Mickey here, at it again. This is my latest attempt at a serious project - what Fairy Tail would've been like if Lisanna had never "died". I'm going to rewrite Fairy Tail, starting from Lucy's arrival to the guild. I want to explore what could've been if things had gone differently that night, the different relationships than would bloom, and new doors opening for other guild members to step into the spotlight. Thanks to the power of fanfiction, I'm able to attempt that story as I imagine it.

I know it's probably not the most original idea out there, and inevitably, since I'm going to go down every major arc featured in the manga (I'm afraid I won't be doing the anime-exclusives, if I'd even get to them), there will be some major similarities to canon. However, I'll do my best to inject my own creativity into the story we know, to give you my take of my Fairy Tail world.

I felt inspired to write this because I love Fairy Tail, and I love Lisanna. She's my favorite character in the series, and I'm disappointed in her use and reaction when she had such a lovey backstory with Natsu. Since I consider her gold, I want to let her shine as such. However, even though the primary pairing in this fic is Natsu/Lisanna, don't worry, she's not the main character here. Our lead is still Lucy (who is right behind Lisanna for my favorite in Fairy Tail), because I love how the story is told through her eyes. She'll be the focal point, and the only character that we'll see in every arc retelling.

That means that our cast will be rotating. Team Natsu as you know it won't exist here, so you'll be seeing other partnerships form to take on the challenges laid out. This series has such a diverse collection of characters, and I intend to go deeper and get more out of them than we've seen in real life.

With all that said, I want to mention that I have no idea how long I can keep this up. I've had mixed results with long-term projects; some went on for quite a bit, but others flared out pretty quickly. I do have a lot of confidence in this story, to keep it going for multiple arcs, so I hope you guys enjoy this ride with me while we've got something in the tank.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 1
- Right Where We Left Off -

"We made it back alive!" Natsu roared as he kicked open the doors of the guild.

"Aye!" Happy chimed in, hovering at his shoulders.

Lucy cautiously followed him in, her hopes of a positive first impression with her guildmates-to-be in worse shape than the door hinges. The feeling didn't last, though, as she noticed that everyone in the building offered her companions a warm greeting instead of dirty looks or berating. Her excitement began to swell up again as she took in the magnificent building.

She was finally at Fairy Tail!

"I'm glad you're still in one piece, Natsu" a calmly confident voice responded, and a young man wearing nothing but boxers, a silver cross necklace, and a dangerous smirk stood up from a table on the right side of the room. "That gives me more to work with to reassemble your face!"

"Oh yeah? Well bring it on!" Natsu grinned, putting up his fists as the other boy charged at him.

"What are you doing?!" Lucy exclaimed in shock as she watched the two begin to exchange blows.

"Don't worry, they're always doing stuff like this," Happy waved them off casually, as if the warring wizards were just saying hello. "That's Gray. He's an Ice-Make Wizard, so naturally, he's Natsu's rival."

"And perpetually half-naked, as I'm sure you've noticed," a beautiful young woman with chocolate-brown hair at the bar said, her arm protectively around a giant barrel of alcohol. "Gray, your clothes!"

"Not right now, Cana!" came Gray's reply. The momentary distraction cost him, as the fire mage delivered a punch strong enough to knock him onto another table occupied by their fellow guildmates.

"I haven't seen you around before," she said to the blonde girl that had trailed Natsu and Happy. Her tone was inviting, and she motioned her over with a little shake of her head. "I'm Cana. Are you new to Fairy Tail?"

"I'm Lucy," she introduced herself with a smile. "I'm not a member yet, but I'd love to be. I met Natsu down in Hargeon, and when I told him that I wanted to join Fairy Tail, he said he could get me into the guild. Um, does stuff like this happen here often?"

She had heard that Fairy Tail was a rowdy bunch, but she never thought that setting foot into the guild hall would be enough to trigger a fist fight. Stranger still, none of the other guild members attempted to break Natsu and Gray up; in fact, the ones that were even paying attention looked amused more than anything else. It wasn't the first time, and she doubted it would be the last, that she asked herself what she had gotten herself into.

Cana smiled. "It's usually worse," she said, lifting the barrel over her head to chug its contents, a display just as weird as the rumble behind them. After she lowered it, the alcohol swishing around inside the vast emptiness she just created, she grinned even wider. "And, right on cue."

A large, imposing figure in a dark blue uniform marched up to the melee in the middle of the hall, a deep scowl on his face. A voice of reason, perhaps?

"A real man will take two punches just to get in one! Fight like you mean it!" he exclaimed, throwing his balled fists up in the air.

"Why is he encouraging them?!" Lucy asked, bewildered yet again.

"That's Elfman for yA," Happy said. Natsu and Gray apparently weren't too fond of his sideline commentary, so for a brief instant, they formed a dynamic duo to knock him across the building. "Well, that was Elfman."

As soon as he was out of the way, their brawl escalated like a black hole, sucking other wizards into the fray. They gleefully turned on the people they had been sitting next to, or called someone out from across the room. As the punches began to fly, so did objects that should've been lying peacefully on the tables. Lucy dipped and dodged the projectiles, while Cana and Happy seemed to have a force field around them that prevented any mugs, glasses or plates from zipping past anywhere near them.

The blonde girl managed to just evade a twirling glass aimed straight for her head - and heard a thud as it connected with someone else's.

Lucy's gasp was drowned out by the cries of the two women sitting on the sides of a handsome but annoyed-looking wizard. A dark bruise began to form where the glass had struck him on the forehead, his shades hanging askew from the force of the blow.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to step in now - to defend your honor, of course," he claimed in a suave voice, rearranging his glasses. He winked at the pair as he took off his jacket, handing it out to them as he stood and smoothed out his designer clothes.

"Thank you, Loke! Good luck!" the girls cooed as he jumped into the nearest scuffle, hugging his jacket in admiration.

As chairs were flung around and bodies crashed through tables, Lucy noticed that only one section of the room had gone untouched by the chaos surrounding it. Two white-haired girls only smiled at the scene before them, the older one with an edgy smirk, the younger one wearing a placid expression.

"It's Mirajane!" Lucy practically swooned, immediately recognizing Fairy Tail's most popular mage. "I can't believe I'm in the same room as this year's Sorcerer Weekly's Sexiest Wizard!"

Cana chuckled. "Yeah, maybe out of all the dopey girls who agree to pose for those idiots," she said proudly, pausing for a second to take a sip from a wine glass she'd procured while Lucy wasn't looking. "Some of us have self-respect, you know."

"I thought those magazine guys said an issue with you would never sell because you're always wearing bikini tops anyway," Happy said.

The flying cat was swatted away so fast, Lucy thought he might've teleported into the crater on the far wall when her eyes caught up to him again.

"That girl next to her, she must be her sister," she continued, turning back to the white-haired pair. "I've read about her in Mira's interviews, but she's never appeared in the magazine herself. She's really pretty, too. Hey, they're supposed to have a brother, too, right?"

"Yeah," Cana replied, looking over at Elfman, the burly man lying upside-down against the wall. "The same guy that you saw get knocked out by Gray and Natsu."

"Oh." And so ended Lucy's fantasy of joining the famous Strauss family.

She watched the sisters exchange words, followed by a sigh from the younger girl. She stood up from the table, and weaved gracefully through the skirmishes to where the aforementioned boys were locked in a test of strength, trying to push each other back as they stood forehead to forehead.

"Hey guys," she spoke as peacemaker, "maybe that's enough. We don't want the Master to have to break this up, do we?"

"No way, Lisanna!" Natsu cried. "Not even Gramps is gonna stop me from giving this underdressed ice-boy what he deserves!"

"What did you call me, you pathetic pyro?!" Gray shot back.

Natsu wasn't given the opportunity to repeat himself, as a large shadow was cast over the room. The fighting ceased immediately, and Lucy turned around to see the stuff of nightmares. A giant being wrapped in the blackest darkness loomed over the entirety of the guild, its glowing eyes scowling at the mess before him.

"That's enough!" the figure's deep, demonic-sounding voice echoed out. "I won't allow you to trash my guild hall any longer!"

"'His' guild hall?" Lucy whispered. "Is that the Master?" Cana answered her with a silent nod, and for a second she wondered whether her best choice of action was perhaps to turn around and look for another guild, one whose master wasn't also a towering monster.

"What kind of example are you setting for the new recruit here?" he boomed again, turning his gaze on her. Chills ran down her already-frozen spine. "Is this how you want her to think we behave as Fairy Tail wizards?"

"Well, this is how we behave -!" Natsu answered, only to get smacked into the wall, right next to Happy.

Five minutes ago, Lucy might've been shocked at that. It was surprising to her just how fast she had gotten acclimated to the workings of this guild. None of the violence around her seemed to have been out of real ill intent; she could tell it was all in good, sporting fun. And the vibrancy of the mages, it was contagious.

The Master then began to shrink rapidly, the blackness dissipating into color as he sunk nearer and nearer to the ground. Lucy really was surprised this time, to find that in his true form, he was an elderly, mustachioed man just taller than her knees.

"It's always great to have new faces around these parts!" he spoke to her with the enthusiasm of a loving grandfather. "I'll take care of your initiation in just a moment, but first, I'm not done reaming through these kids of mine!"

With unprecedented agility, he jumped and backflipped multiple times, until he crashed into the second floor's wooden railing. Lucy worried about his well-being for a moment, but it appeared he was nothing more than just shaken up. With a groan, he pulled himself up to sit on the border, and materialized a large stack of papers in his hand.

"Fairy Tail has been always been home to lively wizards, but never has the list of complaints from the Magic Council been so long!" he began. "It's been over two years now that I've been getting these monthly reports about all the damage you leave in your wake, and quite frankly, I've had enough of it!"

Suddenly, the papers erupted into flames equal to him in size. He tossed the burning pile towards a recovering Natsu, knowing he would consume it to help with snapping him from his daze.

"We are Fairy Tail! Our guild stands for the magical adventure that is life! We are all here, looking for the best way to be our best selves! We will always be willing to help those in need, to help each other, because that is the real nature of our strength! As wizards of this guild, you are obligated to remember that! By striving to live for others, you will walk your path, you will soar your skies, and you will feel truly alive!

"Sure, there might be times when things get a little ugly. You might leave a crack in a wall, or blow the roof off a building, but errors are just a part of life! If you were perfect, you wouldn't be able to learn of the magnificent feeling that is rising above your obstacles! So pay no mind to the delicate sensibilities of the Magic Council! We are Fairy Tail, and we will always adventure with our friends and with our magic! That's what makes us the number one guild in the land!"

A mighty roar shook throughout the hall as the master concluded his speech. Every wizard was on their feet, the grand majority raising their index fingers and thumbs, mimicking their leader's gesture. Lucy found herself not among those pointing, but cheering with as much vigor as any of the long-time members.

- 0 -

"So, why did you decide to join our guild?" the Master, Makarov, asked. He sat cross-legged atop the bar counter, hand on his chin as he surveyed Lucy from head to toe with an unreadable expression. With his great magic, he had restored the hall to its proper glory, allowing its members to pick up where they left off before Natsu and Gray had instigated the brawl.

"I've read about Fairy Tail for a long time, and I've always had this feeling that this is where I'm supposed to be," she answered, checking herself from sounding overly giddy. "Now that I'm here, and after hearing your speech, I know for sure that this is the place for me."

Makarov studied her for another moment, emitting a low hum from his throat. With no idea on what he could've been thinking, she was a little surprised when his face went from zero to sixty in giving her a beaming smile. "Well then, welcome to Fairy Tail!"

Lucy rejoiced with a fist pump, but then her rational side came out. "Wait, that's it? It's that easy? You're not gonna ask me anything else?"

"Nope," the Master answered simply. "I believe you've got the right stuff to make this guild proud to have you as one of its own. Besides, you can never have too many cute girls around!"

"Ah, thanks," she said, choosing to accept the compliment without the awkwardness.

"Now, where would you like to have your guild mark stamped, and in what color?"

After her initiation was completed with a pink guild mark placed on the back of her right hand, Lucy felt compelled to show it off to the nearest familiar face. She found Natsu sitting at a table a few feet away, Happy making himself comfortable on his head. Rushing over, she held up her hand with a big smile. "Check it out, guys! I'm an official Fairy Tail wizard now!"

"Right on. Welcome to the guild, Luigi," he replied, about as interested in the news as when he'd been when offered "Salamander's" autograph.

"It's Lucy!" she cried in correction.

"Welcome to the guild, Lucy," the white-haired girl next to him said. She was infinitely more warm and genuine than the Dragon Slayer, who received a slight nudge for his hollow greeting. "We're happy to have you here."

In her excitement, Lucy had failed to register the three others at the table with Natsu and Happy. Only after hearing one of them speak up did she realize it was the Strauss siblings. Her jaw almost fell at being only a yard away from one of the most recognizable wizards in all the land, but she was able to reign it in. Mirajane, like her sister, gave her a smile, but it didn't have nearly as much of Lisanna's kind sentiment. Elfman simply retained the same frown as when she'd first seen him.

"It's nice to meet you, Lucy," Mira said, her voice containing hints of teasing that the blonde was sure drove men wild. Her brother grunted in agreement, nodding towards her. "So, what kind of magic do you use?"

"I'm a Celestial Wizard," she said, reaching for the key ring attached to her hip. She removed it from her belt with a jingle, and held it up to display her collection.

"Wow," Lisanna said, leaning forward in her seat. "I don't know much about Celestial Spirits, but I've heard that there are only twelve Golden Keys. And you've got three of them? That's really impressive! You must be really strong!"

"I'm pretty much a novice, really," she said modestly, her face growing slightly red. "I'm sure I'm nowhere near as strong as you guys. I just inherited my Gold Keys from my mom."

"Inherited?" Mira asked, her head tilted to the side somewhat. "Does that mean your mom is...?"

Lucy averted her eyes, but nodded in confirmation.

When she looked up again, she noticed Mira's face had become considerably softer. She almost seemed like a different woman entirely. "I guess you're in the right place, after all," she said gently, leaving an air of mystery in her words that she'd have to inquire about at a later time.

"How can you be such a jerk?!" a distressed voice was heard across the way. The group turned over to the bar, where a young boy of five or six was confronting Makarov, his hands balled into tiny fists, tears brimming around his eyes. "My dad said he'd only be gone for maybe a few days, but's it's been a whole week now! And you're not even gonna try to help him?! What kind of Guild Master are you?!"

"Look, Romeo," Makarov said with an annoyed growl in his throat, "your father is a very capable wizard, so have some faith in him. Do you think Macao would've taken the Mt. Hakobe job if he didn't understand the risks involved? If he believed it was within his abilities to handle it alone, I'll trust in his decision. Now go home and wait. He's probably on his way back as we speak."

"That's the same thing you told me two days ago!" Romeo cried, trembling with anger. Unsatisfied with the lack of progress, he swung at Makarov with a yell, striking him right in the nose. Immediately after, he turned around and ran out of the building, wailing about how he hated the old man.

"That poor boy," Lucy said, touched by his emotion. "The Master should've helped him out."

"He's only doing what Macao would've wanted," Mira explained, most of the sympathy in her face from before vanished. "He wanted to leave alone, and he'll want to make it back alone."

"Macao's a real man," Elfman agreed. "His pride wouldn't let him have it any other way."

The silverware and glasses shook as Natsu pounded the table suddenly, a dark look in his eyes. "That idiot," he snarled intensely as Happy floated off his head. He grabbed his pack that rested at his feet, and rose from his spot on the bench. "His pride isn't more important than his son. If I have to drag him back here kicking and screaming I will, but I'm gonna make sure he's still alive to understand that."

Mira watched him begin to walk away with an amused look, with Happy flying at his shoulder, while Elfman shook his head, brows furrowed. While he clearly disapproved with Natsu's decision, he didn't think to stand in his way. Lisanna, though, stood up after him.

"I'm going with you," she said, her voice unwavering.

Natsu and Happy turned around. His face relaxed into a smile, growing wider with every step she took to close the gap between them.

Before they could advance outside the hall, Happy suddenly focused in on the new blonde. "Hey Lucy," he asked, reminding her that she wasn't just an audience member, "wanna come with us, too?"

"Uh..." she could only manage for a second, being caught off-guard. At first she was excited over the invitation, but then her pragmatism won out. "Really? You know, I probably wouldn't be much help."

"I think you should go with them," Mira suggested, propping her arm on the table to rest her head. "What better way to start at the guild than by diving in head-first, right?"

"No way!" Elfman protested his big sister's idea. "Don't you remember what the Mt. Hakobe job was? Macao was supposed to take out a pack of Vulcans. It's too dangerous to send a newbie to clean up whatever mess he's made of things!"

His words might've been harsher than they needed to be, but ultimately, Lucy knew he was right. She didn't know what a Vulcan was, but if a group of them was able to fend off a reputable wizard like Macao apparently was, she'd more than likely be a liability against them.

"Natsu," Mira called to him while keeping her smirk on Elfman, "you better make sure nothing happens to the girls, got it?"

"Got it," he replied, then turned his beckoning smile over to the blonde. "You ready to go, Lucy?"

On the way out of Magnolia, the team of four found Romeo sitting on the steps of his house, fighting back tears. Hearing their footsteps, he saw them approaching him, and ran up to them. His look of disbelief became one of hope as Natsu ruffled the boy's dark hair, giving him a smile that promised to return his father safe and sound.

And here's the first chapter. The first couple of arcs will be split into two halves, with first part typically setting up the scene, and the second featuring the battles and resolution. As we move forward, chapters will get longer, and will need to be separated into thirds, possibly even fourths, if need be.

The Macao arc, which will conclude next chapter, doesn't deviate too much from canon. The biggest difference is Lisanna joining Lucy, Natsu, and Happy as they make their way up to Mt. Hakobe. After that, you'll start to see things heading in different directions.

This was really fun to write, and I hope you guys had fun reading it, too. After all, that's the idea, right? As always, reviews are very much welcome and appreciated. If personal experience is anything to go by, feedback is my driving force, so if you want more of this, I'm easily reached with just a click. Thanks!