Chapter 25: Lies and Truths

Everyone had questioned her about why she had to leave before she came home again, but Lucy refused to answer them. It was best if they didn't know that she was a demon and human hybrid now especially since she didn't know when her body would change more or if it would. Laxus was surprisingly not clinging to her as much as usual and she wondered if her best friend was finally getting sick of all her secrets. It made her heart spasm in pain every time she thought of it, but she knew that eventually Laxus would leave her side.

She had also learned that after the main Fairy Tail team had left that her parents had decided to fund Fairy Tail keeping it open well the weaker members of the guild began to come into their own. Of course without any S-Class mages things were tough, which is why once in a while Jellal had masqueraded his self as Mystogan. A guild without an S-Class mage wouldn't keep up with other guilds and would have fallen behind, yet Macao wasn't truly a Master of Fairy Tail making it impossible for him to hold S-Class trials.

What really surprised her however was that her father, Jude Heartfilia, who was all about money didn't expect Fairy Tail to pay back their debt to him. His reasoning being that he owed their guild after Lucy and Gajeel had saved Lucas, and also because of his sons wish to one day join the guild. Jude and Layla were often around the guild when business could spare them so that they could spend time with their son because they didn't wish to have regrets if anything happened to him or them. Her supposed death making them realize that spending time with their family was just as important as the Heartfilia Konzern even though the opposite had happened when her father had lost her mother.

Considering that they had been gone for six years Lucy had been afraid that Jellal and the others would realize that Slayer and Shadow had to be one of them. Yet they didn't seem suspicious of anyone and were doing everything in their power to spend time with Gray and Erza. Never had Lucy seen Gray so happy as he was now that Ul was back amongst the truly living and she hoped that his happy smile would stay for a long time to come.

Lucy had only been home for a couple of days when she received the message. There was no signature to the message and only one line, I can train you, but she knew exactly who it was from. It surprised her however that he was offering to train her in the art when he had dismissed her when they had met. Lucy didn't bother hiding the note knowing no one would understand it without context, although she was careful to make sure Gray wasn't near her. She wasn't exactly sure if Gray had ever seen his father's writing and she didn't want her friend asking her why his supposedly dead father had written her a message. No much better to just leave it alone.

"A message from an admirer Luciana-chan?" Mira asked a twinkle in her eyes that quickly dimmed as she read the message, and she looked a tad confused. "Why would you need training?"

"It's from an old family friend I ran into him a while ago before I came back, he just wants to help me out with a few things in memory of my parents. Not much of a talker however or writer in this case, and he always assumes that you know he's the one writing you," she said lying right through her teeth. Yet she had gotten used to lying so much that not even the dragon slayers in their guild would be able to pick up on it, so she held no worries that Mira would sense her lies.

"Ah well if it's something you need you should definitely do it, but no disappearing on us again or I will hunt you down and show you why I'm called a demon."

"Don't worry Mira I have no plans of leaving Fairy Tail anytime soon."

Just like when she had tried to reassure Laxus before Mira didn't really look convinced by her words, but the barmaid just smiled at her before she went to take someone's order. Even though she and Gajeel had literally been through a timeskip before it was still weird seeing people older than they were last time you had seen them. Just like when she had first arrived how odd it had felt seeing everyone as children when except for Romeo, Wendy, and Asuka she had known them all as adults or teenagers.

The oddest one however was Lucas since she hadn't seen him grown up before and she knew that one day her little brother would have quite the fan base. Hopefully he wouldn't become a player like some guys with good looks did, cough Loke cough, and actually truly cared about any girl he would date in the future. She was just glad that he had a happier childhood then her own had been and once again she felt a piercing of guilt believing it was her devil slaying abilities that had led to her mother's death. Even though she knew her parents loved her she couldn't help but think they were better off without her especially since she knew how their lives had been when she was in them, and what they were like after they believed that she was dead.

A shimmering light made Lucy look up and give a sad smile to Loke as he settled into the chair beside her. He didn't say anything but Lucy knew he had come out because he felt her inner turmoil. Really without her spirits Lucy doubted that she could have gone through half of what she had and she was thankful that she had them in her life. Without her spirit magic she would have probably been just like any other heiress who didn't defy their fathers and did anything to earn more money.

They just sat there in silence for a while before Lucy suddenly felt a hand on her wrist dragging her away. She started to fight before she looked under the cloak of the figure trying to cart her off and recognized him, although she still held her heels to the floor to stop him from dragging her off. Sure she knew why he wasn't speaking afraid of what would happen if Gray noticed him, but that still didn't mean he could just cart her off especially since she hadn't even told him if she agreed to his training or not. There were a few eyes on them now, but since Lucy wasn't attacking the cloaked figure in their midst most people turned their eyes away.

"Do you always only give someone not even an hour's notice before you come to drag them off?" she asked him crossing her arms in a huff. He just glared at her from under her hood as if she was stupid, but then again he didn't know that she knew his name so he shouldn't be angry at her. To him she was just a random girl who didn't know that his son was in this guild and that he was in every sense of the word, in his opinion at least, a walking corpse.

"Everything ok Luce?" Gajeel asked coming up to them his nose twitching. He probably recognized the smell of Silver, but he had only met the man once so he probably didn't realize whose smell it was exactly unless if Silver smelled a lot like Gray.

"Everything's fine, just an old friend who wants to train me in certain aspects of my magic that have long been forgotten," she said with a bright smile that would allow her fake brother to believe everything was alright.

Despite her words Gajeel still glared at the stranger probably sensing something familiar about him, but not knowing exactly what it was. All it took however was her glaring back at him and he just left them alone obviously realizing she could take care of herself. It actually surprised her at times just how much Gajeel trusted her own judgment and she wondered how hurt he would be when he found out that she knew what the price to her spell was but still hadn't told him.

"Let's go," she told him with a sigh as he grabbed onto her arm again and tugged her away. The two of them were only lucky that no one else had decided to follow them.

For a while Silver just dragged her away from Fairy Tail heading to the woods and if she didn't know who he was she would have been afraid especially since she had seen him go into Tartaros Headquarters. Most likely Silver thought she was a stupid girl who didn't have enough information about the demons she was supposed to be exterminating. Actually she wondered if he would try to harm her if he knew she held the powers of END now. Oh well she would just have to cross that bridge when it came down to it which hopefully wouldn't be for a while yet. It was like knowing what the price was and what her body had gone through stopped all the episodes and she had never felt healthier. Actually she felt in peak physical condition despite how long she had been frozen which had affected her for a while the last time around.

After about an hour of walking through the forest in silence Silver finally stopped shedding his cloak and revealing his devil slayer tattoo to her. With a sigh for the first time in front of any one other then Gajeel Lucy pulled off her arm band showing of her own marking which he looked at with wide eyes before he schooled his expression. Maybe that should have worried her, but all Lucy wanted to do was learn how to better control her slayer abilities because she had a feeling that her being a devil slayer would keep the demon blood under control. Most likely why she hadn't succumbed to anything and why she didn't feel a compulsion to find Zeref to kill him.

"Why don't you start by telling me what exactly you know about being a devil slayer," it was a demand not a question. So Lucy told him everything she knew. About how devil slayers could eat their element just like dragon slayers, and unlike dragon slayers their magic wasn't learned or rather taught by their foes. No Devil Slayers had hereditary magic in their blood and could only be learned by someone who was descended from a devil slayer different then other magic that just required something in common with it.

She also told him about the attacks she had learned and about how she held an advantage over other slayers since her spirits could be summoned and their attacks could give her more energy if she ate them. How much more powerful her celestial magic had become after her tattoo had appeared out of nowhere and how she had only recognized it because she had seen a similar mark once before. She didn't tell him who she had seen with the mark however and he had assumed naturally that it had been one of her parents.

After she finished verbally explaining what she knew she decided to show him the few attacks she had been able to learn without being taught. The bellow of the Celestial Devil slayer which destroyed trees around them, and almost made her fear that someone would have heard the commotion and come to find her at the heart of the destruction. Then showing him how she was able to make her magic into a whip and use it to attack, or gather it in her hands or feet in order to harm someone easily.

"Considering you had no one to teach you and you primarily use different magics you are actually further then I would have thought, but you still have much to learn," he told her after she allowed the last of her magic to fade out of existence.

"So will you teach me?"

"I don't think I have another choice. You have freedom that I don't have and advantages I could only dream of, so yes I will teach you but you must not tell anyone what I'm teaching you about."

He still didn't seem to trust her with his name, but Lucy didn't really mind since she already knew it. Instead she just voiced her agreement and began to train in her other abilities glad that he didn't know exactly why she trusted him so much. Knowing what she did about Gray's father he would probably think that she was an idiot to come back and try a different approach, or if he had memories of what had happened maybe he would have seen that she was giving people a second chance.

So they trained Silver teaching her what he could about how the magic worked even though they had fundamentally different powers. He was still able to show her how she could do certain techniques by demonstrating his own to her. He also told her that she was capable of pulling back another celestial based mages power meaning if she ever faced a celestial mage or spirit who could not be fought back in the normal way she could force their power out of them. It scared her that she could have such an ability and she swore that she would only use it if she had no other choice.

The progress she made that first day wasn't much since he was only explaining the basics to her that she needed to learn before they could go on, but it did give her a stronger grasp over that side of herself. Lucy only hoped that eventually after training with him for a while that she would be able to figure out a way to save him. If doctors had a way of bringing someone back and he was still just on the edge of death's door there had to be some way for her to save him. She had a feeling that way should be glaringly obvious, but no matter how much she thought of it she still couldn't quite make it out.

Over the next couple of weeks Lucy decided to train in secret with Silver always sneaking out before Laxus woke up, but making sure to leave him a note. Because of her fundamental grasp on some things already the training wasn't going to take as long as it would usually especially since she was already fully trained in one celestial art. All she had to do was learn the attacks and after that there wasn't much Silver could do for her.

Usually she would train until noon with Silver and then head back to the guild. The guild was currently preparing for the Grand Magic Games and Lucy sort of wished that she had gotten more information on the past games from their guild mates the first time around. That way she would know just exactly what they would be up against, but when Fairy Tail had fallen to the bottom in her original time they had been too ashamed to talk about their failures meaning Lucy was going into this blind.

All she knew was that next year's games was the first time that guilds had been allowed to enter two teams meaning Fairy Tail could only enter one team, but any time they asked Master to pick the team he would bounce them off saying it would be decided in time. Even though time was running out with a little less than two months until the Grand Magic Games he still wouldn't choose the team. Leading to everyone in the guild trying to somehow convince Master to put them in by taking a bunch of missions which tended to end in the infirmary as they tried to take ones to difficult for themselves to handle.

Actually she had seen quite a few people watching her in shock since she didn't even bother in trying to convince Master, lying to everyone and saying that she needed to strengthen her magic for a while. That had led to Gajeel giving her a few odd looks knowing that her magic was stronger than most members of the guild and she had just been holding back. Yet he didn't call her out on her lies although they were only partial lies since she did want to strengthen her devil slaying, but it's not like she could actually tell Gajeel that without him getting worried. Silver might be Gray's father, but that didn't mean that Gajeel would trust him to train her when he had such ties to Tartaros even if he was undercover.

Then one day when she went to meet Silver he was gone and a note had appeared in front of her telling her there was no more that he could teach her. She obviously knew that Silver couldn't really be gone for too long without others becoming suspicious so she didn't care that he hadn't said goodbye. Instead she was hoping that the deadline would still be the same that she would still have roughly another year before his true death, but she was still brainstorming trying to find a way to give him back to Gray as well. If she couldn't find a way however she was just hoping she could make sure he and Gray never met because what was the point of allowing Gray too see his father only to lose him again.

"So you're finally done with your mysterious running off?" Laxus asked a frown on his face as he slid into a seat beside her. Being away from him for the past three weeks had made it easier for her to push her feelings for him aside. They were still there, but she was now able to control herself well enough that she was certain not even Mira would realize that she had finally fallen.

"I told you I was just training Lax-kun nothing to worry about."

The look Laxus gave her told her he thought that there was plenty for him to have to worry about although he didn't voice his thoughts aloud. Instead he seemed to be looking her over a tinge of fear in his eyes like he was afraid that she had been secretly suffering episodes again without informing anyone. Not that she could blame him for his worry since she had hidden her health from him for such a long time, and now that everyone knew about it she was finally better, but she couldn't tell them that because then she would have to explain how she was sure. She just had to lie to everyone to much recently and it was eating her up inside.

"One of these days Lulu I'm going to tear down all of your walls and now everything that goes on in that head of yours."

"Good luck with that Lax-kun I'm pretty sure that's something that will take you the rest of your life," she told him playfully before she realized just exactly how that could sound and went pale. She would have backtracked if she hadn't realized that saying anything at all would have made him aware that she had at least thought of them like that before. So instead of reacting when he gave her a wide eyed look she pretended like she didn't even know what she had implied. She was just lucky Mira hadn't heard it although the barmaid was still sticking to their truce for the moment.

"I just don't understand why you keep everyone out of that heart of yours. It's almost like it's made of ice, but you show that you care for us all so it's not like you act like an Ice Queen, yet everyone feels distance between us. Sometimes Lulu I feel like you aren't even a true member of Fairy Tail."

Lucy watched in shock as Laxus walked away not even giving her a chance to respond to his words. She hadn't even thought that others would realize just how much she distanced herself from them even if she really tried to act normally around them. Even Laxus she was keeping at arm's reach once she figured out her feelings for him, but she had never thought he would doubt her allegiance to Fairy Tail. Didn't Laxus know that fairy Tail was her family? Did he mean to hurt her by saying that, or was he just trying to convince her to tell him what was going on?

"I'm sorry for what Laxus-sama said Luciana-san he just doesn't understand," Freed said from behind her making her turn her watery eyes to him. She hadn't even realized until she had to look at someone else that she was crying from what Laxus said to her.

"What? You mean he doesn't understand that I love this guild and would do everything and anything to protect it?! I love Fairy Tail! It's not my fault that I just can't let people see the real me!" the tears were flowing faster now as she admitted that to Freed. Her words spoken softly and quietly because she didn't want anyone to realize that she was falling apart from what Laxus had said to her, didn't want them to know and that he had the power to tear her into tiny pieces.

"He just feels like you don't trust him Luciana-san. Laxus-sama doesn't understand that sometimes some truths are better left unspoken. He'll come around eventually," Freed was trying to reassure her which she really didn't understand. Freed was supposed to completely worship Laxus and side with him not try to make her feel better after Laxus basically ripped her heart out.

"No Freed I don't think he will not as long as he knows that I'm keeping secrets from him. I'm sorry, but I'm going home I need to be alone."

Not giving Freed a chance to reply, just like Laxus hadn't given her a chance to dispute his words, Lucy headed back home. Although maybe if Laxus couldn't forgive her it might just be time for her to convince Master to let her move out because there was no way she could live in Laxus's home and now that everything was different between them now. Not that she could blame Laxus it was her fault, but she just couldn't tell him of what she had to go through. Gajeel wouldn't even know if he hadn't come back with her and admitted it to her first. This just wasn't something you could actually tell people and expect them to understand.

AN: Finally finished this chapter hope you guys like it, although I'm fairly certain you'll be mad at me for making Lucy and Laxus go through a rough patch. Please tell me what you think I always appreciate reviews :)