A/N: I'm back! Gosh it's weird to write again. It's been 4 years! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy. This story is 100% written by me but obviously character creds to Hiro Mashima, our lord and saviour. The idea of the "Prison Realm" is obviously from The Vampire Diaries, I didn't even try to hide it. I did tweak it up a bit though. This story is going to be really light and just some good Graylu content because there isn't enough. Without further ado, here is my comeback fanfiction.
Cover art by luacridcy on tumblr!
*Immediately after publishing this story, a cowardly anon reviewed saying, "Good luck with your imaginary pair". Honey, you're on fanfiction, either deal with it or get out of here. Why did you waste both your time and mine? Anyway, I'm still gonna continue so if that bothers you, good. :)
Why does trouble have to follow me around? Lucy wondered as she dodged flying chairs being strewn about by her guildmates. Oh, right, because I'm a member of Fairy Tail.
She seeked refuge behind the bar counter, where Mirajane was working. The takeover mage knelt down and asked Lucy, "Oh my, what are you doing back here?
"Seeking shelter," Lucy answered. She grabbed a tight hold onto Mira's arm and pleaded, "Mirajane, help me get outta here! I need your protection."
Mirajane simply chuckled behind her free hand, "Well, how about you go down to the library instead? It should be quiet in there, no one goes down there."
Lucy gasped as though she'd only just remembered the guild even had a library, which, truth be told she did. Originally the room was meant to be used as storage, but it only contained books anyway, so they just called it the library. But you can't blame her. She's constantly out on missions and preoccupied with keeping her team in line. Only, today she knew she could not do so, because someone ate Erza's last piece of cake and the scarlet haired titania was going to punish the whole guild for it. Plus, the guild is always being destroyed, so it seemed pointless to visit the library.
"You're a genius! Thank you, Mira!" Lucy crawled on her hands in knees out from behind the counter and stealthily made her way towards the library entrance. She had to move slowly to not catch Erza's attention, and stick low to the ground so she wouldn't be hit by anything - or anyone - Erza sent flying.
Funnily enough, Erza was the one breathing fire at Natsu, who, instead of eating the fire and fighting back, was shrieking and running towards the infirmary. Judging by the crumbs on his face, he was too scared to face Erza because if she found out he was the one to eat her cake, she would be using her swords instead. Lucy was grateful for the distraction though, because it allowed her to successfully enter the library entrance and close the door behind herself.
"Ah, finally some peace," Lucy said with a sigh of relief. When she turned around, though, she was surprised to find Gray already there. After her brief moment of surprise, Lucy approached her teammate and asked, "You hiding from Erza too?"
"Of course. Why the hell did that idiot have to go and eat Erza's cake?" Gray complained, insulting Natsu's intelligence. "Of all the battles we've faced, he wants to die like this, huh?"
"I know you're joking, but I wouldn't joke about death. Not so soon after Natsu defeated Zeref and Acnologia." Lucy looked forlorn, adding, "We've only just reached this point where we are truly at peace."
Gray nodded in acknowledgement, remembering the recent events, "My bad, Lucy."
"Anyway, how long do you think we're gonna be stuck here?" Lucy asked, changing the topic. The noise from outside the library could still be heard as Erza demanded Natsu to admit his mistake, and Natsu shrieking in terror in response.
"Well, judging from the sound of it, we're gonna be here for a long time." Gray answered, "Should we find something to do?"
Lucy perked up, "Well, we could read some of these books!"
Gray clicked his tongue in uncertainty, "Uh, no thanks."
"Oh, come on," Lucy hurried to a shelf to skim through the selections. "You never know what you might find! Look, here's a classic legend! And a history book of Magnolia!" Lucy continued to go through the titles until she stumbled across one that was extra intriguing, "The Ultimate Spell: Prison Realm."
Coming up behind her, Gray peeked at the book that Lucy had chosen to read. "What's that?"
"I've read about this before…" Lucy explained, "The Prison Realm is an alternate universe. There are multiple, each unique to the prisoner in them. About three hundred years ago, they used to use prison realms to send criminals away, where they live in absolute solitude. It's a bit cruel and lonely, but it was used to contain extraordinarily evil people."
"Whoa," Gray was astonished, "How does it work? Are those people stuck in there forever?"
"Well, I guess it depends," Lucy flipped through the pages of the extremely hefty book while answering, "Some prisoners were sent there only until their term ended. But the thing is, time works differently in prison realms. Four days here is a whole year there. So if a person is sentenced to a 'year' in prison in this world, they will actually spend 91 years and three months in the Prison Realm."
Gray whistled, "That's a crazy long time. It sounds like hell."
"Yeah, which is why they stopped implementing it. I wonder why we have this book in the guild's storage?"
"Probably as a reminder of some magic that should not be replicated." Gray reached over and flipped to random spots in the book, "Looks empty to me?"
"Wait-" Lucy noticed something while Gray was messing with the book and quickly flipped back near the front. "99% of these pages are empty, but this page has what looks like a journal entry?" Lucy read aloud, "'Dear whomever is at the will of my fate, I oblige you to reconsider my sentencing, for I was wrongly accused. I will not ask twice, just know that I was innocent at the time of conviction, and will now have to spend eternity alone and suffer at your injustice.'"
"Did the prisoner write this from the Prison Realm?" Gray asked.
Lucy tilted her head with a scrunched up eyebrow and bit her lip, "Gray, this doesn't sit right with me… What if this person really was innocent?"
"I don't know, but there isn't really anything we can do, is there?"
Lucy turned to Gray with determination, "We have to find a way to free him!"
"Are you nuts?! This guy must have spent thousands of years there - from our time, how many years is that in there?"
"I can't just let this go without knowing if this man deserves to be free."
Gray sighed, "That seems like a very serious decision to make. Maybe you should ask the Master about it?"
Lucy beamed, "Perfect idea!" She held the book to her chest and rushed towards the library door with a skip in her step, "We can ask Master if he knows of the guy, then maybe contact the new Magic Council if they have records of all the prisoners-"
Lucy stopped talking when she opened the door to the library to be met with an empty and rotted guildhall. It looked as though no one had stepped foot in the hall in years. That's impossible…
"Uh, what the hell?!" Gray exclaimed in a panic, his guard up and ready to fight.
The book in Lucy's hands flipped to the page where the prisoner's journaling began. On the following page, a header began to write itself, saying, "Day One of Captivation:"
Lucy's hands began to shake. She looked up at the horrified Gray and announced, "We're in the Prison Realm."