•••
Present

Another train passed by, the speed making her blonde hair flutter against the wind. However, Lucy seemed not bothered by it, instead continuing on to stare straight ahead, a faraway look in her usual sparkly chocolate brown eyes.

Her suitcase was just by her side, rattling a little but it all turned back to normal just as soon as it began. The train passed her, the chattering of the crowd filling the silence left behind.

'Ugh my head!' Lucy groaned, burying her face in her hands.

What was all this? What was she even doing?

Was this even right?

Why was she even here?

She wasn't meant to be here.

She was meant to be home.

But what even was home?

So all this was right, right?

She didn't know anything about a 'home'. She didn't have one.

So why, sitting here, in the dead of the night, was she doubting her decision?

Why?.

She smiled against her hands, a bitter, hateful smile.

Oh who was she kidding?

Of course it wasn't right.

She was nothing but a coward.

That's what she's always been.

And that's what she'll always be.

A coward.

Another train approached, but unlike the one before, it started to slow down near the station. However, before it could completely come to a halt, people had already began gathering close to it, eager to get on board.

With one last sigh, Lucy heaved herself up, grabbing her bag.

She wouldn't doubt her decision anymore.

Because her mind was made up.

"I guess this is it. Another goodbye."

She would run away.

Again.

•°•

"And that's that." Lucy smiled, staring lovingly at the pink mark on her right hand. "A bright light and before I even knew it, it was all over. Everything."

She let out a small laugh, holding her right hand close to her heart, a content smile on her face.

"So." she said, turning to her side. "Now that you know everything, what's the verdict?.."

"..Do you hate me too?"

Vera's teary, bright blue eyes stared right back at Lucy's sparkly chocolate ones and a choked sob escaped her.

"W-Why?" she croaked, burying her face in her hands. "Why-How can I ever hate you? How can anyone?"

"You can't?" Lucy seemed genuinely surprised. "I wonder...then why do I hate myself so much?"

"Don't!" Vera sobbed. "Please don't! It should be me who should be hated."

"Ve-"

"No!" she deadpanned tearfully. "I let my emotions take over and I accused you! I hurt you! Just because I eavesdropped on that stupid conversation you had with Natsu!"

"It's okay." Lucy smiled, gently rubbing the back of a sobbing Vera in comfort. "I feel so much better now that I've told someone about it. It was so much harder to keep it all in. Although.." she began to laugh. "You might not wanna break open another door to get your answers."

"Well, what could've I done?" Vera asked, smiling a little through the tears. "I was scared that you'd leave me and Ma."

Lucy let out an audible sigh, leaning against the wall. She wouldn't deny it.

Because denying it would be a lie.

And then Vera asked how she could ever hate her.

All she brought along was hurt.

How could she not hate her?

"So..what now?"

"Huh?"

She saw Vera fidgeting, twiddling her thumbs in nervousness. She wouldn't meet her eye.

"Are you going to go with them?"

She knew it. She saw it coming. This question.

"No, I don't think I will."

"Then are you going to stay here?"

She sounded a little hopeful, but there was something else in her voice too.

Maybe she knew it after all.

And still didn't hate her.

Maybe..just maybe..

Lucy didn't have it in her heart to reply. All she could do was smile sadly.

And it was enough.

Vera sniffed. She understood it all. The next few minutes passed in silence, neither of them speaking.

"I think you should go with them." Vera said quietly.

To say Lucy was shocked would've been an understatement.

"Where'd that come from?" she chuckled. "Weren't you against it just a while ago?"

"It was all before I knew." she did, wiping away the last of her tears and giving Lucy a bright smile. "I love you and so does Ma, but even you know this. We're not them."

"It's got nothing to do with that! I know I don't show it but I care for you a lot too! I-"

"I know that you do Lucy. I don't question it."

"Then why..Vera?.."

"But I know that you should go with them. Try giving yourself another shot at happiness. Don't hold yourself back because of the past."

"I.."

"And Lucy..when you do..please be true to yourself."

•••

Erza started at the map laid out on the coffee table, tapping a finger against her chin.

"We can cross all of these areas out." she said, pointing out a few of them. "They're obviously not there."

"Aah!" Gray groaned, ruffling his hair. "Why'd we have to take such a job again?" he asked in distress. "Nobody here, in this room is strategic enough to actually get somewhere with this damn job!"

"Deciding to take on this job was done unanimously." Erza reminded him. "We're all to blame."

"It's a high paying job after all." Wendy intervened. "It was bound to be tough."

"But not this tough!" Gray argued. "Look at this!" he said, pointing at the map. "We've got no leads! We're completely blank!"

"Well.." the sky maiden began timidly. "We can always go back if this doesn't work out."

"Not in a million years." Erza's authoritative voice resonated in the room. "We've accepted this job then at least we should give it our all. Fairy Tail isn't one to give up so easily. Or have you forgotten that?"

Gray sighed, hanging his head. "You're right." he agreed. "It's too early to give up. But if only we had a clue. Anything."

Wendy looked over to Carla, who had her head in her paws.

"Carla? Have you got any clue?"

They all watched her concentrate, before she finally let go with a sigh.

"No." she mumbled dejectedly. "I've been having premonitions but they're all so blurry. And I'm certain that they never show anything even remotely similar to them."

"What do you see then?"

"It's hard to say." she answered honestly, trying to think back to the visions. "But it always has this one person. I'm not sure if it's a man or a woman, it's just all so blurry."

"Don't end up straining yourself." Erza reminded her with a soft smile. "But this is a problem. We can't possibly go on searching the whole continent of Ishgar for them."

"Are we positive that they're in Ishgar?" Happy asked. "They can be anywhere for all we know."

Erza and Gray turned while, threatening to collapse any second. Happy sweat dropped, seeing their reaction.

"What? Don't tell me you didn't actually consider it a possibility!"

Erza cleared her throat, returning back to normal.

"W-What are you talking about?" she began, stuttering a bit. "Of course we did!"

"There's something that has been bothering me for a while now." Wendy thought out loud. "What if a wizard possesses them?"

"That will be a problem." Carla sighed. "But from the limited information that we do have, there have been no sightings of the keys being in use for about 10 years."

"They were last with Angel weren't they?"

"Yeah..Sorano." Gray recalled. "But she had only about three of the gold keys, didn't she?"

"Yeah." Erza agreed. "The seven others were still unknown."

"No they weren't." Wendy reminded them. "Three of them were with Lady Layla, weren't they?"

"Yeah, but she was already dead when we fought the Oración Seis. The keys were missing then."

"Dammit! We should've just asked Anna about it!"

"I doubt she would've known much." Erza said. "This is even harder since Layla didn't even have a child. Otherwise, we could've just tracked them down instead."

"You know..funny as it might sound.." Wendy began. "I find it quite hard to believe that Lady Layla didn't have a child. I just feel like... we're missing something.."

"Celestial Keys.." Gray mumbled, lying down on the bed. "10 of them..missing in action."

"Hm. And our job is to retrieve them." Erza sighed.

"But what if they aren't supposed to be retrieved?" Natsu finally spoke up, getting up from the corner. "What if we aren't supposed to be meddling with all of this? Now that I think about it, it's not our place to intervene in."

"But the keys are powerful magical objects. In the wrong hands-"

"If in the wrong hands." Natsu corrected Erza. "Their power has been dormant for over 10 years. It never posed as a problem before. How can we know for sure that us going on this mission to find them wouldn't end up causing problems instead."

"You know, Natsu-san does have a point. What could that man want those keys for anyway? Also 10 of them."

"That is an insane amount of power." Carla agreed. "For all we know he might be planning to misuse them."

"I don't know Erza." Natsu sighed. "It's just that..ever since I've come here, I feel like we're making a mistake. I feel as if the keys are safe, wherever they are."

"I can't say Natsu..We took this job, so we have to finish it. But I suppose that we'd know what to do for sure once we find them."

Nobody spoke after this, everyone deep in thought. The ticking of the clock filled in the silence of the room, until Natsu spoke up again.

"Also..there is something.."

"What'd you do?" Erza demanded, eyeing him skeptically.

"Imight'veaskedLucytocomewithus."

He spoke really quickly but the silence that followed ensured that he'd been understood. Everyone stared at him as if he'd grown two heads..and maybe..he did.

"You WHAT?!"

"Really!!"

"Aye! That's amazing!"

"Huh?!"

"You did what now flamebrain?!"

"HELP!"

Everyone's attention shifted from the fire dragon Slayer to Vera, who had barged in on them, panting and teary eyed.

"Please help!" she whimpered, collapsing from exhaustion. "I've looked everywhere."

"What's wrong?" Erza rushed towards her, being the first one to recover from the shock.

"It's Lucy." she breathed, her eyes brimming with tears.

"She's gone."

•••

Early update y'all

XD

I had this sudden inspiration and I HAD to complete it.

So here chu go

It's long
Oof

Anywayy.. how'd you like it?
Spam my inbox with your comments ;)
And if you liked it, please vote♥

I plan to finish this before the November 4 because after that..you'd not know if I'm alive or ded XD

Until then
Belle🌸
🔥♥🔑

Ps in case you didn't understand, the first scene is Lucy before running away and the talk with Vera is the flashback that led to it. Hope it wasn't confusing ^•^