Title: How Will You Know
Pairings: Lucy/Natsu, some Mirajane/Freed, some Levy/Gajeel, some Gray/Juvia, some Elfman/Evergreen.
Rating: I'm gonna stick with M just in case of later chapters.
Plot: Lucy has had a rough time since coming back from Tenrou Island. To make matters worse, her and Natsu seem to have crossed over the line of friends. Confused and hurt, Lucy goes on a quest to clear her mind, with Natsu hot on her trail. (Bad Summary) R/R NaLu.
Hi everyone! How you enjoying the story so far? I hope I still have your interest. Lol. I think we might be slowly coming to a close. I got most of my ideas for the story out already, so I should hopefully be able to wrap this up in 2/3 more chapters. I hope you look forward to it as much as I do! Also thinking about a possible evergreen/elfman oneshot still. Maybe also a lucy/natsu oneshot…and maybe even a levy/gajeel oneshot XD.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. I just love it to death XD
Chapter 9: Dilemmas
"I don't know where to start with dilemmas of the heart. Just wanna be alone. I don't know how to stop these dilemmas that I've got. Just wanna be alone. I'm scared of making a mistake, there are too many roads in front of me to take. Where's that sign saying beware? It would be easy to go if I learned not to care…This stone will turn to pearl. Just got to hold it girl. You 'll be the shining star that makes sense in this crazy world" Dilemmas by BENNIE BECCA/ / / / / / / / / / /
"Ice Pervert! Fight me!" Natsu growled, pointing at his friend.
"I don't have time for this Fire Brain! I have a date today!" Gray stood from one of the many tables in guild, looking annoyed.
"Who cares about a date. FIGHT ME!" Natsu shouted again.
"Gray! Your…your clothes!" Wendy shrieked and ducked under the table, covering her eyes.
"Ah!" Gray shouted as he looked down to see he was now in nothing.
"Fight me!" Natsu shouted again and went in to punch his friend.
"Natsu! Gray!" Erza stood and quickly punched both mages in opposite directions.
"How dare you destroy a young girl's innocence." Erza now hovered over Gray, sword drawn.
Sweat started to form at the ice mage's forehead, gulping nervously.
"Juvia wants to strip too!" Juvia appeared and started to pull her coat off.
"No more stripping!" Wendy sobbed from under the table, petrified enough.
Erza glanced back at Gray to see he had his pants back on, taking away her sword. "Don't get that carried away next time. Think of the younger members…"
"Er…I'll try to keep that in mind. Let's go Juvia." He stood and motioned to his girlfriend.
Juvia blushed and quickly ran over to him, locking her arm with his. In less then a minute the couple were gone from the guild hall, everyone going back to what they were doing. Natsu still sat in the corner where Erza had punched him into, running a hand through his hair. It was short lived however as he stood, running over to Elfman.
"Elfman! Fight me!" he pushed Evergreen out his way.
"Hey! It's not very manly to push a woman. My woman!" Elfman started to get angry.
Evergreen sighed and adjusted her glasses, giving her "boyfriend" a glare. She would never fully admit to herself that they were dating. "Your woman?", she scoffed.
"Who cares? Fight me!" Natsu raged, throwing a punch at his guildmate.
"Don't you think Natsu has been more aggressive then usual since Lucy vanished?" Lisanna pondered outloud from a few tables away, poking at the food on her plate with a fork.
"Mmm….i think so too." Bisca spoke softly, peeling an orange.
"When we thought you had died, Natsu was upset but I don't think it was quite this bad, this feels different somehow." Cana chimed in from across the table, placing another empty tankard onto the table.
"I'd say he is pushing himself. Maybe he dosen't want us to worry about him." Bisca continued.
"Mommy I want some." Bisca glanced to the side to see Asuka smiling, pointing to the orange slices on her plate.
Bisca smiled and handed a slice to her daughter, placing one into her mouth herself.
"Mommy, I want another one." Asuka tugged on her mom's skirt.
"You still have the one I gave you, finish that one first." The green haired woman replied.
"But I want one for the black kitty. Please. Please." The little girl begged.
"Alright…" Bisca started to hand another slice to her but stopped, "But…I want you to come back over once you give it to him. You can't keep bothering Lily."
"Thanks Mommy!" the little girl grabbed the slice and took off from the table, heading to the other side of the guild.
"I wish I had a cute kid…" Lisanna sighed.
"You will soon enough." Bisca laughed and smiled more.
"Mommy Mommy!" Asuka shouted and came running back over scared, holding both of her orange slices.
"Whats wrong Asuka?"
"Scary Iron man! He chased me away." Tears threatened her eyes.
"Eh? Gajeel? Should have figured he'd make your kid cry someday." Cana laughed.
"Why did he chase you away?" Bisca was perplexed, Gajeel had been surprising tolerant towards her daughter.
"He told me not to tell anyone I saw him kissing Aunt Levy." Asuka explained.
All the women at the table started laughing and started shouting out "Go Levy-chan!" across the hall. Levy blushed and ducked into the backroom, leaving a certain black-haired dragon slayer to fend for himself. Bisca reached down and scooped her daughter up and into her lap, hugging her.
"Children are so honest." Cana continued to laugh, downing another tankard.
/ / / / / / / / / / / / /
"I smell a sweet sweet perfume…" Ichiya, the head of the The Trimens mused, sniffing the air in the guild hall.
"Have you found anything yet Hibiki-san?" Erza asked, taking the last bite of her slice of cake.
"I'm sorry, but I just haven't been able to learn much. I know of some of the keys Angel had but there are some older ones she obtained." Hibiki crossed his arms, thinking.
"Did you ask Loke? He is a spirit after all."
"Yeah…it was tough working with him. You'd think all the years that have gone by I would forget easily." Hibiki paused when he saw Erza cough discreetly. "But to answer your question…Loke didn't know about them either. He had to ask a spirit named Crux. Angel had managed to get 5 silver keys and one gold key from other mages. Only one of them we seem to lack information on."
"Which keys?" Erza raised an eyebrow.
"Angel murdered a young woman and gained the contracts of Pisces and Scutum. From another young woman she obatained the contract of Serpens and Vulpecula. Lastly, from a man who apears to have been an archeologist, she obtained the contracts of Apus, Cetus and an unkown key."
"Hmm…so this one? If I'm reading the symbols right…" Erza mused and looked at the keyring.
"Yeah, according to Loke he couldn't reveal information about that paticular spirit. Everything related to it is forbidden. Although Crux did note he was detecting a lot of anomolies relating to time and space."
"Has to be the spirit we are looking for. Natsu knows what it looks like but he dosen't know its name. Maybe we can find a spirit mage to summon it?" Erza continued to muse.
"I've been trying to track down a mage actually. But so far I haven't been able to find another celestial spirit mage. They are pretty rare these days." Hibiki sighed.
Erza stood with both keyrings in her hands, "Thank you for the cake. I should get back to the guild and let Natsu know what you told me. Please contact me if you come across anything else."
Hibiki also stood and flashed a smile, bowing slightly. "You are always welcome here Erza-chan. Thank you for gracing us with your beauty once again. If you ever desire more cake let us know."
Erza mearly nodded and gave the young man a small smile, his charms going right over her head. Reaching the bottom of the stairs Erza felt a shiver go up her spine, goosebumps forming under her armor.
"My Honey!" Ichiya exclaimed and bowed in front of her.
"Er…" Erza studdered and started to freeze up as he grabbed her hand.
"My what lovely per-" Ichiya started and felt the woman's foot connect with his stomach, sending him across the room.
Erza quickly departed the guild as his team members rushed over to him.
"Aniki!" Eve cried.
"Men…" Ichiya managed to utter before passing out.
/ / / / / / / / / / /
"You look exhausted. You should stop for now. This is probably the 60th time you tried." Lucy urged the young woman.
"No…I have to keep trying. You won't last here long. It's been a week and a half already." Andromeda clenched her fists.
"I admit I want to get back as soon as possible. But not if you're pushing yourself too hard. Take your time, I know you can do it." Lucy smiled and continued, "If anything I wish I could just move. Do you really have to keep me still like this?"
"I'm sorry Lucy but your wounds are still near fatal, I haven't been able to heal you much. I think it's beyond my skill…that's why I have you stuck like that. I'm really sorry. Last time you got up your wounds opened pretty badly."
"Hehe I understand. Don't worry. From what I can tell theres not much to look at here. How do you manage to stay here without going crazy?" Lucy mused. "I could maybe get used to this."
"Lucy I have to be honest…your feet are starting to vanish already. I need to get you out of here. I think the spirit world is rejecting you." Andromeda looked down at the blonde, pain in her eyes.
"Eh?" Lucy's eyes widened and she started to panic.
"Please calm down. This is why I didn't want to tell you."
Andromeda let out a sigh and closed her eyes, crossing her legs once more. Her fingers slowly moved to form a triangle and all Lucy could hear was the young woman muttering words she didn't understand. A soft purple light began to shine between the spirit's fingers and she directed it at Lucy.
"Alpheratz Sirrah!" she finally shouted opening her eyes.
The light flowed from her fingers to Lucy, enveloping the spirit mage's body. Andromeda's eyes widened as she saw Lucy's nude body start to lift off the rock slightly. Lucy's eyes also widened as Andromeda seemed to become somewhat closer to her, no longer feeling the rock under her.
"I'm….you're doing it!" Lucy exclaimed, encouraging the woman.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A loud voice boomed, causing Andromeda to lose her focus.
The light vanished from the two women and Lucy quickly fell back to the rock, letting out a loud yelp of pain. Tears kissed her eyes and she whimpered, pain enveloping her body.
"Lucy!" Andromeda quickly kneeled from her previous position and looked the woman over, trying to ease her pain.
"Andromeda" the same voice as before boomed.
"That voice…" Lucy started but then saw a large spirit form out in the waters.
The large spirit formed and Lucy could see a large white cape flowing, despite no wind blowing. Greenish-blue skin was hidden behind a long white moustache and gold armor. Red eyes met with hers.
"Celestial Spirit King" Andromeda gasped and quickly bowed, her forehead pressing into the rock.
"You do not need to worship me so." The king replied.
"But you saved me!" the woman insisted.
"I've been receiving a lot of inquiries about you recently. It seems I didn't isolate you enough." The king continued.
"Inquiries?" Andromeda seemed confused and raised her head, looking at Lucy.
The spirit king followed the Andromeda's gaze to Lucy and chuckled a bit, his moustache moving about wildly.
"Leo's Owner. It makes sense now." He continued to chuckle.
"I'm not Loke's owner, I'm his friend." Lucy corrected him.
"Yes yes…I see he has become a great pillar of strength for you."
"Please spirit king. I have a favor to ask of you" Andromeda pleaded.
"Hmm…you wish to send the woman back yes? You've caused a lot of anomolies." The king mused.
"Please, I'll do anything. I was only trying to save her, I didn't mean to bring her here." Andromeda continued to plead.
"Anything?" The king laughed once more and continued, "But did you really not mean to bring her here?"
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked confused.
"Andromeda, did you not think 'I will take her somewhere safe' when casting your spell?"
"Somewhere safe…" Andromeda eyes widened, "Is that why she came here? Because this is the only safe place I know of?"
"Smart woman" the king laughed again. "Are you prepared to do anything?"
"Yes. I'll do anything to send Lucy back, she's slowly fading away! Name your condition!" Andromeda stood, placing a hand over her heart.
"Wait Andromeda! Don't say something so…" Lucy panicked.
"Are you prepared to give your own life then? You broke a big rule by bringing a human here." The king smiled.
"Yes." Andromeda stated quickly.
"Wait just a minute!" Lucy shouted
Andromeda glanced down to see Lucy struggling against the magic place on her, slowly moving to her knees. The king glanced down at the blonde mage with an amused look on his face. He was eager to see what sort of antics she would display this time. No other mage had ever stood up against him before, this woman was now doing it twice. He admired her guts and apparent lack of shame for she was nude.
"Lucy stop!" Andromeda pleaded.
"No I won't! Don't you think its unfair Moustache Man?" Lucy stammered, wobbling on her feet now.
"Unfair?" the king chuckled.
"Cetus brought Andromeda here. She was human but you still made her into a spirit. Cetus is also a spirit still and was unpunished. You decided to punish a spirit for showing compassion towards a human? Even though she was mearly doing what her lover had done for her?" Lucy raged.
The king continued to laugh and then gave the woman a serious face, "Who said Cetus went unpunished?"
"What?" Andromeda gasped.
"Cetus is in the same predicament you are in miss." He spoke towards Andromeda now.
"No…you should have punished me or let me die then." Andromeda was taken aback.
"So I guess you do punish people for showing compassion…You should punish yourself then! You showed some yourself when you let Loke live! Or does it not count because you are the king?" Lucy continued to shout at the giant spirit.
/ / / / / / / / / /
Lucy groaned and opened her eyes slowly, quickly squinting them shut upon seeing the sun. The air felt warm and somewhat breezy, cold water ocasionally hitting her feet. She sat up slowly and opened her eyes again slowly, seeing bright blue/green waves hitting the sandy shore. Glancing down at her body she was relieved to see she was now wearing clothes again, although she was confused, the outfit was Andromeda's. She could also visibly scars all along her stomach from Apus' plants. Letting out a sigh, she could hear Seagulls in the air and glanced around quickly recognizing the area. The town where I met Natsu and Happy…
"This is Hargeon…does this mean I'm back?" Lucy thought somewhat excitedly, tears forming in her eyes.
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Hurray! Another chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed. Finally got my Ichiya/Erza moment in haha. Also got in a bit of other characters and of course a small nod to Levy/Gajeel again. XD See you guys next time. Please R/R :D
::hands out spirit king plushies::