Prologue of Sorts
Lucy bit her lip as the searing pain of the kick to her ribs exploded throughout her body. She couldn't help looking up to see all of her guildmates either watching with satisfaction or turning a blind eye. It filled Lucy with a rage stronger and more intense than the pain she was feeling as she glared at her supposed guildmates.
She was being punished for her failure at the Grand Magic Games, she knew she should have done better, but going up against someone like Juvia from Fairy Tail was difficult and she had gotten pretty beaten up. Which ended up causing Sabertooth to come in second place, much to the entire guilds dismay.
And that led to why she was now doubled over in pain, glaring at her teammates as they did nothing to stop her evil guild master. Two people in particular, refused to look her in the eye, Sting and Rogue, her teammates and what she had thought to be best friends. Not only that but Sting was her boyfriend too, you would think that with his girlfriend being beaten to a pulp he would at least have the audacity to look her in the eye.
But no one did, and it only got worse as guild master, Jiemma, started describing in clear detail just how worthless Lucy was. As the finally blow was landed to her face so was the final blow to her heart. "You are no longer a member of Sabertooth!" the guild master cried out, reaching down a hand to take off the guild mark that had been placed on her right hand when she had joined.
Lucy watched as she faded in and out of consciousness as her yellow guild mark vanished. Once completely gone she stood, trembling from pain and exhaustion, she hobbled over to where Sting and Rogue stood as they watched her with open shock.
They both knew she didn't accept pain well and knew she should have been on the floor balling her eyes out, but no, Lucy wouldn't dare give anyone that satisfaction. Her arms hung limp and at odd angles as she stood there, her eyes downcast to the ground, one already swelling up from the punch Jiemma had delivered last. Her lip was split open and she didn't really care at that point if she had any other broken bones.
With a trembling voice and body, she looked Sting in the eye with a cold, blank stare, Lucy could see he was a bit terrified of her new persona, but she didn't care. "Just so you know," she stated coldly as she glared at her former teammates, "we're over." With that said she turned and walked with as much dignity as she could out the doors of the guild hall, not once turning back around.
!X!
Three months later
Lucy could hardly remember what it was like to be in a guild. She couldn't remember the warm smiles that greeted her as she came back from a job, or the happiness she felt when she hung out at the guild hall with everyone. It made her sad to think about and then angry again to think about the way her guild had treated her.
She had gone to a doctor to get her injuries checked and fixed up before she headed out on her own, with only the companionship of her Celestial Spirits to keep her company. She knew what she had to do, and she was excited to put her plan into action. As soon as she was healed up enough she was going to begin training to get stronger, she was determined to prove Sabertooth wrong.
!
That had all been nearly three months ago and now Lucy was strong, strong enough to take on anyone in her guild and win. Probably even other guilds too. She had spent an entire three months out in the woods near the town of Magnolia practicing magic and increasing her power.
Not only could she now open all the gates of her keys at one time and hold them for about 30 minutes, she could also summon four of her most powerful Spirits and keep them out for a good hour or two while still being in good enough condition to help fight. Thanks to Loke she had help with hand to hand combat and could also use some different spells from the Celestial Magic she had.
It turned out that along Lucy's family line one of her ancestors had been a caster type mage instead of a holder type and some of the Celestial Magic she had had transformed into a caster type magic.
With the help of all her spirits, Lucy now had a magic that was foreign to them all, caster Celestial Magic, however she didn't need to use her Spirits for it. She also found that she could summon several Spirits and use her Celestial Magic to fight alongside them, which made her extremely happy, and she could keep at least two gates open and use her magic for nearly 2 hours, sometimes more if one of the gates closed.
Lucy knew she was now extremely powerful and it filled her with a sense of some of the pride that had been stripped away from her. Aside from pride she knew her confidence had grown as well, even though it hadn't fully returned to what it had been before she lost her guild, she knew it was only a matter of time.
!
As Lucy trudged through the damp forest she now called home, she listened to the sounds of the birds and insects around her. Three months ago, being in the forest alone would have freaked her out a bit, but now it was loud cities that made her nervous.
She went into the city of Magnolia on rare occasions to trade items that she found or got on the jobs she would take while in the city. It wasn't much, but Lucy could hardly find the heart to care.
!
A snap of a twig drew Lucy quickly out other thoughts and she ducked behind a tree, calling upon a small amount of her magic, smiling when she felt her hand grow warm and a soft glow erupted from her fist. She watched with silent curiosity at the sound that had taken her out of her thoughts.
A boy with pink hair walked by the tree that she was hiding behind, accompanied by a small, flying blue cat. She narrowed her eyes trying to understand why they seemed so familiar as the boy walked away with his hands behind his head and a wide grin on his face while the blue feline flew next to him talking away.
Suddenly the boy stopped and looked directly at the spot where Lucy was hiding, ducking behind the tree she held her breath and dispelled her magic from her fist.
"What's the matter Natsu?" came a tiny voice that Lucy's slightly enhanced hearing had just barely managed to pick up.
!
From the blows that her previous guild master had landed to her head Lucy now had extra special hearing which allowed her to hear from a further distance than she had been before. It also made her more affected by loud noises near her, causing a pain to erupt inside her head as if she had a splitting headache, it was one of the main reasons she stuck to the woods.
!
"Thought I saw something over behind the trees," a gravelly voice replied, which Lucy presumed to be the one called Natsu.
So, the cat could talk, she thought to herself, reminding her of Frosch and Lector. A sad smile graced her lips as she thought of her two small friends from her guild, they had been the only ones to say goodbye to Lucy and she missed them a great deal. Lucy was so caught up in her memories that she forgot about the boy and his cat. Quickly forgetting thoughts of her old guild, she snuck a look back around behind the tree coming face to face with the boy she had been spying on.
They were so close their noses touched and Lucy looked into his dark onyx, lizard like eyes with a wide-eyed stare of her own. Snapping out of her daze Lucy jumped back with a shriek, landing on her butt with an "oomph."
"Woah! Look Natsu it's a girl! And wow doesn't she smell!" the blue cat exclaimed to his partner, now Lucy knew was named Natsu. With a glare at the flying blue cat above her she stood up and looked over at Natsu, who hadn't moved from the position they had first met in.
"Shut it cat!" Lucy screamed, lighting her fist with her golden magic getting ready to strike the little flying annoyance like a fly out of the sky. It wasn't her fault, she lived in the woods and would only bathe in the streams when necessary, right now it was just too cold as it was nearing winter time.
"Ahh! Natsu save me!" cried the cat as he flew to hide behind his pink-haired friend. Natsu it appeared had finally snapped out of it and glared at Lucy.
"No one messes with Happy," he growled making the blonde girl's eyes widen in shock.
'Woah, does he actually think I was gonna hurt the stupid cat?' she thought to herself, shocked to see his fist now had fire flicking around it. 'Oh, so he's a fire wizard,' she thought, 'I don't wanna fight this guy.' With a sigh she distinguished her light and shivered as she felt the magic flow back through her body. A tight, unreal smile graced her lips as she stared at the couple of wizards.
"Sorry, I wasn't actually gonna hurt the cat," she said in her nicest voice before turning away and walking off through the woods, back the way she had come from before, and the opposite way the pink-haired boy was going.
'Why did he look so familiar?' she thought with a small scratch to her head. Surely, Lucy could recognize ever seeing someone with such pink hair and weird clothes, right? He had been wearing baggy pants that cut off just below the knees, a black vest that had been missing a sleeve, and a scaly white scarf.
'Hmm, I swear I've seen him before,' she thought to herself, placing a finger to her chin as she began to think. With a shrug she gave up and walked on for 5 minutes before she heard footsteps running behind her.
Jumping into action she quickly turned around to fend off the attacker, putting a bunch of magical energy into her arm as possible she looked at her attacker and stopped. It was Natsu, and the stupid cat, they were running after her with his arm waving in the air as if to get her to stop.
When they realized she had stopped they skidded to a halt and stared at her with wide eyes, looking at her arms. She knew what they were staring at, the intricate white, glowing marks that ran up her arms were breathtaking, and she loved calling out her magic just to trace them. If she put out a lot of magical power, then her whole body swirled with the light of her magic. A sense of pride welled up inside her as they noticed.
"Natsu, her magic energy levels are insane!" said the blue cat as they stared.
"Yeah…" Natsu could only reply as he stared at Lucy.
"Why are you following me?" asked Lucy as she once again dispelled her magic, causing the designs on her body to slowly fadeaway until she was back to normal.
Natsu, snapping out of his daze with a shake of his head grinned with a crooked smile. "We wanted to see what a girl was doing outside in the forest all by herself!" he replied happily pointing to himself and his cat.
"Aye!" the cat agreed.
Lucy's eyes flickered between the two weirdos and her eyebrows scrunched up. 'Hadn't they heard by now?' she asked herself. She had heard that people in the town had begun to look for the magical energy inside the forest and knew that some of them had even spotted her living inside. It wasn't long till people had put two and two together and knew it was Lucy's magical energy they felt.
"Don't ya know it's dangerous to be out here by yourself?" the pinkette stated, ignoring Lucy's baffled look.
"Uh, Natsu?" Happy muttered, flying up to whisper in the boy's ear. With Lucy's hearing she could pick up on small bits of the conversation and heard "her" "magic energy" "forest girl." And as she watched, the boy's look changed to a look of wonder and disbelief.
"WOAH NO WAY SHE'S THE FOREST GIRL EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT?!" Natsu shouted, causing Lucy to cover her ears and grimace in pain.
"Oi, you ok?" he asked, settling down and looking at the girl now with pain etched into her features.
With a tight nod, Lucy released her head and looked at Natsu, "thank you, but I will be fine," she replied curtly.
Natsu's face transformed into a face splitting grin. "I've got it!" he cried out, much softer this time. Happy tipped his head curiously at his friend.
"You'll come join Fairy Tail!" a happy Natsu said, making his comrade break into a grin of his own.
"Aye!" said the cat, raising his fist in the air as he hovered off the ground.
"Fairy Tail… Wait! You guys are from Fairy Tail?" Lucy questioned, finally realizing how she knew Natsu, he was one of the strongest members of Fairy Tail, another guild that was in the Grand Magic Games and also the one that Sabertooth and Lucy had lost too.
At the boy's nods she thought back to everything she knew about the guild. They had exceptionally strong wizards and were an incredible guild. Sting, Rogue and she used to always laugh at all the antics the guild managed to pull. She also remembered that like her, they had been in pretty much the same comatose state as her, Sting and Rogue the past 7 years, although for two completely different reasons.
Doing something Lucy hadn't done in a long time she gave the two wizards a genuine smile.
"Yeah, ok!" she said excitedly, laughing as Natsu grabbed her hand and ran back through the woods the way she had first been going as Happy flew on beside them.
'This is my new beginning,' she thought to herself with a smile as she followed the two happy mages.
!X!
Hey ya'll! This is my second story I've ever written and I'm really excited to play around with it! Let me know what ya'll think and go check out my other story, Soul Mark! :) Thanks!
~animebandmusic