Lucy N Dragneel: Thank you~ Your continuous reviews make me really happy~ (Btw, I'm really sorry ._. Your name came out as straight up "Lucy" last time, and I swear I wrote your full user...LATER NOTE: I figured the . and the : cannot be placed together for a user, cause then it disappears)

Titania Faith: Yes! I am planning on continuing this until the very, very end. The previous starting date was for the old story, and legitimately, I swear it was one of the worst things I have ever written -_- Thank you~

ZoeNarutoFairy: Mmh, ah, that's kind of difficult to explain here...it'll probably be investigated more in the next chapter, since I've decided to dedicate this one to the Fairies~ (though that may change because I write the stories using whatever comes to mind at the time so *shrug* I don't even know)

Gaia Kame: Thank you! Your reviews, arh, they honestly make me feel like, so happy, it's like someone is actually reading and writing alongside me, and I just...I'm so thankful of your presence here, you don't even know, your 'what ifs' help me so much ahaha. And about Doom Marine, ugh, yeah, the thing is what he says actually doesn't bother me myself. What I'm annoyed about is the kind of view he'll be projecting onto others who read that story, like, it makes it seem like Lucy is a straight up Mary-Sue and I hate it; my old stories involved the dependent use on the cliche and I'm trying to diverge from that. Also, you like implied that my story was highly reviewed and I don't know, that just made me really happy, ahaha. Thank you again; I wasn't really sure if the whole infirmary scene was written well or not. Now onto your second review...
Ahahaha, my compliments do have basis though, y'know! You're like, invaluable to me right now ahahaha, you give me a pretty good guide as to where to go, and sync with my own thoughts with the story even better. And honestly, the compliment about my "Lisanna returns" story having a lot of potential means so much to me, since my previous stories were all just based off of that same plot, ugh -_- And thank you again! Like, I'm always so worried whenever I send another chapter out because I'm always like, "Did they react like they would in canon?" or "Would something like that be enough for them to say that? Would they snap because of that?". You are like, one of my favourite online people right now, I'm not even kidding.


It wasn't an easy feat, going around and collecting the members that Master had told to scout with, but it wasn't exactly difficult, either. The group had all gone together, only splitting when Wendy and Erza had left to Fairy Hills to get Levy and Evergreen, and the males had gone to get Freed and Bickslow. While they did encounter slight resistance, more so from Levy (who protested at being woken only an hour after sleeping), everyone had been silenced by the mages. "Lucy is missing." had been enough to wipe traces of sleep from everyone, it seemed.

They'd all converged again after that, in front of the guild. Then, with a neck-breaking pace, they'd rushed off towards the alley. The slower members had needed to be carried by the faster Dragon Slayers to keep up, and they were guided by Mira and Elfman. They were going to the alley, where everything began. When they neared it however, the Dragon Slayers paused. Their hesitation made everyone else stop briefly, but by the time they had, the Dragon Slayers had started off again, faster than before.

The other members, not to be outdone, followed as fast as they could, pushing their limits until they were almost beside the Dragon Slayers. As the latter stopped, the former followed.

There was a set of guards in front of the entrance, only three, blocking the main viewing points, and the rest were off to the side with Doranbolt and Lahar. But that wasn't what they were paying attention to.

They all stared at the disaster that was the alley.

They stared, and stared, and stared.

They were there for several moments until Lahar finally turned and noticed them. He walked towards them at a brisk pace, only just coming to stop in front of them before he felt a gust of wind blow past. Startled, he flinched back and turned his head to the side. It was Wendy. She was pushing with all her might against the guards stationed in front of the scene, flailing and screaming. The guards looked hesitant, but stopped her nonetheless, still following their previously given orders.

"Let me in! Let me see it! Let me in, please! LET ME IN!" she wailed, and with a concerned frown, Lahar waved a hand at the reluctant guards. They hadn't even been able to move away, only loosen their grips before Wendy was bulldozing through them, right through to the alley. Her eyes were blurred with tears, but nothing could hide her from the entirety of the destruction.

It was the first time she had seen it, and in such detail. The brick walls were shattered and they were coated in a glossy sheen, as if newly painted (with fresh blood, something malicious in her mind crooned, and it took everything in her not to scream). To the side, the furthest end of the alley, Wendy could pick up on another crater, and the cracks in between were as if dripping blood (Lucy's blood, it cackled). Long, shiny smears were visible across the ground from there to where she was, and there rested the largest pool of blood Wendy had ever seen in her life. It wasn't even able to be classified as a pool, she thought, the blood an inch thick and running all the way back to the cracks in the ground from where it started at her feet. The whole scene was shimmering in the moonlight, and it just made her feel sick to her stomach.

Wendy fell to her knees in horror, and the blood splattered upwards at the sudden movement, spraying her in the face. Her hand slowly came up to her face, coming into contact with the blood. Pulling it down slowly, her hand came back smudged an ugly, bright red colour.

She screamed. It was loud, almost ear-splitting, but everyone was too stunned to stop her. It was Wendy, and if anything, she was the quietest in the guild. Something so out of character...it must have meant something was wrong.

It wasn't until she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and a cooing voice in her ear that she realised that she was screaming, but when she did, she coughed. Her throat felt sore, and her voice hoarse. And she couldn't stop shaking. Wendy met the cool turquoise eyes of Doranbolt, who was bent over so that his face hovered over his, and she felt her quiver in fear.

"Th-this...this...it's too much," she ground out hoarsely and frowned when the male nodded his head readily.

"I agree, Wendy, you shouldn't be here-" The sudden slap cut him off, and he stopped, startled. There was a fierce look in the young mage's eyes, and by the looks of it, she wasn't pleased.

"I wasn't talking about me being here, or my inability to handle it!" she growled, watching the male right in the eyes. "I was saying that this amount of blood doesn't mean good things. I meant," she stopped and took a shuddering breath, this time aiming her gaze behind him towards the Fairy Tail members, "that the amount of blood here is too much. It...it almost certainly means that Lucy is dead."

Silence followed her statement. It stretched on and on, everyone looking at the young girl in disbelief. She pointed her head to the ground to avoid the stares, but she still felt it as Doranbolt flinched away from her. Lahar and the remaining Magic Council members were astounded; did this mean that they were looking at a murder case now, and not an assault and kidnapping like they thought previous? The idea had come up, but the sheer incredulity had Lahar abandoning it almost immediately. After all, who could kill a Fairy?

The Fairies themselves were absolutely shocked. Half of them hadn't even seen the scene and hadn't gotten more than just a brief explanation; they were thrown right into the midst of things to be confronted by this straight away? It was beyond disgusting. Freed, Laxus, Gajeel, Pantherlily and Bickslow turned their heads to the side, the former four with closed eyes and a look of mourning, and the latter too, though he startled slightly. Evergreen and Levy were worse, the former having gone pale white and still, as if one of the statues she so coveted, and the latter had left to go relieve her stomach of it's contents.

Team Natsu was no better. Gray looked destroyed, and fell to the ground in shock. It was like seeing the destruction left in the wake of Deliora all over again. It was all just blood, so much blood.

For Erza, it reminded her of the Tower of Heaven, the pain and suffering of all of its inhabitants. The torture that broke the walls and shattered the grounds. The blood.

But for Natsu...for Natsu it made him relive his past all over again. 'Lisanna is dead.' 'Lucy is dead.' It was the same damn sentence all over again! How many times would he have to relive this? He'd thought his best friend had died once, and then when his new one came along, when Lucy came along, she led him to his old best friend. And now suddenly he'd lost his new one. It was happening all over again. And this just hurt so much more because now he'd broken his promise to her, Future-Lucy. He hadn't protected his Lucy, the one of the present, and now she'd gotten herself hurt to the point that Wendy was saying that she'd died (he thinks that, but even in his thoughts he acknowledges the fact that Lucy hadn't "let herself" be hurt, but he'd let her be hurt). Natsu wanted it to all be a lie, a cosmic joke for taking one of his best friends for granted when he'd had two, a privilege most won't experience in a lifetime, but somehow, he knew it wasn't. Something told him that Wendy was right.

And for some reason, he had a strange feeling that this time, it was permanent.