Rome seemed to be lost in thought for a while before grinning widely.
"I've always wanted sparring buddies." She exclaimed with a crazed gleam in her eye, looking at the three of us as if we were pieces of meat.

She then ran off, saying something about Gajeel getting impatient and motioning for us to follow.
All the while, I was making mental notes never to let Pablo or Lyra within a 5 mile radius of this somewhat intriguing, yet terrifying mental-case of a girl.

"Rome, show the other squirts to the living room. Levy and I will make tea and then we'll all sit down to discuss…" Gajeel's sentence ended there as he paused yet again to stare at the woman next to him.
I could see how surreal this all was to the two former Fairy Tail mages. I mean, how were they supposed to act now that the person who had haunted their dreams all these years was right next to them, alive and breathing?

Gajeel seemed to be going for the overly-casual act as if he brought a ghost of his past into his home every other day. Levy, on the other hand, was timidly commenting on every new endearing quality he'd gained over the years, making even the wrinkles around his eyes sound like they added to his charm.

"You used correct grammar." was the last thing I heard Levy say before we were led into separate rooms.

The boys and I followed Rome into a room with several chairs positioned around the outside, creating a large bare space in the middle where the carpet seemed to be scuffed and ripped in random places. The wallpaper had seen better days, too. The décor would've screamed chaos, had it not been for the oddly pristine pictures hanging on the wall. Whatever destruction marred the surroundings, it always strategically avoided them.

To the unknowing eye, this place looked like several mini hurricanes had swept through. But, having known Rome for only a few hours, I figured this was the room where she'd spent her fondest memories getting beaten to the ground by Gajeel.
In a loving way, of course.

"So, Rome, about my magic. It's not just rainbows I can turn into." Dylan said, bringing a chair towards the centre of the room. "If you let me stare into your eyes for a bit, I can-
"Number one, don't finish that sentence. Number two, shh. Their conversation's getting interesting. Shrimp lady just asked how he survived." Rome hissed, pressing her ear to the wall which I suspected was connected to the kitchen.

"Yet another situation in which your magic is useless, chameleon" Quentin grinned, his bat ears already in place.
"What are they saying?" I asked him quickly, preventing the fuming colour mage from starting yet another fight.

"Gajeel's saying something about… Lily? I think it's someone's name." Quentin paused. "Yeah. Someone named Lily flew him to safety. Both in pretty bad condition… yadda yadda yadda… amputated limbs and whatnot… Oh." He stopped abruptly.
"What?" Dylan asked.
"Lily didn't make it." Rome filled us in. "There's a picture of Lily over there – he's the black one. Most badass cat ever, from what I've heard."
She pointed to a painting with aged cracks at the edges. The paint was faded, however the blue colour of one of the cats depicted definitely stood out. There was also a feminine white cat and a tough-looking black cat… with wings…

"Exceeds." I said, only to be shushed by both Quentin and Rome. A few seconds of silence followed, in which I started glancing at the other pictures in the room.

"No way. Your magic can be used to replace missing limbs?" the nature mage suddenly asked the dragon-slayer-in-training.
"Yeah, it stopped Gajeel from bleeding out. It's killer being kicked with a leg made entirely out of iron, though." She replied with a shrug.

"Have they talked about how Levy survived yet?" Dylan said, still looking like he was going to blow a fuse over Quentin's previous comment.
"Did she never tell you guys about-" her head suddenly turned towards me. "Don't touch them."
My arm stopped halfway towards another painting I'd spotted. One in which a girl looked very familiar. I'd reached out to touch it without even thinking.

"Sorry, I just-"
"She gets distracted easily. You'll want to concentrate for this though, Alice." Quentin interrupted me, pressing his ear more firmly against the wall.

"Gajeel took a hit for Levy. But that separated them… then Gajeel saw Levy get crushed when a building fell on her. He couldn't hear her heartbeat anymore." Quentin said. "And she survived?" he added, talking to himself.

A few seconds later, he let out an amused snort.
"Well?" Dylan prompted.
"In the words of our dear mentor, "well I'm a fucking wizard too, you know!"" he mimicked levy's signature 'stating the obvious' voice.
Rome whistled. "Damn, I've never heard someone scolding the old man like that. No wonder he likes her."

Suddenly, both mages with enhanced hearing took a few steps back from the wall as even my ears started to pick up the raised voices coming from the kitchen.

"You think I was incapable of saving myself?"
"No! Of course not, I-"
"You just… "
"I thought you were dead!"
"You gave up on me, Gajeel! You left me alone!"

Several silent minutes passed as we all stared wide-eyed at the wall.

"She apologised. Thank god. From the silence, I thought they'd killed each other or something." Rome finally said.
"Guess we can't blame them for the pent-up emotions. What're they saying now?" Dylan asked.

Rome simply shuddered and turned away from the wall. "Well they're either eating food or each other's faces."

I was surprised when a small smile crept onto my face. As weird as this all was, and as much as it would change our lives, I knew that the biggest change would be Levy's happiness. She'd done so much for me over the years; if anyone deserved to be happy, it was her.
My attention drifted back to the picture I had been reaching towards before. Again, it was faded and cracked, and the strokes of blue paint stood out against all the other colours.

The blue of Levy's hair as a much younger version of her stood in a crowd of about 20 people, all smiling as if they were determined to show as many teeth as possible. An intimidating figure next to her dwarfed her in size, but held her shoulder as an equal. Gajeel.

But the blue of Levy's hair was surprisingly not the first to take my attention. No… it had been the familiar girl wearing blue clothing. The girl with blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes…

"Shrimp's aged well, don't ya think?"

The sudden presence beside me made me jump and lose my train of thought.
"When did you get there?" I blurted out, clutching my heart and glaring up at the perpetrator.
Bouts of laughter filled the room, including one from the man himself.

"Not a very observant one, are ya? I've been in the room for two minutes now." Gajeel teased me.
"I'm observant enough to know that you look at this picture of your old guild every day." I retorted, pouting.
Gajeel raised a single pierced eyebrow in response.

"The lack of dust." I sighed. "You're either handling it regularly or you've got a feather duster somewhere. And you don't seem like the type, quite frankly."
I focused on the picture again, trying to re-gain my original train of thought.

"You know who you remind me of? Especially with those keys you're carrying and all." Gajeel jammed a spanner into the cogs of my brain yet again, putting a heavy hand on my shoulder as he spoke. He brought the picture closer to him, and then pointed to the girl in blue clothing.

This girl…

"Our old resident celestial mage. Easy to scare but bunny girl sure had a brain, right Levy?"

She looks exactly like Aquarius.

"Lucy Heartfilia." Levy eventually said.

I didn't reply. All I could do was frown, trying to find something about the girl which made me realise I was wrong. But alas, I was left with no doubt in my mind that the girl they called 'Lucy' in the picture was in fact Aquarius.
All I needed now was an explanation. And maybe answers to a few of the hundred questions running through my head would have been nice.

"Something wrong?" Quentin was the one to approach me now. I faintly recognised that the conversation amongst the others had continued without me.

"Yeah. You've used Mary's bat ears so much recently and not even given me credit for finding her in the first place." I quickly lied, feigning annoyance. Whatever this Aquarius business was, it was too confusing for me to even figure out if I wanted to bother someone else with it.

I watched Quentin's expression drift from worry into amusement.
"Honestly, I'll never understand what goes on inside that head of yours, Ginger." He said.

Gajeel told us that he'd make beds for us all first thing tomorrow. Permanent beds. He then started talking about making us build an extension for his house to provide more rooms, winking as he told us we should earn our keep.

Levy looked at him proudly throughout his attempt to cover up the fact that he was, in fact, giving us a new home without hesitation. It was almost as if the two older mages were part of some inside joke, like it was completely normal to give a bunch of strange kids a place to call home, no questions asked.

Quentin suggested materials to use for construction without contributing towards deforestation (his argument was, "it pisses off the trees"), whilst Dylan called dibs on the interior design role. The three boys discussed their new exciting project until yawns started escaping from the mouths of everyone in the room, and everyone collectively agreed to call it a day and get some sleep.

That was 2 hours ago. And yes, I was one of the ones yawning from exhaustion. But let's face it; my brain was not one to shut up in times like this. So, I eventually succumbed to the one thing that could calm my mind.
Exploring.
If I snuck out now, I could totally be back by morning and they would ever have to know-

"Going somewhere?"

Damn it.
"Just wanted to see where we could expand your house. The boys are getting involved, so I might as well-"
"You're an oddly good liar, you know that?" Rome interrupted me unexpectedly.

I made sure to pause before speaking again.
"As Gajeel said, I need to earn my keep. I want to help with this."
"And now you're trying to distract me from the fact that you're sneaking out." She snapped.

My head snapped towards her. Usually by this point, the person who spotted me doing something wrong would have been convinced otherwise…

A smirk crept onto her lips as she stood over me.
"You know, I would be impressed by how well you lie if you weren't so damn compulsive about it. You don't have to lie about everything, you know."

"When have I ever lied to you?" I asked defiantly.

"I know you've been bullshitting me ever since you said that E.N.D. looks like the pictures in textbooks. You made me feel pretty stupid for believing all that other stuff, by the way. Thanks for that."

I stared wide-eyed at the girl in front of me. I didn't mean to make her feel like that…

"And don't bother asking how I know you're lying." She continued, sneering. "You're smart. You'll figure it out."

Okay, so I'd evidently dug myself into a deep hole here. Making Rome act so bitterly towards me was definitely not something I'd planned. And could she hear my heartbeat or something? Was that telling her when I was lying? No, then she would have copped on way before E.N.D.'s appearance came up…

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" she finally asked.

There was a lot that I wanted to say right now. And stuff that I wanted to get off my chest, too.
"I'll tell you the truth." I replied, staring into her eyes. "Under one condition."

"Where are we going?" Rome groaned as I led her as close to the sea as I could get.

"No idea." I replied shortly.
"What do you mean, no idea? You're going to get us lost!"
"That's kind of the point of exploring, Rome." I grinned at her.

She was silent for the rest of the way whilst I looked for a place I liked. That was the condition, after all.
Finally, I reached an area where sand was wedged between reeds that grew tall as my thighs. Using my hand to check if they were thorny or sharp beforehand, I started trudging through them, in whichever direction I saw the most sand in.

The smell of the sea was getting stronger by the second. The sound of waves crashing onto a shore I couldn't see filled the silence of the night.
And, as I tried to ignore the emotional turmoil my brain had acquired over the last few days, my eyes finally landed on a small, calm beach that looked like it hadn't been seen by human eyes in decades.

"This is it. I'll talk to you here." I said as I took slow steps towards the place where the sand and sea met.

"Whoa." Rome spoke, taking in her surroundings as she sat on the sand beside me. "I don't even think this place is on the Haregon map."
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I mused.

Rome snorted.
"Whatever, Dora the explorer. Now am I going to hear the truth or what?"
"My name's Alice."
"Okay, Dora."

Honestly, if I didn't have the rhythm of the waves relaxing me, I would have thrown a tantrum over how I'd gained yet another infuriating nickname.

Massaging my temples, I decided to start from the beginning.
I told her about how I'd found Aquarius' key. My struggle to summon her. How I'd met Levy, and hid the truth of the key from her.

"Lying from a young age, I see." Rome commented.
I paused to glare at her.
"You know," I started, "You're the only human I've told about this. You're not making it any easier-"
"Human?" she interrupted.
"Yeah, I told Pablo and Lyra, my spirits. That reminds me…"

Reaching into my pocket, I brought Pablo's key, summoning him.
"Haven't called you out in a while, buddy." I smiled, ticking him under his chin and placing him in my lap.

"Adorable. Now tell me why this Aquarius stuff is in any way relevant." Rome deadpanned, though I could see the intrigue in her eyes when she glanced at Pablo.

So I told her about my successful summoning of the seemingly lost zodiac spirit.

"Sounds like a complete psycho. Why didn't you say anything to Levy this time?" Rome commented once I'd finished.
"Levy would have wanted me to call out Aquarius, seeing as she knew her old key holder. And the way that the poor spirit acted… you weren't there, Rome. It was devastating to watch. I'm not calling her out anytime soon."

The girl next to me took a few moments to run her hands through her short hair before speaking.
"You really do care for your spirits, don't you?" she asked.
"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
"Good point." She smiled. "So continue with the story?"

"Well, this is where it gets really confusing." I said, looking down. "That picture of Lucy Heartfilia that you have in your house… it's not Lucy."
"It's… not Lucy?" Rome repeated slowly.
"It's Aquarius. It looks just like her. I know it sounds crazy, but-"
"What? Gajeel wouldn't lie about something like that, Dora." Rome interrupted.

"I know, and neither would Levy." I said, looking up at her. "But as I said, I'm telling the truth now. So you can see how I'm having trouble trying to connect the dots."

As I expected, I felt a weight lift off me. I knew that telling the truth about what was going on would have eased my mind. So the question is, why did I lie about it so much? Why had I gone all these years without telling either one of my best friends, or even Levy? Was Rome right? Was I just a compulsive liar? Let's face it, ever since my parents lied about how they were going to survive that disease, I've known nothing different…

"What if nobody's lying and that girl is both Lucy and Aquarius?" Rome suddenly asked, bringing me back to the present. "Maybe she used to be Lucy and then she turned into Aquarius or something. Some sort of celestial voodoo stuff."

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. Was this… was this the connection I'd been missing? It would explain so much…
Why Aquarius was a seemingly new spirit
Her reaction to her old guild's apparent annihilation
Why Lyra didn't seem in any way upset about her old master's death
But that would mean…

"The celestial spirit king is trying to cover this up. He didn't even tell Aquarius – Lucy – whoever she is – about what happened…" I muttered to myself.
"Wait, so I'm right? Can that even happen with celestial magic?" Rome asked, sounding oddly exhilarated.
"I guess. There are a lot of strange things that can be done with my magic, most of which I probably don't even know of." I explained quickly whilst my brain still raced to think through this new development.

"Hey… Alice?" my brain stopped when she used my real name. I looked up to see her smiling almost as if she was proud of me. The moonlight made the small red flecks in her brown eyes stand out, and gentle gusts of wind messed up her once styled hair, making strands fall lazily in front of her eyes. I almost lifted my hand to sweep the hair off her face…

"Thanks. For not being a douchey compulsive liar to me. You've made life a whole lot more interesting by telling the truth for once." She chuckled; her laugh was like a less annoying, feminine version of Gajeel's.
"I should probably thank you too." I said. "I think I needed someone to call me out on my shit and actually listen for a change."

We sat there, watching the waves for a bit, before I couldn't stop myself from asking anymore.

"So… you know my secret. What are yours?"

A/N: I know. If this story was a nintendog, it would have run away already from my blatant neglect. I apologise.
I also didn't cover much in this chapter, but never fear, the story is approaching its climax. And I can't wait to write it.

I hope people don't think this update is an April fool's joke. I mean, it's been months since I've been on this website. I had trouble remembering how to even upload stuff, I'm actually such a mess

But anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, leave a review to let me know if you guys are still there and enjoying the story, and make sure to... I don't know, stay hydrated I guess

- usnoozulose