Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 8: Omega & Alpha, Part one
The next day, Lucy arrived at the guild with a happy smile on her face. No one had discovered or even suspected that she was going out on jobs with Sting. She wore a simple black T-shirt with an orange skirt to match, along with some fancy purple flat shoes. Upon opening Fairy Tail's entrance doors, Lucy noticed that everyone was being calm instead of wild and rowdy.
Lisanna seemed to be trying to reprimand Natsu about something he had done, but Lucy didn't seem to care about the drama occurring with them. She wanted to face forward to the future, and she didn't want to look back at her past. Sting had taken her home because he was such a caring guy, and Lucy really was glad about having feelings for the white dragon slayer.
He had been her best partner on missions, and Sting had really been helping out Lucy a lot. He had knowledge of other lands, and Sting was also great at sniffing out hidden traps in many areas. He had even saved Lucy from walking into a minefield when they had to find an item in a dangerous forest, and Sting's Holy Ray had destroyed all the mines. Lucy had looked scared while they were safe up in a tree, but she was also blushing from holding on to Sting. He had ran his fingers through her blonde hair on that day, and Lucy had felt happy with him. Quite a good teammate, was he not?
Sting had given her the day off, after that 2-day adventure to Cinnabar Town, and he deserved some time to recharge after retching up his motion sickness in the sea when he got off the boat in Magnolia. He had even been bragging about new moves he created, but he'd save them for the next Grand Magic Games. Lucy was looking forward to seeing him there, and she would actually be rooting for Sabertooth in the events and battles.
While it was good for both of them to take a break from training, Lucy did miss Sting. She couldn't stop thinking about the kiss they shared by accident, and how she let her feelings out by intensifying the bliss of the kiss. There was a warm feeling in her chest when she thought about Sting, and she began to blush when she imagined him holding her in a bridal-style fashion.
Lucy had made her way to the request board, hoping to find a good job for the day, and she just wanted to make a little bit of extra money for herself and Sting. She didn't mind that he wouldn't be with her on the job today, but Lucy looked a bit worried since she had noticed that the spell book had turned red. Sting had told her about how it happened, but he couldn't even read the third olden language. Something new had been written in the strange book, and what type of magic would it end up being?
The blonde mage noticed that four spells were written in their section of the book, and the spells were written in cherry red text. The unreadable words were written in scarlet red text, and Lucy wasn't able to use these spells yet. Despite the readable words being in cherry red, the book told Lucy that she could only use these four spells for individuality. She didn't know what that meant, but Lucy smiled a bit from also knowing that each spell had its own purpose. Still, what hint was the book trying to give her? Did she have to use the spells in a certain order or in various ways?
She noticed that the jobs on the request board weren't exactly bringing in large amounts of cash, and Lucy also knew that she couldn't go upstairs to the S-Class bulletin board to find jobs there. Lucy groaned in frustration from not finding any good jobs on her day off, and hearing Natsu's laughter wasn't exactly making things any better for her.
"Quit making me laugh, Lisanna! I don't need to be nice to Lucy, and it's because she's just so much weaker than us! I don't see why you have to be disliking me for comparing her to that slow snail we beat the other day!" Natsu exclaimed in a happy manner, laughing while he nearly fell out of his chair.
The white-haired mage responded nicely with kindness in her blue eyes, trying to not have discord between members of the Fairy Tail guild, "Just cause you love me, that's no excuse to treat Lucy like trash! Natsu, she did nothing bad to you! Being harsh on Lucy will get the situation nowhere, so just stop acting like your ego is so much bigger than our love!"
Natsu didn't really care about Lucy anymore, and he seemed to be too in love with Lisanna and in love with his ego to really have any sense. His team had been doing well on jobs, but it usually took the four of them to defeat the most dangerous bandit or capture a dangerous animal. Natsu had even made out with Lisanna during the job, an action that greatly got on the nerves of Erza and Gray. They also seemed a tad annoyed by Natsu trying to show off for Lisanna on many jobs, setting the monsters ablaze, but Natsu had also destroyed many towns in the process.
The team hadn't even received the large bag of 900,000 jewels from the mayor of a beach town that they had visited for the job of making fireworks for a festival, and it was because Natsu's giant fireball had destroyed the town's statue of its mayor. His flames had also spread to other parts of the beach, destroying many surfboards, and the entire festival had been ruined. Even though Erza would strangle Natsu while Gray scolded him, the fire dragon slayer could care less. He only cared about Lisanna and himself these days, which was really pathetic.
Lucy had overheard Lisanna's defensive words, seeing that she really did want to be on good terms with her, but Lucy also had to accept the fact that the girls couldn't really get along if Natsu would be such a jerk to Lucy. He just kept making this conflict boil at heated temperatures, and even Gray wanted to beat up Natsu for how he was currently acting. His immaturity really made him look bad, and the fire dragon slayer just loved to boast about how he loved Lisanna and how she was just as strong as him.
The blonde mage did not want to deal with the guy that she used to like, and she prepared to walk out of the Fairy Tail guild for some peace. She needed to clear her head and find a way to visit Sting, you know. After all, he never said that she couldn't come to see him on their day off from training. Lucy definitely felt happy about her plan for the day, ready to go on the S.S. Aqua while she walked towards the entrance doors of Fairy Tail, but then she gasped a bit from feeling someone grab her left arm from behind.
She turned around to see Lisanna with a kind look on her face, really wanting to be on good terms and apologize for Natsu's brash behavior, but Lucy did not feel like risking her new friendship for some stupid drama. Natsu was the last guy that she wanted to be around right now, and he certainly wouldn't have anything nice to tell Lucy. Why was Lisanna trying to bridge of friendship in Fairy Tail, anyway? If there was a wall between Lucy and Team Natsu, why not let it stay there? She had nothing to say to that dense dragon slayer, and he would only fuel the fire.
"Look, I just wanted that I'm sorry about Natsu kicking you off of the team. He's been getting really cocky on missions lately, and you probably have gotten stronger since that time. I'd really like for us to be friends, and-" Lisanna explained nicely with a kind look in her blue eyes, really hoping to be on good terms with Lucy, until a certain someone intervened and got in between them.
Natsu had heard the whole conversation, and he really couldn't accept the fact that his girlfriend wanted to make amends with someone that he saw as a complete weakling. He gave Lucy a teasing look, knowing she was nothing without her keys, and he even imitated the blonde mage when she would summon a spirit. Natsu thought Lucy was nothing without her keys, but he didn't know about that spell book. Natsu took a step towards Lucy, hoping to heckle some more, but his nose caught a big whiff of something unusual around her.
"That's gross, Lucy! You smell like those wimps from Sabertooth! Have you been around them or something, since you're just as weak as they are? I'm sure you realize now that we aren't friends. The perfect team isn't formed by having a replacement, but by eliminating it. You'll make it easy for me to beat you up, Lucy. I just hate it when dirty scum tries to fight against someone like me. You're just as weak as that idiot Sting, you garbage heap!" Natsu told her in a derogatory manner, heckling her with a grossed out look before laughing at his own insults.
Lucy, however, was not finding this to be a joke of any kind. Natsu had just insulted her, and he insulted Sting as well. She looked extremely annoyed and irritated by the fire dragon slayer thinking that she was the same girl who was so saddened and could be broken down easily by hurtful words, but Lucy was tired of being pushed around by this dense jerk. Lucy wouldn't let him get away with insulting Sting, too, since Natsu didn't even know that Sting was a much cooler guy than he seemed to be. On top of that, Lucy would never let anyone get off free after they insulted the guy that she had feelings for.
Gray and Cana stood at a table near the area where the drama was transpiring, both mages ready to step in and help Lucy defend herself, but Erza faced them with a stern look in her brown eyes. She wasn't going to let them intervene right now, especially since she had caught sight of the red spell book pulsating while it was in Lucy's left hand. Steam even rose from the book, so would these spells be hot like Lucy's current anger? She narrowed her cocoa brown eyes at Natsu, determined to show that jerk how she had improved since being away from him, and she quickly opened the red spell book.
"I call upon thee, the first spell, Fiery Embers!" Lucy shouted angrily while she leaped back to get some distance from Natsu, as the words in cherry red text on the pages began to glow.
This spell caused Lucy to spit out five small fireballs from her mouth, and she couldn't believe that these spells were for Fire Magic. She knew that Natsu was a fire dragon slayer, capable of eating any kind of fire that was not his own, and she looked a bit disappointed at the thought of these spells being useless against him. She saw him quickly unleash Fire Dragon's Roar, producing a spiraling beam of red fire that headed straight for Lucy, but his attack suddenly split into five different beams! They merged with Lucy's fireballs, strengthening them exponentially in power and size, prompting the fireballs to harshly strike Natsu.
Five fiery explosions occurred, and Natsu had surprisingly taken damage from Lucy's fire attacks. The spell book's elements were not exactly in the categories of a dragon or a god, so neither Natsu or Zancrow could eat Lucy's flames. That first spell had the power of taking an enemy's fire attacks and absorbing them, before multiplying the power exponentially to do some massive damage. The side effect of this spell allowed Lucy to inhale all the flames like Natsu could, and she felt a bit more powerful.
Not wanting to be shown up by Lucy, Natsu saw her first spell as beginner's luck. It definitely was not luck, however, and her spell book was working in her favor. The Fire Magic was certainly hurting Natsu, and he looked a bit angry about being shown up by his own element. The fire dragon slayer proceeded to use Fire Dragon's Sword Horn for the chance of striking Lucy from up close for her spells to not strike him, and Natsu engulfed his entire body in flames before he propelled himself towards Lucy at high speeds. This move could really hurt someone, and Natsu snickered confidently from seeing Lucy remain perfectly still.
Gray yelled at Lucy to get out of the way of Natsu's attack, thinking she would getting badly burnt, but the ice mage saw something interesting. Lucy was smiling a bit, and she seemed perfectly calm like she had a plan up her sleeve. The blonde female quickly activated the second spell, and it was known as Magma Liquid. This spell caused Lucy to unleash six blobs of red goop from her mouth, and they all struck Natsu while being engulfed in his flames. The goop was actually volcanic liquid at a hot temperature, getting even hotter with Natsu's flames making the goop boil, and it began to harden quickly on the skin of the fire dragon slayer.
Natsu was now getting close to Lucy, but a sudden miniature red explosion of fire forced him out of the flames that engulfed his body. More fiery explosions occurred on Natsu's skin, sending him flying backwards, and Lucy gasped a bit from realizing that the hardened liquid was the main cause of that. It had to boil and solidify before it could explode, and the fiery blasts actually made flames enter Lucy's mouth to refill her magical power. She felt more energy enter her body, but Lucy also noticed that she had dealt eleven blows to Natsu. She hadn't defeated him, but he had used up a lot of power to attack while he had also taken damage.
"You have to be kidding me. I can't possibly be having trouble against a low-class mage like Lucy! She's much weaker than I am, and that book doesn't make her strong at all! Compared to me, she's a loser that quivers in fear! I'll show you how elite I am!" Natsu shouted while he looked angry, enraged that someone like Lucy was beating him down with Fire Magic.
He angrily used Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, one of his strongest moves, and Natsu jumped up into the air while igniting both of his hands with large flames. He combined the flames together to create a large fireball in his hands. He threw it at Lucy with intense power and speed, only to see her use the third spell in the red book. This spell was known as Heated Split, and it divided Natsu's large fireball into four fireballs. The amount of power for each of them was equal to the original, however, and the fireballs were now having cherry red flames to indicate their switch to Lucy's side. Natsu fell down to the ground, and he looked shocked to see his fireballs being sent back at him.
They were about to hit him with tremendous force, but then four swords appeared in front of Natsu. They were acting like a shield to him, protecting him from the attack, and Natsu was glad that they did. When the fireballs struck the swords, four enormous fiery explosions transpired! The wind had blown away some people while it knocked over some tables, and the force of the explosions was enough to actually shake the guild for a few seconds. To not hurt any innocent people, Lucy had inhaled most of the flames. She could tell that her amount of magical power had grown, especially since she didn't even seem tired from using three spells.
After the smoke cleared up, Erza appeared in between Natsu and Lucy. She was wearing her Heaven's Wheel Armor, having requipped into it while her friends had been fighting, and Erza didn't exactly make those shields to save Natsu. Lisanna had still been standing behind him, and she hated to see this tense conflict. Natsu was her boyfriend, and he talked so badly about Lucy. Lisanna really wanted to make up with her, but she also didn't want to lose Natsu. The white-haired mage could be the only one to get the fire dragon slayer back to his senses, and she also wanted to be on good terms with Lucy.
Erza told Lucy in a calm tone, having some regret in her brown eyes while she requipped back to her Heart Kreuz Armor, "Listen, Lucy. After all the drama that happened, and now this... I just think it's best for you to leave the guild. You're a good friend to most of us, but I know that you don't need to deal with any of Natsu's crap."
Gray added regretfully, also saddened to have to send Lucy off, "We'll be giving Natsu a long talk, and we're going to miss you. Sorry that it has to be this way, but you do need to be somewhere. Something about you just tells me that, Lucy."
He had obviously seen how she seemed to be thinking about Sting before Lisanna had tried to apologize to Lucy, and Gray didn't want to see one of his best friends get hurt anymore in any way. Ever since Lucy had been kicked off of the team, Natsu had nothing good to ever say about her. She may have been a replacement, but she was still a person. Gray honestly knew that final attack would've finished off Natsu, had Erza not intervened to try and calm things down between them, and he also knew that Lucy would cross paths with Fairy Tail again one day.
She didn't want to tell her friends that she was seeing a member of the rival guild, and Lucy preferred to not let them know about it. She did not want anymore drama of any kind to ensue, and Lucy also knew that she needed to get to Castelia Town to visit Sting. Breaking her ties with Fairy Tail was tough, but it sadly had to be done. However, Lucy couldn't let the sadness of parting ways overshadow her desire to turn away from her past and start facing forward to the future. This was the end for her in Fairy Tail, but it was also the beginning of her start to look towards the light of happiness.
How was the 8th chapter? Did you like it? I decided to do something a little bit different from most writers, and not have all of Team Natsu be hurtful to Lucy for her to leave. This chapter was also serious, but the StiCy in the next chapter shall make up for the lack of it here. The next chapter is also quite fun, so standby for the update!