IMPORTANT NOTE: Please read...
- During the holidays I did some thinking about this story and I came to a conclusion... This chapter felt unfinished! So I decided to pull the chapter and add to it! I hope you find it interesting...-
The next chapter will see the return of Fairy Tail and boy are they in for a surprise! LOL
I want to say a big thank you to those of you who have left a review they're really wonderful... Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! I also want to thank those of you who have fav'ed and followed this story... Thank you!
Have a Happy and Safe New Year and on with the next chapter... Again! ;)
Watching your life flash before your eyes would have a traumatic effect on anyone but to watch someone else life flash before your eyes... Well that could be even more disturbing and Lucy not only watched the birth of an innocent child but also the birth of the monster Acnologia!
What she never realized during her time with Acno Logia was that she wasn't watching his life unfold but she was watching her lif...
Chapter 4 - The Heartfilia!
It was two days later before the distraught dragon had returned to his home, not the cave he normally brooded in but a small stone mansion nestled high a-top a hillside over looking Magnolia. He had lived there for well over a hundred years and in all that time not a living soul, human or mage, had managed to get past his defences... They were impenetrable!
The day after he had returned to his hidden fortress he laid the mangled body of the 'Heartfilia' on a cold stone slab deep beneath his home and infused the remains with a substantial portion of his powers... From that moment on, a web-like cocoon enveloped her!
Two years later!...
For two years a large cocoon clung to a wall in a dark and damp corner of an old mansion over looking Magnolia. From the moment Acnologia had returned from Tenrou Island he had been feeding the broken remains of the 'Heartfilia' small portions of power - not a lot, just enough to sustain it's life-force as it developed and he could sense that the time was drawing near for her return. He hoped and prayed that she would return intact with what she was once missing, now returned!
Two days later a golden-haired woman with bright gold eyes emerged from her long slumber but to his disappointment, she appeared to be in some sort of stasis or coma. The waiting game continued for another two months before she finally showed any signs of wakening.
"Pappa!..." A soft female voice said from the doorway. She was a five year old girl with long blonde hair pulled high into a tight pony-tail. She wore a ground length blue satin dress that fluttered behind her as she raced across the room. "Ahhhh!... She hatched!" Yelled the excited little girl who was jumping up and down as she attempted to see the woman laying on the cold slab. Acno smiled and gently pulled the young girl into his arms.
"Yes Mystra!" Acnologia said as he reached down and ran his free hand through his mates glistening blonde hair.
"She's so pretty!..." Mystra said but then gasped when she saw a golden swirl tattoo on the woman's right cheek. "...It's just like ours!" She smiled as she ran her hand down Acnologia's face.
"Of course... She's your mother after-all!" Acno smirked as his heightened senses caught the scent of another child running through the door.
"Daddy!... Daddy!... There's a man at the doo..." A loud blonde haired girl screamed as she came to a screeching halt only a few feet from the slab but stopped and froze when she heard the white-haired man growl and put her twin sister down at her side.
"Astra!... Mystra!..." He growled and they both snapped to attention at the sound of their father's voice. "Stay here and don't move!" Both girls obediently nodded as they watched their father disappear in a cloud of black smoke.
"What's wrong Astra?... Who wants pappa?" Astra shrugged and then gasped as she noticed the cocoon was gone. "She hatched!" She excitedly exclaimed as she jumped up on the stone slab and carefully scanned the woman at her feet.
"Is it really our mamma!" Astra excitedly asked as she stared at the woman before her and then down to her smiling sister who was happily nodding 'yes'! "Yeaaa!" She screamed but was quickly stopped as a hand quickly cusped her mouth and she stared down at the blonde woman who was now cringing.
"Please don't scream!" Lucy exclaimed as she slowly sat up from her cold hard bed. "...W-Where am I?"
"Shhh!..." Mystra said as she jumped up on the slab and wrapped her arms around her older twin. "...The bad man is here!" She whispered.
But before Lucy could get any answers a foul smelling black fog crept across the floor and all three girls quickly pinched their noses and held their breath as the fog washed past them instantly killing several plants that clung to the walls. After what seemed like an eternity they all gasped for air as the foul stench from the black fog dissipated.
Mystra and Astra both relaxed and released a sigh of relief when they heard the faint noise of a door upstairs closing.
"Bad man!?... Who are you and where am I?" Lucy growled as she jumped off the table bolted out of the room and disappeared around the corner.
"Why would mamma ask questions and then disappear!" Astra said as she grabbed her sister's hand and ran out of the room following the scent of the woman who just left.
"Mother is confused... That's all!... Daddy said she might be!" Mystra said as she followed her sister up the stairs and into a large foyer where their father was now face-to-face with the irate woman that he had stood-over and protected for so long.
"Who are you and where am I?..." She growled as she poked the white-haired man in the chest! "...Who are you people?"
...But before she could get any answers everything went black and she fell to the floor as darkness enveloped her. A familiar feeling told her she was about to enter a world she had visited before!
This time instead of a pair of golden eyes illuminating the darkness, a large golden dragon appeared. It's scales glistened as rays of light from above reflected of it's body casting a heavenly light upon everything around her...
"We meet again, Heartfilia or should I say, Lucy!" He said with a smile as his golden scales quickly faded leaving a golden-haired man standing proud and tall before her.
"Y-Your him... The one from my dreams!" Lucy said as her eyes danced over the towering figure before her.
"Yes... and... no!" He smiled as he waved his hand and a table and two chairs appeared before them. He pulled out a chair and motioned for her to have a seat. When she was comfortable, he took a seat across from her. "That's better don't you think!" Lucy nodded her agreement.
"What's going on here?" She asked as she leaned forward and carefully examined the man before her.
"Hmmm!..." The Dragon exclaimed as he rubbed his chin and contemplated where he should begin. "First-things-first!... I'm Drako the Celestial Dragon and that white-haired man you met moments ago is my adopted son Acno Logia!"
"I'm not... No... I don't quite understand what any of this has to do with me and who are those children?... One of them called me, "mamma"!"
"Actually it has everything to do with you! More so than you would believe!... Maybe I should start with how this all began!" He paused as he watched the blonde smile and lean further forward hanging on every word he spoke.
"Well!... It all began many years ago! As you know Celestial beings can only walk among humans if they are summoned through the use of gate keys. A few Spirits, such as myself, who had no key were forbidden by law from leaving the Celestial Realm but I was bored and broke that rule and headed to Earthland. Suffice it to say, the Spirit King was pissed and banned me from returning. So I roamed Earthland for a very long time but as the years passed my life-force started to fade..."
"Loki!..." Lucy sighed. "...One of my Spirits had a similar experience!"
"I see, so you understand what was happening to me!..." Lucy thoughtfully nodded. "Anyway, to make a long story short, two mages found me and thanks to them and their unique magic's I was given a second chance at life. Because of their generous gift, I enjoyed a freedom I had never felt before but that changed when that witch got a hold of one of my scales... But that's another story!" Drako's warm demeanour changed and the man let loose a loud feral roar and then took a long deep breath to calm himself.
"Sorry about that!... Anyway back to my story!... I wanted to repay their kindness but they wouldn't accept anything from me! So for the next twenty years I followed them around and eventually they confessed their desire for a child. So I helped them out and used my magic to give them a 'little boost'!..." He said with a mischievous grin and a quick wink. "From that moment on I became their protector but then the nightmare started..."
"Nightmare?..." Lucy asked but somewhere deep down inside her she knew what he was going to say and she involuntary mumbled, "...Dragons!"
"Correct!..." He smiled as he realized that he may have an easier job than he though as he tried to restore her memories. "...Yes! A plague known as 'Dragons' appeared! At first there were rumblings of a pair of dragons but within weeks there were sighting of four more and over the next few years the population of dragons exploded. There were literally thousands of them and they were all under the control of one mage... That bitch, Eileen!"
"I-I saw her in a dream... S-She killed Acno!" Lucy's lip started to flare and she didn't know why but her hands clenched into a fist and a low growl escaped her throat which shocked her. 'Why was she so angry at the mere mention of a single name!' She thought as she took a deep breath and tried to calm her pounding heart.
Drako smiled as he watched his charge's anger flare. He knew why she was livid but he needed her to figure that out for herself or she would never gain the memories she had lost, 'no' gave away to be more precise. As he watched a wave of golden magic pulse around her, he knew the 'Heartfila' was slowly awakening! It was only a matter of time before she realized that she was not who she had thought she was...
Her life and her story began the day he, Drako, the Clestial Dragon died!
Lucy slowly started to calm down after her earlier flare up. It was something that she was not acustomed too and it concerned her, yet the golden-haired man smiled... He knew her defenses and years of built up frustration were slowly starting to fall away...
"I still don't understand what any of this has to do with me?"
"Well simply put, it has everything to do with you!... Drako smiled as he watched the girl tilt her head and stare back at him with a confused look in his eyes. "...You were there, 'no', you've always been there!... After all you are the 'Heartfilia'!"
"Well that doesn't clarify anything... As a matter of fact it only confuses me more!" Lucy sighed as she closed her eyes, lowered her head and rested it on the table. She was so confused and nothing made any sense to her... Drako, Acno Logia, the children, Tenrou, the past, none of it made any sense to her and then a realization struck her like a ton of bricks and she mumbled. "H-Heartfilia!?... Why do you and Acno keep referring to me as 'the Heartfilia'?"
Loud boisterous laughter startled Lucy and her head snapped up as she watched the golden-haired man's laughter turn to a wide jawed grin and she knew she had finally hit on something!
"It's about time you asked that of me!... For that is the one question that I can answer miss Lucy!" He said as his grin disappeared and a thoughtful yet inquisitive expression crossed his face.
Her eyes widened at the mention of her name and a realization dawned on her... "Y-You called me L-Lucy!... You've never in all the times we spoke in my dreams, called me by that name!... Why?"
"Because you would not allow it!" He said as he leaned back in his chair and grinned. He knew this would set off a chain of memories that he hoped would lead to her restored memories.
"W-Why would I not allow it... I love my name! My mother and father gave it to me! They said they took it from the sign in front of their guild Love & Lucky which was missing a letter... I always loved that story!" She smiled as she fondly remembered her mother's warm smile.
"I'm affraid that isn't where your name came from... As a matter of fact, you named yourself when you were "born", so to speak!... Your name means 'Light', as in..." Drako stopped and grinned as he leaned across the table and clasped his hands over hers and waited for the floodgates to open.
Then it happened! Her eyes rolled back into her head and she screamed at the top of her lungs. The loud ear-piercing scream continued for what seemed like minutes until it finally died down. Small droplets of moisture dripped from her brow and she groaned as she slowly opened her eyes and started to smile...
"Celestial Light!..." She happily exclaimed. "...I-I'm you!... I mean, I'm the new Celestial Dragon, representing the constellation of Draco!" And then a look of horror crept across her face as she stood up from the table but stumbled back, falling to the ground with a loud thump.
Drako jumped up and ran to her side and reached down to lend assistance and that's when he noticed his hand was slowly fading. He now knew that she remembered everything and his presence or her need of him was no more and he faded away along with the facade he or better yet, she had created for herself.
"It's all a lie... Mother, father, growing up as a Heartfilia... All a lie my mind created to protect me from the loneliness and heartache of being stuck four-hundred years in the future without Acky and my children!... Oh my god... My babies!" Lucy screamed as she ran back towards the small mansion at break-neck speed. Her memories had returned and she was not going to miss a single moment with her family.
X791, Port Hargeon... It Begins!
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Next chapter should be up before the end of the week.