Hi guys! First of all, I would like to apologise for my disappearance over the week, honestly I probably could have gotten this chapter out on Christmas Day or maybe even earlier, but (for god knows what reason) I got sick at least two days before Christmas. So I was sick during Christmas and the next few days after that =.= (I was literally stuck in my bed all day being a literal potato XD)

Also, WOW it's already the thirtieth chapter! Hehe ^.^" It was a bit of a job getting this update out, probably cause I had a headache and I had the worst writer's block XD But thanks to my all knowing Beta Reader, she helped me work out the kinks and hopefully the chapter doesn't too weird. Anyways I hope you guys like it :) (Ps, super long chapter -~-)

Chapter 30 (What Makes Us Human)

Normal POV

Sting sat quietly in his bed as he stared at the kaleidoscope of sunshine dancing across the tiled floor. It was still pretty early - almost 6:00 am - but it didn't really matter to him; it wasn't like he was getting any sleep anyway.

His drowsy mind lazily drifted between fatigue and being jerked awake by the constant anger coiled up at the bottom of his stomach. It had faded a little overnight (well, it wasn't as strong as it was a few hours ago, anyway) but it was still there.

It wouldn't leave.

Sting knew it would have been easier to just forget about it, to call it quits and forgive the Celestial Mage for tearing his heart out and walking all over it. But considering the fact that he hadn't been able to sleep for the past four hours or so, well..

No, he can't just forget about it.

The fist that was clinging on to his bed sheets loosely, tightened as his mind bought him back to last night.

He had woken up a few minutes after Lucy had left the emergency room. He wasn't sure what had woken him up but as soon as he caught Lucy's familiar scent in the air, he ran out of the room to find her.

All he had in his mind when he was running after her was that he needed to apologise. He desperately needed to apologise to her. He had heard the fear and shock in her voice when he had apologised to her before, the small gasp that she had tried so hard to hide.

He had frightened her, hurt her even, yes it was indirectly but he didn't care about that.

But as he stumbled into the reception downstairs, he realised that Lucy, his Lucy, wasn't alone; far from alone at all.

Sting growled through his teeth as he bought his already tense fist down heavily onto the mattress. He already knew it would happen; in the back of his mind, he knew it. He was waiting for it too, waiting for it to happen.

And he had been foolish, foolish to think that maybe it wouldn't happen

after all. That Natsu had already faded far into her past that he admittedly knew very little about.

The past that he never bothered to ask questions about.

Now he was stuck, his heart nothing more but a broken toy too wrecked to ever be fixed again by even the best glue.

And the worst part?

He still loved her, with every single fiber of his being. He just couldn't let her go, no matter how much he knew she loved someone else.

He was the third wheel, doomed to be left alone in the end, loving the same girl that so clearly belonged to someone else, forever.

Lucy couldn't sleep. She hadn't been able to sleep for the past few hours. Angrily, she turned to the other side of the mattress again, hoping to find a comfortable spot for her to fall into a (hopefully) dreamless sleep.

She didn't need to think about it in her sleep, not when she was spending her every waking moment thinking about it already.

Sighing, she sat up again, her eyes skimming over the sleeping figures on the other beds around her when her eyes fell on a certain one, pushed far into the corner of the large bedroom.

It was empty, it's occupant probably asleep in the Domus Flau's emergency room. Lucy, no matter how much she tried, couldn't drag her eyes away from it.

She had somehow dragged herself back to the inn last night around three in the morning and had spent the next hour sobbing in the bedroom toilet. She didn't want to wake everyone up with her crying so she even took the time to cry outside the inn first.

But it clearly wasn't enough.

Her eyes were dry now, puffy from all the crying but otherwise fine. She felt numb, almost like the time she had left Fairy Tail, but even that didn't bring her any hope that it was going to get better.

Natsu had left, presumably for good. She would never see him again in this lifetime, she was sure of it. The Dragon Slayer would do everything he could to avoid her now, even if it meant never visiting the guild, his first home without his dragon father Igneel, ever again.

And whatever she had with Sting was broken for good now. It was more of a waiting period now to see who would crack first and leave. She was almost a hundred percent sure it was going to be her.

She was always the weak one anyway.

Tiredly, she glanced at the wall clock on the far wall, only to be disappointed by the numbers. 6:32am. The team was supposed to get up around seven so they would be able to get to the Domus Flau early enough to pick up Sting for the games.

Lucy was one of the people in charge of picking him up (courtesy of Minerva) and she had wanted to when the guild master had asked. But now, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

She doubted Sting really wanted to see her either.

Even so, a tiny spark of excitement was still bubbling in the back of her head. Part of her still had hope she would be able to smooth things out between her and the Dragon Slayer, even though realistically she knew it was over.

Gingerly, she got out of the bed and headed - unsurprisingly - to the balcony.

She still wasn't sure why she kept going back there; she'd already had millions of bad things happen there, you'd think she'd at least think about it before going there again.

But she didn't, she never did.

Softly, Lucy stepped out into the balcony as the sound of morning birds chirping enveloped her into momentary bliss.

Now she kind of understood why she kept going back there; it was the temporary relief it always gave her when she was up there in the clouds, where her problems would temporarily solve themselves, where her worries would dissipate into the morning air, leaving her with nothing but peacefulness.

"I saw you last night." A voice suddenly whispered, tearing Lucy out of her temporary bliss. "Rogue?" She answered, turning around to face the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

Sure enough he was standing there behind her leaning on one of the sliding glass doors, with his usual blank expression. "You were crying." He mumbled, meeting the other Dragon Slayer's eyes. "I.. Had a rough night." Lucy answered quickly.

"You smell funny." He added nonchalantly, joining her by the edge of the balcony. Lucy frowned at Rogue's words.

What at the heck was that suppose to mean? She smelt funny? What else could she smell like other than soap and bad breath?

Lucy - obviously bothered by the Shadow Dragon Slayer's comment - sniffed at herself gingerly. "I do?" She questioned, only smelling her usual soap and shampoo. "Yeah, you don't have Sting all over you." He muttered.

Lucy couldn't help but blush; did she always smell like that? Like Sting? Did other people smell it too or did only the Dragon Slayers smell it? Why didn't she, a Dragon Slayer, smell it? "Don't worry, you don't always smell like him. You just smell weird this time."

Lucy frowned, uncomfortable that Rogue might have noticed she hadn't taken a bath last night. She always prided herself in being clean and neat everyday, even if it was a rough day at the Grand Magic Games. Half of her old personality was definitely gone but something about looking half-decent all the time never left her.

"I didn't have time to shower last night." She mumbled quietly without looking at him in the eye. Rogue who could have heard her a mile away anyway, rolled his eyes. "I know, you just smell like... "

Lucy raised an eyebrow at Rogue's sudden silence. "Like?" Rogue, almost dazed at her question, quickly shook himself as if to wake himself up. "Nothing, there's nothing wrong." He glanced towards the wall clock nearby quickly and added, "Its almost seven, you should go eat. I'm going to go wake the others."

Silently, he walked off, leaving Lucy alone and self-conscious on the balcony.

She knew the Shadow Dragon Slayer wasn't one to talk much, but this was just weird; what could he possibly know that she didn't?

Frowning, Lucy walked back into the room to get dressed for the day, hoping that Rogue would tell her whatever he was about to say later that day.

"So, did you find out what happened?" Minerva asked, as Rogue walked straight into Minerva's arm blocking the hotel room door. The rest of the team had already left for breakfast. Rogue had stayed behind, hoping that if he left last no one would notice him leaving early for the Domus Flau.

Unfortunately for him, Minerva noticed.

"What do you mean, Milady?" Rogue asked tonelessly, as he tried to walk outside again, only to walk straight into Minerva's arm again. "I know you can smell her, Rogue, you already know what happened."

Rogue growled, "Just let me go. Why are you stopping me, anyway?"

"I wanted to confirm... What I heard." The Shadow Dragon Slayer sighed and stopped trying to push his way out of the room. "What did you hear?" Minerva leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms, as if she was worried about the news herself.

"I caught wind this morning that the kid who was fighting Sting yesterday was excommunicated from Fairy Tail by order of the Magic Council. They told me to watch out because he might get violent. I'm assuming that this 'kid' is Natsu Dragneel."

Rogue, genuinely surprised by the news, frowned, "And?" Minerva gave Rogue a look. "And, I think something happened last night."

"You weren't the only one who heard her crying last night." She added, before looking towards Rogue, expecting him to say something. They were silent for a few minutes, both trying to think of something to say.

Suddenly Rogue sighed and started for the door again. "Look, I don't know about any of this, all I know is that Lucy stinks of Dragneel and that's all." "And you don't think that boy would go and find her? If he had been excommunicated only last night, he would have enough time to find Lucy."

Rogue growled, "So what? We don't care about Dragneel do we? It's Sting we're worried about." Minerva shook her head before turning away from the Shadow Dragon Slayer. "I have a feeling it's already too late."

"Lucy-sama, if you don't mind me asking but.. Are you alright?" Lucy looked up from her styrofoam mug blankly as Yukino spoke, completely ignoring Yukino's nervous '-sama', while hopelessly trying to distract herself with her cup of lukewarm coffee.

The pair had arrived a few minutes ago after Minerva had insisted that they leave early, Lucy wasn't sure whether Minerva knew about what had happened, or at least part of it, but the look Minerva gave her before she left said otherwise.

The guild master knew something was up.

Lucy wasn't sure why she had thought her blowup with Sting was going to stay hidden. I mean, he was part of her team and guild, after all. So the chances of her guild never finding out were slim to none.

Plus, her guild-mates weren't exactly idiots themselves. The fact that Lucy was acting like a zombie this morning was enough evidence.

"It's alright, Yukino and yes I'm fine. I'm just tired, that's all." Yukino smiled jokingly. "You should have stayed at Sting's room that late last night, I heard Milady say you didn't come home till 3 in the morning." Lucy managed a small laugh at Yukino's good-natured prod and nodded.

It was better to go with whatever the other celestial Mage thought she had been doing last night, anyway.

Silently, Lucy dragged her chair back and stood up, coffee in hand. "Let's go, Minerva probably thinks we're at the Domus Flau already." Before Yukino could have time to agree Lucy was already half-way out the door, leaving Yukino with no choice but to run after her.

"W-wait, Lucy-sama!" Lucy ignored the white-haired mage's protests, only quickening her pace, leaving Yukino farther and farther behind. Lucy had sensed something near the cafe when she was leaving, something that was a lot worse than her own broken heart.

It came to her as a smell, a mix of rotting flesh and dried blood, so heavy in the air it made her gag on her coffee. But as soon as it was there, it was gone.

It was all that she needed, though; before she knew it she was running towards the smell. To anyone on the street the smell would have completely disappeared, but to a Dragon Slayer there was still enough to track.

She hadn't needed to run this fast though - the person wasn't running away from her anyway - she just needed to shake off Yukino. The magic energy that she had sensed along with the smell was just as about as powerful as its stench, powerful enough to not be worried about getting caught in a city filled with powerful mages.

Powerful enough to kill a lot of people.

She was sure it wasn't Zeref though. Zeref was smarter than that; even he wouldn't come out wandering in the middle of the day. Plus, she knew how powerful Zeref was; this guy was small game compared to the Dark Lord.

Nevertheless, this person wasn't anything to laugh about.

Finally, Lucy stopped in front of an old butcher shop that was closed for the day. Ignoring the closed sign, she walked straight into the alleyway next to the shop that led to the skips in the back.

The alleyway itself was shady and damp, green mould growing everywhere, up the walls and through the cracks on the pavement to the dusty windows on the other building.

The air flowing through it was another thing. The air tasted metallic and salty, like old blood. Lucy didn't dare try to smell whether the air smelt the exact same to the way it tasted or whether it was worse

When she got to the skips the conditions were... Surprisingly better. The smell still lingered in the air but the giant metal skips were incredibly clean. It looked like someone had actually taken the time to clean up the left over animal corpses the butcher had thrown out and even wiped down the skips themselves.

It was almost eerie.

Lucy clenched her teeth as she looked around; had she lost him? No, she can't have, not after coming all this way.

Gingerly, she stepped towards one of the skips closest to her to inspect the hulking blue piece of metal when several voices echoed through the alleyway behind her.

"What are you doing here, Lucy?!"

"Lucy-sama!"

"Heartfilia."

Minerva, Rogue and Yukino.

"You have refused to say anything for the past few minutes, Heartfilia, I am not tolerating this." Minerva snapped as the group neared the Domus Flau.

It had been more than ten minutes since Lucy had been caught near those dumpsters and Minerva was pissed. She wasn't even sure why Minerva was so angry, she was a hundred percent sure she had convinced the guild-master that she, Lucy Heartfilia, could handle herself fine.

Even though she hadn't been entirely sure she could have handled that person herself ten minutes ago.

"Minerva, it wasn't anything. I was just curious about the smell." Minerva smug at her sudden breakthrough Lucy's silence, gave her a sceptical look. "You were curious about some butcher's dumpster?"

Lucy sighed and started towards the stairs, completely unaware that she was walking straight to a room she did not, under any circumstances, want to go into. She was trying her hardest not to let anything on and, hopefully, not pull the others into this.

She was sure the guy, even though he wasn't Zeref, was definitely tangled up in his plan. She wasn't sure if it was a demon she had sensed or a person but she was sure she was going to find out.

If Zeref's people were already here...

The event that Acnologia had told her about was a lot closer than she had thought.

And it was only the third day of the GMG.

Lucy felt the urge to hit something as she reached the top of the staircase. She couldn't keep this to herself anymore; she had to tell them.

If all of Zeref's people were this strong...then there was no way in hell she could do this by herself.

She would be lucky to get out of it alive.

Lucy clenched her teeth as she walked down the brightly lit hallway. Why did she need to make these decisions?! Why couldn't anyone else who had an actually good decision-making track-record make it?! She had already destroyed so many things, what's to say she's not just going to destroy the world with one shitty decision?

...

That's it, nothing.

Just one mistake and it could be the end to everything they know. Every single thing that had ever made their reality.

One mistake, one bad decision.

How did she even know what she was doing was the right thing to do?

Was she already making mistakes?

"Heartfilia." Minerva's voice jerked Lucy out of her own scrambled thoughts and reminded her where she currently was. "Heartfilia!" Minerva repeated, making Lucy nod slightly to signal to the brunette she had heard her.

"The emergency room is over here, you're walking too far." Lucy stopped abruptly at Minerva's words and looked behind her. Sure enough, she was a lot further down the hallway than she needed to be. Lucy couldn't help but feel a little sheepish as she backtracked towards the group again.

"A lot on your mind, huh?" Minerva muttered as Lucy arrived outside the emergency room door with the rest of the group. Lucy rolled her eyes at Minerva's snarky comment and walked into the room, only to realise a second later what she was doing.

God, she was having a bad day.

Sting was directly on the other side of the room, leaning casually against the wall behind him. He was already dressed, last night's clothes packed and ready in a nearby bag on his bed. His hair was messier than usual, almost like he had just woken up, but Lucy could tell he hadn't.

He hadn't slept at all.

His face was grey from lack of sleep, the bags underneath his eyes darker than she had ever seen before. But he still kept on his little charade, still kept on standing on his own two feet. Lucy didn't know whether he was trying to make a point or he was just stupid.

Either way, he looked as upset as she was.

Lucy couldn't help but feel the urge to say something, anything to him but the words stuck inside her throat. Sorry. She wanted to apologise, wanted to make everything the same again.

She wanted to pretend like it had never happened.

But she wasn't going to get that, not today, not now, not ever. Nothing was ever going to be the same.

Because it had happened; she had chosen Natsu over him, with him as a witness himself. She had taken the heart he had given her and destroyed every single last piece of it.

She was horrible: a monster, a trap. It was all her fault.

It was always her fault.

Slowly Sting tipped his chin up to meet her eyes, giving her a look she couldn't recognise, he smiled mockingly. "Hello, Lucy."

Lucy's POV

I shouldn't have been surprised at the coldness of his tone, the way he spat out my name like it was poison to his lips. The cold smile that came with it.

I shouldn't have been surprised at the way he took it. I knew him well enough to know that, at least.

And finally...

I shouldn't have been surprised at myself and how I took it.

"Sting." I choked out, my body going completely numb as I stood there watching him. He chuckled at my shaking voice and shook his head. "You're still here? Where's Natsu?" He hissed mockingly.

Before I could answer him, Minerva cut in, her voice hard. "Watch it, Sting." She warned quietly as she walked into the room. Yukino still oblivious to everything nodded and gave him a small frown as she followed Minerva into the room.

Sting scowled at Minerva's interruption before glaring at her. "Mind your own business, Minerva." Minerva, who had been busy picking up his overnight bag, turned around smirked.

"Do you finally have the nerve to say my name, Sting? Or are you so scared that you're saying it?" She whispered mockingly. Silence filled the room, Minerva's question hanging in the air like a puppet on strings. No one was sure of what to say or what to do, unsure of whether it would set either of them off.

Suddenly, Minerva laughed, a short chuckle that rang through out the room. It was short, just a sound but everyone knew what it meant.

Minerva was dismissing Sting completely, she was downplaying him.

Angrily, Sting rushed towards her, his fist outstretched aimed for her jaw. "I'm not scared of anyone!" He screamed as his fist neared Minerva's face.

Minerva stayed silent, she didn't move, didn't even flinch, almost like she hadn't heard at all.

He was going to hit her. Why wasn't she moving?! "Minerva!" I yelled, but it was too late, Sting's fist wasn't stopping Minerva was going to take the hit...

Why?

...

Suddenly Sting's entire fist went through one of Minerva's portals, completely disappearing from sight, inches away from her face.

"Don't. You'll get yourself hurt." She muttered before walking out into the corridor, leaving Sting sprawled on the ground.

Yukino, who was still oblivious and hadn't seen any of this coming, glared at Sting angrily. "What do you think you're doing Sting?!" She yelled, pointing a finger at him. Yukino fell silent after saying it, her fury seemingly gone and used.

Silence echoed through the room again, we all held our breaths waiting for Sting's explosion.

But nothing came.

I bit my lip as I stared at Sting's kneeling figure, he was staring at the ground quietly, his gaze glued to the floor. He looked tired, angry and frustrated but also incredibly exhausted.

He hadn't wanted that outburst, it had been directed at the wrong person.

As if hearing my thought, he looked up to meet my gaze but I turned quickly towards the clock on the wall nearby, not wanting to meet his eyes.

Suddenly, Rogue sighed and walked into the room while motioning for me and Yukino to get out. Yukino who had been standing and looking around hopelessly for the part few minutes nodded and walked out, glad to get out of the tense situation.

Rogue nodded at me too as soon as Yukino left, signalling for me to leave as well. I sighed and nodded at him before leaving, the door closing promptly behind me.

It was quiet out in the corridor. Both Yukino and Minerva had left for the Domus Flau leaving me alone in the corridor. Tiredly I leaned against the wall behind me and let the flood gates open.

I did this... I broke my old family and destroyed my only chance of a new one..

Maybe I can't have a family..

Not mom and dad, not Fairy Tail, not even Sabertooth. It never works out.

Silently, I dropped my face into my hands, feeling the warm dampness of my tears hitting my dry skin.

Maybe I was right all along, I was never going to have a normal life. I would just have to stop trying.

I couldn't have a family because I would just push everyone apart, I couldn't have friends because they would just become targets for Zeref and I couldn't have love because I would end up breaking them myself.

Everything that defined me as a human, as a living breathing person I couldn't have.

And if I wasn't Lucy Heartfilia...

Then who am I?

How was it? I hope you guys liked it XD And if 'the Dark Lord' thing made you think of Voldemort it's ok, I get that a lot XD Anyways since I won't be seeing you till at least a few days... Happy New Year and all the best for us during 2015! I already have a few ideas up my sleeve after this is finished so look forward to that ;) Read and Review!