Chapter Nine: Recognition

The trigger was pulled.

The sound echoed in my ears as I panted, standing in front of Gray. I held in my scream as the bullet ripped through my flesh. I coughed out some blood and fell down on my knees, my hands supporting me. As I did, my glove slipped off my hand and the bullet fell out, a bloodied metal thing on the ground as my wound bled. The bullet hadn't cut deep but it wasn't shallow either.

"Lucy!" yelled Gray, obvious worry in his voice.

"Fairy Tail…" said Nero suddenly, recognising the mark on my hand, "I see…"

"Protecting your friends," I said, holding my wound with my hand and having the other hand on the ground. I pushed up and stood up shakily, "Protecting your friends. That's what it means to be in a guild."

Nero dropped the gun. Chantelle ran to my side, "Are you OK, Lucy?" Her eyes were wide and she looked as if she were going to be sick. Of course princesses weren't used to seeing someone being shot.

"Yes," I panted.

"Nero, it's enough," said Chantelle, walking over and untying Gray's knots, "These people misunderstood the situation. You can't kill them for that."

"Misunderstood the— what?" I said.

"LUCY! GRAY!" yelled Natsu suddenly, barrelling up the stairs, "LUCY! What happened? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO, HUH?" He shouted at Nero, his fist bunched up.

"Natsu, stop it!" I said, "These people have a lot to explain."

"I think Lucy's right," said Chantelle.

Nero nodded. He looked at the stairs and on cue, Infra and Ladin stumbled into the room. Ladin was beaten badly by Natsu and Infra looked better, smiling slightly at me.

"Lucy!" said Gray, crouching next to me, "Are you OK?"

"Yeah…" I said. My vision shifted and blurred. The aching pain in my side of my stomach where the bullet hit wasn't fading, in fact, it was increasing in pain and falling, then rising again.

His arms went around me and held me close to him, "I'm sorry, Lucy."

Then I blacked out.

…

I opened my eyes slowly, making out shapes in the light before I recognised them. Natsu was looking straight at my face, "Hey! She's awake!"

"Hontou?" said Erza and Gray by the sound of it. A door opened and closed and then Erza and Gray were leaning over me. Happy sat on Natsu's head.

My vision became clear and I found my voice to ask, "Where am I?"

"You're in our base's infirmary," said Ladin. I looked over to him and saw his face had bandages and some cream had been put on the less serious injuries, "After you fainted, we figured it'd be best to wait until you wake until we told you the whole story."

I sat up and a faint ache hit me in my side and I automatically winced.

"Careful, it's not completely healed yet," said Natsu, he and Gray helping me sit up.

Infra came forward, her shoulder and face bandaged. Nero was the same.

"We're not who you think," said Nero.

Chantelle came in then and gave me some water.

"Thank you," I said, amazed by how thirsty I was. Chantelle sat in a chair at the end of my bed and listened.

Nero smiled at her and continued, "Our guild, as we like to refer to ourselves, have all come from wealthy families."

"Really?" said Gray, "Wow, I never would have thought."

"Yeah," said Ladin, continuing on, "We've all come from wealthy families and we were often lonely and isolated from other kids. Our family always had no time for us and we were often very upset so we learned magic and usually sneaked out to the town guilds. When our family found out, they were furious and always expected us to inherit their fortune when they passed away. But we wanted more out of life. We're from three separate wealthy families in the same place so we were friends when our families met up and stuff. Nero was 17 at the time; I was only seven and Infra was six. We always looked up to Nero as our big brother and when he proposed to sneak out, we didn't hesitate. We wanted to leave, explore life and then we came up with the idea of Fallen Dark where we would help other wealthy people feeling isolated and upset to take them to a better place where they would be happier."

"Well," I said, "How do you know me? That's what I wanted to know from the start."

"Well," said Nero, "We heard the Heartfilia family had a child, namely you, who felt alone when your mother passed away and whose father never paid attention to you. So we paid a visit one day when your father was on a business conference. The staff were easy to sneak by. We saw you in the garden where you were near your mother's grave and you were very welcoming to us. You took a real liking to us. By then, I was 27 and Ladin was 17. Infra was 16. We loved you and you were only 6. But then your Dad came home and he was furious when he recognised us and what we were doing. You know, back when he only cared about money and wanted you to inherit the fortune?"

"Yeah," I nodded; surprised I didn't remember any of this.

"Your father ran away to call the police," said Infra, laughing, "It was pretty funny."

Ladin chuckled, "But you were devastated when we said we were leaving," his voice rose to a higher pitched voice, "'When will you come back, onii-chans, nii-chan?"

"We had to leave," said Nero, "Infra left first and we had to do something Infra doesn't know about."

"What?" said Infra.

"You were the youngest and you loved her to pieces," said Ladin, "We couldn't let you know."

"What was it?" asked Infra.

"We had to make Lucy forget," said Nero, "I cast a spell which made Lucy forget. It broke our hearts to see Lucy that sad we were leaving so we made her forget about us. But you loved her so much," he spoke to Infra, "Like a little sister. You would never have wanted us to make her forget so we had to do it without you knowing."

"So that's why you said I wasn't the same Lucy," I said to Infra, "You didn't know I was forced to forget."

Infra was looking down, then came forward and hugged me, crying, "I'm sorry I tried to kill you. I didn't know."

"It's all right," I said, hugging her.

"That's why none of us had the guts to kill you," said Infra, "You were still the same Lucy we loved."

"We were just surprised when you sided with the King," said Ladin, "I mean, I know we made you forget but it was supposed to be a time spell. It would wear off after a few years and then all your memories would come back, including what our guild was doing so we were surprised when you sided with the King, regardless of you knowing we were helping the princess."

"My father," said Chantelle, "I always got the feeling he just never liked me and only wanted me for my fortune."

"I see," said Erza, "So basically, Fallen Dark is a guild that helps ignored and isolated wealthy people and Lucy was one of those people. You try to help her but had to leave and she was sad so you made her forget about you. But it was a time spell and she was supposed to remember what Fallen Dark's motives were. You were upset because she sided with the King because you thought she remembered but she didn't."

"Basically," said Nero.

"Wait," said Gray to Erza, "You said that the princess would be killed in three days if the King didn't pay the ransom."

"She was held for hostage," said Erza, "Or at least, that's what the paper said. What was I supposed to assume?"

"And you tried to kill the King, though," said Happy to Ladin, "Why?"

"What?" said Chantelle.

"How many secrets are you people keeping?" said Natsu.

"You were going to kill him?" exclaimed Chantelle, horrified, "I never wanted that to happen!"

"We weren't going to kill him," said Ladin, "We just wanted to threaten him so he would 'hand over the kingdom' to you. Remember we wanted to move you somewhere else but you didn't want to leave your hometown? That was the only way to go about it. Threaten the King to give the kingdom to you and everyone is happy."

"I see," said Happy.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of horse hooves clopping over the stones surrounding the base and a lot of them. There was also the sound of a trumpet blaring.

"No way…" said Chantelle, rushing to the window and turning back to us, "It's father!"