"What happened?!" Natsu burst into the guild's infirmary to see Lucy sitting on a bed with Wendy and Porlyusica sitting in front of her. He had just arrived at the guild hall when Mirajane had told him that something had happened to Lucy and Ace during their job together and that Lucy was currently in the infirmary being treated.
"Nothing, Natsu." Lucy said, cocking her head to the side confused.
"Are you sure?" Lucy just nodded but Porlyusica and Wendy gave him grim looks and shook their heads. "Where's Ace? I need to talk to him."
"Ace?" Natsu looked at her puzzled expression and he raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, who else would I be talking about?"
"Is Ace the guy who brought me here?" Lucy turned to Wendy who jumped slightly and nodded. "I've never seen him before. Is he a new member?"
"Ummm...well I guess you could say that." Wendy said as she scratched her cheek, confused by how to respond. 'If only you remembered that you were the one who brought him here first.'
"What do you-" Lucy was cut off by Natsu suddenly grabbing her shoulders with a serious expression on his face. "N-Natsu?"
"Please tell me you're kidding right now." Natsu said and Lucy shook her head. "What do you mean you've never seen Ace before?! He's your-"
"Natsu. Someone seems to have toyed with her memories." Natsu stopped and turned around to see Makarov entering the room, being pushed in his wheelchair by Mirajane.
"Then why doesn't the spell wear off?! I thought Memory Control could wear off if you figured out that someone did it!" Natsu rushed over to Makarov who shook his head.
"My child, how much of the last few months can you remember?" Makarov looked past Natsu to Lucy who shrugged and shook her head.
"Not a lot...it's all kind of fuzzy." Lucy said as she placed her left hand on her head to rub it. Natsu was about to ask more questions but stopped himself when he saw her ring wasn't on her finger anymore. He walked past Makarov and Mirajane, going back to the main hall to look around.
"Where is he?" Natsu asked himself as he sniffed around, trying to catch Ace's scent.
"Looking for Ace?" He turned to see Lisanna standing behind him with a worried look on her face and nodded. She pointed up to the second floor and Natsu immediately jumped up to get to it. As he landed, he caught sight of a sullen Ace sitting at a table with Happy in front of him.
"She really couldn't remember you?" Happy asked, and Ace just shook his head to reply. Natsu ran over, slamming his hand on the table to get Ace's attention once he was in front of them.
"What happened?" Natsu asked and Ace just looked at him with a blank expression. There was no joy, no sadness, no anger, no sign of anything in the man's eyes. He looked absolutely broken. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Natsu grabbed Ace by his collar and lifted him up. "Talk to me, damn it."
"I messed up, Natsu. I couldn't protect her and now all her memories of me are all gone." Ace said as he grabbed Natsu's wrist to try to make him let him go. But he had no strength in his body to do so, so he just accepted it. Natsu on the other hand felt Ace's hand trembling when he grabbed his wrist and set him back down.
"Tell me everything that happened." Natsu sat down across from Ace and kept his attention focused on him. Happy nodded and Ace sighed, reliving their hellish night once more.
"Rudy." Ace clenched his fists and grit his teeth when he pictured the man once more. Natsu and Happy looked at each other confused by what he said before speaking up.
"The guy we met on that job?" Happy asked and Ace nodded.
"He's not some archaeologist or anything. He's the head of some group of thieves. The guys Natsu fought that day were his men, and he had infiltrated that expedition because of some lady who could control people's memories." Ace explained as he began to clench his fists so hard that his knuckles began to turn white. He hated Rudy with all of his being, and he was going to get his revenge for what they did to Lucy. "He hijacked our convoy yesterday and it was because he was after my Lacrima. He broke into our room, thinking I had it on me, and when I chased him down: we got into a fight with him, some guy with plant magic, and the memory lady. We thought we had the upper hand, but we were just tricked into letting our guard down. He originally wanted to wipe my memories of Lucy after they found out what I did with my Lacrima, but they got rid of Lucy's instead."
"So how did you get her home?" Happy asked, wondering how they returned to Magnolia if she didn't remember him.
"She was tired from the fight and from what they did to her, so I played it off like I was another guild member and I was going to help her get home. I went back to the inn to grab our stuff and I carried her back to the station so we could grab the first train back. When we got here: I recommended she would go to the infirmary to see if she was okay, and that's where she's been all morning." Ace explained the aftermath and opened his hands, looking at the small ring in his right hand.
"So what are you going to do?" Natsu asked and Ace moved his eyes to stare at him.
"I'm going to track Rudy down and make him pay."
"What? Ace, that's crazy." Happy protested, but Ace shook his head.
"He went too far when he did that to Lucy. I'm going to make him pay for that." Ace said as he tried standing up. But Natsu grabbed his arm and held him back. "Let me go."
"Don't be an idiot. You don't even know where to begin to look."
"I don't care. I'll search the whole damn country if I have to." Ace said as he yanked his arm out of Natsu's grasp.
"And then what? Leave Lucy behind while she has no idea of who you are?" Natsu's questions made Ace look down and sigh in defeat. "It hurts man, I get it. But revenge isn't the way to go. If he ever shows up again: then that's when you make him pay. But if you just go chasing after him again: you'll probably end up making a bigger mess." Ace nodded once more, understanding what Natsu meant.
"Have you gone home yet?" Happy asked and Ace shook his head.
"I wanted to so I could go grab my stuff while she's here...but I just haven't found it in me to actually do it." Ace said as he buried his face in his hands. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Lisanna standing with a reassuring smile on her face.
"Happy and I will do it." Lisanna said as she moved her hand to his back and rubbed it. Happy nodded in agreement and flew over to Lisanna's side.
"Thanks...I appreciate it." Ace gave Lisanna a weak smile, so she hugged him quickly and began to head towards the staircase.
"No problem." Lisanna and Happy swiftly made their way out of the guild hall, leaving Ace and Natsu alone together at the table.
"So one more time, what are you going to do now?"
"I don't know. I'm going to see if I can stay at an inn in the meantime."
"What? No man, you can stay with me and Happy for a bit."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, it's still not ready right?" Natsu asked and Ace shook his head, knowing what he was talking about. "Then yeah, you can stay with me and Happy until it is. We have enough space, he's just a cat after all."
"Thanks Natsu. I appreciate it."
"Excellent."
"Keep it up, Ryu." Erza and Tsukasa proudly sat on the porch of the house as Ryu stood in front of them, surrounded by a ring of purple flames while he swung his Uncle's katana around. He took a deep breath and swung the blade to the side, swiftly igniting it with the same purple flames that surrounded it, and incinerated the training dummies in front of him. He let out another breath, putting out the fire around him, and turned his attention to the two watching over him.
"How was that?"
"Amazing." Tsukasa nodded and began to clap while Ryu sighed in relief.
"Finally." Ryu said as he put the sword down and began to stretch. He had come a long way in two months, learning fire magic from his grandfather and swordsmanship from both Erza and his uncle. But from all of their lessons and his drive to learn: he finally got the hang of his new magic because of them.
"I'm impressed. You could maybe last half a second in a duel against me now." Erza said as she stood up and walked over to him. She had been with him since they left Fiore and she had made herself right at home. Sure it was a job that wound up becoming a small vacation, but she was enjoying herself, and the time she got to spend with the Hino family and Ryu made her feel so relaxed instead of uncomfortable.
"Believe me, I could last a whole lot longer with you." Ryu said as he wiped the sweat from his face and Erza simply shook her head. He looked at her one more time and smiled when he saw the proud smirk on her face. "What is it?"
"Nothing. I'm just impressed." Erza shook her head and Ryu rolled his eyes, finding what she said as absolutely ridiculous.
"Are you now?"
"Don't make me take back what I said." Erza said as she poked his chest. Ryu chuckled and shrugged, realizing she was just playing around with him. "You earned a reward."
"And what would that reward be?"
"Remember that resort we heard about? We're going to go spend a few days there as a reward for all your hard work over the past two months." Erza said and Ryu raised his eyebrows from the surprise.
"Really? Where did that come from?" Ryu asked and Erza winked, motioning at the old man sitting nearby.
"It was my idea, son. I know the owners and they did me the favor of giving you two a three-night stay there." Tsukasa said and Ryu laughed as he nodded at him.
"Thanks, Grandpa."
"So go pack for a few days. You two should go soon." Tsukasa said and Ryu nodded, hurrying away from Erza and entering the house. "He seems excited to go."
"I think he's just excited to have at least a day where he's not training." Erza replied, picking up the weapon from the ground and looking closely at it. He looked at the base of the blade and noticed four strange characters written on it. "I never noticed this. What is this?"
"What's what, my dear?"
"This writing on the sword. What is it?"
"Oh. That's the language of the eastern continent. It was where my father had that sword made for my son to spell out his name."
"Oh, so this is Ryu in that language?"
"Not Ryu." Erza looked at the old man confused but she looked back at the blade one more time, counting the letters.
"Lyle."
"That sword was meant for Ryu's father. He gave it to his brother the last time they saw each other. And now Ryu wants to give it to his nephew like an inheritance."
"Does Ryu know?"
"Not yet." Erza picked up the sword's scabbard from the floor nearby and walked over, sitting back down next to him. "Now my question is: does he know?"
"Does he know what?"
"How you feel about him." Erza blushed when Tsukasa gave his quick and blunt response. She had come to terms that she had grown feelings for the man since they had met and it only grew stronger from their time together, but she didn't think anyone else had caught on to it. "Well?"
"I...don't know what you're talking about."
"Sure you don't. Erza, I have lived for 80 long years and I have been married to my beautiful wife for 52 of them. I know what it looks like when you have feelings for someone." Tsukasa smiled and looked at Erza whose face had become a very deep shade of red, even darker than her hair. "How long?"
"I...don't know when it began. When I met Ryu: I was going through problems with my ex-boyfriend. He had sent me some cryptic letter talking about how he didn't want to always leave me waiting for him and then when I wanted to talk with him, he would brush me off or just say that he wasn't being fair to me. Then I met Ryu, which wasn't a bad experience. And I don't know...I guess I finally understood what your grandson's fiancée always told me about him during this entire time we've spent together." Erza explained as she thought about all of the experiences she had with Ryu. All the good, all the bad, all the absolutely awkward. It was nice, and he was most of the reason she still stayed behind despite Ryu Hino offering to help send her back to Magnolia. She was told by Mirajane that Jellal had arrived in Magnolia one day to speak to her, but she didn't know if she was honestly up for a conversation with him with these conflicting feelings she was having between the two of them.
"Well my darling, does time really matter?" Tsukasa asked as he patted Erza's knee.
"I guess you're right." Erza said as she looked up and sighed. "I do like Ryu. But I don't know if he feels the same way about me."
'Oh, if only you knew.'
Two months. Two long and agonizing months. That was how long Ace had to endure all of this so far. Ace and Makarov announced the circumstances to everyone when Lucy went back home that day and asked everyone to not mention anything of their engagement to Lucy. Lisanna and Happy had done him the favor of grabbing most of his belongings from their apartment, leaving it like Lucy had been the only one living there recently. He had moved in for the moment with Natsu and Happy, but he still had countless sleepless nights where he just wished they were back to the way they were before. He would still accompany Team Natsu occasionally on missions without his fiancée, but when he wouldn't: he would stay as far away from Lucy as possible. Aside from that, he would take every single mission that had to do with protecting expeditions, exploring dig sites or ruins, or anything that felt like Rudy or one of his associates would be involved with.
Was it a long shot? Yes. But was it the only way he could even begin to look for them? Yes. He wanted to make them pay for what they did to Lucy, but more than anything: he wanted to find Raiza and make her reverse what she did to her. He had to do this, especially for her. But he managed to come up with no leads as to where any of them were, it was as if they had just vanished.
"Natsu? Are you in there?" Ace opened his eyes, hearing someone knock on Natsu's door and call for him. He sat up from the futon that Natsu kept next to his hammock, rubbing the sleep from his eyes the best he could. Natsu had left for a job earlier and Ace had decided to take a nap before continuing his training, but of course, someone had to come and ruin it. He yawned and walked over to the door, opening it to see who was there. Whatever exhaustion he had left in his body was gone because the moment he opened the door, he froze when he saw Lucy standing behind it. "Oh! Um...hi there."
"Uh...hey." Ace rubbed the back of his head and looked everywhere else but at the blonde standing in front of him. "Are you looking for something?"
"W-Well I'm looking for Natsu." Lucy said as she studied the shirtless man in front of her. Something about him felt so familiar, but she didn't recognize him at all. But every time she saw him around at the guild hall: she would feel her heart flutter and feel the need to go be with him.
"He and Happy left this morning. He didn't tell you?"
"No...and he didn't mention he had a roommate either. Otherwise, I wouldn't have just shown up whenever." Lucy said pointing at him. Ace looked down and realized he was shirtless and immediately rushed to pick up one of his shirts that was on the floor to put it back on. She pouted from disappointment as he put his shirt on, wanting to keep looking at him even more.
"Um, yeah it's just something temporary." Ace admitted as he walked back over to Lucy. After a moment of silently staring at each other, Lucy cleared her throat as she wanted to ask the man something important.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Have we met before?" Lucy's question made Ace's heart drop, and he gulped as he tried to think about what to answer her. What was he going to say? That he was her ex-fiance she had forgotten about? That they were childhood friends that used to be attached to the hip at one point? He couldn't tell her any of that...not that she would believe him anyway.
"Yeah actually. We have. Remember that day you woke up in Crocus and you couldn't remember why?"
"Oh yeah. You were the new guild member who found me that day." Lucy snapped her fingers, thinking she had hit the nail on the head, but Ace just sighed because he wished she knew the truth. "What was your name?"
"It's A...Asemu."
"Asemu?" Lucy repeated his name back to herself. She didn't know what it was about that name, but something about it made her smile as it left her lips. "I like that name."
"Really?" Ace chuckled, feeling a slight twinge in his heart as he finally got to see the smile he had grown to love so much again.
"Yeah. It just sounds so nice." Lucy repeated and Ace nodded in agreement. It was their first real conversation in a long time and somehow, her voice and the way she spoke to him made him feel so happy inside. But then it just reminded him even more of what he lost and what he was trying so hard to get back.
"Thanks." Ace sighed and turned around, ready to head back into the house. But Lucy suddenly grabbed his wrist and stopped him, making him look at her surprised.
"Um..." Lucy felt her cheeks heat up as she didn't know why she suddenly stopped this guy from leaving. But something inside her told her to stop him and she did. "Are you busy right now?"
"No...not really." Ace admitted as he shook his head.
"Can we talk for a little bit longer? If that's okay with you?" Lucy asked and Ace took a deep breath as he began to think. He wanted to tell her yes so badly, but he didn't want to accidentally say something he shouldn't. But if he says no, then he'd be letting down Lucy. So then what was his answer going to be?
"Sure." Ace sighed as he closed the door behind him. Lucy began to silently cheer as the two of them began to walk through the forest, making Ace's heart break slightly as it reminded him of the day they reunited. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Tell me about yourself, Asemu. If you're that close to Natsu that you're staying with him and Happy: I'd like to know more about you."
"Me? What do you want to know?"
"Where you come from, your likes and dislikes, your hobbies, whatever you would like for me to know." Lucy bumped his side softly with her hip, wondering where everything she was doing came from.
"Well, I come from farmland near a little place called Dahlia Village."
"Is that far?"
"Like seven hours by train going northeast."
"Oh wow. Is it pretty?"
"I think the trip is very relaxing because you go through the entire country to get there. Where my home is exactly is positioned almost perfectly: there's a forest nearby, there's an open field that used to be a pasture for our old livestock when we kept it at home, and then not too far away is a small mountain range." Lucy smiled at Ace's explanation and closed her eyes, envisioning everything he was telling her.
"And your family?"
"It's sort of big. I have a mom and a dad, two big brothers, a sister, and now a brother-in-law too."
"Are you close to them?"
"I would say so. We were all inseparable at one point, now we're all scattered everywhere it feels unreal sometimes."
"What about your parents?"
"My mom, yeah. My dad...he's a touchy subject because it's been almost half a year since he passed away." Ace sighed as he didn't really want to touch on the subject of his father. Even when she remembered him, he didn't really talk to Lucy about his relationship with his dad. "I don't have any regrets because my dad always knew how much I loved him. But I still wish I had more time with him too, you know?"
"I'm so sorry. What happened?"
"He was sick, that's all it was."
"You know...I lost my father not that long ago too." Lucy admitted as the two of them stopped walking. Ace gulped as he wasn't prepared to talk about Jude either...the guilt for the way he punched him all those years ago was still eating him up on the inside. "I'm happy that you don't have any regrets with your dad because I have some with mine."
"Why?"
"The last times I saw him, I yelled so many things at him and I couldn't help him when he needed me...so sometimes I wonder if he died thinking that I hated him or resented him." Lucy said as she placed her hands behind her back, looking up at the sky as she pictured her father. Before she could say anything else: Ace immediately grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, somehow reassuring her when her chocolate brown eyes met his emerald green ones.
"Your father did not think that. Your father knew you loved him and he was proud of you. He might not have been the best dad, but he was blessed with a wonderful daughter and he knew that." Ace said as he recalled his last conversation with Jude Heartfilia. The pride in the older man's voice when he told him about her, there was no question he loved Lucy and she loved him back. But now the face she was making made it clear that she was wondering how he knew that, so it was time to lie to cover his tracks. "Every parent is proud of their children. And if your father was anything like mine: then he had the same thoughts mine did about all of us."
"I guess you're right." Lucy said and Ace chuckled softly in response. She was struggling so much to understand the man in front of her. He didn't even know who her father was...but it was like he knew what he was saying and she believed every word he had just said. And right now all she could do was...
"Lucy?" Ace asked as Lucy suddenly reached out and pulled him in for a hug. He struggled to maintain his composure and put his arms at his side, knowing if he ever held her in his arms again...he wasn't going to let her go. "What are you doing?"
"I felt like you needed a hug." Lucy said as she closed her eyes and smiled as she rested her head on his chest. She heard his heart beating rapidly and tightened her embrace even more, seeing if that would relax him. But Ace just placed his hands on her shoulder and softly pushed her away from him.
"I appreciate that...but I should be heading back. I just remembered I have a lot to do today." Ace said as he gave Lucy a pained smile and began to walk backward in the direction of the house. "I'll see you around alright?"
"Sure, I guess." Lucy muttered before Ace turned around, immediately breaking into a jog back to Natsu's house. She sighed and stared in the direction he left in, wondering where Natsu found such an interesting guy. Hopefully, he didn't level a city like when he met her, but she was for sure interested in this new member of the guild. But wait a minute...how did he know her name if she didn't tell him it? Now things were definitely strange.