CHAPTER 10: Speculations

Author's Notes: I just read the recent chapter and I actually found out that I made a lot of typographical errors. I am so sorry for that. You see, I was really tired while I was finishing that chapter because I just got home from work and I had been awake for 12 hours prior to typing it. Here's the continuation to the story and I hope you all like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters but I own the supplemental characters in this story.

Kiryuu's POV

Today is a really fun day. My sister and I are going out to the village together with my mom. Uncle Richard wanted to go with us but he had to do his errands for the village. It would've been better if he were with us because he's been a father to both my sister and I but we completely understand it though because he runs the entire village himself. Besides, it won't be long until he marries our mom since he already proposed to her five months ago and mom accepted of course. Mom explained everything to us as soon as we turned five; she thought that it would be best for us to know everything now than delaying it and encounter a problem because of it. My sister and I understood the situation and we completely accepted it, but of course we also had our own thoughts like 'what if someone who knows her shows up?' or 'what if our real father comes along?'

We never voiced that out but we both know that our mom has already thought of that scenario, we just can't tell what is on her mind. I've always wondered why that is because my sister and I can completely speak through our minds without anybody knowing. We tried telling mom and Uncle Richard about it but they just said that it was cute for us to think that way and laughed it off.

We arrived at the village via a carriage and my sister and I hurriedly got off to look at the place. There were lots of people today and we can smell a lot of food from where we were standing. Our mom had a hat on because the sun was too bright for her but neither my sister nor I were bothered by the heat. Mom went to a bookstore and the storekeeper instantly greeted her and ushered us inside.

This was completely boring. We love it when our mom reads books to us at night but to be stuck here in a bookstore when I could go and look at the stores outside is a total drag. So, I decided to sneak outside and made it safely without anybody noticing. I felt a tug on my back and saw my sister looking at me with a pout.

What a nuisance, I thought

I can hear your thoughts nii-chan

Oops, forgot about that hehe sorry…

Where are you going? My sister asked.

I just wanted to go check on the other stores

I'm going with you

No you can't

I'm telling mom

Alright already, don't you usually stick with mom when she goes to the bookstore?

Today's different. Anyway, are you going to the magic shop?

Yeah, I heard they have new deliveries today so I wanted to go check.

In the end, I have to sneak out together with my sister to the magic store. This is actually our favorite place in the village because we get to check out a lot of cool magic. Both Mom and Uncle think that magic is too dangerous so they forbade us to go there.

Nii-chan!

My sister screamed in my head and I looked at her in irritation. I followed her gaze and saw a horse running towards us. I think we're going to be squished by that monster so I hugged my sister and braced ourselves. Suddenly, I felt warm arms grab us and when I opened my eyes, I saw that a man saved us from the horse. His comrades came to check up on us and when he settled us down; my sister went behind me so I acted as the big brother and shielded her from them.

I thanked them for saving us but mom will surely be mad at us from running off like that. Suddenly, I heard our mom's voice so my sister and I both ran to her. She instantly hugged us and she also thanked the ones who saved us.

When she removed her hat though, the people who saved us looked surprise.

Nii-chan, why do you think they look so surprised?

I don't know, but – hey what the- !

The man that saved us just hugged my mom! Why'd he do that?

End POV

"LUCY!"

Natsu shouted and lunged forward to hug her tightly. Elise gasped as the pink-haired man suddenly caught her in a tight grip and was crying at her.

"We thought you were dead. I knew you were alive, I always knew. I'm so happy to finally see you, Luce," Natsu hugged her tighter and was crying. He was so happy that he can see and touch Lucy again.

Elise was shocked and was trying to free herself from Natsu's hug but to no avail. From out of nowhere, Natsu felt a hand grab one of his hands and twist it behind him then he was pushed forward. He quickly looked back and saw a brunette woman wearing a blue suit and had a long thin ponytail. She had her hand fix her glasses and the other one was holding a cane with a lapis lazuli orb at the top.

"Mathilda!" Elise said.

"Please refrain from doing that again to milady or else I'll have to cripple you," Mathilda warned while fixing her glasses once again and giving off a blank stare to Natsu.

"Why you –

Then Erza stepped in and placed her hand in front of Natsu. She then faced forward and bowed her head in apology.

"Please apologize us for our comrade's behavior. It's just that you look very similar to someone we know," Erza explained.

"Is that so? Well I completely understand. This doesn't change my decision to invite you over for lunch so please follow us," Elise said and took her children's hands and walked back.

Mathilda looked dangerously at Erza's party and gave a silent warning that if they did anything funny, she'll rip their entrails out. She followed Elise and gestured for them to follow as well.

"Listen up, no one does anything you hear me?" Erza said to the group.

"But Erza we finally found Lucy, let's take her back," Natsu said.

"Aye! This is our chance," Happy added.

"We can't. For some reason, she seems to not remember us and we have to know why. We're guests here so we have to act cautiously. Besides, that guard she has looks dangerous even though she's not a mage," said Erza.

"I get it, so you want us to spy on her while on their turf, right? Might as well play along," Gray said and trudged forth.

"Let's go," Erza followed suit and walked forth.

"I don't get what's happening here but if Lucy forgot about us then I'll make sure to remind her," Natsu said and followed Erza along.

"Aye sir," Happy agreed and flew but stopped when he noticed Wendy and Charle, "What's the matter Wendy? Charle?"

"N-nothing," Wendy said and Happy flew next to Natsu.

"Charle, that's Lucy-san, right?" Wendy asked Charle who still couldn't believe her eyes.

"Positive. There's no mistaking it. What bothers me is that she couldn't remember a thing and how she even survived and how she even ended up here in the first place. Let's go," Charle said and flew o join the group. Wendy nodded and just kept silent wanting to know more on what really happened to Lucy.

"THIS IS LAME!" Bree yelled out for the nth time.

"Shaddup will ya?! You're giving me a headache," Logan screamed back. He had been paired up with the woman for a mission in Clover Town to locate one of the zodiac keys that could have possibly landed there.

"This is hopeless!" Bree plopped down in the middle of the dirt road and pouted, "It's been like five years already and still no news about the damn keys. It would've been better if a Celestial Mage just popped up and declared they have the keys or something like that."

"It can't be helped, it'll take years for a Celestial Mage to gather all 12 keys of the zodiac let alone get a hold of one of them. If only the Fairy Tail mage didn't die then it could have been easier for us," Logan replied.

There's something definitely not right here. Logan added in thought. Lately, Kendric has been staying in the HQ reading something and would often go out to collect books about Stellar Magic.

He probably thinks the same if he's researching something.

"Let's go back and report what we found out to Kendric," Logan told Bree who was busy bullying the ants from the side of the road. She was picking them up and flicking them to multiple directions to prevent them from entering the anthill.

"You're seriously having fun bullying those ants aren't you?" Logan commented and shook his head to mock her.

"What? It's fun; would you rather have me flick you around the place instead? That would be fun also," Bree answered while raising a finger to prove a point.

"Do that and I'll puncture you with knives or I could tell Yuuna you ate her dessert so she could go and make you bleed to death. Pick your poison," Logan answered back. Bree stuck out her tongue and stood up getting the point.

"Meanie," she said and walked down the road, "Anyway, what are we going to report back to HQ? we didn't find anything remember?"

"That's the point," Logan said and walked past her.

"Well that's easy," Bree replied and followed him.

The trip to the mansion was a bit stiff. Elise had been very polite to talk with all of them but was quite nervous around Natsu who constantly gave her a hard stare.

Why is he even staring at me like that? It feels embarrassing, Elise thought. It's not that she was mad at Natsu or anything, it just felt embarrassing to be stared at by him after that crushing hug earlier.

After arriving at the mansion, Elise invited them in and was greeted by the servants of the lavish mansion. They were all in a row and bowed down in respect to her. She immediately greeted them back so they wouldn't have to bow for too long. Natsu and the others were amazed at the mansion. It was huge just like Lucy's old house but this was warmer and had a homey feel to it. An old man came down the steps and bowed before greeting them all.

"Welcome back Milady, it seems you brought us guests," Sebastian said.

"Yes Sebastian, I invited them for lunch to properly thank them, they saved the twins earlier from being trampled upon a horse, I hope it's not a bother though," Elise said and seemed apologetic to the old man.

"Not at all Milady, we shall prepare the table for them," Sebastian replied with a smile and clapped his hands to signal the servants. He gave them orders and the servants all scattered to do what they were told.

"By the way Sebastian, is Richard here already?" Elise asked.

"Yes, he is in the study as usual, shall I call him out for you?" Sebastian asked.

"No, I'll just go to him," Elise said, "I need to speak with someone to notify him of your presence, he owns this house so I have to inform him of this. Sebastian will direct you to where you may stay for a while. Excuse me." With that, Elise bowed and went up the huge staircase with the twins following after her.

"This way please," Sebastian directed them and they all followed him to a big room with a door to the garden.

"You may stay here for the moment while we get the dinner table ready. I'll be sending one of the servants here to attend to you, please excuse me." Sebastian left and the group was left to speak amongst themselves.

"So what do we do now Erza? Should we split up and investigate now?" Gray asked. The others were as enthusiastic as he was except for Wendy and Charle who were still pondering amongst themselves.

"Not yet. That would be too rude of us and if we get caught snooping around a house like this, it would like we're bandits or something. Let's gather as much as we could by speaking with the people around. Remember we're on a mission and bound to leave by tomorrow morning to meet our intel in Clover Town so we have to gather as much as we can today then we could probably get back her after our mission." Erza finished explaining. A knock was heard on the door and a maid came in to greet them and inform them that they will be called in when lunch is ready.

"If you have anything you need please don't hesitate to ask," the maid said.

"We're fine, thank you," Erza said.

"Elise-san seems really nice," Erza commented.

"Yes she is," the maid replied back.

"Has she always been here?" Erza asked the maid.

"Ever since Master Richard found her lying in the beach five years ago," the maid replied.

"I see, so she just appeared here five years ago? What was she doing in the beach?" Erza asked further.

"You see, Lady Elise was found injured near some rocks in the beach five years ago. Master Richard happened to be there that time and that's where he found her. He helped her recover and took care of her. My master is a kind man so it's no surprise that she fell in love with him and Milady is a bright and loving woman so my Master also loved her. They just got engaged five months ago and their wedding is due a month from now." The maid finished explaining.

A loud thump was heard and all eyes were on Natsu who was gritting his teeth and had his clenched fist on top of the table that he hit.

"Please ignore him his head just hurts," Erza told the maid to ease her fright. She gestured for Gray to talk to Natsu and Gray got the message.

"Oi baka, calm down will you? We know how you feel but right now gathering as much info as we could is important," Gray whispered to Natsu. Natsu seemed to relax a bit thinking that it will all turn out good in the end. Right now he just wanted Lucy back with them to Magnolia and back in his arms.

"By the way, are those two children theirs?" Erza asked. This question made Natsu tense and was biting back his urge to scream and go berserk if ever the maid said yes. Gray and Happy both tried to calm Natsu down and they knew were both ready to knock him out if he would suddenly go berserk.

"No," and that eased the tension in the room, "When the Master found Milady in the beach, they found out from the doctor that she was already pregnant so Master Richard took her in and cared for her. No one really knows that much about Milady here. The best people to ask about would be the Master himself or Sebastian as they were the ones who found her." The maid finished explaining. Both Wendy and Charle froze at that.

"I see," Erza replied.

"Excuse me for a while, I need to check and see if lunch is ready," the maid said and excused herself from the group.

"This is weird. At some point I can tell that it is Lucy we are talking about but the fact that she was pregnant before they found her doesn't match her at all," Erza finished concluding.

"Looks like we just have the wrong girl," Gray said.

"Aye," Happy said with sadness in his voice.

"You're wrong!" Charle exclaimed. Everybody looked at Charle.

"What do you mean Charle?" Happy asked.

"She is the real Lucy and Wendy can attest to that. Right Wendy?" Charle said.

"What is Charle talking about Wendy?" Gray asked.

"Um you see…

Just as she was about to say something, the maid came in and announced that they will be going to the dining hall now.

"We'll talk more about this later. Let's go," Erza said cutting off Wendy's revelation.

Natsu was getting impatient as time went by. He wanted answers and wanted Lucy by his side. His limits were already being tested knowing that he'll see Lucy again and this time with the fiancée that they have been talking about.

I already know I'm going to hate this lunch, Natsu thought to himself.

A/N: Send reviews for your comments about the chapter. Looking forward to reading them.