Iron in the Stars
AN: Story is my idea, but I do not own anything Fairy Tail.
Chapter 11: Gemini
How did I get myself into this mess? Oh yeah, the only way Erza would forgive me for last night was if she trained me today and was able to see the Regulas blast more up close and be able to analyze it. She even forced me to stay with her last night and let me tell you how awkward that was. She loved to cuddle. Not the type of cuddling that was comfortable either, it was the kind that made you feel like you were trapped inside of iron bars and couldn't move. Hell, not just couldn't move, but couldn't breathe. I was not happy. I was tired and we were getting ready to train. Not only that, but stupid Gajeel made sure to tell her that he had me running five to ten miles a day now. He could have left that out and given me a break.
"Ready Lucy?" I was standing outside of Fairy Hills stretching knowing I would have one hell of a day waiting for me. We started to run. After an hour I thought I was going to die. I never really thought about it, but now I had to wonder if Gajeel ever ran at a slower pace to make me comfortable because it was torture keeping pace with Erza. Once we stopped though I fell to the ground in a sweaty mess. Yup, I was going to die today. Perhaps agreeing to this wasn't a wise idea. Maybe she was still mad at me for last night and this was payback? She was still perfectly fine. How was she still perfectly fine? I felt like I was dying, that I couldn't breath and she was just standing there as if we did run at all. "Alright Lucy, your break is up." My break? She better not mean my half of a minute. That was not a damn break. She handed me some water and then requiped to her Flight armor.
"This is the deal, Gajeel told me that he's been training you and I think he's been too soft. I want to see you fight with my own two hands." I was going to interrupt her and tell her that the phrase was two eyes, but she didn't give me the chance. "This is going to be a real fight and I want you to pull everything out to try and beat me. Use whatever means necessary, but I want to see how far you can go into this fight. After that, we will determine the next type of training to look at." I was terrified; it was one thing sparring with Gajeel and Laxus, but a complete different situation when it had to be Erza. She was like a sister. She was the strongest woman in Fairy Tail! I was going to surely die. Then it dawned on me. I thought the same thing with the two men and I was still here. I was much stronger than when we started. I should have more confidence in myself. I could do this. I could defeat Erza. My problem hasn't been that I was weak. It was because I was scared not to be weak. Seriously, screw that. I was done being weak. I wanted to fight. I didn't want to sit back and watch the strongest team in Fairy Tail. I wanted to be one with it. Now I had to show it.
"Alright Erza, let's do this then. I wont hold anything back." We both had a smile on our faces. We stood and stared at each other for a moment waiting for the other to make the first move. My hand ran across my keys. ""Open! Gates of the Lions! Leo and Leo Minor!" Both men appeared and automatically attacked Erza. She was shocked. I never told her about my new keys. I never got to see them fight together until now and I had to admit that it was amazing. I could feel them pulling on my magic. I wasn't sure if I could pull out another key and debated whether I should. I decided against it knowing that I would be taken down too fast if I did. Instead I decided to pull out my Fleuve d'étoiles. I snapped it at her feet trying to catch her in mid run. She was running between trees trying to separate the brothers. She was well aware of her surroundings and had a cocky smirk on her face. She was going to corner the brothers and take them out and it infuriated me. I snapped the whip and wrapped it against her ankle successfully pulling her off the tree and towards me. Her head snapped in my direction. She underestimated me.
"You should keep your eye on all of your opponents Titania." I never called her that, but we were enemies right now. We were friendly enemies, but still enemies. I wanted to win this fight. If it drained me for a month I would do it. I was going to push myself to my limits. I knew this is what she wanted. Everyone else pushed themselves to a breaking point and I was always too afraid to. I heard a crash of lightning in the background and looked away for a split second to see Laxus. He must have heard the fighting. We weren't too far away from where he lived. He leaned on the tree watching us. Looking at him though was a mistake because I felt Erza's fist collide into my stomach and sent me flying into the tree. I growled as I felt blood come out of my mouth. I felt like I was going to be sick and it hurt like hell. Usually at this point I would quit. I felt the brothers start to fade out, but I pushed on to keep them here. They growled dangerously at Erza and she looked at them warily. They both jumped at the exact time one on the right and one to the left of her. I was in front. I got up from the ground and ran forward to join the fight. All three of us sent a Regulas blast against her. She defended herself against the brothers, but not against me. My blast hit her dead on and sent her flying demolishing the trees in her path.
When she got back up her Flight armor was gone. Instead she had on her Glant's armor. I pulled Leo and Levin back and decided to try something I've never done before. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I wanted to take the chance. I called on Gemini. I knew I wouldn't be able to pull two keys out with this. "Open! Gate of the twins! Gemini!" Gemini came out as Laxus. Erza paused confused with what to do. I could see Laxus stand up straighter now very intrigued with the fight. This was something we talked about and I told him I wasn't sure if I could use it in a fight or not. I didn't know if I could yield the power to actually hold it correctly. What would be a better way to find out then a friendly fight with a comrade? I nodded to Gemini and they proceeded. "Lightning Dragon's Heavenward Halberd!" Erza's eyes got large as she saw the spear shaped lightning form and shoot towards her she jumped out of the way, but still slightly got hit with the lightning making her armor break and disappear. Gemini looked over at me and I smiled. "Give her a moment. If she wants to continue then we will." I know I sounded cocky, but it worked and I was overjoyed knowing that I could yield the power of the dragon slayers. I knew I shouldn't have done that spell, but I also knew that it would most likely not be as strong as the real deal. It was a watered down version and would not be as deadly, just rather painful.
Laxus started walking over towards me when Erza started to sit up. "This is not done. I'm warmed up now Lucy. You better be prepared because this just got serious. She had a smile on her face and I would be lying if it didn't worry me. I stepped back. She reequipped to her Purgatory armor and I knew she meant business now. She didn't go for Gemini she went for me. She was clever. You go for me and there wouldn't be any other opponent. "Open! Gate of the shield! Scutum!" A shield quickly formed around me and Erza bounced off of me. Yet, another surprise from her because she didn't know I had a shield spirit. She growled out of frustration. She went to take down Gemini instead. Maybe I needed to reevaluate a strategy. I shouldn't do it because it would be unfair, but I knew it would allow me to win. They were able to copy him at the games. I silently commanded Gemini to change forms and they even gave me an unsure look. It wasn't right and I shouldn't do this, but I wanted to win.
Erza was about to annihilate Gemini when the change happened. Just as soon as her eyes locked with the brown eyes her attack died. I ran over to her and blasted her with the Regulas blast slamming her into another set of trees. She dropped her armor to her regular running clothes that she was wearing and looked at me with depressed eyes. I shouldn't have done it. It was low and not an honorable win, but it was the only way to win. I had to use her weaknesses against her. I silently thanked Gemini and the twins disappeared. I walked over to her and grabbed her hand lifting her up. "I'm sorry Erza, I shouldn't have played that against you. I just didn't see another way to win."
"It was brilliant Lucy. No, you were brilliant. Gajeel was right when he said you were amazing. That was your win. I didn't know you could do that and it caught me off guard. When we were you able to copy Jellal though?"
"Me too Blondie? When did you copy me? By the way watching myself was pretty awesome. Maybe one of these days you'll let me fight myself." I laughed at him. "Well, Erza, I honestly wasn't sure if I could. I've never tried it. It was something I was talking about the other day, but was afraid to try. Laxus, I will not be doing that. You would win that fight. Gemini is amazing, but the attacks are watered down. I copied everyone that's been involved in the guild in the last year. I copied you and Jellal at the Games."
"It was amazing. I told you that you were amazing. I'll walk with you guys to the guild. You both should go visit Wendy. Plus you demolished about a dozen trees over here." I leaned into Erza giving her a side hug and we both laughed at our destruction. I was always the least destructive member of the team. Perhaps that wasn't the case anymore. Once we walked into the Guild my eyes landed on Gajeel. He looked over at me and then I saw fear flash in his eyes. He was over by us in mere seconds and I was confused why he reacted this way. "Are you guys alright? What the fuck happened? Laxus?" He was looking over at me and I felt his hands run across me. I flinched at his rough hands that run across my face and arms. It wasn't until I saw all the blood on his hands that made me think that we fought harder than I thought.
"I challenged her to a fight." Erza shrugged and walked up the stairs asking Wendy to follow her. "You knew you would beat her! Why would you kick the shit out of her Titania?" Gajeel was mad at her. I looked at him horribly hurt. He didn't have any confidence in me. He kept saying that I was amazing, but when it came down to an actual fight, he didn't think I would win. I felt the tears in my eyes and blasted him to the other side of the guild. "Thanks!" I ran up the stairs and slammed the door to the infirmary. Wendy fixed us up in no time. I thanked her, but emotionally I wasn't happy. There was a knock on the door and I made no move to open. "Erza? Lucy? Can we come in? There is something important that we need to talk about." It was Master. Erza opened the door right away. Gajeel looked at me with something like awe and forgiveness in his eyes, but I looked away. He had no faith in me and I didn't want to look at him right now.
"We have a problem." I looked around the room and saw Erza, Natsu, Gray, Happy, Lisanna, Gajeel, Pantherlily, Laxus, Wendy, Carla, Master, and Rogue. Usually, whenever I saw Rogue, Sting was somewhere around too. This time he was no where in sight? "I'm going to let Rogue explain it to you, he knows more than I do."
"I went on a job with Yukino and Sting last week when we were attacked by a group of men. We split apart to attack the enemies that were attacking us and if it weren't for that Yukino would be dead. They had a crystal with them. I don't know about Sting, but this dark blue crystal called to me. I felt it pulling me in whispering about power and happiness. I pushed myself into the shadow instead knowing that its draw couldn't be good, but Sting wasn't so lucky. He was trapped to it. A purple mist started to form around it and wrap itself around him. I tried everything I could to pull him back, but he shoved me with strength he's never possessed before. When he looked at me, it wasn't him any longer, or at least his eyes weren't his own anymore. They glowed a light purple. The glow was the same color of the mist that flowed out of the crystal itself. The mist came back out and tried to come after me as well, but I grabbed Yukino and tried to get her out of there before it could affect us." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Sting growled at me once I touched Yukino and grabbed her other arm. His strength, like I said was remarkably different. It was like I couldn't even touch him. The mist wrapped itself around the two, but it had no affect on her. She was still the same when the mist drew back."
"Where are they now?" I was afraid to know the answer to the question, but we needed to make a plan of attack against these men. "Yukino is being taken care of at our guild. Sting attacked her. Now you have to know. She is his mate. He would never have hurt her if he were himself. Hurting her, is the same as hurting himself. He didn't even flinch when she was on the ground unmoving. I tried attacking but the mist wrapped around me too. It didn't have the same affect as it did to Sting. It paralyzed me. All I could do was watch Yukino get taken down. They didn't kill her thankfully, but she hasn't woken up since. As soon as the affects wore off I took her back to the guild. I was going to ask if Wendy could heal her before we formed any type of attack?"
"Of course I will, as long as Master is okay with it!" Wendy smiled over at Rogue. He smiled back at her. I walked up and hugged Rogue. He wasn't expecting it, but I could tell that he was close to tears. I wasn't surprised when I heard three sets of threatening growls behind me when Rogue hugged me back. All three men knew about future Rogue's actions. "I hate to ask you this Rogue, but why didn't they kill you two? What were they after?"
"They were clearly after Sting or Myself. Sting was the one that they got. The mist didn't get to me first because I'm use to the shadows trying to constantly pull me in. I know not to let something whispering promises like that pull me in. Sting only knows of this through me, but he's never had to experience it. I think the only reason they didn't kill Yukino was because they were mated. It would be unwise to kill the mate of the Dragon Slayer they just captured. It would make the point moot of capturing him."
"What do you mean?" He looked over at Gajeel with his brows formed down in disappointment. "I'll let him tell you why, that is not my place. However, I don't understand why they didn't kill or capture me. Once again, my only thought could be to make sure Yukino got taken care of. I fear that they are after Dragon Slayers though which is why I'm here. We should stick together."
"Laxus, Rogue, and Wendy why don't you go check on Yukino and then come back here?" They nodded and then left the room. "I want you guys to stay alert. No jobs for the foreseeable future. I don't want anyone else being captured or hurt. We will bring Sting back and figure out why this has been done. I don't want you guys to be alone at any time, is that clear?" We all agreed to the terms, but once I looked at Gajeel again I didn't know what to do. A part of me was worried for him because of this, but I had confidence in him and knew he would be alright. The other part of me was furious and I didn't want to be near him. "Erza? Do you mind if I stay with you. Virgo is still fixing my apartment from yesterday and I wont be able to go back until tomorrow." Gajeel looked at me with wide eyes. I was furious with him. He needed to know what he did was not going to be tolerated. "Of course Lucy. Come on I think we deserved some cake." We all left the room to go downstairs for some food. There was a new threat hanging over us and we needed to figure it out before anything terrible could happen.
"Luce! You beat Erza in a fight! Fight me!" I growled at Natsu. "Seriously, go away Natsu. I'm not in the mood right now." He looked at me and saw that I have been crying. His playful fighting stance changed to one of anger and he looked over at Gajeel. "What did you do Metal Face?"
"I fucked up. Lucy, will you please come talk to me?" I honestly didn't want to. I was upset and couldn't understand that he didn't believe in me. He was the one to suggest that I train with her last night. He was the one to diffuse the situation. I sighed and nodded anyway. We walked outside to the training field to be alone and talk. "I'm so sorry Lucy. I should have had more faith in your abilities. I just assumed and I shouldn't have. Please, I am begging you to forgive me." Not only did he say my name, but he also clearly meant the apology. His face held the look of defeat and fear. "What you said hurt. You were the one to push me with endurance and training, but if you don't have faith that I have the ability to win, then we have a problem. You have to trust in me. You have to. I need you too."
"I'm sorry. I didn't think. I have faith in you. I swear I do, but it's Titania. She is a demon! Laxus told me about the fight. I didn't even think it would that work. You were the one that told me that you didn't think it would. I didn't know that Gemini would be able to do it! It's a game changer Bunny. You can take on anyone with that. Hell, fuck Flame Brain, I want to fight you now. Wait, I know you're mad at me, but don't do what I just said. There will be no other man near you!" We were both laughing at this point. "Do you forgive me?"
"Yes, just don't let it happen again you rusty pile of metal. Natsu isn't the man I want anyway. I want someone much more muscular. Someone who knows how to please a woman in the bedroom and out, someone who can make me laugh in one moment and take my breath away in the next. I want someone I can be myself with. Someone I care deeply about. I should go find him, have you seen Laxus around?" He growled at me as I laughed. He pulled me to the ground with him and kissed my lips tenderly. "You will not be going anywhere near him if I have my way plus, I'm pretty positive he is taken by a local drunk.
"Gejeel?" He stopped kissing my neck to look me in the eye. "What would have happened to Sting if he killed Yukino." I felt him cringe at the question and pull me to him harder. "He would have died. It wouldn't have been something that happened immediately, but a week or two tops he would have died. It depends on how strong the bond is. He would essentially die from a broken heart. It would just wear on him until his heart gave out. I've never seen it happen and I never want to."
AN: Sooooo, yay, we have a story now! Haha. I have to admit. Writing the fight scene between Lucy and Erza was a lot of fun. I think even in the manga/anime that Lucy could be full of much more potential if she didn't have so much self-doubt! I wanted to get rid of it here. I wanted a badass Bunny! Haha. Well, I hope you guys liked it. Have a good day!