A/N: Thanks 2024faithrobinson2024 for the review. I really need that push. :)
There's a voice calling her. The voice is entrancing and spellbinding. The voice is warm. The voice is familiar.
"Lucy. . ."
Who are you? Lucy wanted to ask. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. She was in a meadow, a forest is surrounding it, the grass comes up to her knees and wild flowers are everywhere. Lucy heard the gentle flow of a stream nearby, the sun is shining in the blue sky and there's not a cloud in sight. Birds are singing, the wind blows gently making the leaves on the trees dance, and everything seems to be in slow motion. The voice calls her name again. She turned around and see someone she had never seen before.
She has long snowy hair and golden eyes—glittering golden eyes that was too unnatural to be human. She's wearing a long white dress. She have twelve different colored stones in her cheeks and she was very beautiful it was almost eerie.
Lucy found herself walking towards her. Finally she found her voice. "Who are you?"
Her lips curved, and the smile is soft and gentle. Her voice is musical when she answered, "I'm nothing and I am everything."
The answer is confusing but Lucy was too overwhelmed of her presence to care. "Your name . . ?" She gasped and whispered. She needed to know. "What is your name?"
"I have numerous titles. You have numerous honorifics also. It was nice seeing you again, Layla."
"Layla . . ." She echoed, testing it with her lips. The name is nostalgic.
"I have countless of names but you can call me, Juni."
"Juni, what do you want from me?"
"I have brought you here for I must speak to you."
"Why do you need to tell to me?"
"The twelve stars shine down from heaven to seal the darkness. A prophecy will be given and an adventure will begin." Lucy gazed at her as she talked. Juni's voice is mesmerizing. Lucy found that she can only listen. "You are heading down a hard and dangerous path. Sometimes people lie and don't tell the whole truth, but remember that sometimes it is done to protect others. Remember that everybody deserves another chance but be warned for—"
Lucy jerk awake on a queen size bed.
She panted as she breathe in for air. Is it just a dream? She wondered. She sat and inhaled deeply, that's where she notice with a shock, that the room is not hers.
She studied the room she's in. There are four doors: one leads to a balcony, the other to maybe a bathroom, and the other one is to a, she assumed, a walk in closet, and the last door should leads to a hallway but she would never be sure. There is also a fireplace, a bookshelf is next to it, and two stuffed armchairs facing the fireplace with a side table between them. The room is the color of her choice; Blue walls with carpet flooring.
She heard voices outside the room. She lie backed automatically and pretend she was still sleeping. She heard the door opens and heard two voices that belongs to a male as they walk in.
"Shouldn't she be up by now?" One of them asks in whisper.
"I don't know." The other whispers.
"Man, Erza is a real monster. She didn't need to knock Lucy out."
"That woman gave me the chills."
The said woman comes in. "She should wake up soon, I want someone to stay with her." she demanded.
"Why?" One of the other guys ask.
"I don't want her to do something crazy when she wakes up." She replies. Lucy can feel them staring at her.
Two of them left the room. The one that stayed walks across the room and sits down on a chair. She continued pretending she was asleep. After a few minutes, he was still there and Lucy began to think about getting up, when someone downstairs yells something in a different language she doesn't know. The guy left the room closing the door behind him.
Lucy waited until she can't hear his footsteps any more then she get up and went to the door to the hallway. She tried to open it but it's locked. She tried the door to the balcony and it opens. Lucy go out onto the balcony and realize she was three stories up and the view is amazing there. They have a pond and the forest was behind it. Lucy found a tree next to the balcony and have an idea.
Lucy climbed down the tree. She see that the forest is not too far away. She run and then slow down to a walk. She can't afford to have someone hears her. After she take three steps, one of the guys yells.
"SHE'S GONE!" She looked back at the mansion and see Natsu, Erza and the other guy leaves it.
Okay, they know I am gone, Lucy thought. But they don't know I am in the forest.
Erza says something and they run to the forest where she was at. "Shit." Lucy mumble to herself. She run as fast as she can, heading to the heart of the forest. The path is getting more and more overgrown and the trees are growing closer together. She slows down, trying not to trip on any of the rocks and logs scattered on the forest floor. She looked over her shoulder to see if they are close but she tripped over a log and roll down a hill. When she get to the bottom of the hill, her head hit a rock, and then she blackout.
Lucy wake up in that room again but this time it's not empty. The guy with the black hair and cerulean eyes is sitting on the far corner of the bed staring out the window. He seems to be lost in thought. Lucy sat up and it feels like someone hit her head with a sledgehammer. The guy looks at her and gets up and walks over her. "Take it easy you hit your head pretty hard."
"Who are you? What do you want? And where am I?" Lucy demanded. She take enough shit for this day. The guy smiles in assurance. Lucy realized she was grateful he didn't seem to use that particular weapon often. Lethal, she thought, watching the way his lips curved, his eyes darkened. Charm floated down on him, light and effortless as a cloud.
"My name is Gray Fullbuster and we will explain all this things," He gestured at the room."After dinner."
Lucy frowned and remembered something. "Hey! About my car—"
"I could be a murderer, a rapist, a psychopath for all you know." He said it softly, dangerously. She felt a tremor move up her back and straightened.
"I don't think so." Her frowned deepened. She crossed her arms and gave him a glare. "You need to pay me back, mister."
Damn, she did have guts. Gray smiled. Really a queen indeed. "Don't you want to know why they were after me?" He asked just to change the subject.
"The bad guys?"
"The—the bad guys?" He repeated on an astonished laugh.
"Good guys don't shoot at innocent bystanders." She explained patiently. Gray stared at her in wonder. She was certain of her answer. "So, by process of elimination I figure you're the good guy."
He laughed again and dropped down beside her. "A lot of people might disagree with you."
Lucy studied him again. No, perhaps good was too concise a word. He looked more complicated than that. "Well, why don't you tell me why those three men wanted to kill you?"
"Elementals." Gray corrected gently. "They work for a man named Laxus. He wants something we've got."
"Which is?"
Gray begins to answer when he caught himself, his expression change from relaxed to depress and finally turned distant. Gray surprised her when he suddenly stood. "I will leave so you can clean up. I will be back in an hour to take you to the dining room." He says and leaves the room. Lucy heard the click of the door being locked.
Lucy sat there for a moment in shock. What was that? She wondered. They were hiding something. She began to feel claustrophobic. Lucy walked over to the door of the balcony and try to open it. It's locked. Lucy sat down on the couch, trying to organize her thoughts. She tried to concentrate on the positive.
Since she can't get out she decided to have dinner with these guys and find out what's going on. She take a shower than go to the closet and it's full of her type of clothes. She put on whatever she wanted. Gray take so long that Lucy started to get bored. She went to the bookcase and browse to the books in there. A title caught her eye:
The twelve stones.
In the land of Fiore, Queen Juni started the time. There are six Queens and six Kings. The crown needed the twelve stones to summon the Queen of time, Juni. The stones were the lives of the leader.
Wait, Juni?
Lucy stiffened when she heard a knock on the door. Gray comes in. "Are you ready?" He asked.
"Yes." Lucy said, putting the book down. She followed him downstairs and into the dining room. The people sitting at the table talking but stop when they see her. Gray sat down and she sat in the only spot left which is next to Erza. She was across Natsu and when she lifted her gaze, he was staring at her.
"Who are you really?" Lucy can't resist asking. She was hissing but she doesn't care. She can't understand anything and it's beginning to frighten her. Natsu cringed at her question and looked away. She glared at Erza instead. "Where am I? And why am I here?" Lucy asked.
"We will explain after dinner." Erza told her. That's when she realized she was really hungry so, even though she was irritated by their way of prolonging the confrontation, she ate in silence.
After they are all done eating, Lucy waited for someone to start explaining but nobody says anything. An awkward atmosphere descended on them. Lucy decided to break the silence herself. "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"
Everybody looks at her but Erza is the one to reply "My name is Erza Scarlet. This is Gray, and I believe you already know Natsu and Happy. You are here so we can protect you."
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked in bewilderment. Protect her from what?
"A guy named Zeref is after you." Lucy looked at Erza in shocked.
"Why would someone be after me?"
"We don't know yet." Lucy open her mouth to ask something else but Erza interrupts her. "We need to talk to the Queen of time, Queen Juni, to know what she wanted to say."
"Queen Juni?" The woman in her dreams? Lucy gaped at Erza like she was insane. "Are you nuts? What are you even saying? Where are we? Why do you need me talk to her? She's the queen of time? What, we're on a fantasy world now? This doesn't make sense!"
"Only one in four Ceremonies is actually completed. The appropriate receptacle mind is essential. Juni's Ixcila will be attracted to someone most like she was. Someone strong, fierce, independent. Presumably female. A queen or a soldier, most likely, but I suppose she might gravitate toward a human. If such a human female existed."
"You didn't answer me!"
Erza grab a book out of nothing. She placed it in front of Lucy. Lucy blinked at her in astonishment. "What was that? Did you just grab a book in mid-air?!"
"Lucy, you're noisy." Happy yawned and flew towards Natsu's head. Lucy gapes at Happy too.
"And now he can fly?! Why didn't I think of that?!"
"Lucy, relax. You're being weird again." Natsu said, finally speaking for the first time. Lucy glared at him.
"And I'm the weird one here?!"
"Lucy, concentrate. This is important." Erza opened the book. The book was magnificent and old. The book was written in ink. "We lived alongside humanity. We went about our business unseen by mankind, because they lived in a world in a dimension close to us, but also far away. We are the Elemental mages. The mages of this world are like characters on a TV program that were separated from the Earth by a single channel." Lucy studied the pictures of the elemental mages. Some she recognizes and some she didn't know. Erza continued while she studied the book.
"Many elementals—dwarves, elves, dragons, trolls, fairies knew of you."
Lucy looked up in surprise. "Of me?"
Erza nodded and turn the next page. It was an image of a king in a red cape. "Every elemental has its leader, its king or queen. This was chosen by the Queen Juni-no-jinsei herself. The leader was designated and in return they need to take care of her Ixcila."
"Ixcila?"
"It was a part of the queen herself, and a part of their life. It was a stone, a gem that will represent their power and element. Juni-no-jinsei or Juni-sama is the Queen of time. She disappeared a long time ago. Her job is to conceal the Earth and Fiore from emerging."
"Fiore?" Lucy asked again. She felt dumb by asking but she needed to know.
Erza nodded briskly. "Yes. This world is named Fiore." Erza turned the next page and then suddenly a golden crown appeared. "The twelve royalties were bound by a covenant. They should retain the piece of their kingdom and in the same time, keep the Elementals and humans from crossing the either world's boundaries. If the covenant is broken, in anyway, we must summon the Queen to judge. The twelve Ixcila is a way of summoning the queen. We need the twelve royalty's participation in order to summon the queen."
"So in other words, we're in Fiore." Lucy clarified, calmly. Her head is spinning but she needs to keep her head cool. "You four are elemental mages and you were on this mission to summon Queen Juni . . ." But something's not clear. "And what do you need of me again?"
Erza nodded again, and this time in approval. "Great question." She turned the next page. The twelve stones shone on the page. "There are twelve royalties. The Queen of the Knights, King of the Dragons, King of the Ice elementals, Queen of the Fairies, Queen of the Knowledge, King of the Giants, Queen of the Demons, King of the Lightning beasts, Queen of the Elves, King of the Hunters, Queen of the Mermaids and the Queen of the cosmos."
Lucy waited. Erza closed her eyes; a head ache surely was coming. She hopes Lucy Heartfilia won't fall on hysterics. She stared right at her eyes. "We think you are the Queen of the cosmos and you have one of the Queen's Ixcila."
A second passed. A minute, then realization hit.
"What?!"
"We call on Queen Juni!"
All five of them are standing and Lucy was starting to feel the overwhelming urge to run away again. Natsu was watching her though and she had this deep gut feeling if she tried to run way again they'll bind her with chains. She didn't believe everything they said. Aside the fact that she doesn't know where she was, she decided to stay to let them show her a proof of their words and gave them the leisure of the doubt.
They were calling on Juni-No-Jinsei or Juni as Lucy preferred to call her. They need assurance that Lucy was really the Queen of the Cosmos and if she really did have the Ixcila of the queen. Erza was expert at magic spells, so they say. Lucy still doubted the truth of all of this. Maybe they are all just nutcase. Lucy thought. Her eyes skimmed Erza's armour, Gray's tattoo in his chest and Natsu's flying cat. Or maybe I'm the nutcase.
"We call on Juni-No-Jinsei!" Erza yelled at nothing, drawing Lucy's attention back. She stared at the book in Erza's hands, completely transfixed. The book began to glow in her surprise. It was glowing then sometime later it would dim. She blinked in disbelief but the book is still glowing. I'm not imagining it! Then the glowing and the dimming grew faster. In and out. In and out. In and out. Lucy's heartbeat matched the new rhythm. "We. Call. On. Juni. No. Jinsei," Erza wailed.
"If I see one single zombie I am—" Gray muttered under his breath then stopped.
The cave floor jerked under Lucy's feet. She stumbled forward and landed on my knees in front of Erza.
"The receptacle has been chosen!" Erza shouted. She reached out and put her hand on my head. "Will you accept being one with the anima of Juni-No-Jinsei?"
What? What? She chose me? That couldn't be right.
Lucy surprised herself by answering, "Yes."
"It's late we should get some sleep. Lucy, I will walk you to your room."
Erza walks Lucy to her room in silence. The ritual is a failure. They didn't have the chance to talk to Juni through Lucy. After Lucy uttered her agreement, nothing happened. They waited for an hour but still nothing's happening. Erza calls it a night and Lucy's doubt began to rise again.
When they get to her room, Erza opens the door for her. She leans against the doorway. "You're not going to run away again, are you?"
"No." Lucy answered, walking pass her.
"Okay. Good night—"
Lucy screamed suddenly, clutching her hand in her head. She feel on her knees. Erza quickly tended her. "Lucy! What's happening?!" Lucy continued to scream. Someone was talking to her. Someone was trying to reach her.
Lucy shut her eyes but it let her see—no, it forced her to see—her clothes as they caught fire, and her skin as it began to redden, and her long golden hair as it was transform into a burning halo. She did not just caught fire—it was as if every cell in her body changed into its own tormented supernova. She felt as if she was melting, and in the midst of her agony, she can hear someone calling her.
"Lucy. . ."
This was beyond pain. This transcended all sufferings. This was hell.
Something, a sound that not belongs to her, made her open her eyes.
Then Lucy reaches out at the nearest vase and breaks it. She grabbed a piece of the glass and hurts herself, slashing a shallow but bloody wound on her arm.
"Lucy don't—Lucy, Stop it!"
Lucy didn't hear her. Erza can't stop her. She was so strong. She pushed Erza away and with a lightning speed, writes something on the floor with her blood. Erza stared at her in shock. What's happening? She crawled slowly towards her and saw that she was indeed writing something on the floor. Erza read the messy scribble behind Lucy's shoulder.
Two souls, two lives have fought for the worlds, longer than you've known.
One is trained with powers, the other one unknown.
The power of the first life will lose something in deep value.
The other one will burn in fire and will not breathe his last.
Peace will spread to their hearts, if their choices are right.
Life will fly, if choices are made wrong.
Eight shall start this endeavour; one will fall by the way, called by a greater need.
One shall find her true place and one shall make the greatest sacrifices.
It will shake the other one's faith and be a desperate one.
While the other one would be clouded with past and would break their trusts.
They will continue, with five wounded hearts.
By the way, one will protect with all his might, the other one been tricked and slowing them down.
Lies are something that can kill.
A mystery is something if you want to find the key.
So there are five, but there will be only two.
And so a deadly war will begin.
Between a Dragon with burning passion and the Ghost with a beating heart.
The options are numerous, the choices are hard.
They will do this together with a foot in the dark.
At the end of all, however she will have to decide between one to hundreds of lives.
One is sacrificed for twelve.
The last wish has its own power and it will never fail.
The time would start moving once again.
Lucy stopped moving then and fainted. Erza pulled her on her lap. Briskly, she wrapped gauze around her upper arm until the wound was covered. She snipped off tape, secured it, and then gave it a final pat. Gray, Natsu and Happy stormed in the room in haste. "What happened—" They stopped when they see Lucy's bloodied bandaged arm and the writings on the floor.
Erza glanced up at them in worry. "Juni-No-Jinsei gave us a prophecy."