Sorry for this chapter took longer to upload, work and friends can eat into your free time ya know? Anyway, cookies for those who can guess who the girl is in this chapter! (she doesn't have a major role in this story but will in a future sequel.)
Chapter 10 – The Death Blades!
"So this is Herpina Town…." Said Lucy standing with the others on the street as she looked around.
There were sense of despair in the air and the people walking around which were a few, keep their eyes down and their mouths tightly shut.
"This place is making me really uneasy." Lucy sniffed and cringed, scrunching her nose and frowning.
"And it smells weird too!"
"I think it's best we find some lodgings." Said Erza as she began to stride along the path, the others looked at her and hustled up to catch up.
"We could all do with a rest. Then tomorrow we can think up strategies in dealing with the Death Blade!"
"Strategies?" snorted Natsu as he light up his fist, Lucy glanced at the flame then quickly looked away blushing.
"We don't need 'em! Let's just storm into their guild and kick their butts!" The Salamander cracked his knuckles and grinned with glee, Lucy frown and slapped the back of his head.
"Idiot! That's YOUR dangerous way of thinking!" snapped the blonde. Natsu pouted and then stuck his tongue at her, which earned him another hit from his nakama.
Team Natsu continued to search for a place to stay for the night until finally they came across a rather large imposing inn call the Arthros Nyx.
"A-are we going to s-stay here?" enquired Lucy as she noticed some of the windows were boarded up and those that aren't boarded up were covered in dirt and grime.
"It's the only place that's still looks like it's open. It will do." Said Ezra with some formality in her voice and went to open the door.
"STOP!"
The group turned to see what seems to be a little girl around the age of ten or eleven. She had blonde hair with two pigtails that nearly went to the floor in twirls and curls, her eyes were deep onyx black. She wore a short sleeved green leafy dress with brown boots, on her hands she wore green gloves that ended at mid-arm in leafy like tendrils.
Lucy sniffed and was quite taken back at her smell, the blonde girl whose hair colour is the exact same colour as her own, smelled like a lush forest with a hint of fiery passion. The thing that surprised Lucy the most however, is the girl's eye colour. They reminded her of Natsu's eyes, looking closer they appeared to be the same.
"You're Lucy right?" enquired the girl walked straight up to the stellar mage who seemed surprised.
"Yep! That's me!" smiled warmly thinking the girl must have heard about her from the sorcerer weekly. Natsu who were beside her looked between the girl and his blonde friend, the two seemed familiar somehow.
There was just something about this little girl that had captured the Fire Dragon Slayers interest, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Go back!" yelled the girl suddenly as she began to push the started blonde, confusion and alarm filling her face.
"Oi!" snapped Natsu angrily grabbing Lucy's arm firmly and pulling her close to him.
"What do you think you're doing!"
The girl ignored Natsu and glared at Lucy who stared completely non-plus. Just who was this girl?
"Go back to Magnolia! It's dangerous here!" yelled the girl pointing and stamping her foot in frustration.
"Wha! H-hey!" gasped Lucy as the girl grabbed the helm of her skirt and began to pull with all her might, trying to drag Lucy away.
"This is for your own good Lucy!" shouted the girl pulling harder, Lucy squealed in alarm and grabbed her skirt when she felt it slipping, she did not want anyone seeing her underwear!
Just who was this girl? How does know Lucy's name?
"Hey! Will you let go!" shouted Natsu as he tightened his grip on his nakama, he glared angrily as the girl hissed loudly.
"I'm trying to save her life!" snapped the girl and pulled harder than ever. Suddenly there were a ripping noise; seconds later Lucy screamed as her skirt fell apart exposing her lacy red underwear.
Natsu looked down as Lucy went stiff and felt the air leave his lungs, his face burned brightly as he stared unable to tear his eyes away.
"STOP STARING YOU PERVERT!" screamed Lucy slapping Natsu across the face and sprinted in the nearby alley way.
Erza hardly looked surprise as she saw her blonde friend running away trying to cover herself with her hands; Gray on the other hand had his mouth wide open and a small trickle of blood running from his nose as he stared after the stellar mage.
Unfortunately for him, Natsu turned around to the look at the rest of the group and instantly growled when he saw Gray.
"Stop staring pervert!" he snapped as he rubbed his burning face where a hand print was visible, Happy sniggered behind his paw.
"Aye! Pervert!" said the blue exceed.
"WHA! You're the one she called a pervert! And you were staring first!" yelled Gray marching up to Natsu.
"What did you say snowman!"
"Flame Brain!"
"Ice Princess!"
Erza, Happy and the girl stood by and watched as the two mages began to fight, fists and magic flying everywhere. Erza gave a sigh and calmly walked up; with fast reflexes she grabbed their heads and smashes them together before dropping them to the ground.
"Will you two stop fighting? We have a mission to do!" growled the re-quip mage as Lucy finally appeared, red faced and in different clothes.
"Will that be all Princess?" asked Virgo who appeared beside her bowing.
"Yeah, Thanks Virgo!" smiled Lucy who instantly growled at the two dazed mages rubbing their heads as Virgo disappeared.
"You two are such perverts! And you!" snapped Lucy spinning to the girl who flinched and began to shuffle her feet.
"How do you know me? And why were you so determined to shove me out of town?"
The blonde girl casted her guilty look at the scowling stellar mage and pouted.
"I can't tell you! Look! If you valve your life and the life of those important to you in the future, you'll leave right now!" yelled the girl bursting into tears and swung her arms forward.
"MISTY FOREST!" the little blonde screamed as flexible tree like pillars burst from the ground and twisted around the girl, forming a cocoon.
"What the hell!" yelled Gray recovering from his dizziness, Natsu merely groaned slightly and carried on lying motionless on the ground.
Mist suddenly poured from the wooden cocoon and became so misty that you couldn't even see your hand in front of your eyes! Finally after a few panic filled seconds where Lucy had tripped over Happy who were looking for his pink haired partner on the ground, the mist cleared.
"Who the hell was that girl!" snarled Gray noticing the wooden cocoon that contain said girl were no longer there.
Erza simply looked around in thoughtful thinking, she had a slight clue about who the girl was but she needed more evidence to support her theory.
Lucy opened her eyes after falling and were getting ready to scold the exceed for tripping her when she froze, she had fallen on top of Natsu who were grinning at her no longer dazed.
"Weirdo! You're supposed to lie on beds, not people!" the salamander said and he started to chuckle before yelping in pain when Lucy whacked him on the head.
"Idiot!" growled Lucy standing on her feet and she marched to the Inn door, slamming it open and stomping inside.
"This is going to be a long night…" mumbled Erza rubbing her head, she turned on her heels and followed Lucy inside.
"This is soo annoying!" whined Lucy as she stepped into the bathroom and cringed at the sight of it. The whole inn was filthy, plus the fact the stellar mage couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched ever since she entered this damn place.
"It's not that bad!"
"Aye!"
Lucy sighed and slammed the bathroom door behind her; did she mention the fact she had to share a room with the Pyro-maniac and his annoying blue cat?
"I can't shower in here!" Lucy finally yelled after staring at the brown, green and furry? Bathtub. No way in hell she's going to step into that thing! The stellar mage slammed the door open and growled, Natsu who were sitting cross-legged on the bed chatting with Happy looked up.
"It's all your!" said Lucy posing, sweeping her arms towards the bathroom as if it was a prize.
"That was fast?" frowned Natsu looking confused.
"The bathroom is filthy! I can't bathe in there!" yelled the blonde with disgust shaking her head, Natsu smirked and stood up.
"Well, if you're not gonna bathe I guess I'll pass too!" he said grinning, his arms crossed behind his head.
Lucy glared at him while placing her hands on her hips, she didn't know why but the fire mage seem to irritate her more often than normal.
"I'm gonna go see if I can find some fish! Aye! See you love birds later!" grinned Happy as he flew out of the window which were left open to let some air into the stuffy room.
"I'm going to skin that cat alive one of these days!" muttered Lucy darkly, Natsu grinned even wider at that comment.
Silent filled the room as the two stood there, then a sense of awkwardness seem to slip in. Lucy blushed and concentrated on a lump of grey stuff on the floor while Natsu rubbed the back of his neck also blushing.
"Hungry?" asked the pink haired teen holding up his now flaming hand. Lucy stared at the flames then quickly looked away.
"No thanks, I'm fine!" the blonde said quickly, Natsu let the flames die out and watched his nakama with interest.
"That girl earlier, didn't there seem to be something strange with her? I swear I've never seen her before, yet I got the feeling I know her." the stellar mage said as she turned to Natsu who nodded.
"Yeah, I got that feeling too. I wonder how she knew you and what she meant by you leaving."
"Honestly! I can take care of myself! That girl didn't have to worry so much." Snorted Lucy as she crossed her arms.
"Besides…" muttered Natsu as he walked closer causing his nakama to suddenly become flushed.
"I'll protect you, I'll never let anything bad happen to you."
"Natsu…."
BANG!
"WAAAH!" screamed Lucy as the whole building shook and trembled.
Seconds later Erza and Gray came bursting onto the room.
"Looks like we don't have time to rest, the Death Blades have come out to play." Said Gray cracking his knuckles.
"All right! I'm all fired up!" shouted Natsu with glee as his body burst into flames, Happy came flying back through the window in a panic.
"Natsu! There's a group of people outside!" yelled Happy pointing out the window.
Team Natsu charged out of the inn and were greeted by a group of people outside in the streets.
"So you're the mages that came to help this pathetic place called a town." One of the people sneered, a man with brown dreadlocks and grey eyes.
"I'm going to have so much fun killing you guys!" giggled what seems to be a fifteen year old girl with long cascading white hair that fell to her knees.
"We'll see about that!" stated Erza boldly as she unsheathed her sword; the group didn't even flinch as the blade was pointed in their direction.
"Let fairy blood be spilled by the DEATH BLADES!" The man with dreadlocks cried and the group (which were 5) sprinted towards Team Natsu.
"Bring it on!" yelled Natsu as Happy picked him up, both flying into the air when Happy used his magic to form large white wings.
"ICE MAKE: HAMMER!" yelled Gray bringing his hands together and forming a large Thor like hammer made from ice!
Erza simply charged forward and swiped her arm forward, slicing her sword through the air.
"Ok! It's my time to shine!" grinned Lucy and reached back to grab her keys.
"Lucy!"
Lucy turned around and suddenly tensed with shock as she saw Rico and Felicia running towards her.
"LUCY LOOK OUT!" screamed Felicia in panic. Lucy turned around and was hit head on with a torrent of water, the impact so strong that the stellar mage were flung into the air and landed with a painful crunch several feet away.
"L…cy!...uc…..!" Lucy groaned and her head slumped to the side as she heard muffled voices, slowly she closed her eyes and felt her world go dark.
"Rico?" asked Lucy nervously peering behind the curtain of their makeshift home, her friend had not spoken or hanged out with her and Felicia in a long time.
"mmmm?" Rico looked up at the blonde who flinched at the cold look in his eyes.
"Why don't y-you come out? I and Felicia are worried about you."
"Go away!" Rico snapped angrily glaring at his blonde friend.
"Rico!" gasped Lucy in shock, unable to believe how cold her friend was being!
"Look Lucy! Unlike you two, I'm planning on how to get our guild up and running. So far there is only one option for us."
"One option?" asked Lucy confused as she edged closer to her friend.
"The magic council won't grant us permission to form a guild, and we haven't got a lot of money. I say we don't need them… let's form a guild anyway."
"But forming a guild without the council permission means it's illegal! We'll be classed as a Dark Guild!" Lucy twisted her hands together looking scared.
"So be it…." whispered Rico sitting back down and looking away.
"You're a Void Dragon Slayer Lucy, the dragon slayer of all dragon slayers. Anyone who gets in our way you can take care of. We'll destroy all the Magic guilds out there and become the number one! The best in all of Fiore!" Rico began to laugh manically.
Lucy quickly left the makeshift home and walked to the cooking area feeling numb. Felicia quickly looked up and froze at the look on her blondes face.
"I'm scared Felicia…" whispered Lucy as she sat down bringing her knees to her head, her arms folding around her legs.
Felicia looked towards the hut and started to sob, she lay next to Lucy and curled into a foetal position.
Lucy's mind woke before her body did, as she lay there with her body still numb with sleep and pain from where she had been hit, she pondered over the piece of memory that had just surface to her mind.
"Lucy?"
Finally Lucy felt her body waking up and she slowly opened her eyes to see Rico and Felicia bending over her, looking anxious. The Blonde looked around and noticed she was no longer on the street but in some kind of room, she could still hear fighting so she can't be that far away.
"Lucy? Are you ok?" asked Felicia.
"Y-yeah…" the blonde gingerly sat up and rubbed her stomach, flinching in pain.
"Wait…. Why are you guys here?" the blonde added in confusion.
"To find you of course!" said Rico suddenly and Lucy heard a very faint click, the blonde looked at Rico and frown, remembering her memory.
"In the past…" Lucy said quietly as she stared at her male friend intently who raised his eyebrows at her.
"Is it true? You wanted to start a dark guild?"
To the stellar mages utter surprise Rico started to laugh.
"So you remember huh?" he grinned darkly, Felicia sighed sadly and looked away.
There was another clicking sound and this time Lucy noticed a black bracelet like object clutched tightly in Rico's hand. Rico smirked and quickly clamped the black bracelet on Lucy's left wrist, shutting it tightly before the blonde could react.
"It's a shame I have to do this." Smirked Rico as Lucy screamed out in pain, she could feel several pin like objects slicing into her wrist from inside the bracelet.
"But I have no choice; you'll never follow me willingly. It's good to have you back in the family Lucy. Welcome back to the Death Blades, formally known as the weak pathetic name of Diamond Blades!"
Lucy screamed even more in agony as the metal pins in the bracelet dug further into the flesh of her wrist and began to emit pulsating magical waves up her arm.
The blonde's struggled to break the device from her wrist began feeble as her mind began to become white and blank, finally she stop struggling and simply stared at Rico blankly.
"I'm so sorry Lu!" said Felicia sadly as she embraced her emotionless friend.
"Stop it Felicia! You know this is the only way!" Rico turned to Lucy and grinned.
"The extermination of all the guilds has begun! Before we leave, let's say goodbye to your friends!"
"That's the last one of them!" grinned Natsu happily as he and the rest of the group stood before a pile of smoking and frozen (not forget sliced up) pile of groaning, moaning bodies.
"It seems so, I expected them to be a lot tougher than this." Sighed Erza as she sheathed her sword.
"Hey… where's Lucy?" asked Gray as everyone looked around the destroyed area for their blonde friend. Natsu who began to panic instantly calmed as he saw her appear from an open doorway.
"Luce! Were you hiding?" asked Natsu confused.
Lucy didn't answer but merely kept walking towards them with a blank look. Erza became tense when she suddenly felt that something was wrong with the stellar mage.
"Lucy?" the re-equip mage asked quietly, her hand slowly moving to her sword. Natsu who was oblivious from the situation marched up to the blank looking blonde.
"Luce you weirdo! What's with the look?" asked the fire mage as he came to a halt in front of his nakama.
"VOID DRAGON'S FIST!"
Natsu's face became filled with pain, shock and disbelief as Lucy's crackling, burning grey fist collided with his stomach, the impact sent the pink haired teen flying into the building behind him destroying it.
Gray stood frozen in place as Erza quickly went to grab her sword.
"VOID DRAGON'S ROAR!"
The grey blast sent Erza and Grey flying where they smashed into a wall and landed on the floor with a sickening crunch.
"What power and speed!" gasped Erza as she coughed up blood, Grey was beside her unconscious.
"L-lucy?" asked Happy uncertainly at his friend's actions.
"What the hell L-luce!" cringed Natsu in pain as he wiped the blood that was trickling from his mouth. His blonde friend simply stared at him with no emotion.
"Amazing isn't she?" sneered a voice.
Natsu looked up to see Rico and Felicia walking towards them through the damaged street.
"You see, I'm the leader of the Death Blades! And Lucy here is my trump card to finally making my guild the number one in all of Fiore!"
"You!" gasped Natsu angrily as his body burst into flames. Instantly Lucy sprinted forward and halted close to Natsu who stared at her with shock and uncertainty.
"Lu-?"
"Void Dragon's Slicing Kick!" said Lucy and with unnatural swiftness, bringing her now grey blazing leg up hitting the salamander with extreme force to his head.
Natsu went flying into the air and his world went black as he landed with a crunch on a pile of rubble.
"It's time…. To make my dream a reality!" whispered Rico with an insane look in his eyes as he, Felicia and Lucy turned their backs on the crumpled forms behind them and started walking away.
"Natsu!" yelled Happy in tears and he flew down near his partners head. He turned to look at Lucy who were slowly walking away emotionless from her friends that she had just attacked.
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