I'm back with chapter 43. Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the pge.

POV: Lucy

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

"What made you change your mind," Kageyama asks from within his prison cell looking slightly bored.

"I woke up," I retort making his eyes widen in surprise, "The day you attacked me I hit my head pretty hard and somehow the hit helped me regain my memories."

Kageyama leans closer to me without moving from his seat seeming to scrutinize my answer with an inquisitive look. "Did you now," he asks while continuing to stare at me. He mutters something under his breath before shaking his head and smiling at me again, "Well alright then," he sighs as he tilts his head to the side, "Let's say I do tell you everything you want to hear, what will I get in return?"

Glaring at him, I cock my hip to the side and rest my hand on my hip while asking, "Why should you get anything in return?" Making the male's face darken at my snide comment, "Besides, it's not like you have much power locked up the way you are to be asking for anything."

"That's true," the raven haired male admits as he looks down at his shackled wrists, "But just because you're out there doesn't mean that you're no less of a prisoner than me." I tense up at his words as his emotionless eyes look back at me, all humor completely gone, "And seeing as you've broken into this place I can tell that you're desperate. You've broken so many rules in just one day that you probably don't even hear the warning bells anymore."

"How did you..."

"I guess I'll tell you everything you want to know," Kageyama cuts me off as he leans back on his hands and sprawls his legs out in from of him look nonchalant, "Checking by the way you keep on slightly tapping your foot I doubt we have much time left on our hands, so for this time I won't ask for anything in return. So go ahead and ask what you want to ask."

Standing up straight I look around the musky room noticing a few pairs of eyes staring at me from the neighboring cells. A single window at the end of the hall allows little to no sunlight into the room, "What is this place?" I ask once my wandering gaze finally travels back towards Kageyama.

"This place, my dear, is where all members of the secret organization Fairy Tail come to receive job requests from the higher ups. Just about every town in Fiore has an organization like this one who all perform the same kinds of jobs." He informs sounding almost like a school teacher with his somewhat confusing explanation.

Dropping my bag on the floor next to me, I cross my arms across my chest and ask, "You mean like odd jobs," to which he holds back a laugh.

The mirth remains in his eyes as he tries to compose himself into a more somber mood, "Not exactly," he says seeming to choose his words carefully. Reaching behing himm, he pulls out a manila folder and searches through the papers before pulling one up with it facing me, "Do you know this girl?" He asks and my eyes practically shoot out of their sockets as I recognize the girl in the picture. I look down at my bag where that same folder had been in just a few seconds ago and sure enough my bag looks as if it hasn't been touched, so how was he able to retrieve it without lifting so much as a finger? "Do you know this girl or not?" He impatiently asks while waving the paper towards me to catch my attention again and I nod.

Of course I knew who she was because it was Levy's picture that Kageyama was showing me. The black and white picture only show her smiling face and wild blue hair showing no real indication where the picture had been taken from, "What does she have to do with anything," I ask while looking into his calculating black eyes.

"Everything," he simply shrugs before he places the paper down in front of him while pulling more papers out and spreading them on the floor as well, "Along with this person, this person, this person, and the rest of these unfortunate people."

Between us he places more papers similar to Levy's with their own personal information that I can't really read. I hadn't bothered reading the papers last night thinking that I'd have a few days before the opportunity to break in here came up, so I didn't really know what I had looked at when Yukino had given me the folder yesterday. Even now as I stare down at all the foreign and familiar faces I can't seem to piece together what it all means.

"Confusing, isn't it?" The raven haired teen asks while reading a paper in his hand with half interest.

"Who are all these people?"

"Victims," his eyes look back at me after he puts down his last paper so that it joins the rest on the floor, "Each and every one of these individuals have been a victim of some terrible accident that they got into," he reaches towards Levy's file again and starts to read the information written, "It says here that your fiend was hit by a car almost a year ago and was pronounced to be in a deep coma until just a few months ago."

"That's impossible," I say feeling my whole body grow cold under my thick jacket, "She's been awake this whole time. She even went to visit me at the hospital when I first arrived here looking perfectly normal." I shake my head clearly not believing a word he just said, "How could she be in a coma for months and still be walking around?"

Kageyama stays silent for a bit before he asks, "Have you ever seen yourself sleep in a dream?"

I'm thrown a bit off by the question and I remain silent as I mull over over his question before shaking my head, "No, but I've heard of people that have. It's something about your soul leaving your body and wanders aimlessly in another dimension while your body is left in this world in a deep sleep."

"Impressive," Kageyama compliments with a smile, "They're called astral bodies and very few people have the ability to leave their bodies while asleep," he explains before looking back down at Levy's profile, "On the other hand, when someone gets into a critical coma their astral bodies are somehow released into the world causing them to 'live' as if the accident never even happened. Astral bodies can then take on a more solid human form which then allows them to produce their own blood and create normal organ functions making it hard to differentiate which one is the real body. Because of this the people around them, including themselves, have no memory of the accident so then the original body is quickly forgotten."

"But wouldn't the spirit just go back to the body after a while?" Iask as I somewhat start to understand what he's explaining to me.

"Not necessarily. Once you leave your body all your memories are erased and your connection to your body is severed. Your astral body becomes attached to this world instead preventing you from returning and because of this your real body begins to deteriorate until it eventually dies on its own."

Letting this information sink in my thoughts suddenly go to when Cana had returned to school after her short diappearance that no one but me really took to heart. She had looked so worn out and tired as if she hadn't eaten or slept in days and also looked really scared that one time I had mentioned her disappearance. In fact, she didn't even seem to recognize me at first and Levy hadn't been all that different when we met up after my supposed nightmare where Levy had been killed...

"In order for the astral body to return back to your own body you have to severe all its connections to this world," Kageyama continues.

"You mean murder," I choke feeling the word like poison in my mouth to which he just nods grimly.

"If your body hasn't yet died then once your astral body is 'killed' it returns back to its designated place and without any memory of what happened you go back to living where your astral body left off. At first the person will be confused but after some time they completely forget about everything along with everyon else. Sometimes when they themselves remember or if the people around them realize what had actually happened to them they usual spiral down a path of insanity. This is why your family is so adamant with keeping the truth from you. They're afraid that you'll break down like your grandmother had when she found out the truth." That's right, I never really did meet my grandmother. Just like my Uncle Ivan I've only ever seen pictures of her scattered around the house.

Unwinding my arms from my chest, I step forward and clutch the cold iron bars with clammy hands and ask, "Who helps kill these people?"

Kageyama gives me an incredulous look as if saying that I were some kind of idiot, "Can't you already guess?" He asks sounding a bit annoyed as I shoot him a glare that doesn't even deter him, "Well if you must know, they're known as bounty hunters. They do extensive research and training to help get rid of the astral bodies walking around and bring them back before their bodies actually die."

"What happens if the body dies while you're in astral form," Iask while clutching the bars even tighter until my knuckles turn a ghostly white from the force.

The dark haired teen smiles a chilling smile that has me flinching in fear even though he's several feet away and practically chained to the wall inside of his cell, "You become a ghost," he replies before lifting a shackled hand in front of him, "Or better yet you can become a sort of poltergeist and receive powers that no mortal human could." He chuckles darkly as he squeezes his hands into a fist, "It's almost like becoming an immortal vampire without the need to drink blood to sustain yourself."

Releasing the bars, I take a few steps back feeling my stomach churn and the room starts to shift around me, "Is that what you are," I then dare the question as I clutch at my abdomen.

He turns to look at me, his dark eyes glowering at me from where he sits sending a frightening jolt up my spine, "No," he curtly states as his emotionless gaze unnerves me from where I stand making me feel like a deer in front of headlight, "It's what we both are."

The room tilts violently to the side and I almost loose my footing as I crash into the iron bars of his cell, "Enough of that," I practically shriek as I try to get my bearing together but instead I feel as if I'm losing my mind even more. How can I be an astral body, much less a poltergeist like he says. I don't have any powers or immortality. I'm always getting hurt and sometimes I'm even on the brink of death, "How many times are you going to go on with that lie? Haven't you had enough with tormenting me already?"

"It's fine if you don't want to believe me Lucy, but just remember that you came to me for answers and that's what I'm giving you. You don't have to believe a single thing I've told you, but don't come crying back to me when you find out the truth," he mutter indifferently, "And don't be too surprised when your idiot boyfriend starts going after you to kill you once he, or the others, find out the truth."

"He's not my boyfriend," I argue while feeling my whole face flare up, "And even if that were true he would never..."

"It's his job Lucy," Kageyama cuts me off again sounding exasperated, "It's the job of a bounty hunter to search for astral bodies and ghosts so that they can kill them and bring them back to their original bodies if they can. To them it doesn't matter who the person is, they'll kill you without a second thought once they find out that you're one of us," he insists sounding almost desperate for me to believe him, "Why do you think you hear those warning bells in your head? Every time you break a rule or think about breaking a rule they go off to warn you that you're being watched. Every person whose body dies and become ghosts has this defense mechanism to keep us from geting killed or much less caught."

Covering my forehead with my cold hand, I take a deep breath while shaking my head as I try to keep the room from spinning any faster, "But how could I be dead? It doesn't make any sense. None of this makes sense!"

Kageyama's gaze softens a bit making him resemble the nice sweet guy I had first befriended a few weeks ago instead of the psychopath who scared the living hell out of me, "I know this is hard to take in, trust me I understand, but you'll understand it yourself one day when you trully remember what happened to you," he says so low that I almost don't even hear him, "The best thing for you to do right now is not tell anyone what you just learned, not even your cousin who helped get you in here," he warns as he starts collecting the papers on the floor and stuffs them neatly back into the folder.

I silently watch Kageyama collect the papers as I tug at the end of my scarf with a single question swimming around inside my head, "What happens if I get caught," I then ask completely conflicted over whether believing him or not.

"You disappear and every human you've interacted with since you died will forget about you. It will be almost as if you never existed," he says solemnly and somehow his words give away that this happened to someone dear to him in the past, "And if you continue to 'live' you'll end up watching all of your loved ones age before your eyes while you remain the same." He chuckles darkly and looks up at me with piercing onyx eyes, "Tell me what's worse Lucy, being forgotten or bing left behind?"

I open my mouth to answer the question but suddenly I'm stuck. Both of the options are just as bad because when you're forgotten no one will ever remember that you even existed, but when you're left behind you'll at least be remembered until everyone just disappears. Even so, becoming a distant memory isn't all that different from being forgotten.

Looking away, I stare down at my hands and trace the fading bruises that still mark my pale skin. As much as I dislike Kageyama I can't really say that I hate him all that much. Yes, he did help to ruin my life, but he at least did the one thing that no one else would do. He told me what I guess I believe is the truth and not once when he and his friends had kidnapped me did he really place a finger on me. Sure he slapped me once, something I won't forgive by the way, but after that he didn't touch me once. In fact, he looked pained when the others had ganged up on me and were beating me up senseless.

Following my gaze to my bruised hand, Kageyama stands up off the ground but makes no move to come near me, "Your clumsiness comes from the fact that even the world want you dead. Why do you think you're always getting hurt," he asks while staring down at the folder in his hands, "But no matter how hurt you get you'll never actually die until you're stabbed in the heart. It is your heart, after all, that keps you connected to this world. You could jump off a building and still survive the fall with only a few critical injuries."

"When did I die," I ask after remaining silent for a few minutes to which he just shrugs before moving towards me and slipping the folder between the bars as I reach out to retrieve it.

"On'y you know that answer," he whipsers before he retracts his hand and stuffs both of his hands into the pockets of his dirty pants, "You should probably go. I've answered all that I could so there's no point in risking your life by staying any longer."

Nodding, I pick up my back and sling it onto my shoulder while tucking the folder under my arm tightly, "Thank you," I whisper as I turn to leave the room.

Walking away, my head begins to buzz with all the information I had just received making me feel numb and cold. I still can't fully process what I've heard but at the same time I seem to understand everything as the puzzle pieces fit into their proper place for once. I feel almost as if this were all some sort of fantastically horrible dream that my twisted mind came up with. If this were a dream, I guess everything would be far simpler to take it in and accept.

Placing my hand on the door know, I twist the knob after unlocking it again with my key and open the door to reveal the dimly lit corridor. Before I step through the threshold, I freeze and turn back towards the raven haired male who continues to watch me with dull coal eyes, "Kageyama, I have one last question I want to ask." He tilts his head to the side seeming oblivious as to what I want to know but nods either way, "Back on the roof of the church Erigor had said about my mother being killed," He freezes at the memory, eyes growing wide with both understanding and worry, "Is what he said true?" I ask and after a moment of deep suffocating silence he nods looking uneasy.

I open my mouth to ask the inevitable question, but it suddenly gets lodged in my throat practically choking me.

They can tell you the truth, and the truth can sometimes be far harsher than a simple lie.

Yukino's words swim through my head like a gentle warning and I start to rethink what I want to ask him next. I guess it's moments like this that I should just turn the other way and accept the lie given to me, but not knowing doesn't sit well with me. Besides, this was my mother I was talking about, thw woman who was ripped away from me, my father, and all those who loved her. I've suffered far too many years without her to not know how really died, and if she was murdered I had an even more right to know the truth.

Taking a deep breath, I look at Kageyama straight in the eye and simply ask, "How," as my voice slightly cracks from the pressure building up steadily inside of me.

Kageyama runs a hand down his face while sighing deeply before he looks at me with anxiety and sympathy in his eyes, "Ask the old man and wait for his eyes to tell you truth," he finally says before turning his back to me clearly stating that he would say no more.

Without looking back I walk out through the open door and close it tightly behind me as I feel my eyes burn and my throat tighten. I take in the deepest breath I can and stare up at the gray cement celing before letting out my breath slowly feeling all of my pent up tension and energy just leave me. If I could I'd drop down on my knees and cry my eyes out, but I didn't have that luxury given my current location.

Keeping my head up high, I walk down the hall back towards the main room. When I reach the door at the end of the hall I pull it open just as the main door across the room opens as well. My heart jumps up my throat when I see a pink head slowly maki its way into the roof through the open door as a mass of warning bells resonates through my skull practically cracking it in half.

Speak about my luck just running out.

So I'm pretty sure that I've explained just about everything that you guys might have been questioning since day one. If I missed something please feel free to leave me a review or PM and I'll gladly explain any more questions you may have.

On another, I'm sorry I'm a day late. This chapter may well be the longest chapter I've ever written and it took me an entire day to write. Well at least it's finally up and I now believe we are getting down to our last chapters... The realization just dawned on me and I'm kind of freaking out a bit.

Shout Outs

Greath thanks to all of my Fanstastic Favorites...

- animeisgoodforyou

- nayeli2001

To all of my Fabulous Followers...

- nayeli2001

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And to all of my Fantabulous Reviewers...

- richgirl555cub = Long time no see! and yes, it was Kageyama. I'm happy to hear that you liked the last chapter and hopefully you enjoyed this one as well.

- FanFictionLeon = I know right! My next question would be how would Natsu react once he finds out. Hopefully this chapter did fill your curiosity and that you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

- Snavej = Glad you liked it.

- BeastlyTick59 = Alright, the answers are finally here. What are your thoughts?

- cookie. panda-roo = Yes I do read the manga and I agree. Juvia looks really broken and I can't wait for next week chapter to come out. Also, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

Well that's all the shout outs for today.

If you are enjoying my story so far please follow, favorite, and review - remember, reviews are a writers candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put in the story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in the story.

Until next time my lovelies.