*Disclaimer: All main characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

Fairy Tail in a fairly odd world

"'Just living is not enough' said the butterfly fairy, 'one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.'"

Chapter 14; Erza Scarlet

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.

The dream. Why?!

Please… Please stop.

NO!

No, no, no, no.

I KNOW THINGS AREN'T AS THEY ALWAYS SEEM. I KNOW MY MOTHERS' DEAD.

GET. OUT. OF. MY. HEAD.

NOW!

"Lucy stop!"

Huh?

"Wake up!"

Wha-

Suddenly Lucy was shaken awake. Her eyes locked with Natsu's, who stood carrying her bridal style. She jumped out of his arms onto the forest floor, head pounding, sweat caked, and dehydrated. "Water." She croaked. A pale arm reached out holding a bottle of her request. Lucy took the water thankfully and gulped down it's contents. As she was drinking her eyes slowly drifted up the pale arm to see who she should be thanking.

She choked.

"BLOODY JANE?!" Lucy screamed, as her head filled with last night's events.

"Oh my god." She muttered, gripping her throbbing head with one hand.

"I am so sorry guys." She continued, making eye contact with a worried looking Natsu and a pissed off Gray.

"I swear to god, you better keep your promise or I'll kill you both." Gray said darkly.

"Gray shut up. You couldn't kill me if you tried." Natsu bantered.

"Want to test that theory?"

"Yeah! Let's go. Right now."

"Shut up! We don't have time for this. We're almost there." Bloody Jane yelled.

Lucy gulped. "…Almost where?" She asked, afraid of the answer.

"Cause of you, we're being lead strait into Scarlet territory, WITH a vampire." Gray said bitterly.

Bloody Jane flipped her red hair back, throwing a wicked grin back at Gray.

She has her hair down now… Lucy noticed.

"I promise I won't kill you guys. But I have no idea what Titania has in store for you. Like I said last night, she's been having weird dreams of a blond elven girl accompanied by two demons. She said she needed to find you three, that her dreams meant something."

"Y-Y-You're t-taking us to THE Titania?!" Lucy cried.

"Duh." The red head responded.

We're gonna die!

Several minutes later Lucy was sure she would never find the fairies. She was sure she was as good as dead.

Lucy had started seeing the eyes minutes earlier. Under the dark branches of the thick forest, yellow -sometimes red- eyes would start to glimmer into appearance beneath the shadows. Vampires. Hundreds.

There was no way.

Yes, demons were powerful.

But two demons against a whole clan of vampires?!

Dead.

Obliterated.

They didn't stand a chance.

I would REALLY like time to slow down now! Lucy thought bitterly.

If only what happened in Everlue valley would happen now. She fingered the golden key hidden away in the waist band of her jeans. Somehow, the metallic feeling brought her courage. She would get through this. She had to. The fairies were waiting.

Just as Lucy began to think of an escape plan, it was thrown away as a figure approached them.

"Alice, where have you-" The woman stopped dead in her tracks as her fierce brown eyes met Lucy's.

"Y-You…" She muttered.

The woman was beautiful. Lucy couldn't deny it. Her hair, scarlet… Is it just a coincidence that her hair color matches their clan name? Her body hidden behind a silver chest plate could still be seen as what one would say 'perfect'. She was fit, tall, and her aurora just demanded respect.

Then her eyes flickered to Natsu and Gray, and if it was possible her eyes widened even more.

"NATSU! GRAY!" She flung herself into the two demons who stood there looking clueless.

"I've missed you guys so much!"

"E-ERZA?!" The boys yelled, surprised.

"Ah you probably didn't recognize me. I barely recognized you two after all. You grew into fine young men!" She said proudly, slapping the two (a little two hard) on their backs.

"Ah, can someone please explain to me what's going on here?" Lucy asked nervously.

All heads turned to her. She gulped.

"AH! I'm so rude. Where are my manners? Let me introduce myself, I'm Erza Scarlet, also known as Titania. Please punish me for my rudeness."

"EHHHHHHH?!" All three of them yelled. "Y-YOU'RE TITANIA?!"

"Yes, I guess I'm not fitting my reputation right now. Would you like me to be more vulgar and menacing?"

She reminds me of Virgo… Lucy thought. "N-No!" Lucy yelled. "B-But, how do you know Natsu and Gray?"

"Oh sorry, we were good childhood friends back in the day."

Lucy's spirit seemed to drift out of her body. "B-B-But. You two knew each other before?!" She yelled, turning towards the two idiots.

"Huh? Duh Luce." Natsu said, completely ignorant as always.

"Sorry, I thought you knew that Lucy." Gray said.

"N-No! Ah whatever we'll continue this later. It's nice to meet you Erza, I'm Luc- Ah um-"

"It's okay Luce, Erza won't sell you out!" Natsu said, grinning.

"O-Okay… I'm Lucy Heartfilia. N-Nice to meet you."

Erza's brow arched in surprise. But surprisingly didn't question her as she pulled her into a rib breaking hug. Lucy's face smushed against the hard metal of her chest plate. "Any friend of these two idiots is my friend." She smiled.

I-I'm so confused! How is she Titania?!

"Hey, who're ya calling an idiot?!" Natsu yelled.

"You and Gray. Who else? Do you have a problem with that?!" She yelled, a menacing aurora suddenly surrounding her as she glared at the pink haired dumb ass.

"N-No!" He flinched.

"Come on, I'll lead you to our village. Blindfolded of course, even if you're friends of mine I must keep my duty as head of the clan. We have much to catch up on."

Being in the Scarlet clan's head village felt amazing. The Scarlets were a very secretive clan, Lucy knew this. Even back at the castle, her dad could rarely get them to attend meetings. And absolutely no one has been to their village before. (She didn't know how she got here though, she was blindfolded, but still, it felt great)

Lucy felt like her adventure was a roller coaster, and right now, she was on one of the higher peaks.

Everyone was drinking and laughing, especially Gray and Natsu. The clan members seemed to not get a day off like this very often. They were still slightly stiff, and looking grim, but they still laughed along creating a nice bubbly atmosphere. The four of them, Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Lucy were crowded around a fire, drinking, eating, and talking. Lucy told Erza the whole story. Starting from when she escaped the castle, to when she met Natsu. Then Natsu helpfully pitched in on the story, adding bits like 'And it was so cool!' or 'Yeah and I was soooo awesome.' As they neared the Everlue Incident Natsu spoke up.

"You know what?" Everyone looked towards Natsu, who looked slightly buzzed but kept a steady gaze pointed directly at Lucy.

The atmosphere became more serious.

"Huh?" Lucy answered. They had just been talking about when Natsu found out Lucy had met Igneel before and he freaked out.

"I'm jealous." He said, matter of factly.

"Why is that?"

"You've actually met Igneel, and you're not even his daughter. I'm his actual son and all I have is letters from him. And a stupid scarf."

Lucy thought about this, taking another swing from her drink. She wasn't a big drinker, so she knew she had to stop soon.

"I'm sorry Natsu. I can't do much about it though. But, honestly what if that wasn't even Igneel? We know he's somewhere with the fairies, has been for many many years, so how could he have possibly been in my room?"

Natsu thought this over, he put his elbows on his knees, his palms sinking into his cheeks. And Lucy was surprised to find a gloomy aurora seeping out of the usually cheerful pink haired dragon. "Yeah but… What if it was him? I've been looking for him all my life. I've always been searching. Like, I just want my dad, you know?"

Lucy had yet to see Natsu so emotional like this. It was extremely surprising. He looked… So vulnerable. And judging from the looks on Gray and Erza's faces, neither have they. "Come to think of it, when we were children, that's all you wanted to do. Look for your dad that is. You would never play with us unless we said it would help you find Igneel."

At Erza's voice, Natsu seemed to snap out of his trance. Lucy being an elf, she can easily read people. And Natsu seemed fairly embarrassed that he had exposed his emotional side. So he smiled a grin, and said "But whatever guys. We're going to go find the fairies right? So he'll be there too!"

But the grin was too fake. Too subtle. Not at all like his real grin.

Lucy sighed, but played along. They continued talking, and eventually got to the part where Virgo had told Lucy about the keys. About how the twelve keys and their spirits will guide Lucy the rest of the way to finding the fairies. About how Virgo had told them to come here. To come North.

Erza sat back, her eyebrows raised. Lucy could see the wheels turning inside her head, and it didn't seem to be just her, every other vampire became deathly silent, she couldn't even hear them breathing. They knew something.

When Lucy was done, Erza finally spoke up. Her voice deeper then before, her voice hinting at warning as she spoke; "Everyone dismissed! Gray, Natsu, Lucy, I'll lead you to your sleeping arrangements." No one dared to disobey her. Everyone followed her orders. Erza lead them around a variety of homes, teepees, log cabins, and creepy stone towers. Then finally they stopped at the tallest, creepiest, tower of them all. And Erza led them strait inside. No one said a word, it didn't seem appropriate. And the fact that Natsu stayed quiet is saying a lot. On the sixth floor, after what seemed like forever, Titania led them into a room and slammed the door behind them.

"I want to help you guys, I really do, but I don't think I can this time." Erza said.

"What do you mean? Erza we all know you know something about the keys, any information you have will help us." Lucy responded urgently.

"The only keys I know about are The Forbidden Fernandes Keys our town has protected for years. There are three keys buried under the grave of Mr. Fernandes, one of our ancestors. But legend has it that if you touch the keys you burn from the inside out, because Mr. Fernandes cursed them to never be held by anyone but him. About ten years ago, before I was named head of the clan, a young boy heard about the legend and told his friends at school he was going to test it out."

Everyone leaned in to hear the rest of Erza's fateful tale.

"...They found his burned corps the next morning, his hands buried into the ground in front of Mr. Fernande's headstone."

Lucy gulped.

"-Ever since then, it's been a clan law that no one is to disturb Mr. Fernande's grave. I can't break a clan law for you."

The silence was broken as Natsu snickered. "You don't have to! I can just go dig them out real quick. No problem."

"WHAT?! No, Natsu you're crazy. You'll be burned alive! You can't just go walking in there all nonchalant about everything like your some kind of-"

"Luce, chill for a sec. I'm a fire dragon. Duh. I can't be burned."

Lucy, Gray, and Erza stilled as if they hadn't thought of that. "Oh, that makes sense." Erza said quietly.

"Alright then let's hurry up and go!" Natsu said, already half way down the stairs.

The grave yard was one hundred times more creepy then the tower. And the specific grave they were looking at had a menacing aurora seeping out from it's soil.

"Okay, Natsu I know you're a fire dragon and all but if you feel any burning, anything at all, back away." Lucy said, the concern for him slipping into her voice.

"I'll be fine Luce, I'm Igneel's son."

She sighed, knowing that even if he was burning he probably wouldn't even notice. The trio watched as Natsu kneeled on the grave preparing himself for the outcome of the following moments. Lucy held her breath as Natsu's hands inched slowly towards the dirt.

Then suddenly, nothing was moving. Lucy actually felt the air around her still, and she knew it had happened again.

"Don't let him touch the dirt child."

That voice. The voice that had been in Lucy's dreams since it had first spoke to her.

Lucy rushed to Natsu, grabbing his hands and forcing him backwards, away from the grave.

"Only you can get the keys. Only you're meant to have them."

She was in a trance, she worked faster then she had ever worked before, she didn't care about the dirt under her nails as she dug, she only cared about getting those keys. Luckily she didn't see any corpse, she didn't feel like puking today, they came up faster then she had expected. Three golden keys laid in her hands before she knew it.

Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius.

She felt the power of the keys flowing into her, she felt emotions so strong she knew they weren't hers. And suddenly, three spirits stood in front of her.

A cute girl with fluffy pink hair and ram horns. A handsome man dressed in a suit with orange hair. And a tall man with a long face cosplaying as a horse.

Then time resumed.

And Natsu screamed.

You guys probs thought I was dead. Well you weren't far off fml. I HATE SCHOOL! Aargh all the stress has been keeping me from writing and oh my god I'm so so sorry guys. Anyways so yeah I found out that if I want to make really good quality writing then I have to wait until I'm stress free. And that's kinda hard with school. So I think that I won't be able to update as much anymore, I might not be able to update again until Thanksgiving at least, at most Christmas. I made this chapter extra long though so please forgive me :C ! Anyways I need all the support that I can get, love you guys so much.