Porlyusica grimaced. So she has amnesia, huh. She absent-mindely adjusted her cloak and evaluated the situation.
Natsu rolled onto the balls of his feet and then landed with a thud on his butt, a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"Wait!" Lucy exclaimed. "I know who you are!" She grinned happily, excitement making her face glow.
Natsu jumped to his feet, his heart racing. "You do?!"
"Duh!" She said, as if that was the most ridiculous question he could ask her. "You're Salamander from Fairy Tail!" She exclaimed happily, pointing to his guild mark.
Natsu's face dropped. "Yeah... that's definitely me." He said half-heartedly, or rather, he was disappointed.
"Wow! I can't believe this!" She squealed happily, a wide grin spreading across her face. She looked down at her current state and cried out, "Oh geez. And I look like crap." She attempted to make herself presentable before sticking her hand out to introduce herself.
"Hi! I'm Lucy! I've been a big fan of you!" She smiled up at him, waiting for him to shake her hand. "I've always wanted to join Fairy Tail!" She chattered on happily, oblivious to how her words affected Natsu.
Suddenly, Natsu's face brightened up and he grabbed Lucy's hand, bringing the back of her hand up to her face as he pointed to it happily. "You're already a member! See!" He said a little desperately, hoping it would jog her memory.
"Is this some sort of joke?" She pulled her hand from his grip and looked at him as if he had a third eye.
"But Lucy, the guil-" He stopped short, his eyebrows furrowed together as he stared at her bare hand in confusion. Where was her guild mark? He could have sworn it was on her hand. He grabbed her and started searching for her mark, looking in some inappropriate places as well.
"Hey! Hands off!" She yelled as she smacked his hands away. "Geez. Sorcerer's Weekly never mentioned you were a pervert." She huffed, keeping a warey eye on him.
"Hey, old hag!" He whirled around to face Porlyusica. "What gives? Where's her guild mark?" Natsu felt his blood rushing through his body. He was starting to panic, something he was not very familiar with.
Porlyusica had a grim look on her face. This was more severe than she had thought. "It seems that not only has she forgotten you. But her memory has been so repressed that her body got rid of the mark."
"No way..." Loke mumbled in awe as he stepped forward to face Lucy. "Do you know who I am?" He was her Celestial Spirit afterall. Granted she met him after she joined the guild, but maybe there was a slim chance she would remember him.
"Of course!" She looked fondly at him. "A Celestial Wizard never forgets about her Spirits."
"Aw come on!" Natsu groaned, throwing his hands up in frustration. "You remember him but not me?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Loke asked, rather offended.
Natsu ignored him as he pushed Loke aside and grabbed Lucy by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes with a serious expression on his face. "Is the rash on your butt doing any better? I put more than enough cream on it so it should be."
Her eyes went huge as she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Whaaaaat?!"
Natsu plugged his ears and grinned, he knew it'd get a rise out of her and hopefully jog something.
"How di- how did you- there's no way you did that!" She exclaimed, absent-mindely grabbing for her butt.
"You sure about that?" He continued
teasing. "That's how well you know me. In fact..." A devilish grin spread across his face.
"That's enough." Porlyusica cut in. "Obviously your way of trying to regain her memory isn't working." She crossed her arms and sat next to Lucy.
Lucy was uncomfortable, avoiding Porlyusica's intense stare and pursed lips as the older woman was in deep thought. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "Hi. Um... who are you exactly?" She asked a bit awkwardly.
In a normal situation, Porlyusica would have told her to mind her own business. But this was unfortunately not a normal situation. "I am Porlyusica. A master healer among other things."
Loke narrowed his eyes at her words. Who was she? He was really intrigued, especially about that flower.
"Oh." Was all Lucy muttered as she suffered through Porlyusica's analysis.
"Lay down for me and relax. I'll be right back." She said before getting up and motioning to Loke to follow her to a corner of the room.
She paused, glancing over at Natsu before saying anything. His sharp hearing wouldn't have a problem picking up their conversation, but he was too preoccupied with Lucy to care about anything else.
"You know what I'm going to do, don't you?" She asked. Loke wasn't the leader of the Zodiac for nothing.
"I guess I'm going back to the garden?"
"Smart boy." She replied curtley as she whirled around back to her rack of items of all kinds.
Loke came back with the same flowers from before. And Porlyusica started the process again. She brought out the rare Celestial flower and plucked off a petal.
Natsu's nose twitched and he started sniffing the air. He eventually pinpointed the object of his interest. "Hey! I remember that smell!" He immediately ran to Porlyusica's side and swiped for the flower but Porlyusica flipped him over like a pancake, not a single hair out of place.
Natsu laid flat on the ground in a daze; completely shocked by what just happened.
"Keep your grubby hands off of my things." Porlyusica chastised, slowly losing her patience.
"But that flower... I recognize it."
Porlyusica closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "I gave it to you earlier while you were unconscious."
Natsu's eyebrows furrowed together as he seemed dissatisfied with her reasoning. He was going to say something but he was sidetracked by Lucy.
Lucy yelled out, flapping her hands frantically in front of her mouth as she tried to sooth the intense burning sensation that flared throughout her mouth. She knew that flower looked suspicious, and the second it touched her tongue, bursting into flames, she knew that she would regret it immensely.
"Come on, Lucy. You've felt worse flames than that." Natsu tried to comfort her while holding back laughter. His snickering made her face turn a more intense shade of red.
"Alright you two, cut it out." Porlyusica cut in, sitting on a chair in front of Lucy. "Lay down." She commanded and Lucy immediately followed her order.
She shivered as the cold gel-like concoction was placed on her chest and then forehead. The same crystals were sprinkled on.
"Now we wait." Porlyusica sighed as she got up. She had more valuable things to do with her time.
"And you." She grabbed Natsu by the collar of his shirt and dragged him outside.
"What gives?" Natsu asked, straightening his collar.
"You need to leave her alone. What I am doing is a very delicate process and I can't have you messing it up."
Natsu begrudgingly nodded his head, not fully understanding why, but he trusted Porlyusica.
"You and Loke go report back to Makarov." She ordered, sensing Loke's presence behind her.
"Yes ma'am." Loke responded, opening a gate and motioning for Natsu to follow him in.
Makarov nodded his head, deeply distraught at the debriefing Loke just gave him.
"When will the bad news end?" He grumbled in dismay, sliding off of the chair to start pacing back and forth.
"Did Porlyusica say when we could see her?" Erza cut in, intrigued by Lucy's state. She really needed to get to the bottom of this Dark Erciture. If only Jet and Warren would hurry up and find Freed.
"No, but she was adamant that Natsu stay away from her."
Erza chuckled. "That's Natsu for you." She reminisced in fond memories until a loud noise caught her attention. "And speak of the devil."
Natsu sprinted inside the room, locking the door behind him with a bang. His cheek was starting to form a bruise.
The others must have exacted their revenge. Erza laughed to herself, imaging the scene that probably unfolded.
"Where is that bastard! Come out here Salamander and fight me!" Gajeel's voice ricocheted throughout the hall, followed by a dragging noise and Levy's voice begging him to stop.
"Let go of me, will yah!" He yelled, trying to pry Levy off of him.
"You need to rest." She insisted through gritted teeth, her voice was strained as she struggled to hold onto him.
"I have to teach that idiot a lesson!" He was dead set on finding Natsu and not even Levy was going to stop him.
The dragging noise continued all the way up to the door where it abruptly stopped; the door handle jiggled.
A moment of silence passed and then an iron rod sent wooden pieces flying everywhere as the door was knocked down.
Makarov's mouth dropped and his face paled. "I just fixed that door." He groaned, staring in disbelief at where the door had just been, now occupied by an angry Gajeel.
"Where is he?" He demanded, scanning the room for Natsu.
He began to sniff the air. "I know he's in here." His eyes scanned the room. "Are any of you going to tell me?" He continued his scan until his eyes landed on Erza who had an appalled look on her face.
Gajeel's expression went from one of anger to annoyance. He sighed and raised his hands up. "I'm not going to do anything to you. I just want that idiot and I'll leave." He slowly made his way toward a corner of the room where he smelled Natsu the most; all the while keeping his hands up and a warey eye on Erza.
Loke and Levy took glances between the two as they tried to figure out what happened. Loke was about to ask when a loud bang interrupted him.
"I found you!" Gajeel yelled in triumph as he swung at Natsu.
Natsu dodged Gajeel's barrage of attacks as best as he could. "Can't we do this some other time?" He said, jumping off a couch and rolling behind the bed.
Gajeel failed to notice a tensed up Erza standing in front of the bed and jumped after Natsu. But before he could get halfway over the bed, he became one with the wall. He moaned as he brought up a hand to his temple. "Come on..." He grumbled, frustrated.
"Okay! I want to know why you're hitting me for no reason! And I wanna know now!" He yelled at Erza, fed up. Erza's mouth hung open as she was at a loss of words.
Makarov sighed. "Excuse me, Loke." He walked up to Gajeel and whispered in his ear.
"What?!" His head snapped up and he glanced at Erza's now mortified face. "Are you messin' with me old man? Cause if you are..." He warned, but Makarov continued to whisper in his ear and Gajeel's cheeks began to redden.
He looked at Erza, then at Makarov, then at Erza again, and then he dusted himself off as he let himself out. He had enough today. However, before he left, he paused at the doorway and said, "This fight ain't over, Salamander."
"Hurry up, Warren!" Jet yelled, running backwards as he folded his hands behind his head.
Warren huffed as he tried to keep up. "How about you slow down?" Even through telepathy, Jet could hear the exhaustion in his voice.
"Come on! Erza entrusted us with this mission!" He coaxed. "You wouldn't want to disappoint her." He shivered at the possible punishments as he imagined a giant Erza looming over them with shinning, red eyes.
That seemed to motivate Warren to keep running for a few more feet but then he galloped to a stop, resting his hands on his knees, huffing. "Can't we just rest for 5 minutes?" Warren pleaded between breaths.
Jet sighed, he did manage to keep up this far. "Fine." He said reluctantly.
"Oh thank goodness." Warren collapsed to the ground, his face pressed against the soft grass.
Jet plopped down next to him. "So... did you sense him yet?"
"No." Warren sighed, grimacing in dismay. They've been at this for only a few hours though.
"It's okay. He can't be that far since Laxus was rumored to be roaming around here."
"Yeah..." Warren absent-mindely agreed, thinking of the possible places Freed could be.
Jet suddenly jumped to his feet. "Did you hear that?"
Warren quickly clamored to his feet as well. "What is that noise?" He peered into the forest, trying to find the source of the noise.
Suddenly, a large shadow shook the trees as it pushed its' way through the forest, toward the field they were in.
"A Vulcan?" Jet asked in confusion. As far as he knew, Vulcans only lived in the mountains. "What is it doing all the way down here?" Was something happening in the mountains?
"No." Warren disagreed, his brows furrowed together as his eyes narrowed in on the sight of the monster. "That's a Gorian; a subspecies of Vulcans."
Jet nodded his head. "Watch out," he warned, taking note that the creature had spotted them.
Suddenly, the giant form decreased in size until it turned into the shape of a human.
Warren's eyes widened in shock. "Jet! Be careful! Gorian's are known for their advanced ability in take over!"
"Is that so?" Jet mumbled to himself, amusement lacing his tone. "Guess this one took over a human...huh. That's fine, I could use some winding down." He smirked, getting into a fighting stance.
The human form got closer and closer until the light of day finally revealed the creature. Light green hair shined brightly in the sun's rays.
"Freed?!" Jet and Warren yelled in unison; absolutely bewildered by their situation.
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events." Warren said, trying to make light of the situation. It would be their luck after all; for a Vulcan to take over the very person they needed.
"Can't tell if this is good luck or bad." Warren mused. "Any ideas?"
"Not a clue." Warren replied, his mind going blank.
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for patiently waiting. I apologize that it took so long to update, but like always, I hope I don't disappoint you with the chapter. Ummm... not much else to say really besides thank you all for sticking with me this whole time. I appreciate every single one of you guys that take the time to read my story. And yet again, those of you who comment, you guys are the real MVPs that make my day. Peace out and have a great day everyone! :)