"Just leave us alone," I pleaded with the five giant men standing in front of me. My hand slowly reached down for my keys when I thought they weren't looking.
"We won't hurt anyone if you come with us willingly," the man in the middle said. He was the shortest, but he looked the strongest. His arms were probably the size of my thighs. There was no way I'd be able to beat even one of these guys on my own.
Why did I have to be so stupid? Everyone was back at our camp in the woods, probably sleeping peacefully like I should be doing. The quickest way to Lunar Mountain was through miles and miles of forest, with no towns to stop in. I voted for taking a longer course so we could sleep in hotels along the way and eat actual food, but Erza vetoed it. She said it would do us good to rely on our survival skills for once.
Everyone has been so nice to me the entire time we've been walking, and I am sick of it. It was too much! Gray and Happy kept asking if I was okay, Erza offered to carry my bags, and Natsu offered to carry ME. I understand that they mean well, but it's driving me crazy! So after we set up tents and everyone fell asleep, I snuck out to be alone for a while.
Big mistake. I met these guys, who immediately introduced themselves as members from Stone Heart, here to take me back to their master and employer. This night absolutely sucked.
Something shifted within me when my hand grabbed the first key it touched. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I knew it wasn't a good thing.
"She's going for her keys. Something just changed inside her," one of the guys said. He had short red hair spiked up on his head like Natsu's and was wearing a pair of pants without a shirt. I wondered briefly if he had a stripping habit like Gray.
"Go, Keen," the man in the middle said. Someone to his left with long black hair falling free to his waist stepped forward. He wore a long black trench coat that almost touched the ground. He was so dark, I almost couldn't see him. He blended in with the dark night.
Without hesitating, I pulled out they key I was holding and slashed it through the said.
"Gate of the Dragon, I summon thee: Draco!" I chanted. This was the first time I'd called on him since I found his key while searching for Pisces' with Natsu. He insisted that I should get it, I think mainly because he wanted to see what it would look like.
In a poof of red smoke, a tall guy appeared in front of me. He looked my age, and was wearing a plain black tee and low rise jeans with sunglasses. Long black dragon tattoos trailed up his arms and the back of his neck. There was one tiny gold dragon right below his eye.
"Can we make the contract later?" I asked quickly. Draco nodded and turned around to flash me a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Lucinda. I'm-," Keen ran up behind him soundlessly and pulled his arm back to punch him, but Draco grabbed his fist and stopped it in mid-air. I was too shocked to correct him on my name.
"I'm not that stupid, man," Draco said, whirling around to a shocked Keen. His foot shot forward, connecting with Keen's chest, and knocked him back a dozen feet. Keen was up a moment later and he charged once again. Just as he was nearly invisible in the night, he was also silent. His feet made no sound when they touched the ground. Draco rubbed his hands over his arms. They glowed bright for a second. Two of the dragons on his right and left arms came to life and slithered off, where it grew to the size of a small horse. It breathed a stream of fire at Keen, who dodged before he could be burnt to a crisp. Draco laughed.
I was about to try to help him when another of the five men came at me. It was the one who could tell something changed in me.
"I can read and hear a person's heartbeat. I know when they are anxious. I know when they are happy. I know when they are sad," he said, circling me slowly with calculating eyes.
"Cut the intimidation crap," I spat. "If that's all you do, then you'll be easy to beat."
"We don't have time for this, Kale. Just hurry up!" the man I assumed was the leader said. Before Kale could move, I grabbed for another key.
"Gate of the Ram, I summon thee: Capricorn!" The tall white ram appeared in front of me, his fists already up, ready to fight for me.
"You must get past meh if you want Lucy-sama," he said. Kale was surprisingly fast, his red hair turning into a blur when he fought viciously with my spirit. He separated Capricorn from me, leaving me wide open.
"She can't call more than two spirits at the same time," the leader scoffed. "Finish this now, Klein." Another of the men pulled back his hood, revealing the same face and hairstyle as Kale. Were they twins? He was wearing the same kind of pants as Kale, but with a plain black hoodie.
"I see into your heart. There are people you love in the forest behind you," he said in a monotone. That feeling I had when I first saw them started getting bigger in my chest. I didn't let myself feel fear. Nobody was coming to save me. I had to do this on my own.
"What is his name? The name of the man you love?" Klein asked. "Is it Natsu? Yes, I believe I am correct. The others are your friends, though you consider them all family."
I tried to stop the little shred of fright from bubbling over. The foreign feeling started to grow, eating up every other feeling in my body. How did he know about Natsu?
"Yo, Lucille!" Draco yelled. I grit my teeth at my name again. I spared a look over to him. He was standing back and admiring his dragons beating the crap out of Keen. "Be careful." He winked. My confusion had already been eaten by the monster feeling slowly taking over, so I only nodded as if I understood what he was talking about. A ring of trees caught on fire from one of Draco's two dragons, sealing us off from the rest of the world. For a moment, I wondered it if woke my friends up. The flames cast odd shadows on everyone's faces.
"If you refuse to surrender, we will take them. We'll torture each and every one of them. And it will be all your fault. Just like when your guild was destroyed. Just like when Levy and Natsu and Erza were hurt because of you," Klein said. I froze.
"How do you know about that?" I whispered.
"I see everything in your heart. I see your mother and father dying. I see you crying over their loss. I see every sad memory and fear contained in your tiny heart. Trust me, there are many. You are a scared little child in a grown up's world."
"A person can change, at the moment when the person wishes to change." Where had I heard that before, and why did it suddenly pop into my head now?
The monster inside completely took over. My thoughts were replaced with pity. This poor man honestly thought he could defeat me. He thought he could hurt my friends. He thought he was strong. My thoughts were no longer my own. I don't think like this, do I? No, it's the monster inside. What is this? I've never felt this before.
I screamed. It was one long sound of fury, pain, and power I didn't know I had. I grabbed the ring that held all my keys and threw it into the air, where they hovered above my head. Klein ran up to me and slammed into an invisible barrier. I could feel my eyes glowing red as I lost even more control. They sure as hell were scary. With the circle of fire surrounding the clearing, nobody would be able to try to stop us. The scary me was glad for this.
"Geez, looks like I'll have to do this myself," the leader grumbled. "I'm Oscar. I am the second in command in Stone Heart and leader of Team Perish. No one has ever defeated me." He rolled his sleeves up. "And you are not about to break that record." Was that just a weird thing he does, introducing himself and the others before attacking? Are they that arrogant?
The invisible barrier stopped him too. His eyes widened. The monster took control of my anger.
"You. Will. Not. Hurt. My. Friends," I hissed. I raised my hands in the air above me, towards my keys, and spread my fingers out. Each gold key chained together and started spinning above my head, giving me what looked like a halo.
The halo. The red eyes. The anger and sudden power surge. The inner monster chuckled. Angel from Hell. The words floated up through my mind, making me want to puke. I'm not bad! This isn't me! Make it all stop, please!
"What's going on?" Oscar asked. The confidence in his face dropped away. He was just standing there. Was that his power? Supreme arrogance and confidence? His jaw dropped in horror at what he saw behind me. I didn't have to look to know what was going on.
Each Zodiac spirit stood behind me. Capricorn abandoned his fight with Kale to join the others. In a single fluid move, they simultaneously stepped inside my body. I felt all of their power taking me over. I couldn't see for a moment. Everything disappeared except for an image of my mother's face. She smiled sadly at me, and then was gone, leaving me chilled to the bone.
I was a completely different person. I'm not Lucy. Lucy doesn't feel this way! Lucy is scared, whiny, and nowhere near this strong! Who am I?
"Leave," everyone inside me said. The different voices that came out of my mouth clashed together, making the most terrifying combination I'd ever heard. Oscar laughed.
"Oh, you think you're so tough now," he mocked. "You don't know how to use that power inside you!"
"Exactly," I smiled angelically. I felt my barrier break, and so did the others. They charged at me full speed, but all I did was laugh. Draco disappeared along with is dragons.
"You guys are screwed now," were his parting words. I held up my left hand and used Libra's power. The men toppled to the ground in front of me as I offset their balance. It only took a moment for them to realize, and they wobbly stood up and came at me again. My right hand glowed gold with Loke's power. I blasted them with light formed in the shape of a lion's head. Oscar, Keen, and the man who hadn't said one word or moved at all narrowly missed it, but Kane and Klein were hit head on.
"Gotta try harder than that!" Oscar yelled. He reached me first, sending fists flying in every direction quicker than light. Capricorn's agility and swiftness took over my body as I dodged each one. I felt Keen's presence behind me, and I twirled like a ballerina out of the way before he could hit me.
Aquarius took over, and water magically flowed from my finger tips. I used it as whips and slashed each man repeatedly until they backed away. The smoke in the air from the ring of fire was starting to go to my head. I got dizzy again. The monster feeling was starting to subside, leaving emptiness in its place. The magic in me was fading fast.
I felt someone move behind me, and I spun with a bow and arrow in my hands from Sagittarius on reflex. Without thinking, I shot the arrow at the newcomer. A pink haired boy rolled out of the way. It just barely missed his head.
"Luce?" Natsu asked. I didn't recognize him for a second. Stone Heart crept up behind me while I was distracted. Taurus's ax appeared in my hands and I turned in tight circles, swinging it around blindly. Scorpio's gust of sand flew out of my arms. The ground shook with the power of Virgo, and little by little I was losing consciousness.
"LUCY!" Natsu yelled. Tears streamed down my face as my arms transformed into the white and black fish. They stretched out and rose into the air thirty feet high, letting loose a high pitched scream.
Scissors appeared in my hands and purple fluff surrounded me. I couldn't tell up from down anymore. Why can't this just stop? How do I make it stop?
PLEASE STOP.
"LUCY!"
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Natsu's PoV
The weird guys that had been surrounding Lucy when I found her were already gone when her arms turned into fish. Happy would have been drooling if he weren't so scared. I was too, for that matter.
Lucy stood still for a second after the purple clouds of fluff faded, and then everyone stepped out of her. Literally. The twelve Zodiac spirits I recognized came out of her body and circled her.
"Luce!" I yelled, running to her. Her eyes were glazed over, and she stared at nothing. I swallowed my fear.
"I knew we shouldn't have done this –ebi!" Cancer said.
"Look at my beautiful Lucy's body now!" Taurus cried, looking at the bruises already forming on her skin. Her clothes were torn, barely covering her body at all. I tried really hard not to stare.
"We should all be punished," Virgo said quietly.
The spirits bickered over each other.
"Loke!" I yelled over the other voices. They hushed instantly. "What the hell happened?"
"The men that ran away were from Stone Heart. They were here to take her back with them. She didn't know how to handle the power that came from having all twelve Zodiac keys. She summoned us all at the same time unknowingly and called us into her body. She was taken over by rage. She didn't know what she was doing!" Loke explained.
"I'm sorry!" Aries whimpered.
"The princess is only staying up right now because we are here. We are lending her our power to keep her upright," Virgo said.
"I don't get it!" I said, clutching me head. Happy was silent. How could people be inside other people at the same time?
"It doesn't matter. All you need to know right now is that she almost died just then. The power was way too much for her, and she used every ounce of energy she had without realizing it. Get her back to your camp and let the stupid girl heal," Aquarius snapped.
I nodded and scooped Lucy into my arms. The spirits left one by one, back into the Sprit World, until only Loke remained.
"I'm going to stay here for a while," he said simply.
We walked back silently to our camp. I tried to sort through everything I saw and what everyone said, but it still didn't make any sense. Happy hadn't spoken one word since we found Lucy. He stayed uncharacteristically quiet and flew above me, looking back at Lucy every few seconds.
Was Lucy going to be okay?
FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN A CONTEST!
This is one of the first chapters I wrote for this story, and it was a really fun and also creepy one to write. I re-read this before posting it, and I am thoroughly disturbed with my own mind.
It's contest time! Can you guess what anime/manga I quoted in this chapter? If you're the first person to guess correctly by the time the next chapter is uploaded, I'll write you and NaLu one-shot you want, to be put in with my new story of drabbles I'm publishing soon! The line is:
"A person can change, at the moment when the person wishes to change."
Good luck, Fairies!
Disclaimer: That line is not mine. Full credit goes to the creator of _, which I will name in the beginning of the next chapter!