uh... here it is! bitches!

Lucy carefully slowed down the tired beast beneath her – they had been getting closer and closer to the peak – she was about halfway there. She slowly climbed off of Yumi and winced as her legs turned to absolute jelly. Gritting her teeth, she slowly patted the horse and gave her praise while leading her to the small stream where the young mage had decided they would camp out at – after all, they weren't following the roads. Just a straight shot to the mountain. Sighing, Lucy let Yumi chill while she hobbled over to a tree and sank to the ground against it. She must be getting closer to Natsu because her limbs were aching more than ever.

"Ugh," She moaned as a rock lodged itself against her thigh, and she threw it pitifully towards the stream, only for it to fall near her foot. She leaned against the bark and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of nature. Lucy knew she shouldn't have just ditched her group (especially since she totally forgot her bag) and just thanked her lucky stars that at least it was winter and she had her keys. Then, her brown eyes flew open and she sat up straight, suddenly realizing something that she should have done long ago. She pulled a silver key out of her pouch and stood up, her eyes hardening with a little spark of hope while Brok's voice echoed in her mind.

"You know how to beat this."

She gritted her teeth at the memory and thrust the key in front of her.

"Open, Gate of the Southern Cross, Crux!" In a flash, the sleeping cross appeared levitating in front of her. She kneeled down on both knees and sat back on her haunches. "Do you know anything about somebody named Brok?" The "sleeping" sprit cracked open one eye and sighed heavily.

"I only know of people who are connected to celestial spirits or celestial spirit mages, Master." She grimaced at the title, but ignored it.

"That's fine – maybe he was affiliated with someone in the past." The spirit seemed to ignore her comment, because he dozed back off. Furrowing her brows, she leaned back against the tree as Yumi closed her eyes and went still-sleeping-horse-mode. Lucy will never understand how horses could sleep while standing up.

"Master, I have found something." She immediately sat back up and focused on her spirit, who sounded surprisingly alert.

"Crux? What did you find?" The spirit looked uncharacteristically fidgety. Lucy stared hard at him. "Well?"

"It seems that he was involved with…" He trailed off and the young blonde girl just stared. "… With your mother, Layla-sama."

What?

"We can't beat them, Gajeel!" Lisanna ground out while dodging yet another dart-like shadow missile. Her limbs were aching and her movements were getting sloppy, and so were her partner's. Gajeel growled and screamed out another attack.

"Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!" His arm turned into a well-aimed pillar and smashed right through one of the shadows, effectively destroying the building that it had been cast upon. He swore and then returned his arm to normal while rubbing his fist. "Motherfucker." Lisanna grit her teeth.

"We have to retreat!" She shouted while tackling him to the ground to escape a missile that otherwise would've impaled them both in one go. The young girl jumped to her feet. "Animal Soul: Half Bird!" A flash of golden surrounded her and the air swirled slightly, knocking any incoming darts away for the meantime. Gajeel gaped at the half-bird-half-chick standing above him and just continued to gawk as she grabbed him in one of her talons before flying away. Of course, as a goodbye gift, a dart flew right through one of her wings. She hissed, but continued fly until they were at least out of the town. She basically crash-landed into the snow, causing Gajeel to grunt in annoyance. Her spell wore off and her previous cloak replaced itself. Her right arm now had two dart wounds, along with the various scratches and bruises scattered over the rest of her body.

"Idiot." Lisanna muttered as the dragon slayer sat up and shook his head at the crash landing.

"You suck at flying." He commented, and she threw a handful of half-packed snow at him, causing him to grimace.

"Well it's hard to fly when you've got inured wings, jerk." Growling, she leaned over to him and ripped strip of his cloak off, making him frown.

"What the hell?" Gajeel huffed as she inspected the nasty cut on her forearm. Gesturing to him, without actually looking up, she ordered him to wrap up the cut on his shoulder. "I'm fine. I'm not a wimp." She scoffed, but otherwise let him be. She slowly wrapped the cut – it was weird how her take-over anatomy worked. When she turned into the bird and the dart ripped through the thin membrane of her wing, it translated into a deep gash on her forearm, but that was it. Shrugging at her own thoughts, she finished off the wrap with a terribly lopsided, one-handed bow and then fell back on the snow, exhausted and cold.

"We need to find Erza and Alzack soon – they took off with the lacrima." She muttered tiredly. Meanwhile, Gajeel just glared up at the gray sky.

"Yea, whatever."

Mira stared at the lacrima on the counter, obviously worried. Happy sat on a table while slowly eating his fish half-heartedly, Carla was glaring at her cup of tea and Lily was just "sleeping" on a bench, when the barmaid ran up to them.

"I need to ask you three a favor." She said, and Happy glanced up curiously at her tone.

"What's wrong, Mira?"

"I need you guys to go find Lisanna – I mean… Erza's group. Please. I just want to know they're okay since I haven't heard from them since they left and I'm really worried. Plus, they'll need you all in case something's wrong, okay?"

And without a moment to waste, the three Exceed flew out of the guild while Mira stared at their retreating forms in worry.

"Be okay, please…" She blinked the tears out of her blue eyes. "… Lisanna…"

It was dark. Where was she?

Her brown eyes opened slowly – what was going on? She heard laughter… no… that wasn't right. Right? She was alone – no! Alzack was with her! Oh god – where was he? She jumped to her feet, only to forget which way was up or down and immediately fell to the ground. Her equilibrium was totally off. She groaned as the massive headache she had pounded against the backs of her eyes. That horribly hollow feeling of being extremely low on magical power radiated through her body, pulsating painfully.

"You know that you couldn't save us, right?"

Knives replaced the blood in her veins. She didn't want to open her eyes and see the face belonging to the voice – she didn't want to hear the voice. No. This wasn't real. He wasn't real.

"You're wrong. I'm as real as the memories of you and I – don't tell me you hate me enough to try and forget?" Her eyes flew open at that, the denial stuck firmly on the tip of her tongue, when tears flooded her vision.

"You're not real." She whispered weakly, hating how pathetically squeaky her voice was right now. She sounded like a child begging the monster not to be real – but only she wasn't a child, he wasn't a monster and this was real. A cruel smile twisted his lovable face sadistic and that look didn't suit him.

His child-self flashed in comparison behind her eyelids and the tears streamed down her face.

"Oh, but Erza, I am." He slowly moved closer to her. She backed up until the pounding in her head grew too much and she just stopped and watched him. He crouched right next to her with a malicious gleam in his eye.

She was shaking terribly. "Simon."

Lucy stared in horror at the spirit. "You're wrong – my mom would never speak to such a monster!" She yelled, glaring at him. He just fell back asleep, ignoring her completely. She instantly changed her tone, reminding herself that he was just the bearer of bad news. "W-wait, Crux, what were they – like, what was their relationship?" His eyes stayed closed as he answered her in his ancient voice.

"They were in love when she was younger, in her teenage years at least. She was your age. That is all I know, Master." She furrowed her brows, completely confused (and absolutely horrified at the idea), but nodded at the spirit.

"Okay, you can go then, Crux. Thank you." She waved the shining silver key and the spirit disappeared. She was left with a hollow feeling. "What am I going to do now?" Lucy leaned back against the tree and tucked her key back into her pouch. Slowly, as her thoughts whirled wildly through her mind, her eyes drifted to a close and she fell into an uneasy (and slightly surprising) sleep.

He grinned, though it wasn't one she'd want to remember. "Yes. It's me. I would say that I'm happy that you remember me, but, well… I don't really care." Erza stared as he sat back on a seemingly invisible chair – no, wait, there was something there – it almost looked like an inky, back throne, blending in with the rest of the ebony surroundings well.

"W-what's going on?" She asked in a broken whisper, and he just grinned.

"Oh, nothing much – just your subconscious fears and nightmares torturing you." His happy smile didn't go well with the sentence. She frowned, rubbing her forehead. "Headache, dear?" Erza shivered, but nodded. "Yes, well, that happens when there's a war going on against your demons and you." She frowned.

"My demons?" She asked, not understanding what he was meaning.

"Your demons. All of the negative thoughts and emotions," He tapped the back of his raven-black clad head, "running around back here. The ones that sprout from 'What if's' and 'Maybes'. And you, my friend, have more than one of those nasty creatures. Which is where I come from," Simon gestured to himself. He answered the question she hadn't actually voiced.

"I'm one of your biggest 'what if's.' 'What if I had saved him?' 'What if I hadn't let him take the blow?' What if I had pushed him out of the way?' Jellal is your number-one biggest 'what if', by the way." He informed her with a smirk. Erza stared in horror.

"You're not Simon." She whispered, hating how weak she sounded. He clucked his tongue at her.

"Oh, Erza. This is what you wanted." Simon said while wagging his finger. She was growing angry.

"No! This isn't what I wanted!" Erza shouted and her voice echoed weirdly in the seemingly endless darkness. His smirk grew bigger.

"It isn't? Because I'm pretty sure you wanted me back. No, wait, that's wrong. You wanted me back so the guilt couldgo away. You never really cared for me." She shook her head, scarlet locks flying.

"No! No – you're wrong. Simon was my friend – my nakama! I couldn't-,"

"If he was your nakama, you wouldn't have left him locked up in that hell." She didn't seem to notice that he was speaking of himself in third person now.

"No! No, no, no, no… no! S-Simon was my friend…" Erza gripped the sides of her head. She was shaking violently.

I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, Simon, it's all my fault, oh god, Simon…

The Simon look-alike grinned maliciously and exploded silently into shadows, and the tendrils sank into the inky surroundings. Meanwhile, the re-quip mage sobbed quietly as his smiling, childish face flashed in her mind, all carefree innocence.

"I'm so… I'm sorry…"

Lucy glared at the man before her. He looked distraught.

"So this is real. You're speaking to me. Through… this dream-speak shit." She said, gesturing at the ivory expanse around her. His silver eyes twinkled with bittersweet amusement, despite the aura of sadness looming around him, and he really didn't look like any type of villain she would find in her horror novels. Weren't they all crazy, booming laughs with, like, dungeons?

"Yes, this is real. I connected with you because it's time I told you what little truth I can." She raised an eyebrow.

"Okay..?"

"Don't speak, let me get this out before the connection severs." Lucy shut her mouth. "Good. So here goes…"

"Guys," Natsu called as they exited the train. Or, well, three of them exited it, while one flung himself through the door like a madman. Freed glanced at him as he struggled to his feet. "Something's wrong."

The runes mage frowned. "Why do you say that?" Natsu felt that horrible feeling – the same one he felt before Igneel left and before Lisanna's "death".

"It's just a feeling – one that's always been right. Something's wrong. With someone." Cana's face darkened as she pulled a flask out of her small back.

"I hope Lucy's okay…" Juvia murmured. Freed frowned as Natsu just stood there, looking strangely serious.

"Well, we'll find out sooner or later. We've got to hike up to the town where Erza's team is and figure out what's wrong and why they haven't checked in with Mira." The green-haired man instructed while the others nodded.

"Good. Let's go."

Lucy stared at Brok with a mixture of disbelief, horror and resolve. "What? Seriously?" He nodded seriously. "O-okay…" Then, with more confidence, she nodded her head sharply. "Okay. I'll do it. Anything." Then, the dark-skinned man smiled and held out a hand to her. She grasped it in her own.

"We'll meet again soon enough, Lucy Heartfilia, and I'll finish my story." He promised, and she grinned.

"I'll hold you to it, Brok."

And slowly, everything faded into a deep, soothing darkness.

Welp, im sorry that this was unbelievably late. Jeez I suck I know. Im all behind on school and shit (just geometry) and blah blah blah –insert stupid shit-. Anyways, ive been on a drawing spree as on late, so blah and like uh… yea I hope you guys liked this one. I think we might be getting close to the end! Ahhhh!

Coolgal342: weirdly enough, I love seeing my favorite characters in agony. It just is super thrilling to be like "OMG HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS ONE?!" *laughs evilly*.

BookProf101: I wrote one! Just for you! It's called "The Letter" and it's just a one-shot, but I think I might be working on a series GaLe ff later.