The balloon was borrowed from the nearest neighboring town of Fiore, eighteen miles to the south. On the day of the launch, a frigid day fraught with anticipation, it was
secured to the coffin and inflated. Gray held his sons close as they watched it rise into the sky. What a strange sight, to see that black stone dangling from the giant
teardrop shape, glinting different colors of the rainbow as it twisted and turn. The twins' navy eyes watered, and they looked at each other with wistful expressions.
Nobody said a word. - In the outskirts of Fiore, two young girls found a collapsed balloon. Peeling away heavy folds of fabric, they uncovered a slab of black stone whose
glass lid had been shattered to a million shards. They'd heard the tails of Magnolia, and raced into town with news of their discovery. Some were afraid, and with
trembling hands drew signs of protection against their chests. But others gladdened at the news of the coffin, and dreamed en-tracing dreams of all the wonderful things
the man might bring. "This man comes our way!" they shouted to one another. "Glories that be, he comes our way free of bonds! Watch for him, watch for him in your
dreams!" And they waited.
~Four Years Ago~
"Lucy, Erza, look we've got something!" yelled Natsu. "What do we have here, and more importantly what's inside it?" Lucy asked. "From the looks of it, it seems to be
a man inside a coffin," replied Erza. "Let's bring it back to the lab, we need to investigate this."
~Twenty Days Later~
"Lucy, Lucy what's wrong listen to me this isn't you!" exclaimed Erza. "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW LUCY, IT'S US NATSU AND ERZA!" Natsu shouted. Lucy didn't listen all was
heard from her was a chuckle and the words that came from her mouth, "Stop? But it's what the man told me to do, he told me to kill all the people I can't trust and
you two are them." She was slowly walking forward with a knife in each hand, both covered in blood. Behind her laid a security guard who helped them bring the man
in to the lab, his head was split in half and stomach was slashed open. "Lucy stop please just calm down," pleaded Erza not knowing what to do. "It's okay Erza, I'll be
calm once you two are out of this world," Lucy looked at them with psychotic eyes and a big creepy smile. Then she laughed, her laughter got louder every step. "NO
LUCY!" Lucy charged at them while Natsu tried to stop her. It was too late though, it all happened too fast. Natsu pushed Erza out-of-the-way so he can try to stop
the knives in Lucy's hands from hitting them, but he didn't think fast enough when Lucy ducked down and went straight for his stomach and chest. Erza was shocked
to see Lucy stab Natsu in two parts of his body. (Natsu, no...what's going on? WHAT'S HAPPENING?!) Erza didn't even notice that Lucy was in front of her, what broke
her out of her thoughts was the knife that slit her neck and the other that stabbed at her heart. When Erza looked at Lucy, all she saw was dark eyes showing death.
Then she saw Lucy pouring gasoline around the place. After that, she lit a match and flicked it to the ground everything went ablaze. Even though Erza's neck was cut
open, she managed to say "Yo- you.. nev- never meant to do this L-Lu-Lucy... I... know you mean no harm...most especially...t-to.. family." She paused, eyes slowly
closing, "I forgive you..." Then Lucy came back to her senses. She was shocked to see the lab in flames, but what caught her attention from being shocked to mortified
was seeing Erza and Natsu's bodies on the floor, dead. Lucy didn't have time to get them out of the burning building because the place was falling apart. When she
got out, she was shaking, trembling, scared. She was scared of what she did, she saw herself kill her two good friends all because of him. That man, he caused her to
do it! She was screaming, yelling, crying. Who does she blame? Herself for killing them or the man in the coffin? She didn't know what to do, it's usually Erza or Natsu
that drags her into things. "What am I going to tell the others? Will they forgive me, will they get rid of me? What will they do?" she was desperate for help. What she
didn't know was that two people watched the part where she killed Natsu and Erza, and they ran back to tell the town.
~Two Days Later~
Lucy was walking in the forest, not knowing where to go. She needed help really badly, she wanted to be back at home with her family. (Erza, Natsu, I'm really sorry. I
didn't mean to, I hope you two forgive me.) Lucy was on a verge of tears until she heard shouting coming from where she came from. "There she is get her!" yelled the
angry mob. "What?! No please don't do this I didn't do anything wrong!" pleaded Lucy. The mob didn't listen, "Get her, bound her get rid of her before she kills the rest
of us!" "NO! PLEASE! IT WASN'T ME, IT WAS THAT MAN, HIM THE MAN IN THE COFFIN! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!" Cried Lucy. "HANG HER! GET RID OF HER!" came the
angry mob's reply. They tied a rope to Lucy's neck and was getting ready to hang her. "Any last words witch?" asked one of the soldiers. Lucy said nothing, all that
was going through her mind was the scared and shocked looks on Erza and Natsu's faces. Tears rushed down her face as she was facing death. She was also thinking
about Gray and the twins as they would now live a life without her. Then she remembered the man in the coffin, she couldn't bear to have that man hurt her family.
She wanted to warn Gray, Levy, the twins and the others about him but she wasn't going to be able to get out of this end of her time-line. So after all her thoughts,
the last words she said were "It's never good to mess with life's mysteries, I learned that the hard way. Gray... I'm sorry I have to leave you, the twins and the
others..." she paused as more tears cascaded down her face like waterfalls. "Goodbye Gray." After that, Lucy wasn't able to spend the rest of her life with her family,
all because of that man.
