Found & Forgotten

Chapter 26

Natsu blinked at Lucy.

"What do you mean?" He asked when he recovered from the shock.

"I mean, these golden keys are fakes," Lucy explained patiently, though her wide eyes showed her panic.

"I'll get the old man." Natsu hurried off as what Lucy had said sank in.

"The old man?" Lucy asked the space where Natsu had been, surprised when she received an answer.

"He means Master Makarov," Levy explained with a small smile.

"Oh!" Lucy startled. "Levy-chan! How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, Lu-chan, you had it worse." Levy brushed off her concern. "Why has Natsu gone to get the master?"

Lucy frowned. "These golden keys are fakes," she answered, holding up her pouch of keys.

Levy opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment the door opened and Natsu reentered, followed closely by the master, Erza, Mirajane and Gray. Natsu sat down on Lucy's bed again, Gajeel helped Levy over to an adjacent one, and Charle even roused Wendy from her slumber so as to prevent her from missing out on the meeting.

"It's Shin Uchu again." Makarov launched right into his briefing. "Despite our search, there is no sign of the manual, or, we now learn, of Lucy's golden keys. What we do have, however, is the fake golden ones, Lucy's silver ones, and these." Makarov held out the box of silver keys and handed them to Lucy. "What do you make of them?"

Lucy gingerly took the box, running her hands through the keys gathered there, and occasionally picking one out and putting it beside her on the bed before continuing to look through them. After a a while, she looked back up at the others and spoke.

"Mostly these are all common keys, such as Nikolas, that neither require, nor have, much power, either magical or physical. However, there are a few stronger ones. These are the ones I've picked out after a quick search." Lucy indicated the three keys beside her on the bed. "Caelum, Polaris and Deneb."

"That Caelum one, that's a chisel, right?" Gray asked.

"Hai," Lucy answered, slightly confused.

"Then didn't it belong to Angel?" Gray questioned.

Levy gasped. "Polaris and Deneb were Yukino's keys!"

Lucy tilted her head to the side. Again with this Yukino. Who was she?

"If they have succeeded in stealing the keys of Yukino and Angel, we must assume they have both been kidnapped as well. And if that is the case, we must assume that Princess Hisui is also in danger. We would have heard about it if anything had happened to her." Makarov mused aloud.

"Why would the Princess be in danger?" Lucy asked, bemused.

"The Princess is also a celestial mage," Erza told her. "It's quite a well kept secret, but Fairy Tail has a way of knowing things we shouldn't." She shrugged, a half smile on her face.

"We'll need to send a message to her," Makarov continued, "and track Shin Uchu."

"I can probably do that," Levy piped up. "Do we have anything belonging to the guild master? Or that can be used to trace them?"

Makarov shook his head.

"Will these help?" Lucy asked, holding out the fake golden keys.

Levy pondered that for a second. "They might, actually." She took the replica keys from Lucy. "Arigato Lu-chan!"

She got up and started to walk towards the door, but was promptly snagged around the waist by Gajeel.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked sternly. "You need to rest; you haven't fully recovered yet."

"To the library," Levy replied, the blush dusting her cheeks clearly visible. "I need to start researching this right away."

"No, you need to rest," Gajeel argued. "This will still be here when you wake up."

"No, Gajeel," Levy succeeded in freeing herself and turned to face the dragon slayer, with a surprisingly determined expression. "We can't waste any time. Shin Uchu have possession of not just SunSphere, but the keys they need to activate it and also the manual that tells them how to do so. Every second we waste is a second closer to Shin Uchu potentially destroying the world."

Gajeel blinked. "What do you mean, destroying the world?"

Levy took a deep breath. "From what we managed to translate of the manual before we were kidnapped, the twelve golden keys are needed to activate some kind of purification ritual. The details are hazy, but it basically means the end of the world as we know it. It's called kasai jozai, and claims to be able to stop sunlight reaching the earth."

The group stood in stunned silence for a moment. Then everybody spoke at once.

"What?"

"How?"

"Shin Uchu have this..."

"Can we stop it?"

"QUIET!" Makarov roared over the din.

Everyone turned to look at him as he spoke.

"Levy, you head to our library immediately." Makarov barked out instructions. " Gajeel, Wendy, Charle, go with her. Start tracking Shin Uchu and look for any clues as to potential whereabouts of this ritual."

The four nodded and left.

"Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lucy, you four go and deliver the message to the Princess. Stick together." Makarov continued.

"Wait," Natsu protested. "They're hunting celestial spirit mages and Lucy's still recovering. Shouldn't she stay here?"

"I'm fine, Natsu," Lucy gave the dragon slayer a smile that made all thoughts of making her stay at the guild vanish. "Besides, they already have my golden keys, so why would they need me?"

Natsu, half thinking of retorting that if they were only after golden keys, they wouldn't be after Princess Hisui, decided against it on the grounds that he would rather Lucy was with him so that he could protect her himself. Nothing to do with that radiant smile she gave him. Nothing at all.

"Alright, let's go then!" Natsu enthused.

Those four left as well.

"Mirajane, you come with me. I need you for what I have to do now." Makarov told her.

Mirajane followed the master back to his office, where she set the surprisingly heavy box of silver keys on the table.

"And what is it you have to do now?" She inquired, as he lifted a communications lachryma onto the desk.

"Make a call." Makarov answered shortly.

Mirajane, no less confused, stood next to the master as the lachryma flickered to life, wondering just who they were calling.

Ohaiyo, minna-san!

So yeah, this chapter is pretty late...gomenasai :3 I was being an otaku all week, having had no wifi for the two before that.

So, who do you think the master is calling? Let me know in the comments!

AA