A Friend in the Dark
Author's Note: Originally I was going to have the painful memories take place in their own homes and have the others watch their pain come forth. Also whenever anyone touched them their own painful memories would be transfer to them, but I thought this would work better.
"Lucy, Laxus!" Cana called in the middle of a forest near Maganolia along with her was Maco, Romeo, and Wakaba.
In another forest there were Alzack and Bisca. "Hey, are you two out here?" the woman yelled.
Team Shadow Gear along with Juvia, Gajeel, and Panterlily searched another forest that was closer to where Phantom Lord used to be.
Mirajane and her siblings took another forest further to the west.
Natsu's team had gone farther to the North. "Lucy,…Laxus, can you hear us?" Wendy called out.
Freed slammed his fist into the wall beside him. He and the other members of the Thunder League had taken shelter in cabin for the night after searching all day in the forest they were assigned to. "We haven't even found a trace of the Master's grandson."
Freed's fist trembled in frustration. "Or that girl Lucy." He looked back at his fellow teammates that were sitting around the table in the tiny house. He folded his arms across his chest. "We can't afford to let the master down."
"We still have time to find them," Evergreen reminded him.
"Yeah, we'll find them," Bickslow replied. His babies repeated 'find them, find them'.
"Porlyusica told us a person can last up to five days inside the forest not that they will," Freed corrected them. He lowered his head in worry. "And it's already been three days now. Tomorrow will start the fourth day and if they haven't killed themselves yet they're no doubt be on the edge of doing it tomorrow."
"Hopefully, what Porlyusica and Loke said is true and they're strong enough to survive until we can reach them," Evergreen said.
"Hope…I guess that's all we have left," Freed said.
"No, I didn't mean it." Tears fell down Laxus' face. He watched as his fellow Fairy Tail wizards fought against each other in his painful game of the Battle of Fairy Tail. Even though he had never seen the fights until now the forest showed the betrayal his friends were forced to make against each other to save the girls from Evergreen's spell.
He watched as his guild suffered at the hands of Phantom Lord when he refused to help, Erza getting hit by the Jupiter canon, Lucy kidnapped by Juvia, Lucy beaten up by Gajeel, Shadow Gear attacked by Gajeel, Mirajane being crushed in the fingers of the Phantom Lord giant, his grandfather losing his magical power, and the others being hurt by Phantom Lord's ghouls and members alike.
"You did this," a voice called out from the forest. "With all your selfness your guild paid the price. You said you wanted to be the guild's master yet you didn't even bother to protect it or its reputation when the time called for it." The voice taunted the lightning wizard for three days in a row and this was the fourth.
The unbelievable realization had manifest in to physical pain. Tears wouldn't stop falling, his heart arch every time it beat, and his mind was such a wreck all he could do was feel remorse for what he had done. His body shook like a leaf.
He saw his team fall to Mirajane, Erza, and Lucy.
He watched as he tried to destroy his home town, mocked his grandfather dying and how he ran the guild, and tried to kill Gajeel and Natsu. The memories got worse each time he watched them, realizing to himself he was a total monster and not and the good way Fairy Tail was seen in. He was a true demon.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Lucy cried. Tears ran down her face. Even though her eyes were closed she saw everything clearly in her mind. Her child self placed a rice ball on her father's desk as he was working. Her father got instantly upset, knocking the thing to the ground.
"I don't want your silly rice ball," her father yelled. "If I want something to eat I'll call the chief. Now leave me alone!"
Lucy ran out crying.
Her memories shifted to when her father hired Phantom Lord to attack Fairy Tail and take her back. She remembered the pain she caused all of her friends at the guild because of her selfish behavior. Erza was hurt, several members were injured, Loke had been trapped and beaten.
She remembered her own weak moments at the Grand Magic Games and on her missions and how she had been greatly beaten and kidnapped because of it. How she had putted her friends both from the guild and her spirits in danger even if spirits didn't die. She felt the pain and guilt for anytime they were hurt on her behalf.
The idea she was as bad a master as Angel and Karen, who simply thought of their spirits as tools and shields. She thought of the day of her mother's death and how she would be a shame of what a terrible spirit wizard she had become.
"You're so weak all you do is caused everyone pain," the trees of the forest mocked her. "If you were never born, if you were dead everyone could be happy."
Lucy lifted her head and screamed. Her mind was breaking each second. She couldn't take much more. She needed to end this never ending pain. The loneness that surround here in the darkness of an abyss that not even a so called light of hope could reach and save her soul.
Team Natsu minus Lucy stopped in a middle of the latest forest they were searching. Erza walked in front of the group and turned around. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at the others. "I think we should spilt up from here so we can cover more ground."
She pointed over to the west. "Natsu and Happy you go that way." She then pointed to the east. "Wendy and Carla that way." She pointed northeast. "And Gray go that way." She finally pointed North that was directly behind her. "And I will look that way."
None of them bothered to argue and simply nodded, knowing each second that past brought them dangerously closer to losing two members of their Fairy Tail Family.
Lucy stood on her knees, trembling with her hands wrapped around herself. She was still crying not able to take to pain of her own memories.
Foots steps came in front of her. "Do you need help?"
Lucy raised her tearful eyes to see who it was. "Who, who's there?"
The ghost of Zane smiled down at her. "Someone who can take away this never ending pain?"
"How?!" She said with all the urgency she could muster. The pain was too much for any one person to bare. She rather do anything else then continue with this guilty pain that had turned her into a complete wreck.
Zane stuck out his hand just above where Lucy was. A knife appeared on the ground in front of the spirit wizard. "You can use this to end the pain. Just kill yourself and you never have to feel pain ever again. You never have to put another person in danger. Do it, or live with this pain forever."
Lucy's eyes opened wide in realization as tears fell out. Her trembling hand reached for the knife, wrapping her head around its handle. Her head was lower, hiding the top of her face in the shadows of her hair. She picked it up.
"There that's a good girl. Now end this painful existence." Zane walked past her and headed further into the forest. "Now that she's finished, I think it's time to reeve things up for Laxus. He'll be just as pitiful as she is in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
A man's screamed echoed out the forest.
Zane smiled.
Laxus grabbed his head, swinging it all about. "No, no, I can't take any more pain." Tears ran down his face like a river as he felt every mistake he ever made being thrown back at him like a double edge blade. "I never wanted to hurt them."
"Do you mean that?"
Laxus opened his eyes to see Zane, but just like Lucy he didn't recognize the man. "Who are you?"
Zane stepped forward. "You can still save Fairy Tail from yourself if you want to. You can still save yourself from this never ending pain. I'll show you how."
Erza stopped in front a large amount of dead trees that had darkness around them. "This must be it the forest of memories. Lucy, Laxus, can you hear me!" The fairy queen then remembered that nothing could be felt, sense, or heard when not inside the forest itself. "That's right."
She rushed into the forest without a second thought. Even though it was dark she was able to see and kept her eyes open for anything rather it was friend or foe. "I have to find them quickly. Lucy, Laxus! If you can hear me please answer."
Lucy's teeth were clenched together while tears ran down her grief stricken face. The blade of the knife was at the side of her neck just barely touching her smooth skin. Her hands trembled from her aching heart and bleeding memories. All she had to do now was moved the blade across her throat and the pain would end for good.
All the painful memories came over her once again to help strengthen her resolve to do it. No longer would Fairy Tail have to worry about a weak girl constantly getting in their way or getting kidnap, or whatever else she did to wrong the guild, her family, and her spirits.
This would be the end of Lucky Lucy Heartfilia. The death of Lucy of the Fairy Tail guild and Lucy the Celestial Spirit wizards that loved her spirits with all her heart. The painful thought of those faces hurt in her mind kept on coming until she started to press the blade harder against herself.
"Lucy, Lax-, are you there," the familiar voice ringed in the young woman's ears.
"Erza…" It didn't seem possible. Why would she be in a place like this? She figured it was just her own crazy mind trying to escape the punishment she so richly deserved. She was about to begin again.
"Lucy, Laxus, I'm going to save you," Erza's voice came busting through the trees.
Lucy managed to lift her head and looked through her tearful eyes to see if she was imaging things or not. Sure enough the red haired wizard was simply a few feet down the mountain side from here. "Erza, is that really you?"
Erza looked straight up at Lucy. She figured it had to be the woman that Porlyusica told her about based on description alone. She saw the girl was indeed about to take her own life like the guild all feared. "Lucy, I'm right here." The woman started to run up hill.
"No, stay back!" Lucy shouted.
Erza stopped.
"I don't want to cause anyone else any more pain," Lucy cried. Her entire body was shacking. "I can't take this pain. Nothing else will end it." Her eyes were closed. She held onto the knife harder, seeing it as her only salvation.
Erza slowly walked up the hill so not to try to push to crying girl over the edge. "Lucy, this isn't the way to get rid of your pain. This is all a trick by a man name Zane. He's trying to force you to do this."
"No this is the only solution!"
"Lucy, please." Erza's eyes widen as she saw red, coming down the girl's neck. She sprinted toward her not giving it another thought. She grabbed Lucy's wrist and pulled it from her neck before she could do anymore damage. Luckily she barely had cut herself at all yet.
The requip wizard wrapped her arms around Lucy, resting her chin on Lucy's shoulder. She shut her eyes as she embraced the other girl. "Lucy, you're my friend I don't want to lose you. If you have pain you don't have to take it on alone. As friends I'll take it on me as well."
"But that's all I ever do," Lucy cried. "All I do is burdened others."
Erza held her tighter. "That's not true." With those words, memories of the young blond wizard started to flow back into Erza's head. She remembered the hard times with Lucy, but also the good ones which made her smile. "If it weren't for you me, Natsu, and Gray would never have become a team. Even though we knew each other for so long we never worked together and even stayed together until you came along."
"You fought with us at the Grand Magic Games, helped Cana with her father, cared for us when we were injured, and helped the guild band itself together against the thunder palace," Erza said. "Fairy Tail wouldn't be the same without you. We've all caused pain and problems, but that doesn't define us. We're a family and we don't turn our backs on each other."
Slowly very slowly the pain that had built up inside of Lucy for the past four days faded from her heart. She remembered as Fairy Tail defeated Phantom Lord, won the Grand Magic Games, her standing up to her father, the laughs and good moments she had with her friends at Fairy Tail. Tears of pain became tears of joy.
Her weakened arms wrapped around Erza. She dropped the knife she would have used to take away the good life she had formed with people like Erza and the others. "You really are my friend."
"Of course, I am."
Laxus grabbed the double-edge sword that was placed in front of him. He pointed the tip of the blade directly at his chest. He bit down on his teeth, letting out a slight noise of pain.
Erza helped Lucy back up on her feet. "Are you feeling better, Lucy?"
Lucy nodded. "Yeah, thanks Erza."
"Then we need to hurry, Laxus is still trapped inside of here somewhere," Erza said. "I'll take you out of the forest then look for him."
"Laxus is here?"
"Yes, so follow me."
"No, if he's in the same position I was just now then we need to hurry up and get him," Lucy said full of determination.
"Yes, you're right."
The two female wizards headed off to find their lost friend.
Laxus looked down at the blade he was about to pierce through himself. "If I do this will Fairy Tail really be safe?"
Zane stood a few feet behind him. "Of course it will. Once a monster like you is dead, Fairy Tail will never have to worry about being destroyed again." Zane faded away into the darkness.
"How could a person like that be in Fairy Tail?"
"Why don't you tell the others how you feel?"
"A person like that doesn't deserve to be Fairy Tail's Master."
"That jerk."
"Some battle of Fairy Tail, everyone fights while he's off somewhere hiding."
"That lightning freak is really getting on my nerves."
"I can't believe you would make your friends fight like this."
"Laxus needs to realize what he's doing to his grandfather before it's too late."
"There blood is on your hands."
"You would really destroy your own hometown?"
"You are here by expelled from Fairy Tail."
His eyes were shut, trembling at the thoughts. "How much longer will you hurt Fairy Tail, Laxus," the trees taunted him.
Laxus readied himself for the end. He thought he heard something other than torturous words and images of the pain he had caused or the pain that was caused onto him, but he knew it must have been mistaken.
He tried to plunge the blade into his chest to end it, but something prevented him from doing it. "Don't do this!" The voice got him to snap his eyes open. He looked down at his hands to see two set of hands on top of his to stop him.
He lifted his head up to see who they belonged to. "Erza…Lucy, what are you doing here?"
"We're here to save you," Erza told him.
"Save me?" he questioned.
"Do you have any right to be saved after what you've done to these two girls?" Zane's voice came into Laxus' head. The memories of having Evergreen turn them into stone, having them fight Evergreen and Bickslow, him attacking Erza when she was clearly still thinking about Mystogan, and them both being harmed by his body link magic on the thunder palace. "Why should they save you when all you've done is hurt them?"
"I can't, I won't hurt Fairy Tail anymore?" Laxus vowed. He tried to push the blade into his chest, but Erza and Lucy pulled back on it with all their strength just barely being able to stop him.
"Laxus, you have to snap out of it," Erza shouted at him.
"Laxus, please we don't want to lose you." Tears flew out of Lucy's shut eyes. She brought her head forward. "Look I know how you feel, but the truth is you'll really only be hurting us! So please stop right now!"
"I'm sorry," Laxus said.
Erza's eyes opened wide in shock.
Natsu and Happy finished climbing up a hill well Happy flew. "Natsu," Happy called.
The dragon slayer looked over at his partner. "Yeah, Laxus." He placed his hand on the side of his head and turned around to face the forest below. "I remember him now."
Freed and his team stopped in the middle of the forest. Their memories of Laxus shot into their minds like a river. "Laxus," the green hair man said. He placed his hand on his forehead in realization. "How could I have forgotten him?"
"Wait, doesn't this mean—" Bickslow started.
Mirajane and her siblings had stopped near a lake. Tears had formed in Mirajane's eyes with her hand covering her mouth. "Laxus."
"Uh, no," Lisanna said.
"This can't be," Elfman said. "He's a real man isn't he?"
Back at the guild Makarov was with Porlyusica. He sat on top of the bar and looked up at the guild's ceiling. "Laxus." He looked over at his old friend. "You said when we got our memories back it meant the person killed themselves no longer able to withstand the pain they were in, right?"
"You're grandson. I'm sorry, Makarov."
Makarov lowered his head as tears started to run down his face. "Laxus." The image of his grandson formed in his head.
Erza's shocked face settled. You managed to get through to him, Lucy. Thank goodness.
The sword had been dropped to the ground.
Lucy's forehead rested on Laxus' chest while he had one arm wrapped around her back. "I never wanted to hurt the guild," Laxus said with tears still running down his face, "I just…"
"We know," Lucy said. "We're here for you, Laxus."
"Gggrrrrrr." Zane clenched his teeth, standing on a tree branch above the group. He glared down at them. "I had them. They were going to kill themselves. This is her fault." His eyes glowed purple. "You're on my list, Erza Scarlet."