Hello all! Welcome to my first story ever! I know a lot of people say that but I'm just hoping to lower some expectations here, and it's true, so I don't get hated on. I'd love constructive criticism as well as things you like that I've done!
Please note that I obviously do not own Fairy Tail or its characters I just decided to have my way with them! I'm not sure if their creator Hiro Mashima would enjoy where I took them but it's too late now.
Something important everyone should take note of is that I was inspired to write this after reading some amazing stories from Desna. You should check her out if you haven't yet. She was trying to think of who could possibly pair with one of her original characters and voila, this happened. I will try to keep the story Lucy centric but if it takes a hard left, know I will eventually return and hopefully you won't be too disappointed in the mean-time. Given my inspiration I've borrowed, with approval, some original characters from her stories as well as a bit of how she imagines Ishgar outside of Fiore but not completely. If they are Bickslow's family, Boscan royalty, or have anything to do with their backstories, chances are they were created by Desna not me. Though I think I've change a bit of their backstories too…
That said, enjoy!
-Chapter 1-
"We're back!" a voiced called as the guild doors were slammed open. Smiling victorious faces were met by welcoming cheers as recognition lit the eyes of the Fairy Tail mages present.
"Natsu, stop slamming my damn door!" a disgruntled voice called over the loud din of the commencing party. The harsh tone was moderated by the familiar smirk of the newly appointed guild master Laxus Dreyar.
"Laxus, fight me!" was Natsu's only response before he was twitching on the ground, lightning still arcing over his prone form. Laughter rang out across the guild, nothing had changed.
"I see you all managed to make it back in one piece," he asked instead of saying what he actually meant - he was glad they returned back home. "My office now, and grab that sorry excuse of a fairy and bring him with you." The group watched him walk away then turned toward each other slightly concerned.
"You don't think he knows that that happened, do you?" the young curvaceous blonde whispered to a tall raven haired half naked man then added in a side, "Gray, your clothes." The man sighed looking around for where his shirt had escaped to. He really needed to invest in clothes that were more difficult to take off. 'Maybe ask Bickslow…I doubt even I could get out of that get up unconsciously' his idol thought paused when his eyes met the pale, shapely legs of his somewhat girlfriend, only to continue with, 'God it's been too long.'
"Gray-sama, Juvia has found your shirt," she says shyly clutching his shirt to her chest.
"Hang on to that for me for now. I'll pick it up after we meet with Laxus," he said over his shoulder while walking to catch up with the rest of his team. What sounded cold like the ice maker mage's magic to everyone else had hearts dancing in Juvia's eyes.
"Gray-sama promised to see Juvia later," she whispered to herself then collapsed into a puddle on the floor.
Erza had thrown Natsu's unconscious body over her shoulder while Lucy and Wendy flanked her sides as they walked up the stairs. Both exceeds, Charla and Happy, already waiting on the second floor rail.
-DTRE-
The office was inexplicably silent considering what news Laxus had just dropped on the recently returned team, especially since Natsu was awake for it.
"Can you repeat that please?" Lucy's quite voice broke the astonished silence. "I'm afraid I missed everything past, 'All teams are disbanded including yours.'"
Laxus sighed; he knew this news wasn't going to be easy for this group to understand. They were their own little family within the family that was Fairy Tail. The only group to take it harder was probably The Thunder Legion but he had plans for his home and it needed to be done.
"Look, I'm not saying you guys can't hang-out or team up, but I want people to mix more. Get to know everyone like you already know each other. Learn and grow stronger together from other guild members. That's my Fairy Tail," he stated firmly, eyes locked on Lucy. He knew everything would be fine as long as the groups "heart" understood and agreed. Hell, Mavis may have been the "Fairy Heart" Zeref was obsessed with, but since the day Phantom Lord kidnapped Lucy and the guild rallied to save her…Yeah, if Lucy was sold, everyone else would fall in line. No one in the guild had made a huge fuss yet – well apart for his team but he'd told them before announcing it to the guild as a whole to lessen the impact. It was like everyone silently agreed to hold off until Team Natsu returned to wait for Lucy's reaction.
If all of this went down two years ago, no technically nine, he would have been livid that even as the Guild Master everyone would take more direction from a weak little spoiled princess instead of him. Now he knew better on all counts. That girl had a way of uniting people he was still trying to learn how to do. She had an indomitable fighting spirit, insane amounts of compassion and the biggest heart – she was what Fairy Tail stood for. If she believed in him…
"So, we each go through this trial scenario thing to get ranked. It creates a training plan to help us grow and lists suggestions of available jobs that will help us to do so," Erza summarized for the room nodding her head. She liked the idea even though it meant she would probably be going out alone a lot more like she had before Natsu had dragged Lucy into her life. She'd gotten used to the crazy antics and loved having two women to bath with and talk while at the public bath houses. But, more alone time would give her a chance to get over her failed non-relationship. Wendy and Lucy had both been very supportive but they were just a bit too innocent to act and her wing-women in bars and a night full of drunken mistakes was what she really needed.
"I'd like to try," Lucy paused her brows furrowing slightly as she ordered her thoughts. "I mean, as sad as I was when Fairy Tail was disbanded, I grew a lot in my magic when on my own. I became closer than ever with my spirits and as you all saw on this last mission, I'm much more of an asset now instead of being relegated as bait."
"I think it's a great plan Master Laxus!" Wendy chimed in a bright smile on her lips. "There are still so many members that I hardly know anything about after all this time. I knew so much more about everyone in Cait Shelter." Her smile turned a but rueful when she then added to herself, "even if they weren't real."
"Aye sir!" Happy's exclamation seemed to be what everyone needed to hear as they each started talking to each other with more animation.
"So, we're not here because we destroyed two mountains?" Natsu asked innocently in his relief. Having to separate the team meant a lot less time with ice balls and the monster. He could always grab Lucy for a job just for them now, like it was supposed to be in the beginning.
"You did what?!" Laxus said through clenched teeth.
"Great job lava ass. We all agreed not to say anything!" Gray hissed at the fire dragon slayer.
"What was that icicle face?" he responded pressing is forehead against Gray's.
"You'd think their insults would be more original after so many years," Lucy said to no one in particular as she watched her two friends start wrestling in a cloud of dust pressing deeper into her chair. She glanced up to see Laxus quietly seething, eyes calculated and focused on the two men.
"Aye," the blue exceed responded a bit disappointedly.
"You know, to be fair, the monster we were hired to destroy was one of those mountains," Titania started matter-of-factly.
"And it was the monster falling over dead that crushed the other mountain," Lucy added and watched as Laxus' eye twitched.
"So it really wasn't our fault at all!" Wendy concluded. Laxus turned eyes that promised death on each person not currently rolling on the floor.
"You may hit me for my lack of foresight." Erza bowed her head, accepting the Master's ire for their destruction.
-DTRE-
Bickslow eyed Laxus as he left his office and made his way down the stairs toward Mira. Sidling up beside his best friend the seith mage inquired, "Where's team havoc?"
Laxus grabbed his beer and took a long pull then said with a smirk, "In my office probably still twitching in their own puddles of piss. Sorry about the mess Mira." The barmaid beamed brightly and giggled.
"Oh dear."
Bickslow's cackle echoed through the room.
-DTRE-
"Lucy Kick!" the blonde mage shouted with her right foot still high in the air glowing with the remnants of Loke's power. The vulcan she had been fighting sailed through the air smashing through several trees before it collapsed on the ground then disintegrated. Lucy looked around the forest still on high alert. She'd started this ranking test over 6 hours ago and so far had blown through the levels. First there were 2 lame mages she came across in a city like setting, next was kind of a replay of when she had met Natsu in Hargeon all those years ago when Laxus' warning sounded in her head.
"Alright Lucy, if you destroy too much shit in there this ends and you rank low. Control your shit."
She inwardly laughed. Oh how she wished she had had Aquarius' power back then like she does now. No intentional drowning, excessive force or a bitchy attitude when summoned for help. Still, she missed her oldest friend and would trade these powers for her in a second. Keeping her eyes open she started walking down the trail again as her mind continued to wander. She was still disappointed that she hadn't picked up any leads the entire time they were travelling to and from Joya for the 100 year mission. No weird solar events, no strange anything, no mention of valuable artifacts, nothing. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts Lucy focused on the other levels she passed.
She'd already faced a vulcan on level 3 so this monster quest had to have more going on. Level 4 was a maze with riddles and puzzles she had to solve in order to move on. Level 5 was a group of 5 mages that had summoned a weird black looking creature that just reeked evil and only Loke's light and Sagittarius' arrows had any effect on it. She let her two spirits distract that thing while she took out each of the mages that were feeding it power. That level sucked hard and was the most difficult so far - she really liked that outfit too. Level 6 came after a wardrobe change thanks to Virgo and a 20 minutes break to drink some water and catch her breath. It had been a simple find this lost item type of challenge. Level 7 was another one where she used her brain more than anything to create a tactic that would allow her to recoup some magical energy for later quests. It was a group of dark wizards at a guild that she managed to isolate one by one to take down with her whip, tie up with magic cancelling rope and tossed into a pit, all provided by Virgo before she sent her back after her help with level 6. Physically stressful but she needed to save her magic for when it was necessary.
Level 8 was the last level she'd just been on where she had to track down and gather intel on a group of people who had broken out of prison. Some were mages but not all. The level didn't require fighting as long as you stayed out sight and planned well. She had been half tempted to call Gemini to do it for her, she was so tired, but they weren't the best at tracking people and in the end she did have a new silver key she'd picked up in Minstrel on her way home that she'd thought would do the trick. It had, Vulpes, or as he liked to be called Iggy, had tracked down the guild quickly. He was a fox spirit and incredibly clever. From what she could tell he was the basis for some foreign god/spirit person she'd read about once though she couldn't remember from where. He mainly used this green fire that Natsu loved to eat and illusions but with his sensitive nose tracking wasn't' a problem either. When they'd first made the contract she'd been expecting a fox head or a giant fox man similar to Taurus but instead he looked human mostly. His hair was bright orange with adorable fox ears on top. He was taller than she was, most people were, but not by much and was built smaller like Gray or Natsu. His bushy tail was probably the most discernable trait since he wore his hair like Loke which mostly hid his ears.
When they got to the hideout he and Lucy took out a pair of members and they each changed into one, her using her Gemini Star Dress, Iggy his illusions, and went in. They stuck together since Iggy only looked the part and while clever he needed Lucy's knowledge from her copy to make the look seem real. It was almost too easy infiltrating the compound and finding the information they needed before they left "taking a job" and got out.
The longer Lucy was in this simulation the more impressed with it she was. Her current "job" was to find and take out a monster that was tormenting a village. She kind of wished she still had more time with Iggy but her contract was still new with him and so their time was more limited than any of her other keys. Lost in her thoughts she missed the giant foot print right in front of her and fell in with a sharp, "Eeeep!"
She rolled over and looked up at the sky from the bottom of the 3 foot crater and sighed. The celestial spirit mage was so drained and just plain exhausted. She knew this was the last level she could do today but Laxus said the more levels passed at the same time the better her ranking would be which meant more flexibility in missions available to her. She could always come back another day and continue, would have to as the levels got more difficult and magically taxing but she really wanted to prove to herself that she was a good mage. It was hateful not being taken seriously and continuously being made the decoy or bait when out on jobs. She would never grow as a mage doing that and if she wanted to succeed she needed to push herself like this. That was why she agreed with Laxus' new setup; she loved her team to pieces but they held her back. It was probably like that for everyone in the guild. Then there were those who only did solo work and rarely took a job that would challenge them so their growth was just as bad. Teaming them up on more difficult jobs with someone else would give them an opportunity to stretch their strength safely outside of just training which is what she needed.
There were some roadblocks in development for her outside experience. Lucy's magic was really rare after the Infinity Clock and the new Oración Seis were handled so finding literature and experienced maged to teach her was almost impossible. All those celestial mages lost their magic and keys. Celestial magic was genetic and the body linked celestial mages made up most of Fiore's population of celestial magic since the Zentopia Church was centered in there and Will Neville made the body links generations ago. Lucy only knew of three other Celestial mages now and only one actively using it - her friend Yukino, Queen Hisui and Serano, Yukino's older sister. While Fiore ended up taking the largest hit, the devastation had been across all of Ishgar since Zentopia had branched out - it's how she got Iggy.
They celestial mage in question had yet to make a contract with Iggy when he'd been attacked and frozen in a yellow chrysalis so when Lucy freed him and all the others it was the only key that didn't disappear like his others. He held onto it looking for a master that would treat him well and when he saw Loke pop out and pull Lucy into his arms and out of the way of a running horse he'd decided to watch her at a distance to see if she was the right sort. It only took seeing them squabble like he and Andromeda used to before he walked up and gave her the key telling her his story at some café. When he learned she was the reason he'd woken now instead of 100 years after everyone he loved had passed he'd tried to kiss her in his joy but found himself frozen instead. Gray's only explanation to her was he knew that look then warned the man to keep his lips off before unfreezing him. The encounter was a bit awkward after that and they soon parted ways.
Shaking that memory free she tried to get up to continue her search but realized she needed another break. She was starting to feel lonely and she'd only been in this simulator for hours not the days that would be necessary for travel on real jobs. The multiple jobs made the time feel longer to her though and she missed being able to plan with her team even though they never followed them. Her magic was flexible but she needed to plan so it was the most effective where she could. Her spirits had time limits as well as summoning restrictions and it took huge amounts of magic to summon and maintain the spirits in Earthland while also feeding their magic attacks. Calling a spirit who couldn't handle what was needed hurt her spirit and wasted her magic.
Porlyusica once told Lucy she probably had larger magical containers than everyone in Fairy Tail save The Master, Gildarts and Wendy because let's face it, healing magic took so much more energy and Wendy had grown so much more powerful after both Tartaros and Alvarez. They both just lacked experience and opportunities to shine and that's what this whole new setup was for. Guidance on things specifically to work on, more independence, learning and working with new members, just getting out there and doing things so you had a chance to achieve. She wanted to make more of a name for herself other than just having an action figure that lost her clothes. So embarrassing!
Lucy ran her finger over Horologium's key. "Six hours and 22 minutes, no wonder I'm so tired," she said to herself then got back up. Looking at the foot print she noted the direction it was pointed in and inspected a large bush that had been half smashed. The broken limbs were still seeping a thick sticky fluid so the monster must have passed through here recently but there weren't many prints to follow. "Maybe it flies?" she commented out loud and started moving in the direction the prints indicated as quietly as possible. Lucy came to a small clearing right next to a mountain and noticed a ledge about 50 feet up with a large cave at the top. Pulling out her whip she caught a sturdy looking tree around the trunk on a ledge below the cave. She had the length of the whip start to contract slowly as she walked carefully up the face of the steep rock face trying not to shift loose gravel to stay as quite as possible – something that would not have been possible had she been with her old team. At the top she paused to listen, catch her breath and think of her next move when she heard a loud screech coming from behind her. Looking around she saw a freaking wyvern headed her way flying on its powerful wings. She scrambled up the tree to hide in the branches quickly hoping the leaves would help mask her scent. She was downwind so that was in her favor but that would only do so much.
The wyvern passed her by and landed outside the cave entrance. It snuffed around looking for signs of an intruder and Lucy thanked the Celestial King and Mavis that she hadn't moved in to explore the cave yet. Getting trapped in a cave with an enraged wyvern blocking the only exit? Yeah, game over, dead Lucy. She knew very well she most likely didn't have the strength necessary to take on the creature herself even at full power and while it would be easy enough to collapse the entrance to the cave, it would likely not be strong enough to hold that beast in and only serve to just piss it off.
'Maybe I could,' Lucy thought then pulled out the reference map she had been provided. 'If my plan is going to work I need to make sure I don't destroy some town or something on accident. Yes, this isn't real, but it could be like that job on Galuna Island.' They had seriously lucked out that none of the demons on the Island were killed in the jelly acid attack and that somehow the village was miraculously restored at the end. How would she feel if she'd been one of them and the monster was killed but everything she had worked so hard for was gone? It was bad enough when her reward went to damages more often caused by Natsu and Gray fighting, but if that was her home? She'd lost everything in her life except her keys before and no one needed to feel that pain. It wasn't going to happen because of her if she could help it. Sighing Lucy found an indication of a village on the side of the mountain not too far from her current position so she'd have to be careful and set everything up without notifying the monster and so that the collapse was controlled.
"Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!" she whispered as she called out her digging specialist.
"Punishment time Princess?" the hopeful gleam in Virgo's eyes always got to Lucy every time her maid spirit asked and this was the third time she'd called on her for help today alone.
"You know what Virgo? If you can help me collapse a part of this mountain on top of the wyvern in that cave over there making sure it's dead," she pointed to her right, "without affecting the town here," she indicated a spot on the map, "or the roads here and here," she dragged her finger over a few paths that looked like the villages' main connection to the rest of the surrounding area, "I will personally give you whatever type of punishment you want within reason." A rare smile lit up the masochistic spirit's face as she grabbed the map and started making plans.
-DTRE-
"Well, I'm a little jealous now, of the spirit or the blond I'm not sure," a tall well-muscled man said while he watched the vid lacrima of the training area.
Laxus scoffed. "Why did I let you in here again?" he asked more to himself.
"Because you wanted my expert opinion on how to help train, and I quote, 'the most promising and underestimated mage in this damn place.' Honestly Laxus, I don't know what you're talking about here. She has great control of her magic not using too much for any one spell, uses her power smartly and paces herself, thinks before acting and truly has the best relationships with her spirits I've even heard of. Other than seriously lacking physical combat training there's not much anyone can do for her. I can't even imagine why she was on that team," the man said as he unconsciously played with an onyx stud in his ear.
"Apparently Natsu saved her ass from slave traders headed to Bosco nine years ago down in Hargeon and brought her to the guild," Bickslow explained the little he knew of her that he was able to glean from the others in the guild after he got his ass handed to him by her and Loke before the Fantasia parade years back.
"Damn Natsu tricked her into promising to be his partner her first week here. Girl wouldn't break her promise no matter how stupid or detrimental is it to her," Laxus grumbled as he continued to monitor Lucy's progress.
"Well she can't," the first man stated simply. He was the smallest in the room but that didn't mean he was small only that both of the other mages were freaking enormous. He and Bickslow were built similarly but Bickslow still had a few inches on him. Laxus had both height and sheer muscle mass. He reminded him of two of his brothers on that count.
"What do you mean can't Vander? She just needs to learn to say fucking no! Even after he left he ass after the attack from Tartarus she still can't say no to him." That really irritated Laxus. It was only a short time ago after taking over the guild and talking more with everyone that he'd learned that. He'd been chatting with Levy in hopes of coming up with a plan for Lucy when she returned that Gajeel had told him that. Something deep inside him just seethed and ever since then he'd felt a lot more protective of the only other blonde in the guild.
"Whoa there big man, you'll short out the controls if you keep that arcing up," he told the blond lighting mage. "What I mean is her magic is all about trust, contracts, relationships and tactical thinking. Her word means everything to her. If she goes back on what she's said, she would literally ruin all the progress she's made and might never be able to achieve the heights she's capable of," Vander replied rolling his eyes and pushing his shoulder length black hair behind his ears as he continued to read some of the system's analysis. Had he known how long Lucy would last during her first go in the simulation he'd of grabbed something to pull his hair back. "You sweet on her or something? It that what this is all about?" He couldn't help it, the words were out of his mouth before he thought which happened more often than he'd ever admit. It was obvious to him Laxus' dragon was running things where the tasty little lady was concern and he couldn't really blame the guy. She had some wickedly temping legs and a huge rack that seemed to defy gravity. Had he not caught a glimpse of them unbound when her clothing was in tatters he'd of thought they were fake that's how amazing they were.
"Tch," was Laxus' only response other than an eye roll. He knew something was going on with him but he'd stopped wanting to bed her ever since he'd been let back into the guild by Gildarts. She just had a way about her that wormed into you before you even realized and lead people without even trying. He envied that and hoped to learn it from her in time.
"I'm jealous of the spirit myself," Bickslow said breaking the heavy tension in the room with his tongue lolled out of his huge grin and waggling his eyebrows in the low light.
It worked and chuckling was heard all around. "Aren't we all? By the way, I totally understand why you call her that." Vander's eyes were glued to the monitor as he spoke.
Bickslow turned back to the monitor just in time to see Lucy change into a really short strapless maid uniform complete with thigh high white stockings and her hair in pigtails. "Damn Cosplayer! She's a fucking menace in that thing. How does she even fight with that on?"
-DTRE-
Lucy popped back out of the ground 30 mins after she had started drilling her portion of the project to see Virgo waiting patiently for her. "That was well done Princess. Next we can start working on your speed," she paused considering what she had just said, "more punishment?"
Lucy sighed and dusted herself off shaking her head. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I actually like you helping me learn how to use your magic better," she told Virgo as she turned to a white little snowman shaped creature. "Hey Plue, did the wyvern come out of the cave while we were gone?" she asked as she sat down and scooped up the little shaking dog spirit onto her lap.
"Puuun, pun pun….pun."
"But it came back?"
Plue nodded his head vigorously. "Pun!"
Lucy smiled, "Well it looks like we're ready to go Virgo. Plue, I'll call you out tonight for our bath and give you the lollipop then."
"Pun….pun?" he asked eyes huge and beseeching.
"I'll ask Mira but not tonight. You'll get a stomach ache if you have that too."
"Pun pun!" he replied then popped out with a small flash of yellow.
-DTRE-
"Ok Bicks, you can be the maid, I want to be the little snowman thing."
"Only you Vander would want to be whatever that was," Laxus said under his breath as he watched the brothers high five to shouts of "Punishment!" and "Bath time!" respectively. "Bunch of perverts."