I do not own Fairy Tail.

A new Lucy

Chapter Five – The first animal kingdom key, Phoenix

We left early the next morning, almost before the sun had even peeked above the horizon and boarded the train that would take us to our destination. I hadn´t said a word all morning but I often got sad when I was about to visit my parents grave, I usually felt a lot better afterwards though. The others were excited about the mission but understood my need for silence so they let me be.

The train ride only took about an hour and a half and from the station it was only a thirty minute walk so it wasn´t long before we reached the gates of the cemetery which was our first destination. The other stopped at the gate and told me that they´d wait for me there.

I smiled at the kind gesture of privacy they were showing me, had I gone here with team Natsu they would most likely have followed me to the grave. And normally I wouldn´t mind but today I felt the need to go there alone.

I promised them that I wouldn´t take too long but they only told me to take my time and then I started walking down the familiar path to their gravestones. Soon the familiar stones were in my sight and I sank to my knees in front of them, putting the flowers I had gotten earlier on top of their graves.

"Hello mom, dad, sorry it´s been so long since my last visit… A lot has happened and I could really use your advice…" I whispered to the gravestones as a tear trickled down my cheek.

"Team Natsu and Lisanna went on a mission and things went badly… Natsu and Lisanna let me be taken by our enemies and I spent a month in captivity before Laxus and his team rescued me. I changed after that…" I sat in silence for a while and simply let the tears of hurt and betrayal fall from my eyes until I ran out of them. Then a warm breeze caressed my face and my heart felt lighter. It felt like the caresses my mother used to give me when I was younger and I suddenly got the strength to stand up and keep moving. I stood up and spoke to the graves.

"Thanks mom, I needed that… I will not let this break me. I will find out if there´s something wrong with Natsu that caused him to leave me like that." I promised them and another wind, stronger than the first one blew my hair around and I felt a small smile stretch my lips.

I could do this, I was a strong celestial mage like my mother and I was resilient like my father. With that I turned my back to my parent´s resting place and walked back to the others, we had a monster to take care of after all.

The others greeted me with smiles and thankfully didn´t comment on my slightly red and puffy eyes. We walked back to the train station and boarded the train that would take us directly to the mining village that had asked for our help. When we reached the small town it was already afternoon and we went directly to the mayor's office to hopefully get more information about our mission.

As soon as we left the train station I noticed that people were watching me and particularly my wolf-looking eye with fear and unease in their own eyes. I turned my eyes towards the ground and simply followed the backs of team Raijinshuu instead of looking around. I couldn´t help that my eye had changed but I still didn´t want people to look at me like that…

"Don´t mind them cosplayer, try and ignore them." Bickslow told me suddenly, having slowed down so that he walked next to me when he noticed my mood dropping. I only nodded, keeping my eyes on the ground despite his encouraging words and kept walking. I heard him sigh but he didn´t say anything else, he too knew how much the reactions of other people could hurt.

But when we reached the mayor´s office and even he flinched back when he met my eyes I had enough and told the others quietly that I would wait for them in the hotel and that they could tell me what they learned later. Then I turned on my heel and walked back outside.

I kept my left eye closed the entire way to the hotel and until I got up to the room I was going to share with Evergreen. The guy got the room next door which was connected to our room with a sliding wall. I sat down on the bed and called out Virgo by just touching her key and thinking that I wanted her to come out.

"Punishment time princess?" She asked me as usual but I only shook my head no and asked her.

"Not this time Virgo, do you have something that I can use to cover up my eye with so that others don´t have to see it but that will still allow me to see through it? I want to be able to use my eye but I can´t stand the looks that everyone are giving me…"

"I see… I think I have something that can help you then, I´ll be right back." She told me and disappeared in a golden light only to reappear again only seconds later.

"Here princess." She said and handed me a black bandanna with a few sparkly stones sewn into the fabric that glimmered like stars when light hit them.

"Use it like a headband and pull it down to cover your eye when you feel the need to, the fabric is see-through from your side so you will be able to see perfectly fine even with it covering your eye." She explained to me and I smiled at her and told her thank you before she went back to the spirit world again. I quickly tied the headband in place and looked at myself in the mirror; the headband was really beautiful… It covered my eye but I could still see perfectly fine just as Virgo had promised, it didn´t cover my scar though but that didn´t bother me. It was my eye that gathered the most attention.

The others return soon after that and they all shot me worried glances when they saw that I had covered up my eye. They didn´t say anything about it though and instead relayed the information given to them by the mayor.

It was their biggest and deepest mine that had the monster problem and while they didn´t know what kind of creature it was, they were certain that there was no more than two of them. The Mission reward was 2 million jewel as well as two celestial keys which immediately peaked my interest, the others could keep the money if I could have the gate keys.

We ordered some food and while eating we discussed what kind of monster we might face in the mine tomorrow.

"It could be an ogre or some kind of Vulcan… Worst case scenario would be facing off with a wyvern though…" Freed mused and while I have heard of and met with both ogres and Vulcans before, I had never heard about wyverns.

"What´s a wyvern?" I asked him and he immediately started explaining them to me.

"They have their origin among the dragons but they are much smaller, perhaps about ten meters long? They have wings and can fly but spend a lot of their time on the ground. They can breathe fire and their bites are poisonous, they have really sharp claws and spikes at the end of their tails. Usually they live deep in the forests or in mountain caves but when they are about to have younglings they prefer to seek shelter inside deep caves, mines or other tunnels that go deep enough. That´s when they are the most dangerous and if we are really unlucky both the mother and her mate will be there. Wyverns with young are almost as hard to take down as dragons."

I filed all that information away in my head and as the hours passed by, I started to get excited for the mission tomorrow.

The morning after I dressed in black skinny jeans, my brown boots and a light grey tank top with my black leather jacket on top. Even if it was hot outside it would be chilly inside the mine.

We ate breakfast and then we left, following the well-used trail that led us to the entrance of the mine that was having troubles. I checked my belt to make sure that my keys and my whip were secured properly and then I turned towards Laxus who was about to speak.

"Okay guys let´s try and stick together in there, no one goes off on their own. Be careful and look out for each other, now let´s do this." His pep-talk was short but to the point and when he walked inside the mine, the rest of us followed. Laxus would have no trouble seeing in the dark because of his heightened dragon senses and Freed could use his dark écriture to see in the dark. I quickly discovered that I too could see perfectly fine in the dark even with the bandanna over my eye. Evergreen and Bickslow were having trouble though so Laxus kept a small lightning current on his skin, lighting up the immediate area around us.

The further inside the mine we walked, the more things I noticed that were off. For once, it became hotter and not colder as it should have. There were also faint noises that kept coming from different directions, as if something were following us. And there was a strange scent in the air that I couldn´t place.

I could smell iron and earth from the mine itself, the scent of a flowery perfume and clean laundry coming from Evergreen, the scent of books and ink and a minty freshness from Freed. Wood oil and spices from Bickslow as well as the scent of cinnamon, sandalwood and the air right before a storm coming from Laxus. But there was also an acid tint in the air that made me want to wrinkle my nose that I couldn´t place…

"Laxus what is this acid tint in the air? It irritates my nose…" I asked him quietly and he inclined his head in my direction and asked.

"You smell it too?"

"Yeah…"

"I´m not entirely sure what it is but I guess it could be the poison wyverns create in their mouths…" Just as he finished the sentence we reached a large cave where the acid scent was even stronger. The sound of something big moving in our direction reached us and we all took our fighting stances to be ready. But then a roar echoed throughout the cave and caused us to lose out balance and the tunnel behind us to cave in.

I heard both Bickslow and Laxus swear when the creature finally made itself known to us as it entered the cave from a tunnel at the other end of it. It was a wyvern and judging by the sounds that only Laxus and I could hear there would soon be two of them.

"Dammit why couldn´t it have been a Vulcan instead?" Laxus said exasperated and took his fighting stance once more.

"Be careful there´s another one on the way." I warned the others and Laxus shot me an impressed look before he turned his attention back to the wyvern in front of us and started barking out orders.

"Freed put up some runes so that it can´t escape, Lucy watch his back he´s defenseless while writing the runes, Bickslow, Ever with me!" everyone sprang into action and Laxus used a lightning dragons roar to stun the wyvern while Bickslow and his babies performed 'baryam formation' to hopefully wound it. Evergreen used her fairy magic to try and find wyvern's weak spot and Freed used his sword to write runes with impressive speed.

I had one hand hovering over my keys and the other hand hovering above my whip so that I was prepared to act in the blink of an eye should I need to. I wanted to help the others fight the wyvern but didn´t know which spirit to call on. Loke and Capricorn were both excellent at close range but the wyvern was probably too big for them. Taurus and Sagittarius both used weapons but I didn´t know if they could pierce the thick scales of a wyvern.

"Open! Gate of the golden bull, Taurus! Open! Gate of the archer, Sagittarius!" I called out and in twin showers of golden light, they appeared.

"Taurus! use your axe, try and find a weak spot, perhaps its belly. Sagittarius, aim for its eyes." I ordered them and after their usual greetings and promises of protection they went to work. I kept one eye at the fight in front of us and another eye at our surroundings, they made soo much noise fighting the wyvern that I couldn´t tell from where the other one would show up.

Suddenly a roar that hurt my ears sounded and then the roof of the cave above our heads started to collapse. Letting my instincts take over I grabbed Freed with a hand around his wrist and pulled him with me as I ran to get away from the falling blocks of stone that threatened to crush us. We dove inside another tunnel just as a huge block of stone blocked the opening and sent us into complete darkness once again.

The cavern had been lit up by a few clusters of crystals that glowed in the dark as well as Laxus lighting but now it was pitch black again and despite my ability to see in the dark it took a little while for my eyes to adapt.

"Are you alright Freed?" I asked him when he didn´t say anything.

"Yes I think so… We have to get back to the others but…" He was interrupted by another roar only this time the roar came from somewhere ahead of us. it seemed as if our way back to the others was blocked and the tunnel we were in would lead us to the second wyvern.

"Which wyvern are the others fighting?" I asked him nervously.

"I think it is the mother, I did not get a good look however so I might be wrong."

"Can they take it down? Since I´m not hurt Taurus and Sagittarius should still be helping them fight…"

"They should be able to take it down yes; I am more worried if we can take the other one down but I do not think we have a choice in the matter." Freed said grimly but readied his rapier. During our time at the beach house I had gotten over my fear of swords so thankfully I had no panic attacks now.

We then started to move forwards, slowly and with our senses searching for anything that could be a danger. We didn´t have to walk far before we reached another cave that held the other wyvern just as I had thought. We stopped and held a whispered conversation about how to attack the wyvern to hopefully bring it down.

"Can you write runes to keep it contained in here while I distract it?" I asked and he nodded before starting on the runes. As I ran forward I called out Loke, Cancer and Scorpio to help me fight him while also readying my whip. Scorpio shot a sand blast at its eyes to try and blind it while Loke aimed a regulus punch at its belly and Cancer tried to sever the nerves and muscles in its legs. I wrapped my whip around its throat and swung myself into the air, turning and forming a fist with my hand before falling back down towards its head.

"Celestial punch!" I shouted and gathered my magic around my closed fist. My magic shimmered like stars and would protect my hand as I came down on the wyvern with impressive force. But despite the powerful punch the wyvern didn´t show any signs of having taken any damage.

"Dammit!" I swore as I landed on the ground in a crouch. I locked my hands together with the palms facing outwards and started to gather my magic there. when there was a large ball of pure magic surrounding my hands I shouted.

"Solar Explosion!" And a beam of shimmering light left my hands with enough force to push me backwards. When the beam hit the wyvern a huge explosion rocked the cave and caused a few boulders to come loose from the ceiling. The wyvern roared in pain and then I saw Freed fly past me with his rapier held steady in his hand. He used his wings of darkness to get up to the wyverns head where he started slashing at its eyes.

Suddenly I felt Taurus gate close and realized that he must have been hurt since Sagittarius gate was still open. Then Cancer was hit by our wyvern's tail and was sent back as well. I was panting from the drain on my magic and despite all of my training I knew that I would soon be useless in this fight, we had to take the wyvern down now.

A cry of pain reached my ears and then Freed was crashing into the ground beside me, he too had been hit by the wyverns tail and it looked bad. Blood was pouring from the gaping hole in his side and I ordered Loke and Scorpio to keep the wyvern distracted for me as I started to chant.

Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens...

All the stars, far and wide...

Show me thy appearance...

With such shine.

Oh Tetrabiblos...

I am the ruler of the stars...

Aspect become complete...

Open thy malevolent gate.

Oh 88 Stars of the heaven...

Shine!

Urano Metria!

The 88 balls of light hit the wyvern with devastating force and I realized with rising panic that the entire cavern was about to collapse in on us since my earlier attack had weakened its structure.

"Open! Gate of the shield, Scutum!" I called out just as large blocks of stone started falling down. I closed my eyes and leaned over Freed to protect him as I waited for either the stones to hit us or the drain on my magic that meant that Scutum had managed to erect a shield around us in time. Loke and Cancer were sent back and then my magic dropped drastically as the large stones hit the shield above our heads.

I was panting hard, my magic almost depleted. I had to send Sagittarius and Scutum back and as I raised my head to look around I realized that the entire cave was gone, only a small clearing where Scutum´s shield had protected us remained, even the way we had come from was blocked. But as Freed let out a low moan of pain I pushed all thoughts about how we were going to get out of here to the back of my mind so that I could focus on helping him.

Both of us were covered in dust but blood was already washing away the dust from Freeds injured side. Dread filled me as I got a closer look at the wound, he would die unless he got help real soon…

Then hopelessness wanted to overtake me, I had no spirits that could heal… Tears fell from my eyes as I frantically tried to stop the bleeding.

"Do not… cry…Lucy. It will be… alright…" Freed told me with blood trickling from his mouth as he spoke. I wanted to scream at him, yell at him that things would not be alright because he was dying and I couldn´t do a single thing about it. Then something in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

A gate key, made from pure emerald gleamed in the dusty darkness of the cavern, calling for my attention.

I picked it up with my blood stained hands and called out.

"I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open! Gate of the phoenix, Fenix!" and immediately the golden light appeared, warning me that a spirit was about to enter this world. And then there he was, a young man with fiery red hair, pale blue eyes and a muscled body clad in red leather pants and a white t-shirt.

"Hello master Lucy, my name is Fenix. I use healing magic, how may I be of service?"

"Please heal Freed!" I begged him with tearful eyes and at seeing my distress, he immediately went to work, holding his hands above the wound in Freeds side and through the pure white light that surrounded his hands, I could see the injury slowly disappear.

When I realized that Freed really would be alright I relaxed a little and told my new spirit.

"Thank you so much for helping me out despite us not having formed a contract yet, I don´t know what I would have done without finding your key here… Was it hidden here? Also, please do not call me master, I´m not your superior we are equals."

"It is no problem; you have a strong and kind heart. Yes, my key was hidden here but you are worthy of it, what should I call you then?"

"Thanks for trusting me Fenix; I swear I will do my best to not make you regret your decision. A few of my other spirits call me princess, otherwise Lucy is perfectly acceptable. Will Freed be alright?" I asked nervously. He looked at me with his pale blue eyes and really took in my weary appearance.

"Your friend will be fine, your magic levels are very low princess, will you be alright?" He asked and stood up, apparently finished with healing Freed.

"Yes, we had to fight a wyvern and I had to use both of my strongest spells and have five of the zodiac keys out at the same time." I reassured him and after he let me know that he was available whenever I or my friends needed healing we formed our contract and he went back to the spirit world.

I looked down at the emerald key in my hand and with a shake of my head I put it on the key ring with the others. I couldn´t believe that I had found one of the five animal kingdom keys…

I was still panting and my entire body ached from my magic levels being too low, I would not be able to call out Virgo to help us out of here but maybe she would come by her own power and help us out…

"Lucy are you alright? What happened?" Freed asked me as he sat up, taking in the destruction around us.

"Thank god you´re alright… how are you feeling?" I asked him, ignoring his own questions for now and hugging him almost desperately.

"I feel fine, what happened?" He asked again and reassured that he really was perfectly fine I started explaining our current situation to him.

"You got hit by the wyvern's tail really bad so I had Loke and Scorpio distract him while I cast 'Urano Metria'. That caused the cave in. I then found my first animal kingdom key, Fenix the phoenix. He healed you." Freed nodded as what I told him was consistent with what his own reasoning told him could have happened.

"Are you alright then? It sounds as if you have trouble breathing and from what I can tell with my eye you are really pale."

"I´m fine Freed, my magic is really low though so I can´t call on Virgo to get us out but once I get some food in me and a good night of sleep I will be good as new again." I reassured him. We sat in silence for a little while, thinking about how to get out of here when Laxus voice seemed to come from a pocket on Freeds jacket. When Freed pulled out a communications lacrima I sighed in relief, now we could tell the others where we were and Laxus could use his lightning teleportation to get us out.

"Freed! Lucy! God dammit answer me!" Laxus voice yelled from the lacrima, the small screen lit up the small space we were trapped in and we could see that Laxus, Bickslow and Evergreen were already back outside.

"We are here Laxus." Freed answered calmly and we could visibly see the others relax, they must have felt it when our cave collapsed and been worried about if we were even alive or not. Wyverns were not something to take lightly.

"Oh thank god… are the two of you okay? What happened?"

"We found the second wyvern but Lucy had to use Urano Metria to take it out and then the cavern collapsed, we are trapped here. I was injured by the wyvern´s tail but Lucy found one of the animal kingdom keys and her new spirit was able to heal me. So I am fine but Lucy suffers from magic depletion and cannot call out Virgo to get us out of here."

"Okay I can work with that, I´ll just use my lightning teleportation to get to you guys and get you out. Is there enough room where you are?"

"Yes you should fit but it will be tight." Freed warned him and then put the communications lacrima away as lighting were already crackling in the air. Freed and I were standing off to the side, him supporting me when Laxus larger frame appeared in our cramped space, grabbed the two of us and teleported back outside.

As soon as we hit the ground I was falling, unable to keep my balance with my tired and aching body, but Bickslows babies shot forward and caught me, pushing me back into an upright position. Then Freed returned to my side, supporting me as the other three just stared at the sorry state we were in. we were covered in dust and blood and I was pale and panting from exhaustion.

But then I smiled widely at them and showed them my new emerald key, telling them happily.

"I found a new key!" Then everything around me turned dark as I succumbed to the dreamless sleep of unconsciousness.

Let me know what you think! Love C