Author's Note- I hope you all like how the story has been going so far. I have a lot more of the story planned out, but I don't know how in depth they'll be. I just started school again Thursday after being sick, so I have a bit of make up work to do. Also, I want to apologize for a mistake in one of the past chapters, when Lucy had awoken after falling unconscious and Styxx had been going through her bag, I had put that he found her whip. That was a mistake since Lucy doesn't have a normal whip anymore. I know it's a small mistake, but I think you guys deserve the best I can give :). That's all.

Thanks for reading!

Archangel-Angelo

Chapter 8: A Fake Three Years

RECAP: And at that moment, he couldn't resist his urge, his love, any longer. The white-haired teen slowly bent over, and kissed Lucy deeply. Lucy, shocked by the surprise visit of Styxx's lips, hesitated for a moment. But after that second of hesitation, her shock went away and she gladly returned the passionate kiss.

Lucy snapped out of daydream at the thought of the kiss. She blushed deeply and glanced over to Styxx. He was talking with Totomaru about the training. Lucy had never gotten her question truly answered the night before, so she walked up to her master and asked, "Master, why do you want me to go with you for training?"

Theodora looked up at Lucy and the blond's question, "I think training with us will be good for you after all that's happened in the past few days. Plus, we're going to need someone with your singing skills for a new event in the tournament."

Lucy hadn't heard anything about a new event taking place. But if it had to do with singing then she had an idea, "Is this new event a singing contest or something?"

"That's exactly what it is. It will happen right after the preliminaries." The wise mage answered. Just the fact that she was putting Lucy on the team showed how confident she is in the guild.

"After the preliminaries? Are you really that sure that we'll get there?" Lucy was troubled by this. If they didn't make it past the very first round, they might blame her, and she couldn't take that again.

"That's what the training is for. To make sure we make the top eight and up to par with the other guilds." The pink haired lady was smiling now. Just thinking about the days to come made her excited.

"How will one day of training make that much of a difference?" Lucy was highly doubting that one day would help at all.

Isabella then walked up to the two conversing mages and asked, "Master, are you ready?"

Theodora turned to the brunette. She answered with a single word, "Almost." The old woman then turned back to Lucy, who was looking at Isabella walk off. "Lucy." Theodora stated. Lucy looked back down at her master. "Is there anything important you want to bring with you? If there is, you better get them quickly. You won't seem them for, oh... a while."

Lucy gave the other mage a confused look, but after a few seconds of failing to figure out what she meant, Lucy asked. "Some binders up in my room, is all. Why? I thought we were only training for a day."

Theodora gave the teen in front of her an amused, sheepish grin. "We are, but you should go get them anyways."

"Um, okay?" Lucy answered. She then started walking towards her new room.

The master of the guild hollered after, "Run! Hurry! We need to get an early start!"

"Okay!" Lucy hollered back. The blond quickly ran up to her room, grabbed the binders with her book and songs in them. Once she had a firm grasp on them, she ran back down to the courtyard. Everyone was still there, apparently waiting on her.

"Sorry everyone! I'm ready now!" Lucy apologized.

Once Lucy had gotten to them, Totomaru asked Theodora, "Master, why are we spending only a day training? It won't make a difference in our powers, and we need to leave for the tournament."

Theodora faced Totomaru and gave him the same look she gave Lucy earlier, "No need to worry Toto, I have everything planned out."

Everyone laughed at the fire mage's new name, everyone except Totomaru, who was going red in the face with anger. When she had calmed down enough, Isabella stated, "Hmm, Toto, I like it. It fits you well." The tall mage patted Totomaru's shoulder then walked over to the wall.

Everyone started laughing again until one of the guild members opened their window and called down, "Hey! Keep it down! Some of us are trying to sleep!" Everyone just started laughing harder in response, even Totomaru.

After a few moments, Theodora calmed down enough to quiet everyone down. "Alright everyone, quiet down. We need to get started." The woman walked over to a spot on the wall. When she reached the spot she wanted, the mage turned around to face everyone. "Alright, you youngsters, turn around."

The young mages turned around obediently, knowing that there would be a harsh punishment if they didn't. Lucy heard a series of noises behind her. The young girl didn't dare look, in fear of being yelled at. While waiting, Lucy scanned the courtyard. There were bright red rose bushes lining the wall except for the two entrances and a few random spots. Where there weren't rose bushes, there were instead statues of famous mages. In the center of the yard was a large fountain with stone benches surrounding it.

"You can turn around now." Theodora instructed. The five mages turned around to see a new entrance in the wall. "Alright, you five, training begins now." The mages' master then entered the dark archway. Kunaru went first, then Isabella. Totomaru went next.

Lucy was scared, she wasn't sure if she should go in or not. Suddenly, she saw a hand being offered to her. She looked to see the hand's owner to be Styxx, who gave her some encouraging words. "Come on. I'll protect you." At the small but meaningful words, Lucy took the white haired mage's hand and nodded. The two then headed through the entrance together.

Lucy was surprised that right away they came across a staircase leading down. As she and Styxx walked down the stairwell, they found that it actually lead about five stories underground. The two had finally reached the bottom to find another archway. This one lead into a small room, with a few coffee chairs and a coffee table. There were also three doors that lead from the room. Two were on the left and another was on the right. The room was lit up by crystal light orbs. The others were here now, waiting for the two.

"You guys took your time." Kunaru snickered.

Lucy blushed, but Styxx simply said, "It's a long, barely lit stairwell. We're not going to run down here at full speed." Kunaru simply looked down defeated.

Theodora then spoke up, talking to Isabella, "Alright Isabella, go."

Isabella nodded, then closed her eyes concentrating. Once she had focused her power, Isabella pronounced, "Time Paradox, activate! Decelerate!"

Suddenly, Isabella, along with the room, the mages and all the objects in the room began to glow. As quickly as the glow started, it disappeared. Everyone looked to Isabella. The tall brunette faced all the others and explained, "I have slowed down the time flow for all the rooms, as well as the objects and us to one-thousandth of a second."

Totomaru asked the mage in confusion, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Isabella was annoyed by the question, but answered anyways. "It means that the flow of time for us, the rooms, and everything in the rooms is one thousand times slower than normal time."

Theodora then spoke up, explaining into more detail what was going on, "This is why I scheduled today for training. Isabella has advanced her powers greatly over the past few years for an event like the tournament. She is able to keep this slow down of time constant for twenty normal hours." The pink haired lady looked at everyone before continuing on.

"That, however, is with her meditating, keeping herself focused. We do not know how long she will last while training." Theodora finished.

Isabella then spoke up again, going into more detail about her limits, "I am able to choose and decide how the human body is affected by this magic, but I do have my limits. I am unable to keep you from getting tired and exhausted. I am unable to keep you from getting dehydrated."

Theodora spoke up yet again, "That means you will have to use your water magic to help out with that, got it Kunaru?"

Kunaru nodded in acknowledgment, "I got it."

Isabella, now physically showing her annoyance, continued, "I am able to keep you from needing to go to the restroom and getting hungry. So you won't be starving to death. I can not alter your brain, so I can't make the experience go any faster for you." Isabella was finally getting close to the end of her speech, "You will still be able to develop muscle, increase your stamina, and grow in your powers with magic."

Lucy noticed that Isabella had finished her speech, so she asked the question she wondering about the entire time. "Um, if it's really going to feel like such a long time, won't we eventually, y'know, go crazy?"

Styxx, Totomaru, Kunaru, and even Isabella realized this and murmured their agreements. Theodora had already thought of that though, "Yes, I know. That's why when I had this training facility built during the restoration of the building, I had a library installed. I recognized that problem at the time and thought the library would be good for that as well as training mages mentally. Giving them knowledge of their powers."

The new team of young mages looked at each other then back to their master, at the same time, they answered, "We're ready."

The small, powerful mage replied to them, "Good, because training begins now." Theodora opened the door nearest her, the one on the right, to reveal a huge gymnasium floor.

The room went up three stories. As the young teens and adult marveled in awe at the room, Theodora walked over a ways to the left wall, where there was another door. Te younger mages walked over to the second door to find that it had multiple instruments inside an all white room. There was a drum set, a bass guitar, a regular electric and acoustic, a keyboard, and five microphones. Speakers were spotted in random places.

"I brought all this down here last night, after the party." Theodora explained. The group members were examining the different instruments. "You're allowed to use magic during the music contest, but I think we need to make a bigger impression then just getting into the top eight." The old mage told of her idea, "I thought a message could really be conveyed if you all actually played the instruments, and only used the default magic that helps project the sound."

The group thought this over. The more they thought, the more they liked the idea. Lucy only had three questions, "I only have a few questions. What songs will be be performing? Which instruments will be played by who? And what's the message you want to tell?"

Lucy's master answered quickly, anticipating the questions, "The message will be, "Even though we were just created, we are strong and we will fight with all our hearts!", what do you think?"

The blond and the others murmured their agreement, wanting to know which instruments they would play. Theodora continued, "Styxx, you'll be on the drums. Isabella the keyboard. Toto will be guitar, and Kunaru will be bass. Lucy, you'll be the lead singer." Everyone cheered and uttered words of success about getting the instruments they wanted.

That was when Lucy spoke up, "What about the songs?" Everyone went quiet. They had forgotten about the songs.

The old master had already thought of that also, "I thought we could use songs that you had written. You said the song from last night was one you had written, so I assumed the music was written by you as well. You can choose which ones too, since they're yours."

Lucy was nervous. she didn't know if she wanted them to use her songs. She didn't really have much to lose though, so she agreed. She knew which songs she was going to pick. If she was going to sing her songs, she was going to pick the right ones. She set down two of the three binders she had been carrying and flipped open the third. This was the one she kept her songs in.

Once Lucy had picked out the ones she thought were best, she showed them to the others. "I thought we could use the one I sang last night and this one." Theodora, Isabella, Totomaru, Kunaru, and Styxx read over the two songs, "I'm going to need Isabella as a back up vocalist if we aren't using magic. Is that okay?"

"That's fine, Lucy. I think these two are good choices." Isabella replied.

"I think it's easy to say we're using these songs." Theodora stated. The three men excitedly agreed. "Okay, now that that's been cleared up. There are books in the library for each instrument that will help you learn how to play them, when we get there I will explain the rest of training for you four." Theodora pointed at Isabella, Styxx, Totomaru, and Kunaru. "Lucy, you already know the songs and can use your voice for a good while. So I want you to start on your physical training right away. As a celestial mage you need to be fast and nimble as well as have a great deal of stamina, so I want you to focus on cardio workouts. That means running laps."

Theodora finished her long explanation then decided to give a short pep talk. "So, is everyone ready to train?"

The group replied with a shout, "Yeah!"

"Now training, truly begins." The powerful master shouted back, then ran to the library, with everyone following.

Author's Note- I noticed while typing this chapter that what I used to indicate a change in point of view hadn't been uploaded with the rest of the story, so sorry :(. So from now on I'll just type the new person's name with POV next to it. Tell me if you guys want me to re-upload the chapters so that they say that.

Another Author's Note- Also, sorry it's not much of a chapter. Not that exciting, I know. But this is an important part because it helps define the future chapters. Tell me what you guys think and what you're looking for so I can try to improve them. Oh! In case anyone is wondering, when I get to the Great Magic Tournament, I will be trying to implicate the trials from the manga, but since each one is probably multiple chapters, I will try to think of good ones to add instead.

Thanks for reading,

Archangel-Angel