Chapter TWELVE

"W-what?" Makarov asked, wondering if he had heard her correctly.

"I would like to leave the guild." Lucy repeated, much quieter than before. "Because I don't want to drag anyone into this." She said firmly.

Makarov still stared at her, not saying anything.

"I would just like to go on one more mission." Lucy added.

Finally, Makarov seemed to come out of his frozen state and managed a shaky smile. "Of course. If this is your wish, I cannot stop you. However, you must never reveal sensitive information about Fairy Tail to others for as long as you live." He paused.

"You must never use former contacts met through your being in the guild for personal gain." He let out another shaky breath. "Though our paths may have diverged, you must continue to live out your life with all your might, you must never consider your own life to be something insignificant, and you must never forget about your friends for as long as you live."

Lucy smiled. "After I finish my mission, I'll come see you again."

Makarov nodded, then turned to Jellal. "Make sure you disguise yourself." Jellal nodded.

Lucy smiled, then turned to leave the room. Darque opened the door for her and Lucy stepped out, Jellal a step behind her. Darque turned to Makarov and dipped her head, then turned and followed her contractors, closing the door behind her.

"No." Lucy said firmly, folding her arms over her chest. "We are not going to any sort of monster fighting missions."

Team Natsu was no where to be seen and the two candidates were currently standing in front of the mission board, arguing over which mission to take.

Jellal was holding up a very old, crumbled looking poster

Lucy yanked the missions paper out of Jellal's hands and quickly skimmed it. She then took it and waved it in his face.

Help us

An unknown monster is terrorizing our town.

Reward: 4,000,000

"Read it Properly~" Lucy whined.

Jellal nodded. "Yes, I did. They are asking for help. So I though we should help them." Though he looked serious, Lucy could see the play of amusement and mischief in his eyes.

Lucy sighed. "I wont be any help." Lucy complained.

Darque appeared all of a sudden and flicked Lucy's forehead. "I can take on any monster." She said. Lucy sighed, then passed the mission back to Jellal.

Suddenly, a hand plopped down onto Lucy's shoulder and she jumped.

"Hi Lucy." Erza said, then turned to Jellal. "Hello Jellal. Did you find a mission you would like to go on?" She glanced at the mission in Jellal's hands.

Gray and Happy approached then, calling out a greeting. A few moments later, Natsu with a ever so clingy Lisanna reached them as well.

Lucy smiled sadly and moved away from the board, leaving team Natsu to their argument.

Jellal looked up from the the board and glanced around. Lucy was now sitting at the bar, talking to Mira. Darque was hovering over the bar, the bottom half of her body transformed into mist. So, she could turn into mist and float?

He glanced at Lucy again, then turned to look at team Natsu. True, team Natsu didn't even seen to acknowledge her.

Jellal glanced back at the missions Lucy had rejected. The pay was pretty good. Scratch that, the pay was really good, considering the fact that it wasn't a S-class mission. Lucy was now housing three people, four including herself. Jellal decided that they could use the money.

"Darque." He whispered, then glanced at the bar. Sure enough, the spirit was looking at him.

'What?'

"Wait. You can use telepathy even when you're not in the spirit world?" He asked, not noticing how his voice was now loud enough for the whole of team Natsu to hear.

'Yeah. Well, this is my half mist state. By the way, team Natsu are looking at you weirdly.'

Jellal looked around to notice she was right. He groaned, bringing his hand to his head. He could faintly hear Darque laughing in his head. He glanced at the mission again, then looked pointedly at the spirit.

Darque grinned, then turned to say something to Lucy. Lucy glanced at the spirit and nodded.

Her body began turning into mist, but didn't disappear like when she was returning to the spirit world. Instead, the blob of mist swirled into the air, then moved towards Jellal. She reformed halfway and now, she was floating above Jellal's head.

Jellal nodded at her, then held up the mission poster. "Convince Lucy." He said. When Darque glanced at him innocently, Jellal sighed. "This is an order at you're master."

Darque rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jellal-sama." She said, then flew back towards Lucy.

He turned back to team Natsu to notice their eyes on him. "What?"

"Um, master?" Gray asked.

Oh, shit. Jellal slowly nodded. He would have to choose his words carefully. "Yeah, I've contracted with her as well."

"And the mission paper?" Erza asked. "Why bring it to Lucy?"

Jellal looked at her, faking surprise. "Isn't she part of team Natsu as well?"

Erza stared at him. "Well, that missions is way too difficult for her." She said. "So..." She trailed off, looking slightly guilty.

Jellal glanced pointedly at Natsu. "Lucy beat Natsu." He pointed out.

Lisanna shook her head. "No, her spirit beat Natsu." She glanced at said dragon slayer. "Now, lets go on that mission. I'll go get it from Lucy." She let go of Natsu's arm to talk to Lucy, but Darque suddenly appeared in front of her, scaring Lisanna with her sudden appearance.

"Lucy said yes." She said. Jellal nodded, then turned to team Natsu. "Sorry, I'm going on this on with Lucy." He said. He smiled at the spirit then made his way over to Lucy, ignoring the shocked looks team Natsu were sending him.

Lucy smiled at Jellal when he sat next to her. "For a moment, I actually thought you were going to ditch me and go with team Natsu."

Jellal grinned back at her. "I'm not that cold hearted." He scoffed. "I promised you, didn't I?"

Lucy shrug. "I don't remember you promising. You just said you might come with me." She glanced at team Natsu out of the corner of her eye. They were still staring at Jellal in shock, though they seemed to have calmed down a bit.

Lucy picked up the mission paper and glanced at it. 'Croft town. West from Magnolia, five hours by train'. She nodded to herself and handed it to Mira, who quickly accepted it for them.

Lucy jumped to her feet, grabbed Jellal's wrist, sent Darque a glance, and dashed out of the guild before Mira could comment on their possible relationship.

Sorry for the day late update for the previous chapter. In case you guys haven't noticed, we are (trying to) update once every three days.

Blame Raven. He was in charge of posting the chapters. He called me and was like, 'Sorry, I have a test to study for, so I can't post the chapter', or some other shit the day after we were supposed to post this chapter.

Guess what? I'm in a really bad mood so I'll tell you. Raven had white hair. And I have no friggin clue why his account name is 'Raven' when not an ounce of Raven can be seen on his being.

Anyways, thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites.

Review and tell me what you think.