I do not own Fairy Tail

A new Lucy

Chapter Fifteen – Close Calls

Recap: "I think we have a lead where to find the soul collector key." He told me, his voice dripping with pride and accomplishment. I turned in the direction of his voice and felt a huge smile stretch my lips.

"Really!? Where?"

"If we´re lucky, the key is hidden somewhere on Tenrou island."

Later that evening Wendy came over and checked my eye again, deeming it as good as it was going to get until I got the magic coursing through it under control. She allowed me to finally take of the bandages and use my vision at least so I was going to be satisfied with that.

We had also gotten a lacrima call from Gajeel, Pantherlily and Levy that they had the key and that they would be back sometime tomorrow afternoon or early evening. I was practically vibrating with nervous energy, hating all the waiting. I wanted to travel to Tenrou now dammit! But the logical part of me knew that I had to take care of my wolf eye before doing any kind of traveling or fighting, it would not be good to suddenly lose my vision in a fight again.

But I didn´t have to like it. I just had to accept it.

Eventually night fell and it was time for bed again, it felt like ages until tomorrow evening but after some sleep I only had to survive through another day until I would get to meet Lupus and get some answers.

Happy was still hanging out with Carla and Wendy so it was only Laxus and I getting ready for bed this night. We had just pulled the covers on top of us and settled in, me snuggled in his embrace once again when the calm night was torn apart by a huge explosion from the first floor.

Laxus was out of the bed before I had realized what was happening and he ran out the door still only dressed in his pajama pants and without a shirt on. I jumped out of bed as well and felt immensely grateful for having worn a decent pajama tonight. Dressed in a pair of light blue cotton shorts and a white t-shirt that belonged to Laxus I only strapped on my belt with my keys and whip before running after him out the door.

Smoke was billowing up from the first floor where a raging fire was destroying everything and I could hear the support beams already creaking in protest. It was just a matter of time before the entire house collapsed and I yelled out Laxus name before choking on the smoke and dropping to my knees. I couldn´t see because of the smoke stinging my eyes, I couldn´t breathe because of the smoke filling my lungs instead of oxygen and my sense of smell was overwhelmed by all the different things that were burning.

When someone suddenly lifted me from the ground I fought against the person before I realized that it was Laxus whom was carrying me back into the bedroom. My nose was burning with smoke and it kept me from picking up any scents except for smoke, my eyes and my lungs were burning as well. He slammed the door shut behind us to try and give us some reprieve from the smoke that soon would fill every space in the house. The house itself would soon crumble to dust so we had to hurry or we would be trapped in here with no way out.

"There is five unknown mages surrounding the house, they started the fire downstairs and I believe that for some reason they are here to kill us. I´m going to teleport you somewhere safe and then I´m going back here to fight them." He told me, dead serious.

"What! You can´t do that Laxus what if you get hurt?" I asked him desperately between coughs. I knew he was a more than capable fighter but I couldn´t help but worry about him, especially if the mages really wanted us dead…

"I can and I will but I won´t get hurt Lucy, I have someone important waiting for me to return so I´ll be fine." He wrapped me tightly in his arms and smiled gently at me before activating his lightning teleportation and taking us away from the house that was burning down around us.

We landed in someone´s living room and I immediately sank to the floor again, coughing and crying but I looked up just in time to see him disappear with a small crackle of lightning and the gentle smile still lingering on his lips.

"NO! LAXUS!" I screamed out in panic as I desperately tried to catch my breath and get to my feet to go after him.

"What the…! Lucy what happened? Are you okay?" A familiar voice sounded from behind me and I spun around to come face to face with Evergreen.

"Ever! You have to help me, there´s five unknown mages outside Laxus house and he went to fight them all by himself! They threw something into the house that exploded and set the house on fire and he said that they were there to kill us! You have to help him!" I begged her with tears streaming down my soot covered cheeks from my red-rimmed eyes. Evergreens face went from being surprised and worried to determined and worried.

"I can´t leave you alone Lucy but I´ll call Freed and Bickslow and have them go and help Laxus." She promised me and turned around to run back into what I assumed was her bedroom.

I just sat there for a moment before being overwhelmed by panic and fear and I struggled to my feet on legs that felt like rubber only to dash into Evergreens bathroom and locking the door behind me. I then quickly dismantled the doorknob, making it impossible for anyone to enter the bathroom without kicking in the door, a skill I had learned at a young age when I still lived with my father at the mansion.

"Lucy? Unlock the door please…" Evergreen asked from the other side, knocking lightly to get my attention.

"No. Go away." I told her before going into another coughing fit. I wasn´t going to move an inch before Laxus came back. Tears were still falling in a steady stream from my eyes and I curled up on the cold, hard tile floor with my arms wrapped around my knees. I just wanted Laxus to come back…

"But Lucy I called both Bickslow and Freed, they are on their way over to the house as we speak. Why won´t you let me in? I can tell from the way your coughing that you need to go and see Wendy and I need to know if you´re hurt elsewhere too." She tried to convince me but I only shook my head stubbornly despite the fact that she couldn´t see it.

Suddenly there was a shower of golden light in the small bathroom and Loke appeared, the yellow dragon sewn onto the left side of his suit, over his heart, were suddenly all I could see and I burst out crying with deep, desperate sobs that felt like they tore my already hurting throat apart.

What if Laxus didn´t come back?

"Princess! What´s wrong?" He asked me and kneeled down in front of me to try and pull me into his arms. I fought against him though and he stopped trying and leaned back on his haunches to watch me instead, a deep worried marring his forehead.

"What in the stars happened princess? Are you hurt? Please tell me what´s wrong?" He asked me, real fear hiding in his voice. So I gave up on fighting him and told him about what had happened tonight and that despite knowing how very capable Laxus was as a mage, I was deathly afraid that he wouldn´t come back to me. If he didn´t come back I wouldn´t have the strength to keep living…

"He will come back princess, trust me, he won´t leave you like this." Loke tried to comfort me. It didn´t work though… I just looked up at Loke and told him between sobs.

"I really hope so…" And then I forced his gate shut so he couldn´t watch me wallow in my misery. I´m not sure how much time that passed as I sat on Evergreens bathroom floor, trembling with fear that Laxus wouldn´t come back to me. It was as if all of my logical capabilities had fled from me and I was running on emotions only.

Desperation. Sadness. Crippling fear.

Evergreen was knocking on the door regularly hoping against better judgment that I would let her inside. Then my sensitive ears, the only sense that was working as it should at the moment, picked up on the arrival of three people. For a moment I was absolutely terrified that it was the mages from the house that had somehow followed us here to finish the job so to speak. I would be completely helpless locked in a small bathroom like this… But I recognized the first voice to speak and sagged with relief, tears still falling from my eyes in a steady stream though.

"Oi where´s my Lucy Ever?" Laxus demanded to know, his voice strong and determined.

He was here. Safe.

"She locked herself in the bathroom almost directly after you dropped her off here, she won´t talk to me and she won´t open the door, and I can´t pick the lock, I think she dismantled the entire handle…" Evergreen admitted, sounding a little worried as she continued.

"She has been coughing and crying the entire time as well, her spirit, Loke, came out a little while ago but she forced his gate shut again within five minutes. I´m sure that she needs to see Wendy but she won´t listen to me."

"I´ll talk to her, I don´t think her smoke inhalation is serious enough to warrant waking Wendy up in the middle of the night, we´ll both be fine until tomorrow despite any coughing." Laxus reassured her and told Freed and Bickslow whom had gotten to his aid that they could return home and get some sleep. They declined though, and told him that they were staying here with us, so that the entire team was gathered in case something else happened.

It was then that I heard Laxus heavy footsteps coming closer before he knocked on the door and asked me to let him in. I was still crying in between my coughing fits though so the sound of my sobs was the only answer he got. Only a second later there was a faint crackling of lightning in the small bathroom and Laxus used his teleportation to get inside.

"Lucy are you okay? Why didn´t you open the door?" He asked me after kneeling down and wrapping me inside his embrace. He then shifted until he was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, clutching my trembling body close to his chest.

"I´m fine." I wheezed out. "I was worried that you wouldn´t come back to me…" I admitted and shamefully turned my eyes towards the floor.

"I´ll always come back to you… Don´t you trust my capabilities?" Laxus said quietly, sounding a little hurt by my admission.

"Of course I trust you! You´re one of the greatest mages I know of! I don´t know nor understand why this fight had me so torn apart… Please don´t be mad at me?" My voice was barely louder than a whisper but with his enhanced hearing he had no trouble hearing me.

"I´ll never be mad at you for something like this Lucy… I´ll admit that it was a little hurtful to hear but I guess I can understand where you are coming from, if I had been forced to just sit and wait for you to fight off unknown mages with the intent to kill you I would have been a total wreck. Let´s just try to keep from getting in this situation again shall we?" He told me and I chuckled a little, relief washing over me in waves before another coughing fit came over me and I coughed until I thought my lungs were about to expel themselves from my body.

Laxus was rubbing my back lightly and asked me worriedly.

"How are you doing really? I told Evergreen that we would be fine until morning so we wouldn´t have to wake up Wendy but that cough sounds really bad…"

"I can wait until morning but a cup of tea to sooth my throat would be very helpful." I said to him and relaxed against him, now that the adrenaline exited my system and all other emotions was calmed I was starting to get tired again. Worrying about why the mages had attacked us could wait until morning.

"Then put the doorknob back together and I´ll go and fix us some." Laxus told me with a smile and helped me up from the floor before he teleported himself out of the bathroom to get some tea started while I fixed the doorknob I had dismantled earlier and left the bathroom as well.

Evergreen was waiting for me outside the door and as soon as I was out of the bathroom she enveloped me in a hug to wish me goodnight before she shut herself in her bedroom to go back to sleep. I heard voices' coming from what I safely assumed was the kitchen and I followed them to see Laxus leaning against the counter, waiting for the water to boil while chatting quietly with Freed and Bickslow.

I didn´t say anything as I crossed the room but Laxus simply opened his arms for me and I stepped into his embrace willingly, already missing the warmth of his body close to mine. I then turned around so that my back were pressed against his chest and catching the eyes of Bickslow and Freed I told them.

"Thank you for your help." My voice was only a whisper since I didn´t want to aggravate my abused throat anymore than necessary.

"No worried cosplayer, that´s what teammates are for." Bickslow told me with his tongue hanging out as usual.

"Yes Lucy it was no trouble at all, I know you would have done the same for us had the roles been reversed." Freed added with a gentle smile. The water started to boil and Laxus pulled the kettle away from the heat before filling four cups with the hot liquid and adding tea leaves. He stirred down a generous amount of honey in two of the cups and added a slice of lemon as well before handing me one of them and keeping the other for himself. Apparently he wasn´t as unaffected by the smoke as he seemed to be.

I downed my tea as fast as I could without burning myself since I had trouble staying awake and not nodding off while standing up and leaning against Laxus. When all of our cups were empty we bid each other goodnight and went to bed. Laxus and I heading for Evergreens only guest room containing a queen sized bed while Bickslow and Freed staying on the couches in her living room. My head had barely touched the pillow before I was asleep.

The next morning came way too fast according to my apparently sleep-deprived mind. Although it had been a late night and now it was early morning. Since Evergreen had heard me cough in my sleep the entire night she had called Wendy via a communications lacrima as soon as she woke up and Wendy had come right over.

So at eight in the morning I was forced to join the awake people even though I wanted nothing more than more sleep. Laxus was already awake though and had already been healed by Wendy so now that it was my turn I apparently had to be woken up…

Wendy healed me without much effort though and after she was done Freed and Bickslow had finished making us all a mountain of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. Wendy had made me promise to take it easy for the rest of the day to give my lungs some time to recover from the strain they had been put through during the night.

So after we had all eaten breakfast Ever loaned me some clothes to wear instead of my sooty pajamas so I could go and take a shower. I showered quickly but efficiently and when I was done it was Laxus turn to use the shower. The two of us then returned to the house to see what remained of it after the fire. As we stood in front of the house, hand in hand, watching the still smoking remains of the once so beautiful house I turned towards Laxus and told him quietly.

"I´m sorry Laxus… Somehow I have a feeling that this happened because of me as well…" He pulled me closer with the hand clasped with mine until I was pressed against his side, the arm previously holding onto my hand now slung around my shoulders.

"You don´t have to be sorry Lucy, the mages could have been here for me and not for you, we don´t know what they wanted, except that they wanted one or both of us dead. Besides, I can build a new house, the important thing is that no one was hurt."

We stood side by side in front of the destroyed property for a little while longer before heading to the guild to talk to Master, we needed to know why the mages had come after us and if they would try again. When we reached the guild hall it felt a little weird to see how normal everyone acted with everything that went on in mine and Laxus life at the moment, not to mention everything with Natsu and Lisanna. We made our way up the stairs to Master´s office and when Laxus entered without knocking, I followed after him a little hesitantly.

"Laxus! Lucy! Are you two alright? I heard about what happened last night." Master asked worriedly.

"We´re fine, the house is gone though. But why were we attacked? Who did they want?" Laxus replied and sunk down in one of the chairs in front of Master´s desk. He pulled me down to sit on his lap as we waited for Master to tell us what he knew.

"Did you see if they had any guild marks?" Master asked but I got the feeling that he already knew that, he just wanted it confirmed.

"Yes, it was a crown." Laxus answered, sounding a little confused and Master sighed deeply, as if we had just confirmed his fears.

"I believe that they were members of the same dark guild that poisoned Natsu and Lisanna, for some reason their guild master wants Lucy here dead, this was probably another attempt since Natsu and Lisanna failed their mission and are now restrained." The news were terrible to me since it just confirmed what I had feared, that I was indeed the reason that Laxus house was now gone. I choked back another sob but refused to give in to the tears while in public, tonight I would allow myself to cry but not before that. Laxus tightened his arms around me and started talking about where we would stay and how we would stay safe with Master as I drifted off into thoughts.

I remembered that the guild master´s name was Manto and somehow that name seemed familiar… But then Freed had said that he seemed to be someone from my past when I was still living as the heir to the Heartfilia konzern. Maybe, if I figured out who he was I could get a clue as to why the dark guild wanted me dead. It was a safe guess to say that it was the guild master Manto whom must have met me in the past, otherwise the entire guild probably wouldn´t be after me, nor would they take such extreme measures.

Since I hadn´t gotten much sleep last night, it didn´t take long for me to fall asleep in Laxus arms as he continued to talk with his grandfather.

I woke a couple of hours later on the couch in Laxus own office, Laxus was sitting behind the desk doing paperwork but he looked up when I stretched and sat up, pulling the blanket that was spread over me tightly around me.

"What time is it?" I asked my voice rough with sleep and smoke inhalation.

"2:30 in the afternoon, Levy and Gajeel came back about thirty minutes ago with your new key. I told them to go home and shower and get something to eat and that we would come out to Gajeel´s house when you woke up." He told me and put the papers in a neat stack on the edge of the desk before standing up and walking over to me.

"Come on, let´s get something to eat from Mira before we meet them, you need to eat something as well." He held out his hand for me to take and I put my hand in his and allowed him to lead me downstairs. After enjoying a quick meal, courtesy of Mira, we walked to Gajeel´s house and knocked on the door.

Levy opened for us, looking a little tired but otherwise fine so their mission to fetch the key for me must not have been too difficult. She was freshly showered, a towel still wrapped around her hair and dressed in a cute blue dress that matched her hair color.

"Come on in guys, Gajeel is in the kitchen." She said, hiding a yawn behind her hand before following us through the house until we reached the kitchen. Gajeel was sitting at the kitchen table, chewing on a bar of iron.

"You didn´t eat the key right?" I asked him before being able to stop myself. Laxus and Levy burst out laughing and Gajeel simply raised a pierced eyebrow at me before throwing me the key and saying.

"Of course not bunny-girl, the key is not even made of metal, just some kind of yellow stone."

"It´s topaz Gajeel, I´ve told you a hundred times by now." Levy told him with a small exasperated sigh that made me smile at them before looking down at the key in my hands and admiring the golden stone for a moment before holding the key closer, feeling comfort in the small action, like I was hugging the spirit.

"I´m going to contract with him!" I told them all with a smile before I went back outside without bothering to see if any of them followed.

"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 wolf, Lupus!" I called out the chant and watched with eager anticipation as the golden light revealed a tall, well-muscled man with shaggy brown hair and eyes that matched my own wolf eye to the dot. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and nothing else, his canines shaped into fangs and his nails a little claw-like.

"Hello mistress, I understand that you have need of my services?" He greeted me, his voice rough and deep but oddly polite, contrasting with his rough exterior.

"Please Lupus call me Lucy. But yes it seems that I do, Loke told me that you know why my vision disappeared in my changed eye?"

"Then Lucy you will be called. Yes I know what´s happened, both to your eye and to yourself. When the ritual was attempted it gave you that eye but what neither you nor anyone else knows is that the goddess they were attempting to call, Fenrisa, is in fact my sister. She never wanted anyone to kill for her gifts but she has been cursed to have to gift her abilities to those who sacrifice a celestial mage in her name. It was done to her by another wolf spirit, our shaman in fact, because he was jealous of her powers. It happened eons ago but to this day we have been unable to free her from her curse. The ritual is thankfully only attempted a few times every other century and it is almost never a successful attempt, only three times in history have she been forced to gift humans with her abilities. This time, though the ritual itself was a failure, something out of the ordinary happened since you survived. You are the first one to ever survive an attempt at the ritual and because of that, some of Fenrisa´s powers were given to you. That is why your eye changed and since you know nothing of these powers, you couldn´t take care of the magic that´s now coursing through your eye and thus causing it to block it all together, making you lose your vision. I can teach you about these powers and will do so, starting tomorrow. See you then, Lucy-chan." Lupus told me before going back to the spirit world and leaving me standing there with my mouth open in surprise and with more questions than answers.

What had I gotten myself into?