Hi guys! Oh god, I am so sorry that I didn't update yesterday, I just couldn't get this chapter done in time T^T Gomen! I didn't think this chapter would take this long to be honest, but it did =.= Blame my moods if you must, because that was partially the reason XD I hope you guys aren't too mad (Of course your mad) And I hope I got everyone down right.
Now Mato's speech at the end isn't the exact copy of the original script (I didn't feel like watching episode 155 again XD) It's similar I guess but not really. In fact the ending line sounds like it's from the Hunger Games XD Anyways, I hope you guys will like it anyway and thank you guys again for the amazing support (90 followers?!) Holy crap I don't deserve it XD
Chapter 14 (Just Like When We Were Friends)
Normal pov,
"Crocus is so beautiful!" Yukino squealed as she ran around the cobble stone streets of Crocus, her eyes shinning like glowing hazel orbs. Lucy chuckled as she watched the white haired Mage run from one shop to another. Jumping excitedly at the sight of various flower themed shops and motels.
Yukino wasn't the only one either, despite having been here already, Lucy was still amazed at how beautiful the city was. But even the beauty didn't distract her from thinking about everything that had happened here. Lucy couldn't help but withdraw herself from the laughing group as they strolled through Crocus.
It was the Grand Magic Games now, meaning it had been three months, since she had talked to Acnologia and found out about Zeref's plans. She wasn't sure too, whether, she believed the deceased dragon, not just because Alexian wasn't exactly known for his truth telling skills, but because she wasn't sure she wanted to believe it either.
She never told anyone about the incident after, even the fact that Yukino was probably possessed by one of Zeref's demons she wanted to keep secret. But even through the uncertainty, she was sure, that every second that she took walking along these streets, they were getting closer to being completely annihilated by whatever Zeref had planned, and here she was, the only person who knew about this, doing nothing.
That wasn't the only thing that was bothering her either, the fact that Fairy Tail was also painfully close to her right now, made her stomach churn. She knew she couldn't really blame anyone now, she practically signed up for it. So she had no right to be nervous anyway.
But it didn't hide the nagging voice in the back of her head telling her to flee.
That voice has always been right.
Lucy's pov,
I sighed as I walked, I was walking a little farther away from the others, far enough that their individual conversations felt like background noise than actual booming voices. I needed time to think anyway, it wasn't everyday you get to see your dead master, that you killed, in some weird state of mind.
Or them telling you three months early that the world was going to end soon. Maybe I was going crazy.
I wrapped my arms around across my chest as I walked a few paces behind the others who were talking, quite loudly about last year's victory. "Last year was too easy, I mean to win it on our first try? Way too easy." Sting laughed, as he leaned his head against his arms behind his head.
"I have memorise every detail of our moment of victory." Rufus agreed quietly tipping his hat down and smiling softly. Sting laughed. "Especially Fairy Tail, I used to admire them so much. They were so amazing, to think they ended up last in the Grand Magic Games and it's three years in a row too! Hah, we're in our own league now. Right Rogue?"
Rogue didn't answer and suddenly Sting's laughter was gone, replaced by the group's silence. I looked up, trying to see what could have possibly got these people to go silent that quickly. Only to see them.
My heart skipped a beat as I realised that they were staring at us, particularly at me. I held back a scream and the urge to run as fast as I could. This is it Lucy, stand you ground.
A stern voice hissed in the back of my head, I gulped and tried my best to repeat those words in my head. Stand your ground. I lifted my gaze to theirs and held on fast, which didn't matter anyway cause I was horribly mystified by how different yet familiar they looked.
There was seven of them in the group. Wendy looked so much older since I had last seen her, her hair was longer now and tied in two long ponytails on either side of her head. Her brown eyes seemed darker now, her innocence gone. Carla was flying protectively near her, her eyes were staring worriedly at Wendy who looked around the verge of tears. I couldn't help but feel sad.
Could I have done that? Did I take away her childhood?
No it wasn't me, it was... It was Zeref.
I reminded myself quietly and tore my gaze away from her face.
Juvia looked different too, her hair was longer now and it looked a lot like her original style when I had first met her, but it was something different. She was still wearing her old hat but with a butterfly on it.
There were somethings that hadn't changed though, her arm was still hooked through Gray's arm protectively, her eyes narrowed as soon as she me looking at her and muttered something about seeing her 'Love Rival'.
I couldn't help but smile a little, something's never changed.
Gray was dressed in his usual attire, or actual clothes. He looked pretty much the same except for his necklace, which was replaced by another one with a silver key on it. It was a Celestial Spirit key.
I couldn't help but wonder who that key was suppose to signify. Part of me hurt to even begin to think that he would have gone so far to remember me. But it hurt even worse to think that they had forgotten me.
Erza was missing from the group I realised as soon as I found out my eyes were actually searching for her. A little bud of disappointment bloomed in my chest as I realised she wasn't here.
She called you a traitor, she believed every lie that came out of Lisanna's mouth. How do you know she won't kill you right here and now?
I don't know.
Slowly my eyes landed on Lisanna, who was standing with her hands tensed against her side, in front of Natsu, her hair had grown a little longer, so it flew in the wind like white flag. She was wearing a pink bodice and from there a long piece of silk connected the bodice to her and her arm rings. She was also wearing pants that rustled gently in the wind but closed around her legs.
She was staring at me now, her eyes as cold as ice. It would take an idiot to not realise that she wanted desperately to drag Natsu out of this situation and fast as possible, anyway to get me away from him.
For once I agreed with her.
Happy was flying near her and Natsu. His eyes as worried as Carla's on Natsu then at me. Then at Natsu again.
I followed his gaze and felt my heart beat a little faster, Natsu was already staring at me intensely, as if staring at me would set me on fire. I bet he would have liked that too. Natsu was the one that changed the most, to me anyway, but maybe that was because I was around so much. He was taller, his hair a little longer, his eyes looked tired almost like he had to drag himself here.
It just didn't have the shine I had gotten know so well.
His scarf was still there, sitting on his shoulders, blowing gently in the wind. The longer I stared at his scarf, the more my hand itched to touch it, to the point where I had to force my own arms to my side so I wouldn't walk up straight to him and touch it. Just like I did when we were still friends.
"Lucy." He whispered, his eyes huge as saucers. I didn't answer and tried to look away but it wasn't working, my eyes were trapped in his.
Just like when we were friends.
Natsu's eyes looked like he wanted that too as much as I did, the old times. We both wanted it, a time where nothing mattered more than embracing the time we had left. By replacing all that time lost with happy memories and dumb missions.
I had thought I would have spent all of those happy times with Fairy Tail, but I ended up in Sabertooth, on an enemy team in the Grand Magic Games. Needless to say, life had it's own way to make itself interesting.
The tension between our two groups was palpable, you could feel it all encircling us. Everyone's hearts were beating faster now even though we were all standing still, waiting and waiting for the first person to say something wrong.
"What do you want, Fairies?" Sting hissed, everyone else behind Natsu flinched, expecting him to punch Sting in the face for saying the cursed nick-name. But Natsu didn't seem to hear him, he pushed Sting's towering figure out of the way and in long strides, walked over to me.
I backed away, slowly as he approached me. My heartbeats seemed to tune themselves to his footsteps. Ba dump, ba dump, ba dump. "Lucy!" He yelled, his mouth breaking out into a huge smile. "LUCY!" He yelled again running at me. I held back a scream as he rushed at me, his arms wide.
Memories rushed through my brain as he got closer, his features more and more prominent, his scent radiated from him so strongly it was making me dizzy. He was closer now, just one more stride and he'll be here, one more strid-
Get away, get away, GET AWAY! "Leave her alone." Sting snarled as he stepped in front of Natsu, blocking his way to me. Natsu glared immediately at him. "Get out of my way!" He snapped, pushing Sting out of the way. But Sting walked out in front of him again.
"I said. Leave her alone Salamander. She doesn't want to see or hear you." He hissed, glancing at me quickly before glaring at Natsu again. Natsu opened his mouth, as if he was about to snap at Sting again when he was cut off by Gray.
"Drop it Flame Brain, we have to go." Natsu growled under his breath, his eyes never leaving Sting's. "We can't drop it Ice Princess. Are you blind? She's here. With them." Gray scowled. "I said we have to go. You can talk to her later. " Gray muttered as he glanced at Sting quickly. "Come on, both our guilds will be disqualified if we get caught fighting." He added coldly.
That seemed to catch Natsu attention cause his eyes widened before he backed away back to the group. "Don't make us catch you talking crap about Fairy Tail again." He snapped as they left. His eyes caught mine again before he walked away, they looked accusing, angry, almost confused.
I looked away, not really meeting his eyes, he didn't say anything but I heard him sigh and leave with the others.
All five of us were silent after that, I was the one that broke the silence first.
"Guys.. Let's just go." Sting looked up from his feet and spoke, "Lucy I-" I shook my head. "I don't want to talk about it right now. It's spoiling the mood anyway, right?" I forced a laugh to go with the sentence, as if laughing at it made it better,
They didn't seem convinced though as I lagged behind them while they started towards our inn. They kept sneaking glances at me as if expecting me to break into a sobbing mess anytime now. I wanted to break into a sobbing mess to be honest, but I couldn't. The tears just wouldn't come.
Maybe it was because I had ran out a long time ago.
Normal pov,
Later that day,
Lucy stood quietly watching the sunset from the balcony connected to the room that she was sharing with the rest of the group. The room was a rather large room with five single beds in it that were all pushed to far side of the room. There was a bathroom on the other side of a the room and a small kitchen. There was also a cosy couch and a television near the corner of the room.
The others had left a few minutes ago after unpacking their belongings, for dinner. They had invited Lucy along but she declined, saying something about not feeling too well. The others knew she just needed time alone so they didn't push the issue and promised to bring back some leftovers for her.
After they had left, Lucy had dug out a small notepad and a pen from the bottom of her suitcase and walked outside. Writing on her mind, but the longer she stared at the blank pages, the more blank her head became. In the end, she had left the stationary aside, frustrated at the lack of words coming to her.
She was silent now as she stared at the dancing colours of the sunset being reflected by the sea just above the horizon. Lucy couldn't believe this would all be gone one day.
Part of her was glad that she had bumped into Fairy Tail earlier that day, no matter how much it hurt now. It was the fact that they had looked at her without the same malice she had seen in their eyes the last time she had seen them. They had forgiven her after all, but has she forgiven them?
She didn't know.
It was an definitely a lot to ask from someone, but it was even harder now that they were on separate teams. Besides, did she even want to forgive them? And what good would that do? She was part of Sabertooth now, whether they liked it or not. She couldn't change that.
It wasn't like she could waltz right into Fairy Tail right now and sign up again. And whose to say that just because the seven she had walked into today had forgiven her, the rest of the guild had too. And even if she did return, would the same thing that had happened to her almost half a year ago, happened again?
And if it did, what would she do this time?
She laughed then, remembering what Acnologia had told her. According to him there wasn't going to be a Fairy Tail to return to, Zeref would have made sure of that.
Lucy pictured the legendary Dark Mage now. She couldn't help but think about how back in Tenroujima, Zeref has asked for Natsu to kill him. And now he didn't just want to not die, he was planning to take over the world. Amazing, how many things change in half a year.
Half a year ago she was just plain Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia the Celestial Mage.
Half a year ago she was a Fairy Tail Mage with the insignia and everything.
Half a year ago, she was sure she wasn't in love with her old best friend.
And look how things turned out?
She sighed and walked back into the room, book and pen in hand before putting them back in her bag. She yawned as she sat back down on her bed, realising how tired she was right now she laid her head on the pillow and stared at the darkening room for a while.
It wasn't long before, the room disappeared beneath her and she was asleep.
Lucy's pov,
I was jerked awake by the sound of sirens and a screaming. I sat up sleepily from my bed and realised all the light were on in the room. I must have forgotten to turn on the lights before I fell asleep.
Everyone was in the room too, they all looked like they had just gotten back, a bag of fried noodles sat on the table forgotten. I stood up shakily and walked over to where they were standing at, the window.
"What's happening?" I muttered as I rubbed my eyes awake. All of them turned around and opened their mouths to speak before they could, they were cut off by a loud grinding noise. It sounded like metal gears that hadn't been oiled for a centuries.
I flinched at the noise as I walked closer to the window to see what they were looking at. Only to see that were at least ten foot of the ground, but wait. Weren't we on the last floor?
I didn't get to ask because I was quickly cut off by a loud voice that echoed through out Crocus.
"Hello Guilds of Fiore, welcome to this years Grand Magic Games." I looked around to see where the voice was coming from, only to find out it was actually from the hologram right beneath a gigantic glass ball that was right in the middle of the city.
The hologram depicted a short man wearing a pumpkin mask and a green hat. I stared wide-eyed at the gigantic glass ball. Was that suppose to be our first event?!
But before I could say anything else the hologram spoke again.
"As you may know we currently have 113 different guilds participating this year. Unfortunately we can only 8 going into the actual games, kabo." I couldn't hold back the gasp this time. 113 teams cut down to 8?!
I turned around behind me to look at the others but they didnt seem to react, their eyes serious now as they looked at the glass ball with narrowed eyes.
"This event will take care of that. This event is called the Sky Labyrinth, in five minutes all of you will get on different bridges of sorts that connect to your individual rooms. From there you will enter the Sky Labrinth and find you way to the Domus Flau, the arena the Games are being held in."
"The first eight teams to arrive at the Domus Flau will be the only teams that will participate in this year's Grand Magic Games. They are no restrictions, no rules. I will begin the count down. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Let the Games BEGIN!"
So yeah I hope it wasn't didn't sound too rushed, I know everyone is looking forward to my version of the Grand Magic Games, that's why I want to make it my best possible work XD But anyway, there isn't going to be an update (I just wanted to give you guys a heads up) Because I need to plan and write Chapter 15. So it'll probably come out Monday? I hope. Anyways, please read and review!