The Day The Crimson Petals Fell
I am so..., sorry that it took me this long to post an update. This fanfic has not been forgotten, nor have you guys. Thank you so much for supporting me even in my absence. I had been having a lot of issues mentally lately, and am slowly starting to heal, and will definitely do my best to be better about posting now. Thaank you all again for your support my loves. This one's a short one, but the next one is definitely gonna be way... longer.
The Group of friends had been bouncing between Natsu and Lucy's place for the week waiting for Loki's return. Capricorn had given Lucy a knew knife as a sign of his alliance to her and so that she could remain safe even when he could not protect her. Lucy, Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel would spar with each other, to keep each other on their feet. Levy and Lucy would go over politics, organized crime, economy, and current events, which Lucy despised, but in order to take on whoever is after her, Lucy needed to be ready for anything, even Loki being right about Ivan. Every now and again Erza would chime in to help Lucy with her form or reaction time, and Mirajane would do things like remind Lucy and the others to take a break, eat and take care of themselves. Even though Lucy felt like she was preparing for a war, she was happy, she finally had a family; it wasn't the one she had lost, nor would it ever be a replacement, but it was family, and it was taking her to places she never dreamed.
After another week had gone by, Lucy had finally gotten a call, and Lucy was so excited to have the missing piece of her family back. Unfortunately, it wasn't Loki on the phone like Lucy had hoped. "Aquarius?" I wasn't expecting you. What's wrong?"
"Listen. I am having something sent your way. Virgo is bringing it with her, and she will be staying with you from now on, and if you know what's good for you, you will not try to contact, or come near this estate until I call you. Got it!"
"Yes ma'am." Lucy said back quickly, not daring to even entertain the idea of disagreeing with Aquarius.
"Good, Virgo will arrive by train at dawn. Please be an eloquent host, and escort her to your place." Aquarius said sounding slightly annoyed, which usually meant she cared, before hanging up softly.
Lucy wasn't sure of what was happening, but she knew if Aquarius wanted her to stay away, it was for a damn good reason.
"Hey Lucy!" Natsu smiled walking up with Levy, and the others.
"Who was that, is Loki on his way..." Natsu was cut off by Lucy trying her hardest not to fall apart.
"No. It wasn't. It wasn't Loki. Guy's I'm scared, what if he doesn't make it back, or is found out, or killed, and Aquarius just didn't have the heart to tell me over the phone. What do I do?" Lucy fell to her knees on the verge of a panic attack.
"Lu Lu..", Levy started before Natsu shook his head. "Lucy, get up", Natsu said quietly, " I know you heard me Lucy. Get up", Natsu said again a bit louder.
"You and I both know that Loki is not that easy to take out. You need to have more faith in him, in us. Listen, I know you aren't used to having to rely on others, but it's time you start if you wanna come out of this on top, because the only way we all get out of this is if we have faith and trust in each other. Now lift your head up and stand tall."
"You know Lucy, we're all worried. He's all of our friends, so if you need to cry that's okay, but don't strike us out before we even played the game." Gray chimed in softly, almost the complete opposite of Natsu's grungy, gruff sounding voice that was just speaking moments before.
"Now why don't we find a place to sit so we can go over what you do know." Gajeel said in that voice that Lucy had now become so accustomed too. You know the one where he pretends like it's whatever, and he doesn't care, but he's glad everything's okay, because he actually does care; yeah, that voice.
The group sat down and Lucy relayed everything she spoke about with Aquarius with everyone. The group deciding it's best that Gray accompany Lucy in the morning; since they are more accustomed to each other's fighting style, should anything happen they would make the best team; should anything really bad happen Natsu would be back up, taking lookout unless needed.
"Next order of business. Why don't we finish splicing those cells. If we can't figure out your weakness yet, we can at least start by figuring out what else the monster is made off, and if we can get a blood sample from you we can at least try and figure out what is so special about your genetic code that Loke had been so crude as to forget to share with us." Levy winked at Lucy, before nudging her to come along.