"What do you mean we are breaking up team Natsu?!" Lucy yelled, catching the attention of all her guild mates. "All of us have gotten offers for other things, so all of us are leaving." Erza replied coldly.
"But then I will be lonely without all you guys." Lucy mumbled, a tear dropping from her eye. Erza softened. "You will do fine without us. You still have Mira and Laxus and even Macarov." Erza said. "There's no need to cry."
Lucy nodded as her friends left the guild that day. Never to return.

"What?!" Macarov cried out. " Lucy. Just because team Natsu has broken up, doesn't mean that you should just quit Fairy Tail!"
Lucy flinched. "I've made my decision. I won't come back until I am stronger. It's not because of them. I just don't think that I will be able to come back anytime soon. I am weak and I want to fix that."
"Lucy. You are not weak." The sixth master paused for a moment. "But It's your choice and I will not stop you. We will wait for your return." Lucy smiled. "But I'm afraid that day may never come. You see, before I come back to the guild there is something I need to do."
Lucy paused for a moment.
"Something I may not return from alive."
"What do you mean, Lucy?" Macarov asked. "I mean that I am going to join in on the search for END. And I have reason to believe that I might not come back alive." Lucy answered. Macarov was a bit shocked at first, but nodded his head. "I understand. Be careful." He added before Lucy walked through the doors of Fairy Tail.

After a week of training on Tenrou Island, Natsu and Happy started to think about the guild. "I bet I'll be able to beat Erza when we get back." Natsu predicted. "Aye! You can lay a smack down on her!" Happy answered enthusiastically. (I'm sorry!)
Meanwhile, on the shores of the island, Lucy was lying on the sand. "I should've taken a bigger boat." She muttered to herself as she looked at the wood starting to pile up on the shore. When she had sailed toward Tenrou Island, she hadn't expected that giant wave to knock her boat over and destroy it.
She picked herself up and dusted off all the sand. She had figured that Tenrou would be a good place to train without any interruptions, since it was a deserted island and most people didn't know about it. She would have to go back to the mainland after she had perfected the use of her current keys. She wanted to be able to collect more, even powerful, keys. She had heard a rumor about some rare keys that were supposedly really powerful: the eight platinum keys of the planets. END was supposed to be a very powerful opponent, so she would need to become much more powerful. She marched into the large forest, off to find supplies to survive.
Soon, she stumbled upon an abandoned village. "Hmm... I wonder why this is here..." She mumbled to herself. Some buildings were still standing, so she stepped inside one of them. It was covered in dust and grime. This would be the perfect place to stay for the night. She looked through the cupboards and found a couple of eating utensils.
"Time to find some food..." Lucy muttered. Then she caught herself. "No, Lucy!" She told herself. "This was your idea, so you can't get mad at the consequences! You knew this would happen and you're still complaining!" She scolded herself as she went back into the dense forest (Ha! Kinda like Natsu!)
She suddenly heard a voice speak out. It sounded like... Natsu.
"Natsu?" Lucy spoke. As she moved aside some brush, revealing Natsu and Happy. "Hey, Lucy! What are you doing here?" He asked. "I was going to ask you the same thing! I came here because I want to get better with my spirits. And get some peace and quiet away from the guild! But since you're here, I can cross out peace and quiet..." Lucy answered slightly annoyed.
Natsu smiled. "This is where Happy and I decided to do our training for the year!" He said enthusiastically. "Aye, sir!" Happy yelled. "I'm only going to stay here for a month or two, though." Lucy stated. "Hmm? Why?" He asked. "I want to find the eight platinum keys." Lucy answered.
"I thought you said there were only the gold and silver keys?" Natsu continued. "I heard a rumor about the platinum keys. This is new though. I only heard about them a couple of days ago." Lucy answered.
The Eight Platinum Keys... Lucy's thoughts trailed off with that. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune... Some of the most powerful Celestial spirits in all of Earthland...