Hi guys! Sry for the later update XD My beta-reader has been a little busy lately so editing is a little slower, nevertheless she still did a great job at editing. Anyway, can you believe its already the twentieth chapter already XD That was fast, one minute I'm writing chapter eleven and now I'm posting chapter twenty. That is just.. Wow XD

Thank you guys agains for the support and enjoy the chapter c:

Chapter 20 (What We Fear Most)

Lucy's POV

They say that the truth is meant to be bitter, that it's supposed to hurt people in ways nothing else can. It destroys you to realise that even the person you were closest to had been lying to you the whole time - sometimes it's not even the person who's lied to you, sometimes it's yourself that's been lying.

I don't know how long I can keep it in anymore.

1st of July, X791, 12:48am,

"Lucy Heartfilia?" I stiffened as I tried to figure out what the cloaked figure wanted. It never once crossed my mind that I could fight him and then ask what he wanted once he was no longer a threat. But that would have meant winning the fight, and I wasn't sure I could.

His voice was familiar though, smooth with a hint of roughness here and there. He smelt familiar too, like that tower we had gone to before the Tenrou incident.

An image of the spiky tower-like building entered my mind as I held back a shiver. I remember what it was called now - the Tower of Heaven.

The Tower of Heaven was what one of the Dark Guilds had been using to unlock Zeref's inner darkness, they had taken children from their parents, their homes to help them build the tower: Erza being one of them.

In the end, everyone had escaped but one person, Erza's childhood best friend. Jellal. He had been convinced to turn to the dark side of magic to resurrect Zeref using the Tower of Heaven. It wasn't until the Tenrou incident that we found out it was Ultear Mikovich who had been controlling Jellal and pretending to be Zeref the whole time, and that there was no key to 'unlock' Zeref's darkness because he had locked it away centuries ago by himself. Meaning the Tower of Heaven could never have been used the way it was intended to be anyway.

But the Tower of Heaven didn't exist anymore; it was destroyed by Etherion almost eight years ago.

So who was this person? Why did he smell like a building that had been demolished eight years ago? The only people in the tower were Jellal and Erza's other friends who went to travel the world. Unless there was someone else we had missed at the tower.

I scowled at the cloaked person, my heart racing against my chest as I thought of ways to escape. "W-what do you want?" I hissed, my voice sounding feeble and shaking. I mentally kicked myself for asking the world's most obvious questions.

Seriously Lucy, what do you think he wants?

"You are Lucy Heartfilia then, I assume. Do you know who I am?" I shook my head. He chuckled, his fingers gripped at his hood as if he was about to lift it, but he stopped just before he did. "Erza told me to be careful tonight, but it seems you're too scared of me anyway."

I felt hot and cold at the same time as he spoke. Who the hell does he think he is, scaring me then laughing at me? And he also knew Erza. Could he be from Fairy Tail? Is that why he smelt familiar?

The person laughed as if hearing my thoughts before speaking. "No, I am not from Fairy Tail. Me and Erza are... Old friends." I felt my breath catch in my throat as I finally realised who this mysterious person was.

His smell, the way he sounded. It had been him all along. "Jellal Fernandes?" He chuckled a single laugh that sounded almost like he was choking. Suddenly he threw his hood off, revealing his face that seemed almost ghostly in the moonlight.

"What do you want Jellal? Last time I saw you, you were-" "Brain-washed and getting dragged away by the Magic Council, I know." I glared at him while straightening up. "Yes, what are you doing here?" He sighed and pulled at his cloak. I held out my hand to stop him.

"I'm not cold." He stared at me curiously for a minute before nodding. "I don't know how you can walk around like that in the middle of the night." I looked down at my outfit, consisting of a leather corset that had a bit of cloth tucked in between it for my skirt.

"I'm fine." He nodded tucking his cloak back on himself. "Fine, but this will take a little while to explain." I nodded before I started towards the alleyway behind him. He gave me a questioning look for a minute before he followed along.

"So?" He sighed before he started talking. "For the past seven years, you and the rest of Fairy Tail have been trapped at Tenroujima. Two former members of Grimoire Heart and I have formed an independent guild to rid this world of Zeref." He stopped and glanced at me for a minute.

I nodded, urging him along. "For the past few years we've been sensing a mysterious dark energy floating around the Domus Flau that resembled the Dark Lord's magic energy." I stopped walking and stared at him. "Dark... Energy?" He nodded. "And I've asked Erza and her friends to keep a look out for it and they found you."

I felt my breath catch in my throat. Me... Dark Energy? I took a deep breath before answering him carefully. "You are aware I only use-" "I know your a Dragon Slayer Lucy, a vicious one to say the least." He stared at me, his eyes blank. "Then you know what type I am."

"Lucy Heartfilia, the Chaos Dragon Slayer." I sighed but didn't protest. "I'm not a threat if that's what your here about, those days are over." I whispered, turning around to leave but he had grabbed my arm tightly before I could leave.

"I'm not here to fight you Lucy. I'm here to find out what you know. You obviously know what the hell I'm talking about so stop hiding it!" He snapped suddenly fierce. I stared at him shocked.

"I... I can't." I choked out of my throat. He glared at me. "This isn't a joke Lucy, this is the fate of the world we're talking about here. You have to tell me, please."

I was silent for a minute and just stared at his pleading eyes. "Alright, I'll tell you what I know." As soon as I agreed he let me go, I stumbled a little as his hand flew off my arm but I quickly regained my composure and started to speak slowly.

"You've already told me about the dark energy around here and I don't know what is happening with that. All I know is what Acnologia had told me a few months ago and that's it." He didn't seem very phased by Acnologia's name and nodded his head to urge me forward.

"He told me Zeref was planning something and the only reason he knows that is because of an organic link he has with him, Zeref is immortal technically Acnologia immortal but only slightly. He has said that it was already beginning. That he had already taken the first steps that will change the world, forever."

Jellal was silent for a minute. I stared at him, waiting for his reaction. Was he not phased at all by the idea of Zeref changing the world? He was controlled by Ultear once to get this so called 'future', if anyone would be an expert on it, he would. Suddenly he met my eyes, his eyes were fierce again, like a burning fire.

"There's something else isn't there? Something your still not telling me." I stared at him frustrated. "I said I would tell you everything I know didn't I? I just did, so can you please stop accusing me of something I clearly don't have any idea about?!"

Jellal began to say something but before he could even begin I had cut him off. "And don't you dare say I don't understand, cause I'm just as scared as you are right now. We all are, why do you think I've been hiding this from my own guild?!" I screamed, my face red with anger.

He stared at me, his mouth wide-open in shock. I took one look at his face and turned around. Great, I just got pissed off at someone for absolutely no reason.

But it was true wasn't it? We were both terrified of a world Zeref would create, one thing is for sure though, some of us weren't going to survive if we just sit around waiting for Zeref to come along.

We were silent for a few minutes, our backs to each other. Suddenly Jellal spoke, breaking through the thick silence that had fell upon us. "They miss you, you know." I turned around and faced him.

"Yeah? Which one?" He gave me a look. "They all do, don't act like you don't care. I know you do." "Look, Jellal, it doesn't matter whether they miss me or whether I miss them. Cause in the end, it doesn't matter. Everything that's happen can't just not happen and everything they've done and said can't just be taken back."

"I wouldn't be who I am today if none of those things happened and frankly, I like who I am now." He shook his head at me. "You act like you know everything, you don't. Neither do I, but at least I'm honest to myself." He stood up and dusted himself off.

"If there really is nothing else you can inform me about Zeref then I'll be leaving." He stared at me for a moment, his eyes scanned over my face before he turned around and started to walk away.

I stood there for a few minutes before I yelled for him to stop, my heart pounding in my chest as I spoke, "What are we going to do about this?!" He stopped but didn't look at me as he answered, "There is no 'we' in this, Lucy. And as to what I'm going to do, well, let's just say you won't be seeing me again."

I froze. There is no 'we'. "This is my war as much as it is yours... Erza can't afford to loose you." I whispered. He turned around, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips. "I have already accepted that I'll die one day, Erza will just have to accept that too."

He turned around again and started to walk away. "Maybe I was wrong Lucy Heartfilia. Maybe your not lying to yourself after all."

Later,

I was standing silently outside my hotel room, staring wonderingly at my door. It wasn't like I had to knock, I had a key. But-I glanced behind me to a clock nearby-it was already four in the morning now and I didn't really feel like waking everyone up. Especially after everything yesterday.

I sighed as I twisted the key into place and opened the door as quietly as I could. My mind blank as I walked into the darkened room, I guess the conversation I had with Jellal was more tiring then I had thought.

Suddenly a pair of arms swept me into a tight hug, I gasped softly but didn't fight it, I was exhausted anyway, both mentally and physically. The person was warm though and very inviting. I leaned into his body and sighed.

"Where the hell have you been Blondie?" Sting's voice snapped, his voice sounded tensed and a little tired at the same time. I didn't answer, my mind was already slowly heading off to dreamland at this point. Everything was starting to look fuzzy anyway.

Besides I felt safe here, like my own safe little coven. Who cares if I wanted to pretend Sting was Natsu? Who cares if I hurt his feelings? It's not like I didn't make it clear to him about what I felt. It was his fault.

Right?

Sting sighed and wrapped me tighter around him, his chin resting softly on the top of my head. "Don't leave me again." I nodded numbly and embraced the hazy darkness in front before everything faded to black.

No, it was my fault.

Normal pov,

Sting had been waiting for hours since the clock had struck midnight and that had been how long ago?

He couldn't help but glance at the clock over and over again. It was taking all of his willpower to stop himself from tearing the hotel door open and marching outside to go search for Lucy himself.

Rogue had already told him multiple times to just go to sleep and forget about it but he couldn't. He was going to see Lucy come home safe and sound and that was final, whether he has to make that happen or not.

Suddenly around four the door opened very softly. It took the entirety of his left over willpower not to just drop everything and kidnap her and hide her in a dungeon for the rest of her life. But he did it and managed to only hug her. Yes he was hugging her like she was life itself but at least he hadn't thrown her in a dungeon yet.

Lucy was nevertheless surprised when Sting had wrapped her into a hug as soon as she walked through the door. "Where the hell have you been Blondie?" Sting whispered, his voice just a little hysterical, even to himself. God forbid what Lucy was thinking.

But when he looked back down at her, he realised she was slowly going to sleep in his arms. He couldn't help but smile.

At least the got what he wanted, his mate safe and sound in his arms. He just wished this could last forever.

I personally this chapter's ending was better of as a one-shot ending XD But oh well. I hope you guys liked it, I promise more Nalu in the next few chapters (And you know I keep my promises, well, most of the time ._.) Anyway, read and review!