Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Three Days Grace or Time of Dying! (but I wish I did)

Chapter 8: Time of Dying

On this bed I lay

Losing everything

I can see my life passing me by

Was it all too much

Or just not enough

Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare

She looked down at the map she'd drawn once again and sighed quietly to herself. Lucy placed her head in her hands and peered at the paper as her elbows rested on the wooden surface in front of her. She began to grumble to herself in frustration as her head slid down so her hands could tangle themselves in the blonde locks on either side of her head.

"Lucy, you need to eat something." A voice chided as they halted in front of her and slid a plate of food towards her.

The Celestial Wizard flicked her hand distractedly at Gray to try and shoo him away without raising her head to acknowledge him, "I ate a little while ago; I'm not hungry right now."

Gray scowled at the top of her head, but didn't say anything more and decided to not sit down either. Lucy had become very isolated since they left the Guild and no one could figure out why she began to act that way. If he tried to sit down she would probably shoot up like a rocket with some lame excuse and bolt out the door of the Guild they currently inhabited.

They were only a couple of hours away from their first destination and some of Lucy's keys—Red Hood.

The list that Makarov had given them was where he personally had sent them soon after her death, but that had been months ago. Since then, the keys had been used as bargaining chips and in battle, causing the mage who was given them from the Fairy Tail Guild to no longer have them in their possession.

Blue Pegasus informed them of some of the key swaps and Lucy made a map so she could get to all of them quickly. They were only spread out through four guilds, but all of them were either dark or stood on bad grounds with Fairy Tail, which stressed Lucy out even more.

Gray continued to babble on about how she needed to take better care of herself, but Lucy stopped listening and continued to introvert into her thoughts.

Red Hood…Red Hood…She thought, rifling through her mind for anything she may have heard or seen of them. She scrunched her eyebrows together and grabbed her pen off the counter top to twirl through her fingers.

"…worried about you…sleep…." Gray's voice faded in and out of her thoughts, annoying her and making her wish that he would just go away.

Lucy looked hard at her pen as she tried to focus when a light went off in her head and her hand began to write over the top of her map where she'd drawn the Red Hood Guild.

Staffs. Pict Magic on paper. Easy to beat. Hard to distinguish. She wrote, when suddenly the paper was ripped out from under her, causing her to leave a large pen slash across the top of the paper.

Lucy snapped her head up with anger flaming in her eyes. Gray stood in front of her, one hand on his hip and the other holding up her map, waving it around and taunting her with it.

"What? You want this back? Well then I guess you'll just have to eat first. Unless you think you can get it away from me…"

The blonde girl stood slowly, pressing the palms of her hands against the top of the wooden table in front of her while keeping her eyes pinned to Gray the entire time. "Gray, this is not a game. Give me the map back now."

The ice mage merely jabbed his finger towards the lunch bar with a very pointed look her way.

Lucy's eyes narrowed. Fine. He wanted to be a difficult child—that was him. She was mature and so not going to fall for his stupid trick at getting her to eat so instead of taking the bait, she turned her back on him. The blonde began walking in the direction of the bar without a second look back at him. Lucy heard the sound of his arm falling back to his side (probably in what he thought was victory) and in turn, her map was left unguarded for a spit second.

Lucy smirked, and honing in on the abilities she'd practiced with her spirits, ducked, spun on her heel and lunged toward the unsuspecting ice mage.

Ha! So much for the mighty ice—damnit!

The paper that had previously been in front of her was quickly and rudely snatched away from her line of sight, causing her to stumble behind Grey and pivot around to snarl at his back.

"Too slow, Luce." He stated with a smirk.

"Alright," She growled as she straightened, "You asked for it."

XxX

Natsu and Erza approached the Guild slowly, the pink haired man staring off to his right moodily as the requip mage struggled with the bags on her arms and tried to reason with him.

"Natsu. Lucy isn't keeping her distance just from you. She's not letting any of us near her. Don't take it personally." She stated bluntly, wresting a particularly obnoxious bag of clothes away from catching on her armor.

Natsu kept his eyes averted, "She didn't take the ring back either."

Erza sighed and rubbed her forehead with her free armored hand. She remembered the stricken look Natsu wore after speaking to Lucy the first night they'd spent together as a team once again. Lucy had been sitting on a log by herself and staring into the fire, unaware of the intense gaze the dragon slayer had directed her way. Erza and Grey both tried to tell Natsu that it was a bad idea to try and speak to her in that moment, but the pink haired man wasn't listening. He was convinced that the whole thing could be sorted out with a simple apology and that Lucy was sure to take back the ring he gave her.

And so, a blank look and a shake of the head later, Lucy was right back where she had been earlier—staring into the fire with no rings on her.

"Of course she didn't take the ring back right in that moment, Natsu—" Erza began, but was cut off as a nearby civilian bumped into her shoulder and almost caused an avalanche of boxes and bags to be flung from her body as they ran by.

The red headed woman turned on her heel to berate the man, but paused halfway through when she saw the state of the guild in front of her.

Broken glass was strewn everywhere and as a breeze passed through, Natsu could easily smell the sticky scent of alcohol drying on the floors. Wizards and civilians alike were scrambling out of the Guild's proximity, just in time for an ice sword to erupt through the front door and land at Natsu's feet.

The pink haired man glanced down at the melting piece of ice with a small scowl and began marching towards the Guild doors, with Erza hot on his heels.

As they stepped over the rubble in the front entrance, they could hear Lucy shouting.

"Give it back!"

The sound of a whip slicing through the air was heard and the ice mage laughed outright, "I can do this all day, Lucy! You, on the other hand, will pass out from the lack of food you've had!"

An enraged snarl came from the blonde's lips as she pulled her whip taunt in front of her, watching Gray dart around on the floor above her and waiting for his next attack. This time, she knew she could get her map back in the second it took for him to cast his spell. Only then could she use her window of opportunity…

"Ice make…"

Lucy narrowed her eyes and smiled.

There.

She pulled her whip behind her and began to lash it forward—

"Gray! What are you doing?!" Natsu shouted, leaping in front of the attack and between the two battling mages.

Gray's attack shot off, hitting an on-fire Natsu, while Lucy's whip wrapped around the ice mage's wrist that held her map. The blonde grinned and yanked on the taunt chord, watching with glee as Gray tried to fumble after it as it sailed over the edge of the second floor towards her.

The paper fell lightly into her hands and Lucy held it up in victory as she waved it around, "I got it! Haha! I took it from—"

The celestial wizard cut off as she felt the paper in her hand wither and fall to ash around her.

She twitched as she continued to look at her now-empty hand and the boys in front of her froze in fear.

It must have gone through Natsu's fire when I pulled it from Gray…she thought.

A small giggle escaped from her lips. Everyone in the Guild that was left watched her warily as it turned into outright laughter that had her gripping her sides and hunching over. Erza was the first to join in with the blonde, and the other two boys laughed along with them, finally just happy that they heard Lucy laugh again.

XxX

The blonde sighed as she exited her shower the next morning. Today, they would be paying a visit to the Red Hood Guild and Lucy was giddy and nervous at the same time.

She and the boys helped clean up the mess they'd made in the Guild with the blonde grumbling about her map the entire time and the boys looking exceedingly more and more guilty. Only this morning had she had the energy to crawl from her bed to the shower.

Dropping the towel from her form and slipping into her underwear, she stood facing her bed and looking at the suitcase that lay on top of it. Erza had been kind enough to go shopping for her the night before without Lucy even asking her to do so. Images of bulky armor filled her mind as she pulled on the zipper to open it.

She let out an audible sigh of relief when all she could see were clothes that looked like the ones in her closet at home. Pulling out a pair of faded denim shorts and a blue V-neck, she closed the suitcase and turned to put them on.

The Red Hood Guild would undoubtedly put up a fight when she asked for her keys back—Aries, Sagittarius and Scorpio were powerful keys and already knew how to work well with one another. But, if what the Spirit King said was correct…they wouldn't be keys anymore, but spirits trapped in the human world.

The realization that they'd be fading even as the thought crossed her mind made her heart stutter in worry and pull her clothes on faster. She reached for her belt that held her keys and whip and held the leather in her hand for a few seconds.

"I promise; you'll all be together soon." She whispered as she clipped it around her waist.

Lucy pulled her golden locks out of the towel she had them wrapped in and closed her eyes as she ran her brush through it.

Last night had been fun and she loved laughing with her friends once again, but she couldn't afford to take that risk. Is she was contagious and infected all of them, she would never be able to forgive herself.

The thought of being alone just made the memories from her childhood leap to the front of her mind. Her father ignoring her after her mother's death, the yelling and screaming when she wanted his attention, the hours left to herself when no one had time for her. She had been alone as a child. Reverting back to that wouldn't be hard.

But distancing herself from her friends hurt. It hurt more than she thought it would. Seeing the suitcase Erza left her on her bed, the worry that creased Gray's brow as he tried to get her to eat, Natsu leaping in front of her when he thought she was in danger…

Lucy's eyes snapped open as the images faded away and knocking could be heard at her hotel door.

"Come in!" She called, putting the brush and her thoughts aside for the time being.

Natsu opened her door cautiously, poking his head around the wooden door so only one eye could be seen. Apparently realizing that she was conscious and clothed, he shuffled into her room a couple of steps with a piece of paper in his hands.

Raising an eyebrow when he said nothing, Lucy gestured at the rolled up paper, "What's that?"

The pink haired man rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground sheepishly, "Well, Gray and I felt bad that we—I mean I—kind of…incinerated your last map, so we made you a new one." He finished, holding the paper out to her. Lucy launched off the bed with glee and snatched the paper from him, happily taking a closer look at it.

A smile tugged at her lips, "Did you draw the pictures, Natsu?" She asked, indicating the little chibi's with her pointer finger.

The dragon slayer grinned and gave her a thumbs up, "Yeah! Gray said that you didn't need them, but I knew you'd like them."

Lucy smiled and silence descended into the room as she stepped towards the window to get a better look at it. They had drawn all of it right, enabling her to convince herself that her old one hadn't just been ruthlessly destroyed.

"Er…we—we should get going, Luce."

Natsu's voice broke her away from admiring the map the boys had made for her while trying to calm the happy squeeze in her chest the piece of paper caused. The blonde turned her head to look at him fully and noticed that he was looking at her just as intently.

The silence dragged on in the room; the quiet filled with nothing and everything that they needed to say. The air felt heavy around Lucy and it made her frown. She had never felt this intense about Natsu before, but maybe that just meant they were closer than ever before.

And once you let yourself become close to someone, you run the risk of getting hurt even if they love you.

Lucy swallowed.

Love?

Lucy rolled up the paper and nodded, breaking eye contact with the boy, "Right. Let's go."

XxX

The guild was hidden in the shadow of the trees that covered it and emanated an evil feeling that gave Lucy goose bumps. Rubbing her arms, she followed her friends along the dirt path that led to the front doors. As they approached, laughter and loud music could be heard above the commotion in the Guild Hall.

Lucy glanced over to Natsu to find that he was watching her as well. He inclined his head towards the Guild as if to ask if she was okay to keep moving and she nodded but halted abruptly.

"Before we go in there, there's something I need to warn you guys of." She started, gaining their attention as they stopped and turned to face her as well. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "My keys…will no longer be keys. When I…died…they tried to save me. Because of that, they were punished and cast into the human world. I am the only one that can save them. Both by finding their human form and their key."

Her friends nodded and she had to smother the urge to hug them because they were probably really confused, yet they were going along with her crazy story anyway.

Erza nodded after a brief pause and stepped into the circle they'd formed, "So this is what we're going to do…"

XxX

Lucy spotted Aries right away.

Much to Erza and Natsu's chagrin, Lucy was insistent that she be the one to find their human forms with Gray while the other two looked for the keys. When questioned on why this was, she bluntly stated that she and Gray ran a lesser chance of being recognized than a dragon slayer or the mighty Titania.

And so, there she was trying to stand as inconspicuously as possible in the corner as she scoped out the room in front of her. The commotion the guild members were causing gave them a big enough window of time to sneak into the guild, but she knew it was only a matter of time before someone realized that they were there. Luckily, Natsu and Erza had found another way to sneak in and look for the keys, though Lucy never thought the word sneak and Natsu would ever be used in the same sentence. Ever.

Shaking her head of her thoughts, she focused on the girl in front of her. Where before Aries had horns, her cotton candy locks were held in two pony tails on either side of her head. Her clothes remained the same, garnering undue attention onto herself, though surprisingly, she didn't seem to mind.

Just as Lucy was about to alert Gray of this news, the ice mage elbowed her in the side and nodded to a corner across form theirs. Two men sat hunched together over a table of what looked to be a game of cards. One wore striped red and white pants and a long green shirt and had dark hair and was leaning forward towards the table appearing to be analyzing his next move. The other with white and red hair wore black jeans and a button up red shirt with the sleeves rolled up and was currently leaning back in his chair so it balanced on two legs as he watched the other struggle with his move.

Lucy ignored the pain in her chest as she watched the two interact. They both acted like they knew nothing of her death or if they did, they didn't care. She nodded to the ice mage and the two shuffled apart; Lucy to get Aries and Gray to try and sway Sagittarius and Scorpio to come speak to Lucy.

The Celestial King had said that she was the only one who could bring her spirits back to the Spirit World, but she had no idea just how she was going to do that. The blonde girl put her hand on her hip to reassure herself of her silver keys as she approached Aries, who looked down at her from her position sitting atop the bar.

"Aries?" Lucy started nervously, wary of all the men surrounding her. The celestial spirit raised an eyebrow at her in question and caused the stellar wizard's mouth to gape slightly. Her spirit had been meek and shy! Not this atrocity of an arrogant man eater that she supposedly was now!

"Do you need something?" The pink haired girl asked haughtily.

The men in the room surrounding her seemingly inched closer to her at the sound of her voice, causing Lucy to be pushed even further towards the bar. The blonde's breathing came quicker and shallower as she glanced around her and could see no sign of Gray, only thehooded faces of the adoring men Aries had around her.

Whipping her head back up to the pink haired woman, Lucy tried again, "You don't remember me?"

The blonde pleaded.

She had to remember her. She was her Spirit! Even when Loke had been cast away from the Spirit World for years, he knew who he was and who his old master was, so why, after only a few months, had Aries lost her memory of her?

Aries slid from the bar and landed delicately on her feet in front of Lucy, ignoring the hands from her suitors offering to help her down with a glare. Turning her attention back to Lucy and standing so close to her that they nearly touched, Aries bent her face towards the blonde's.

"No." She stated.

Lucy felt as if she'd been slapped in the face and recoiled as if she had. Her heart hammered in her chest. If Aries didn't remember her, how was she supposed to tell her that she needed to get back into the Spirit Realm?

A crash interrupted her thoughts and Lucy whirled around with the rest of the group around her.

"Who is this? You're not from the Red Hood Guild!" Sagittarius bellowed as he held a very unamused Gray upside down by his ankle and ripped off his shirt.

"A Fairy Tail Spy! Get him!"

The Guild erupted into chaos, save for Aries and Lucy, who stood perfectly still across from each other.

"You are Fairy Tail as well?" The pink haired girl questioned calmly.

"Y-yes, but Aries, let me explain—" Lucy stuttered, her eyes wide as her Spirit approached her.

A hard slap from Aries had Lucy tumbling across the room and into many of the Red Hood wizards. The blonde easily slid to her feet and was met with an ocean of red. Her hand automatically went to her belt, but her hand grasped nothing but air.

"Looking for this?" Aries asked quietly; calmly. She held up her ring of keys with her index finger and began twirling them around. "Isn't it a little odd for a girl your age to be collecting silly things like keys?"

She doesn't even realize that she's a Celestial Spirit! Lucy thought in despair.

"No! They're not just regular old keys, listen to me—!"

Aries flapped a hand at her as Lucy tried to break through the crowd to get to where she was, "Yes, yes, I know. They must be very special to you, right? But as they say, someday, children must learn to put away childish things…"

Lucy's eyes widened as Aries tossed her key ring into the brawl that was currently happening in the Guild. She'd never find them in this chaos!

Narrowing her eyes, she pulled her whip from her side and held it taunt in front of her as the first couple of men sent their pict magic her way. "Aries, you have to listen to me!"

The blonde girl sent her whip towards a particularly nasty pair of dragons headed her way and watched as they erupted into dust around her, "You are a key! My key! You tried to save me and were punished by being cast into the human world by the Celestial King!"

Aries scoffed and scowled as she watched Lucy defeat the Red Hood members with ease. "Don't you think I'd know if I was a spirit and you were my master?"

Lucy shook her head as she defeated the last of the men getting in her way and chanced a glance to her left to check on Gray. He seemed to be doing fine dodging between the two enraged Spirits who were shouting over their ruined card game. The table seemed to have been flipped over and cards scattered everywhere in the midst of the frozen and unconscious forms of the Red Hood Guild wizards and their notepads.

"I don't know what happened," Lucy began as she turned back to her spirit, "but somehow you've lost your memories unlike what happened to Loke—"

"Loke?" She questioned, putting a finger to her lips in thought and looking so much like her old self that Lucy's hope rose. The blonde could see her key ring glowing out of the corner of her eye and began shuffling towards it.

Aries blinked and shook her head, seeming to come back from whatever was going through her mind at that moment. Just trying to remember what happened caused Aries enormous waves of pain that wracked her body.

"How convenient for you to not know what happened to my memory of you. I don't even know your name!" She shouted, holding her head in pain.

Bringing her memories is hurting her. If I sent her back to the Spirit world, I'm sure she could get them back faster and easier. Where are Erza and—

"Natsu!"

The blonde whipped her head around towards the enraged voice of the red headed weapons mistress on the second floor only to see her standing in a now singed and slightly on-fire doorway. Natsu leapt from above her and appeared behind Lucy in a blur of pink and tossed her Aries' key.

"Luce, catch!"

Snagging the key out of the air, the blonde Celestial Wizard brought it into the air above her head. Aries' eyes widened and she began to charge towards Lucy.

"Forced Gate Closure! Gate of the Ram!" She shouted, in just enough time for Aries to disappear into a haze of golden light in front of her. Lucy covered her face with her arms as the impact knocked her back a few steps.

When the light faded, the blonde girl blinked and removed her arms from blocking her vision. In her hand she held Aries' key. She could only pray that the Ram regained all of her memories, and soon.

"ARIES!" Sagittarius and Scorpio boomed at the same time, turning to Lucy with malice and hatred in their eyes.

"What have you done to her?" Scorpio yelled, making his way at a menacing pace towards her, Sagittarius staying a few steps behind and pulling out a bow and arrows.

"I-I…" Lucy stuttered not used to being on the receiving end of her spirit's wrath.

"Give her back!" He shouted, darting towards her when there was suddenly someone blocking the Spirit in front of her. Another person appeared next to her and placed two cool objects in her hand.

She turned her head and was met with Erza, a small smile playing at her lips as she nudged Lucy forward. The Celestial Wizard quickly whipped her head towards Natsu who had engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Scorpio. The dragon slayer had already received some nasty wounds, making Lucy's heart stutter in worry.

Heaving her arm up with the Gate of the Scorpion Key held in it, she chanted the words, making Scorpio fall into flakes of gold. Natsu turned and grinned at her around the bruised cheek he was currently sporting, showing her a thumbs up.

Lucy began to smile when something out of the corner of her eye took her attention away from him.

Sagittarius with his bow; arrow hooked and aimed.

Straight at Natsu.

Lucy lurched forward and watched as confusion crossed his face as he turned around to see what made her so terror-stricken.

"NATSU!"

X

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I know…I know it's late…I'm SOSOSO SORRY PLEASE STILL LOVE ME.

I agree with your song choice Erin Burhans, thanks for your input!

It's raining and I just edited this chapter at the speed of light because I love the rain and thunder and lightning and it makes my stories so much better when it's raining and AH.

sorry….about that…

So mmhm, yeah another cliffy (sorry) BUT did you guys like it hm? HmM?

Yes, my take on how the spirits would act as humans was a little…off kilter I know but it was at least different from what you've read before, yeah?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LOVELY REVIEWS ^.^

REVIEW FOR ME, MY LOVELY READERS!