BOOK 2 - Fairy Tail (Pirates) AU: Dark Pirate's Chest

CHAPTER IX: The Caracole Island

Lucy got out of Natsu's cabin and leaned on a nearby rail. She couldn't hide the fact that she was troubled by all that was happening. But then, Loke approached her in order to touch her nerves even more. "Now do you see it?" the ex-commodore asked.

    "See what?" Lucy replied.

    "Your boyfriend's true colors of course. He must be quite ruthless to condemn his own comrade to a life of servitude"

Lucy widened her eyes at the fact that Loke knew about Natsu's plan. The truth is that he had been suspecting it since the moment the pinkette said Gray had been captured. But after overhearing Natsu and Lucy's conversation just before, he became sure of it. "It's... It's not like that. Even if there really were better ways to do it, he had his reasons"

"Yeah, sure... Selfish reasons if you ask me" Loke started leaving. But then, he turned around one last time. "You know? You may find yourself in a situation like that one some day. One in which you are totally out of options, and the only way to survive demands an act of piracy. I wonder what you'll do then... heh..."

Loke finally left after that. Lucy found herself quite troubled by his words, but she still didn't want to accept his belief that all pirates were monsters in the end. She had faith in Natsu. She really believed that, given the chance, the pinkette would prove once and for all that he is a good man.

"What are you thinking about, Lucy?" Levy suddenly asked.

"Eh? N-nothing... hehe... I was just lost in thought" Lucy replied. Then, Levy asked her if they were still following the right course. The blondie took out Natsu's compass in order to check it out. "Yeah... We are good. It's in that direction"

Levy nodded and left after that. But then, the blondie once again remembered what Natsu told her before about the compass. About how it's capable of pointing at the thing you wish for the most in the world. Lucy then checked the compass one more time and realized it was actually pointing in another direction now. It was pointing directly at Natsu's cabin.

Lucy blushed like crazy after noticing that and turned around while looking at one side. Then, she shook her head in order to cool herself off and decided to focus on the matter at hand.

<<A few hours later>>

    The crew had finally arrived at their destination: Caracole Island. Of course they had no idea it was called like that, but they still needed to explore it and find Zeref's chest. Natsu ordered Erza, Gajeel, Levy, Happy and some other members of the crew to keep an eye for the ship. Meanwhile he headed into the beach along with Lucy, Juvia, Aries, Loke, Jet and Droy.

    When they reached the shore, Natsu ordered Jet and Droy to guard the boat, his long coat and his jar of dirt. Because yes... The pinkette was carrying the jar of dirt Mirajane gave him wherever he was going.

The group then explored the beach for a while. What is more, Lucy was actually guiding them all with Natsu's compass in hand. Then, the blondie found herself at a dead end. The compass was acting weird for some reason. What is more, she then startled when the compass pointed directly at Natsu once more.

    "Mmmh? What's wrong, Lucy?" Natsu asked.

    "N-n-nothing! It's nothing!" Lucy replied while all flustered. Then, she said that the compass was broken again and tossed it to the ground. However, Natsu approached the compass at that moment and noticed it was actually pointing at where Lucy was standing.

    "It's not broken. You are just standing on the right spot"

    "Ah? What?"

    Natsu told Lucy to move out of the way. The blondie did as the pinkette said. Then, he gave Loke and Aries a shovel each and ordered them to start digging. Loke and Aries did as their captain said and after a couple of minutes, they had already made a very deep hole on the ground. Though it still wasn't deep enough apparently.