Key to the Starry Night Sky

A Guildless Mission 37

Hey monsters!!! So here's the next update. WARNING this chapter is a memory (part 1) and takes place during the time Natsu is gone and the guild us disbanded.

I'd like to take a moment to say THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
This book reached 1.78k reads today and is currently ranked #4 in RoLu!!!

Okay, now... Onto the story!!!

XxX

'Lucy,

I know you're mad at me right now. I know you said I needed to start thinking about the future but I don't think you get it. All i ever think about is the future. 

When Future Rogue killed future you, something inside of me broke. I realized then and there that when it comes to protecting you, I'll do anything. I was ready to kill him. I tried to, I thought I did until you told me he vanished with the dragons. 

After that, all I ever can think about is that I failed to keep you safe. 

You want a family but I don't know if I trust myself to keep a family safe when I can't even do it for you. I don't know if I even want to.

I don't like thinking about killing people. But you're always getting yourself into stuff that pushes me to that point. When people kidnap you, when they hurt you, all I see is red and I think about how easy it would be to take someone else's life.

That really scares me Lucy. So I'm leaving to train for a year or so. When I get back, I guess I'll have the answers I'm looking for. 

You should train to. If you weren't such an easy target than maybe this wouldn't be so hard. I really do love you Lucy but this is too much for me to deal with. I need time. 

Tell everyone I'll be home soon!

-Natsu'

XxX

Flashback…

Lucy sighed while she rubbed the back of her neck. Although beaten up and exhausted, she was happy with the results of her latest solo mission. It had been hard at first. After her spirits found her attempting to slit her wrists with the remained of Aquarius key, they had convinced her to leave the town she had grown to both love and despair.

There were too many memories there and not all of them, actually most of them, were bad. So she packed all of her things away in the spirit world and set off on a training journey of her own. It took a few months before she ran out of money.

Not knowing what to do, she traveled to Lamia Scale guild where Master Bob let her work in the guilds club and take small jobs. Recently she had taken on more difficult jobs, by joining Chelia and Wendy on their jobs. It worked out since the young god slayer had only recovered a miniscule fraction of her power and Wendy wanted to take high paying jobs. 

But this was the highest paying solo job she had yet. At 200,000j it's no wonder there was a hidden catch. After completing this current mission she had a plan to relax and take it easy for a while, as well as hopefully try to seek the professional help she needed for the sake of her mental well being.

After all, the only reason she took these solo missions in the first place was so she could save up enough jewel so she wouldn't have to worry about hotel fees or food for at least two months while she tried to straighten out her messed up mind.

The soothing sound of birds chirping filled the air as they flew through the sky over her. The celestial maiden smiled while stretching her arms above her head in an attempt to realign her back.

She had taken a pretty good hit from the boar like creature earlier causing her to slam into a large boulder. 

The sun was slowly setting, creating a beautiful violet and crimson glow down the small path the blonde had decided to take. Lucy figured if she could at least make the last train of the day, she would be back to the inn she had been staying at  by the following morning. Lucy hummed softly to herself as she let the last days of the suns warmth soak into her skin as she followed the path.

After the Eclipse incident, Lucy couldn't hide her ever-changing behavior as it morphed into something less than normal for her usually charismatic and cheerful self. Though she constantly tried to wear the mask of her former self when her spirits were around but she couldn't hide the truth from them. Things that she enjoyed gradually became less interesting the more time passed her by.

Every night after the battle ended, Lucy's dreams started to get worse. Before she realized it, her nightmares had succeeded in taking hold of her unconscious mind and seemingly made a permanent home. The fear of facing those unpleasant memories while she slept was more than the blonde could handle. Causing her to often feign sleep in favor of just sitting alone in the comfort of the artificial light of her undecorated room until dawn would start to break over the horizon.

Lucy was startled out of her thoughts when she felt a huge rise in magical pressure nearby. She quickly leaped out of the way just in time to dodge a sphere of black magical energy. The shadow like sphere silently turned to smoke as it collided and evaporated into the tree that was directly behind where she had been standing just seconds ago.

The former fairy spun around just in time to see  another sphere coming straight for her. Lucy quickly unraveled her whip and sent the end slicing through the magic sphere made up of what appeared to be light charged shadow magic right before it barreled into her. She reeled her whip back in, preparing for another attack with a horrifyingly familiar terror gripping her heart.

"I'm impressed." A deep voice echoed through the area causing her skin to crawl. No matter how hard she tried, she would never forget his voice. But he was supposed to be dead! Why was he here and what was she going to do?  "I never thought you would be able to dodge that last one Lucy. You've gotten faster since our last encounter."