Chapter 1

The End of the Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, and my Ideas

"HELP ME!" A shrill scream pierced the air. The birds that had been resting in the tops of the trees lifted off, wings flapping madly. The small group of wizards came to a stop as the scream reached their ears and their eyes widened.

"Lucy..." They breathed before dashing off into the trees, searching desperately for the blonde Celestial Mage. A pinkette lead the group, dashing madly as he relied on his nose to find her. Beside him his blue Exceed partner flew along side him, just on the verge of activating Max Speed as he kept up with the pinkette.

All their hearts were pounding, tensions high. They had been separated from Lucy a little bit ago, their mission had gone wrong from the very beginning. Behind the blue Exceed and madly dashing pinkette, raced an Ice Mage, a red-head, a small girl and her white Exceed partner.

They needed to find her, they had to!

"NATSU!" Another scream pierced the air and they ran faster. The sky was suddenly becoming dark with thick grey clouds and a chill wind picked up. They had never heard Lucy scream like this before, they hadn't thought it possible of the sweet, kind Celestial Mage to make such a horrible noise.

Another scream shot up from the trees, but was abruptly cut off and they all sweatdropped.

They all came to a dead stop as the trees thinned out into a clearing, their eyes growing wide in horror. Blood littered everything, the ground was torn up, and the trees had deep slashes in their bark.

In the middle lay a broken, mangled, ripped, bloody body. The once beautiful golden hair was matted with both blood and dust. The clothes were ripped, along with the skin where the blood had slowed to a stop long ago. She was cold, pale, lifeless.

They were all frozen in horror, before tears started to stream from all their eyes. Not even Healing Magic could fix this, she was already gone, and they knew it.

Natsu stumbled forward numbly and fell to his knees beside her, lifting her limb body up and crying silently. Gray quickly crouched down and turned Wendy away from the horrible sight as he pulled her close and let her sob into his shirt, keeping his own crying silent. Erza stared in utter shock at the blonde, she couldn't move, couldn't think.

Happy pulled Carla into a hug as she stared to cry too and Happy cried with her, they had been to late... Utterly late...

Natsu's face lifted toward the sky, eyes shut tight. Lightning flashed down as the storm broke out over them, and the thunder was drowned out by his voice.

"LUCY!"

The usually rowdy and happy Fairy Tail Guild in Magnolia fell into a state of disarray. No one smiled, no one laughed, no one hardly even spoke. Magnolia was hit by constant rain since Lucy died, despite Juvia having felt Lucy as a Love Rival, she still had considered Lucy as one of her friends.

Lucy's best friend Levy had been hit pretty hard by the news, and now she only found comfort in a certain Iron Dragon who seemed affected by the blondes death more than anyone would have thought. Erza became silent, serious, never joking and never smiling after that.

Gray had fallen silent too, the only time he would seem to ever speak is when he was trying to get Juvia to calm down. Wendy seemed a little haunted by what she had seen, and she never seemed to stop crying after it happened.

Natsu was the worst. No one had ever before seen the look of utter horror in his eyes until after Lucy died. It was like the sight if seeing her bloody and lifeless was forever etched into his mind.

Those in the Guild who had not been there to find her, were the truly lucky ones. They wouldn't have been able to handle the sight, the ones who had seen it were to be forever haunted by the memory.

Her funeral was held, and the entirety of Fairy Tail stood assembled in the Church Cemetery as they cried and said their goodbyes to their once beloved Celestial Mage. Flowers were placed upon her headstone, and the rain pounded down ever relentlessly.

It seemed that no light would be found in that Guild ever again.

Lucy's keys were never found after that, and they had no idea who had been responsible for her death. Any attempt at finding her killer ended in a dead end, and they didn't have the heart to keep searching for long.

Fairy Tail would never be as it once was, without Lucy there.

The train traveled over its tracks smoothly as the moonlight bounced off the metal. Inside everything was dark and hardly anyone sat in the cars.

In the last car of the train a young woman was leaned up against the window with her back, and her feet stretched out in front of her on the seat. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her eyes closed as she slept on.

Every time the train would bounce or jerk the slightest bit, tinkling echoed through the empty car. A large ring full of golden and silver keys could be seen hanging from the young woman's belt.

She fidgeted in her sleep, and her arms hugged her body more tightly.

Inside of her mind, everything was dark and she stood watching a golden light slowly approach her. She blinked in surprise to see a small girl with very long pale blonde hair and pupil-less green eyes wearing a pink dress and no shoes, walking toward her. The girl was surrounded by light and she smiled softly at the young woman as she drew near.

"Hello," the small girl smiled and the young woman blinked a few times.

"Your the one that's been telling me to head to this city, aren't you?" The young woman asked and the girl nodded.

"I am. I have come here to tell you what to do, so you may start down the right path." The girl replied. "When you arrive here, find a place to stay and, if you would do me a favor, join the Local Guild."

The young woman blinked in surprise. "Join the Local Guild? Why?" She asked. The girl suddenly looked very sad as she let out a small sigh.

"They have fallen into sorrow, and I hope that you may be able to lighten their moods again." The girl replied.

"Why me?" The young woman asked.

"You were chosen by the previous owner of those keys." The girl replied with a sad smile. "I think you would be a good influence on them, and I believe you were chosen for a reason." The girl replied.

"And that reason would be?"

The girl shook her head and smiled. "I do not know for sure, perhaps in time we'll see what it is." She chuckled a little and the young woman shook her head slightly, but smiled a little too.

She liked it when people laughed, when people smiled.

"When you decide to speak to these spirits." The girl continued. "I would suggest talking to the leader first, I feel he will be more willing to listen to your story." The girl told her.

"Story? I don't even know why I have these keys." The young woman told her and the girl nodded.

"I'm aware, but that story will have to wait for now. When you find a place to stay, I will appear to you in your next dream. But for now, its nearly time for your stop." The girl explained, and the dream faded away.

The young woman blinked open her eyes to see dim darkness, and she was aware of the train slowing down. It was almost time to get off. She swung her feet to the floor and rested her hand on her hip to make sure the keys were still there. Feeling the cool metal on her skin seemed to calm her rising nerves, she was always nervous in new places, especially where she would meet new people.

But even then, she like meeting new people, it kept life interesting.

She got to her feet as the train halted, and she picked her bag up from the empty chair across from her. The sun was starting to peak over the horizon as she stepped off the train and took a deep breath.

New town, new people, new keys, and a new start.

She smiled a little as she began to walk forward.

This should be interesting...

New story! I've had this idea for awhile now and I was planning on starting it sooner, but instead I got going with my second story, "Energy Magic'. I will be working on that story along with this one, and I hope all you enjoy this as it gets going! Maybe along the lines of reading this one, you might want to give my first story 'Lost Life' a try? It's the first part of one of my OC's and Energy Magic is the second part, so if your interested you'll need to read 'Lost Life' first!

I you love Lucy, I apologize for killing her off, please don't get too mad about it! :)

I promise things will pick up here, but it might seem a bit slow at first, because I have to set up this new character in her new life first. Follow, Fav, and Review please! I always love to hear what you guys think.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue reading!