I can't shout out to all the new reviews but thank you everyone for your love and support so far 3 I'm still new to this website so I'm not sure if my replies are like private messages or comment on the review page? Oh well, thank you again! 3

People were saying they wanted longer chapters, your wish is my command :*

The field was smaller than it looked, they approached the town centre in less than 20 minutes, but they did what they could with the room considering they were in the middle of a dense forest. All the people they walked past whispered amongst themselves, repeatedly glancing at the new people,

"This is making me uncomfortable" Lucy says rubbing her arms, Goosebumps rising on her skin,

"People look at you all time the because of your skimpy outfits why are you uncomfortable now" Erza says, she understood the curse and realised that her group will come out stronger after this ordeal. Once everything had been said and done it would be forgotten and they would all move on.

"At least I'm confident enough to show myself off" Lucy spat back, pulling back after how vehement her comment sounded. Erza looked at her surprised before shaking her head and smiling,

"I am confident enough, I just know I'm somewhat taken…" the rest of her sentence was muffled as she quietened herself down and pushed her hand into her mouth a bit. "I'll ignore that for now, but we'll talk again later" Lucy said wiggling her eyebrows towards Erza.

"Stop thinking about mundane things and listen to me!" Anton shouted, glaring over his shoulder and making eye contact with both women. "You call yourself mages so do your job, this problem is testing the limits of friendships around here, you'll be staying in my house with my wife until further notice… don't worry we have the space" he said, they stopped in front of a large stone house on the other side of town, it was larger than the other buildings, with pillars holding the front and ivy growing up the sides.

"We retreated into the forest after the incident, we found this run down and overgrown town and decided to take up residence. It already had a wall and defences, we think it used to be some type of stronghold in the olden times, hidden from everything" Anton said gesturing to the rest of the town.

"The town hall is the heart of this town, it's used as storage and trial rooms as well as housing people during the harder times of truthing" Anton walked up to the large mahogany double doors and pushed them open with grace, the entrance room was slightly dusty; the particles danced in the air, showing a sort of calmness to the interior.

"Truthing?" Wendy asked, walking into the room and looking up to the large ceiling, the stone was carved with images of the sun rise and movement across the sky as if even though there was a ceiling there it did not stop hiding the beauty of it.

"That's what we're calling it, it was shorter then 'speaking your mind' and not as scary as calling it a curse" Anton started walking up the large staircase in the middle of the room, turning around to gesture them in and up the stairs,

"We'll talk about your moves another time, let the town calm down from the high of outsiders, this whole left side of the hallway is at your disposal, use it as you will" Anton was about to continue before a women walked out of the opposite hallway, through a door near the end. She was about three foot shorter then Anton and quite slim. Her soft blue hair was about shoulder length and curly near the edges. Green eyes looked up from the floor and towards the newcomers, they gleamed slightly in the dusty light. She wore a pleated blue shirt and pale grey jeans but they were covered by a white apron and a dark blue bandana in her hair.

"Hello" she said softly and gave them a closed eyes smile, her head tilting slightly. "You didn't tell me we had guests?" the woman looked towards Anton and he scratched his head awkwardly before walking up to her. "They just arrived" he said, he slipped an arm around her waist and planted a soft kiss on her head, after the cute reunion the woman stepped forwards and held her head out towards the group, "My names Marie, Anton's wife and co-leader" she winked at them all and shook their hands one at a time, even going down onto one knee to shake Happys and Carlas paws.

"If the rooms are still too messy, I'll clean them for you, that's what I was just doing in that room" she said, backing away to be held by Anton again.

"I'm impressed such a strong looking relationship has still lasted in this mess" Gray said, his first time speaking out loud since coming inside the wall. Quickly something passed over each couples' faces, pain? Anger? Sadness? All three? Something had passed over that before Marie chuckled almost darkly, "It was a little hard at first, coming to terms with certain things but time heals all wounds" she alluded to what these certain things were but they still looked rather sore on the matter.

"We'll let you get used to the place, we'll have a proper conversion at dinner" Anton said, he and his wife walked down the stairs and outside into the glowing light.

"A room each? I'd prefer it that way" Lucy says happily walked down to the room at the end of the hall on the left, she didn't even wait for their reply.

Every room inside was dusty enough to cause a sneeze but nothing opening the window for a day couldn't fix, it wasn't settled enough to stick. Each room was similar in design, dark wooden panelling, and a small fireplace. Opposite the fireplace was a large double bed, with wooden pillars, frames and thick velvet curtains in the beds' pillars and rooms' windows. One wide dresser was next to each bed. Peeling and faded wallpaper curled, dead from the walls.

"Good enough… I guess" Lucy cringed, kicking the bed with her foot, a dust cloud fell from the bed and in no time Lucy was covered and coughing up a storm.

"W-window!" she gagged, her eyes burning from the dust. Her fingers felt the familiar feels of a frame and she lurched the window upwards in a frantic attempt to stop the attacking dust. A calm breeze floated through her hair and pulled some malicious dust from her, enough that she could pat the rest off.

"Bloody, stupid, fucking dust, fucking room fuck fuck…" Lucy cursed to herself,

"Lucy?" a voice squeaked from the doorway, Happy was standing there, paw on the door, he looked confused and concerned as the breeze mixed more dust in the room. Lucy grinned awkwardly, stubborn flakes of dust still clung to her clothes and face making it look like she had just rolled in ashes.

"Yes?" she said back as if nothing was wrong, Happy gave her an uncertain look,

"You're ugly" he placed a paw on his mouth and giggling as if he had made the funniest joke in the world.

"Shut up you stupid cat! You jokes are shit!" Lucy didn't even care she was swearing, Natsu was doing it and now she was, this would be the norm from now on. Lucy ran towards Happy to slam the door closed but wings sprouted from his back and he jumped on Lucy's face and then flew out of the open window, "Ugly!" was shouted as he left, his voice slowly dissipated and she was left alone once again.

"Of course nothing has changed with that brat" Lucy said, kicking the ground and scuffing the floorboards slightly. She freaked out slightly, collapsing to the ground and tried rubbing it with her thumb.

"I always find you in weird positions" a voice said from above, she glanced towards the feet and saw… bare feet?

"Hello Gray" Lucy said simply and continued trying to rub off the scuff mark,

"How did you know it was me?" he said, squatting down to see closer what she was doing,

"You're already in your underwear" She said looking up, he was closer than she thought and the top of her head smashed into the chin of his, Lucy's face went flying into the floor by the rebound and Gray was sent backwards a good few feet away.

"Oh my fucking god!" both of the shouting each holding the spot where the pain was worst.

"Why were you so close" Lucy whined, a few tears appearing on the corners of her eyes,

"I was trying to see what you were doing so intensely" Gray said, already getting over the suddenly blunt force trauma. He rolled so that he sat cross legged in the middle of the hallway, hands on both knees and a serious expression on his face,

"I was also looking at your boobs, it was a good angle" his serious face suddenly went pink, a side thought blurted out shocked them both. When Gray knew what he was thinking he'd keep it to a whisper, but such a perverse thought he didn't even process consciously found its way through his whisper filter.

"I love my boobs, and I love looking at them, but I don't appreciate that" Lucy huffed, taking it better than Gray thought she would, "You took that awfully well" he mused, she smiled softly back to him, "Well yeah we're bound to say things we're going to regret, that's probably not the worst thing that's gonna be said during this mission" she said nonchalantly, both of them then got up and walked down the stairs outside.

"Erza went off to scout the perimeter and Natsu followed his nose to what's probably the local butchers or something" Gray said, squinting at the light as they walked outside. Wendy and Carla had gone their separate ways for now and were at different places in the residence, Gray scratched his head and sat on the steps of the house,

"I'm not planning on doing anything, anytime soon so…" he said leaning back onto the steps. A preverbal light bulb went off in Lucy's head and she jogged back inside to her room.

"Open! Gate of the Southern Cross, Crux!" Lucy said and waited for the old silver cross to come. He appeared in no time, he gave Lucy a quiet greeting and waited for her orders,

"We're looking for anything to do with curses or spirits that can force people to speak their mind, anything that can help… also if anyone else besides me comes into this room message me" she said remembering his telepathic ability to contact his owner.

"Of course mistress Lucy" he said and instantly fell asleep. Lucy nodded to herself before jogging back outside, she saw Gray had left his spot and was wandering around the town looking at the buildings and trying to talk to the locals.

"Might as well try my luck looking around as well" Lucy said to herself and headed to the fields in the distant where she saw elderly people tending to the quietly rowing crops.

She walked through the town to get there and looked up at the buildings, other villagers were busy on ladders, pulling off overgrown vines from their new house and filling the holes where the vines had deep rooted themselves enough to cause destruction. Roofs had caved in and some were used to house the animals due to the intense wildlife overtake. Everyone she passed by smiled and bid her good day, some negatives comments were thrown her way such as "you're only going to ruin your relationships" and "prepare to live here forever with us" but she brushed them off as mindless comments.

She saw Natsu through the buildings, shouting at the local bar/restaurant about how he didn't have enough food for him to eat and the owner saying something about rations until the harvest is collected. Still, Lucy knew he would carry on arguing even if there was nothing the owner could do, it was Natsu's way after all.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you could tell me more about the situation here and how it all happened" Lucy announced, shading her eyes with her hand as the sun hit its midpoint in the sky. The elderly people looked up, their mouths covered with a thick looking cloth, possibly cotton.

"Surely wearing that would be incredibly hot?" Lucy asked, tilting her head to the side, before the woman closest to her could answer a large hand dropped onto Lucy's shoulders, the people in the fields quickly ushered each other away, moving further into the pasture, away from her and her newfound friend.

"They're not going to answer you" Anton stated simply, Lucy turned to him and she couldn't see his eyes from the shadows the sun cast on his face but it seemed grim.

"Why?" An innocent question to such a foreboding answer, it chilled Lucy to her core when clouds covered the sky and she finally saw the wild look in his eyes.

"Their tongues have been cut out, everyone in the fields can't talk" Anton gestured behind him to all the people bent over, tending to the crops. Looking closer she saw it wasn't elderly people but a mixture of ages, even some people who looked younger than herself.

"What!" she exclaimed, trying to push his hand off her shoulder, his grip only tightening.

"Sins and lies couldn't be forgiven" he whispered, leaning down so that their faces were inches away from each other. His eyes were a mixture of lost, crazed and scared, his breathe increased, quickly and deeply he breathed before pulling Lucy into a rough hug, she squeaked as he squeezed her tight,

"Help us, help me… someone in this town controls us from the shadows!" his voice was frantic and his words urged Lucy to do something, hearing such a pitiful admission from such a proud man only increased her determination more, before she could reply a voice pierced her mind.

"Ma'am! Someones-" before Crux could say anything else she felt his existence disappear from this world, someone… something had forcefully sent Crux back to the spirit world. Willingly or not she pushed Anton away from her and ran back to her room, a string of profanities were heard by the locals as she ran by.

"Luce?" Natsu said, poking his head out from the restaurant, he barely heard her swears from inside but her voice was distinct and the urgency in them made his heart race. He shouted at the store owner to finish making his food by the time he got back. He and happy bolted through the streets to catch up with the younger blonde.

Lucy pushed her way inside, shouting for Crux, fear was deep in her stomach so much that she wanted to throw up. Someone called her name but all she could focus on was getting to her room. She slammed her door open and almost screamed. But the scream never came and instead she collapsed to the ground, seeing a small puddle of celestial blood covering the wooden flooring. Someone had placed their hand on her shoulder and happy was standing next to her talking. Her ears were ringing and her vision blurry, she thought she was hyperventilating but in her current state she wasn't sure.

"Are you ok Lucy? Is that your blood?!" Happy starting shouting at her and shaking her shoulders when she didn't reply. Natsu looked down at Lucy before stepping over her and squatting down next to the small puddle. It wasn't bigger than a dinner plate but the metallic smell still gave it away.

"It's not hers" Natsu says before turning and popping himself down in front of Lucy. He crossed his legs and smiled at her before hugging her tightly, Happy sat on Natsu's shoulder, watching them and mumbling to himself.

"I'm glad you're safe" he whispered into her shoulder and buried his face into her neck,

"I was so worried, hearing and seeing you in this state scares the living shit outta me" Natsu carries on and squeezes her tighter, Lucy's breaths slow down and she blinks slowly, her overwhelming fear slowly subsided.

"Natsu?" she said softly into his shoulder. She smelt burning wood and ash and instantly recognised his scent. His arms were firmly around her but her head was on his shoulder and she saw the blood behind him, before she could push him away to see the blood Loke appeared.

"Lucy! What happened! Crux came back bleeding and talking to himself in gibberish" he looked to Lucy, she looked fragile as she tried not to cry. Loke turned around and saw Crux's blood on the ground, his brows knitted together and his lips pursed. Lucy pushed Natsu away slowly,

"I… don't know, I was in the fields when I heard him shout for me" Lucy said, slowly getting to her feet, her legs were wobbling but she had to be strong, she had to find out what was happening around here,

"Go back Loke, Natsu try and find Erza, Happy try to find Wendy and Carla, I'll look for Gray. You guys need to know something I found out" Loke gave her a look that showed he was unsure before closing his eyes and going back. Natsu nodded and ran out of the room with Happy. Lucy went to leave the building too before she ran into Marie.

"Marie… this is going to sound very bad but there's blood in my room, if you get me the cleaning tools I'll-" Marie held up a hand

"Nonsense! I can manage it" Marie smiled and walked past her to see the damage in her room. Lucy didn't have time to see her reaction, she jumped down the main stairs, two at a time and went to search for Gray.

Whoever hurt Crux is also the same person who's controlling this town, and she will find them.

A/N: Heheh Marie is my OC ^^ gonna cameo her or my other OCs in every story I write 3 don't worry she won't be secretly OP or anything. ALSO sorry if it got a bit confusing, I stopped writing for a while and forgot where I left off…..