After spending the day with Nashi, Lucy brought her back to the guild where Natsu and Happy were waiting for them. Nashi immediately wiggled out of the blonde woman's hold, jumped down and ran to embrace her dad who opened his arms wide for her. He scooped her up in his arms, twirling her around which caused her to giggle excitedly. Once they were done their little greeting exchanged, she kissed his cheek and began telling him what she had done with Lucy.

The celestial mage watched the two of them fondly while Happy went off to find Carla. Natsu's attention was solely on Nashi as she told him everything that had happened while he was on his job. How she basically spent the entire day with Lucy going around Magnolia and getting to know her, eating different desserts with her, showing her favourite spots to her, it was basically the girls day she had always wanted and more.

Natsu just did his toothy grin and ruffled Nashi's hair the more she talked and Lucy could not help but move her feet to approach the two of them. The two noticed this and the fire dragon slayer was surprised to find the blonde woman approaching him willingly without looking all antsy or in a rush. In fact, this was probably the most calm he had seen her since she came to their time. She had basically been around the kids the most of the time and did not stay with any of the other guild members for too long.

He froze in place without warning, going unnoticed by Lucy and his kid. The rest of Team Natsu and the other guild members also wondering what the heck was going on. After all, it was Natsu who told them to give her space and to wait until she was comfy to talk to her. Considering how stiff Natsu looked, he definitely did not expect her to approach him on her own so soon. Gray and some of the other guys did not know whether to chuckle in silence or keep the thoughts to themselves.

"Why don't you tell Natsu your favourite part about today, Nashi?" she asked with a smile. "Your absolutely favourite part?"

When Nashi saw her mom in such close proximity as her dad, her grin became so large, both Natsu and Lucy worried it would get stuck like that forever. But they did not dare stop her from talking away. "Eating crêpes with Mom!"

Lucy laughed at that which prompted Natsu to follow suit. "More than eating fire chicken with your old man?"

"Fire chicken is a meal, Papa." Nashi stated, not falling for his teasing bait. "Crêpes are for snacks or desserts, they're not the same."

"She's got you there," Lucy teased. "I think you could learn a thing or two from your kid, Natsu."

Now if Natsu had to choose with being surprised that Lucy was instigating some banter or getting offended that Lucy was implying that Nashi was smarter than him for the banter, guilty as charged he was gonna go with the latter option. "What're you tryna say, Luce!?"

The blonde woman just shrugged. "I dunno Natsu, I'm just saying she's got a point."

"Haha! It's two against one, Papa!"

"You should be on your dad's side at time's like this Nashi!"

The two ended up going on an all out banter, putting Nashi right in the middle of it. The fire dragon slayer looked like he was getting peeved the more Lucy retorted back to him and everyone in the guild soon relaxed. More relaxed they had ever been. It had been a long time since the guild had seen anything like this, Natsu bantering with Lucy while Nashi enjoyed it all in the middle. The last time had been the day before their Lucy disappeared two years ago.

"Say, I was thinking," Lucy said, breaking the banter and looking to where Gray, Erza and Wendy sat. "Why don't we all go on a job tomorrow?"

Those words caught the three mages and Natsu off guard. Nashi, on the other hand, looked so excited and happy that her eyes might just pop out of their eye sockets. Many Fairy Tail members have told her about all the jobs that her mom and dad went on, and how every job always had an interesting funny story that would follow after it. If she was lucky, and they did good on the job, she could go with them on their next one. It would be like a family job!

"A job?" Erza asked. "You mean, with us?"

"You serious?" Gray added.

She nodded. "Yeah, it's been awhile since I've gone on a proper job but I guess the difference in strength and skills might be a bit much."

"No!" Natsu exclaimed immediately, startling Nashi slightly with how quick he refuted her statement. "I mean, no. We'd love to go on a job with you."

"Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're older, younger, only know the same skills or have new ones." Gray said.

"Besides, it's been quite awhile since we've gone on a job as a team," Erza placed her hands on her hips with a fond smile on her face. "It would be nice."

"Really?" Lucy asked. "When was the last time?"

Everyone in the guild went silent, most of the children looked at their parents with confusing looks while Gale, Ryllie and Rayan looked like they kind of had an idea what was going on through the adults' heads. If any of them could compare what that day was like, it would have been like when everyone heard that Lisanna had passed away or when the Tenrou team disappeared. Dread and worry is all they could remember.

"We... never really told you why your future self isn't around, have we?" Mira asked.

Lucy just shook her head. "No, but I just assumed I went missing or something since you guys never mentioned it."

"It's more than just her going missing."

"What do you mean?"

The celestial mage watched as her guildmates' expressions changed to be more pensive. Hesitant. It was obvious to her that they did not want to talk about it even though she asked. But she had to know. She had not said anything about it when she first arrived, but she found it odd. They all talked about her future self with no issues and Nashi made it clear when she found her that her future self had not been around for some time. Even the reactions of everyone when they first saw her told her all she needed to know.

"Lucy went on this crazy job alone because a request asked for her specifically," Wendy explained. "After three days, she still hadn't returned so we went to where the job was located to look for her. But when we got there, the place had been left in smoke and pieces."

"You could practically feel Luce's magic everywhere," Natsu finally spoke. "Not just hers either, there was some other magic power thrown into the mix."

"Whatever, or rather, whoever it was, their magic mixed with Lucy's - which likely caused an explosion of some sort." Gray added, crossing his arms. His expression looking all the more frustrated as he continued to talk. "And it was probably because of it that Lucy went missing."

"The thing that was really weird about it is that even if she had just simply gone missing, Salamander should still be able to trace her presence because of their bond. But even that had gone quiet." Gajeel said.

Lucy raised a brow at that. "Bond?"

Everyone in the guild tensed up at that. They remembered the conversation they had with Anna back when Gajeel and Levy got married. Before Gale was born, she wanted to tell all the dragon slayers something that their dragon parents told her about so that she could teach them about it when the children were of age. She would have told them sooner but Gale had been conceived long before she reunited with them.

"Uh... actually don't worry about that okay?" Levy said trying to sound reassuring. Though it did not really quell Lucy's curiosity.

"Okay... so then?"

"Basically, ever since then, Team Natsu hasn't been Team Natsu in the two years Luce had been gone." Natsu stated.

The blonde woman went quiet in that moment. All this time, she thought that her future self had only been gone for a short while, but two years? She had been gone for far longer than the guild being disbanded. Sure, it was not as long as the seven years the Tenrou team stayed stuck and asleep on Tenrou Island but it was still a long time. One job made her vanish for that long? Lucy could just not believe it.

"Two... two years!?"

Lisanna nodded. "It's sorta why we reacted the way we did when you first arrived here," she said. "For a moment, we had thought you'd finally come home."

"I didn't realize..."

"It's alright if you didn't," Jellal said. "We were more concerned with you and how you got here anyway."

"It isn't exactly an easy subject to talk about either." Mira added.

"Still..."

"Don't sweat it too much, Luce!" Natsu said with a grin. "Even though two years have passed, I've been looking for you! The bond your future self and I share may have gone quiet, but I can still feel it. Which means you're definitely alive somewhere out there, and I'm gonna find you. No matter what!"

His words made a pang in Lucy's heart. Two whole years with no sign or trace of her future self and Natsu kept looking for her. He needed nothing else other than a feeling he shared with her to keep on looking. She had given up on looking for him and Happy after only three months and was unable to get any leads on him in contrast to the others that she was able to keep track of for the remainder of the next three months.

Six months is nothing compared to two years. It made Lucy's heart squeeze even more tightly. How could she have been angry at him for leaving her and the guild, when her own future self left him and everyone else for far longer than she had endured thus far. She felt tears well up in the corner of her eyes and her body began to shake. Nashi was the first to notice it and she immediately remembered what the blonde woman told her back at the rainbow sakura park.

"Mom?"

Natsu looked to his daughter and when he was met with her worried expression, he followed her gaze to see Lucy look even more distressed than when she first arrived at the guild. She looked like she was tearing herself apart from the inside. The last time he had truly seen her like this was when she first joined the guild and Phantom Lord attacked. The way she looked so defeated and resigned herself to leave Fairy Tail and go back to her life as an heiress - he never wanted to see her like that again.

Without thinking, he rushed to her side with Nashi still in his arms. He shifted his daughter's position in his arms so that he could carry her with his left arm and moved his now free hand to place it on her neck just below her jaw. He used his thumb to caress her cheek, causing her to look at him and it pained him to see her rich brown eyes to be glossy with tears. He had done everything out of reflex, and now that he was so close to her, Natsu did not know what to do next.

When Lucy was faced with the concerned faces of the pink haired and peached haired duo before her, she really did not think she was gonna confront her own conflicting feelings about the guild so soon. She literally just told Nashi about it a couple of hours ago for Mavis' sake! Her eyes darted around to everyone else in the guild that stared at her. Her wish was doing more than bringing her to the future selves of her family - it was making her confront those bittersweet feelings. And it was suffocating.

No one said a word as her tears began to overflow and the father-daughter duo began to freak out. "Whoa!? What's wrong? Are you that worried about your future self!?" they cried in absolute unison. "We'll find her, don't worry, so please don't cry!"

The celestial mage shook her head frivolously. "It's not that," she said while sniffling and swatting Natsu's hand away from her. "It's just... I was so mad at you! All of you!"

That took everyone aback. Nashi knew what she was talking about, but everyone in the guild was clueless. "What?"

"You all left! After Master disbanded the guild and vanished, you all packed up and began leaving little by little - without so much as a goodbye! And you," she pointed at the pink headed slayer in front of her. "I couldn't believe that all you left was a note saying you were leaving! Were we not a team!?"

They all realized what she was shouting about and everyone in the guild, save for the children, we surprised at the stark difference between the Lucy before them and the Lucy they remembered reuniting with when Fairy Tail was revived. That Lucy was crying out of pure relief and joy. All her overwhelming emotions of reuniting with her family caused her to sob. But this Lucy was angry and resentful. It ran deep and they could not believe that it was that bad.

"We were, and still are, a team Luce!" Natsu replied. "But I needed to get stronger and-"

"Why couldn't I go with you then!?" Her outburst made him choke on his words. "I was so lonely without you and Happy! We could've gotten stronger together - trained together! But you left! You weren't the only one who lost someone important to you that time, Natsu - I did too!"

The deafening silence that came from her yelling was uncomfortable. She lost someone during the Tartaros battle? That was the first time anyone had heard of that. Everyone knew about how Gray had to fight his dad because of Keyes and it was no secret that the dragon slayers lost their dragons that day too, but when did Lucy lose anyone during that war? Sifting through their memories, no one could recall witnessing anything. Nashi knew that she lost someone, but who she lost was unknown to her.

Erza was the first to regain her composure enough to speak. "When... who, no... How?" she simply asked.

Lucy took a deep breath before she spoke any further. This was the the point of no return. The fact that no one knows what she's talking about means that her future self had kept it a secret all this time. And that made it all the more harder to say out loud. "Do you remember the red goo that came from the walls of Tartaros?"

Everyone took a moment before Romeo spoke up. "You mean that nasty sticky stuff?" Lucy nodded. "What was that anyways?"

"It was a curse known as Alegria," she explained, turning her body away so that she didn't face anyone and moving her hands to grab her celestial key pouch. "All of you were basically stuck in it and I was the only one who avoided it. So I fought the members of Tartaros on my own trying to figure out how to free all of you."

"You did what!?" everyone exclaimed. "All on your own!?"

The blonde woman's body shuddered recalling the memory. "And then when I thought I was in the clear, two of the Nine Demon Gates and one of their underlings got to me. I summoned Virgo first, then Loke... but when the second member of the Nine Demon Gates came, I summoned Aquarius."

"Summoning three spirits is almost impossible though!" Levy gasped.

"You were able to maintain and keep three gates open? That's amazing!" Mira said.

The grip Lucy had on her key pouch tightened. "I guess... but it was nowhere near enough. Virgo and Loke were taken out and Aquarius was heavily injured," she continued. "So, Aquarius suggested one final resort."

"And that would be?" Makarov asked.

"Tell me... how did you think the curse was undone?"

"Wasn't it because the cube the Tartaros guild was on got destroyed?" Macao asked, recalling the memory with everyone else agreeing. "It was still intact before that goop took us, but I don't remember how it broke."

Lucy lowered her head so her eyes were hidden behind her bangs. "That's right... it broke when the cube was destroyed," she confirmed before taking a deep breath. "However, it wasn't just that reason alone. It was also because... I summoned the Celestial Spirit King. He's the one who actually undid the curse."

Gasps echoed through the guild hall from everyone, including the children. Everyone knew about the Celestial Spirit King. He was the ruler of all the celestial spirits in existence and the children had been told the story of when Fairy Tail was involved with saving him once long ago. He was a force of nature and was larger than even the Mercurius Castle. But they had no idea that it was possible to summon him.

"You summoned Stache Face!?" Natsu cried while hugging Nashi tightly, scared of the blonde's power. "No way!"

"How the heck did you even get his key!?" Happy asked. "Does he even have one!? Or did the scary fish lady give you some ultra rare and powerful summoning spell!?"

"No, the King has no key nor is there a special spell to summon him," Lucy stated whilst shaking her head. "In order to summon the Celestial Spirit King, I had to..."

At that point, everyone could see her body visibly shake as the grip on her key pouch had gotten so tight her knuckles had gone pale. "Had to?" Gray urged.

More tears flowed as the memories came flooding into Lucy's head. "I had to sacrifice and break one of the golden zodiac keys." she finished, causing more gasps to leave several peoples' mouths. "And the key that I broke... was Aquarius'."

Everyone knew very well how Lucy and Aquarius' relationship was like. As much as the mermaid spirit was violent and was practically annoyed with anything that had to do with Lucy, it was obvious that she viewed the celestial spirit in different light than the other spirits that Lucy was contracted with. For all their banters, Lucy cared about Aquarius more than just a friend. She was practically the only other person she could call 'Mother' after Layla passed away.

Sniffles were the only things that could be heard while everyone processed the news. It had not been long since it had happened, and as much as the blonde woman did not want to cry about it anymore, it did not make the hurt lessen in any kind of way. Every time she remembered what had happened before she came to the future, she missed the guild more than ever. Now that she was in the future, all she wanted was to finally get stronger together.

As she tried to silence her tears, before she could utter another word, Lucy was immediately tackled to the ground by Happy and Cana. The blue exceed was sobbing heavily, the last time she had seen him like that was when her other future self died during the dragon invasion. Cana, other hand, embraced her body somehow firmly and gently at the same time. Lucy's body had been shaking; but with the card mage holding onto her the way she did, both the shaking and her tears came to a halt.

"You idiot," Cana said, making Lucy look at her with wide eyes. "No wonder the you of this time never talks about that time and reacted the way you did when we reunited. Stop suffering alone will ya?"

"Everyone was hurting... I didn't want to add to it."

"Lucy."

Cana broke their hug so that Lucy was met with Natsu (with Nashi still in his arms), Gray, Erza, Wendy and Carla standing in front of her. It had been long since she had heard her actual name leave the fire dragon slayer's lips and all she could was watch him kneel down on one knee so that he could meet her eye level. His gaze was as straightforward and strong as ever, and Lucy could not help but feel her breath be taken away.

"I should've talked to you in person back then," he started. "I should've, but I was afraid that I wouldn't go if I did and that's a pretty dumb excuse."

"What do you mean?"

Natsu could only chuckle. How he did not realize just how cute Lucy's clueless face was back then was beyond him. Now he gets why everyone kept calling him and his wife idiots when they finally got together. "You should honestly be hearing this from the me of your time, but I thought you being at the guild would be better than coming with me."

Happy nodded profusely at that. "Yeah! A year was a long time and we were gonna be in the wild for most of it!" he babbled. "We didn't want you to have to deal with that!"

"Huh?"

"We didn't think you would be lonely if you stayed with the guild but you're right, we are a team." Natsu continued. "And a team sticks together."

Lucy's gaze dropped to the floor again. "But... I'm being a hypocrite right now. Because in the end, I left you for far longer."

"You're talking about your future self?" Erza asked to which the blonde woman nodded.

"You didn't go alone by choice, Lucy." Gray said. "You're future self is probably way stronger than you right now, but even so, she always made it a point to always go on a job with Flame Brain over here."

"The only reason she went alone that day was because Natsu and Nashi were sneaking around to prepare her birthday present months in advance." Wendy explained, sweatdropping while remembering how chaotic that time was.

"Poorly sneaking around, might I add," Carla added while shrugging. "I wouldn't be surprised if she already knew what was going on prior to her leaving."

"Hey! We were plenty sneaky thank you very much! It's just Luce is just too smart for her own good!"

"I told you we shouldn't have dressed like ninjas, Papa!"

"What!?"

The banter that started before her really warmed Lucy's heart. She scooped Happy up in her arms and shifted her sitting position into something more comfortable, a smile finally forming on her face. Cana, who was still sat next to her on the floor, placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a knowing smirk. Lucy would be fine from here on out. She definitely had to have this talk with her nakama from her time, but that was a later problem. For now, she was going to enjoy her time with this Fairy Tail.

Noise of banter and brawl slowly filled the guild and the serious atmosphere disappeared quicker than it came. Cana helped Lucy stand up while Mira and Makarov approached her with prideful grins on their faces. "So child, are you ready to get back to work tomorrow?" he asked.

The celestial mage wiped away her remaining tears before helping Happy fix himself up too. Once they were all good, they both looked to where Natsu, Erza and Gray scrambled while Nashi, Wendy and Carla laughed at their bickering. She was more excited than she had been before. "Aye sir!" she and Happy cheered.