"Sam, I'm not being disrespectful or anything but these are utterly ridiculous."

Lucy scrunched up the list of jobs that she had been given, threw it over her shoulder and walked straight past Samson to find herself a bucket and some water. Sam trailed closely behind her, with the crumpled piece of paper now in his hand.

"Ace didn't want you to have any difficult jobs, you are a g-" Spinning on her heel, she pressed a finger against his lips and scowled.

"I hope you weren't going to refer to me as just a girl otherwise we might have a problem." Samson's face paled visibly as he shook his head from side to side, a nervous smile etched on his face.

"Absolutely was not going to say that. It doesn't matter what I was going to say, all that matters is you take it easy." Huffing in frustration, she carried on walking to find some cleaning supplies.

"That's the problem with this place, a lack of cleanliness." Lucy was mumbling to herself as she rummaged through a cupboard full of absolutely everything apart from what she was looking for.

"How can you expect people to fear us when our ship looks like this Sam? How? You can't that's how. This place is disgusting."

She pointed to the disgusting state of the ship's floors, the wood was practically rotting from the amount of ale that had been spilt on it and left to slowly burn away at the planks.

He was clearly embarrassed at the poor state of the ship as he refused to make eye contact with Lucy again.

"Yeah I know, none of us have ever had to clean before, it's hard."

Tapping him lightly on the head with a brush she had found, she grinned crookedly at her new friend.

"Watch and learn from the master. I'll have this place spick and span in no time. Keep everyone away from the top deck for the next couple of hours if they don't want to get whipped."

"I know a couple of people who wouldn't mind getting whipped by you." Samson mimicked Lucy's whipping pose and winked at her as she pulled a face of utter disgust. "You're all gross now leave me alone to do my magic."

After Samson had made sure that all of their crew were tucked safely below deck, she could finally get to work. Her eyes examined the floor, it was riddled with empty barrels, broken bottles and Mavis only knew what else.

'What do you expect? They're a bunch of rowdy pirates, they're having fun.'

Men like her crew were not made to do normal chores, so she would happily take that job on if it meant she was pulling her own weight on the ship. But could she really do this all by herself? It was a huge task, even for her.

This would be the part where she would call out Virgo to help her clean. No. She wasn't like that anymore. Her spirit had better things to do than help her mop floors. She was one of the twelve zodiacs and Lucy used to have her doing such menial jobs.

'I suppose calling out Plue wouldn't really be called shrugging off my duties. would it? More for a bit of company really.'

After sweeping all of the broken shards of glass, it was officially Plue safe. So she tied two large sponges onto the bottom of his tiny feet and gently pushed him forwards onto the now soapy floor. Plue wobbled unsteadily as he slid over the watery deck.

"Go on Plue, it's just like when we went ice skating with Gray. You can do it buddy." The little spirit seemed to recall the memory she had mentioned and started to skate around the deck, with a huge lollipop sticking out of his mouth.

"That sorts that job out." She glanced upwards and had to shield her eyes, the sun was starting to reach it's peak in the sky and was really starting to make her sweat.

She couldn't do all of the hard work fully clothed, she'd die of heat stroke.

Without a second thought, she stripped down to her bikini and with a sigh of relief got back to work.

This was the life, working whilst getting a tan and her designated dose of vitamin D at the same time.

Lucy had still stuck with her decision that she wanted to stay in this strange land that had captured her heart and kept it firmly in it's grip.

It was getting closer and closer to the full moon, the day where the rip in time was supposed to appear. She hoped that keeping herself busy with jobs would make it all a bit easier and keep her mind off it.

The thought of not being able to see Natsu's smile, Gray's classic scowl and Erza's cake smeared face ever again did make her heart clench painfully but not being able to see Ace again? It ripped the oxygen out of her lungs and made it near impossible to breathe.

In just under a month, that idiot had become her reason to breathe. Hadn't that been Fairy Tail once upon a time? It didn't make sense. Fairy Tail would be fine without her, people left all the time. In her mind, she knew she was trying to justify the selfish decision she was making.

Ace was her family now and she couldn't leave him. She wouldn't.

'Things change, people change and I have most definitely changed. It's time for a new chapter in my life.'


"She looks so sexy." A pirate peeking on Lucy mumbled to himself. He was practically drooling over her exposed body, all the while completely unaware of his captain standing behind him with a face like thunder.

"We don't like peeping toms do we Sam?"

The pirate spun around, like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and Ace was the cookie monster. Samson stepped out from behind Ace, cracked his neck from side and pulled a menacing smile.

His eyes flickered over the man's shoulder and saw Lucy, hard at work. Her porcelain skin was glowing in the sunlight, her sweat was almost causing it to sparkle.

'I don't blame him for peeking, she's a goddess among us mere men.'

Ace slapped the back of Samson's head and scowled. "Not you too, she is not for our eyes so behave." Ace pointed at the pirate cowering in front of them.

"You're new here aren't you? One of my oldest friends said you were going to be a good addition to this crew, now was he right? As the captain of this vessel, I'll let you off with a warning this time, now get out of here."

Not needing to be told twice, he scampered off with his tail between his legs, barely holding in a scream at the close call he had gotten himself into. Keeping his eyes averted, Ace pulled the door to and blocked out the view of Lucy.

"You need to get a grip Sam, she's not here forever, don't fall in love and don't get attached. She isn't ours and she never will be."

"You're one to talk."

Ace let out a soft sigh and pulled his hat lower to hide his face. "Sorry. I know I'm being a hypocrite. I just don't know what to do, I can't exactly ask her to stay. That would put her in a situation that I don't want. Her home is somewhere far away and we won't be able to reach her there."

Samson pushed up his best friends hat and smiled at the crestfallen look etched on his face. "Then pull your head out of your ass and let's enjoy the time we have left with her."


"Okay, c'mon guys, onwards to the beach. I can't wait to see her." Natsu was extremely pumped, the day had finally come. The day that he would be able to see his Lucy again.

He'd be lying if he said that she hadn't consumed every single one of his thoughts since the day that she had disappeared.

It took having her ripped away to realize that his feelings for her were stronger than anything he'd ever known, it was scary. What was even scarier was the thought of not ever being able to tell her how he felt.

"I will stay here where it is a safe enough distance away to summon my spirit and not get sucked through the tear myself." Yukino blushed as the three Fairy Tail mage's eyes locked onto hers. "I wish you all the best of luck with recovering Lucy. Please bring her back safely."

"Don't worry about a thing, we've got this." Natsu pulled a smug grin, trying his best to hide his nerves that were threatening to spill over.

Erza, Gray, Natsu and Libra made their way down to the shore and out onto the sea, thanks to Gray's ice magic, a long hardened trail awaited them.

Erza's eyes glanced downwards at Natsu's quivering hand and embraced it gently in hers. Letting Gray and the celestial spirit walk on ahead, the re-equip mage embraced her dearest friend.

"What if she hates me for not keeping an eye on her. This is all my fault after all." Natsu mumbled into Erza's shoulder, tears spilling from his wide eyes.

Tutting softly, she caressed his wild head of hair, in an attempt to soothe him. "Silly boy, it's like you don't know our Lucy at all. She will just be happy to see you. Come on now, she's waiting for us Natsu."

They both gazed up at the night sky at the startling brightness of the moon.

'It's time.'


Leaning against the edge of the ship, Lucy and Ace silently stared up at the starry night sky. At least that was what they thought they were staring at but their eyes were both fixed on the giant full moon beaming above them.

"So, it's a full moon tonight huh." Ace tried to ace casual about the matter but his voice trembled ever so slightly.

Lucy peeked across at him and smiled, she had noticed that whenever he was embarrassed or upset, he would pull his hat down to cover his eyes so all you could see was the spattering of freckles over his cheeks and the two faces smiling and frowning on the front of the hat.

"Which one are you right now Ace?" She tapped the sad face on his hat. "Are you sad because of the fact that I might be leaving?" Then she tapped the smiling face. "Or are you going to be happy because I'm definitely not leaving this ship or this crew?"

His body stiffened slightly as her words sunk in and he peeked under the rim of his hat at her face. "You're not going? Are you-"

"Shut up. Don't ask me if I'm sure because I've thought about it day and night. I've made my decision and I want to stay here, with you."

Warm arms encased her from behind but her body slipped through them and she hit the floor with a loud thud. She threw a death glare over her shoulder at a confused looking Samson.

"What the hell Sam? If you're going to pick me up at least do it right. My poor bum hurts now." He looked frightened now.

Lucy looked at both of them with narrowed eyes. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Aces eyes were wide and his mouth kept opening and closing like he was trying to talk but no words were coming out. He was as pale as a ghost.

"Lucy, you're disappearing." Samson fell down to his knees and tried to grasp Lucy's arm but his fingers passed straight through it.

"I didn't drop you on purpose, you fell through my arms."

Lucy stared down at her body and saw that it was indeed starting to fade. Crux's words echo'd in her mind as she felt herself start to disappear. It was sucking her back through the tear, despite what she thought, she did not have a choice in the matter.

'If you don't go to it, it will come to you.'

She tried to speak, to tell them she loved them, that she didn't want to go, she wanted to stay with them. But her mouth refused to obey her. The last thing she saw was Ace's anguished face as he knelt down and tried to hug her.

Then everything was gone. Her ship, her brothers. Her new beginning was gone, stolen right before her eyes.

"Luce? Shit, Erza, Gray get over here, it's Lucy! She's back."