Back like I never left. :) Also, did anyone notice that it's been exactly a year? Wow...

Mira's old Chevy truck bounced and squeaked as Lisanna sped down the streets of Magnolia that night. Sprawled unceremoniously in the passenger seat, was an unconscious Lucy, whom Lisanna had knocked out by smothering her with a handkerchief drenched in anesthesia in the girl's bathroom. What she had to do, she had to do quickly.

Timing was everything and if she didn't strike while the iron was hot all of her plans would unravel.

"Don't worry Natsu," she started. "Once she's out of our hair we can finally be together. And I'll show you love the way it's supposed to be."

That's right. Natsu loved her. He was just killing time with Lucy like he did all the others until he finally realized that Lisanna was right for him.

And Andrew was the crazy one. He was crazy from the jump. That's why he killed himself. Not because of her. Never her. Lisanna gripped the steering wheel tighter. Victory was so close she could practically taste it.

"I'll show you Andrew! I can find love!" Then she let out a loud, crazed cackle inside the truck.

While she was distracted, Lucy stirred.

Following loosely behind Lisanna was Natsu and Gray inside of Gildarts' maroon sports car. Thankfully the streets were mostly vacant, because otherwise, Natsu would've already killed them both. Natsu suddenly took a sharp turn left, not slowing down his speed for their safety at all.

"Hey, watch it!" the other football jock cried as his head slammed into his glass window.

"Gray. Shut the fuck up and finish giving me directions." He growled. His slightly sharper canines were showing as he gripped the steering wheel so tightly, he was ripping away at the leather steering wheel cover that Gildarts had in place.

Gray raised his eyebrows at the boy's animosity but knew better than to further agitate his best friend when he got like this.

"Alrighty then…" he trailed off slowly.

Natsu shot him a few quick glares in between his manic driving and the road.

"What, do you have something to say?! Whose fault do you think it is that she was even- You know what, I'll deal with that later. Now give me the goddamn directions!"

Gray sighed. He was used to dealing with Natsu with anger cranked up to ten, but this time his anger was cranked up to a thousand and as much as Gray wanted to sock him one good in the mouth for all this grief, he knew the two of the duking it out right now would only help Lisanna succeed. He was only being hyperirritable right now because he was worried about Lucy.

Plus, Gray's guilt for not telling Natsu about the picture Lisanna had was eating him alive. When this whole thing was over, he was going to have to come clean. Lay his cards on the table. Even… potentially at the cost of his best friend.

"Fine whatever. Just keep going straight until we reach the Leatherwood Forest."

He was following the directions Juvia was actively texting him from back at school. The blunette indeed came clean after telling Lisanna and told her date of what Lisanna's true plan was.

Lisanna was going to make Lucy 'disappear'. Once she was gone and it was clear that she wasn't going to come back, she would be the one to comfort Natsu through it all, and with time, he was going to see that it was Lisanna whose been there for him the whole time.

And if she was planning on getting rid of Lucy, then a Mermaid Hole would definitely do the trick. In the past, inhabitants used to believe that Mermaids used the ponds as a passageway from the oceans to inland. They are said to be very deep, and once you swim deep enough, you'll end up being carried away by the currents that connect the pond to the ocean. Again, its something that the early inhabitants of Magnolia believed only mermaids could swim through.

However, Lucy wasn't a mermaid or even a strong swimmer, so if she ended up being sucked by the currents she would surely drown.

The very thought just amplified Natsu's already temperamental state.

The two stayed silent in the speeding car until Natsu took a violent turn left into the thick of a forest. The car almost crashed into a tree. Before Gray could shout again in grief, Natsu spotted Lisanna's truck.

"It's Lisanna!"

Gray looked up and saw Lisanna in her skin-tight silver gown, dragging a… recycling bin of all things across the grass to the shimmering blue waters. Natsu wasted no time, hopping out of the car and restraining Lisanna, leaving Gray to put the car and park and lock the doors. When he was finished he jogged out towards them.

Lisanna let out a shriek as Natsu pulled her away from the trash bin.

"Natsu stop! You're hurting me!" she cried as she fought against Natsu's hold.

He ignored her and gave a firm nod to Gray, who took that as his cue to run to the truck in search of Lucy. He opened the door on the driver's side and checked the seats, checked under the seats, he turned on the light to check behind the seats even… but still no Lucy.

He decided to go to the truck's trunk and search the bed for a probably tied-up, knocked out blonde.

To no avail.

"She's not here!" he shouted at his friend.

"What?!" he looked back at Lisanna as his long-time best friend winced and squirmed. "Lisanna where is she?!"

The whole time the recycling bin Lisanna brought began to slowly inch backwards. Backwards towards the pond. Gray noticed this.

"I swear Natsu you've got it all wrong!" she cried. "Whatever Gray told you is a lie; he can't be trusted!"

"Oh, don't play innocent with me, Lisanna!" he said glaring at her. "While Gray may not be completely innocent, he still was honest with me and told me about his fucked-up deeds just as much as yours! I'd take his word for it over yours any day!"

Gray felt a pang of guilt hit him as Natsu said those words. He looked down somberly at the grass for a brief moment.

The body of water in the mermaid hole was swirling, with all its aquamarine and turquoise glory, like water going down a drain. It was truly a sight to behold. The recycling bin was steadily rolling down the shallow hill they were on to the mermaid pool.

Lisanna closed her eyes seal tight in an attempt to hold back tears. When she took a deep shaky breath, that's when Natsu too realized that she was about to cry. "You always do this… you always treat me like this…"

"Like what?!"

"You always put our friendship to the side when someone new comes along… You did this to me when you met Gray, then when you met Erza, you did this when I went to Paris, skirt chasing all those girls, like the friendship that we had… the feelings that I had weren't real!

Lisanna croaked as two tears slipped past her cheeks without her knowing.

"You tossed away my feelings like they were nothing…" Lisanna said breathlessly through the tears; the pain. "Like I was nothing…"

Natsu suddenly felt guilt washing over him like a tidal wave. Guilt… and pity. His feelings were all over his face. "Lisanna…"

Suddenly, the girl couldn't help it. She was outright sobbing.

"What did I do to become so disposable to you? What did I do… just, so wrong, to make you hate me so much… even back then? Why am I just… so replaceable to you? I was never good enough for you," She continued to sob. "My feelings for you were just never good enough… and I hate it! I hate it so much!"

Finally, Natsu let her go and Lisanna crumbled to the floor with her face buried in the grass to finally weep. Her cries were loud and gut-wrenching, and it made Natsu feel like he was going to be sick, considering he was the one who caused her all this pain, albeit unintentionally.

He wanted her to finish let her sobs out before he said his final peace on the situation, so he stood there for a few silent moments watching her cry. Just as the crying died down and he was about to speak Gray started jogging forward toward the bin. Natsu and Lisanna turned towards him as his jog turned into a run.

The recycling bin rolled down the hill until it finally splashed in the water. It immediately starting spinning in a circular motion with the water, drawing closer and closer to the center. Natsu rushed to Gray's side, who was on his knees at the ledge of the lake looking in.

"What?" Natsu asked. "What?!"

"That's Lucy!" Gray cried, looking at the water swallow up the bin like he was watching his own arm get cut off. "Lucy was in there!"

Back at the masquerade, Mira was in search of her little sister… as well as her car keys.

"Hey Cana!" she called over to the brunette, who was rooted at the punch table drinking copious amounts of liquor. "Have you seen Lisanna?"

Cana let out a very loud, unlady-like burp, right in Mira's face, to which the model scrunched up her nose fanning the air around her.

"Eww Cana gross!"

"Sorry." She added quickly and took another swivel of her alcohol. "And to answer your question, no."

"Ah, there you girls are!" Erza cried. She had just emerged from the thick of the dancing crowd sweaty, with appearance disheveled, but that did nothing to deter the professionalism of her voice. "Have any of you seen Lucy?"

"Well no, not really." Mira answered.

Cana took another guzzle of her drink before she answered. "I'm sure she's probably somewhere with Natsu getting her ole freak nasty on, if you know what I'm saying." She giggled before shooting them both a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

Erza and Mira's faces slowly started to sizzle as they shared an embarrassed glance. "I haven't really seen Natsu either, now that you mention it…" Mira started.

Erza's face exploded in a cherry red color and she squirmed a little before she slapped her hands on her cheeks and shook her head to refocus herself. "That's not the point! If he went somewhere with her, he would've at least told me about it."

As the three senior girls were conversing seriously at the punch table, Juvia who had been on the other side of the gym since Gray left decided to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was out in the hallway and the punch table was planted right in front of the only means of exit and entry. And that's when she realized… she was screwed.

Maybe if she walked along the walls all the way around, and tip toed really carefully, none of the girls would notice her, because rest assured, if they did, they would have her head. She started off slow… one step… then two… then three.

See? And she was practically there already!

"Juvia!" Erza boomed.

Fuck.

At that point, Juvia threw caution to the wind and made a break for it to the gym's exit. Even in heels she was sure she could make it out and to freedom before Erza could catch up, after all, she had been chasing Gray for years.

Unluckily for Juvia, she didn't know or realize that Erza was a trained police cadet with the speed of a wild gazelle. The woman caught up to her in no time and tackled her to the floor… better than some of the school's football players.

Juvia fell with an 'oof' and was so disoriented she could barely hear Mira screaming bloody murder in the background.

"Mavis Erza, get off of her!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry I had to go to all that force, but I'm not going to let you go Juvia. And if you know what's good for you, you're going to tell me everything you know about where Lisanna and Lucy are right now."

Mira finally made it to where Erza and Juvia were and she shrunk back a little as she watched the scene unfold before her. Erza was her best friend yes, but the scarlet haired woman definitely scared her when she went into police mode. Juvia, realizing that she had no options, looked around and let out a guilty sigh.

Cana continued to sip on the beer in her left hand since she finished her liquor watching the whole scene unfold in interest before her. She wished she knew what they were both so worried about. The kids were fine… right?

"Cana!" Gildarts cried hysterically. He had just walked back inside from the hallway after he looked out of the window. His meet 'n' greet time was contractually over and he was ready to sneak away and finally go home. "Where's my new Bugatti?!"

Cana's jaw dropped to the ground and her liquor bottle slipped out of her grip and crashed onto the gym floor in a million glass fragments and sticky alcohol.

"Awwww shit."

Natsu felt the sky come falling down at him at that time. There was just no way… right?

Without a moment's notice Natsu was taking of his suit jacket and undoing his tie. "Gray call 911," he stated calmly. He also cast a quick glance behind him. "And don't let her get away."

They both turned around to see Lisanna backing away gently with a disconcerted look on her face. Gray quickly got up and chased after her. Lisanna broke out into a sprint towards the truck and she made it inside and tried to jam her key inside the ignition. Gray yanked her elbow preventing her from starting the truck.

When Gray finally had a moment's pause, he caught Natsu in the act of jumping in the pool, stripped of his socks and shoes as well. "Natsu, wait!"

But his cry fell on deaf ears as Natsu plunged head-first into the water.

After Juvia had been nearly suffocated into giving a confession by Erza, Cana came frantically running over.

"Erza!" the brunette cried. "Someone stole my dad's car… and I can't seem to find Natsu anywhere! The idiot isn't answering my calls!"

"Oh my…" Mira said covering her mouth.

Erza finally lifted herself off of Juvia and the blunette and she gasped greedily for air. Erza didn't seem to notice though.

"I wouldn't let your dad panic just yet Cana," she said eyeing Juvia. "If what we've been told is true, I think I know where we can find Natsu and Gildarts' car. My boyfriend dropped me to the dance tonight, so I don't have my car, which means Mira, you'll need to drive us."

"What?! But I can't even find my keys!"

"Well you'd better hurry up and find them! I've got to make a call and report this to my superiors, but when I'm done, we need to be ready to go."

With that, Erza took her cellphone and escaped to the quieter hallway to make her phone call, leaving Mira panicking as she searched her purse and her person for her keys. Cana rolled her eyes, quickly running out of patience. "God, we don't have time for this…"

She spotted Laxus emerging from the heart of the dance floor, looking rather uncomfortable, as he squeezed past an orgy of sweaty bodies behind Bickslow. Her feet moved toward him before her head had a chance to think about it. She smiled, tipsily right in his face.

"…What's up?" he said looking at her surprised. She had somehow forgotten to say what she had approached him for and got lost for a few seconds admiring his smoldering eyes. The whole time she was blushing with a dopey smile on her face, to which Laxus quickly blamed on the alcohol. Finally, she spoke.

"That white Mercedes outside is yours isn't it?"

Laxus was caught off guard. "Well, yeah…?" It was really his father's that he was borrowing for the night, but all the same. He was so off put by everything that he didn't even notice when the dopey, smiley faced Cana leaned over and fisted his keys from his back pocket, all while giving him a seductive grin.

"Gotcha," she said as she turned and skipped away. He couldn't break his eyes away from her and she winked at him goodbye.

Cana giggled giddily to herself as she couldn't get off the high she was experiencing. She's had a crush on Laxus for so long but that was actually the first time she's ever talked to him. She figured Lucy would be proud of her.

Thankfully, Cana came back just in time to save Mira from Erza's impending wrath after her phone call. "Let's go girls," she said dangling the keys in their faces. Mira's eyes widened.

"Wait, aren't those-"

"No time, let's go!" Erza cut her off, snatching the keys from Cana's hands and sprinting towards the door, her best friends following closely behind. Before she left completely, Mira cast one more lingering glance at the blonde whom, unbeknownst to him, they had just robbed.

"Ack! Ack! Ack!" the blonde coughed up copious amounts of water on the slippery sea rocks she found herself surrounded by. She was drenched from head to toe, her hair and makeup were ruined and her cinderella dress, which was now soaking wet, seemed to be attracting cold from the air around it. Her body trembled with chills, so she held herself in hopes of stopping it. She looked up at the big, bright full moon from inside the small, underwater passageway she was trapped in.

Why…? Why did it end up like this?

The last thing she remembered was using the bathroom at school to powder her nose. She remembered it very vividly, despite the shock her body was going through in her current situation. Her face in the mirror was beet red, her heart was beating a mile a minute, then she remembered seeing Lisanna emerging from one of the stalls.

Lucy glared at her. The girl smiled back.

The two exchanged words, and before she knew it, someone had closed and locked the bathroom door, and using that as a distraction, Lisanna tried to suffocate her with a napkin. She screamed and fought back, but she remembered her head feeling drastically woozy, and before she knew it all the energy was drained from her body and she collapsed on the ground. Everything faded to black.

When she woke up fully, she was in that recycling bin, being tossed in every which direction by the ocean currents. Thankfully, she was able to slip out and doggy paddle for dear life to a nearby underwater cave… or was this an air pocket?

Lost, wet and freezing to death, Lucy just wanted to cry.

"M-mom?" she trembled. "I think I'm ready to be with you now," she said, all hope finally lost.

As soon as the words left her mouth, a certain pinkette and his toothy grin popped into her mind.

That's right… She remembered. She was his date to the dance. The reason she even needed to take a bathroom break in the first place, was because it was getting hard to even breathe around him… then he went ahead and kissed her and her heart pounded so hard it could pump out of her chest. Her cheeks were on fire.

"I love you Lucy."

She put her hand over her mouth as she fluttered her eyelashes up and down to blink back the tears.

She's never asked him to do anything for her.

"Look Lucy, I want you to come to school tomorrow, it's not the same without you there… and if you're scared, remember me I'm a friendly face."

She didn't ask him to check up on her after that video was played before the whole school.

"Natsu, why are you in my windowsill?!"

"Well blondie, if you must know, I came to check up on ya."

She didn't ask him to talk to her when she felt nervous during classes, or to walk her down the halls so she wouldn't be teased, or even eat lunch with her on the rooftop.

"Natsu, what's wrong with you?! You're acting like a crazy person!" She said, still blushing, but trying to shove him off of her.

"Don't be sad Lucy… CAUSE DADDY NATSU'S HERE TO MAKE IT ALL BETTER!"

"Stop it Natsu! You sound like a weirdo!"

Even the day she was mad at him and picked a fight because he was gone all day, but then told him to leave her alone when he just wanted to apologize... she never asked him to do that either. She didn't ask him to come to her rescue in that shady part of town, after Lisanna had sent that text either.

"Natsu! Where were you? I haven't seen you all day… Don't worry about it...? Okay yeah, so screw me for caring right?"

"Lucy wait, I'm sorry just let me explain!"

"I don't give a shit anymore, just leave me alone Dragneel."

"Let me go! Let me go!" She cried.

"Don't cry blondie, we're simply paying you back for what you did to that girl."

Her voice was failing her, this was her last chance, so she to scream the only thing she could think of.

"Naaatsuuuuuu!"

The first tear fell against her will. Despite her best efforts, her dredging up those old, rather unpleasant memories still managed to chip away at her spirit, even though she wanted to be healed from those pains so badly.

Did she ever thank him for that? For any of it?

She looked up emptily at the sky as her shoulders shook harder than the tremors from her body. She seemed to cry harder than harder the more she thought about it.

"Fuck boy!"

No, she never asked him to help her at all during this time in her life, and also it seems, she's never thanked him for it either. In fact, all she's done was insult him and return his kindness with coldness. She made a promise that if God let her make it out of this alive, the first thing she was going to do was thank him for everything and apologize. And even though she felt like she had no right to, in that moment, in the most desperate moment in her life, all she could do was ask.

"N-Natsu…?" She asked shakily while sobs racked her body. She looked back up at the moon as it illuminated her face as it showed her splotchy red face and tear stained cheeks.

"Natsu… Natsu…" She cried again. "Please… save me!"

So it's been a ridiculously long time since the last update, but I'd like to offer up two reasons why. One being college, and the other (and most important) reason: writer's block. Well, writer's block, and lack of motivation to write for this story. Well why this story? Lately, I've been picking uo steam with MGA, so whenever I would update, it would only be to that story.

To be completely honest, this update was inspired by the reviewer who asked if the story was cancelled. Well, I'm here to tell you, that no, it's not cancelled, I just don't update regularly. Welcome aboard.

No, but in all seriousness, thank you to everyone who reviewed because it reminds me that people still actually read this story, lol.

Much love to you guys.