Chapter 3

Noticing that Lucy didn't respond, Natsu went to the kitchen to get a glass from the cupboard, scooped in some ice, and started filling it from the sink before bringing it back for her guest. Brandish took the cup from his hand, the ice clinking against the glass as she brought it to her lips. The cool tap water felt refreshing on the back of her throat. After she took a drink, she held it in her lap and turned her attention to the wizards before her.

"When your mother retired from using magic, she entrusted each of her students one of her gate keys: to Zoldeo, she gave the key of Capricorn; to Spetto, Cancer; and to my mother Grammi," she paused for a moment before finishing, "she gave Aquarius' key."

Lucy sat in shock. There were several things in that sentence that surprised her: the fact that Zoldeo, one of the Seven Kin of Purgurtory, was a student of her mother's; Miss Spetto, one of the servants at the estate where she grew up and one of her dearest friends, was a Celestial Wizard; and most interestingly, this Grammi woman came in possession of Aquarius' key at some point. Maybe that's why she reminds me of Aquarius, she mused to herself.

"Shortly after, my mother decided to travel the world. So she took Aquarius' key and her young daughter to the continent of Alakitasia, which would later be known as the Alvarez Empire," she said, motioning to the tattoo on her thigh. Lucy realized that this was the explanation for her having no knowledge of Brandish and her mother. She wondered if all of the Empire's citizens bore that mark, but she didn't interrupt.

"Then, finally, the time had come for the Eclipse Gate to be opened, in accordance with the decree passed down through the Heartfilia family for generations. This duty fell to Lady Layla, and she began the process of collecting the 12 Zodiac keys needed for the task. But Aquarius' key could not be found, and so in exchange for the missing key, Her Ladyship used her own life force to open the Gate."

Lucy's eyes were wide with horror.

"Because of the immense drain on her life force, Lady Layla contracted Magic Deficiency Disease. It was not until 7 days later that my mother learned of her condition. When she finally returned to Lady Layla, my mother was heartbroken. She begged her forgiveness and insisted Her Ladyship take back Aquarius' key, claiming she was no longer worthy of possessing it. But Lady Layla told her there was nothing to forgive, and said she hoped their daughters could someday be friends, just as they were." At this point Brandish paused to take a drink, hoping to suppress the emotions that were threatening to rise to the surface. "It was not long after that visit that Her Ladyship passed away. My mother never saw nor spoke to her again."

"Okay," Lucy began, finally finding her voice again, "but that doesn't really explain what the decree was for in the first place. Why did the Eclipse Gate have to be opened?"

That strange smile returned to Brandish's face. "Because...on the 7th day...of the 7th month...in the year x777, five travelers would walk through the Eclipse Gate from 400 years in the past." Her eyes turned to Natsu, a look of panic on his face. "And your friend here was one of them."

There it was again, Natsu thought to himself, that menacing smile she had when she called him END. Now, she was blaming him for killing Lucy's mother.

Lucy was not stupid; Natsu knew that she was beginning to connect the dots. This was not the way he thought this conversation was going to go, and it somehow felt like she was trying to put Lucy against him. But as angry as he was in that moment, he was more concerned about Lucy. He looked down at her in the chair next to him, and was surprised to see her looking back at him, her eyes pleading for him to tell her this woman was lying to them.

"Natsu...?"

He let out a deep breath and looked at the floor in front of him before he answered her, unable to bring himself to look her in the eye. "Lucy, Igneel and the other dragons agreed to take us in because they needed us to defeat Acnologia and avenge their dragon friends. So they taught us Dragon Slayer magic and, according to him, hid themselves in our bodies and traveled 400 years into the future, to the 7th day of the 7th month in the year x777." He paused to look at her. "I don't remember any of that time travel stuff, but I know he wouldn't lie about something like that."

"Then...the other four are...?"

"Rogue, Sting, Gajeel, and Wendy," he said quietly, lowering his eyes to the floor again.

Lucy looked down at the clenched fists in her lap. She suddenly felt the room begin to spin as the anger rose up from within her...

"So the reason my mom died is because someone who was alive 400 years ago ordered her to open a "time portal", and because your mother up and disappeared, my mother had to sacrifice herself so that YOU GUYS could just walk right through and play HERO!?"

"Lucy, please..."

"Get out." The tone in Lucy's voice cut him to the core. What had started out as a beautiful and perfect day had suddenly taken a turn for the worst. Natsu could only look at her in disbelief, trying to figure out in his mind when it all went so terribly wrong.

Rising from the couch, Brandish looked down at Lucy's blond hair. "Don't worry; I can show myself out."

Lucy made no attempt to get up from her seat, but instead looked up at her with cold, dead eyes. "Just so you know, I highly doubt that we will ever be friends."

Brandish tilted her head back and laughed. The sound made her sick. "Did you really think I ever cared about that? My only reason for coming here was to fulfill a promise, and now I have." She glanced at Natsu, and seeing his pained expression, added with a grin, "The rest, however, turned out to be just a bonus." And with that, she let herself out and closed the door behind her.

Once the door was closed, Lucy put her head in her hands and uttered the most heart-wrenching sobs that Natsu had ever heard. He tried to comfort her by putting his hand on her shoulder, but she forcefully swatted it away. With a confused and hurt look on his face, he left her to her crying and quietly let himself out the front door.

Once he was out on the street, he fell to his knees and slammed his fiery fists onto the concrete. Still able to hear her wailing, he cursed himself under his breath as the tears began to fall down his cheeks.

He had hurt his best friend, and he had no idea what to do to make things right again.

Humming cheerfully and feeling very proud of himself, Happy floated down the street that lead to Lucy's apartment. He had a great time spending time with Wendy and Carla without Natsu being around, and he was able to give him and Lucy some time alone away from Erza to talk. He knew there was something different between the two of them after Lucy's fight against Zeref, and decided the two needed to figure some things out, especially since he accidentally blurted out in front of half the guild that the two loved each other. So this was his way of helping his friends out and being a good wing-man at the same time.

I'm a genius, he thought to himself.

As he got closer to Lucy's building, he noticed someone knelt down on the ground. He pushed away the thought that it could be Natsu, until he couldn't deny it any longer and realized that his dragon slayer friend was crying. Happy could count the number of times on one paw that he had seen Natsu cry, and the thought caused confusion and fear to rise up within him.

"Natsu...?"

When he got no response except sniffles and tear-filled eyes, Happy grabbed Natsu by the arm and pulled him to his feet. "C'mon Natsu, let's go home."

"Yeah, sure," he said quietly as he wiped his face with his sleeve. Happy grabbed him by the back of his shirt and he and Natsu flew off into the sky in the direction of home.

When Lucy finally stopped crying, she was alone and the clock showed that she had been at it for quite a while. Putting the chair back in the kitchen, she left the glasses of water where they sat and headed to the bathroom to take a long soak in the tub. As the water filled the basin, she looked at herself in the mirror above the sink through puffy, red eyes. She had been so young when her mom got sick, she really didn't understand what was happening to her. Now, older and knowing the truth, she was secretly grateful that her father had kept her in the dark about what had really happened to her mom.

Lowering herself into the warm, relaxing water, Lucy's mind filled with questions. What would her life have been like if her mother were still alive? Would she have ever left home and joined Fairy Tail? Would she have ever met Natsu? Being a Celestial Wizard herself, she wondered what went through her mother's mind as she made the decision to use herself in place of the missing celestial gate key. Could she have made that choice had she been in that position? And what did Aquarius feel when she found out what had happened to her mother? How did the other spirits feel? Sighing, Lucy lay back in the water and closed her eyes, blocking out the world as she tried to deal with the reality that, however indirectly, five of her friends were responsible for her losing her mother far too soon.

When the water was finally too cold for her to stay in any longer, she got out and put her pajamas on. Then, at long last, she passed out on top of the blankets of her bed, clutching what was left of Aquarius' gate key.

Natsu and Happy lay in the hammock, Happy curled up on Natsu's chest, and Natsu staring up at the ceiling. He was no longer crying, but Happy could still hear the occasional quiet sniffle from his friend. "Don't worry. She'll be back to normal by tomorrow. It's not like she can avoid us forever; we're a team, right?"

Natsu said nothing, but Happy thought he saw a hint of a smile on his face. The dragon slayer knew that his friend was trying to cheer him up, but deep down he knew that Lucy wasn't going to just bounce back from this overnight. The sound of her anguish-filled sobs were almost physically painful to listen to, and he couldn't get the smell of her tears out of his nostrils. He could only imagine the questions that must have been going through her mind; about her mom, about him, about what her life could have been... He tried to shake away the thought. Natsu always tried to live his life so he would never have to look back and say "what if", but tonight , for the first time, he was beginning to second guess things, and he found it all very unnerving.

He decided that he would give her the space she needed, but hoped she wouldn't stay away too long. He was already starting to miss seeing her smile.

Finally, he felt his eyelids grow heavy, and didn't fight it as he gave in to the dreamless sleep that awaited him.