PART I – Resolution

Chapter XVI – What killed the cat

"Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you-haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe-I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always-take any form-drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

*14 years earlier, the abandoned Light Ranch, north of the Heartfilia estate.*

"Here we are!" the boy cheered with a wide, bright grin. "The ranch! I think everyone will be hella mad at me since I just ran off on my own, but don't worry, they won't hurt me. Not severely, at least."

Lucy's smile vanished. She didn't want him to be hurt. The ranch was a pretty large, but obviously badly maintained farm with no animals and high fences all around. The boy kicked the wooden doors open and they creaked under the impact.

"Gramps!" he called loudly. "I'm back!"

He turned around to stare at the girls and crouched to look Lucy in the eye.

"I forgot to mention it, but it's better if you don't tell them about what I did to that soldier," he whispered. "They'll seriously freak out if we tell them, you see?"

Lucy immediately nodded, she would have told a thousand lies to help him, but Michelle eyed him sceptically.

"I don't think it's reasonable to hide such an important thing from them," she muttered.

The boy flashed her his most reassuring grin and stood back up.

"I won't hide it forever," he assured, "I'll just wait for them to calm down before telling them. If I tell them now, they'll definitely kill me."

In the very next second, before he could even turn around, a large silhouette appeared behind him and a huge hand suddenly entirely grasped his head. The boy was lifted off the ground, yelling and kicking blindly.

"You," the man growled, "are you prepared for punishment?"

"Wait, old thug, I didn't run away just for fun! I was working too!"

An evil laugh was heard from the large man holding the boy.

"What a big mouth you have," he smirked. "Well, fine. If you want to work like a man, you'll accept your punishment like a man, too."

The tall man was still smirking evilly and teasing the boy when he felt something soft hit his leg repeatedly. He glanced down and found a little blond head punching him. Near her, a taller girl was glaring at him and observing his every movement, probably making sure he wasn't going to hit the smaller girl. His eyes went back to the shrimp that was hitting him and he arched a brow.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Lucy glared at him and he couldn't help but think that she looked adorable when angry.

"Let him go!" she ordered. "I won't let you punish him, old thug!"

Michelle actually had to hold back her laughter upon hearing this. Old thug? Lucy probably had no idea what that meant, but she wanted to talk like her new friend. The man holding the boy changed his grip on the boy so that he was holding him by the collar of his shirt and glared at him.

"See what you've done? You're a bad example for kids!"

The boy laughed wholeheartedly and winked at Lucy.

"Well done, Luce! Kick his ass, he won't be able to do a thing against you!"

Lucy was beaming with pride, even while the tall man started to glare at her friend and threaten him to feed him to the worms.

"What's with the ruckus?" someone suddenly interrupted. "Wait... Don't tell me..."

"Yeah," the big man answered, "he actually found them."

Lucy quietly watched the small, old man that was looking at her as if she was made of chocolate. He took a hesitant step forward, then another, and another. The tall man let go of the boy and the latter went to stand beside Lucy, ruffling her hair and smiling his wide, bright smile.

"Yo Gramps!" he greeted. "See? I did it, even if you didn't believe I could!"

The old midget ignored her friend and suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. He did the same with Michelle, ruffling their hair and smiling lovingly at them. Lucy froze and glanced at Michelle. If her sister wasn't pushing him away, then he probably wasn't someone to be scared of.

"I'm so sorry," the midget sobbed, "about not making it on time. I'm sorry about what happened to you..."

Lucy didn't notice that she was crying until she noticed that her tears were staining the old man's shirt. She hugged him back, trying to ease the ache in her heart with his soothing warmth. She felt Michelle do the same.

"Don't worry, children," he breathed. "I'll take care of you. We will take care of you. We'll protect you."

Lucy nodded, not daring to speak. At some point, she glanced up and saw her friend smile endearingly at her. Yes, these people would help her, she was sure of it now. She had found a place where she could stay and, one day, they'd all go and save her father.

"Silver," the old man called, "you should call your son, he'll be happy to see them. Afterwards, we'll prepare a room for them."

The tall man called Silver nodded and left soon after. Yes, Lucy thought, they'd be alright. They were safe here, they'd make it.

Unfortunately, she was proved wrong a few days later.

oOo

"Are you sure that I'll be allowed to leave just like that?" Lucy asked as she and Erza were walking down the stairs.

The redhead nodded.

"I asked the general to take you with me as soon as I heard about this accident," she explained. "He didn't even try to argue or ask questions and said yes."

Lucy sighed and smiled.

"Awesome," she cheered. "I mean, it's terrible that such an accident happened, but the timing is excellent."

The doctor chuckled and glanced at her young friend.

"I understand what you mean, but try not to look too happy about this. It might look a bit suspicious."

"Right."

"Lucy, you're still smiling."

"Sorry, sorry."

They exited the building with heavy bags filled with medical equipment and put them in the car trunk. When Lucy turned around to tell Erza she was ready to go, she found the redhead already talking with someone. The nurse in training, Juvia, was here too, holding her own bag. Lucy couldn't hear them very well, but they seemed to be talking about someone who needed a special treatment and since Erza was leaving for the whole day, she had to leave some instructions for her substitute.

"Juvia, I believe you already know Luc," Erza said, "he'll be escorting us to the location of the accident and stay with us to protect us if needed."

Juvia nodded and extended a hand to greet her politely.

"Yes, Juvia knows Luc-san," she confirmed. "He's always around Gray-sama, for some reason. Luc-san wouldn't happen to be after Gray-sama, would he?"

Lucy arched a brow, wondering if she was serious. She apparently was.

"No," she assured. "I'm not."

The nurse nodded with a serene look.

"Good."

Lucy still remembered Loke's face as he told her how Juvia had threatened to slice Clive's throat to save Gray. There was no way in hell she was getting on this girl's bad side... Erza glanced at her watch and winced.

"We're going to be late if we don't hurry," she said, "get inside the car."

The younger women obeyed and Lucy sat in the passenger seat and watched the recruits gather in the field through the window. She recognized her own group even despite the distance, the commander walking in front of her comrades.

"Ok, as I said," Erza started talking as she started the engine, "it's a pretty big accident. Luc, you won't have anything to do beside assisting the police there, so I'll mainly talk to Juvia. You've been trained for this, it's a traffic accident: a bus collided with a car with four people inside. There are a lot of injured, but we won't be alone. Some medical teams finally agreed to help us, though they'll mainly take the victims to the hospital."

Juvia listened to everything Erza said with religious attention and Lucy got a bit lost when the redhead started giving details about procedures and cases. She watched through the window as the car rolled away from the field and toward the gates.

Outside, the sun was shining peacefully despite the cold temperatures, indifferent to the suffering of the people who were involved in the accident. Erza kept talking animatedly until they finally reached the south district. A whole road had been blocked by police cars and Erza cursed when she saw that the first ambulances hadn't arrived yet. She stopped the car in the middle of the street and got out, followed by Juvia and Lucy.

"Get the bags," Erza ordered them, "and join me quickly. I'll go get the first news."

They did as they were told and carried the bags without any real difficulty before running behind the redhead that looked more like an officer at the moment than most of the ones teaching at the Academy. Erza formed teams with the medical units that were already here and ordered Juvia to oversee one of them while she'd supervise all the operations.

Lucy went in search of the police chief, as she had been told to do in the car, but couldn't find him right away. Not that anyone could have blamed her, the situation was chaotic. Some people were stumbling and staggering, trying to get up or to find a wall to lean on. The bus had toppled over and the car had been crushed underneath its gigantic carcass. Lucy watched with horror filled eyes people try to escape the metallic prison. They were bloodied and screaming for help or crying in pain and grief. The passengers of the car were out of view, but the crushed shape of the vehicle didn't leave room for much hope.

"My son!"

Lucy flinched when she heard the shrill cry from behind her. She turned around and found herself facing a middle aged woman with semi-long hair and wearing a worn out blue woolen pullover. She was staring at the scene with horrified eyes, her hand clutching at her hair, staggering forward.

"My son!" she cried again. "He was inside the car! Did someone help him out? Where's my son!?"

Lucy then finally saw the police chief as the latter suddenly appeared out of nowhere to take the woman's arm as gently as he could.

"Ma'am," he said, "you can't stay here. We're trying to help everyone at the moment, but we'll work faster if you give us enough space to do so."

"But... but my son," she sobbed, "please, tell me that he's not still inside the car..."

Lucy's blood froze and she found herself praying that her son had been pulled out of the car. Only for a second, though, then she realized how naive that prayer was. Of course he was still inside: Erza would be the one to conduct the operation to get the victims out of the car and she still hadn't had the opportunity to start. Speaking of the redhead, she was currently arguing with someone while dialing a number on her phone.

"You moron," she yelled, "when did you start working? Calling the firemen should have been the first thing to do!"

"But we called the medical units..."

Erza glared at him with furious eyes.

"Go back home," she ordered, "and start looking for another job, I'll make sure you'll never be able to work for us again."

The dejected young man walked away, finally taking the measure of his mistake. It only took a few minutes for the firemen to arrive, escorted by more medical units and more cops. Two heavy rescue vehicles were brought along with more ambulances and a fire engine. From that point on, the firemen officers took control of the situation and were the ones to lead the operations, though Erza was still allowed to assist them.

Lucy followed the cops to help secure the perimeter as the firemen evacuated the bus, took care of the victims with the worse wounds, proceeded to the vehicle extrication. They did everything quickly, with a lot of professionalism, and Lucy was amazed at their efficiency. She didn't think she could have kept her calm in their position: having to deal with all this chaos, this blood everywhere, the constant danger.

Erza never stopped running and Lucy only caught brief glimpses of her red hair from time to time while she was trying to calm down the worried families and contain the curious bystanders that wanted to have a look at the scene. Juvia was doing amazing as well, giving much needed support to the medical units and taking care of the most seriously injured victims, some of them needing urgent surgery.

Within this whirling chaos of cries, screams and other nerve-wracking sounds, Lucy heard what felt like a faint whisper.

"Lucy."

Lucy squinted her eyes at the crowd, searching the unknown faces for one that might be familiar. With such panic all around her, it wasn't surprising that her mind was playing tricks on her. She figured that she had just imagined that voice earlier and focused back on the agitated crowd. Until her eyes caught a glimpse of something silvery in the corner of her eye. It was a young man in his early twenties, with very light silver hair and no shirt on. Despite his missing garment and the surrounding heavy and panicked atmosphere, the only thing he seemed to see was Lucy herself. When her eyes met his, though, he took a step back and he suddenly looked very worried.

Two firemen then ran right in front of Lucy, temporarily preventing her from seeing the boy with the strange hair. When she could see again, he wasn't there anymore. He probably was a victim of the accident, he'd get help from one of the medical staff. A man visibly more agitated than the others suddenly bumped her shoulder and she had to be a bit rough to push him back into the crowd, telling him – and everyone that was still trying to approach the bus – that they needed to be patient and let the doctors work.

Juvia was suddenly by her side, panting, her hands covered with blood.

"Is everything ok for Luc-san?" she asked.

Lucy arched a brow, shouldn't she be the one to ask her that?

"I'm good," she assured, "but you look exhausted."

Juvia shrugged and gulped down a glass of water.

"Juvia only needed to drink," the nurse assured. "She's fine now, she's going back."

Lucy watched her run back to the scene, unhesitating. Gray would be proud of her. Right, Gray. Now that she thought about it, with everything that happened after the end of the game, she still hadn't had the opportunity to talk to him. But she would need to, eventually. Might as well do it as soon as possible and get this over with.

A few minutes later, and while all the victims that were inside the bus were taken care of, the firemen finally managed to drag the victims out of the car. Lucy and almost everyone around paused to observe them as the medical units ran to start treating them. They gave them heart massages, oxygen, they used defibrillators as well. For the four victims of the car, the cares were given for five minutes at most. When the medics stopped, Lucy's heart dropped. All four of them had died. From behind her, she heard the agonizing, heartbreaking scream of a woman she immediately recognized. It was the mother of one of the passengers of the car. Seems like their prayers hadn't been heard.

A few hours later, Lucy was given a ten minute break and a sandwich to eat. She didn't even take a bite. Her stomach hurt her and she felt nauseous. Erza and Juvia were doing much better, never stopping for even a minute, they helped all the medical units and probably saved dozens of lives that day. A moment passed with Lucy sitting on a car hood, staring at nothing in particular, trying to forget about the mother's scream and tears when she saw her son. What a tough soldier she was. She was deeply lost in her thoughts when someone sat by her on the car hood. Crimson hair that looked darker that day appeared in her field of vision and told her Erza was finally taking a break. Lucy felt the soft and gentle hand of her friend reach up and caress the back of her neck.

"Our job here is almost over," she breathed. "You did very well."

Lucy scoffed humorlessly.

"I only pushed and screamed at people that were worried about their families and friends all day long," she retorted. "I didn't do anything worth praising, you and Juvia did."

She was smacked in the head in the very next second and winced.

"Ouch... that hurt."

"Be glad I didn't punch you," the redhead growled. "I don't want to hear something like that from you again, am I clear? Without you and the others securing the area, we wouldn't have been able to help anyone. And your job was just as stressful as ours, you were the ones that had to deal with everyone's anger and fear."

"True..."

"Obviously. Now, everyone's been taken to the hospital so we'll leave soon," Erza explained. "I'll just talk a bit more with the officers and other people. Juvia's readying our bags and you can go help the policemen secure the area."

Lucy did as she was told, her mind not exactly registering what she was doing. She was functioning on autopilot and only stopped when the blue-haired nurse went to pat her shoulder.

"It's time," she said. "We're going back."

Lucy nodded and glanced at her watch: it was past 6 p.m. already, meaning the inspection had to be over. She dragged her sorry self to the car and slumped in the seat, cursing when she remembered she still had to put eh bags in the car trunk. As tired as she was, Erza and Juvia were in much worse condition than her, so it was obviously her job to carry the heavy stuff. When the doctor finally started the engine, Lucy allowed herself to relax and leaned her head against the window.

"You both did very well today," Erza praised them, "I'm very proud of you. As you saw, our local teams are very unorganized and tend to panic easily, so it's part of our job to take control of the situation."

The soft vibrations of the car lulled Lucy into sleep even as Erza was still talking. Her friend's voice was soothing and she was exhausted. Her last thought before drifting off for good was: I'll have to tell Gray Juvia was awesome today. I hope Erza will tell the commander that I did good.

oOo

Lucy was fully awake when they reached the doors of the Academy. She couldn't see any official vehicle from the headquarters in the parking lot, but she still couldn't be sure that the place was really safe.

"Leave the bags to me," Erza said when she stopped the engine. "Go have a shower before you go to the refectory. Thanks again for your help today. I'll be sure to tell the general about your great work. Luc, I'll see you soon, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

Juvia politely nodded to her before leaving to go back to the nurses' building. Lucy walked towards her dorm, hands in the pockets, still not feeling too energetic. As she walked around the gym lockers, she saw a small man with a weird haircut and a very large moustache stomping out of the main building, ahead of her. He looked pissed off, but his appearance made him look like a grumpy old cat, so it wasn't exactly impressive. He was still mumbling to himself as she walked past him.

"Hey, you," he suddenly called.

Lucy froze and turned around, slowly, trying not to look like a fugitive in disguise.

"Yes, sir?"

The midget squinted his already small eyes at her and she wondered if he could see anything when he did that.

"I didn't see you during the inspection," he mumbled. "Where were you?"

"I was escorting our doctor, sir," Lucy answered. "There was an accident in town and we had to..."

"Yeah, yeah," the old fart grumbled, interrupting her, "I didn't ask you to tell me about your life, if I ask you a simple question, give me a simple answer. Stupid soldier..."

Lucy forced herself to keep a neutral face and saluted.

"Yes, sir," she said. "Did you need anything else, sir?"

"No. My time is precious and you're wasting it."

With that, he turned around and walked away, still mumbling to himself. Lucy kept her docile smile on as she watched him go, hoping he'd fall into the manhole cover they had forgotten to close near the gym, but he unfortunately didn't. She sighed as she resumed walking toward the dorms, at least she hadn't been recognized.

Behind her, and before Lucy could disappear from his sight, the small counsellor of the Octagon turned around once more to stare at her back with a frown.

Lucy slowly climbed up the stairs, nodding at the few recruits she saw on her way. The inspection had apparently ended peacefully. She practically sleepwalked to the room she shared with Loke and frowned when she entered it to find her friend talking on the phone. He had red eyes and she knew he had been crying. Which was more than strange. Loke saw her enter and grinned at her, it didn't look forced.

"I have to go," he said to the person on the phone, "I'll call you later. Yeah, I think the results will be confirmed. You bet I am! Yeah, later."

He hung up and wiped his eyes, still grinning.

"Everything ok?" Lucy asked.

He flashed her his brightest smile and nodded.

"Better than ever," he assured. "I'm sure you're dying to know what's all this about, but I can't tell you just yet. You'll have to wait a bit more."

He was right, she was indeed dying to know what could possibly affect him that much, but he seemed to be something good, so she could wait. She dropped her bag to the floor and crashed on her bed, groaning as she buried her head in her pillow.

"How was your day?" Loke laughed as he watched her.

"Mmph mmmnpfh, mmpfh," Lucy answered.

"You do realize that I couldn't understand a thing you just said," Loke mocked.

Lucy turned her head to face her friend and repeated.

"It was horrible," she groaned. "I didn't think being a medic could be this hard..."

Loke nodded knowingly, but didn't say anything more.

"What about you?" she asked. "What was the inspection about?"

Loke sat by her on the bed and crashed above her, squashing her body to the mattress.

"The officers got scolded by the old geezers," Loke told her, ignoring her attempts to push him off her, "seems like they have been slacking off lately."

"Slacking off?"

Loke nodded, still not moving from his new resting spot.

"You're really comfy, you know," he told her. "Yeah, apparently, there's a serial killer going wild in the area and since the Academy has an agreement with the town, we're supposed to protect the citizens. They're blaming the officers that could have found some time to deal with it."

Lucy frowned, not minding her friend's weight anymore.

"But they were all very busy," she retorted. "And the town has cops for this kind of things..."

"I know," her friend agreed. "They had no valid reason to come. I don't understand what they really wanted to do by coming here. But they're actually blaming a group of people for the lack of action."

Lucy had a bad feeling about this, she could hear in Loke's voice that the people being blamed for this were probably people they were close to.

"Like who?"

Loke sighed and sat back up, scratching his chin.

"The commander, the colonel and the general himself," he breathed.

Lucy stared at him dumbly. Mira and Natsu were being blamed for this? Even the general was?

"And?" she pressed. "What will happen to them?"

Loke shrugged.

"Nothing much," he assured, "they were given a warning and they have a week to find the culprit before the Octagon officially gives them a sanction."

"One week?" Lucy repeated. "They know it's impossible to catch a killer before this deadline, this is disgusting..."

"Yeah," the young man agreed. "He's with Mira and the general now, they're talking about what to do. Oh, now that I think about it, Makarov wanted you to go to his office to give him your report on what you saw today, at the accident scene."

Lucy grumbled and buried her face back into the pillow.

"Tell me he doesn't want me to go today?"

Loke laughed and slapped her butt.

"Sorry, darling," he laughed as he dodged her punch. "You'll have to go before dinner."

Outside, the sun was already setting and the sky was much darker than it had been when they got back to the Academy. Lucy shivered, starting to feel the cold. Maybe she should have taken a jacket before going out. Deciding to take a short cut, she walked around the gym to get to the main building, where Makarov had his office. She had to walk along the very narrow passage between the gym lockers and the gymnasium to reach the building, but froze when she heard footsteps from behind her. She turned around and saw a small shadow on the wall. She waited for a minute, the cold biting at her fingers and nose. Then, the small silhouette of the counsellor of the Octagon appeared. Lucy frowned at him, seeing as his smirk as he walked toward her.

"May I help you, sir?" she asked.

She heard his sinister laugh as he got closer to her.

"Oh, I'm sure you can," he assured.

Lucy got a bad feeling and, even if the midget wouldn't be able to physically harm her, took a subtle step back.

"Actually," he went on, "you're going to make me rich and powerful."

Lucy's frown deepened. Was he trying to bribe her or something? Was it normal for people from the HQ to try and corrupt recruits? She took another step back and his smirk widened.

"After all," he growled in euphoria, "it is normal to reward the man who, after years of tracking her down, finally found the daughter of Jude Heartfilia! Isn't that right, Lucy!?"

Lucy didn't move an inch, her face didn't give any sign of recognition. Instead, she tilted her head to the side, a confused expression on her face.

"Excuse me, sir?"

She had prepared herself for a time when she would face a member of the Octagon and was sure her best chance at getting away safely was to play dumb and show no emotion. Outside, she looked a bit confused, but that was all. Inside, she was freaking out like never before, she was fighting a battle against herself not to run away, screaming in panic.

"Stay strong, Lucy," her inner voice whispered calmly, "he's just bluffing, don't do anything to give yourself away. You're fine, girl, don't panic."

Lucy almost nodded, but managed to refrain herself from doing so. Instead, she watched the old midget burst out laughing, looking like a mad hyena.

"I can't believe I finally found you!" he screamed in delight. "There's no way for you to escape now, every single person working or studying here is under my orders!"

Lucy gulped, her act wasn't doing her much good.

"I don't unders..."

"Yeah, that's right!" he yelled. "Keep denying the truth! Struggle hopelessly! You're at my mercy, Lucy! I'll bring you back to the Octagon by the skin of your neck! You'll be locked in a cell of the Pandemonium and we'll make sure your father will be able to hear your screams as we beat you up, mutilate you, rape you until your body's completely destroyed! Then, we'll destroy your mind, too! You shouldn't have run away! You're going to pay for this, Lucy! We'll kill you slowly and painfully!"

Lucy barely listened to his threats, her fists clenched at her sides. She was busted.

"Kneel down," the midget ordered. "If you do, I'll handcuff you myself and we'll get out of here without making a ruckus. Kneel down and lick my boots. If you refuse, I'll walk out of that alley and order your friends to arrest you. I'll tell them the truth about your traitor of a father and your whore of a mother!"

Lucy's blood froze. A second before, she had been close to suffocate from her own inner heat. Now, the only thing she could feel was her deep, freezing hatred, tearing at her bones. He counted to three, but she didn't give a damn.

"Time's up," he smirked.

He walked past her slowly, smirking in victory. When he was close enough, she abruptly turned around and grabbed the man by his neck, lifting him off the ground and smashing his back against the wall. She didn't even realize that, but Lucy wasn't in control of her body anymore. Something else was acting on her behalf, doing something she wouldn't have been able to do. Her eyes were dull, her mind elsewhere. She was choking him.

She was forced to come back to her senses when she heard his laugh and felt his nails dig into her hands.

"Here," he coughed. "Kill me if you want, they'll find your DNA under my nails. You're doomed, Lucy."

The young woman felt her arms shake when strength left her body and she dropped the man. He fell to his knees and coughed. She didn't turn to watch him stand up and stagger toward the end of the passage, laughing to himself. She felt her tears run down her cheeks. Everything was over. She could still run away, but she wouldn't be able to escape Natsu and the others for long. And, worst of all, her sole chance of saving her father was ruined.

"Unless your body disappears," someone suddenly retorted.

Lucy turned around abruptly and her eyes widened when she saw Loke standing at the other side of the passage, blocking the midget's way. His eyes and face were dark, his body tense.

"If no one can find you, "he went on, "no one will know about what happened here. No body, no crime."

Lucy's eyes trailed down to his hand and widened again when she realized he was holding a gun.

"Hey," the old counsellor growled, "don't think you'd get away with it. Don't get involved in this, kid, you have no idea who this person really is..."

Loke's gaze never faltered. He lifted his hand, pointing the gun at the counsellor.

"I actually know everything there is to know about her," he retorted. "And even if I hadn't heard everything you just told her, I would know that it's far too dangerous to just let you go."

The midget got scared and took a menacing step toward Loke, who pulled on the breech. The cartridge was chambered.

"Don't think you can just threaten me like that!" the old man yelled furiously. "The detonation will alert everyone and you'll be screwed too!"

"There's a silencer," Loke retorted.

A moment of silence passed and Lucy wondered if the counsellor was going to surrender and promise not tell on her. Then, she realized that it was a stupid and naive thought. No matter what, this man had to disappear. Judging by Loke's hard gaze, he knew it too.

"You'll pay for this," the old man swore.

Loke shot. There was no noise and the wound was clean, right in between the eyes. Lucy froze and stared at her friend as he quickly walked toward the small man to put his head inside a plastic bag: to make sure they wouldn't leave any drop of blood behind, he explained. Lucy moved as well, she helped Loke close the bag and check their surroundings, but she was functioning on autopilot.

"We have to hide the body," Loke whispered. "Until we can find a way to get rid of it forever."

Lucy nodded, her brain having real difficulties working. Loke had killed someone to protect her secret. It wasn't the first time she had someone do something so terrifying for her sake, but it triggered traumatic memories and her mind had to shut itself off to protect her sanity. She glanced up at her friend, opening her mouth to speak, but not finding the words.

"Loke..." she sobbed.

He looked at her with eyes filled with emotions.

"What the fucking hell happened?"

Lucy blenched and jumped away from the voice coming from behind her. Before she turned around, she saw Loke's eyes go wide, his mouth dropping open. At the other side of the passage, staring at the corpse with wide, shocked eyes, stood Gray.

"Gray..."

Lucy flinched when she realized the weak, trembling voice she had just heard was her own. Her real voice, not the one she used to act as Luc. The young man tore his eyes away from the corpse and stared at her, still looking horrified.

"Did you do this?" he asked.

"No," Loke immediately corrected, "I did."

Gray stared at him, his face visibly paling a bit more with each passing second.

"You... this guy is from the Octagon..."

Loke nodded, refusing to avert his eyes. Gray closed his eyes and his hands reached up to clutch his hair, cursing and sighing. He finally turned around and went to crouch in front of Lucy.

"He knew about you, right?"

Lucy frowned, not managing to form any word.

"I..."

"He recognized you," Gray went on, "and wanted to drag you back to the HQ, right? That's why Loke killed him, right?"

"What are you..."

"Lucy!" Gray grabbed her shoulders firmly. "There's no time, please, answer me. Did he know about you? Was he going to take you back?"

Lucy stared at Gray. Apparently, she wasn't the only one remembering their childhood.

"You remember me?" her voice was still weak and trembling, "but not with fear and shock anymore."

The young man holding her shoulders sighed and looked at her with eyes filled with tenderness.

"I never forgot, Lucy," he breathed. "I never stopped looking for you either. But we don't have enough time to talk about it now, we have to get rid of this bastard."

He stood back up and stared at Loke.

"I take it you're aware of the situation," he said. "Then, you know we have to be quick. If we're found out, we're all dead."

Loke nodded and helped Lucy stand up as Gray turned around to look at the end of the alley.

"Gajeel," he called, "I know you followed me. Come here, we need your help."

Lucy stared in shock at the tall man with long, black hair that walked out from behind the wall and toward them. He had his hands in his pockets and didn't look that bothered by their situation. Lucy, though, was panicking: another person knew. This was a catastrophe!

"Don't sweat it, bunny girl," Gajeel smirked. "The shrimp told me that you were a girl a long time ago."

Lucy tilted her head to the side.

"He meant Levy," Loke explained.

"She figured you out right away," he smirked proudly.

Oh Lord, two more persons knew... How had the situation become so dire for her? She didn't even see it coming, but, apparently, almost all her friends knew about her being a girl.

"Who else knows?"

Gray glared at her.

"Do you seriously think this is the right time to talk about that? We have a corpse to hide."

"Hide?" Gajeel repeated. "Are you nuts? We gotta make it disappear for good."

"How?" Loke asked. "It's not like we can have it magically fly away to another country."

"I don't understand how you guys can agree to help me without even thinking about it when someone was killed," Lucy breathed.

The boys stared at her and Loke arched a brow.

"Well, technically, I'm the one who killed him. So, they're doing it for me."

"Right," Gray agreed, "we don't really care about you. You can go to sleep, if you want, we won't even notice."

Gajeel smirked and added.

"I didn't even notice you standing there."

Lucy shook her head, feeling so deeply grateful for finding such precious friends. Loke grinned at her, his hands around the plastic bag containing the head of the dead counsellor.

"Don't worry, Lucy," he said, "we're your friends. We're siding with you."

Lucy nodded, not trusting herself to speak, seeing as she couldn't even hold back her tears of joy.

"Well, I'm happy to hear that," someone else said.

The group abruptly turned to the end of the alley.

"Because, we're all accomplices here," Erza declared. "You're lucky that I know exactly how to get rid of this corpse."

Her arrival obviously triggered dozens of questions that she refused to answer before they were done with the counsellor's body. Only Gajeel didn't seem that affected by her involvement in this whole fake identity and murder thing.

"Figured she'd be in," he smirked.

Erza briefly explained her plan to them and walked out of the alley as if she was just quietly taking a stroll before going to eat. She took her car and came to a stop near the gymnasium so the boys could carry their murder victim and put it inside the trunk. No one was around anymore, so it was fairly easy. They climbed quickly in and she drove them to the forest, following the path until it was too narrow for the car to go on. They had to go on walking, carrying the heavy dead weight until they reached the lake. Lucy obviously helped them, carrying one of his legs, panting under the effort and trying to keep her memories at bay. This obviously wasn't the right time to dwell on memories that would most probably torture her. On several occasions, she panicked when she heard something crack or rustle in the bushes around them, but it always turned out to be a small animal.

"Put him in the bark," Erza ordered.

The four of them unceremoniously dropped him in the small boat and took a moment to take a breath.

"What are we going to do now?" Gray asked, looking less tired than the rest of them.

Erza tensed a bit and sighed before moving to the side and pointing to the closest edge of the lake.

"We're going to take a few of these rocks," she explained, "I'll tie them to his limbs and torso... and we'll drop him in the water."

It took them half an hour to get the rocks, row to the center of the lake, tie the rocks to the corpse and drop him. When they got back to the Academy, Erza talked to them.

"Go back to your respective rooms," she said, "have a shower, show up at diner and eat well, laugh and talk like normal. If someone asks where you were this evening, tell them you were helping me out with paperwork. Never talk about what happened tonight, not even among yourselves. We will talk about it, but only when you meet me in my office."

She took a deep breath in and slowly expired.

"Remember that this man was a dangerous psychopath that would have tortured and killed your friend if it makes you feel any better. What you did tonight was heroic and I'm really, deeply grateful to you." She turned to Lucy, hugged her, kissed her forehead and smiled sweetly. "I have to go now. It's up to you what you want to tell them, but I think they've proven their trustworthiness."

Lucy smiled back and nodded. While the redhead walked away, she turned to the boys.

"I already know the important stuff," Gray assured, "I'll go have a shower now. You can tell me about the details another time."

"Same here," Loke laughed.

"And I don't really give a damn," Gajeel shrugged, already walking away.

Lucy stared at them, dumbfounded. Granted, she was never really a specialist of normality, but she was pretty sure that their reaction was still very weird. In her state of confusion and exhaustion, though, she just followed Loke back to their room. Not yet realizing that she had just gotten herself allies that just openly sided with her in the upcoming war against the Octagon.

End of chapter 16

We didn't see Natsu in this chapter, but the reason for him not being involved in this is pretty obvious, so I won't dwell on it. And we'll see him a lot more in the next chapter, don't worry! Also, I'm warning you in advance, but I'll post a warning at the start of the chapter: I don't know if it will be in the next chapter or the one after that, but prepare yourselves for some light smut!

Note: To those of you who own a Tumblr account, especially the ones who also read The Last Valkyrie, I highly recommend that you follow me: hungrypeanut. From now on, the previews will be posted there. I won't add them at the end of the chapters anymore.

As usual, please don't hesitate to tell me what you've thought of this chapter. This one was very important and triggered the upcoming war against the HQ. Things will quickly get real intense for everyone, so stay tuned! Thank you very much to everyone who posted a review, favorited and followed the story: your support means the world to me!

2nd note: Here's a (very) small list of fictions I highly recommend reading (not in order of preference):

- Capturing her damaged heart, by mushi0131

- The Princess and the Pirate, by LeeSUP

- Of Myths and Monsters, by storybooksandfairytails

I might talk about some others later, but I'll start with my favorites!

Now! I'm going to answer a few questions from the reviews!

Q (from AnonymousStalkerFriend): Wait so did Natsu notice the whole "she" deal or did he just glance over it?

A: I think you can figure this one out by yourselves. We're talking about a commander here, an officer has to be very perceptive.

Q (from FairyLover01): Wait, does that mean that Natsu knows she is a girl?

A: I've been asked this question so many times already, haha! You'll find out soon, don't worry!

Q (from 4evrDorkly17) : Also is she (Lucy) really in denial of her own mental state?

A: This is actually not that big of a deal. It's common for traumatized people to find ways to escape reality a bit. In Lucy's case, it's usually easy to ignore, she just sometimes talks to herself. It can only get a bit worrisome when she's very stressed out, as you saw during the Game.

Q (from 4evrDorkly17): Plus why is Gray acting as a recruit when hes obviously stronger/more experienced than one?!

A: Because he is. I'll get to that soon enough!

Q (from CathJorda): does it have regular updates?

A: No, I update as soon as the chapter's finished and corrected. It can be pretty fast (like for this one) or really slow (it sometimes happen).

Q (from ): is Loke going to die?

A: I gave you a huge hint in this chapter (try looking for it!)

That'll be all for today. Feel free to ask more questions, I'll answer them, either at the end of a chapter or in p.m!

Next chapter coming soon!