A/N: SOOOO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! IT'S JUST THAT MY COMPUTER'S BEEN STUPID AND IT PUT ME OFF SO I DIDN'T TRY TO USE THE COMPUTER AGAIN UNTIL NOW. I FEEL VERY GUILTY. REALLY.
Back to no caps lock now.
Sadly I won't be able to make it up to you guys for my lack of updates for the time being because my term tests are coming up soon. There's a Physics term test on the coming Monday and I've barely done my own studying for it so yeah. But oh well. I've long realized I'm a procrastinator.
Onto the long-awaited chapter! Be warned, for my writing skills may be rusty.
Lucy Heartfilia had probably never felt this happy in her entire life, said girl realized as she lied in bed the next morning.
She has a boyfriend now. That's one thing. She's never had a boyfriend and now having someone to call hers is something new, alright. Then there's the fact that her boyfriend is so sweet. Looking back and thinking about all those times she had fantasized about having Natsu as her boyfriend, she now thought that Linux was a far better fit to be her boyfriend than Natsu, not having Natsu's worst habits such as barging into her house and sleeping in her bed, bad table manners, being an idiot and being not-sweet.
Yes, she much prefers Natsu to be her best friend.
After finishing her train of thought and finally returning to the world of reality, Lucy got up from bed. She was even more eager to go to the guild now and see Linux and possibly go on another mission with him. Lucy frowned when a thought struck her. 'Wendy's powers are still gone.' Her very good mood disappeared instantly. She should've done her best yesterday instead of agreeing to Linux. She sighed. There was nothing she could do now except to make it up to Wendy today.
She turned to her bed and was about to make it when she noticed a lump in her blanket on one side of her bed. 'How did I not notice that?!' she thought and was nervous to do anything to it. After deciding for a moment or two she poked it and shrieked when the lump moved.
When whatever was inside the lump seemed to be getting untangled from her blanket, she got into a defensive stance and braced herself. One second later a blue cat, or should I say Exceed, appeared from the blanket.
"Aye!" Happy greeted before realizing that Lucy was trying to defend herself. "Lucy? What's wrong?"
Lucy sighed in relief and got rid of her position. She glared at him, making him cower in fright. "What's wrong is that you were in my bed without my permission! Where's Natsu?!" She looked around, convinced that the dragon slayer was in her apartment, possibly reading her book.
"He isn't here!" Happy replied cheerfully. "He's with Lisanna on a mission, and since Carla on a mission, I decided to come here!"
"Lisanna, huh?" Lucy was surprised since they've yet to go on missions together since her 'death'. "I'm happy to hear that they're finally spending time together. They were childhood friends, weren't they?"
"And now they're a coupleeeeeeee!" Happy said, rolling his tongue.
"WHAT?! When did that happen?!"
"The day before you hung out with Natsu. You didn't know?"
"No!" Lucy exclaimed, still surprised. "I didn't think that Natsu would have a girlfriend!"
"I know! I fainted when I found out! Natsu had to wake me up with fish! ...Fish..." Happy drooled at the thought of his favorite thing ever.
"Don't drool on my floor!" Lucy yelled at him.
"Aye!" Happy slurped back his drool and grinned nervously.
"You're so like Natsu," Lucy commented, shaking her head. "Go to the guild, Happy, I need to take a bath."
"I can just turn my back when you change!" Happy compromised happily, turning around to prove his point.
"...You're not going, are you."
"Nope!"
"Alright, but if you turn around even once before I tell you to, your blood will be on the walls of the guild for everyone to see!"
Happy paled. "L-L-Lushi...you're scarier than usual..."
"Good. Now you'll heed my warning."
"What's heed?"
"Listen."
"Aye."
Later, when Lucy was done changing and eating - Happy managed to get a fish from Lucy - they walked to the guild. Lucy wasn't walking leisurely that day. She was a woman on a mission.
Lucy greeted everyone once she entered the guild. Happy followed her, wings spread as he didn't want to get trampled by anyone. She walked over to the bar after looking around the guild, searching for a certain girl.
"Good morning, Lucy!" Mirajane greeted, cheerful as usual.
"Good morning, Mira! Where's Wendy?"
"Oh, she's most likely with Romeo. They're so close these days, I can just see them getting together!" Mirajane squealed, eyes sparkling. "This is one of the only reasons I'm glad for the Tenroujima incident. Young, young love!"
"Ah, Mira, don't you think you're thinking too much?"
"Not at all! I've been keeping a close eye on them, they're totally getting together!"
"Well, they are good together," Lucy mused. "But I didn't want to know about Wendy's love life today. Do you know when Wendy's coming back?"
"She might be coming soon...with Romeo!" Mirajane squealed again. She suddenly composed herself. "Why do you want to know?"
"I just wanted to apologize to her...about her magic."
"You didn't help Zeref to take away her magic in any way, shape or form, did you?"
Lucy was taken aback at the question. "No!"
"Then what are you apologizing for? Just go on and help Wendy today. One request though: don't get yourself killed. I'm sure Wendy wouldn't want that. She'd rather lose her powers than let someone, anyone, get killed because of her. So I will be angry at you if that happens, alright? Just come back when you don't think you can do it. It's no shame. Gildarts can't do it either, no one can. Zeref isn't Zeref for nothing."
Lucy thought about it. "...You're right. But I will try."
"Just keep what I said in mind and I'll be happy," Mirajane smiled.
"Got it," Lucy smiled. "I'm going now."
"Where are you going, Luce?"
Lucy turned and saw Natsu frowning at her. Lisanna was right beside him, looking worried. Lucy spotted a necklace on her, which was an impressive red dragon. Lucy suddenly squealed and Natsu winced at the noise.
"Sorry, Natsu, but did you get that necklace for her?"
"Wha- oh. That," Natsu said lamely, his face slowly turning a tomato red. "Uh, it's a symbol of us being mates..."
"That's sweet of you, Natsu!" Lucy smiled widely. Her eyes suddenly spot something out of place on Natsu's scarf. "That's a...cat necklace, right?"
"Yeah?" Natsu wondered about her expression, which was weird. 'Same old weirdo Lucy!'
"Why is it white? People won't be able to see it easily," Lucy deadpanned.
"Oh, well, just something I didn't notice," he muttered.
"Oh Natsu!" Lisanna giggled.
"Shut up!" Natsu whined.
A beat.
"Did you just tell me to shut up?" Lisanna growled, having turned into her Animal Soul: Cheetah.
"Uh...you look hot in that outfit!" Natsu offered.
"Nice try!" Lisanna jumped at him and they disappeared in a cartoon white cloud of mess and debris.
"Oh my," Mirajane smiled at the sight.
Lucy sweatdropped at the entire thing. "Lisanna has one heck of a temper, alright..."
Happy popped up and stated, "Lisanna might be scary but you can be even scarier! She's just on her time of the month."
The white cloud suddenly disappeared and Lisanna appeared in front of Happy instantly, a death-glare on her normally-innocent face. "What did you say?" she whispered. She stroke a sharp claw against Happy's face, and his cheek drew blood.
Happy lost all color from his face. "N-Nothing..."
Lisanna stared him down. "...Thought so," she finally said and transformed back to normal. She turned to Lucy, who jumped a bit in fright. "You're going to find Zeref, right?"
"...Y-Yeah..."
"Good luck!" she stretched out her hand which Lucy shook warily. "Come on, Natsu, Happy, let's go on a mission. Don't want to be weaker than Lucy, now do you?" she grinned at Natsu.
Natsu recovered and jumped to his feet, fired up. "Yeah! I'm going to beat you one day, Lucy!"
"Like hell that'll happen, flame-brain!"
They all turned and saw Linux walking towards them. He continued, "A small fry like you can only hope to get half as strong as The Dragon Goddess, Lucy."
"Oh yeah? How about you get your ass kicked and reconsider your words?" Natsu grinned, fists flaming.
"Bring it on!"
They were about to get the fight started when Lucy intervened, "No, Linux. We're going to find Zeref."
"Zeref? Now?" Linux turned to face his girlfriend. "Do you know who you're talking about?"
"Yes, the almighty dark lord. For your information, he took Wendy's powers and I'm not going to stay here and not help. I'm going to help take back her powers. So are you in or am I going by myself?"
Linux didn't even take a millisecond to think about his decision. "Sorry, Natsu, but maybe next time."
"...Alright then," Natsu said slowly, fire extinguished. He was feeling worried for his best friend, who may be immensely overpowered [ha ha ha] but come on, this was the Dark Lord and strongest mage of probably Earthland that he was talking about. And although Linux had just recently joined, he was family.
Everyone was worried too. What if Lucy and Linux lost their lives?
"Lucy..." Levy walked over to Lucy and Linux. She was tearing up. "Lu-chan, Linux, promise me you'll make it out alive. Promise all of us. Both of you."
"I will, don't worry, Levy-chan," Lucy smiled.
"Yeah, we'll survive," Linux smirked.
"Nice knowing ya, light bulb," Gray smirked.
"You too, stripper."
"And Lucy..." Gray turned to his close friend, his younger sister figure. "...stay alive."
"I will."
Lucy was saying goodbye to some of the others when she was suddenly pulled by a strong arm. Her head knocked hard against cold, hard metal, but she wasn't injured at all. She smiled up at Erza.
Natsu fist-bumped Linux before going over to Lucy who was approaching him as well. He wasn't crying. Actually, no one was because they knew that both of them were going to be fine. They had faith. "Hey, Luce."
"Hey, Natsu."
Natsu grinned. "So, you're going to fight the great Zeref?"
"Find him first, of course. It could take a while," Lucy stated.
"Yeah. Well, I know you're going to beat him and come back in one piece. Probably battered as hell, probably looking like you just came from a warm-up. Either way, this is goodbye for now."
"So it is," Lucy agreed.
"Come over here," Natsu grinned, spreading out his arms.
Lucy went closer and Natsu enclosed her in a warm embrace. Everyone was watching them and some were shedding tears. This was love. Not romantic love, but friend love. A love between friends strong enough to call them brother and sister. A love is where you have no need to say anything, because both of you know what's in the other's hearts.
That was an example.
Everyone was startled by a sudden noise. They looked up and saw Makarov on the railing of the second floor, who knew what was going on. He lowered his head.
"There's something always unspoken in Fairy Tail. When a member laughs, Fairy Tail laughs with him or her. When him or her cries, Fairy Tail cries with him or her. And...when someone gets him or herself in a situation, always assume that he or she will come out alive. Lucy, I hope you will be able to get Wendy's powers back."
Lucy smiled sadly at his words. "I do too."
"Now go, brats!" Makarov ordered.
"Aye, Master!" Lucy and Linux said in unison. They smiled at each other.
They exited the guild slowly. Lucy sighed and turned around to gaze at the guild that she had made so many memories in. Who knew if she could ever see it again in this life? Taking her time, she observed every little detail of the guild. While she did so, Linux stood by and watched silently and patiently. When she was done, she turned to give him a smile.
"Ready?"
"Whenever you are, milady."
Lucy rolled her eyes and yelped when Linux suddenly scooped her up and carried her bridal-style. Linux smiled warmly down at the pouting Lucy. His legs moved, and he started to walk away from Fairy Tail.
A/N: Well, that's another long chapter! Yay! Hopefully this will tide you guys over - if there are even any of you left ;_; - for...two weeks. Blame the computer for not being to open Google Chrome - which I don't own - and the exams for freaking existing. I know exams are very useful and all, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
The Dragon Goddess is nearing an end. This is the last...arc, I guess you could call it. After Zeref, there will be an epilogue about as long as this. There might even be a sequel, depending on whether you guys want it or not. I don't know what it might even be about though, like more action or more romance? More family? Guess we'll have to see!