Chapter Nineteen
"This is so cool." Levy looked around the Magi-Hover and Lucy nodded. When everyone was talking about how to split up; most of the girls avoided looking at Natsu, and Levy wasn't having it. She'd wrapped her arms around Lucy and smiled up at her and said the two of them would be with Natsu. Lucy had been grateful and Natsu had looked touched. The other Dragis also looked relieved, except for Gajeel who looked annoyed.
"It is." Lucy pointed to the bathing compartment and walked her through it. As they came back out, Natsu had three chairs up at the front and he spun around and waved at them. Lucy glared at him over Levy's head and he sheepishly turned back around. Levy sat in the middle and started asking him all kinds of questions. Lucy half listened, and half watched as Natsu patiently answered all of Levy's questions.
"Wow. This is amazing. When do we take off? I know Laxus wanted us to do some stops at old gardening centers for supplies before we meet at the launching coordinates." Lucy smiled and raised a brow at Natsu over her friend's shoulder. Natsu grinned and Levy looked between them. "What?"
"This." Lucy reached over and pressed a symbol and the walls flickered and Levy's mouth dropped open. They were skimming along the main road. Natsu tilted his head and Lucy raised one shoulder and then looked back at her friend.
"I didn't even feel it start or take off."
"They're super smooth." Lucy laughed. Levy nodded and looked around.
"Oh, there's another Magi-Hover. Whose is that?" Lucy tapped another symbol and the map lit up and a black dot appeared.
"That's Gajeel's craft."
"Hey that's cool. How can you tell?" Levy was looking at the map and Natsu took over, explaining the color coded dots and looked at Lucy again. "But why is he near us? I thought he was supposed to go straight to the launching coordinates and send the girls with him up?"
"Hang on." Natsu pushed a set of symbols and there was a click.
"Whatcha want Flame Brain?" Gajeel's voice came through some hidden speakers. Levy jerked around and Natsu snickered as Lucy giggled.
"Why are you following us Rusty Bolts? The launching coordinates aren't in this direction."
"There were nests along the original route. I'm taking the long way so they don't have to see me work."
"Be careful."
"Don't you start trying to boss me around Ash Heap."
"Don't be a baby Gajeel." Levy huffed and there was a grunt and a sound of crushing metal. Following by multiple feminine voices asking why he was eating metal.
"I ain't being a hatchling, Gowlmp."
"I'm not a Shrimp, stupid Gajeel!" Levy shouted and Natsu laughed fully at that. Lucy shook her head and put her hand on Levy's arm.
"Take care Gajeel." She said and pressed the same symbols and there was a beep as the communication dropped.
"Oh he's annoying." Levy huffed and Natsu smiled ruefully.
"How do you do that?" He asked and both sets of brown eyes looked at him.
"Who do what?" Levy asked and he pointed at Lucy.
"How do you know how to use the communication board?"
"You showed me previously. It's just matching the symbols." She said and he shook his head. "What?"
"I've had others ride with me and they never could figure it out."
"Can you teach us what the symbols are?" Levy asked and Natsu nodded. He started to explain and both nodded and listed carefully. The lesson continued until they got to the first location Levy had instructed him to go to back at the library.
"This used to be a hardware store. Dragonoids took over this part of town first so I'm not sure if it's been ransacked or not." Levy said as they stopped and looked around. The Magi-Hover letting them have a good look at the building. They'd stopped close to the doors.
"Do you want to stay inside?" Lucy asked as Levy looked around with what resembled hesitancy.
"I just wish I had armor too." She ran her hands up and down her ragged hoodie. It wasn't going to protect her against anything other than a slight breeze.
"I can help a little." Lucy said and pulled her backpack off of the wall. She pulled out the roll of duct tape and smiled. "Do you trust me?"
"Not with that look on our face." Levy deadpanned and Lucy cackled. She pulled Levy into a room and got to work. Natsu messaged Laxus that they had reached their first stop and were preparing to depart and check the store out.
When the two girls came out of the room, Natsu smiled. Lucy had wrapped duct tape around an undershirt and leggings and Levy was pulling her hoodie on over the duct tape layer to hide its slight metallic sheen. She'd also pulled on a pair of ripped jeans over the leggings and a pair of leather boots. Lucy slid her pipe weapon over her shoulder and the suit looped around it as she pulled her backpack on as well.
"That's so cool." Levy whispered and Natsu grinned while facing away from her. He tapped the panel next to the portal to step out and sniffed the air. He looked over his shoulder.
"I don't smell any people or Draconics."
"Let's move before that changes." Lucy suggested and she and Levy followed quickly. They stepped into the store and smelt the stale air and all three scrunched their noses.
"Let's split up." Levy said and Lucy looked at her skeptically. "What?"
"I don't think that's wise."
"Lu, it'll be faster. And the store isn't huge. If I scream for help, I'm sure Natsu will be able to get to me quickly." Levy darted down an aisle and Lucy turned and looked at Natsu.
"I'll go keep her company." He turned and disappeared and she went down a separate aisle.
The store had been gone through, but not well. She found multiple packages of seeds that looked useable. And she grabbed several hand trowels, spades, transplanter, cultivators and even two weeders. When she found some pruning tools she got so excited. She'd ruined two pairs of scissors trying to maintain the roses she'd planted and cared for. She put them in her backpack and then slowly turned the corner while crouching low to look at something when she heard a weird sound. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. She thought she saw someone dart around the end cap at the opposite end of the aisle. She tensed and lowered her gaze. She didn't see any feet. She listened but didn't hear anything.
She stayed low and went around the aisle and found an expired container of plant hormone. It may not be good anymore, but it might be worthwhile to take and have them try to replicate. She put it in her backpack and jerked when she heard something on the other side side of the aisle. She tensed and drew her weapon. She jumped around the end of the aisle but it was empty. She looked up but there was nothing on the ceiling.
"Lucy?" She gasped and spun, angling her arm at the last minute and the pipe went over Levy's head. Levy jumped back and stared at her friend.
"Don't sneak up on me." Lucy scolded and bent over breathing heavily.
"What's wrong?" Natsu asked and Lucy shook her head.
"I'm paranoid." She picked up her backpack. "I found some hand tools and seeds and a container of plant hormones. Maybe there are scientists on the Guild Station that can replicate it."
"That's a genius idea." Levy cheered, trying to change the subject that hung unanswered between Lucy and Natsu. "We found some stakes and various propagation soils."
"Have you all checked that room?" Lucy asked and pointed and Levy shook her head.
"We just got back in from running our finds to the Magi-Hover."
"Lets check it out together." Lucy urged and Levy nodded, trying to understand why her friend was acting overly cautious. Natsu walked closer to Lucy and she gave him a pensive look.
"Are you okay?" He asked as they pushed through the cobwebs around the doorway to the back room.
"Yeah." She looked at him before quickly looking away. Levy grabbed her arm and they both tensed.
"Look!" Levy pointed and Lucy's mouth fell open. Laying off to the side, under a ripped open roof, was a small bevy of plants. Tomatoes and beans were growing up the wall. The two ran over and sniffed at the tomatoes. "They smell ripe."
"I haven't had a fresh tomato in years." Lucy grabbed one and rubbed it on Levy's hoodie and lifted it to her mouth. She bit into it and moaned. Levy's moan of joy echoed and they jumped in place. Natsu was watching with a small smile.
"How do we move this? It'll kill the plants won't it?"
"It might." Levy said as she licked juices off of her hand. She picked one of the bean pods and tested it with her fingers. It was subtle. She bit into the pod and sucked the bean out. She giggled.
"What?" Lucy asked.
"I hate Lima beans…but it's fresh." The bluenette shivered even as she smiled. Natsu was tapping away on his own communicator. He stepped forward as the girls looked around and found the remains of seed packets. They'd probably been dropped and forced into the dirt then the store had been ran shacked originally. Even with the roof having been ripped apart; enough was in tact it had acted as a semi-greenhouse.
"Droy said there is a way to get it up, but we can't be in the building when the Guild Station does it." Natsu said and he placed a few hexagon shaped items on the walls and floor around the plants.
"That's nice." Levy said and watched him work. She noticed how he kept looking at Lucy but Lucy wasn't paying him much attention. She also saw the pain flicker in his eyes when Lucy would move away from his touch. She bit her lip and sighed and looked around the room some more. She pulled out some containers and looked through them. Plant food packages, soil enhancers, and some soil test strips. She put them in a gardening basket she'd found. She turned the corner and blinked and squinted. She looked over and saw Lucy and Natsu still behind her. She turned back around and shook her head.
"Levy don't go back there. We haven't checked it out yet." Lucy whispered and Natsu bounded over. He took the lead and looked around, sniffing the air. "Is there something here?"
"No…but…"
"What?"
"I thought I smelt a night breeze." He shook his head and they looked around. It was still early morning, so the scent shouldn't be one he was smelling. But he didn't hear anything or sense anything.
"Maybe there was a bat or something?" Levy suggested and looked around.
"Maybe." Natsu didn't think so but he wasn't going to worry either of them. He could feel the unease rolling off of Lucy even if Levy didn't pick up on it. He turned the corner and stopped, tilting his head. "What is that?"
"That…" Lucy actually giggled. Propped up on a bunch of water barrels was a scarecrow. It's straw falling out onto the floor. "It's a scarecrow."
"A what now?"
"Something humans put out in their gardens or fields to scare birds away from their plants. They look vaguely humanlike and deter pests." Lucy pushed a hand through her hair.
"Very strange." He said and walked around it. Sniffing and listening, but it wasn't living. So he left it alone. Levy looked at the barrels it was sitting on.
"Do we need barrels to collect water for the plants on the station?" She asked and Natsu taped on the communicator. Droy replied back that if they could collect water from the planet it would save the resources on the Guild Station and probably make the humans feel better about eating the plants. Natsu started rolling the barrels out.
"Where do you think he's going to store them?"
"I don't know. I didn't even know the Magi-Hover expanded as much as it had for the trip so far."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought it was a one-sitter. One bed, one chair, one person per vehicle kind of thing."
"Oh…It must have been awkward sitting on the bench in the back and trying to see what Natsu was doing."
"Yeah…" Lucy looked away and Levy immediately turned on her heel. She honed in on her friend's red face.
"You did…sit on the bench right?"
"Uh huh."
"You slut." Levy giggled and Lucy huffed out a breath. "You were sitting in his lap."
"On his lap."
"Same different." Levy giggled and elbowed her friend gently and wrapped her arm around her friend's waist. "So….was it cozy?"
"Keep asking and I'll ask the Magi-Hover to shove you in a small closet." Lucy wiggled her eyebrows and her friend shook her head. Not believing the threat at all. They kept looking around the room but it had been pretty well picked clean. Leaving the barrels had probably been a mixture of laziness as well as it would be hard to carry them without alerting the Draconics of your movements. Or other people. And sometimes humans were more dangerous.
They headed out the front and saw Natsu coming out of the Magi-Hover. They looked around but didn't see any of their haul. "It's already loaded. Satisfied you all picked it clean?"
"Yeah." They gathered inside and Natsu started entering the next location while also entering a command. Levy and Lucy heard a quick loud pitch and then silence. They shared a look and turned to Natsu.
"What was that?"
"Those things I put around the plants were a self-generating Magi-Pod. They connect and form a small vehicle for expulsion. We don't like to use them too much because they alert Draconics and other lifeforms of movement."
"But since we're already on the move it's not that big of a deal." Levy guessed and he nodded. Lucy yawned and shook her head. Natsu looked over at her.
"Go rest Luce….cy" He caught himself. She was mid-headshake and Levy grabbed her hand.
"Come on Lulu…he's right. We should rest while we can. We're hitting several more stores before we get to the launching coordinates."
"Fine. Let's go rest." Lucy showed Levy to the room that Natsu had pointed out to her. Levy smiled and let herself in and smiled to her friend before it closed, shutting her in. Lucy sighed and looked back at Natsu whose back was ramrod straight. She wanted to apologize to him and suggest he join her for a nap. But she also knew that wasn't a good idea if she was trying to make them have space.
She stepped into the room beside he's and as the door shut, her breath caught. Laying on the otherwise militantly sparse cot; were several fuzzy blankets. She climbed onto the cot and snuggled into the blankets, Natsu's scent wafting up to her. She turned her head and looked up at the bare white ceiling. She didn't want to stare at nothing but her mind was too busy to let her drift off to sleep.
"A.I.?"
"Yes NL-777?"
"NL-777?" Lucy scrunched her nose up.
"You are the growlkin to N-777 so I have identified you as NL-777." The voice stated blandly. Lucy felt her stomach drop and she felt tears prick at her eyelids. "Why are your biometrics shifting to distress? Are you ill?"
"No." She croaked. "I'm just tired and emotional. It's a human thing."
"I have notated that is a human anomaly." The A.I. drummed cooly. "What can I assist with?"
"Can you…play the Edolas footage please?"
"Would you like file E7986gro034wl or E7986gwl777?"
"Is that second file as lovely and peaceful as the first one?" Lucy asked and there was a low hum as the program figured out an answer.
"It has more…life on it."
"Sure." Lucy said and the walls melted into the world of Edolas. Lucy watched as birds of some kind flew overhead. She relaxed into the fuzzy blankets. The song of the birds and hidden insects lulled her into a near-sleep state. That was when she heard it. The soft notes of a voice. A woman appeared; her black hair piled high on her head. She was lovely. She was tucked into the side of a tall male with reddish hair, who carried a child on his shoulder. The child had black hair like the woman, and he had to have been only a handful of years old.
"Mommy…I want a bruvor." The translation caught on the word but Lucy understood. Th male swung the boy down and the three stopped in the clearing in front of her.
"What was the Zeref?"
"I want a little bruvor. I wanna teach him scales and claws, and play smoke and shadows, and teach him to eat fire."
"That's a lot of responsibility. Are you sure you are ready to teach a little brother all that?" The male asked and the boy, Zeref nodded. The woman smiled at the male and Lucy's heart clenched. That look, it was a look any woman from any world would know. It was a secretive little 'I know something you don't' look.
"Why not a little sister?"
"Bah." Zeref sulked adorably and crossed his arms over his chest. "Swisters are boring! They only wanna stay clean and eat flowers."
"Zeref." His mother laughed and shook her head. She knelt down as he looked at her with wide eyes. "What?"
"Can't I have a bruvor? I promise to always protect him!"
"You'd always protect him?" The parents asked and the boy nodded.
"I promise on Igneel's flames."
"What would you name your little brother Zeref?" His father asked.
"Natsu!" Lucy's heart wrung at that. The father smiled and she saw Natsu in that smile. She wiped at her tears.
"Change to the other file please." Lucy ordered and the scene changed swiftly. She buried her face into the blankets and cried. She fell asleep crying for the young Natsu who thought he was going home; to his family, only to learn he'd lost everything. She cried for the older brother who lost the ability to keep his promise. And for the parents who didn't get to see their children grow up.