For those of you that celebrate it HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope everyone has a wonderful day and stays safe when/if they're Black Friday shopping!
AN: So I'm not sure how everyone took Lucy being part spirit now but I think it makes perfect sense. 1. She had already gotten a power boost from the Infinity Clock 2. I made it known that there were half spirits (i.e. Amie) 3. Literally all of her major organs were made from pure Celestial Magic (she couldn't have all of that magic and not have some sort of consequence.) 4. Her body wasn't made to possess all of that magic so it was either kill her or have her body adapt to survive. 5. It's my story.
But it's not like I'm saying she has to live in the Spirit World from now on- Amie doesn't.
Sorry for any mistakes I may have missed. Hope everyone likes it!
Wendy POV
"Wendy stop with your sulking already, Lucy's disappearance wasn't your fault and refusing to eat properly is a poor way to react. We should be helping the others plan on how we're going to help Rea and Yukino defeat Polaris." Carla said tapping her foot in my direction as she did so.
Carla, I knew she was worried about me even though she didn't show it but I didn't deserve to be well and fine. Lucy had been on the mend when I meddled when I shouldn't have; it's because of me that Lucy decided to give up and die...no she disappeared. I don't believe she died, she's still alive somewhere, she has to be! I thought staring at the ceiling of a room I hadn't left in a week.
If it had been up to me I would have stayed at Lucy's apartment but the master insisted everyone stay at the guild, fearing that we would be targeted while we were alone. Ever since Chelia was nearly kidnapped while walking back from the store, in broad daylight everyone had been on high alert.
"Wendy are you even listening to me?" Carla grabbed my attention by stomping her foot down on my chest.
"Of course." I lied about to let my mind wander again but Carla forced me to look at her.
"More like of course not. I said that the search parties have made contact with the others and have a vague idea of where they are. We're all gearing up to move in on their location when they call us again. According to Rogue they were all taken prisoner by Julien's replacement and were taken to where Polaris is hidden away. If we attack soon Rogue and the others think that we can overrun them before Polaris is woken up. Which is the best plan because we don't have any of the keys we need so Rea and Yukino can't train; which means there is no plan B and we have no choice but to do this."
"What do they need me for? I'm useless." I mumbled turning to my side and dislodging her my her position on my chest.
"Wendy..." She whispered as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Just leave me alone Carla, please." I whispered. Hearing the door close behind her I closed my eyes.
Carla wasn't the first to try to get me out of my room and she wouldn't be then last. I thought as I focused on what the others were saying downstairs. Like every day the past two weeks they were talking about me and what more they could do to change my mind. But something new was in the works, everyone was training like crazy, and working on how to get to some island without the Abastors getting wind of our movements. When everyone suddenly went silent I sat up and listened harder. I would have been worried that they had all disappeared like Lucy had but I still heard the faint sound of heartbeats coming from downstairs.
Crawling out of my bed, I walked to the door and reached my hand out to open the door but pulled it back, thinking that this was just another plot to get me to come out of the room. Deciding that, that was what it was I took a step back towards my bed but froze when I heard a whispered name. A breath after the first whisper, others followed until the name was being whispered throughout the guild.
Yanking the door open I ran to the balcony to look down, hanging halfway over the railing I stared in disbelief; there standing in the middle of everyone was Lucy. Without a thought I jumped down from the balcony and ran to Lucy. Wrapping my arms around her I began crying and tried to talk at the same time but she couldn't understand a single thing I was saying.
Pulling her arms our from under mine she returned my hug. As Lucy's arms tightened around me it was like everyone in the guild disappeared. She was here, alive. I hadn't killed her like everyone had thought, we still had a chance against Polaris if our initial plan didn't work.
"I'm so sorry Wendy, I didn't mean for you to think I was dead all of this time I just needed time." Lucy whispered into my hair.
Nodding my head I hugged her tighter. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean what I said in your head."
"I know sweetie. None of this was your fault, you saved me and for that I will always be grateful. You're one of the reasons I came back." She said giving me one last squeeze before moving me to her side so she could look at everyone else.
Lucy POV
I'm back. I thought looking around the guild, seeing everyone's relieved faces. A few of them were restraining themselves from running up to me as Wendy had, probably knowing that Wendy had been the worst off while I was away and wanted to give her some time with me.
Everyone touched me on my shoulder as we walked through the crowd to the bar so I could tell Mira and Master what I had learned while I was gone. Before we could sit down Rea bulldozed her way through the crowd and fell to her knees in front of us and bowed her head until it touched the floor before she began talking.
"Lucy!" Rea exclaimed. "You trusted me with your keys and I lost them. All of the spirits are missing too! I don't know what I did by I'm so sorry!"
Crap. I didn't even think of how she reacted when the king summoned my keys. I thought releasing Wendy temporarily to help Rea back to her feet.
"Rea calm down, I have them right here." I said pulling the keys out of my pocket to show her. When she just gaped at them I explained how I had gotten them. "The Spirit King summoned them so he could speak to everyone and so they could help me train while I was staying in the Spirit World. There was nothing you could have done to prevent him from taking them. I'm sorry, I never thought of how you would react to them disappearing. But I did want to say thank you for taking care of them, Capricorn couldn't do anything but sing your praise about how much of a better student you are than I am."
"Yo- you me-met the Spirit King? And went to the Spirit World?" She asked in awe.
"Mustache Man and I go way back, but the visit to the Spirit World was different. I promise I'll tell you about it later but right now I need to speak to Mira and Master" I said, letting go of her hand to grab Wendy's and sit down at the bar.
Thinking of where I should start, I felt rather than saw the remaining members surround my back. They weren't even trying to pretend like they were eavesdropping as they usually did. Shaking my head in amusement I focused on the two people in front of me.
"Rogue and the others, have you found them yet? Are they alive?" I asked earnestly.
"We haven't found them quite yet, but we know their general location. They're on an -"
"In an underground compound that's on an island near where you secretly sent Rogue's group; we're going to talk about that later, don't think you're gonna get off the hook that easily." I said glaring at the two of them before moving on. "They found the last spirit, but something is blocking me and the king from calling her. By the way thanks for the key Rea, I had totally forgotten about your mystery key until the King pointed it out."
"N...no problem." Rea barely stammered out, still amazed about my interaction with the king.
Chuckling a bit I turned back to Mira and Master. "I'm assuming by all of the packs littered around the guild that you'll be meeting the rescue teams there? If so might I make a suggestion?" When they both nodded I pulled out the plan I had drawn up with the king and laid it out on the counter.
"We'll move out as planned but with only 2/3 of the members here. The other members will head to Blue Pegasus and ask them to back us up with air support. If they agree the third of our mages will cover is with ranged attacks from above. We have to remember that the Abastors have magic we didn't know still existed and have spirits we don't know about. If we all go in on foot Julien could possibly incapacitate us all in one large attack.
The second part of my plan is to have us hide out in the surrounding woods while Corvo scopes out where the island is exactly so we aren't wandering around aimlessly, giving the enemy ample opportunity to notice and attack us. Once he locates it we'll have Laxus, Draco and Corvo transport us to the island with the help of Elle's invisibility and go from there.
Rogue and the others will attack from the inside while we attack from the outside at all major entrances until we eventually meet up. Then we will fight our way down the compound, hopefully stopping them from releasing Polaris." I finished lifting my head up to see dumbfounded looks on everyone's faces. "What?"
"That's a good plan, but how do you know everything when we haven't told you anything? And how much time has passed in a he Spirit World where you planned this all out and are now able to open three Jeweled gates at once?" Mira asked looking at me closely.
Not willing to meet her eyes I stared at the wall behind her. "For every day that passes in the Spirit World, three months goes by here, so I was probably only gone for an hour or two or three, I don't know for sure but it seemed like forever for me. As for summoning the spirits I guess the visit to the Spirit World gave me a power boost." I said shrugging hoping they'd buy my excuse at least until I found the perfect time to tell them the truth later.
"What's the rush Lucy? We have a few more weeks until the winter solstice." Master asked, looking at me thoughtfully as if he saw what I was trying so hard to hide.
"It'll allow us to gain control of the island before they can all regroup. Plus we don't know how safe it is to leave Rogue, Juvia, Sting and Minerva there, they could get captured again or seriously hurt." Letting the others talk amongst themselves to adjust their plan I looked around the guild to see how everyone else was doing.
Hearing the doors slam open I smiled when I saw a familiar head of pink hair.
"Lucy!" Natsu yelled as he ran towards me. Hopping off of the bar stool I met him half way and let him swing me up into the air as we hugged. Laughing and panting behind him Lisanna stood in the doorway with a smiling Happy in her arms.
"Welcome back Lucy." Lisanna said, joining in our hug briefly before taking the seat I had just vacated.
"Lucy, where have you been? You need to stop making us search for you so much, from now on you need to stay where we can keep an eye on you." Natsu said getting serious for a minute before dragging me to sit at our usual table with Erza.
"I wa-"
"She was in the Spirit World! THE SPIRIT WORLD!" Rea yelled, plopping down besides us to stare at me some more. "No human has ever been allowed to go to the Spirit World, and only a select few have had the chance to meet the king. Lucy's apparently met the king before, isn't that amazing?!"
"Rea, it's really not a big deal. The next time I see Mustache Man I'll introduce you." I offered hoping she would calm down but she did the opposite. The second I made my offer she squealed before promptly passing out. Chuckling at her I returned my attention to Natsu who was staring at me.
"There's something different about you." He said, squinting to see better as he inspected me.
Looking down at myself I mentally cursed when I saw sparks beginning to shot off of my hands that were in my lap under the table. Pretending to stretch I closed my eyes and forced my power to calm down and locked it away as tight as I could, until I could find some time to myself so I could release some of it when I trained some more. Although I had told Mira and Master that I could summon three spirits at once I wasn't sure I could just yet but I fairly sure it wouldn't be a problem. Before this new spike in my magic I had been calling out two spirits with ease, even with the Jeweled keys and had wanted to at least try three spirits but Capricorn refused, fearing what might happen if I wasn't strong enough.
"Cancer cut my hair while I was in the Spirit World." I offered Natsu who was still staring at me.
After a few moments longer he stopped inspecting me and nodded his head, accepting my explanation. Releasing a mental sigh of release I smiled and saw Wendy glancing at me from the corner of my eye, looking as if she wasn't appeased by my explanation like Natsu was. Choosing to ignore her suspicious gaze I asked Natsu about what else needed to be done before we could leave the guild.
Rogue POV
"So what are we supposed to do now, just find a hole in the wall and hide until they get here?" Sting asked, frustrated that we still couldn't leave this maze of a compound until Fairy Tail actually found our location and got here without alerting the many guards that remained at large and were looking for us currently.
"Sort of... You three are going to find a place to hold out until they give us the signal to attack, while Ayame and I look around some more for the key to her collar. If we have any chance of making it out of here alive, and defeating Polaris we need to have her free to use her magic so she can help Lucy." I said, looking down at the crudely drawn map Ayame had drawn us, it was actually a pretty good map considering Ayame had drawn it with her huge paw.
"We keep talking about helping Lucy defeat Polaris but how do we expect her to do that when she's now missing?" Minerva said, crossing her arms as she thought about what Gajeel had just told us.
"Love Rival will find a way back to us, she has never let us down before." Juvia said confidently.
"I agree with Juvia, we may not have known her as long, but you have to admit that girl will walk through hell to save her friends." Sting surprisingly said, backing up Juvia.
"I'm just saying we shouldn't put all of our hopes on Lucy, or this plan they have to take the island by force before they can wake up Polaris. This cult has been together for centuries without anyone knowing their name and purpose, they are bound to have a contingency plan for if the island was taken from them. We should capture one of the guards and interrogate him to find out everything he or she knows about this place and the plans they have to ensure that Polaris wakes up on schedule." Minerva demanded, giving me that look that meant she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Knowing she was right in some part that these people would have some sort of back up plan, I turned to Ayame and raised a brow in question to see if she knew anything that might be helpful.
"I may have been their prisoner for ages, she was always careful to not talk about plans that had to do with Polaris' release from her cage. She knew how I felt about her, how I felt about the things I had done while following her and she knew that I would do anything in my power to stop her from being freed so she could do it all again. But... I do know who would know and where that person is being held." She said, looking like she had kept her mouth shut.
"Okay, perfect. While Rogue and Ayame continue to look for the key to the collar, the three of us will go find this mysterious person." Minerva said, digging out a piece of paper and pen from one of our make shift packs so she could write down the directions on how to get there.
An: Let me know what you thought, please and thank you!
Infinities Lover: Haha :)
Alaina Kuski: Interesting good or interesting bad?
BeccaBell: Currently I'm just working to finish this one, Before I Let You Go and the BixLu week one. But after that I was thinking of either writing a continuation of BILYG or a LaxLu. I have many ideas floating around in my head it's just a matter of putting them on paper.