4.
Lucy groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on her living room floor, looking up at a strange man hovering over her.
"Oh man, Lucy! Don't ever do that again! You almost gave me a heart attack," the man said, stepping back to let her slowly sit up.
She looked around and saw that the apartment still looked like the same mess it was this morning.
"What…happened?" she asked, her hand checking her head for any injuries.
The man blushed and looked away before he answered, "I told you that I haven't seen you for 20 years and then, you fainted."
Lucy instantly remembered all the information she received in the past day. It all came rushing back to her, fueling her body to stand up and pace the floor of her apartment.
"But that makes no sense! I saw the people leaving from here! From Magnolia! They all told me that Fairy Tail was disbanded and the mages vanished without a trace!"
The man, Romeo, looked back up at Lucy, tears shining in his eyes.
"I don't know what you think you saw coming here Lucy, but it really has been 20 years since I saw you last."
Lucy stopped pacing, leaned her back against the wall and ran her fingers through her hair.
*20 years? How? Why? Is this like what happened to all of us on Tenrou Island?* Lucy's thoughts were so scattered that she didn't really notice when the man moved over to stand next to her.
"When I saw you going into the old guild hall, I thought I was seeing a ghost," he started to say, before he looked over at her to gauge her reaction. "You haven't aged a day."
The man reached out to Lucy, but before his hand could touch hers, a bright light filled the room and there standing in his handsome glory, was Loke, looking quite angrily at the stranger standing next to his princess.
"Get. Away. From. Her." He growled, stalking towards the man.
The man's eyes went wide.
"L-Loke? Is…is it really you?"
Loke stopped then and took off his sunglasses, squinting at the face of the man before him.
"Do I know you, stranger?"
The man let out a cry of laughter as he barreled forwards and scooped up the lion spirit in a bone crushing hug.
"It really is you man! Awe! It's good to see you!"
"Lu-Lucy! Help! I. Can't. Breathe!" Loke tried to say as the man spun him around.
Lucy started to laugh as she came to Loke's aid, stopping Romeo and asking him to put Leo down.
"Sorry man! It's just…so good to see you!" the man grinned at Loke, stars showing in his eyes.
Loke rubbed his ribs and looked at Lucy to explain things.
"Loke, meet Romeo, Macao's son, now an adult because apparently 20 years have passed for him instead of just the one year for me."
His jaw dropped.
"20 years? How? Romeo? An adult!?"
Romeo nodded his head, grinning like a kid in a candy store.
"I can't believe this man! This is great! Now we can all be together again! Like back in the old days of Fairy Tail!"
Loke looked at Lucy with his head still spinning in all the sudden information.
"Wait. Stop. Let's all just…calm down for a minute and think this thing through," Loke said, trying to get the tall man and Lucy to all sit down. Lucy sat and dragged 'Romeo' down next to her followed by Loke.
"Ok. Let's try to get these facts straight…" Loke started before Lucy cried out in alarm.
"Facts!? Oh no! Crux!" she yelled, grabbing Crux's key and summoning him to her side.
When the old spirit appeared in a burst of light, he was still sleeping.
"Oh thank goodness!" Lucy said, quickly placing his key back onto her belt ring.
"Um…ok. Lucy, you want to fill us in on why you summoned a sleeping Crux?"
"Oh! Right! I forgot you weren't there when I tried to explore the guild hall earlier."
"You did what?!" Loke yelled, jumping up from his sitting position to grab onto Lucy's shoulders. "You went exploring in the empty Fairy Tail guild hall without me there to protect you?"
Lucy looked stunned.
"It wasn't like there was anyone around! I was perfectly safe!" Lucy yelled at Loke as she started to get angry.
"Oh right! Like you were perfectly safe this morning when those two men attacked you right here in this apartment?!"
'Romeo' sprang up from his sitting position to look at Loke.
"What do you mean two men attacked Lucy this morning? There hasn't been anyone living in Magnolia for the past 20 years besides me! Not since the guild members all disappeared, and the people fled! When I saw Lucy this morning going into the guild hall, I thought I was seeing a ghost!"
Loke stopped talking, turned and glared at 'Romeo.'
"What's that look for, man?"
"You. Saw. Lucy. Go. Into. The. Guild. Hall. Alone?"
'Romeo' nodded.
"And you didn't go with her?!" Loke yelled, raising his hand to aim a punch at the man's face. When he brought his closed fist to connect with 'Romeos' face, Loke fell straight through him and landed on the ground, knocking himself out in the process.
Lucy screamed and backed away from the man.
"Lucy, please I can explain."
"You-you're not really here are you, Romeo?"
"Lucy please!" he begged, trying to step forward to be closer to Lucy.
"No…no. This can't be happening…" Lucy kept backing away from the ghost in front of her, because that's all this man could be…a ghost.
"Lucy! Please! I'm not a ghost! Watch!"
Lucy watched as the man bent down and picked up another book from the ground.
Lucy stopped backing away and just stared at the man.
"Ghosts can't pick up objects."
"No, they can't."
"B-but Loke…"
"Is a Celestial Spirit powered by magic. Magic that has not worked in Magnolia since the fall of the stars 20 years ago."
"The fall of the stars…?"
"Yes. When the stars all vanished from the sky and appeared around the guild hall, something weird happened. Magic of any kind stopped working entirely. All the mages were stumped as to what could possibly be causing all of it. And then, without magic flowing in their veins, wizards started to disappear as well."
"Disappear?"
Romeo nodded.
"Wait, but you're a wizard too. How are you still here?"
"When all the wizards started fading into nothing, my dad used a forbidden item from the master's office. It was something that was taken from Eisenwald when they were arrested. He called it a magic storage crystal."
Romeo started to unbutton the top of his shirt.
"Woah, woah, stop right there mister! What do you think you are doing?"
"I'm going to show you the necklace my dad made me wear. It's under my shirt."
"Oh. Ok…proceed I guess," Lucy said, blushing up a storm.
Romeo nodded and pulled a leather cord out from under his shirt. On the end was a purple crystal with gold flecks inside it. Unlike the other objects in town, this one seemed to give off an aura of magical energy.
"This is what kept me alive all these years. You see, my dad figured out that as long as a living thing, like a person, had magic energy in their veins, those were the ones who were vanishing. But if all that magical energy was put inside of a magic storage crystal, then the wizard can still stay alive while his magic stays safe; as long as the crystal is touching his skin," Romeo explained, putting his crystal back under his shirt.
Loke started to moan and slowly got up from his position on the floor.
"Oh! My gods! Loke!" Lucy said, rushing to his side. "I'm so sorry! I didn't even think to check if you were alright!"
Loke shook his head trying to push Lucy's hands away.
"It's fine, princess. I'm fine. I just need…to wait…until the room stops…spinning."
Lucy's eyes widened.
"Loke? You know you're a Celestial Spirit, right? You can't be knocked out that easily. You're the leader of the Zodiac!"
Romeo approached Lucy cautiously and sat down beside her, placing his hand gently on her arm.
"Lucy, I'm sorry to tell you this, but…Loke's magic power is starting to fade."
She snapped her head to look right at Romeo.
"What?!"
"It's like I said before, when the stars fell, and all magic stopped working here…" Romeo trailed off, letting the reality of their situation sink in.
"But…he…was fine this morning…" Lucy said sadly.
"I know, and if I could bring back magic to this place again, I would. But no one, not even Levy, could figure out what caused the stars to fall and all magic to fade into nothing."
Lucy stood up then and took out Leo's key.
"Loke, I'm going to force your gate to close. Crux's too. I'm going to only call on you guys in case of severe emergency, got it? No more magic until we can figure all this out."
"I'll see what the other spirits have to say about this, too. I will send word if we find anything."
Lucy nodded.
"Leo force gate closed!" Loke vanished in a flash of light.
Lucy brought up a silver key next.
"Crux! Force gate closed!" The light flashed again, leaving behind Lucy and Romeo who was still sitting on the ground.
A sob broke out of Lucy's mouth, her legs giving out as she let herself fall to the floor.
"Oh man, Lucy. Please. Don't cry," Romeo said, trying his best to comfort the blonde mage by gently patting her back.
"It's no use, Romeo!" Lucy cried. "How-how can-can we fix this if-if no-no one else could before?"
Romeo stopped patting Lucy's back and brought her head up to look into his eyes.
"Because none of them had you, Lucy," he said in a serious tone.
Lucy looked puzzled as she wiped her eyes.
"Me? What's so special about me?"
Romeo chuckled then. He stood up and held his hand out to her.
"Come with me and I'll show you."
Lucy looked up at the older version of the once cutest kid in Fairy Tail.
"Huh. You really have grown up. Haven't you, Romeo?" Lucy said, taking his offered hand and standing up.
"Yeah, I guess I did," he answered, flashing a big smile that reminded her of Natsu.
Lucy felt a pang of loss in her heart when she thought about her best friend.
*I'll figure all this out Natsu. I promise,* she thought, following Romeo out of her front door.
*I'll bring everyone back…or die trying.*