Day 3, halfway there. The guild sat in the hall, eating breakfast before training and making the usual rabble. Natsu was down in the library, doing something he would never normally do; reading. Grey and Mirajane looked on with interest.

"I don't think I've ever seen him like this. It's a little refreshing." Mira said.

Grey gave a little chuckle, "I didn't even know he COULD read. I guess when push comes to shove he'll always go the extra mile for Lucy."

Mira sighed, "I think we all did, she just had this aura of being everyone's friend."

"My thoughts exactly," Said Erza, who had overheard while she was eating some cake, "But it still doesn't change the fact that Natsu won't find anything about Lucy's magic in any book other than the one Levy found. I checked around the city library last night and they don't have anything either. It's odd, it's such a paradox in magic to just be able to use all those different forms of magic without being eaten up."

"That might be because she's protected by the amulet. I mean if you think about it it's similar to a curse; if you're cursed the magic will almost always get you in the end, no matter what you do. Would that mean this is sort of like an eternal trap? Something like if you take it off, no matter what you will burn up." Grey said.

Erza scratched her chin, "Hmm, that would make sense but that doesn't explain the how or why. How does the magic work? Why was Lucy chosen?"

"Probably because it needs some sort of activation key, I don't know for sure though." Grey hypothesized.

Erza's eyes widened at the though of that, "Grey Fullbuster, you are a genius."

"I am?"

"Yes, if there was an activation key it would make sense that it's not in the book. If, per say, there hasn't been a failure in the activation then we are dealing with someone who already knows or created the magic, meaning that there wouldn't be any trace of failure in activation. It wouldn't have been recorded in the book that it could fail."

Grey scratched his head, "Hmmm, I get where you're coming from. However, if it's the creator of the magic maybe it was intentional that it was left out of the book. My guess is if that were the case then the magician who created this is either hiding something or is after something."

"You don't mean to say..."

"Yes, that would mean that Lucy was targeted to destroy Fairy Tale." Grey said.

"That would mean it's someone who has a grudge against us, but that's a whole lot of people" Erza said.

"This is true," Mira said, "but in order to make this sort of magic it would have to have been someone who knows dark magic, someone powerful enough to create a magic that breaks the rules of magic. That narrows it down rather significantly, and I know how to get the names, follow me."

Erza and Mira started walking off but were stopped by Grey, "Hold on here, something struck me while you were talking. While we've been talking about the why, I went back to the beginning. Why did this all start? I noticed something, I didn't know why. I mean, I remember something about her doing something that was really infuriating, and we ended up hurting her. That doesn't change the fact that if it were something small like dropping something we wouldn't have gotten mad. I get the feeling that we've been getting messed with this whole time."

"That can't be true," Mira protested, "I remember everything that happened that day. I was..." Her voice trailed off as she realized she actually didn't know exactly what happened that day one year ago. "Oh no.." Tears filled her eyes.

"This can't be true, we were manipulated?" Erza said with disbelief and sank to the ground.

"Whoever is behind it all knows their magic to be able to do this. They also know memory or emotional manipulation magic. However, this is not the time to break focus. If we know all this then we have a way to steel ourselves for the fight against Lucy. We have something to be sorry for, and we know that whoever is behind this is the root cause of all this."

It was right about then that the three could hear crashing in the main room. The trio wen to the main hall, forgetting about Natsu, who was still intent on reading and didn't even notice the crash. What Erza, Grey, and Mira found when they entered the room was a lot of people. Standing in the door was one of the largest groups of dark guilds that Fairy Tale had ever encountered, Erza could spot three different marks almost right off the bat.

Makarov grew into his huge shadow form, "What are you here for?!" He boomed.

Some in the group took half a step back, but one at the front stood his ground. He was a scary, bulky looking brute of a man who looked like he had plenty of scars on him, his faced showed a multitude all on its own. "We're here to annihilate you." He proclaimed.

"Who sent you? You little fly!" He asked, fearing he answer.

The man shrugged, "Some blonde came up to us and offered us a ton of jewels if we raided you, double if we killed you all."

Makarov was dumbstruck, "You took orders from Lucy?!" Wendy squeaked.

"That right, little girl." The man said with a vicious smile, "Now give us the money!" He shouted as he charged forward with an oversized summoned club bathed in a dark aura. The rest of the mages behind him followed suite.

Makarov went nuts with the smashing and the bashing, enraged that Lucy would go so far as to hire puny thugs like these dark guilds to kill them before the deadline. As he was crashing and hammering away, a thought struck him; why would Lucy send these people before the deadline if she wanted to take them out herself? It struck him as the last dark guilder flew out a window. She was testing them, seeing their abilities and calculating what it would take to destroy them, she had to be. Somewhere, she was watching them, and she had to be close by, or connected to a focal point nearby. He returned to his normal size and called for the twins.

"Yes master?" They said in unison.

"I want you to find Lucy, she has to be nearby, watching us somehow. Find her with your powers, if you find her do what you can to bring her here alive. Hurry though, time is of the essence." He said to the twins.

"We will do what we can." The duo said, and ran out of the hall.

Erza walked up to Makarav, "Lucy's here isn't she?" She question, "I saw the twins run out after speaking with you."

"That is my guess, yes. I think she is watching is, trying to formulate a plan to annihilate us by ascertaining our powers and limits." He said.

"Then we can only hope that the twins can find her. Syren has this ability to put someone to eternal slumber, as they said. I am not sure whether or not that means death or just a sleep state. They might use that to bring her back if they find her." Erza bit her thumb while she spoke.

"Something bothering you?" He asked, "Those twins know how to deal with prey, they come from a hunting clan after all. It won't matter if she is put to sleep, we will use that time to restrain her and her magic and figure out a solution to all of this."

"That's not what's bothering me," The redhead said, "If she has been waiting for as long as she said she was, then she has had enough time to plan this out to the very second. This might be just speculation but what if this is all part of her plan?"

"Then a little of the old Lucy is still there, thinking about how we are all doing."

Meanwhile the Syren was following Sira, who had caught on to the glowing trail of Lucy. Sira thought it was odd, that she would leave such a large residue of magic nearby for them to easily notice. If Lucy was as powerful and deadly as they had seen, she wouldn't be so foolish as to leave her tracks in the open. She took a second look at the path they were following and stopped.

"Come on out," Sira said to nowhere in particular, "I know you're there."

"Ah, you're no fun my little wolf." Lucy stepped out from behind a nearby corner with a giggle, "I was hopping to have a little more fun with you before I killed you. What did the old man send you for? More importantly, how did you figure it out?" In response to this Syren pulled out his baton and stepped in front of Sira.

"I know to tell between real and fake Spirit Tracks, Lucy. As for why we are here, we are here to take you back to Fairy Tale, Lucy. Master gave us permission to use any means necessary." Sira said.

"Ha!" Lucy scoffed, "That old man underestimated me. He sent you two out all the people, at least Erza would be a challenge." Lucy narrowed her eyes, "Come at me then, with everything you've got, give me some entertainment... If you can."

Syren jumped at Lucy without a moments notice, "Weth pesah!" Lucy vanished from the spot she was standing at and appeared behind Syren who was mid attack.

"To slow." She said, delivering a striking blow to the back of his neck before he could respond. Syren collapsed to the ground, paralyzed from the strike.

"You shouldn't take me so lightly!" Sira shouted, pulling her baton out and approaching Lucy. Again Lucy vanished and struck at Sira from behind, but this time Sira ducked in response. Ducking down she tripped Lucy by grabbing her ankle and pulling on it hard, Lucy lost her balance and fell backward. Sira put her baton on Lucy's chest and input a bout of intense pain in her head. Lucy shrieked in shock at the sudden pain in her head and almost immediately passed out.

Sira got up and headed back over to the paralyzed Syren and squeezed a few pressure points and straightened his neck, there was a cracking noise and Syren's muscles relaxed, allowing him to stand up. It was after Sira got Syren up that she realized that she miscalculated again and forgot an important rule; never judge a book by its cover. If Lucy was strong enough to duplicate Spirit Tracks she wouldn't have gone down as easily as she did. Syren nodded at her when they locked eyes; he clearly figured out the same thing.

The two looked to where Lucy's body was and found it gone. Clapping came from the rooftops, "Good show you two, did my shadow give you some entertainment?" Asked Lucy, who was completely unharmed, "Thanks for the fun, but there's still two days before the fight, so I'm going to take my leave."

"We won't let you get away! Master told us to bring you back!" Sira shouted.

Lucy looked at her nails, now bored of the conversation, "Unfortunately, that won't happen. I'm not so weak as to be caught so easily. Enjoy the rest of your evening you little fairies, and tell Makarov that he had better not pull something like this again and send two runts after me, lest I get angry." And with that, she shimmered out of existance, transporting herself somewhere else.

"Wet duh weh tull Master?" Syren asked, turning to face his sister.

Sira paused and looked at the ground, "The truth. We can't simply just lie to Master about catching her."

"Chinsaveh, ehlov." Syren said, "Chinsaveh." And the two headed back to the guild to report their failure.

A/N: I just want to inform you that the Elgorian language literally is not any language at all (not that smart as to actually create a language), just a bunch of syllables I come up with on the fly. XD if you thought there was a trick to learning it. Besides that, I apologize deeply for not updating in I think almost two months; I almost got expelled from school for bad grades and I'm in the process of saving my arse from death-by-angry-parents-who-think-I'm-actually-smart-and-will-not-deal-with-anything-other-than-b's-or-better-and-then-I-show-them-how-wrong-they-are-by-flunking-and-they-choke-me-to-death-or-leave-me-out-for-the-bears-...-you-know-...-either-works-in-their-books. Idk how fast I'll be updating from now so I'll apologize in the meantime for updating slowly in the future.