***I do not own Fairy Tail, nor its characters or its storyline. This never gained much good will, I suspect. It's not a terrible story, but neither is it splendid. No matter, I will give you this chapter none the less***
She was walking the streets of a certain town, dragging with her the beaten to a pulp perpetuator. As in the person she had been sent out to capture, alive. And indeed had he been sneaky, and well guarded.
Not well enough guarded to keep him safe from the Titania, but she would still admire his defenses. He was alive still, as the mission requested. Only barely, but other than having a pulse the mission had said nothing about him having to be in good shape, or even in decent shape.
Erza Scarlet, the strongest female in Fairy Tail, had finally finished her mission. One that had taken her weeks to accomplish. And now, she might be able to stomach her return. Find another mission. Possibly leave again. Staying at the guild had suddenly become unbearable for her one day, and she had promptly left. Not like she hadn't done it before, just not that often recently.
Recently she had, for some strange reason, spent a lot of time on missions with Natsu and Gray instead. And she remembered those missions as fun. Enjoyable. Yet.. the thought of going on another mission bothered her, and she did not understand why. Natsu and Gray had always been close friends with her. The three of them had grown up together, after all. So why.. could she not stomach the very idea of them going on another mission, the three of them, or four should she include Happy? Why did it feel wrong, somehow?
As she walked the streets with the criminal in tow, the Scarlet mage witnessed something.. odd. Or not so much odd as it was borderline impossible.
Natsu Dragneel, only several years older than he ought to be, that unless she somehow had managed to be gone for quite a few years without noticing, came running past her, yelling out apologies, and CRYING, a mob running after him. Judging by the smoke that could be spotted in the not too distant distance Erza could only assume that the fellow, looking a lot like without being the Dragon Slayer she knew so well, had done something very Natsu-like. So he had destroyed something. And now he was fleeing town. While crying. And apologizing. Only one of those things were like the Natsu she knew.
Erza remained standing in place, her brows furrowed as she contemplated the meaning of this, when.. a maid.. came calmly walking in the same direction the familiar not familiar being had been running in. She stopped in front of the Fairy Tail mage, her pale blue eyes eyeing the other female for a moment.
"Erza Scarlet. It has been a while," the Maid stated simply, bowed so the shackles on her wrists rustled slightly, and then she continued walking, not looking back.
It was a strange day. Erza snapped back into the present, and was on her way. It was time to turn in the criminal. He would need medical attention in not too long if he wished to live.
The whole ordeal was forgotten during the meeting with the client, where he, the old man that had hired her, kept on talking for so long that the sun had set by the time she got out of his house. Because of that she had to find a place to stay for the night.
As she checked in at an inn just outside the town the encounter from earlier recurred to her. And as she fell asleep, the Maid kept reappearing. Popping up from the ground itself, always with that serious look on her face, her words echoing throughout the entire dream. *Erza Scarlet. It has been a while*.
As she arrived at the station the day after, another surprise awaited her. The train had been canceled, due to ice. And not the kind caused by bad weather. The wagons had just.. frozen. Solid. Ice magic. So she had to start walking instead. While the train she was supposed to get on was far from the only one, the destruction brought on by some unknown mage made the next arrival several hours ahead, so Titania started to walk instead.
There was a suspected criminal behind the vandalism, a young boy with spiky black hair and dark eyes. A child that might fit the description of a young Gray Fullbuster. The very notion would never had occurred to her had it not been for her encounter with the older Natsu Dragneel the day before.
And then... Then this. Erza Scarlet had been walking for quite a few hours. She had already decided that she would rent a SE-plug car in the next town unless the train arrived there not too long after, when she spotted a girl resting in the grass by the road, staring at the blue blue sky.
She looked at Erza as the crimson mage approached, sat up more properly. And Erza saw what looked like her counterpart from Edolas. Erza Knightwalker.
"Knightwalker?" she questioned the moment after, put her thoughts into a word. The girl was wearing a black bikini top and a pair of torn shorts. Her long, scarlet hair was set up in a ponytail, long and wavy and so similar.. to that other Erza.
"Ah, hello there. You must be Erza Scarlet. Do you know the way to the guild named Fairy Tail?" the girl asked, cocked her head to the side, a very un-Erza like gesture as she also displayed her all but pierce-covered ears. Silver, every piece, at least six or seven per ear. Plus one in her nose. She also wore some silver rings on her fingers.
"What are you doing here?" Erza Scarlet asked, still pretty convinced of this somehow being a person from the other world, and the other girl laughed.
"Oh, sorry. You think I'm sort of a nightwalker? I'm Orion. A Spirit. I lost track of my Master a while back, and I only know that she's a member of a guild named Fairy Tail? It's in a town that starts with M, but for the life of me I can't remember what more..." Orion said, got up on her feet stretched her arms and yawned.
"And I know that you're not me, so you have to be Erza Scarlet, right? Lucy told me we look a lot alike," she continued, and then reached out a hand in greeting.
"Ah.. Lucy?" Titania took the hand, but was none the wiser.
"No. I'm Orion, Lucy's my Master. Lucy of Fairy Tail." Orion specified.
"Oh. So there is a new member in Fairy Tail?" Erza asked. The change was so sudden. Her open and curious eyes darkened, and she took a step backwards.
"You. Don't. Know. Anything." she nearly spat out and then she clenched her fists, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. That seemed to calm her.
"I am Orion, the Hunter. I came here to hunt this thing called a Wyvern, but something went wrong in between transitions and I ended up in the wrong forest. I don't worry, I'm pretty certain Draco got to her in time. While I sense the presence of foes, mostly beasts of different kinds, he can sense it when she's in danger. I can't return to the Spirit World without having Lucy close my gate, so I need to get to her town. The town that begins with an M. I know her guild is there, and I know it's called Fairy Tail." she said. Then she smiled, Orion, the Hunter.
"She would die for you, you know. She calls you amazing, and brave, and kind. She has seen your tower, and seen your tears. Why do you think everything is wrong? But now. Which way is.." she stopped talking, took hold of her throat as her knees gave in.
"No." she gasped. Her breathing labored.
"No, no no no no no no..." she kept uttering. And then she collapsed completely and faded until the Titania found herself alone by the road once more. Well.. that was weird.
The crimson sky shifted above, crimson because the day was ending, and the crimson sunset warned those that heeded the signs. Blood had been spilled, and more bloodshed might come to pass.
They stood by the sea, or perhaps should I say WE stood by the sea. On a cliff, a cliff with such a view I had never seen before, the wide ocean stretching out before me and all others present.
The grass. How to begin? It was so green, so beautiful, so mesmerizingly astonishing, swaying in that slight breeze that made it seem almost alive. That same breeze that followed an invisible path, that already had passed by some trees, birch if I was not mistaken, and found its way to my hair, caressing my cooling skin as I watched the figure in front of me, a soft smile lifting my lips slightly upwards, as if to tell him.. as if to tell him that is was alright.
He was a man in his mid-fifties somewhere, at least that would be my guess. Older than father yet not really all that old. His skin bore signs of his age, but not too many, and he was unshaven so I could see spots of spiky hairs protruding on his chin. The breeze gave me a brief whiff of his essence, and I would have to admit.. he smelled. And it wasn't a good smell. The man in front of me had short hair, much like my fathers hair before his fall, yet more greying and a tad roughed up now. After all, this man did not seem to have eaten or washed in quite some time.
He had blue eyes. They were wide now as he stared at me, showing off some extra wrinkles around them. He was staring at me, with my soft smile that told him that it was alright. It was alright that he had killed me.
And one might wonder, were we the only ones at the scene? Were the two of us the only ones to sight such an astonishing view, with the rustling of leaves in the distance, and the crimson sun setting behind the vast ocean? No. We were not. At least not for long, since THEY had appeared as the dagger cut through skin and flesh, entering in through my abdomen and as such coloring my white dress red around it.
THEY appeared, those that were not of this world. I could see them. Orion, Hydra, Draco, Phoenix, and even Andromeda. And though I did not wish for them to see this particular scene, the closing scene for my part, I was glad that they were here, and not in the Spirit Realm. For I knew that they liked this world better.
Then the breeze was joined for a moment by his big brother, a mighty gale that ripped in my hair, seemed to push me towards the edge. It was quite alright. I would've ended up there even without the push, but the support eased my mind in a way. And the ground gave in under me, the man following my path towards the end, wanting for it all to be over as much as I did. And as such, the story that started with a festival would end with a fall.
They cried out for her, but it was already too late. Too late for everything as the gale passed by them, blinded those that had long hair and as such had it blown in front of them, and when the wind dissipated, she was gone.
Through the streets of Magnolia the lot of them wandered, all five of them highly recognizable had it not been for the black cloaks that they had donned for the occasion. SHE had told them to keep a low profile, and though that request pretty much had been thrown to the wind, they wanted to remain anonymous this time. At least for now.
The door to her apartment did not stand a chance, ripped off its hinges before they entered. Up the stairs, into the bedroom. Over at her work desk they found it, the note they knew she would've left for them. That was the kind of person she was, after all. One that would die for the sake of her friends, but never without saying goodbye.
Dear Spirits of mine.
When you read this, you probably already know. And you're probably really angry with me, and want an explanation. Orion probably broke down my door too in her hurry to get to this letter you all knew would be there.
Orion muttered something under her breath that sounded like a lot of curses and the name none of them wanted to utter at the moment.
And you don't know much. Well, Draco already met Gray, and I guess you all know that this world got a person resembling you to quite the degree, except from them being older or younger than you in some cases.
"We already know this.." Hydra commented cooly. It was Phoenix that read the note, and she stopped briefly to send him a killer glare that he sent back at her, though he didn't talk anymore.
But you already know this, and you don't really care anyways. You want to know why I'm not here anymore. The reason why I most likely never will be.
The man that did it... the man that somehow linked your world to the Spirit Realm and therefore sucked you into it and messed things up.. that man... He is, if I am not here, the man that killed me. And though you are angry with him, and though you will want revenge should he remain alive, I would want you not to do that. You see, the reason he became the man that he is... The reason why he lost everything and therefore wanted vengeance, that is me.
I used to be wealthy. I used to be a heiress wearing frilly dresses and attending social events. My purpose in this life used to be getting a nice and wealthy husband, and then give him heirs to take over whatever business he would be involved in. Of course you know it didn't end like that, but that was my life. And back then I was supposed to marry this boy.
This boy, he was around my age, a few years older yet far younger than most of my other possible husbands to be. And we were good friends. Best friends, almost. My father approved of the match, the boy was the main heir to a company that would serve my fathers purposes well, so of course he did not mind us going on trips to the woods, up in the mountains and such. Not all typical for ladies of my stature, but it was alright.
Then, as we were hiking up in some snowy mountain, the accident happened. The boy died saving me, and though I wanted to, the circumstances demanded me to leave his body behind as I myself fled towards safety.
The father of this boy was crushed. He was so crushed that he gave up on everything, and even handed the company his family had run for generations over to my father. This same man was hired by my father as a bodyguard, and his sole remaining child, a girl my age, was taken in as my playmate. But the father of what would have been my husband had hardened after the loss, and he blamed me for his death. I on the other hand did not want to marry some old man to fit into the grand scheme of my father any longer, so I started acting up.
I tried running away. The family that had once been so grand did possess a rather peculiar sort of magic. The main use of the magic was to suppress memories, however, at least that was what the older man had specialized in. In a way it moved them away, and though the memories in some cases could be retrieved that was mostly not the case. Objects could be moved too, but that was a more experimental thing. They did not know how it worked, and therefore tended not to use it. After all, it made things disappear for then to reappear not too long after, with no implication as to where the object remained in the meantime.
The memory of my deceased husband to be was therefore suppressed in hopes of me getting off the idea of not marrying anyone else, and so was most of my other and failed attempts to escape. But then I asked the sister of that forgotten boy to help me out. And so she did. She managed to transport me to this very town. Magnolia. And while in town I met these crazy people from this crazy guild, and I even got to come for dinner at the Strauss house, accompanied by Natsu and all three Strauss siblings. Then HE found me, like he always did.
And since the magic to suppress my memories had turned out to lose its potency upon being used on me over and over again, he had to, or at least he did, beat it out of me, the memory of the incident. And as he did that he also managed to remove the memory of that girl. The girl that died using her magic to transport me away and into safety. He was also fired due to his rough treatment later on.
So as I have told you now... I was the reason he lost both his children, his company, and in the end his job and home. And he offered me a deal. Either he would destroy everything that I loved, piece by piece as I had done to him, or he could destroy only me.
I wanted to stay. I wanted to live. But I did not want to live while you died. And with me, it ends. The endless search of vengeance that destroyed the very man that would wind up being my killer, that will not destroy you. You are free.
And so am I.
Lucy Heartfilia
They stared at the paper, where it stood, black on white, that she was gone. And they had seen her demise. They had seen her end, yet as it was spelled out in front of them, the fact finally seemed to sink in. And for the first time in so long, Hydra, the boy that displayed next to no feelings, started crying, soon joined by the others. It was not the kind of crying that would be heard from a distance. Nor was it silent. Just a low, heartbreaking set of sobs as the five of them huddled together in a very pink apartment by the river in a town called Magnolia.
***I think this ended quite splendidly, don't you? Especially with this being the thirteenth chapter and all. You're probably confused. Yeah...***