Hello and Welcome Back!

I've been keeping up with this story lately just because it's best for me to write down these ahead of time or I'll forget about it later. My other ones are on standby now just because I've been focused on this one but I'm putting in work on my other Fairy Tail story so hopefully that will be up very soon! Anyone enough of me back to the story.

~wolvesfinalden

Fairy Tail: By Your Side

Chapter 3: The Secret Behind the Book

Team Natsu made their way to the job requester's home. Lucy and Duke walked in front while Natsu and Happy trailed behind them.

"So I take it transportation is a big weakness for you huh?" Lucy said as they walked.

"Yeah Natsu always gets motion sickness, even when he just thinks about it." Happy told her.

Natsu on the other hand blocked out the conversation so he wouldn't get sick again. He was a little annoyed with transportation and he didn't understand why but he was afraid Lucy was going to lose respect for him, if she had any in the first place, after knowing this. He quickly pushed the thought to the back of his head, not wanting to think about that at the moment.

'What is with me? I never cared about anything like this before. Maybe it's just because she's new and she doesn't know me that well yet. Yeah that has to be it!' he thought to himself.

They reached the house and Lucy knocked on the door. After she did an elder man answered the door and ushered them in. They all took a seat and allowed him to explain what they had to do and any other details that may help. Once they had all the information they made their way to the mansion. When they reached the mansion, they hid in the tree line that was in front of the mansion, so they could figure out some kind of plan.

"I say we just charge in there and take the book. Then I'll burn it with my fire." Natsu said as he lit some fire in his hand.

"Natsu we can't just barge in there. Plus we need to find the book and we don't know where it is. It'll be harder if we make a scene." Lucy told him.

Natsu sighed as he let his fire go out and turned to Lucy.

"Alright then what do you suggest?"

Happy decided to put his two sense in and smiled at Lucy.

"We could always dress you up as a maid." Happy said devilishly.

Duke growled at Happy's words. He didn't like the sound of his idea one bit.

"I'm not dressing up as a maid!" She yelled at the cat.

After calming down for a second she told them her idea.

"We could just sneak in from the top window up there. From there we'll have to find a library. If we send Duke ahead, he should be able to find it faster without getting spotted. OF course Happy you can accompany him as well."

They all agreed and scaled the side of the building. Slowly they opened the window and climbed inside. Natsu and Lucy hid behind the corner, while they sent Duke and Happy ahead of them.

"So how will we know when they find it?" Natsu whispered.

"Duke's assisting magic also allows me to see what he sees. All I have to do is sync my magic with his and it's like looking at a video." She whispered.

"Well that's useful." The dragon-slayer commented.

Duke walked with Happy ridding on his back. He surveyed the mansion and tried to locate the library. As they walked Duke noticed a double door. Remembering his master saying something about how some mansions had double doors for bigger rooms, such as libraries. He then immediately walked over to the doors.

Happy hopped down and pushed open the doors. Once inside they were greeted by shelves and shelves of books.

"Good job Duke. I'll go get Natsu and Lucy." Happy said.

However before he could leave, Duke caught his tail by stepping on it lightly with his paw, so he wouldn't hurt his friend. The blue cat looked confused at his friend but watched as Duke shook his head.

"But Duke how.."

Before Happy could finish Duke's eyes began to glow a brighter gold, but not covering his enter eye. He walked around looking at the shelves then looked to the two doors. Once he finished staring at the doors his eyes returned back to normal.

"Woah! That was cool!" Happy whispered loudly. "But what was that all about?"

Duke answered by motioning to the door. They heard footsteps and then the door opened slowly, revealing the two mages.

"Good job guys." Lucy said.

"Hey Lucy what happened? Duke's eyes' were glowing." Happy asked her.

"Duke was using assisting magic to show me you found the library. I can see what he sees when he does that."

"Oh I see, so that's why his eyes glowed. Does it do anything else?" Happy asked her.

"I don't really know. We've only used it for this purpose before." Lucy admitted.

The white wolf in the meantime sniffed out the shelves looking for the book titled "Daybreak". At first he couldn't see it but then Natsu joined him and just grabbed a random book off the shelf. Duke watched as he turned to Lucy.

"We better look for this book so we can get this job over with." The dragon-slayer said.

However Duke was inspecting the book he held in his hand. He then read the title of the book and snatched it out of the dragon-slayer's hand. Natsu was surprised at his actions but couldn't respond quick enough. Once Duke had the book he walked over to Lucy and allowed her to take the book from him.

"Well what do you know. Natsu you picked the book right off the shelf." Lucy said smiling and showing him the book.

There on the title it read "Daybreak". The fire mage smiled at his achievement then held out his hand.

"Alright give it here so I can burn it up."

Lucy was about to hand it over until she noticed something odd about the book. Duke noticed it too and growled as he sniffed the book. He then pushed Lucy a little, trying to move her away from Natsu.

"What's wrong?" Natsu and Happy both asked.

"Something is off about this book. Almost like there's magic coming from the book."

She then turned the book so she could see the cover. When she saw the author's name on the book, she paused.

'Wait I've seen that name before. He was a famous author but he died a while ago. I remember seeing somewhere he wrote one last book before he died. Could this be it? And why is there magic surrounding the book? Duke picked it up just as fast as I did. No there is something strange about this book. We can't burn this book yet. Not until I figure out exactly what is going on here.' Lucy thought.

Duke seemed to understand what was going through her mind as well. When she looked to him he just nodded his head. Seeing as Duke seemed to understand what was going on here she looked to her other teammates.

"What do you mean something's off about it? Besides we just have to burn it why worry about it?" Natsu asked her.

"I'm almost certain now that this book is surrounded by some kind of magic. There's more going on here than we realize. I think it's best that we try and figure that out don't you?" Lucy asked him.

"What about our job though? Isn't that kind of important?"

"I know that Natsu but I want to understand what is going on around here. I feel like if we burn this book we'd be making a big mistake. Just let me try and figure this out, if there is nothing wrong with this book and it clears out with me then you can burn it, okay?" She said to him.

Natsu stared at her for a moment. He didn't quite understand why she was so determined to figure out what was going on with this book but he respected it. Besides he thought he felt something off around here. The second they stepped into the mansion he had felt uneasy and he didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Alright Luce but try and hurry up. Like you said we probably shouldn't get caught."

"But Natsu.." Happy started.

"It's fine Happy. Something has been bugging me about this place. This might be it, it's best that we see what is going on around here." Natsu said to his partner.

Happy just nodded but looked back to Lucy. He wasn't sure what she was thinking but he knew something was bugging her too. So the cat just let it all slide.

"Duke go and keep guard. If anyone comes this way let us know okay?"

Duke nodded and ran right for the door.

"Wait I'll come too." Happy called after Duke.

The two animals then exited the room leaving the two mages to themselves.

Lucy sat down and got out her magic glasses. She sat down and quickly flipped through the book, able to read at what seemed like the speed of light, thanks to the glasses. Natsu watched her flip through the book and looked back to the doors. He was itching for a fight but he didn't want to cause too much trouble with Lucy trying to code whatever was in that book.

He sat on top of the desk Lucy was leaning against and waited. Natsu got a little bored waiting but he didn't say a word. The dragon-slayer didn't know why, if it had been with anyone else, he would have been complaining the moment he felt bored or even go looking for a fight. However now that he was out on a mission with Lucy, he didn't want to act that way. It scared him at first but now he just accepted it.

'What is it with this girl? She makes me act completely different than normal. I wonder if it will be like this on all of our missions. Not that I would mind.' He thought to himself.

While Natsu was with his thoughts Lucy was mid way through the book. She finally understood what was going on here. It all made sense now, why the client wanted to book destroyed, why the book was even here in the first place, and also why the book was written. She was surprised and also disgusted with whoever forced this poor man to write this book for so long, causing him to be away from his family during that time period.

When she got to the end of the book, they were surprised to hear the doors open revealing Duke and Happy sprinting towards them. Natsu jumped up off the desk and stood in front of Lucy. Duke stopped in his tracks when he was in front of the two and spun around. His fur was standing up all over the place and he was growling extremely loud. Happy on the other hand just flew to Natsu and crawled on top of his shoulder.

Lucy slowly stood up behind Natsu and waited to see what got them both so worked up. Though she didn't have to wait too long. In a matter of seconds a huge maid appeared in the door way with a short little man standing behind her.

"Who dares enter my mansion without permission!?" he yelled.

Duke just growled louder and snarled, showing the man his teeth. Natsu just glared at the man and Lucy moved so she was standing beside Natsu.

"We're mages of Fairy Tail. Here on a job request to take this book and destroy it. So if you don't mind we'll be taking this and leaving now." Natsu told him.

"I don't think so. Virgo get rid of these pests and get my book back!" he demanded.

The huge maid jumped up and spun down at them like a drill. Duke turned and knocked Lucy out of the way while Natsu charged at her, with a fist full of fire. Happy hurried and flew towards Duke and Lucy so he would be out of Natsu's way.

The maid and dragon slayer made impact. As a result, Natsu was sent flying backwards into one of the bookshelves. Virgo then made her way towards Lucy, who was being guarded by Duke. The wolf snarled and jumped at her.

Lucy took the time to activate their assisting magic together. Duke felt it and his fur began to glow signaling that their magic had synced together. Lucy then sent a surge of power towards Virgo, who easily dodged it. Duke however took the magic Lucy launched and absorbed it and then looked back at Lucy. She nodded and grabbed one of her gold keys.

"Open! Gate of the Crab! Cancer!" she called out as she motioned with her key.

A gate then opened revealing a man wearing sunglasses and dressed up like a crab. He looked over to Lucy.

"Hey baby need a haircut?" he asked her.

"No, just take on Virgo there if you could for me."

"Sure thing."

He launched at her while Duke accompanied him. Lucy allowed Duke to take some of her magic so his was increased. The wolf grabbed a hold of the maid around her collar bone and tossed her towards the ground. Cancer quickly took his chance and attacked her with his scissors.

The two then moved back in front of Lucy waiting for the maid to recover. Lucy then looked back to Natsu who was getting up at the moment.

"Natsu you okay?" she asked him.

"Yeah I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Lucy turned back to the little man. He was holding what looked like a golden gate key. Which confused her at first until Duke looked back to her then he looked to the little man, then turned his gaze over to Virgo. As Lucy followed Duke's eyes she realized what he was trying to tell her.

'I see so Virgo must be a celestial spirit as well.'

"You stupid maid can't you do anything right?! I guess I'll have to get the book back myself!" he yelled as he walked over to Lucy.

Natsu then got angry and stood by Lucy.

"I don't think so tubby." He said to him.

"What the hell did you just call me?!" he said enraged.

"You heard me, besides you don't look that tough."

Lucy knew that the man couldn't do much unless he was good in combat. Celestial mages don't exactly fight well on their own unless they practice some other form of fighting themselves. Sadly that's the main reason the blonde heard so many stories of some celestial mages using their spirits as mere tools. She always hated people like that. No one should ever be treated that way.

Duke growled at the man and moved closer to him. Which made the man very uneasy, he tried to move away from the white wolf but was unsuccessful as Duke only followed him. Natsu smiled as he watched Duke toy with the man.

The blonde mage took this opportunity to confront the man behind this horrible book.

"You know you should be ashamed of yourself."

The man stopped and looked at her with a evil glare.

"Oh really why is that girly?"

"You made a great author right this horrid book. Not only that you took him as prisoner, separating him from his family for three years. How could anyone do something so horrible."

"Simple enough, I paid him a sufficient amount of money. When you own this much money, you can do whatever you want and get what you want."

"That doesn't give you the right to do so. However the truth is all in this book." She said holding up the book.

"What that's impossible, I've read that book and saw nothing of the sort."

"Well that's because the book was surrounded by magic. When you read it normally it's just a simple story, however if you read it the way the author intended it's a wonderful story about what you had done to him. All the lies you built up, it's all here in black and white."

"Give that damn book back now!" he screamed as he charged towards her.

However he didn't even reach her. Duke had tackled him to the ground and was now at his mercy. Natsu then walked over to the man and kneeled down beside him.

"You know I hate people like you. You're just a waste of space as far as I'm concerned. You can't just use people the way you want to. It makes me sick!" he growled at the man.

The dragon-slayer then kicked him and sent him flying through the air. Natsu then turned back to his group and motioned to Lucy.

"Alright so do you want me to burn it or not?" he asked her.

She shook her head and then used her key to send Cancer back home. Virgo then vanished as well.

"I was telling the truth that this book was more than what it seemed. It did say about this man but it's specifically for someone." Lucy said with a smile. "And I think he should finally be able to read it as well don't you?"

Natsu looked at her a little confused as well as Happy. However he just nodded his head and lead the way out of the mansion.

Duke was walking behind him until he felt someone behind him. He turned to find what smelled like the maid they had just fought, though this time there was not hostility coming from her, not to mention she was now normal sized and looked a lot better than she had before.

"Could you give this to that celestial mage you traveled here with? I would like to serve the princess." Virgo said to him.

She held out her gate key to Duke and waited for him to take it. He then looked back at the man a little confused.

"Don't worry about him. Our contract will be terminated once the police show up and I know they will. So if you would take this to her?"

Duke then wagged his tail and nodded his head. He took Virgo's key and watched as she disappeared once again. The wolf tucked the key in his collar and hurried off after his team.

And there you have it. That's all for this chapter. It's moving kind of slow right now but it will pick up pretty soon. Just have to get the main story across first and then the good stuff later ;). Until next time guys and don't forget to Fav, Follow, or review this story so I know you guys want more. Thank you all so much!

~wolvesfinalden