What woke Lucy up was the sound of vomiting. It was sounded so violent - so painful - that it tore her from her happy dreams of being a badass mage and back into reality.
She moaned slightly as she sat up, quietly looking around the carriage she was in. To her right was a man hunched over the window, clearly releasing his lunch into the wild. There was an animal on his shoulder rubbing his back... it kinda looked like a cat.
"You're awake," a voice said from her side, making her jump and scream.
The guy throwing up jolted at her voice, slamming his head into the ceiling and collapsing onto the ground. The cat somehow screamed as well as it was crushed by it's friend.
Lucy looked towards the speaker and gasped.
"You're... you're..." her voice left her and her breaths became heavy.
Arturia Pendragon Dreyar looked at her curiously.
"I am what?" she asked.
"You're part of Fairy Tail!" Lucy exclaimed. "Oh my gosh you're Arturia Dreyar! I'm I'm I'm!" Lucy was shaking with excitement. "I'm like your biggest fan ever! Of all time! Ever!"
Arturia looked taken aback. "Oh... I... I thank you for supporting me Miss..."
"Lucy! Lucy is my name and I'm a mage! A good one! A great one actually!"
Arturia's eyes sharpened. "A great mage, huh? Then tell me, are you a good enough mage to slay Bora the Prominence and his crew of slavers?"
"Wha?" Her surprise was enough to deter Arturia from any thought that Lucy could be the culprit.
"I see," Arturia nodded, "a good mage perhaps. You see, Lucy, we found you on Bora the Prominence's ship."
"That liar!" Lucy snarled. "He pretended to by Natsu the Salamander and was leading girls onto his ship! I knew something fishy was going on and had to check it out. He got me by surprise though."
"Fish?" she heard a small voice mutter from underneath the man.
"The Salamander," Arturia muttered, glancing at the downed form and shaking her head, "no wonder Natsu was there. Anyways, Bora has been dealt with and his captives freed. You're here because you were the only one... available. So thank you for your honesty, Lucy," the knight bowed her head, "it will help us greatly."
Lucy blushed and stuttered a 'you're welcome'.
"Natsu!" Arturia yelled at her comparative, "have some manners and introduce yourself!"
The man straightened as much as he could, but still looked horribly sick. "My name is... Natsu..." He collapsed to the ground as he finished, his head bobbing back and forth.
"Is that the actual salamander?" Lucy asked in shock.
"It is," Arturia said as she shook her head. "Please forgive his rudeness, he suffers from a rather horrible case of motion sickness."
"No no that's perfectly fine!" Lucy replied, a tad breathless of being in their presence. "Perfectly fine!"
Arturia nodded. "Good, now Lucy, we have some more questions to ask, but they can wait until we make it to the guild."
"The guild?" Lucy's eyes widened. "Are we going to the Fairy Tail?"
"We are," Arturia confirmed. "There is only one guild hall, after all."
Lucy smiled ecstatically. This was her chance, it must be. Her luck must have finally reached it's all time high.
How was it that she just woke up and was being taken to Fairy Tail by one of it's most famous mages? By the daughter of the master no less! Even the Salamander was next to her!
Though, the vomiting really put her off.
Arturia liked something about Lucy, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what. There was definitely something that made the King want to take the young mage in. Perhaps it was the pureness, the innocence that Lucy had was admirable.
Whatever it was, it left a good impression. Lucy seemed interested in joining the guild, and Arturia wasn't going too stop her.
In fact, Arturia would welcome Lucy with welcoming arms.
"You would?" Lucy whispered, unable to hold her shock. Tears pooled in her eyes. "You really would?"
Arturia nodded and gave a charming smile. "You would be a great fit for Fairy Tail."
"Thank you thank you thank you!"
When Lucy first walked into Fairy Tail, she didn't expect to see at least three bar fights in the first three seconds. It was rather... unsophisticated, if she had to chose a word for it. The laughing resonating from just about everywhere gave it a certain charm that she never imagined existed. Even the old man throwing a bunch of burning papers seemed to fit in just fine.
It was... nice.
Right behind her Arturia walked in, and the entire atmosphere she just saw vanished.
"Hey!" Arturia yelled, making everyone stand up straight and salute her. "Have some manners and welcome Lucy to our guild!"
"Hello Lucy!" the entire guild echoed.
"Well well," the small old man started as he approached, "it seems Arturia has a guest! Hello to you, Lucy! I like what I see." He giggled lecherously as he very blatantly eyed her figure.
"Master," Arturia began, her tone so dangerous the old man stiffened like a board, "are those important documents you're burning?"
"W-what important documents?" he asked.
Her eyes narrowed, making him flinch. "The documents Natsu is currently eating," she clarified, crossing her arms and flexing her fingers. They all looked and noticed Natsu eating the burning pile with a blissful look on his face.
"Master?" Lucy whispered, eyeing the man.
"Now look, dearest daughter," the master, whose name was Makarov is Lucy recalled, pleaded. "I need to... induct the newest member! Luigi, right?"
"Lucy," she corrected.
"Yeah, that!"
"Mirajane can do that -"
"But I'm still the master!" he cut off as he grabbed Lucy by the wrist and dashed away.
Arturia watched their retreating forms with a stern expression, before smiling slightly at her father's antics.
Fairy Tail never ceased to be lively no matter what happened. Even after all the years she spent in the guild the camaraderie and sense of family never ceased to impress her. The lack of IQ, however, was not always as impressive...
"Arturia, over here!" a young voice called, drawing the king from her thoughts. Arturia saw Romeo, the young son of a veteran member, run over to her frantically. "Arturia," he cried, "dad hasn't come back from his mission!"
Macao was better than that, Arturia thought.
"Give me details, little one," she said calmly. Romeo was eased by her seriousness, and nodded vigorously.
"Dad went on a job to Hakobe to deal with the vulcan problem they have!"
"Macao never takes those kind of jobs," she noted. "He isn't suited for them."
"I... I kinda asked him to because these kids star -"
"Quiet," she ordered, making him stop. "You're father knows what he is capable of. He is a veteran mage that should not need saving."
"But what if he doe -"
"Stop," she ordered again. "I will rescue your father, only so I can reprimand him on his poor judgement."
"Thank you! Please punish him as much as you want as long as you save him!"
"Hey," Natsu called as he walked over, "I heard what you said, and I want to help too!"
Arturia nodded. She knew Natsu had an assortment of emotions when it came to parents - fathers in particular. He would go to Mount Hakobe anyways, without her or not.
"I-I'm still not sure why I'm tagging along," Lucy admitted as they ascended the mountain.
"You are new," Arturia explained simply.
"New," Lucy muttered, not understanding.
"I wish to test you, and if you fail I will make my father exile you from the guild."
"What!?" she cried in shock, staring at Arturia like she was the Caster Bluebeard. "What kind of test is it? Like a combat test or a written test or..." she trailed off, muttering a thousand different types of tests that Arturia didn't bother listening to.
"Don't worry Luigi, if you're meant to be in Fairy Tail you'll pass!" Natsu reassured.
Like that was reassuring, Lucy thought, now she could prove that she wasn't meant for Fairy Tail and get kicked out.
"Do not falter," Arturia told her, "we understand that you have never been in a guild before, so we will assisting you if it goes wrong. If these beasts did take down Macao, then we would never throw a beginner towards them alone. You are safe with us, you have my word."
Lucy blushed.
"Isn't that what we're doing though?" Natsu asked Arturia. "I though we were just going to stand around while she fights and jump in if she's about to get rocked."
"We are. I said that."
Arturia really had a way with words then, Lucy decided, because between her and Natsu - Natsu made her want to scream and Arturia didn't. Arturia Dreyar was actually just like her Socerer's Magazine profile said: efficient, regal and awe-inspiring.
Which was all Lucy had to be in order to stay in Fairy Tail.
It bothered him how similar his current job was to his former occupation - a counter guardian. Instead of being randomly deployed to a battle with orders to kill everything the target was a lot more deliberate. He couldn't even use a twisted viewpoint and say he was being heroic, this was nothing but a hitman's job.
But his master was his master. Avenger would serve, the command seals on his master's arm beckoned for obedience. As an archer, perhaps he could've had enough independent action to disobey her, but as an avenger his duty was different.
He was suppose to avenge. Exactly what Ultear Milkovich needed avenging was unknown to him - his dreams of her past was just as cryptic as her own dreams of him. Avenger knew of her upbringing in Grimoire Heart, how she learned ancient magic with incredible drive. He knew of the darkness that she loved living in, the evil deeds and thoughts that she constantly had. But he also knew of the good she had deep down inside and refused to give up.
Ultear Milkovich needed more than just an Avenger, she needed a saver... she needed a hero.
He could be that hero. He could be a hero. If he could save Ultear then maybe...
Shaking his head, he threw his inner monologue away with a deep breath. Now was not the time for pondering, it was time for work.
The first eerie indication that he was close was all the trees around him were dead. A complete radius around the target was devoid of any animals with only the dead husks of plants visible.
Mission objectives were simple. Get the artifact, eliminate anyone who dare resists.
"Halt!" Avenger raised a brow at the man who ran out of the guild. Did people even say 'halt' anymore? "Who are you and what is your business here?" the man continued, "are you from the Magic Council?"
"No," he answered, "well maybe. A member of the council sent me here, so technically yes."
Avenger knew there was no point in lying, they were all going to die anyways. He knew how the entire interaction would go - it always went the same way.
"So a dog from the council has arrived," another man said menacingly as he exited the guild. He looked like more than regular talentless fodder that all common dark guilds had. This man looked important. Tall, lack of clothes, silver hair. Avenger knew who it was.
"Erigor? Am I right?"
Erigor laughed. "Yes dog, I am Erigor."
"My master wants your flute," Avenger said. "Also, she wants Eisenwald destroyed. I'm sorry, but I must follow her orders."
"The flute is already gone, dog," Erigor snarled, "and a slave like you will never destroy Eisenwald."
"No flute?" Avenger muttered to himself. "Ah well, at least I can accomplish half of my task."
He raised his hand towards the dark guild.