28: i wanna kiss you but i know better.


Lucy slowly placed her hand on her chest as she processed what her mother had just told her. "So this whole time...father never killed you...but this woman named Anna did."

Layla nodded. "And she's inside of you."

Is this what Larcade meant when he wrote Anna's name on the floor? Lucy thought. Then she looked up at her mother. "How...how's she inside of me?"

"Anna Heartfilia had died years ago but she was brought back to life. She did an ancient web spell forgotten in time to link her soul to yours," Layla explained.

"This Anna person was a Heartfilia?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, so that means she's our ancestor," Layla answered.

"But...why was our ancestor brought back to life? Why did she kill you? Why's her soul linked to me? How's she the source of all of my problems?" Lucy asked.

"It's a long but simple story," Layla said, raising her hand to the side of her head. With a flash, a tiny orb of light appeared in her fingers. She held the orb out and it floated to Lucy's head. "This spell is called Star Memory. I could tell you what happened, but it's better if I show you."

When the orb touched Lucy's head, everywhere around Lucy faced away. She was brought to a world where it was all white. Lucy stood up, wiped her tears away, and looked around. "Mom!?"

"I'm right here," she heard Layla say behind her.

Lucy turned around to face her. "What's going on?"

"You will be taken to the real night I died," Layla answered with a gentle smile.

Suddenly, the white world started to change. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, expensive furniture filled the place, a window with silky curtain appeared, and it soon became clear that they were in the master bedroom.

"Is this the night of the fight you had with father?" Lucy asked.

"No. Your father was away on his very last business trip," Layla answered.

"But that was a year before you died. And after you suddenly became better, dad immediately came home and never went on any business trips," Lucy said.

Layla simply smiled. "But Lucy, my illness never went away."

Lucy blinked. It never went away?

Before Lucy's eyes, the Layla of the past entered the master bedroom and sat at her vanity. Staring at the mirror, she was brushing her hair, most likely preparing for bed since the stars were out.

"Watch and listen carefully if you want answers," the current Layla told Lucy.

Suddenly, 2 figures materialized behind Past Layla. One of them had scarlet hair while the other one looked like a healthier Layla and a carbon copy of the current Lucy.

The one with scarlet hair was dressed as an ancient priestess and she was holding a scroll in her hands. She unrolled the scroll and read it. "It says here that you, Layla Heartfilia, will die about a year from now from your illness."

Past Layla dropped her brush. "Who are you!? How did yo-" She was cut off by a series of coughs. The sickly Past Layla couldn't yell for long.

The scarlet haired woman bowed. "My name is Irene Belserion."

"If she's going to die a year now, that means I can't live as her for long or I'll be back in the Underworld," the Lucy-look-a-like told Irene.

Past Layla weakly looked at the Lucy-look-a-like. The look-a-like noticed and bowed. "I'm Anna Heartfilia, your ancestor."

"Ancestor...?" Past Layla carefully asked.

"Yes, she lived about 400 years ago and died the night when 85% of the world's population was wiped out by an angry dragon god," Irene answered as she shoved the scroll into her sleeves. "That special night was what caused humanity to stop believing in the dragon gods since they believed their gods had betrayed them."

Past Layla nodded. "Yes, they tell us about that event when we're children."

"But they never told you how it started," Irene answered.

Past Layla nodded again. "All they told us was that it happened."

Anna bowed respectfully. "I'm the very cause of the event."

"M-My own ancestor!?" Past Layla asked in disbelief.

Anna nodded. "The very last king of this country was supposed to be my husband but I ran away since at the time, the Heartfilia family scarified their daughters once they get married and produce a child. I went to the other side of the kingdom and lived in a cabin in the woods not far away from a village. I became a teacher in that village and lived there peacefully without anyone finding out that I was a Heartfilia. Then one day, I housed a man who I later found out was a dragon god. And he's not just any dragon god. He's the who had nearly wiped out the whole population of the world. His name was Natsu Dragneel."

Lucy gasped when she heard the revelation. "So...it was never me. This whole time, the lover Natsu had stayed with was Anna...not me..."

"Continue to listen," Current Layla told her.

Irene walked around the room, admiring the expensive furniture. "Natsu was the very first person I made into a dragon god. Yes, he was impulsive, but he had the highest regard for humanity. Plus, the dragon Igneel, the dragon who also had the highest regard for humanity, took a liking to him. Who would have thought that Natsu would be the one to nearly end humanity all because the woman he loved was killed due to a misunderstanding?"

Past Layla looked down as she took in the new information.

"Natsu had brought her back to life in exchange for eternal torture," Irene said, looking up at the wedding picture of Layla and Jude that hung on the wall.

"You see, I can't just go around. Maybe in the past, it would have been easier, but in this age of technology, I'm afraid it's not possible. Taking your place and living as Layla Heartfilia is the best idea, but you are going to die a year from now," Anna said.

"It is still possible, my dear," Irene answered with a large smile.

Past Layla had a bad feeling but she didn't say anything. She was panicking but was forcing herself to stay calm. Panicking is bad for her health.

"The old ways really are the best ways. Just like how I put the dragons into the current human dragon gods, I can put your soul into someone so when that someone dies, you will take over their body and live as them for the remainder of their lifetime," Irene answered.

"Is that someone...me?" Past Layla finally asked.

"No. Your life is short. But I know someone who has a long life ahead of them," Irene answered as she pulled out a new scroll from the sleeves of her robe. She unrolled the scroll and read it with a smile on her face. "Yes...Lucy Heartfilia is perfect!"

Past Layla stood up. "Don't you dare do anything to my daughter!"

Irene looked at Past Layla with a mocking but threatening look on her face. "We will not hurt her, but Natsu might."

Past Layla was about to charge at Irene but instead, she erupted into another coughing fit.

Irene ignored Past Layla and faced Anna. "This is how it will work, and it must go right. This spell is very ancient. Even back when I was alive, only a select few know this spell so everything that I will tell you is not a joke."

Anna nodded.

"I will link your soul to Lucy Heartfilia," Irene answered.

"I understand," Anna said.

"However, you must be dead for it to work. You are alive now but..." Irene glanced at Layla who was coughing on the floor. "If you live as Layla, you will die. When you die, your soul will automatically enter Lucy. All you will need to do is get Lucy interested in magic and eventually, she will stumble on the Book of END. Lucy will release him and the Spriggan 12 will come after you, but that is a good thing."

"How is that a good thing?" Anna asked.

"Their orders will be to bring Lucy to the Underworld. Lucy will die and take your place in the Underworld. Meanwhile, you will live out the rest of Lucy's life. At first, Natsu will not know that you are inside of Lucy and will most likely confuse her for you so he will attack the Spriggan 12. That will cause Lucy to eventually trust him to the point she will blindly comply with what Natsu does, including when he discovers the truth and kills her with his own hands," Irene explained.

"What makes you so confident that he will?" Anna asked.

"I am not confident as to how he will find out, but knowing Lord Zeref, he will think of something to get Natsu to find out the truth himself," Irene answered.

"But Lady Mavis Vermillion is in charge of writing the fates of humans. We're playing around with human fates and she will notice. She won't be happy that we're doing this," Anna said.

"You are correct. She does not know that we are doing this and she would stop us at all costs once she finds out. But, we can put her into a position where she has no choice but to join the plan and we can do that by making someone go completely off script from what she had written for them," Irene answered.

"And how?" Anna asked.

"Lord Zeref said that Jude Heartfilia will kill you once he discovers that you are not Layla Heartfilia. He said that event will fall on the day that Layla was supposed to die from the illness. Mavis will notice something is up and Zeref said that he will use that opportunity to form an alliance with her," Irene answered.

Past Layla's eyes grew wide when she heard this.

"I understand. I comply with the plan," Anna said before she asked a question. "How come I am just now finding out that Lord Zeref had this plan? All that I was told was that I would take Layla's place."

"To see if you would stay loyal to us after finding out what we will do to your descendants. If you had declined, you would be forcefully returned to the Underworld to face a special punishment Zeref has planned for you," Irene answered.

Anna nervously gulped. "I see."

Irene smiled warmly. "Do not forget to act like Layla, even at the very end."

"But will the plan work?" Anna asked.

"Natsu is a Dragneel. Dragneels are selfish creatures so Natsu will kill Lucy without hesitation once he finds out you are inside of her," Irene answered. "Do not forget about the special mission Zeref has given you. Your special mission is the only reason why he has allowed for you to come back to life."

Anna bowed. "I understand."

Irene faced Past Layla with a dark look as she summoned a sword. "For all of this to work, you have to die."

Past Layla had stopped coughing and she slowly stood up. She ignored Irene's gaze and sent a deadly glare at Anna. "So, you are willing to have members of your own family be killed just so you can come back to life!? How can you call yourself a Heartfilia!? I am ashamed to be related t-"

Anna had swiftly beheaded Past Layla with the sword Irene had given to her.

"Burn Layla Heartfilia's body and get rid of the ashes so there will be no evidence left of what we did. I will cast the spell now and it will be activated once Jude kills you. And do not forget about your special mission," Irene had ordered.

Anna nodded and bowed.

Everything and everyone started to slowly fade away and soon, the current Lucy and the current Layla were back in the woods. Layla was sitting in the middle of the magic circle and Lucy kneeling was on the floor right at the edge of the circle. The orb of light left Lucy's head and returned to Layla's head.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to do anything to stop them. Maybe if I wasn't so sickly, I would have stopped them and you wouldn't have to suffer this much," Layla said, bowing her head to the floor in order to apologize to her daughter.

Lucy, on the other hand, was absolutely speechless as she processed the new information she had received and connect the dots. "...so...my memories of my past life..."

"There was no past life to begin with," Layla answered, sitting up.

"The vision my friend Cana had when she was telling me my fortune...it was right after all..." Lucy said.

"What was the vision?" Layla asked.

"She said that Natsu was going to burn me alive," Lucy answered.

"And when he does, you will end up in the Underworld and Anna will end up living your life," Layla said.

Lucy dug her fingers into her hair. "I was never Natsu's past life lover. He's in love with someone else."

Then she scoffed. "I can't believe I fell for him. I feel so embarrassed. I bet Zeref was laughing with a bucket of popcorn as he watched this whole thing unfold."

Maybe the mother-daughter pair could have continued to talk a little longer if Aquarius' key had not broken. However, it had broken. With a large crack, Aquarius' key broke and suddenly, Lucy felt a sharp pain in her chest.

"Lucy! Close the gate!" Layla yelled as the wind started to blow harshly.

"But wait! I still want to talk to you!" Lucy yelled over the wind.

"Aquarius is gone! That means your friend over there will have her lifeforce completely drained to keep me here! You will also have your lifeforce drained as well!" Layla yelled.

Lucy was about to say something but she started to vomit blood.

"Close the gate! Say my first and last name and say that you release me! Do it now!" Layla yelled.

Lucy shook her head.

"Lucy!" Layla yelled as her heart broke over the fact that her daughter was dying right before her eyes.

Lucy had managed to stop vomiting and she clenched her fists. "Layla Heartfilia...I release you...!"

Layla closed her eyes. "Lucy, I love you. Please don't end up in the Underworld anytime from now."

Mist surrounded the place and covered Layla as the gate to the spirit realm closed. Once Layla was gone, everything became still.

Yukino sucked in a huge breath of air and sat up. "I..I thought I died! I saw Sorano and..."

She looked around and saw that 11 of the Zodiac keys were fading away. The only one that didn't fade away was the broken Aquarius key. "A spirit died..."

Then, she noticed Lucy kneeling in a puddle of her own blood. Her head was hung low and her fists were still clenched. Based on the sniffles Yukino heard, she deducted that Lucy was crying.

"How...how was it?" Yukino cautiously asked.

"She's finally discovered the truth. She's not the woman Natsu had brought back to life and Natsu is going to kill her once he learns that the woman he brought back to life is inside of her," Brandish's voice answered behind them.

The both of them sharply looked behind them and saw Brandish laying in a lounge chair. She waved when she saw that she had gotten their attention.

"You knew!" Lucy spat out.

"Every single member of the Spriggan 12 knew," Brandish answered with a shrug.

"So because of the truth, that's why you told me to make sure Natsu isn't present when I open the gate?" Lucy asked.

Brandish nodded. "If he was here, he would have killed you without any hesitation. But he's not. Now here's where things get entertaining. What will you do?"

"You're not going to take me to the Underworld? But isn't that the only reason why you let me go through all of this?" Lucy asked.

"It was, but now that I know that I'm not supposed to succeed, I'm letting you go," Brandish answered before smiling. "Besides, I get to see how you'll deal with this. I'm getting free entertainment so of course I'm going to stick around and let you go."

Lucy was feeling lightheaded from the amount of blood that she has lost in one night so she ended up fainting.


When Lucy opened her eyes, she found that she was in her bed back in her room in Fairy Hills.

"It's been a while since I last slept in this bed. Forgot how soft it is..." She mumbled to herself, cuddling in the pink blankets.

Realizing how exhausted she was feeling, she closer her eyes and drifted off into dreamland. Then, a minute later, she opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. She felt dizzy thanks to her sitting up abruptly but she ignored the feeling and jumped out of bed.

"What time is it!?" She cried, bursting out of her room.

All of the girls were sitting at the table and they stood up.

"Lucy! You're alive! Yukino came here last night with you unconscious!" Juvia cried, clearly at the verge of tears.

"We put a bandage on her leg. The cut was so fucking big! How did you get a cut like that from going to an auction!?" Cana asked.

"She went inside of the painting to save me and the others, remember?" Wendy reminded her.

"You told them?" Lucy asked.

"Of course she did. Going inside of a book is on my bucket list. You think I can go in one with your magic?" Levy asked.

"It would be like an isekai," Lisanna noted.

"Wendy also told us that Natsu killed Erza," Mirajane said.

All of the girls grew silent and they slowly sat back down. Lucy also slowly sat at the table with the girls.

"And to add to that, he's going to burn you alive," Mirajane said, rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache.

The other girls looked down in their laps and would occasionally look up to mouth "is she pissed off?" and "should we say something?" to each other.

Wanting to put Mirajane in a good mood, Lucy complimented Mirajane on her white cheetah print acrylic nails. "I love your nails! When did you get them done?"

Judging from the glare Mirajane shot at Lucy, Mirajane was put in a mood much more worse than before.

Lucy apologetically looked down. "...sorry."

Mirajane sighed. "You didn't put the scarf I gave you on Natsu. If you did, he would have suffocated to death for killing Erza."

"I didn't put it on him cuz I felt that it wasn't necessary," Lucy said in a small voice.

"Lucy, he's END! Of course it was necessary! The fact that it happened on the same day he killed Erza-" Mirajane cut herself up and rubbed her forehead.

"Sis..." Lisanna said, moving close to her sister to rub her back.

"I've lost one sister already. I'm not about to lose another one. Put that scarf on him immediately or I will kill him myself," Mirajane said, sounding exhausted.

Lucy closed her eyes. "Whether I put the scarf or not on him doesn't matter because Gray is going to kill him."

"Gray knows?" Juvia asked.

Lucy nodded, glancing at the nearby clock. "Gray says that he'll do it tonight, so can I visit Natsu one last time?"

"No," Mirajane answered.

"Why?" Lucy demanded.

"No," Mirajane repeated.

"I also don't see the reason of you visiting Natsu. He killed one of us. You should cut off all contact with him," Levy said.

"I want to know why he killed Erza," Lucy answered.

"You already know why. It was so he can get all of the keys," Wendy said in a small voice.

"I want to hear it from him," Lucy insisted.

"What good would that do?" Cana asked.

"I'll also tell him that I'm not who he thinks I am," Lucy answered.

"Are you saying you're not the person he brought back to life?" Lisanna asked.

Lucy took a deep breath before telling the girls what she had just learned. Once she was done, everyone was speechless.

"So that's why he burns you alive...all so he can get Anna out," Cana answered.

"You're definitely not going to see Natsu! He'll kill you immediately!" Mirajane cried.

"I just feel like he has the right to know!" Lucy cried.

"Do you want to die!?" Lisanna asked.

"No, of course not!" Lucy cried.

"So why the fuck are you putting yourself in that position!?" Cana cried.

"If I were to die, I'd like to know the truth! Imagine when I'm dead, I find out that everything I've been working towards was for nothing! I'd be pissed off! I'd be able to rest in peace knowing the truth!" Lucy cried.

"Not you sympathizing with END," Levy said, shaking her head.

Lucy's phone started to ring. She went to her room, grabbed her phone, and came back from the table. Then, she showed the girls the caller ID. "It's Jason."

"Answer, answer," Cana said with a sigh.

"Hey...is your break done yet...?" Jason asked on the other line when Lucy answered. Lucy noticed that he sounded tired.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"All of us need your help! We're working on a story that's so cool but we need as many people we can get to help! It's so much work!" Jason whined.

"I'm on my way," Lucy answered.

"Thank you!" Jason cried. It was obvious from the way his voice sounded that he was shedding tears of joy.

Lucy hung up and stood up. "I have to go to work."

"In this snow?" Juvia asked.

"It's snowing outside?" Lucy asked, walking over to the window.

"The forecast says that the snow is going to get worse later on tonight," Lisanna said.

"Whether I want to go or not, I have to go to work," Lucy answered.

"True. Work is work," Levy said.

"Stay safe out there," Wendy said.

Lucy nodded as she made her way to the bathroom.

An hour later, Lucy was ready for work and had eaten the breakfast the girls had prepared for her. It was turning into night so the snowfall was picking up and the weather was turning colder than it was earlier.

Lucy shoved her hands into the pockets of her trench coat as she walked over to the bus stop. She knew she could drive to work but she was so deep in her thoughts that she could accidentally cause an accident.

I shouldn't be feeling guilty anymore. None of this is my fault, it's Anna's fault. I'm just a victim now. All of this guilt getting lifted off my shoulders should make me feel like I'm flying, she thought before sighing.

She stopped walking and looked down at the ground. Seconds later, she felt her eyes watering. "But then, how come I feel like shit...?"


Random Fact: PLOT TWIST! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Wassup!? It's ya gurl sugarsugarrush!

Yooooooo! I've been wanting to type up this very chapter from the very moment I started this story! It's so fucking hard not to spoil things within the other chapters and I was dropping in little hints in almost each chapter (did anyone notice?). But the thing is, I suck at giving hints! Like, I was that one kid who gave the answers when I'm supposed to give a hint. I was struggling, y'all! Bruhhhhhhhh, it's out! Finally! 28 chapters! 4 months! Ahhhhh!

Reviews:

Copperreign12- Last chapter chapter in general was just hella sad and I was deep in my feelings by the end. Your welcome, by the way!

Lol, did nobody catch in the manga that Natsu had a little crush on Anna when he was younger?

By the way, whenever I'm typing up dramatic scenes, Reverie by Tinashe really gets me in the mood!

Oh yeah, so I up and did the Gajeel X Levy story. It's called Stuck With Me. Check it out!

Now, ima close this! Don't forget to PM me or leave me some reviews! Later, yo!