Ayo another chapter :D

~Chapter Two~

Lucy sighed as she heaved herself up from her seat as the train pulled into Magnolia train station. She hadn't let herself rest and heal other than the few hours she spent on the train so her muscles were pretty sore, along with her bruises and cuts. Dawdling in the direction of her apartment, she noticed a new magic shop. 'It must have opened while I was gone' she thought. She pondered for a moment before deciding to go in. It would waste time before she had to go to the guild and they might even have some keys or other celestial objects.

She walked towards it and pressed the door open to hear a little chime of a bell. Looking around, there was most certainly a lot of useful and rather pretty weaponry and trinkets, however nothing jumped at her eyes just yet. She decided to snoop around before directly asking for celestial keys. Through most of the aisles, there were the usual weapons such as daggers, swords, katanas and axes etc. She sighed as her eyes skimmed across all the dull and basic designs, still nothing peaking her interest. She turned the corner to the last aisle and she suddenly stopped. Gleaming directly at her were a pair of midnight blue fingerless gloves with small constellations on the backs. They looked simple enough but it was clear they were designed for celestial mages.

Lucy picked them up and clicked her tongue out of boredom at the rest of the shop, having nothing else of use to her. She walked up to the register and was greeted by a nervous but smiling man. He held out his hand for the gloves, which she handed over. "Is that all?" He asked softly, hoping not to anger Lucy. It was clear she intimidated him. She gave him a smile to ease his nerves. "Actually, I was wondering if you have any Celestial Spirit Keys?" She asked in her nicest tone, after all her anger and frustration shouldn't be taken out on an innocent bystander. The man tapped his foot in thought while ringing up the price of the gloves. "Hmm, I think we may have one, but first I must inform you of the gloves' power." He turned to Lucy with a smile. "They may look like simple gloves but they actually possess Celestial magic but in light form. For instance, if you were to punch someone, your gloves would glow and add extra speed and strength to your hand to hand combat." He explained and Lucy nodded before her went to the back of the shop to search for the key.

Lucy heard the rummaging of boxes before the man returned with a pleased grin, holding up two boxes. "It appears we have two, you're in luck." Lucy smiled at him as he sent them out on the counter, revealing the keys inside. The first key was the silver key of the Falling Eagle; Lyra. The key was slightly larger than average silver keys and had golden wings on each side of the top of the key, along with streaks of brown and gold swirling around the key. The second was the same size as the first, the silver key of the Little Fox; Vulpecula. Whilst the first key had swirls of brown and gold, this key had a swirl of brilliant red around the key, the ears at the top of the key were the same colour. Lucy grinned at the two keys and nodded at the man. "I'd like both please." The man smiled back with a nod and rung up the keys too.

"That'll be 40,000J please." In the past, Lucy would have choked at the price but with her just completing a mission with a reward of over 300,000J she certainly did not mind paying that price and handed the man the money. He thanked her and Lucy quickly placed her new keys on her keychain and picked up her gloves, placing them on her hands immediately. "Wait!" The man stopped her as she almost left the shop. She turned around, confused, she gave the right amount. "Uhm, I know its none of my business, but I thought perhaps you'd like this eyepatch?" Lucy stared at him. "Free of charge! It's just, nobody has ever bought it from our previous shop and it seems that you'd be of use to it." He gave her a nervous chuckle and held out an eye patch with a similar design of her gloves. She took a hesitant step forward. "It matches the gloves, though it doesn't possess any magic." He said shyly, smiling as she gratefully accepted the eyepatch. "Thank you." She smiled at him before finally leaving.

She sighed, the encounter with the friendly man only made her miss the actions of her guild family and friends. "Why did they have to change." She sighed, trudging towards her apartment, deciding not to face her guild today and rest instead. She made her way towards her apartment and unlocked the door, locking it behind her. She groaned, stretched her aching joints as she headed straight for bedroom and adjoining bathroom. She felt disgusting, her body encased in a layer of sweat, her clothes stained with her own blood. She placed her keys on her nightstand along with her money, belt, new gloves and eyepatch before heading to the bathroom.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she grimaced in disgust. Her hair tangled with dirt, clothes sticking to her skin and not to mention the hideous sight lying behind her wrap of clothing. She turned to her bathtub and began running the hot water, eager to clean her dirty body. She stripped off her clothes and with shaking fingers, began unwrapping the cloth from her head. She sucked in a breath from the sight. Though the cuts had stopped bleeding, there was dried blood stuck to her face. Her eye was still red and her iris was still a swirl of purple and gold. Whilst the red of her eye made her look demonic, she had to admit that the swirl of colours did look rather beautiful.

She sighed once more and once the bath was full enough, she stopped the running water and emerged herself into the hot water, hissing as the water touched her fresh wounds. She lay there. Still. Silently weeping. She thought she was starting to grow stronger but it seems that she was kidding herself, she could have died completing this mission and it was no one's fault but her own. Her spirits always praised her on her improvements but it seemed they were feeding her lies. Sensing the water was beginning to cool down, she reached for her body wash, rubbing off the layers of dirt, sweat and blood, hissing whenever the suds washed over her cuts or bruises. Rinsing her skin felt a lot more relaxing for her sore skin and muscles. She quickly washed her hair, sighing as her fingers rubbed against her scalp, relaxing her ever so slightly.

Soon, she got out of her bath and wrapped a towel around her body and hair, walking towards her bedroom. She raided her wardrobe for comfortable clothes and settled for a black tank top and grey sweats, changing into them after towel drying herself. With a glance to her nightstand, she picked up the eyepatch and moved back into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. She took the towel off her head, letting her damp locks hit against her back softly. She frowned as she looked at her eye, placing the eyepatch over it, which didn't quite cover the bottom of the scars on the cheek. Her shoulders slumped from her sadness. It couldn't be ignored now, she was no longer the same Lucy that joined the guild those few years ago. She had lost part of her light, to which she had gained anger, frustration and sadness.

She shook her head at her reflection and moved back into her bedroom, collapsing into her cold yet soft bed. She tucked herself underneath her covers, taking one last glance over at her keys, new and old, with a small smile. "Night guys." She whispered, receiving a soft glow from them in return. She sighed heavily, closing her eyes and awaited the dreaded day of tomorrow.

/

The light from the rising sun beamed on Lucy's face, effectively waking her up. She groaned and stretched, feeling her back give a satisfying crack before she got out of bed. She rubbed her eye to get rid of the sleep in her eye, but didn't dare to touch her other eye just yet. She yawned, standing up and moving towards her wardrobe. She looked for a moment before picking out black ripped skinny jeans, a black corset and a grey long sleeve blouse, along with grey knee high boots. Her style had drastically changed in the past year, now opting for darker and less revealing clothes, but she managed to keep a feminine touch to her outfits. She placed on her gloves too and just left her hair down. She picked up her belt, money and keychain from her nightstand and left her house, locking the door behind her.

Now that she felt all her magic had returned, she summoned Plue to keep her company on the walk on the river ledge to the guild. Old habits die hard. She smiled as Plue began wobbly dancing in front of her in efforts to cheer up his obviously stressed master. She hopped off the ledge and picked him up into her arms, hugging him to her chest. "Thanks Plue, at least you and my other spirits aren't ignoring me." She said with a faint smile. As the guild came into view, she summoned Plue back to the Spirit Realm.

With her head held down, she pushed open the guild doors; she gave up trying to make a big entrance months ago. "Hey everyone." She said loud enough, in hopes that today they would hear her but as usual, she received nothing back. She rolled her eyes and went towards the bar. Mirajane wasn't there but in the corner with Team Natsu fawning over Lisanna's repeated stories of Edolas. Lucy shook her head as she moved around to behind the bar and recorded her latest success. She helped herself to a strawberry milkshake, leaving the money on the counter. She moved to a table at the lonely corner of the guild, where not even Gajeel or Lily were sat. Gajeel was sat by Levy, and Lily was sat where Gajeel was. Lucy blew out a breath she didn't realise she was holding in and sat down at a table.

She drank her milkshake, mindlessly stirring it as she stared at the crowd away from her. "Woah Lisanna you're so brave!" A member shouted, other agreeing with them. Lucy rolled her eyes. 'It's not as though she has been repeating the same stories ever since she got back. I have much more interesting stories to tell.' She frowned at them. She knew that she was jealous of the Take Over mage but she couldn't help it, she was used to being able to talk with her friends and family as she pleased and now that was taken away from her and given to Lisanna. 'Was I just a replacement this whole time? Am I really that disposable?' Her frown deepened as she pondered the thought. This wasn't the first time she had thoughts like this but she always pushed them away. Now, she can't help but think she's right to assume the worst.

She groaned, placing her arms upon the table and her head between her arms. She heard footsteps walking past her but paid no mind to it, knowing they were not towards her. That was until, she felt a tap onto her shoulder. She gasped, flinging herself up to see her friends stood in front of her. Her eyes were wide open at the sight in front of her. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Happy and Carla! All stood in front of her! It seemed too good to be true. "Am I dreaming?" She said out loud, in disbelief that they were stood in front of her. Natsu laughed at her. "Why would you be dreaming Luce?" The nickname made her heart melt, she had never thought she'd want to hear him say her name so badly. She could cry. "Uh.. I don't know." She said in a breathy tone, her smile reaching her eyes. Gray chuckled. "See she's being silly, yet again, this is why we have to do it." His smile faded slightly and his arms folded across his chest. Lucy's heart dropped. What did he mean?

Erza shushed him. "Quiet Gray, this is a sensitive subject. All in due time." She gave a small smile to Lucy. Natsu pushed forward, getting even closer to Lucy. "Yeah yeah yeah. I got this." He waved them away and turned back to look Lucy in the eye. "Lucy..." He began but failed to complete his sentence, drifting his eyes away from her with guilt. "Yeah?" Lucy looked at him with hope, crossing her fingers that it wasn't anything bad. He looked back at her with a frown. "We want Lisanna on our team. But we're also kicking you out of Team Natsu." He said quickly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lucy was frozen. She had been on solo mission after solo mission, she knew that she wasn't, in a sense, part of the team anymore but it still hurt nonetheless. She opened her mouth but closed it again. She stared at all of them in the eyes, none of them daring to look back at hers. "Why?" She choked out, her head hanging low. Lisanna moved forward with a smirk. "You're just dead weight." Gray added on the list. "You're too weak." Erza carried on. "You constantly put yourself in danger and distract the team." Natsu finished it. "You hide behind your spirits. To be honest, we're just better off without you." He said. Lucy stared at them in disbelief. How could they even dare say something like that?

Lucy sneered at them and stood up abruptly. "How dare you!" She yells, pointing her finger at them all. They looked at her in shock. "Weak?! Dead weight?! Distraction?!" She laughed darkly at the irony of the last one. By this time, she had caught all of the attention of the guild. "You have no right to call me weak or dead weight when I have been the one holding this guild together for the past year! I have been taking mission after mission because none of you were going to do so!" She saw their eyes widen at her anger, not at her words, but at how her voice was dripping with disgust. "Now she's a liar too!" Lisanna called out, glaring at Lucy while wrapping an arm around Natsu. Lucy didn't know why but the action made her insides churn.

"Check the book if you don't believe me! I had to do it all myself because people have seem to forget their duties around here. You all claim to be one big, happy, loving family but you're not! You're nothing but fakes and lia-" Lucy couldn't finish her words before she received a powerful slap from the hand of Erza. Lucy held her right cheek with tears brimming her eyes. "I won't tolerate this behavior Lucy! Now you either apologise to us or..." Erza struggled to think of a punishment until Natsu intervened. "Or leave!" He glared at her, Lisanna's grip tightening on him. The guild, to Lucy's shock, began agreeing with Natsu. "Yeah we don't need you here!" They yelled. "Just get out! Nobody likes you anyways!"

Lucy could feel the tears running down her cheeks at their harshness. Soon, people began throwing objects at her, being much more aggressive than necessary. One person even threw a glass at her, smashing against her left hand on the table. Her tears quickly halted as her sadness was replaced with anger at the complete lack of respect she was receiving. She grabbed a piece of the glass and turned to face Natsu in the eyes. "You want me gone?" He just stared blankly at her. "Fine!" She yelled, ripping off her glove with her teeth before slamming the glass into her hand, cutting over her Fairy Tail mark, watching their faces of shock as blood dripped from her hand, her screams of pain muffled from the glove in between her teeth. Everyone was silent as she shoved past them, racing out of the guild doors.

She ran to her apartment, disregarding her bleeding hand and the tears streaming down her face. She didn't care about the many looks she received from onlookers and kept running to her house. She made it quickly and opened her door, sealing it shut, placing her glove in her pocket. She made her way to her bathroom to care for her hand, hurrying to get out her medical supplies. Before she could even open her First Aid kit, Virgo had forced her own gate open to care for her master. "Lucy-hime, please allow me." Virgo begged, grasping Lucy's hand gently as she slid down to her knees, becoming a teary mess. She nodded and let Virgo get to work. It wasn't long before she was done, but still stayed with Lucy so she wouldn't feel alone.

"Virgo, I'm fine, really you can go back." Lucy tried to argue, wiping her tears away from her eyes with a sniffle. Virgo gave her a sad look. "Lucy-hime, please, you don't have to go through this alone. You have all of your spirits who love you dearly." She said, pulling Lucy into a hug. "I know." Lucy hugged her back, her breath hitching as she tried to calm down. After what seemed to be an hour, Virgo pulled away from Lucy, but frowned to see she was still crying. "Is there anything we can do to help you Lucy-hime?" Lucy sighed, wiping away the fresh fallen tears and stood up. She turned to her reflection and pulled off her eyepatch, Virgo gasped at the sight, quickly standing up with her. "Lucy-hime! What happened?!" She went to touch her eye but stopped herself.

Lucy glared at the mirror, her eye a reminder of her own weakness. "What if they're right?" Lucy choked out, placing her bandaged hand in front of her. Virgo frowned at her master. "They aren't right. Not to us. You are one of the strongest celestial mages known to history. You're the furthest thing from weak." She said, trying to ease her. Lucy's glare deepened. "This disgusting eye is a reminder of my weakness." She sneered at it. Virgo didn't dare say anything, understanding that her master was very emotional at that moment. Lucy looked back at her hand. "I used to think Fairy Tail was my safe haven, my fresh start at life. I used to believe that I had found a whole new family, a place where I belonged." She clenched her hand, ignoring the pain. "But now it's all a lie!" She gritted her teeth, punching her mirror with her uncut hand, her fist glowed as bright yellow with her glove and her mirror shattered to the ground, surprisingly leaving her hand unharmed.

Virgo stood still, staring. Lucy began crying again at the sight of her in the shattered pieces that remained on the mirror. She hated that she seemed to look even plainer now that there were less pieces of her mirror. Something gleamed in the corner of her eyes, a pair of scissors on her sink. She grabbed them, to the panic of her spirit. "Lucy-hime, what-" Lucy calmed her. "It's okay." She said before staring at the broken mirror. The words of her former guild echoing in her head. Her breath picked up in rage, with a cry of heartbreak, she grabbed her hair and started cutting it off, leaving only a short length of her hair left. Virgo gasped both in shock and relief that she wasn't going to injure herself more. It only took Lucy a few minutes before all that was left was a very messy and uneven head of hair. Virgo held out her hands for the scissors and Lucy complied, crying as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"I'm not as good as Cancer but I'll try to even it out." She said and began her best efforts to neaten up her hair. Lucy stood as still as she could, trying to calm herself. Virgo finished soon enough and placed the scissors back to their place on her sink. "All done." Lucy's hair was now into a choppy bob. She said before beginning to clean up the mess of the broken glass. Lucy just stood still, too dazed to move. Virgo announced she was finished and that she had to return to the spirit realm but not before she gave one last small hug to Lucy. "Goodbye." Lucy whispered as Virgo disappeared. Lucy sighed and moved back to her bedroom, sitting down on her bed slowly, placing everything on her nightstand and taking off her shoes.

She felt Loke's key vibrating and glowing brightly and she stroked it to calm him down. She knew he was very worried about her but still too weak to return back to Earthland on his own. She placed her covers over her and eventually fell asleep with Loke's key held tightly to her chest. Tomorrow she would devise a plan for her future away from Fairy Tail, but now she needed to rest.

Oof this was a long chapter XD Boy did this hurt my neck..