Chapter 5

Danger

~Natsu~

"Mira!" Elfman yelled, "Someone has been tampering with Lisanna's grave!" The words echoed in Natsu's brain. Losing her was bad enough, but knowing that someone actually had the audacity to mess with her eternal resting place was the limit.

Lisanna. She wasn't coming back. She never would. He loved her. Besides Happy and Igneel, Lisanna was his life. "Lisanna" Natsu felt the salty tears form and stream down his face, not even noticing that he had said her name aloud. He knelt on the ground, the tears splattering on the floor. She was the reason he woke up every morning. She made him smile. Her death made his heart hurt more than anything in the world.

Before he knew it, his knuckles were red and throbbing; blood pooled on the wooden floor. It didn't bother him; he swung his left arm for another punch.

~Lucy~

Lucy, wide eyed, knew she had to stop Natsu and rushed over to him. "Natsu, are you okay?" she asked, not sure of how to comfort the ill, and now troubled, dragon slayer. She reached over and grabbed one of his hands; the warm, red liquid that secreted from his knuckles scared her, not only because Natsu had a strong punch, but also because he didn't care that he had harmed himself.

"Natsu," She dropped the hand and wrapped her arms around his tough neck, embracing him with a gentle hug. "Everything is going to be okay," She took a deep breath, paused, then released the hot air from her lungs. "You're going to be fine." Lucy withdrew her arms from around the dragon slayer's neck and reached out her hand to him, "Let's go get you cleaned up, ne?"

~Natsu~

Lucy was Lisanna's replacement. That's all she had ever been to Natsu. But she didn't feel like Lisanna. LIsanna smelled different. LIsanna was calmer, sweeter, and an all-around better person than Lucy (especially in the selflessness department). And that was just it. No one could replace Lisanna. No one. Not even Lucy. Lucy could never be to Natsu what Lisanna was to him.

Natsu slapped away Lucy's hand. Who did she think she was? "You're not Lisanna!" he yelled, blood boiling. "Stop trying to be her!"

~Gray~

Gray had watched Juvia sleep all morning long. She still hadn't taken her medicine because Gray felt that waking her up would be a bad Idea. If he woke her up, she wouldn't go back to sleep and she needed all the sleep she could get. But, to be honest, that wasn't the main reason he chose not to disturb the water mage's slumber. To be honest, Gray didn't want to deal with Juvia smothering her over obsessive love in his face. There would be no peace, and there was a 50% chance he would be violated in some way.

Gray looked up at the clock; it was getting close to lunch time and Lucy had not left any food, so Gray quickly when to the market. When he returned, the light in Lucy's room was on. Juvia had woken up and was staring out the window. "How are you feeling?" Gray asked her.

She looked at him and smiled. "Juvia feels a lot better."

"Can you stop doing that?" Gray asked.

"What is Juvia doing that upsets Gray-sama?"

Gray sighed. "First of all, stop calling me Gray-sama," he told her, "It's annoying and I'm not a prince or anything like that so there's no need."

Juvia gave a determined look. "But to Juvia, Gray-sama is a prince!" she blushed.

Gray's face turned red. No one had ever said that to him. She must really like him. "Fine, you can call me that." Gray said, his cheeks still rosy. "But you have to stop calling yourself Juvia."

She looked puzzled. "Juvia's name is Juvia, so what else would Juvia call herself?"

"Most people refer to themselves as 'I'," he told her.

She looked even more confused. "Juvia's name is not I. Juvia's name is Juvia!"

This was getting frustrating. Gray decided that the conversation was going nowhere. It would be best to give up for now. "Why don't you go take a bath?"

"why?" Juvia complained. "Juvia wants to stay with Gray-sama and cuddle more!"

Gray briefly remembered what had happened the night before and felt his face get hotter. He pulled her out of bed and pushed her toward the bathroom. "NOT NOW! GO TAKE YOUR BATH!"

She reluctantly went into the bathroom and locked the door.

When Gray heard the water turn on, he relaxed his face scorching like a fire. Why had he done what he did last night? It wasn't like she was his girlfriend. He didn't love her. Or did he? That part worried him the most. Juvia was, well, Juvia. She was annoying and clingy. She was also cute, sweet, and caring. He remembered falling asleep last night with her in his arms; her head on his shoulder, arms wrapped around his chest, as she slept peacefully. Thinking about it made him blush even more. I've got to stop thinking like this! Gray thought. Juvia is not my girlfriend. I was only keeping her warm last night. Gray shook the uneasy thoughts out of his head and sat in the living room, waiting for Juvia to get out of the shower.

~Erza~

Erza ran to the council prison. She found Jellal's cell and stopped to catch her breath. "I … got… your…letter…" She panted.

A gruff voice inside the cell answered, "I ain't sended you no letter!"

Erza looked up. The person inside the cell was not Jellal. "Where's Jellal?"

The man's voice sounded like gravel. "who's Jellal?"

"This is his cell."

"Oh, you mean the blue haired guy? Tatoo on his eye?" He gestured around his eye.

"Yes! Where is he?"

"I'm sorry, lady, but you aint never gonna see your Jellal again. He was sent to the execution room this morning."

~Lucy~

Lucy stood in surprise after hearing Natsu's words. She had never tried to be Lisanna, had she? Why would she want to replace Natsu's lover? She didn't love him. Any romantic thought about Natsu made her want to puke. She watched as he stood up, headed toward the door, and left; but not before saying "I'm going to go check it out."

Lucy didn't know what to say. Had she been acting like Lisanna? Was she pretending that she had been in the guild almost all her life? She wasn't very powerful, but she had helped the guild on important quests many times. She had also caused the whole guild trouble when Phantom had attacked because her dad wanted her to attend a marriage interview. She wasn't a nuisance was she? She left her thoughts and looked around the guild, only to realize that everyone had gone quiet. After three years of pent up emotions, Natsu had let it out. And he had vented on Lucy.

Mira was the first person to talk. "Lucy, you know he didn't mean it."

"Yeah," Levy whispered, "he was just not feeling very well."

Cana who had stopped drinking, yelled across the room, "It's not your fault, he has felt like that for three years."

"That isn't true." Wendy stood up quietly, as if not wanting to be rude, but still trying to call everyone's attention. "I did an examination on Natsu and, well…" She drifted off as if her brain was caught up In all the facts and details of what she was about to tell the members of Fairy Tail.

"Go on, Wendy," Levy encouraged. "They need to know."

Wendy raised her head toward the ceiling for a moment and let out a deep breath. "Natsu is, um, very sick. If his problem continues to get worse, he could lose his ability to wield magic and possibly die."

"Well what's the problem?" Someone yelled.

Wendy panicked and performed a few quick bows. "Gomen! Gomen! The problem is, his hormone levels are way out of whack, almost equivalent to that of a dragon.

Lucy had already heard this, it wasn't new to her. She shifted her focus to the other Natsu problem at hand. What was going to happen to Natsu? She felt a presence as a voice whispered in her ear: "This is Mavis, the first master of Fairy Tail. Listen to what I say. This is the key to your destiny: go after him"

…

Lucy ran through the streets, slipping occasionally on Ice and snow. "Curse you unusual eternal snow!" Lisanna had two graves. One at the local church, and the one at the field, near the little fort she and Natsu played in when they were little. The one in the field had her body. Lucy made her way to the outskirts of town. Surrounding the city of Magnolia was a small forest. One must pass through the forest to get to the field And at the city limits was where the cold winter weather that had been going since summer time had stopped.

She entered the forest. After five minutes, Lucy stopped to take a short break and sat on a log. The sun was just beginning to set. "Ahh, what a pretty sight." A twig snapped. "Natsu? She said as she turned her head in both directions looking for her beloved friend. But it wasn't Natsu. Out from the shadows emerged a wolf, then two, then ten, all the while, Lucy stood frozen. A few of them growled.

Lucy reached for her keys, but they were not there. That was when she remembered that she had left them in her apartment. She turned to run the other way, but she was greeted by five more. She looked all around. She was surrounded. She tried to run, but they all pounced on her. She kicked and punched the wolves, but there were too many. They forced her down to the ground; some biting her ankles, some slashing her back, some pulling on her arms. Her left cheek was bleeding. Her whole body was in agony. Screamed and cried and used what was left of her strength to fight back. This was the end. She was going to disappear off the face of the Earth and no one was going to know what happened to her. She pulled together the last bit of her strength and screamed, "NATSU!"

Hey guys, exciting chapter, ne? Lucy's really in trouble. Will Natsu come and save her? Then there's Erza… poor girl, Jellal is dead. And what about Gray and Juvia? Alone in Lucy's apartment… tsk tsk, Gray. You're letting this all get in all up in your brain! What will happen with Natsu and his medical condition? At least it explains why the guy has been extra moody O.o

Thank you: AnimeGirl639 and NaLiFan for reviewing! It was so kind of you to share your thoughts of this chapter with me.

Happy 2014!

-ashlieswify