Chapter Text

Fairy Tail; Arck Revision

 “Even if you lose everything, something remains… Feelings are connection. They surpass time and find their way back to the people you love.” -Lucy Heartfilia

Chapter 0 - Prologue; Arck Revision

Dam Natis, Year x791,

Dam Natis, a country two continents over from Fiore. A place with its own history of many magical guilds, adventures and stories. Unlike the warm climates and lively places like Crocus and Magnolia, most places in Dam Natis are colder and distant. The far and few towns towards the outskirts of the larger cities tend to be less welcoming to strangers as they are closer to the borders and the natives felt too many travelers pass by.

In this case,

A girl in a hooded cloak leapt through the trees in a forest connecting to the border of Dam Natis to the outside world. In the cold, crispy and almost icy air, a girl in a hooded cloak attempted to make an escape from her desolate home traveling through the trees. Kairo Scriven, had barely managed to land on a branch of an evergreen tree. Unfortunately for her, she had also lost her footing on the most unstable and slippery part of it. She had fallen right on top of another traveler.

“Damn it!”

“Can you watch where you fall?” A purple haired mage exclaimed, “I’m trying to get to town, wherever it is in this forsaken place, and the first thing to welcome me in is an idiot falling from the sky.” This was Bora.

“I’m sorry, not like I was expecting to fall on an idiot not watching where he’s going, like yourself, to be in my way of hitting the ground!” Kairo retorted as she got up and off of the man.

“Tch,” Bora gritted his teeth, “Whatever. I don’t have time for this anyway. I’ve been walking around for a long time, and I wanna get out of this stupid forest.” He dusted himself off and picked up his traveling bag.

“If you’re an outsider you won’t be able to get into Dam Natis without following the proper route,” Kairo mocked collecting her items off of the ground.

“I’ll just fly over then, and you can go back to falling out of trees elsewhere,” Bora replied waving back.

“The forest is enchanted, but I’m assuming you knew that bit of information,” Kairo rolled her eyes, picked up her bag and got up to walk away.

“Wait!” Bora shouted back after stopping in his tracks. It was cold and he wanted nothing more than a warm meal and rest stop.

Kairo froze and turned to face him, “Whaddaya want huh??” She huffed irritably in his direction.

“I’m sorry, I’m exhausted, and hungry, and cranky… I’ve been in this forest for days,” Bora pleaded, “I just want to get to the next town over… I’ll give you anything I have on me if you can just- please- help me get out of here.”

Kairo sighed and after thinking for a moment, she smirked deviously. “How about handing over that nifty little flying spell and then I’ll help you out?”

Bora gulped and stared in disbelief. The girl’s aura in this moment made the hair on his arms stand up straight. He had a feeling he had just made a deal with the devil.

At the same time,
Crocus, Year x791,

Lucy had been in the process of moving to Crocus for the last two weeks. She planned on applying to work as writing assistant for ‘Sorcerer Weekly’ after she had run into reporter Jason a few weeks prior. She had learned that there was an open position at the time, which was one of the only things she had any remote interest in as of late.

She didn’t really have much interest in anything these days.

She walked into the living room of her new home and looked around. Boxes upon boxes were scattered up against the walls. She never thought that she’d have a change this drastic in her life. Just three months ago she had been living life to the fullest, fighting alongside her guildmates against Tartaros and their plans to initiate F.A.C.E. And now…she was all alone.

Master Makarov had disbanded Fairy Tail with no explanation.

She had lost Aquarius.

Her friends were gone.

And Natsu and Happy… had left her with nothing but a terribly written letter.

She sighed.

“Puun~” A little voice echoed from behind Lucy.

“Plue,” She said with a despondent tone. She wasn’t entirely alone, not entirely. Her celestial spirits were technically still with her.

________

A week after the disbandment of Fairy Tail was announced, Lucy had been in a state of absolute shock through it all while the others had decided to move forward with their lives. Erza, Gray, and Juvia had disappeared with their own plans. A crying Wendy had been convinced by an irritated Carla to visit her friend Cheria from Lamia Scale. Levy had mentioned a few plans, but nothing concrete. The rest of the guild members had continued that in that way; making plans, settling down, moving out of Magnolia, and following the pursuit of other passions. Fairy Tail had been everything for Lucy. It was her home, her family, her passion, her dream. She had even defended and justified her will against her late father. And now… what had it all been for, if she had nothing?

The second week after the disbandment, she had done her best to try to distract herself by working on her novel, but she was stuck. An incredibly dreadful sense of writer’s block had her sitting in front of a blank page for hours at a time. She would put her pen to her paper but it seemed like the ink was dried up. Her thoughts were jumbled up and her heart… broken. This continued for the next few weeks.

After a month, Lucy decided to try and look for other jobs, she needed a new way to pay her rent after all. She had started pulling money out of her small savings in order to cover the cost of living. Every interview either went wrong or fell through, so she looked around to try and join other guilds in the area. Many of them had creeps lurking about and/or weren’t interested in having a celestial mage join their ranks. She began to feel the weight of rejection bearing down on her, and she felt as if her magic had lost its value once Fairy Tail no longer existed.

At the two month mark, she was beginning to crack. She hadn’t been eating well, she had completely given up on trying to write, and the only rest she’d get was when she would tire herself out enough from sobbing endlessly. She would wake up crying, or worse, having panic attacks. She had slowly descended into a maddening and depressive spiral, and one day she suddenly snapped. She began to destroy everything in her apartment with her ‘Fleuve de E’toiles’, including clothes, furninture, decor; anything in sight. She was manic. She had lastly picked up the pages of her novel with rage, but by the end, she had completely exhausted the mania. She had no energy left to actually destroy her work.  She ended up leaving the pages scattered all over the floor and the whip, which had been damaged during the ordeal, left on top of them.

A few nights later…

She stared out of her bedroom window, defeated. She hadn’t showered in days, and the apartment, a disaster.

“Princess?” A voice called out.

Lucy glanced over at the familiar voice. A woman in a maid outfit stood in the dark room at the edge of her bed.

“Virgo.”

“I came by way of my own magic,” Virgo said, “You haven’t called on any of us in a while. Big brother asked me to check on you.”

For a moment, silence.

“There’s no reason to have called on any of you.” Lucy stared blankly. She didn’t have much else to say, so she turned back to stare outside her window.

Virgo approached her quietly, sitting on the edge of Lucy’s bed. “We’re… concerned,” she said softly. She reached for Lucy’s hand.

“Virgo…” Lucy said not moving an inch, “Forced closure.”

Virgo paused. “I shall return at a later time.” She bowed and then disappeared into the celestial world.

Lucy didn’t dare call on any of her spirits. The affair with Aquarius’s key and the current state of her mind had her frozen in fear to call on any of her spirit friends. What if it all got bad again? She had no team to fight alongside anymore, and she wasn’t willing to put her only companions at risk again.

By the third month, Lucy had spent two thirds of her savings. Her celestial spirits had come forward with their own magical energy to take care of her. She had, very quickly, lost the argument of them not coming to her aid. They helped her clean her apartment, repair the damage to some of her items, and began to prepare meals when they noticed her severe decrease in weight. She could hardly get out of bed on her own, her eyes were sunken in, her lips were dry, and there were bruises on her hands from the destruction. They did their best to provide her with the support that they could, and they knew if she continued this way, the future was bleak.

“Princess,” Virgo asked as she scrubbed Lucy’s hair with shampoo. Lucy hugged her knees in the bath as Virgo helped clean her up. Plue, who had been taking turns with the silvered key spirits keep Lucy company, handed Virgo the bottle of conditioner.

“Hm.”

“Why don’t we move somewhere else?” Virgo rinsed the shampoo out of Lucy’s hair, “We could use the remainder of your savings to move to Crocus, it’s a wonderful and lively city.”

Lucy stared ahead.

“Cro…cus…?”

“Yes,” Virgo replied conditioning Lucy’s hair, “There are lots of places you weren’t able to explore during the gran-” Virgo paused briefly and chose her words carefully, “during your last visit there.”

“Hm…” Lucy wondered, “Crocus… it could be good.”

Plue made eye contact with Virgo, and her usual wooden expression transformed into a smile. The spirits hadn’t gotten much reaction out of Lucy in weeks. This was good.

One morning, Lucy woke up with a bit of energy and paid a day visit to the capital city of Fiore, with Pyxis by her side. Her luck this day seemed to be on the up, as she easily found a ready for move-in place for rent. Great amenities, a little more than her apartment in Magnolia, but a great location and just the kind of place that fit with her style. On her way out of paying the deposit, she ran into reporter Jason and learned about the open job position.

Over the next few weeks she packed up her things and moved them to Crocus with the help of spirit friends, primarily Virgo and Loke.

“Mhm, yes, I approve!” The spirit of the Lion exclaimed, “Bigger city, more wonderful women on the prowl for a date! Great choice, Lucy!”

“I see you haven’t changed any in the last three months,” Lucy said, “Nonetheless, this move feels like a good idea. I used up the last of my savings, so hopefully, Jason really does hire me for the job.” She sighed.

They waited outside the home in silence. Loke hadn’t been around Lucy as much as Virgo recently. He knew she wasn’t doing well, and unfortunately, he had things to take care of in the celestial world as leader of the spirits, right when it all went down. He hadn’t been able to support her as much as he’d liked, but he did his best to brighten her day when he could. He’d never seen her is such a terrible state of depression, and it reminded him how he felt when he had lost himself.

“This will be better,” he said breaking the silence, “New things are to come, and it will be better.” Loke smiled, but Lucy only looked up and then back down at the ground.

“Princess! All of your boxes are moved in, but we set up your bedroom for you,” Virgo smiled, “Is it time for punishment yet?”

Lucy chuckled and then paused. Maybe this was good, for the first time in three months, she had finally been able to smile…somewhat.

She sent the spirits on their way and made her way up to her new home.