Lucy looked out of the train and sighed as she gently massaged Natsu's head while he groaned as the vehicle moved and she gave Grey an un-impressed look when he snickered looking at his sick friend. It was a little unlucky for Natsu because Wendy usually performed Troia on him but she was couldn't accompany them on the mission because she was being visited by Sherria. She looked over towards Erza and smiled when she saw the red-haired cuddle Happy and he snuggled more into her arms.
The mission was simple, A monster has been causing havoc in Acalypha city, where the merchant guild was located and Lucy felt her heart clenching. It was a good excuse to visit her parent's grave since it was her dad's birthday. Also, the reason they were sent on this mission was that the guild was being visited by Sabertooth members, the ones Lucy definitely had a problem with. The white and Shadow Dragonslayers, Minerva, Orga and Rufus. Not that Lucy had a problem with them being at the guild but she guessed that master didn't want her team to be there when they came.
Her thoughts wandered to her new house and a small smile played on her has been a week since she bought it. Her spirits helped her turn it into a home, and everything Lucy thought about it, she felt so happy. The furnishing of the house was finally done, she decorated her room her favourite place to hang out was her backyard. But what she absolutely loved was meeting Laxus for her morning jog and his jogging attire. It made her mouth water at the sight of his ripped muscles, and this broad shoulders, the way he rolled his back when he was stretching and her heart was out of her rib cage the day he showed up in her backyard wearing a loose tank top.
They grew close over this week. They got to know each other, they talked. Lucy never thought that laxus was arrogant, power crazy man he was before, but the way he listened to everything she said made her so happy. They would be sitting in the same clearing she and Bickslow met and they would just talk about anything. She got to know that he was extremely educated and smart, and he loved to read books, his favourite food, believe it or not, was mac and cheese, he loved his morning coffee and hated paperwork. He even requested to see her new powers but Lucy smirked and replied with 'In due time.' Right now, for some reason, her heart tugged at being away from him.
She missed him already.
Laxus clenched his jaw and closed his eyes when the familial scents entered his nose. His dragon was not making it easy for him to control his rage when he kept on chanting murder in his head. To make things even worse, Lucy was not here. He did not want her here right now, but his dragon snarled and growled in his head, blaming the 'guests' downstairs for this. He closed his eyes and thought about her, trying to control the raging beast. His lips formed into a smile when he thought about the previous week. His house was filled with her scent from constantly being around and he loved it. He loved their morning jogs together, her wearing yoga pants and a sports bra underneath her sweatshirt.
He loved the way she would tie her hair around in a ponytail, or when she yawned in the mornings. He felt complete near her.
When he felt the dragon calm down, he got up from his desk and walked out of his office. The first thing he noticed was how quiet it was. All the members sat at their table and did not say a word, instead just glared at the rivel Guild. He saw Mira look up at him and he nodded at her. Before he could come down the stairs, a hand stopped him and he turned and saw Gajeel making him raise his eyebrow at him. " A word." was all the iron Dragon said before he, once again, entered his office.
"Try controlling your dragon spark plug, their scent will make you want to hunt them down." Gajeel looked at the buff guy in front of him with slight concern. Laxus, already understanding what Gajeel was saying just nodded his head. He remembered being physically restrained by one of Freed's runes to stop him from killing the bitch. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and finally both the slayers make their way downstairs. His eye twitched when he saw the Oger (Orga) look at the picture of his blondie behind the bar. It was a picture of her with Mira and Cana making a peace sign. Laxus loved that picture. He forced himself to look away before he zapped that asshole's ass. He looked around the guild and was a little surprised to see the little Wendy glare at Minerva who sat at the bar, looking around in disgust. He had an idea about how Wendy felt looking at Minerva when he himself had a hard time controlling his anger.
Gajeel dragged him to the table currently occupied by Bickslow, Freed and Elfman and sat down. He looked around the guild once more when his eyes landed on the other three Sabertooth members who were looking at around the guild. His jaw clenched when the White Dragon Slayers whisper reached his ear.
"Their team is not here. Do you think that they are protecting the blonde bimbo from the lady." Sting had whispered to his partner who just sat there, feeling like coming here was a mistake. Rouge looked around and his eyes landed on one person he had never seen before. She was sitting at the back of the guild, an exceed cuddling her while she read a book. Her blue hair was tied in a bun but a few strands escaped which she occasionally tucked behind her ear. Rouge thought that she was adorable when a very low and feral growl entered his ear, something only a Dragon Slayer could hear, and he turned his head, quite surprised when he saw Gajeel glare at him, his eyes narrowed and his mouth in a form of a snarl.
He felt a wave of shiver travel through him and he averted his eyes from the girl. Rouge, at that moment, knew, that she was Gajeel's mate and he knew that engaging with her would be asking for a death sentence. He, however also noticed how quiet the guild was and how they were being glared at from all the direction. But that was nothing to the sense of doom that came over him when his lady said the next sentence.
"So~ where is my punching bag. I don't see her around here." Minerva smirked looking at the pathetic guild who managed to beat them and sneered in her mind. She was sure that they would not start an inter-guild fight even if she was basically in their territory. What happened next was a shock to herself and her guild members but very satisfying to the others. One minute she was sitting at the bar the other she was throat slammed into the wall behind her making her gasp at the impact and she internally shivered looking at the person in front of her.
Mira sneered at her face and squeezed her throat, holding her against the wall. Her body was completely transformed into Satans soul and the immense power that leaked through her body choked the Sabertooth mages.
"Let's make one thing clear, you came to our guild for work purpose you stay here for work purpose. If you want to pick up a fight with us, i am going to smash your pathetic face just like Erza did. If you are here for a week, better be on your best behaviour." The Rival guild was even more surprised when the pressure of her magic increased with each word she said. Mira let the territory mage lose making her fall to the ground and transformed back to her original self and smiling sweetly at her. The guild members chuckled at her behaviour and Minerva stood up, her hand soothing her neck and gritted her teeth while returning to her original position on her stool.
Laxus smirked from his place and put his headphones on. ' Maybe it will be not so bad after all.'
Lucy cursed under her breath as she saw Natsu and Grey's attack on the monster remained completely futile. She looked at Erza and nodded her head and both sprinted towards, Erza jumped and summoned two swords and sliced the beast making it roar out of pain but to her horror, the wounds stitched back and the monster ran towards Erza. Lucy summoned Loke and Scorpio and summoned Cancer's blades in her hand and Called out for Grey. " Grey! Make an Ice chain and bind it!" she saw him nod and she looked at Erza and said, " Its an energy absorbing monster, magical attacks are useless on him. Loke and Scorpio use your light and sand and blind it, Natsu and happy attack it from above, the head is a weak point and Erza we need to match the timing and somehow slice the heart."
Grey's chain wrapped around the monster and stopped the movements of its limbs and Lucy motioned her spirit forward and readied her blades once both Loki and Scorpio blinded the monster for a minute giving her enough time to throw the blade at her eyes and closing the gate when the monster dropped on its knees roaring in pain. Happy took the time to fly Natsu up and dropping him in his head and saw him ignite his fist with flames and punching the head with full force while Erza pierced the blade through the heart of the monster. All of them stood back as they saw the beast dropped to the ground and saw the life leaving its body.
They let out a breath of relief and Lucy smiled at her team. Grey ruffed her hair and smiled at her, " Good job, Luce." Natsu pulled her into a hug and twirled her around making her laugh. "MAn, Lucy you have changed so much. You have to fight me one day!" he jumped with excitement making his team members roll their eyes.
They were even impressed that the damage was minimum around the are they were fighting at. The group started walking back to the town and Lucy and Erza stayed back a little to create distance between themselves and the boys.
"Your skills have improved so much Luce. I am proud of you." she smiled at the blonde who was positively glowing with the praise. "Thanks, Erza! I was thinking that maybe we could train together when we get back. If that's okay with you" She looked at the red-haired hoping she would say yes and her excitement grew when Erza smiled and nodded her head.
They increased their pace to walk with the boys when Lucy stopped as if frozen in her place making the others pause as well. "Hey Luce, you alright," Natsu asked, frowning at the blonde, but no answer came from her, instead, she turned to her right and started running. She didn't know what was happening but suddenly she felt a pull, almost magnetic, luring her to follow. She gasped under her breath while running when she sensed the familiar magic.
She was hardly aware of her team following her when she reached the dark part of the forest, ignoring the protests of her team members and stopped in front of a tree. It was covered with moss but there was a large magical presence coming from it.
Lucy remembered reading it in the book that the other keys would only make an appearance when she unlocked her Angel powers.
"Lucy, what are you doing?" Erza asked, drawing her sword and looking at her surroundings cautiously, but Lucy took a step forward and her teammates watched in surprise when she touched the tree and gasped at the amount of magic pressure that excited her hand only as it glows white in colour. They took a step back when the tree started splitting in half and Grey was ready to move her out of the way when lucy stepped back on her own and watched the tree fall down. Instead of the tree was a key, copper in colour and the design on top was very different from her celestial keys. Lucy grabbed the keys and looked at it in awe.
She turned to look at her teammates and gulped, knowing that she had to explain all of this to them. " Let me summon the spirit and i will tell you everything back at the hotel." She looked at them, pleading and sighed a breath of relief when they nodded.
"But first, let's get out of here," Erza spoke and pointed in the direction they came from. Lucy hooked they key to her ring and walked beside them, the whole group silent.
Once they reached a small pathway back to town, Lucy took the key out and held it forward while her teammates watched her. Erza frowned when an unfamiliar but strong magic power came from Lucy and her frown was changed into fascination as her whole body started glowing white.
"With the power of the stars and guardians invested in me, i command thy to come forth; Gaea Mother of the earth!" Lucy opened her eyes and had to squint them a bit when a blinding light surrounded her before she stood in front of the new spirit. Both looked at each other, studying and analysing when Gaea vowed down and wished her. "Master." It was that one word that tipped Lucy off and what made her frown more was the cold tone the spirit had.
" Please don't call me Master Geae, call me Lucy. I am just like you and don't require any honour. Moreover, i believe my spirits to be my family and friends and not as tools. I don't want you to enter into a contract with me if you don't want to." Lucy talked in a soft tone, trying to repair whatever damage the last owner had done. She smiled at the spirit who looked at her with surprise and the cold look was replaced with a soft one.
Her gaze shifted from the young woman's face to the keys attached to her hips and she was genuinely surprised at the number of keys the mage had with her.
" Alright then, Lucy. My name is Gaea and i control the element of the earth. I can manipulate and control the element. I can also control the aspect of life linked to the earth. I wish to enter into a contract with you." The spirit said and Lucy smiled.
"Great! Is there any specific thing i should know, like which magic is your weakness and the timing you are available at." She asked sweetly and the spirit then recalled the favoured mage on earth and by almost all the celestial spirits.
" I have a weakness for water and ice and i am available anytime of the day for you." She smiled at the blonde and bowed once more before vanishing. Her team mated looked at her with different emotions on their faces and Lucy sighed.
"I know you have questions, but whatever i show and tell you stays between us as a team. I need you to promise me that you will not break the promise, okay?" She looked at them with compleate seriousness and took a deep breath when they nodded.
"Okay so it started when i left to train..."