I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does.

This is a prompt adopted from Gothic Rain (Author of Three Fairy Tail fanfics; The Girl With Celestial Tattoos, (Which is really good!) Emotionless and Fairy Tail prompts) and is dedicated to her.

"Have you guys found a mission, yet?' Gray groaned.

"Be patient, Gray," Erza said.

"I've been doing it for the past half-an-hour," Gray complained.

"Okay, okay, we found a good one. It's just that it's really far away." Lucy said coming back with Natsu and Happy. She held a paper in her hand that she held out to them.

Gray grabbed it, ignoring Erza's frown and began reading. A smile bloomed on his face. The smile on his face was not exactly reassuring, seemed to be filled with mischief.

"So…We're travelling by boat?' He asked.

"Yeah." Happy said, smiling back. Happy knew what was going on and had a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Far, far away on a boat."

"Okay, everyone, it's decided. It's six in the evening now, so everyone pack, and rest and we'll be leaving for Erystin, the kingdom is a few miles away with only the sea separating us, so we will take two boats, tomorrow at nine. It'll take an hour or two until we reach the sea and we'll be the on boat for half a day before we reach the kingdom." Erza briefed. Everyone nodded along, not just because they were afraid to disobey Erza but also because it made sense. "Any questions?'

"Great," Erza said when no one asked anything.

Lucy walked along the edge of the river to her apartment. Another mission…She remembered how all this had started. She'd been so weak then. Now she could open two gates at the same time and access the star-dress! Sometimes she would feel weak despite all her achievements, but she knew she wasn't weak. Not at all.

After all, not many people could open even one zodiac gate, let alone two. She'd not only achieved that but she was able to use the star-dress, she might as well be the strongest Celestial Mage on Earth, not that she wanted to let it get to her head, but it felt good to know that. And then she would feel the warm feeling of accomplishment spread through her, destroying all roots of fear and doubt. She was strong. She was strong, and no one could change that because she'd survived whatever was thrown her way.

That morning, Lucy awoke from her slumber at seven. Taking a shower, brushing her teeth, having breakfast and getting ready, Lucy got to the station at eight forty Erza was already sitting there, waiting patiently.

"Hey, Erza." Lucy greeted

"Good morning, Lucy. Are you ready for the mission? I don't suppose it'll be fast or easy if Natsu helped you choose it." Erza replied.

"No. Not really. And I wanted a challenge too. Taking the easy way doesn't help anybody." Lucy said, sitting down on the bench next to Erza.

"That is correct. I am proud of you, Lucy. You are and always will be the strongest Fairy out of all of us." Erza said warmly. That surprised Lucy.

"What do you mean? You're much, much stronger than I could ever be!' Lucy said.

"Do not doubt yourself, Lucy. You have been hurt so many times, yet you are here, smiling, resilient. That is what being in Fairy Tail means. You are stronger than any of us. That is not an easy task. You are not Lucky Lucy anymore. You are Lucy of Fairy Tail. You do not rely on luck to rescue you, it is you that assists yourself and no one else. You are the light of us Fairies. Your laughter means our laughter, your sorrow is our sorrow." Erza said.

"And not everyone can achieve that. Fairy Tail would be so different without you. It's almost as if you were a part of it even though you joined so late. You've suffered. We all have. But you've kept going, Lucy, that's why we love you." Gray added. Lucy felt like she would cry any moment from the beautiful words of her teammates. Until Happy opened his furry, little mouth.

"Yeah, we love you, Lucy, even if you weigh a lot." Happy said.

Lucy's eye twitched as she took calming breaths.

"Where's Natsu?' Gray asked Happy as they exchanged a mischievous smirk.

"He's coming." Happy replied, nonchalantly. And talk about the devil, Natsu appeared.

"Hey, guys! I'm here." He yelled. Lucy sighed and told him to shut up. Not that it worked.

"Happy! You left me." Natsu whined.

"It's because you took so long!' Happy said.

"But you have wings!' Natsu said, "That's not fair!'

"Okay, let's get going." Lucy burst in.

"Yeah! Let's do this. I'm all fired up." Natsu exclaimed. And they got onto the train.

They piled up into two boats. For some reason, Gray strangely insisted that he wanted to sit with Natsu and Happy, so Erza and Lucy sat in the second boat.

Natsu suddenly fell forward, his face green.

"Oh no, we forgot about Natsu's motion sickness also happens in boats. Poor Natsu, first an hour on the train, now half a day on a boat." Lucy sympathised.

"If you were sitting with him, then perhaps you could have let him sleep on your lap," Erza said, regretfully oblivious to Lucy's blush.

"Maybe that's why Gray wanted to sit with Natsu so bad!' Lucy suddenly exclaimed. "He knew about Natsu's motion sickness. No wonder. Poor Natsu."

"I shall punish Gray once we are on land," Erza said.

As time passed, Erza and Lucy talked some more, before Lucy fell asleep. When Lucy awoke, it was quite dark. But it was still midday. She looked up, seeing storm clouds.

"Oh no, Erza!' Lucy exclaimed. "Is there going to be a storm right now of all times?!'

"I'm afraid that is what the clouds indicate at the moment," Erza said grimly.

"How long until we reach the shore?' Lucy asked panicking.

"Still half-an-hour."

"But if a storm comes, we won't be able to get there fast enough."

"We will just have to endure it and hope it will end soon." As Erza said that, something wet landed on her cheek. It was raining! It began raining harder in the span of a few minutes.

Soon, it was raining hard, the rain and the darkness making it hard to see. Thunder rolled up in the clouds as lightning stroke the water. Waves were starting to rise higher, some almost turning their boat over, only their weight keeping it upright.

Fear gripped Lucy, and even though Erza did not wish to admit, Fear had crawled its way up into her heart and brain, making it harder to think.

The rain had now gotten so hard, that each time it hit their numb-from-the-cold, pale skin, it felt as though they had been struck by thousands of sharp, tiny needles over and over all over their bodies.

The lightning was hitting too close to their boats for them to be comfortable and the thunder above was so loud they could barely hear themselves think. Darkness made them blind to where they were going, which made them all the more anxious.

But the most frightening part was the freezing water that lapped at their boat, slowly sinking them. Albeit, weight had kept them upright, it also meant that they were sinking. It was too heavy. Something had to be thrown off, but no matter how much luggage or possession they threw into the dark, icy waters, nothing was succeeding.

Lucy wondered if they could make it out alive from this, what if they drowned and were never found ever again? For a second, Lucy wondered if Gray and Natsu were having the same problem, but Happy could easily enough carry one of them to shore faster than even the boat could, not only making the boat much lighter, but also giving one of them a chance to survive this.

But she knew that she and Erza would sink. Happy couldn't risk coming to get them in this storm so she didn't really want to count on it. Suddenly, a light surrounded Erza. Lucy had thought Erza would use her Sea Empress Armour, knowing it was the only armour Erza had that had any power over water, but instead she wore something completely different. Which one was this, Lucy had never really seen it before. She tried to remember if Erza had ever used this armour, but she couldn't remember any times she had. It might be one of her new ones.

She wore black shoulder guards, as well as her breast-plate, which was also black. She had a short, dark blue, above knee-length skirt from the back which got longer, resembling a cape, up to her feet from behind starting at her waist. She wore knee-length black boots, that had spikes on them. She held no swords, but Lucy thought that perhaps this time, Erza knew a sword would be useless, anyway.

Erza used a spell called 'Water Projection' that Lucy didn't really know the use of, but she hoped it worked because she was starting to get terrified and panic was showing on Erza's face as well as she couldn't control the rain and thunder which could also strike their boat, and she lost concentration. It wasn't working. Erza groaned. Despite the cold, sweat coated her forehead. She'd almost gotten control of the water, which was what Lucy had guessed the spell was meant to do by observing Erza, but it was too much as the waters were far too harsh. Yet Erza would not give up, even if she were to die by Magic exhaustion. Because she had to protect Lucy.

Because Lucy always had to be protected. There was only one thing left to do. As if Erza knew what she was thinking, Erza gripped her wrist. But Lucy knew she had no choice, and she freed herself from Erza's slippery hold. Then she jumped.

Cold water rose around her. Her body went completely numb as air ran out for her. She began seeing red dots and saw she was bleeding. She wondered how she'd gotten that bruise but thinking hurt. Even though she knew death was inevitable, even though she had jumped, she let out a scream. She struggled and tried to fight her way out. You are not Lucky Lucy anymore, you're Lucy of Fairy Tail. You do not rely on luck to rescue you.

But no matter how much she tried, she was completely vulnerable, suffocated, cold and weak. All she wanted to do was let go now. And so, she did. She closed her eyes, a blue blur passing in front of her eyes just before she closed them.

She wondered if it was an octodo, an animal that resided in the sea. It was an amphibian.

Its blue body slithered toward her, and that was all she could make out, her vision blurry, before the world faded away, as did the pain and numbness.