"Lucy, I know we went on this trip to become stronger… but I'm scared," Wendy whispered in a hoarse voice.
I looked over to my partner and could see the fear reflected in her expression.
"Fear is not the same as being weak," I replied, remembering what Natsu always said about learning from your fear.
Wendy nodded as we looked around the center square where we were standing. The sudden arrival of such a large amount of magical power had us on edge.
"No one is coming to back us up, so we have to make sure to win this one for Fairy Tail on our own," I said evenly.
"Right," Wendy said, mustering her own self confidence.
"Umm, Lucy…" Wendy's voice quivered a few moments later.
I turned around since we were standing back-to-back and saw what had Wendy sounding so afraid. The mayor's house was only two houses up the street and the powerful presence appeared to be exiting his home.
"My, my, it looks like my plan worked out quite splendidly," the mystery man said as he walked down the street towards us.
"Mr. Dhell?" I asked, not believing that the kindly man was the dark presence now walking towards us.
"Not quite, you see when I put my plan in motion I chose that fool's body as my vessel. Those as weak as him are so easily manipulated to give up their own bodies," the man explained as he walked closer.
From this distance it was apparent to see that the man looked exactly the same as the mayor we talked to earlier but commanded an entirely different presence.
"But, I didn't sense any magical energy coming from the mayor when we met him earlier today," Wendy said disbelievingly.
"Well, that is part of my curse magic. I can only appear at night," the man explained, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Curse magic, like those demons from Tartaros?" Wendy asked feeling uneasy.
"You mean those creatures that prideful Zeref created, of course not," the man mused as if Zeref was only trivial to him. "My brother was the one who gave Zeref that little curse of his by the way."
"Wait! Your brother is Ankhseram?" I asked now feeling sick to my stomach.
The man chuckled. "There are a great many gods and devils. As for me, I haven't properly introduced myself. I must say that I chose this particular weakling's body for his name alone. Levi Dhell can be rearranged to spell Hell Devil. A bit on the nose I know, but there is very little enjoyment I get from humans so I felt affording myself this one small pleasure was suitable."
Wendy and I stayed rooted in our places out of fear.
"What on Earthland could a devil like you want with Fairy Tail wizards?" I asked with my curiosity sparking despite the fear I felt trembling throughout my body.
"Not just any old Fairy Tail wizard. I admit that when that blundering fool upgraded the mission to S-class that it almost ruined everything. The plan was to lure dragon slayers specifically or their mates. I know you are the ones who usually accept the more dangerous missions. Think of how happy I was to see a dragon slayer and a mate show up instead of an S-class wizard. It's just as I planned," the Devil grinned evilly.
"Dragon slayers and their mates?" I asked aloud, not ever hearing about mates before.
"No more talking, I feel as if I have satisfied your curiosity enough," the Devil said resolutely.
That was enough for Wendy and I to instigate our own measures against this man. Whoever he was, at the very least Fairy Tail had been employed to save this town and that was enough to stay and fight him. Wendy and I operated in sync with each other from all of the training we had done together. Wendy didn't mess around either and instantly tapped into her dragon force.
"Sky dragon—wing attack!" she shouted as she jumped into the air before landing the attack as intended.
I didn't wait for the dust to clear before I used my own magic and decidedly engaged my star dress as well.
"Open—gate of the Scorpion—SCORPIO!" I shouted.
My star dress turned into Scorpio's form, allowing me to enhance Scorpio's sand attack which was combined with Wendy's new breath attack. Similar to what Natsu had done on occasion, I anchored myself in the center of Scorpio and Wendy's dual attack to travel at top speed and landed multiple attacks on the Devil. I couldn't think about how scared I was of this opponent, only that we couldn't lose.
I felt more confident in my abilities and knew I landed each of my attacks on his body. I felt sorry for the mayor when he returned to his body the next morning but there was no way I could hinder my attacks against an enemy of this magnitude.
Before the dust settled again I turned to use the speed enhancement from my Scorpio form to return to where Wendy was standing. However, before I could bound off, I felt the enemy's hand clasp over mine.
"That was most impressive, even being able to land an attack on my body. However, as you may notice, your attacks had no effect," he stated simply.
I heard Wendy gasp and realised that I couldn't pry my hand from his.
"I have no intention on allowing this fight to last much longer. I need to bring you back with me before the curse wears off at sunrise," the Devil continued.
My thoughts were racing but there was no way I was going to accept defeat like this.
I swung my body around, bringing Leo's key up into my hand. "Open!" I started but the Devil's hand instead came up to cover my lips.
His touch shouldn't have been enough to stop me from opening Loki's gate but instead I noticed that his touch was also severely draining my magic power.
Once I was mostly drained, he dropped me to the ground and I could hear Wendy screaming from somewhere nearby. However, her screams were silenced when he uttered his own spell from above me.
"Curse magic—fear!" the Hell Devil whispered as I lay helpless on the ground beneath his feet..
I waited for some sort of intense pain, but instead was thrown into darkness. In the distance I could see a small source of light. It was odd since it felt like my energy had returned enough for me to stand up. I started running towards it, trying to figure out where I was. My brain felt foggy, and I realised I could no longer remember how exactly I had ended up here.
I was getting closer to the light source and stopped short when I saw where it was coming from.
"Natsu?" I asked, completely shocked to see the fire dragon slayer here.
Were we on a mission? I had no memory of how I had gotten here or where we were.
"Lucy—" Natsu returned in a steely voice.
It caused me to stop in my tracks. I had never seen him this angry at anyone who wasn't going against Fairy Tail.
"You abandoned Fairy Tail. How could you have betrayed me like that?" he said angrily.
His fists were ablaze with his fury.
"I didn't—I could never!" I started panicking.
I would never mean to let Fairy Tail down, let alone go against it.
"Lucy, how could you let us down?" I looked over to see Erza walking forward with Gray also at her side.
"We treated you as family, how could you deceive us like that?" Gray added with a disappointed grimace.
He moved into his maker stance. Erza had reequipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armour, fitting I guess to take out a celestial mage.
"Take it off," I heard another booming voice from behind my old team.
"Master?" I asked in a desperate voice.
I knew what he was asking and started to weep. Yukino had experienced this same fate at the hands of Saber Tooth's old master.
I looked down at the pink seal on my hand, pulling it up to my chest protectively.
"I would never betray you!" I screamed.
"You will take your own life as a punishment of your treachery," Master Makarov continued in his commanding voice.
It seemed he was ignoring my pleas.
I fell onto my knees, still holding my emblem into my chest.
"Stand-up Lucy!" I heard another voice call out from the distance.
"Wendy?" I asked, bringing my face to look into the angry stares of my guildmates.
"You're right, I have to stand up," I said, forming a small smile on my face.
"I would never lay down my life so easily. This is what you all taught me and I would never betray you like that! I AM A FAIRY TAIL WIZARD AND YOU ARE MY FAMILY!" I screamed with conviction.
"LUCY!" I heard Wendy again.
The darkness that had enveloped me was clearing and I could now see my partner running over towards me.
"You faced your fear? I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less from the fire breather's mate," the Hell Devil pondered to himself.
He almost sounded as if he were impressed.
"He had you trapped in some sort of perception curse," Wendy explained, now at my side.
The devil was standing only a few paces away from us looking far too pleased with himself.
"Yea, that would explain it," I said, feeling that my magic was still nearly drained.
"It's interesting to discover that your mate is a part of your worst fear, Lucy Heartfilia," he added with acid in his voice.
"Why do you keep talking about this mate nonsense?" I asked, not understanding what he meant by it.
I had seen all of my guildmates in my vision, I was afraid of letting them all down.
"Lucy erm, it's a dragon slayer thing," Wendy whispered from beside me.
"Very good sky dragon slayer. It's nice to see that Grandeeney educated you on such matters before she abandoned you," the Hell Devil replied with an evil smirk crossing his face.
"That reminds me, I've put up with your trifling long enough," the devil's grin grew, sending a horrible feeling through me.
Wendy's expression mimicked how I was feeling. But, before we could comprehend what was happening, the devil cast a lacrima in front of us that showed an image.
It was Romeo and it looked like he was walking down a street in Magnolia.
"Romeo!" Wendy shrieked.
That sort of desperation in Wendy's voice sent out waves of agony. I could even feel a shift in the air around us.
Someone else came into view as we were stuck helpless watching Romeo on the lacrima. The younger fire mage didn't sense the shadowlike creature that was trailing behind him.
"You might not want to watch sky dragon," the devil said goadingly.
The shadow transformed into a spear like weapon with no wielder. But still its aim was true and pierced savagely into Romeo from behind.
"ROMEO!" Wendy screamed again in agony.
She was now on the ground clutching her stomach where Romeo had just been attacked.
I could see the blood pooling out of Romeo before the image disappeared.
"Now I don't need to cast a curse to trap her, she's already living her worst fear," the Hell Devil said maliciously while I looked onto my friend with intense worry.
Wendy was writing in pain although I couldn't see any physical injuries like Romeo.
Wait, did this mean that Romeo was Wendy's mate? Had Wendy known all along? Why didn't she tell me any of this sooner?
"Now it's your turn," the devil said as he used his magic to send me soaring through the air into his arms.
"You will be the key to everyone's undoing," he said in some sort of elated voice.
I felt sick to my stomach but didn't have the energy to vomit. I could see more darkness form around my vision, but this time it was probably because I was drained of all my magic power.
"I won't let you take my friend!" Wendy screamed at the Hell Devil, tears of determination flowing down her cheeks.
She had somehow gotten enough clarity to see that I had been taken.
"Wendy, it's okay. I know what I'm doing," I said quietly, taking the remainder of my strength to turn around to face my friend while still in the devil's hand.
"I can't let you!" Wendy said, feeling her own magic power diminishing.
"Wendy, listen to me. Let me protect you this time. I know that you'll find me. But we are out of options and I can't let him take you as well. Once you gather your strength, I know you will come and save me. Just let me go Wendy, I'll be alright. Go make sure Romeo is okay," I said, pushing back my own tears.
I didn't have any doubt Wendy could do it, we had trained so hard just for something like this. The last of my magic drained and I could see the darkness closing in. With one last sigh I went limp in the Hell Devil's hands, feeling as if all my training had been for nought. It seemed I was destined to be saved.