She's ashamed to admit it, but despite all her claims of being a smart, independent Mage she had looped three times before figuring out that this was a problem she would have to fix herself

Her first time was especially embarrassing, but at least she could wave it off with the excuse of ignorance. She had woken up with a loud blood curling scream, her mind still disoriented with the memories of that one-sided fight with that giant black dragon, she still doesn't know whether or not she died when the dragon had roared, but she didn't dwell on it too much

Loke had summoned himself ready to save her from distress, and she realized she was on her bed at home, it took her a moment to realize that she was uninjured and not on Tenrou Island anymore, without much thought she got out of her bed and made her way into her bathroom, poor Loke still confused as to what the problem was as he followed her

"No way..." Lucy breathed out staring at herself from her mirror, aside from her puffy eyes she had the same clothes she wore the day before Lisanna's big welcoming party

"Princess, Lucy, it's okay" Loke tried to comfort her

"Okay?" Lucy repeated feeling how dry her throat was, was it all really okay? Was everyone safe?

"Whatever it was, it was just a dream" Loke informed her

Her eyes had watered up at the statement as she wholeheartedly believed her spirit and friend, "I-it f-felt so real..." tears were streaming down her face at this point, "I, I was so scared!" she couldn't help but begin to sob

Loke had brought her into a gentle embrace allowing her to wail to her heart's content

After that she had forgotten about the dream, selectively ignoring how the things that kept happening the next days were a perfect match with the content of her dream. Things went exactly the same

She had partnered up with Cana for the S-class test, they had gone to Tenrou Island along with the others, faced Freed and Bixslow during the first part, then the next part to locate the grave of Mavis, everything was the same

When she once again held hands with her nakama she couldn't help lose it

She had screamed, begging for an explanation, blaming herself for not fixing anything.

It didn't matter, because when she opened her eyes she had woken up on her bed at home again

One day before Lisanna's welcoming party

She realized that her "dream" wasn't just a dream, it was her memories, her experience. All those events really did happen, and for some reason she could remember them when she went back to the past.

But why?

She had sought out help from her Spirits

Aquarius had splashed her with a huge wave and told her that she needed a therapist

Taurus had thought that her "boobs" were affecting her brains

Cancer had listened to her whole explanation before suggesting that she was in an illusion or that someone was playing mind games on her

Virgo being Virgo merely asked for punishment after suggesting that Lucy had hit her head too hard

Sagittarius had suggested that she merely needed some rest

Loke kindly told her that perhaps the events of Edolas was causing her some stress

Aries suggested that she was a bit tired before apologizing

Scorpio wasn't any help at all seeing as Aquarius had informed him of Lucy needing a therapist

Crux had tried to research anything that could help her solve her dilemma, but the search was fruitless

Horologium also thought she needed some rest

Lyra sheepishly told her that it was hard to believe without evidence

Even Plue didn't believe her!

And for some reason even Gemini couldn't access the memories of her "dream", but at least Gemini knew that there was something going on, though even they didn't believe in the possibility of time travel

Left with little choice Lucy had sought out help from Makarov who directed her to Porlyusica in concern, the elderly woman had done a diagnosis and had concluded that she had the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change, also known as "cognitive dissonance", but none of it explained anything

She had to miss the S-class Trials because of "medical leave", which was just her straying with the elder woman who kept prodding her head to see if it really was just cognitive dissonance

Cana had merely gone to the Trials with Lily

It wasn't until Acnologia attacked Tenrou Island that Porlyusica had realized that Lucy was telling the truth, but by then it was too late since Lucy had looped back.

Looping back while conscious was a weird sensation, she had feel every thing around her disappearing while she was falling through what appeared to be a space filled with different sized clocks

She was extremely tired when she woke up on her third loop, and this time she hadn't tried to seek out help from any living beings, but instead from books. She had booked a ticket to Crocus, the capital of the Kingdom of Fiore. It took her quite some time but she eventually found the massive library and had rounded up any and every books that could help her

Being an avid reader she figured out that what was happening to her qualifies as a time loop; a time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in science fiction in which periods of time are repeated and re-experienced by the characters, and there is often some hope of breaking out of the useless cycle of repetition.

There was always a solution to these sort of things, but Lucy still couldn't figure out what exactly she had to do to end these loops, but she knew she was already frustrated. The fact that she seemed to be the only one aware of these ongoing loops only increased her frustration

She didn't know how long she had locked herself up in the library, but once again she had seen everything around her disappear and fell down a void filled with different sized clocks

.o0o.o0o.

She sat on her bed once again, her eyes absently staring at the flowing water outside her window

"I'm on my own" it was a bitter realization, but she had to face it

If she tries to search for the answers in books she'd only get so far, because those books didn't give her any information out of the horse's mouth

If she tries seeking out help, then she'd get to go on a medical leave and miss out on the exams, thus causing her to restart the loop

"But why is this happening to me?"

Yes, why her? Why not Natsu or Erza? Lucy knew that compared to those two she was weak, she couldn't even hold out against Gray. She wasn't anything special compared to anyone in Team Natsu really, and even though she knew it was a bit wrong for her to feel like a background character she couldn't help it.

Natsu, Erza, Gray, Happy and even the new unofficial addition of Wendy and Carla were special compared to her. They were somebody, while her? She's just plain old Lucy, a nobody.

Everyone could point out Erza or Natsu from a crowd, while her? She'd just fade in the crowd. Unlike them she didn't have any flashy magic that made her stand out, in fact her magic made her blend in with the crowd

Even in her own books Natsu and the others were the main characters while she was a supporting character

Why place a spell like this on a nobody like her?

'Think about the patterns...'

"I always wake up one day before Lisanna's big welcoming party, then the furthest before the loop restarts is when Acnologia attacks..." she thoughtfully said "Does that mean I have to help Cana pass the S-class Trials?"

She knew there was little chance of that happening seeing as Grimoire Heart, Zeref and Acnologia were obstacles in her path, and let's face it they're stronger than even Natsu and Erza, heck they were stronger than Makarov as well.

And as a Mage? Lucy knew she sucked, out of every Fairy Tail members that participated in the S-class Trials, Levy was probably the only one who had to work to beat her. She knew that Freed and Bixslow had thrown the battle, but she considered it her lucky break. And even if she did face Levy, in order for Cana to become an S-class mage they'd have to beat Gajeel too

Lucy was sure that wouldn't be happening anytime soon, because how would she be able to beat Gajeel or anyone else for that matter? She has never worked hard on her physical strength, and everyone else were years ahead of her in more than that aspect.

"But time is something I have plenty of..." Lucy suddenly realized

Even if it takes years, all she had to do was keep improving until she was strong enough to help Cana become S-class, and maybe, just maybe she could catch up with Natsu and the others, she could finally become a somebody