now and again." Lucy said as she kneaded her forehead, feeling the headache starting. "Ok well you can go back. We don't need anymore protection although I will be setting up a perimeter around the house. The laser system in the woods should let us know if anyone we don't want around is here."
"I set up some traps as well. And there are a few dangerous animals in the woods that will help keep people away." Love said as Lucy started making a list. "Shopping is a breeze and then we also have the vault for emergencies. Anything else we need?"
"The only other thing I can think of is if we contact some friends on the council to get us extra weapons and some off the grid security lacroma's." Lucy said.
"Got it you handle that and I will take care of rerouting the beams. Bix, you can set up a few of the security lacroma's Laylla left in the vault."
"Hey, Love, do you know anything about our tracker?" Lucy asked as she made a mental note of everything that needs doing.
"No. He keeps himself completely off the grid. No weapons completely bought. All of them bought in stages and through people that won't betray him. The only info I could get on him is that he has a huge scar over the left side of his face and he is a complete sadist."
"We can add one thing onto his file then. He has only ever lost two targets, well three now." Bickslow said. Laxus just sat there completely shocked.
"What the hell is going on?" He asked eventually.
"Look man, we already did the whole sad back story thing with Leo. All you need to know is we are going to be taking care of whatever Kizei and his guild are doing." Love said to the lost slayer.
"Well my job just became protection detail so I don't need a back story for anything. I will help where I can and try to do my best. I will not abandon my nakama again." He said to the brunette. She frowned and then looked at Lucy.
"Dude you better figure out what to do. Your one woman army just became a four man tag team." She said as she stood and made her way over to the kitchen. "Come on scar face, you need to get the annual tour."
He stood and followed the brunette. While that was happening Lucy let out a puff of air and sat down on the couch.
"She's right. At this point all our friends will get involved. I know how Jace is, he won't stop coming for us and I refuse to put our guild in danger. There has to be something we can do."
"I don't think there is anything we can do to keep them from getting involved." Bickslow said softly as he sat next to me.
"Course not; this is Fairy Tail we are talking about here." I replied. It went silent for a few seconds before my brain came up with a solution. "Wait, I have an idea. We can have a fight with them, if we win they let us do this alone if we lose they get to protect us. They won't be able to resist."
"That might work but the tracker will report to Jace and they will be used as bait to lure us out."
"We make it look like they hate us and we hate them that way they won't make for good hostages. If we lure him away for long enough we can get the deal done and be fighting by the time he gets back."
"Back?"
"Love uses a type of magic that can temporarily make a living, self-sustaining copy of a person. The tracker will follow them onto a train and only realize they are fake when they vanish."
"That's a good plan." Bickslow seemed to be impressed and for some reason that made me happy. "Now we should make a plan and then get to bed."
"Do I get a room or do I have to buddy up too?" Laxus asked from the stairs coming down from the top floor.
"Sorry Lax, you and Love can share or you get a nice couch." I said. Woops.
"Couch seems comfortable enough at least." He grumbled. Love sat on my other side while Laxus sat in front of us. "Plan?"
"Ok, so we are worried the guild will get involved or Jace and the tracker try to use them as bait to trap us. I was thinking what if we make a copy of each of us to head to crocus with the train. Try to hide them as much as possible leading the tracker away. We then head to the guild and make a bet based on a fight. If we win the fight they let us handle this alone and act like they hate us but if they win they get to protect us."
"Knowing them they won't let that opportunity pass." Laxus said.
"So I don't give the guilds a message?" Love was slightly confused.
"No you still go to Bob. He will agree to the plan and act as if they hate us. The guild doesn't really know us so they will follow their master's lead. The trimens' might cause problems but Erza will be able to convince them." I clarify. "But send a double to do it or the tracker might catch us.
"Ok. When do you want to do this?" Bickslow asked.
"Two days." Worry for our nakama meant we had a small window.
"Ok." They all agreed. "Two days."