Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Fourteen: Memories of Aquarius

WARNING: MENTIONS OF DEATH AND SELF-HARM!

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Lucy lay on her bed, her arms folded behind her head, and stared up at the ceiling. She sighed before she turned her head to look over at the second bed, seeing Freed and Rufus laying in their bed with their backs facing each other, Rufus being the one who faced her.

She looked back up at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep. This wasn't a surprise since she hadn't been able to sleep well for a while. The celestial wizard sat up with another sigh and stepped out of bed, making her way over to the hotel room door. Not bothering to change out of her pajamas first, she opened the door, stepped out, closed it quietly so as to not wake her two friends, and made her way out of the hotel. She walked along the road through Podsolnukh, eventually reaching a lake that ran almost entirely around the town.

Podsolnukh was a small town near the border of Bosco. Around it was a lake, the only opening being at the entrance to the town. Lucy, Freed, and Rufus had been directed here by the scroll, but they didn't know where the new keys they were now searching for were located. They had decided that they would start their search in the morning, after a full night of rest.

Lucy sat on a large rock that was on the edge of the riverside, staring into the swift-moving water. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The water reminded her of Aquarius. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she wiped them away with her arm.

She didn't think that she should be crying, not this long after she sacrificed Aquarius' key. She should be over it by now, right? Shouldn't she be happy that she's going to be getting Aquarius' new key at some point? After all, she was on a mission to collect all eighty-eight keys. Maybe the scroll has already lead her to Aquarius' new key.

Lucy sniffled a few times as more tears came. She wiped them away and continued to stare into the water. She didn't have any reason to be like this. She's repeated this statement to herself over and over during the months that followed Tartaros. She had many guildmates who loved her and treated her like family. She had close friends who would always have her back. She had spirits who cared about her just as much as she cared about them. So, why was she like this? Letting herself sink this low all because of the lose of a spirit?

But, Aquarius wasn't just a spirit. She was one of few things Lucy had left of her mother. She was a mother figure and close friend, even if she was a irritable and quick-tempered. Even so, Lucy told herself countless times that she shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't be pretending to be well. She shouldn't be shutting herself up in her apartment, only emerging to take a job or hangout with her friends when they came calling. She shouldn't be harming herself almost daily.

Lucy pulled away from her knees and looked down at her hands, the fingers still bandaged. That's what she had believed before. Now, however, she couldn't banish the thought that maybe she deserved to feel like this. She had failed at trying to save herself and her three friends. She didn't fight hard enough. She allowed Nyx to take her keys. She couldn't get herself, Yukino, Sorano, or Hisui out of that place, those cells. A mencing voice in her head told her that she was the cause of her friends' deaths. The voice told her that Sabertooth and Crime Sorciere silently blamed her for the deaths of Yukino and Sorano.

The blonde woman hugged her legs, curling into herself as she buried her face into her knees and allowed the tears to fall. She was honestly surprised that she was able to still cry. She would have expected herself to be out of tears by now.

After several minutes of silently crying, Lucy wiped her tears from her face and looked up at the night sky. It didn't take long for her to find the constellations that were most easy to spot at this time of year. Capricorn, Andromeda, Pegasus, Pisces, and Aquarius. She stared at the last constellation, wondering if Aquarius could somehow see her from the Celestial Spirit World. What would Aquarius think if this was the case? Would she be disappointed? What would she say?

The sound of the quick water in front of her and the sight of the Water Bearer's constellation brought to her one of her first memories about Aquarius. She was six-years-old and had wanted to learn how to swim.

Young Lucy stared down into the pool's water, hudling against the steel railing that would help her walk down the submerged steps inside the pool. She was clad in a pink one-piece swimsuit as her small hands held on tightly to the steel railing. She glanced up at the celestial spirit who was waiting for her at the other side of the pool.

Aquarius, crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, "I don't have long, brat. Jump in and try to swim over to me."

Lucy jutted out her bottom lip slightly. Looking back at the water, she stuck out her foot and dipped it into the water, only to pull it out instantly in response to the coldness. She whinned, "it's cold!"

Aquarius snapped, "if you just jump in then it won't be cold!" When the girl didn't take the dive that was being requested of her, the blue-haired spirit sighed, saying with a slightly softer tone, "you won't be able to learn if you don't jump in."

Lucy looked up at her, thinking about her celestial spirit's words. She nodded and took a deep breath before she stepped one foot into the water, onto the first step. Still holding onto the steel railing, she slowly stepped down the stone steps, shivering as the cold water slowly enveloped her body.

Once she arrived at the last step, she hesitated, looking at Aquarius for reassurance that she wasn't going to sink and drown. The mermaid opened her arms, readying herself to swim forward and grab her young wizard out of the water.

Lucy jumped off of the last step. She kicked her legs and flailed her arms in the way Aquarius had previously taught her, trying to make her way over to the woman as best she could. Her eyes were screwed shut and she held her breath. When she thought that she was going to ultimately sink to the bottom, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her above the water, against a busty chest that was covered by a bikini top.

Lucy coughed a few times before she pushed her bangs out of her face and opened her big, brown eyes. She looked up at Aquarius, giving a big smile as she asked, "how did I do?"

Aquarius gently floated to where she had previously stationed herself at from where she picked up Lucy in the middle of the way between the two ends of the pool. She gave the child in her arms a small smile as she answered, "you still have some learning to do."

Lucy heaved a silent sigh at the memory. She was a great swimmer now, because of Aquarius. The corner of her mouth twitched up as she stared up at the star-dotted night sky, more memories of her childhood with Aquarius coming to her mind.

She eventually noticed that the stars were dimming and the blackness of the night sky was lightening. Realizing that daybreak was coming, she stood up and began making her way back to the hotel, hoping to get there and into her bed before Freed or Rufus woke up.

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I hope that you liked this chapter. Will Lucy find Aquarius' key in Podsolnukh? Find out in the upcoming chapters!