Hello everyone! Yesterday was the confession which was super awesome, but there's still so much more that needs to happen, things to be explained. You all better be ready for all the mind-blowing reveals to come.

Nalu blinked her eyes lazily as the morning sun's rays hit her face. She tossed to the other side of the bed, trying to wake herself up. She yawned, stretching her arms. Her joins popped, a hum of satisfaction coming from her.

Good morning beautiful.

Nalu's eyes shot open. Lucy had been surprised by Natsu's sudden statement. Memories from the past night became clearer and instead of yelling at Natsu for being so blunt, a small smile graced Nalu's face.

Good morning.

Did you sleep well?

Yeah no memories. Just pleasant dreams.

I'm glad to hear that. Nalu sat up in bed, shifting her eyes around the infirmary. She had some strange new appreciation for it, maybe because this is where Lucy and Natsu confessed. A small blush spread across her face.

I can't believe I confessed to you, Lucy admitted.

Yeah, same here.

So, does this mean we're, you know? Lucy thought. Nalu began fiddling with her fingers. Natsu chuckled in their mind.

Do you mean dating?

…Y-Yes?

Do you want to?

…Yes.

Well, I want to too. Lucy, do you want to be my girlfriend?

Yes!

Nalu hopped out of her bed happily. Beside her bed were her clothes. Picking them up, she strolled to the bathroom to change. She closed her eyes just like she did every time she changed.

Lucy, you realize what this means right?

No what?

We're going to have to try even harder to separate ourselves.

Nalu stopped in the middle of changing. She opened her eyes and started at herself in the mirror. She had her regular shirt on along with the belt, but she was still clad in her pajama pants. She reached a hand to the mirror and fingered the image.

You're right. I guess we can't really be a couple if we're the same person. I can't hold your hand. Hug you…

Kiss you?

Nalu's blush grew fiercer.

Yeah.

Don't worry Luce, we'll get our bodies back, and when we do I'm going to kiss you crazy!

When did you turn into such a sweetheart? Lucy asked, Nalu laughing aloud. Nalu laughed louder when Natsu joined in.

Only when I got such a wonderful girlfriend! I'm not very good at being romantic, but I want to try for you. You deserve it.

Oh Natsu, Nalu placed a hand over her heart. Why did he have to always be so sweet?

Nalu finished changing and left the infirmary. There was a bounce in her step as she walked down the stairs to the first floor. A few people called out to her and she smiled in acknowledgment. She took a seat at the bar beside Levy.

"Hey Nalu, how are you feeling?"

"Much better," Nalu admitted. Mira walked over, cleaning a mug.

"You seem in a cheerful mode today," said Mira. Nalu tried hiding her blush from the barmaid, but she couldn't hide it from Levy.

"Mira~, Nalu's blushing~" said Levy. Mira set her mug down and leaned against the bar counter.

"Ooo~, that's the most common sign that someone's in love," Mira said smartly. Nalu scratched her cheek nervously. Mira laughed.

"You are! You are in love aren't you?"

"Who is it?" asked Levy excitedly, "Do we know who it is? We can help you get together."

"It's not that!" Nalu exclaimed, waving her hands frantically in the air, "It's just, I have a good feeling about today."

Mira nodded, "That's good too. I mean, we captured that one woman who tried to hurt you last night. Maybe we can get some information out of her."

Nalu looked down at her lap, "Yeah, information."

And maybe we can get her to spill the way we can get our bodies back.

If we do we have to do it discreetly.

"Do you know when I can speak to her?" Nalu asked.

"The Master wants to question her as well. He said you can go down to the dungeon with him, Gray and Erza." Nalu nodded in understanding. The Natsu side of her wanted to jump-the-gun and go down there at that moment, but she showed restraint, deciding to wait for the right time.

So Nalu sat in the guildhall, chatting with different people. Some people would even walk up to her asking her out. Every time they did, Lucy had to hold Natsu at bay. It was hard because not only were they hitting on him, which was super creepy, but they were also hitting on his new girlfriend. Eventually, Erza, Gray and Makarov arrived, meaning it was interrogation time.

Nalu followed the three down to the basement of the guildhall. Lucy found the area super creepy with all the dim lights and stonewalls. They stopped in front of a cell towards the back. Up against the wall was the masked woman from the night before. She didn't bother looking at the group of mages when they stopped in front of her cell.

"I am going to ask you some questions," said Makarov firmly, "and when I do I expect you to answer them quickly and honestly."

The woman didn't answer. She turned her head slightly in their direction. Though she couldn't see her eyes through the mask, Nalu knew she was staring straight at her.

"What is your name?" Makarov asked. The woman remained silent. Gray and Erza's patience were growing thin. Nalu's was as well, but she hid it well.

"I'll ask again," grumbled Makarov, "What is your name."

"I don't have one," she finally snapped. Nalu jumped back in surprise.

"You don't have a name?" questioned Gray.

"None of us do. They don't bother with names, it's too confusing for them."

"What do you mean by "Us"? Do you mean you and that creature that came before?" asked Makarov.

"Don't even compare me to that thing," the woman sneered, "He was a 14. He wouldn't have lived through the week. I'm a 57."

Erza raised a delicate brow, "57? You're put into categories by these people?"

"Not categories. It's more complicated than you think. I don't expect you normal people to understand."

"We want to understand," said Gray, griping one of the bars of the cell. She turned her head weakly to his direction.

"That's to bad," she mocked, "you can never understand. You don't know what it's like to be two parts of a whole. To be alone together all the time."

Nalu stared at the woman sadly. She wasn't like the thing that first attacked her. This woman seemed calmer and in more control. But at the same time, she was in more pain. Nalu felt bad for her, even if she did attack them. They were in the same situation.

"Two of our comrades mysteriously disappeared and we have reason to believe that you know where they are," said Erza. Said mage pulled a small lacrima out of her pocket and held it up in front of her. A small image appeared from the lacrima. Nalu stared at it in unbelief.

Coming from the lacrima was a picture of Natsu and Lucy. The picture itself was at the beach at a smoothie hut. Natsu had his arm wrapped around Lucy who was laughing happily. They remembered taking that picture during their training for the Grand Magic Games. It was one of their favorites. Nalu couldn't take her eyes off the faces in the picture. They looked so happy and carefree, but at the same time they looked almost foreign to her.

It scared her.

"Do you recognize these two mages?" Erza asked. The woman looked at the picture with disinterest. Slowly, her head tilted toward Nalu. She stared at the pinkette intently. Nalu's heart rate increase, sweat formed on her forehead.

She's going to tell them.

What do we do now?

Neither of them had any clue what to do. This woman clearly had a grudge against them and now she had an ace up her sleeve. The woman turned back to Erza, "Yes, I have seen them before."

Nalu bit down on her lip, this is it.

"They were brought to Lab B three months ago," she answered.

"Where is Lab B?" Gray asked frantically.

"It's located in a mountain range not far from here, but you won't find anything. It's gone now, destroyed. It was cleared out a little more than a week ago."

Gray tightened his grip on the cell door, "That's the place we already checked!" He kicked the metal bars angrily with his foot. Nalu noticed the same fury in Erza's eyes.

"Where would they be now?" Makarov asked. Nalu eyed the woman curiously, still waiting for her to spill their secret.

"They would have been transferred to Lab A, up in the mountains of Shirotsume." she responded.

"Can you take us there?" asked Makarov. The woman shook her head weakly, "I have never been there. You would need an access code to get there which I don't have."

"At Lab B, there was a locked area of the building we couldn't access because of a password. Do you know the password?" Erza asked. The woman nodded. Slowly, she pulled an arm out from under her cloak. On her wrist was a metal cuff with a string of digits carved onto it, "This code will get you passed the room. If you can find a working computer you might be able to find the exact location of Lab A with this code. Be warned, you might not like what you find in there."

Reluctantly, Makarov pulled out a key and unlocked the door. Erza walked into the cell and unlatched the metal cuff from her arm. The woman put forth no struggle against the redhead. Once Erza was done, she stood and walked back to the rest of the group. Makarov stared down at the woman sitting in the cell, a look of sympathy in his eyes.

"I don't know the extent of your hardships, but I don't want Fairy Tail to be one of them. You have given us all the information we require, therefore you are free to go." After he said that, the woman remained sitting. She let out a sigh.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that."

"What do you mean?" Nalu found herself asking. The woman looked up at her.

"You see… I'm dying."

The women in the room gasped, Makarov's features changed, "How?"

"I told you, I'm a 57. Only experiments above a 70 live passed the first few experiments. My body just can't handle it. I don't have very long now. I don't even have the strength to stand," she admitted. She rested her head up against the wall of the cell, "now if it's too much to ask, I'd like to die in peace."

Nobody said a word. Gray and Erza looked down at the master for orders. The old man let out a sad sigh before walking back down the hallway. Gray and Erza followed close behind him.

"Pull a team together," he whispered to the two mages, "I want you to return to Lab B and see if you can find the location of Lab A, along with any clues about Natsu and Lucy. Take Nalu with you. I want you ready in one hour."

Nalu listened to their whispers until they disappeared from the dungeon. Now Nalu and the woman were the only ones left. Nalu stared down at the woman clinging to life in the cell. Whether it was against her better judgment or not, Nalu walked into the cell and kneeled down beside the woman's body. The masked lady said nothing to her as she did. The pinkette stared down at her lap.

"You knew what I was, so why didn't you tell them?" Nalu asked softly. The woman shifted toward the pinkette to the best of her ability. Nalu tried helping her but the woman shrugged her off. Nalu found herself staring into the dark eyes of her mask.

"I was going to," the woman said quietly, her voice already sounding far away, "I had every intention of telling them what you were, but I couldn't."

"Why?" The woman shrugged.

"I don't know. I hate you more than anything. You were the only 100, the only one who actually stood a chance at living again while the rest of us are forced into the shadows. I wanted to reveal who you were, to make you feel what we feel, but I just couldn't say it. Maybe it's because we are one in the same. All of us were forced to become what we are by the doctors."

"In a way, they are the true monsters in all of this," said Nalu, a small smile on her face. The woman chuckled, surprising the pinkette. Nalu watched the woman as her breathing became more labored and hoarser. Hesitantly, Nalu brought her hands up to the mask. The woman didn't stop her as she slowly pulled it off.

She had long, mangled, black hair on one side of her head. The other side had a few small strands of purple hair. Her head bulged slightly and veins popped out all over it. She had two dark blue eyes and another one just above her left eye the color green. One eye sagged lazily like it was about to fall off. Her mouth split in a hideous display, almost as if two mouths had been connected to each other. Nalu wanted to cry at the sight of her. These two women were forced to fuse just like them, only they weren't as lucky.

Nalu wiped away some tears that were gathering in her eyes. She offered the woman a kind smile.

"Can we, start over?" she asked. The woman sniffled, one of her eyes filling with tears. Her breathing began growing fainter.

"I would like that." Nalu held out a hand. From under the woman's cloak, a delicate hand wormed its way out and held onto Nalu's. Nalu noticed small patches of tan covering the hand.

"Hi, our names are Natsu and Lucy. What are yours?" The woman's lips curved into a sad smile.

"Our names are Merida and Jun. It's nice to meet you." Her words grew softer. She tightened her hold on Nalu's hand.

"The Voices will free you. The voices from the first experiment. They are far stronger than any living force. They brought you together and they... will set... you... free."

Her eyes closed gently as soon as she finished speaking. Her hand felt limp in Nalu's. The pinkette sniffled. She tenderly placed Merida and Jun's hand on her stomach. Nalu rose to her feet, gazing down at the poor soul. Her heart burned with a newfound determination. She wasn't going to let anyone else suffer like they did. She wasn't going to let anyone else experience the horrors they had to endure.

At least now, Merida and Jun were finally at peace.

That took a sad turn. I was crying a little. Well I hope this chapter was okay. Review! Favorite! Follow! Have a Happy New Year!