Heyyyyy, so I wasn't going to update this. Like, not. at. all. But then I saw how everyone still favourited and followed and some even reviewed this really, really old story, and I figured that people were still reading it, and of they were, well, I may as well make it better, neh? So I did, or at least, tried...

My Broken Heart

Chapter 1

I was walking home when it happened. Many may call me careless, maybe even stupid, but you don't really expect to be ambushed by your guild-mates right after a party, now do you?

There was a thrill in her veins. It was the type of exhilaration that followed every Fairy Tail party, even if you were drunk out of your mind. Lucy, however, was sober as always, humming a merry little tune as she balanced on the bricks of the path beside the creek.

"Be careful, Miss Lucy!" The boat men would often call to her, but they weren't here now, not at such a time. Fairy Tail's parties always did run late into the night…for several days straight…Shaking her head, Lucy turned her head to the night sky.

The night, Lucy had to admit, was breathtaking. The stars were shining brightly, the animals alive with noise, and it was just plain beautiful. Being under there, admiring the sky, made it seem as though all of her troubles had washed away, but Lucy knew that somewhere deep down inside of her, they were still there.

Isolation from one's guild was never an easy problem to solve, she mused. Especially if you didn't know why exactly you were being isolated, but that wasn't exactly the case for her. She knew why. It was because of Lisanna.

"Ow!" Lucy yelped, drawing herself from her sombre thoughts. She'd stumbled slightly on a crack, and almost gone and fallen into the river! She grinned at the thought. Oh, what everyone would say about that after all of her reassurances and claims that she'd never fall (she was sure they'd all bring it up at the bonfire, laughing heartily as she huffed indignantly; they always did that when she was proved wrong).

Maybe she wasn't as sober as she thought; she did drink a little, tipsy, maybe? Following her rational thought, she sat on the ledge instead and swung her legs onto the side, feet barely reaching the water. She kicked at it, giggling slightly whenever the water would come back up and splash her in the face, but her smile faded eventually.

Everyone.

Once, long ago, that name used to mean Fairy Tail. It meant her loyal Fairies who would work tirelessly to see that she was safe, that she was happy. It meant her family. But now? It was safe to say that all of those things, bar the latter, had been stripped away from that word, everyone.

Now, it just meant her family, but she wasn't bitter about that; it meant that she still had a family, didn't it? It did, but it didn't cure the feeling of loss at all. She'd had two families before, but now she only had one, and that in itself still meant that she had lost a family.

But, she pondered, perhaps that had been her fault, to some extent too. She couldn't pin it all on the girl, the white haired beauty was far too kind for that, but she knew it had originated from her in the beginning.

Lisanna.

The name sent a wave of joy through her heart, but she couldn't deny the sadness that accompanied it. Lisanna was beautiful and kind, a sister that Lucy never had the experience of having but the fact of the matter was still that she had been the one to start the isolation. It hadn't been by intention, of course not, but Lucy couldn't deny that she had started it inadvertently.

She also couldn't deny that she couldn't blame the Fairies for acting the way they had either; it was hard to let the arrival of an old friend (one whom everyone had thought had died no less) whom had appeared quite suddenly slide, now could it?

But Lucy couldn't let them get away with everything. Lisanna had been gone for years, she understood that, but she could not just condone the type of treatment she was getting now. They were making her feel like but a mere replacement for Lisanna, unneeded now that the original had returned!

It wasn't the case, she knew, but it didn't stop the hurt any less. There was absolutely no reason to completely cut her from the team; yes, Team Natsu was closer to her than everyone except her siblings, she could admit that, but taking Lisanna instead of Lucy on every mission was a bit of an extreme, wasn't it? And the complete and utter ignorance of the entire guild toward her was totally uncalled for too, right? It was okay to favour talking to Lisanna over her for a period of time (her arrival had the poor girl swamped for ages) but doing it completely, and shunning Lucy in favour for her wasn't right.

But, in all honesty, she did have the slightest bit of luck on her side, and fortunately, there were some who didn't believe such things. The only few who didn't really follow these trends, though, were the girl herself, Master, and the few who arrived at the guild after her. Unfortunately, that meant that practically the entire guild was still under Lisanna's trance of sorts and were that way since she arrived about a year ago.

Lucy hummed once more, not as jovial as she had been previously. Perhaps it would be better if she left the guild, there wasn't much to miss after all. She did have a home to go to; she could always crash at—

A sudden scream broke through the otherwise silent night, and adrenalin began to pump through her veins, because she knew that voice.

It was Lisanna!

Uncaring of her own safety, Lucy jumped up, just barely managing to avoid tripping over. She sped towards the sound, pushing her legs faster and faster until she reached it.

And there she made a sight that made her blood boil in her very veins.

Lisanna was laying on the ground in her Animal Soul: Tigress form, but the clothes that always accompanied her revelation were torn, ripped into shreds and barely hanging on. There were four men around her, and all were smirking, leaning down and whispering horrible things into her ears. Lucy creeped closer and closer to the group, using the wall to cover her. Her anger was growing and growing until finally, she snapped. One of the men had moved his hand down to his pants.

Launching herself at him, she aimed a kick at his face that resulted in a rather satisfying crack (she had her Dragon Slayers to thank for that; her Lucy Kick had improved by miles!). The others quickly turned to her, and she braced herself for the oncoming assault. The next came at her, brandishing a rather heavy looking sword, and Lucy ducked. Reaching a hand down to her keys, she silently called for Leo and Taurus, and the two appeared with a shimmer.

"Lucy! Are you okay?" Loke called as he beat two of the men between him and Taurus in a game similar to ping pong. Lucy, from the other side with the remaining two, rolled her eyes, barely missing a punch but returning it with a punch ten times harder.

"Concentrate on your own battle, Loke, and really, do I have to tell you every time, don't play with your opponents! You're almost as bad as them, sometimes!" Lucy screamed, aiming a double punch with both arms that sent the men unconscious flying into the wall. Loke then turned, giving Lucy an affronted look.

"Princess, I cannot believe you would compare me to such heathens! I am nothing like those two Dr—" Lucy laughed as Loke was stopped in his sentence, silenced by the bodies of two men hitting him in the face. Taurus looked horrified, rushing over to collect the men off of the dazed Loke, but Lucy just waved her hand in dismissal.

"Don't worry about him, Taurus. But can you get these guys rounded up and taken to the Magic Council, please?" The bull looked torn, but he nodded and gathered the men and vanished in a wave of light. Shaking her head, she knelt down to Loke and patted his head affectionately. "Serves you right for teasing them, y'know." She sent him off next in a burst of light.

But Lucy couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing. Her peals of laughter died down eventually, but she was still shaking and overcome with giggles as she moved towards Lisanna. They stopped when she propped the girl up, but then, she heard the rapid sound of footsteps. Bracing herself, she readied for an attack, but when the footsteps finally stopped, she relaxed.

It was just Fairy Tail.

Team Natsu accompanied by Mira and Elfman popped around the corner, and Lucy sagged in relief. And then, as their wide eyes looked over her and Lisanna, she burst out laughing once more.

She was cut off by the sudden slap.

Lucy looked up straight into teary blue eyes, shocked, the giggles dying in her throat. Mira looked down at her, tears shining in her eyes and her hand still raised.

"I can't believe you," the girl growled. "We took you in, Fairy Tail took you in, and you do this to Lisanna? To one of our nakama?!" Lucy flinched, but she shook her head.

"N-no, I didn't! I swear, I—" Lucy was cut off yet again by another slap, and as her head snapped to the side, she saw Natsu lean down and scoop Lisanna into his arms, Erza and Gray accompanying him back to (what she presumed) the guild.

"Stop lying!" Mira screamed again, and Lucy watched with horror as she began to change. "Take Over: Satan Soul!"

Lucy backed away, screaming and crying this time. She scrambled back on her hands and arse, scurrying away, but a sudden hand on her back stopped her. Her horrified eyes widened as they took in the sight of Elfman's Beast Take Over and she screamed once more.

"No, no!" she cried out, trying to get away. "Mira, Elfman, I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" she wailed, but they didn't stop. They continued their onslaught, attack after attack, ignoring her words. With every punch, Lucy felt a little more of her die on the inside; she knew she could fight back, she was able to, but Lucy couldn't bring herself to. This was, despite everything, still her family, she realised. So she took it. Attack after attack, she took it. Finally, they stopped, and Lucy looked up, eyes still watering.

"You better have learnt your lesson now," Elfman growled, bringing Lucy up by the collar of her clothes. "We're only sparing you because you were once our nakama, a former guild member, but don't you ever try to do anything like this again. We'll come after you."

With that, Elfman dropped her and transformed back, and mumbled words of parting to his eldest sister. Mira didn't bother lifting her then, but she did crouch down. Carefully, she lifted Lucy's right hand to her face. And then she ripped the skin right off of it. Lucy screamed, perhaps the loudest she had that night, but nothing haunted her more than the look on Mira's face.

"You better have learnt what you did wrong now, sweetheart," she growled, endearment laced in malice, "because I'm not sure you'll survive next time."

With that, the eldest Strauss left, undoing her transformation.

Lucy was left on the ground, crying and in pain. Dying.

"Tarias," she whimpered softly, raising her hand to her face. "Tarias. Tarias!" The first layer of skin on her hand grew once more, but her healing skills couldn't do much more than that. The Fairy Tail mark hadn't returned. She tried once more, but deep down, she knew she'd done all that she could. She wouldn't be able to heal the rest of her hand, let alone the rest of her body.

She was going to die here.

Lucy cried, balling herself into a foetal position. This was it. She wouldn't live past this. She wasn't going to go home ever again. She'd never be able to see everyone else again.

She'd never be able to see her Dragon Slayer's again.

Something about that thought sparked something in her, and she shook her head. If she was going to die, she would die, she'd take her fate with grace. But she would see them one last time. She would.

"Please," she called out into the night. "Please, take me to them, I need to see them," she cried out. "I need to say goodbye; I need them to know I didn't do this! Please, let me have my last moments with them! Please…"

It took a shimmer of light, a single deal, and suddenly, she was at Sabertooth.