A New Beginning

by Bloody Amethyst

Lucy is awaken by a knock on the door in the middle of the night, outside is a wounded Cobra, and he is asking for her help. She gives it and never regretted the choice with all that follows. Read to find out what she and her new teammate encounters after she was kicked out of her old team.

2. Chapter 2 - A Rescue Mission

Chapter 2 - A Rescue Mission

Cobra POV
I woke to the sound and smell of food cooking and someone singing in a low voice. It was strangely soothing. Then I opened my eyes and looked around, not understanding where I was at first, I panicked, then I recognized the scent of fresh strawberries and chocolate and I remembered where I was. I was at that blond woman from Fairy Tails apartment. I tried to sit up and felt that my whole body had gone stiff, I swore under my breath. And as if she heard me the blond woman poked her head in to the room.
"Ah, you are awake. Good, breakfast is done. Do you need help getting up?" She said, I tried sitting up again.
"Yea, I might need help." I sighed, I felt weak and helpless. But instead of laughing she just can over to me and helped me up, supporting more of my weight then she should be able to handle, she helped me over to the couch where the clothes were.
"I will be out in the kitchen as soon as I'm dressed." I said, trying to get back some of my pride. But she just shook her head.
"You stay in here after you get your clothes on. I will get the food in here." She said and left. I started putting on the clothes and was surprised to notice that they fit perfectly. After a few minutes did she come back with a tray with food. Pancakes with syrup and bacon. I smiled. We ate in silence and when the food was gone she started putting everything back on the tray.
"Let me help. I feel like you have done nothing but taken care of me since I showed up here." I said, realizing that was actually the truth, that was what had been happening since I showed up.
"You are hurt. You don't have to do anything." She said
"But still." I said
"If you want to do something you can tell me exactly what happened yesterday." She said, I hesitated, then nodded.
"I will tell you. You might know what can be done, I have no idea." I said, slumping down deeper in to the couch. For the first time in my life since I escaped the tower of heaven did I feel useless.
"You can tell me as soon as I have put this in the dishwasher." She said and I nodded. She left for the kitchen and came back a few minutes later. "So, tell me everything." She said and sat down beside me, I took a deep breath.
"Okay, first of. Me and my team have joined Crime Sorcière. So we were with Jellal and Meredy, except for Brain who is dead, and all of us have gotten our names cleared, due to us taking down so many dark guilds, so now we sort of work for the council." I started, the only reaction I got was a nod. "We were tracking down a dark guild, an assassination guild to be exact, they don't have a set guildhall, so they move from place to place. We were close, I could smell them, but then out of nowhere this monster attacked, it seemed to be slightly immune to magic, barley anything we did worked, and this monster made so much noise that I missed the mages when they attacked just after we managed to kill it, and we were overwhelmed, there were too many of them, they managed to capture the others one after the other, and when there was just me and Meredy left she told me to get away and try to get help, somewhere, anywhere. So she covered for me as I got away, and then I ended up here." I said, I looked at her and saw that she was biting her lower lip while she took in what I had said.
"I think we should tell master about this. And we need Wendy to look at your wounds. After that we can figure out what to do." She said
"You think your master will agree to help? Even after everything I put the members of the guild through?" I asked her, she looked at me and smiled.
"No, he will help. Simply because I ask him." She said, I nodded.
"Okay. Tell him." I said
"I will do that. Wait here, I will be back in a short while." She said, I nodded and she left after having grabbed her belt where her keys and whip was hanging from.

Lucy POV
I ran down the street to the guild, I chose to enter through the back door so I could get up to master faster. I knocked on his door and heard a 'come in' and opened the door. I found master and Laxus sitting doing paperwork.
"Hello, child. What can I do for you?" Master asked, I hesitated.
"I have no idea how to say this, so I will just say it bluntly." I said, I saw how both of them straightened and looked closer at me.
"What have happened child?" Master asked
"I have a very surprising guest in my apartment right now. And he needs our help. And Wendy's." I said
"Go on." Master said, I took a deep breath.
"It's Cobra." I said, I could see how Masters eyes widened. Laxus looked confused.
"Who is Cobra?" He asked
"A former member of Oración Seis." I said, and Laxus eyes went wide.
"What is he doing at your place?" Master asked
"He came around 1-2am last night, and he was heavily wounded, I couldn't just leave him there." I said, master nodded.
"Did he tell you what happened to him?" He asked me, I nodded.
"Yes, and first off, he and the rest of his team except for Brain, who is dead, is now members of Crime Sorcière, and they all have gotten their names cleared and is now sort of working for the council. And they were ambushed last night when they were tracking a assassination guild, and all of the others were taken. I have already promised him I will help him somehow. But as I said, he is wounded, and I do not think I'm strong enough to take out an entire dark guild alone." I said with a rueful smile, master smiled at me.
"You have gotten a lot stronger lately so it wouldn't surprise me if you were at that level." He said with a smile, then looked at Laxus. "Go and get Wendy, your team and Gajeel, then come back up here, don't tell them anything until you get in here, this is not something the others need to know about just yet." He said, Laxus nodded and left, closing the door behind him.
"The way you said that, can't someone listen from outside what is said in here?" I asked master, he smiled at me.
"No, there is a spell over this room, so not even dragon slayers can listen in on what is said in here, except if I want to be heard." He explained. I nodded.
"Handy." I said, he nodded with a small smile before becoming serious again.
"Did he tell you anything else?" He asked me. So I told him the whole story as Cobra had told it to me. After I were done master nodded.
"You did right in promising him to help. We need to do something." He said, I smiled.
"He was a bit worried that you wouldn't help because of all he and the others has done, but I told him that you would help simply because I ask you to help." I smiled. Master was about to answer when the door opened and the others came in, the exceeds were away visiting the exceed village. Laxus went over to his own chair and sat down, the others looked at us.
"Okay, it's like this..." Master said and explained the situation. "And I can't force you to help, but Lucy will help him, since she has promised to do so. And I would like it if all of you went with her." He said, looking at them all.
"You said it was Cobra, but what if it is a trick?" Wendy said, I didn't blame her for being cautious.
"It's not. Not with those injuries. They were real enough." I said, she nodded, trusting my word.
"What if it is a trick by that assassination guild?" Gajeel asked
"How could they have known he would end up on the doorstep of one of the really few members of our guild that would help him?" Laxus asked, that made Gajeel nod.
"Okay, I'm in." He said, Wendy nodded.
"Me too." She said, Freed nodded.
"We will go as well." He said, I smiled at them.
"Good, Laxus, you go as well. Talk to Cobra first. After Wendy have healed him he can show you where the fight happened." Master said and Laxus nodded and stood up. After that we all left. Luckily no one from Team Natsu was in at the moment. Or there might have been trouble. Just like every time we saw each other lately, it had become worse after I was kicked out off the team a few months ago. Me and the others walked through the streets and up to my apartment, we found Cobra lying down on the couch, his eyes trailed at the door.
"Hi, I'm back." I said, he sat up, and was close to falling, I ran up to him and steadied him. "Easy there." I said. "Wendy, can you see to his injuries first?" I asked, she nodded and came up to us. She held her hands over him as they glowed, I could see the tension leaving Cobra's body as Wendy's magic did the trick. It took her a few minutes and when she was done she said.
"There, now all is fixed." She smiled at him, I could see she was nervous. But Cobra smiled back.
"Thanks, kid. I owe you one." He said, Wendy shook her head with a smile, the nervousness leaving her body.
"No, I'm just glad I could help." She said and sat down beside me on the couch.
"So, how do we do this? Lucy told us what happened, and she is right. We can't leave them with that guild. We have to get them back." Laxus said, Cobra nodded.

Cobra POV
I can't believe it. Blondie, or Lucy as her name apparently is, was right. They really do want to help. I could hear the hesitation and doubt in their thoughts when they first came here. But it seems that the injuries I had convinced them it was real.
"Can you show us where the attack happened?" The blond guy asked me, I nodded.
"Yea, it was a bit in to the forest, not far from here." I said
"Good, then lets go." The guy with piercings said, I nodded and stood up. I stretched and was glad when my body didn't hurt. That blue haired girl, Wendy, really knew what she was doing.
We left the apartment and after Blond... Lucy, locked up we walked to the forest. It didn't even take us a quarter of fast walking to get where we had been attacked after we had entered the forest.
"I can smell a lot of people here. None of who I have met." The blond guy said
"I recognize some of them." The kid... Wendy, said.
"How many of them have you met?" The green haired guy asked her.
"All from Crime Sorcière and none of the assassins." She said
"I recognize two of the assassins scents, and none of the rest." The guy with piercings said. My eyebrows rose.
"You know them?" I asked him and I could hear him think.
Only because they tried to kill me once. Then he said. "They had some business with me but I chased them away." I looked at him.
"They tried to kill you." I said, he blinked.
"How did you know that?" He asked
"He can hear what you think." Lucy said calmly as she looked closer at some of the marks from the battle..
"WHAT!?" Everyone but Lucy and Wendy shouted, I winced slightly at the loud noise.
"Calm down, or the assassins will learn we are here, unless they already know." Wendy said, sounding exasperated.
"They aren't close, but that doesn't mean they don't know we are here." I said, Wendy nodded.
"Lets follow the scent of our friends and get them back." Lucy said, the rest of us nodded. So Wendy, and the two other slayers were in the lead and I followed last, in case of an other attack. The green haired man and his two friends followed directly behind the other three and Lucy walked directly in front of me. Her shoulders were relaxed, but I could sense her alertness, even if her thoughts drifted.
Damn, I hate assassination guilds, always causing trouble. Speaking of which, Jellal was there the last time I went up against someone from an assassination guild as well. Oh, well. I hope no one attacks now, I hate sneak attacks, they are so cowardly. I'm glad I have four strong dragon slayers here, tho if something did happen I'm sure everyone will do well. And I hope the others aren't too hurt when we find them. I listened to her thoughts and was once again surprised by her. She seemed to trust me, despite what I had done.
She is weird. I thought, but for some reason did I feel warm when I heard her thoughts, she really was something else.
"That must be it." I heard one of the people in front whisper and I looked over their shoulders.
"Can you hear if our friends are there?" Lucy asked, I closed my eyes and concentrated.
"They are. I can hear them." I said, the others nodded and stated walking towards the doors, I followed.

Nobodys POV
As the group neared the building they had all guards up. Laxus and Gajeel kicked the doors open and they all ruched in. Lucy pulled out two of her keys while the others readied their own attacks. Cobra thought he might have to keep an eye on Lucy so that she didn't get hurt, especially after everything she had done for him.
"Who's there?" One of the dark mages asked
"We are here to get our friends back." Lucy said with anger. The dark mages laughed.
"And who are you to think you can do that? You are just a weak little slut." One of them said, that made Laxus, his team, Gajeel and Wendy flinch. Then Laxus took a step back, dragging Cobra with him.
"What are you doing?" He asked
"If you don't want to risk being dragged in to her attack then stay back." Laxus said, keeping an eye on Lucy through the corner of his eyes.
"What do you me..." Cobra started but stopped when he felt Lucy's magic swell.
"Open gate of the Snake, the Crow! Serpens, Corvus!" Lucy said with a strong voice. And a large snake appeared and beside it was a man clad in darkness, he looked as if he was part of the darkness itself.
"Hime!" Both of them said at the same time.
"Take those guys out. Now." Lucy said, anger obvious in her voice.
"As you wish, Hime." They said at the same time. And then they struck.
Corvus used darkness and blinded everyone, enemy and friend alike, then Serpens slithered over the floor and bit all of the dark mages, one after the other, then Corvus lifted the darkness, and Cobras eyes widened at what he saw.
All the dark mages lay on the floor, unmoving. He looked at the mages then at Lucy, who was panting slightly, her hands on her knees for support, then back again. He could still hear their pulses so he knew they were still alive.
"Remind me to never piss you off." He said with feeling. Lucy smiled slightly at him.
"Never do what they did, and never call her weak. That is something you just don't do." Laxus said, Cobra nodded.
"Haven't thought that about her since she beat Angel all those years ago." He said, the others nodded. Wendy had run over to Lucy and was smiling up at her, and telling her how great she thought she was at that moment. Lucy just laughed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. The thunder god tribe went over to the two girls. Lucy had sent Corvus back, but Serpens stayed in case she was needed. "Why do she react so strongly to being called weak? Sure, everyone would hate being called that but this is a bit overkill." Cobra asked Gajeel and Laxus. The two men looked at each other. Then Gajeel shrugged.
"Not like he won't learn of it anyway." He said. Cobra was confused, they had somehow managed to shield their thought, so he had no idea of what was going on.
"We will tell you after we have gotten the others out, they are first priority." Laxus said, Cobra nodded. The three of them went up to the rest.
"Shall we continue?" Gajeel asked
"Sure, I'm just gonna have Virgo tie up these guys." Lucy said and summoned Virgo and asked her to tie up the dark mages. Then they walked down to the basement of the building.
"How long will they be out?" Freed asked Lucy, she thought for a second then said.
"Between 1-2 hours, depending on how big they are." The others blinked
"Nice, must have been a strong poison." Bixlow said
"Not very, it's one of the weaker that Serpens has." Lucy said and shrugged. Then looked at Cobra. "Is there more dark mages here?" He shook his head. "Good." Was all Lucy said.
They walked down and soon found the others, they hung on the wall and there were magic canceling ropes on them. Most of them were unconscious, but Jellal raised his head when they came down the stairs, it was dark and both his eyes was swollen so he couldn't see exactly who it was.
"Cobra?" He asked hesitantly. That made the others look up, at least those who were conscious.
"Yea, we are here to get you out of here." He said and walked up to Midnight who were closest and started removing the ropes so he could use magic again.
"Who else?" Midnight asked, his voice weak.
"Fairy Tail." Lucy said and walked up to Jellal and started removing the ropes on him as well. The others did the same.
"You are, Lucy, Erza's friend, am I right?" He asked her, Lucy flinched.
"Former friend if you ask me, and maybe her." she said
"What happened?" He asked as he used his magic to destroy the cuffs that held him to the wall. Lucy had to catch him so he didn't fall to the ground.
"Later. We need to get you guys out of here first. Serpens, can you carry them out?" She said and Serpens came up to them and she helped Jellal sit down on her back. Then she went to Meredy who was beside Jellal and helped her as well and after having gotten her lose she helped her to sit down on Serpens back as well. The others had done the same thing. All thinking it was a good thing Serpens was so big, or they would have had to carry some of them out.
Cubellios (who never turned in to Kinana) was tied up as well, and was freed by Cobra. She had also been hurt so Cobra and Laxus had to carry her out.
"We should hurry, before the dark mages comes back." Midnight said, the mages who had come to save them started to laugh.
"You don't have to worry about them, they have been taken care of." Laxus said
"How? We didn't hear any fighting." Racer said
"Lucy took them out easily." Wendy said smiling up at the woman who smiled back, blushing slightly.
"Their own fault for making me angry." She said, those who had seen what she did nodded. Then they walked up with Serpens slithering between them. When they came up did they see Virgo standing beside the tied up mages. She bowed to Lucy and left. Wendy used her magic to heal the worst of the others injuries before Lucy summoned Taurus and asked him to drag the dark mages back to town, which he gladly did for her sexy body. The others looked at her and she face palmed and the others started laughing. Then Jellal said.
"We should contact Lahar and tell him the mages are caught." Laxus nodded and took out a comm. lacrima and did so, they decided to meet up just inside the forest.
When the group arrived there a half hour later they saw a small group of Rune Knights. Lahar thanked them all and gave them the reward. After the Rune Knights had left Hoteye said.
"And nearly the whole reward will be used up for the hospital fee." Then he sighed.
"What are you talking about? I'm not done healing all of you, and don't you dare come and try to pay me for it. I'm glad to be able to help." Wendy said, they looked at her and smiled.
"Thanks." They all said
"So, where will you be staying for the next few days? You will need to take it easy after Wendy is done with the healing." Lucy said
"Is it okay if I use the futon I used last night?" Cobra asked, Lucy smiled and nodded.
"You don't happen to have more futons?" Midnight asked hopefully.
"I have five all in all." Lucy said
"If we put them together we could all stay there." Angel said with a bit of hope in her eyes, Lucy laughed.
"Sure, I don't mind." She said, the others smiled at her.
"Thanks. We appreciate this." Jellal said
"No problem, I'm used to having people over nearly every day, or I was until a few months ago at least." She said, a slightly sad smile on her face.
"Do this have anything to do with you and Erza being former friends?" Jellal asked
"You can say that." Lucy said
"'Can say that'? It's more like it's her fault, hers and the other two in Team Natsu." Laxus said with anger, the Crime Sorcière mages looked at him, then at Lucy and back again.
"I'm not following." Razer said
"Lets get to my place, then we can talk." Lucy said and started walking, Serpens who knew her master slithered up to her and after having shrunk down to a smaller size she slithered up Lucy's body and wrapped around her neck, Lucy stroked her head in thanks. It took them 20 minutes to reach the apartment since so many of them were hurt. After having unlocked the door they all went inside, Gajeel who was last closed it and locked it behind him, then they all sat down in the living room. Evergreen and Bixlow took out the rest of the futons so they could sit on them rather then the floor, then they looked at Lucy.
"So, what happened?" Cobra asked, Cubellios had her head in his lap and he was stroking it absentmindedly. While they talked Wendy healed most of their remaining injuries, then sat down beside Gajeel.
"Well..." Lucy started, then took a deep breath and continued. "It was about a month after the GMG that everything started, the others would go on missions now and then without telling me and they started talking less and less with me, so I went on solo missions of my own without telling them, and whenever I did they would get really pissed off and asking me what I thought I was doing. It usually ended with all of us screaming at each other. I couldn't see what the difference was, then I was told that I should just stop going on missions that demands fighting, since I was too weak to handle it, and that they just wanted to protect me, and that was why they left me behind to do missions. I, of course, went against it. And when I told them that I wouldn't stop going on missions they kicked me out of the team, hoping that would keep me from going on fighting missions. And whenever they talk to me nowadays it's only to tell me to stop acting strong and just admit I'm too weak to do fighting missions, and that I'm useless in a fight. So I stopped talking to them, since I refuse to listen to people who think so little of me, and over the last half year I have grown really strong and gotten a lot of new keys, as well as learned how to use one of the celestial spells that exist. They are hard to learn but I'm working on it." Lucy told them, they just gaped at her. At first they thought it was just a joke but then they saw the tears in her eyes.
"How could she do that? I thought Erza was better then that." Jellal whispered
"We all did, about all of them." Laxus said, the others nodded
"Natsu always said that power didn't mater. It was the heart and what you do with what you have. And that nakama was the most important thing to him. But now, I just can't trust him anymore." Wendy said and curled up against Gajeel's side, he had an arm around her shoulders.
"We all feel like that." He sighed. Then he looked at Cobra. "Does that answer your earlier question? The one about why she reacted so strongly to being called weak." He asked. Cobra nodded.
"It explained more then that." He said, the others nodded.
"Shall we sleep now? I know it's early still, but I'm tired." Angel said, looking at the clock Lucy had hanging on the wall and blushed slightly when she saw it was only 12.33pm.
"I thought I would make food first, and then let you guys sleep." Lucy said, they smiled at her.
"That sounds great." Hoteye said and the others nodded. So Lucy stood up and went in to the kitchen to fix something to eat. The others looked after her and the mages from Crime Sorcière saw that all the mages form Fairy Tail had love and carrying in their eyes, except for Wendy who was asleep against Gajeel's side, tired from all the healing she had done.
"You guys have helped her a lot these last months haven't you?" Midnight asked, they nodded.
"Ever since they started going on missions without her. We even took her on a few of our missions." Freed said as Gajeel stood up with Wendy in his arms and took her to Lucy's bed and put her down, spreading the comforter over her and then coming back to the others.
"Bunny needed someone there, so we were, we and some of the others in the guild." Gajeel said
"Do you have any idea of what caused it?" Razer asked
"We have ideas, but no proof for any of it." Evergreen said
"We think it can have something to do about future-Rouge killing future-Lucy during the eclipse thing, but we aren't sure." Bixlow said
"Sounds possible." Jellal said, the others nodded.
"I just hope we don't run in to them while we're in Magnolia." Meredy said, the others nodded. A few minutes later did Lucy come back.
"Food is on the table, we can sit here and eat, but we have to get it in the kitchen." She said and they all stood up. Laxus moved to wake Wendy but Lucy said. "I will take her. You go eat. I know you are hungry." And as if to prove her point his stomach growled. He ruffled her hair and went to the kitchen while Lucy woke Wendy. Then they also went to get food.
They sat on the futons eating in comfortable silence and when they were done did Lucy stand up to take care of the dishes but was stopped by Freed who said.
"We will take the dishes. As thanks for the food." He smiled and he, Bixlow and Evergreen took the dirty plates and walked out to the kitchen.
"Thanks you guys." She said after them, a smile on her face. Then she let herself relax.
"Tired?" Cobra asked her
"A bit. I used a lot of magic today, and even if Serpens barley use any magic when she is this small it's still a drain." She answered with a small smile
"Do you wish me to return to the spirit world?" Serpens hisses in a kind voice. Lucy shook her head.
"No, it's nice having you here. It is comforting." She smiled down at the serpent who lied in her lap. The serpent smiled back at her.
"Why don't you go and lie down on your bed for an hour or two together with Wendy? These guys need to sleep as well. Me and Gajeel will help clean up in the kitchen." Laxus said, Lucy smiled at them and nodded. She stood up and dragged a half asleep Wendy to her bed then they both fell asleep with a murmured 'sleep well' to the others
"Well then, let's fix the last in the kitchen. And you guys go sleep." Gajeel said and stood up, Laxus followed and together they walked in to the kitchen, the rest looked at each other then shrugged and made themselves comfortable on the futons.

What they didn't know was that someone would smell them there within the next half hour. Someone who didn't like it at all that they were there.

END OF CHAPTER 2