I ' M N O T D E A D Y E T

. . . . . . .

When Lucy woke up, her wrists were held by chains above her, and weights were tied on her ankles. Zero percent of her body was on any flat surface. She found herself in the middle of a cement room. A lit, cement room.

She pursed her lips as she muttered, "I'm not that strong, but thanks for the compliment."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She blocked out the pain in her wrists, the cuffs cutting into her skin. Ignored the weights on her ankles, even if it felt like it was going to take her feet with them any second.

Deep concentration.

And, poof.

"I'm sorry miss Lucy!" The pink ram shook her head back and forth. She outstretched her pale arms as pink fluff came from them.

The cloud like substance came inbetween the cracks of Lucy's cuffs, and it inflated. The cuffs started to pry open, and they broke in half.

Lucy would've fallen hard on her tush if it wasn't for Aries fluff.

Aries helped Lucy get the weights off of her ankles, "I'm so sorry Miss Lucy! We couldn't do anything against the boy that took you... His magic..."

"It's okay, Aries," Lucy reassured with a smile, "I put a block on you from coming anyways, no reason to be upset. Thank you for all your help."

"Sorry!" Was Aries last word before she disappeared.

Lucy patted herself down for her keys.

Of course, why would they let her keep them?

She could summon Aries only through the Zodiac's magic, in case of an emergency. She had built a strong enough of a connection with them that she was able to. However, she depised doing it. It wore them out faster, and therefore, more prone to damage. That was why she only did it in a compete emergency, and only of the spirit's free will.

She spotted a cracked door on a wall of the room. For some reason, she didn't trust it.

Actually, no. Not for some reason. The reason was that the night before, Caleb and the male twin pretended to be people she trusted. They like to play cruel games, so an open door was probably child's play.

She didn't see or feel any other way out, so she went towards the door.

That's all it was, a door to a very lit hallway. She let out a breath of relief.

Now, to find her keys and her daughter.

As Lucy ran down the hallway, she let her fingertips run on the walls. She knew how much these demons liked hidden doors.

Sure enough, one opened.

She looked inside, and found a boy cuffed to the wall, "Remington?"

He could barely lift his head.

Next to him, was a belt with a crossbow, daggers, and arrows on it. Next to that, her keys.

She quickly grabbed her keys and summoned a spirit, "Cancer!"

And thus, the crab was summoned.

"No time to talk!" Lucy exclaimed, "cut his cuffs and go!"

Cancer obeyed and did as he was told.

Once she realized she hadn't shown her gratitude, she yelled, "thank you!" As he disappeared.

She caught Remington as he fell off the wall.

"Remington," she whispered, "can you stand?"

Rem could barely open his eyes, much less speak. When he did, it came out raspy and broken, "yeah... I think so."

Lucy slowly released Remington, who stumbled as soon as he was let go. She caught him again before saying, "I sure don't think so. Capricorn!"

The goat spirit appeared with a bow and his tailcoat whipping behind him.

"What can I do for you, Lucy?"

"Take Remington to the ship, I'm going to find Luna," she responded with urgency.

Capricorn stood as he replied, "of course."

"Wait," Remington said as he was beng switched from Lucy to Capricorn, "Luna... She can't touch anyone. Rityu did something to where she feels pain if she touches another human."

"Thank you, Remington," Lucy chirped. "Go regain your energy."

After nodding, Capricorn picked him up and raced out of the cave.

Lucy ran along the walls after they left, trying to get any type of aura from her, even if it wasn't magic.

I can't lose her again.

. . .

"Damn," Rityu wiped blood off his mouth, "you always were annoying."

Gray created a sword, thick in width. He tried to attack Rityu from above, only to be blocked by bones held by the demon.

Rityu laughed, "you can't still be pissed at me, right Gray? That happened decades ago."

The slayer moved his sword to get around the bones and into Rityu's leg, but he jumped backwards before that could happen.

"You think I'm angry about that?" Gray responded as his sword disappeared into the air. He stared at Rityu with his dark eyes with anger. Still, his eyes didn't even begin to show the resentment he had for the demon.

This time, twin long swords formed in his palms.

He disappeared, and for a moment, Rityu was startled.

Then, he saw the swords cross in front of him, around his neck.

Rityu scoffed before Gray retorted to him, "you're the bastard that hurt Luna."

The demon smiled. "And how sweet it was."

Gray slid the swords together. This made them, hypothetically, decapitate Rityu.

But, of course, it had to be harder than what was first thought.

"That stung," Rityu said, rubbing his neck with the swords through his vocal chords.

Gray scoffed, "where's your body?"

Rityu tilted his head backwards. Gray had chills running up and down his spine from the way this demon smiled. Along with his crazed eyes... It was a recipe for insomnia.

"Little Luna is waiting for me."

. . .

"You know," Risu yawned, "I've been wanting to face you for a while now, but this is pretty underwhelming."

Reiki didn't make a sound or any type of movement since he found Caleb. He stood there, thinking. He knew close to nothing about his demon curse and while he knew he changed, he wasn't exactly sure what changed about him.

Everything that Reiki knew at the moment was that Risu was dangerous. Quite honestly, that was all the information he needed.

Risu smiled, "wow, you thought you could take me out that easily?"

The sword that Reiki had quietly summoned stopped as soon as the tip reached the back of Caleb's head.

Then, the sword came apart. It flowered outwards, blooming into beautiful shattered parts.

Reiki's eyebrows furrowed.

"Fine," he muttered before summoning a different sword in his right hand. "You want a fight, right?"

Risu smirked.

. . .

"Your fight's with me," Erza said sternly, summoning a spear and pointing it at Crystal.

Crystal pulled a half smile and placed the back of her hand on the edge of the spear, pushing it slightly to the side. "Fine, but if you let me win, I'm keeping the boy."

"Igneel, get out of here." He was going to retort, but that was before Erza said, "now."

Igneel ran as fast as he could the opposite direction. He knew that nothing was going to come out good with that tone of voice.

Crystal closed her eyes and whispered, "beautiful."

"What?" Erza snapped.

The demon slowly opened her icy eyes, "I still believe that you six are beautiful. It's too bad that two of you are gone."

Erza's spear made its way to Crystal's neck, "what are you talking about?"

"I've never wanted to kill you, Erza," Crystal said. She rested her hand on the top of the blade, "you, Natsu, and Gray were never meant to die. Zeref said that your bond was too beautiful to let die, he wanted to keep you and your significant others. But, now that my dear brother and Juvia are dead... I suppose we have no choice."

There was a small explosion at Erza's feet, but she jumped to avoid too much damage.

Crystal lifted her own spear, "I will kill you, Erza. And I will get that boy."

. . .

Once Jellal made it to Mavis' old gravestone, he was met with a young boy. The same boy who told him to go there in the first place, only he looked a decade younger.

The boy smiled, "thank you for coming, Jellal!"

"Tell me how to get Rosemary back."

"Oh, it's really easy," Chalice said, waving his hand around. "Look."

He waved his hand in a circle, and a small dark hole of emptiness appeared.

"If you agree to go to my pocket dimension, the rose will be released without a second thought," Chalice explained. "But I would hurry, because it's not going to be open for long."

Jellal prepared himself. He knew very well that the twin wasn't going to keep his word.

With an outstretched hand, he touched the hole. He felt himself disappear a centimeter at a time. The parts that travelled to the other side were numb and motionless. There was no sense of gravity, or up and down and sideways. It felt more empty than it looked.

However, when his eyes had transferred, he saw his daughter.

She saw him too. With tears streaking down her face and wild hair in every direction, she looked relieved.

"Rosemary!" He yelled. Even though there was no sense of direction, he managed to make it to her. To hold her in his arms.

She buried herself in his shirt, "dad, I'm so sorry. I... I-I-"

He embraced her tightly. "Rosemary, you need to listen to me."

She sniffled, and managed to make eye contact with him.

"When I get you out of here, you have to complete the spell we created to get rid of the demons."

"I- what?" She questioned. "Dad, that'll... I can't..."

"Don't worry about that, I'm giving my power to you."

The tears stopped rolling down her face, "you can't! That could kill you! We don't even know if it'll work!"

He took her face his hands. It was gentle, almost like he was holding fragile china. "Listen to me, Rosemary. Our strongest team is too emotionally damaged to handle those demons. It's different this time. They're so connected that it makes it difficult to send them back where they came from."

"I don't care." She wiped her face with her hand. "I found you. I don't want to lose you again."

"I know. And I'm sorry."

It was Rosemary's turn to disappear centimeter by centimeter.

He pushed her away. His loose clothing whipped as he did so.

She was betrayed. She tried to hold on to him, she really did. However, her reaching hand did nothing to get closer to him. All it did was remind her of how far he was going to be, again.

"Dad, please!"

"I love you, Rosemary."

When she landed next to Mavis' grave, she immediately sunk down to the ground. On her hands and knees, tears flowed once more, and dropped one at a time on the ground.

Dad... Why did you do it? She thought. Why would you do something like that? Do you have no trust in them? Your friends? Mom?

She swallowed hard. There was a reason he told her to cast the spell. She didn't know what it was, but she was going to figure it out.

. . .

Luna gasped when she heard the door open.

Then began to tremble when she saw who it was.

"Oh, please, Luna," Rityu said. "You're not scared of me anymore."

She couldn't begin to fathom what he meant by that. Of course she was scared of him.

"You're scared because you don't what I'm going to do to your friends and family- which, by the way, is totally against what I've been trying to teach you." He rolled his eyes, "you don't need them. You need me."

She stopped shaking and took a deep breath. She nodded.

Fine. She wasn't afraid. What he did to her, hurt. She doesn't want it to happen to her or to anyone else. She wasn't scared of him anymore, she was scared of what he would do to her.

"With that being said," he muttered. "You ran away. You know what happens when you run away."

As he got closer, she readied herself.

She wasn't chained or injured this time. She could walk and run, it was just a matter of how she would get away in the first place.

When Rityu reached for her hair, was when she kicked him in the knee. He almost landed on top of her, if she didn't move quick enough he would've. She hurried out of the room, and began to run down the hallway.

She gasped when she saw Lucy.

"Luna!" Lucy exclaimed. She was going to go in for a hug, but remembered Remington's words. He said that Luna would hurt if she touched another human being.

Luna saw the weapons belt and grabbed that from Lucy's arms instead.

She took the crossbow and aimed it down the hallway. Sure enough, Rityu came walking through, pissed.

"Oh, Little Luna," he said with menace in his tone, "I will enjoy your dying breaths."

"You're sick," Lucy exclaimed. She remembered the term, Little Luna. Natsu called her that when Luna was younger.

Rityu chuckled, "I remember when I took her from you. Natsu would've done anything to get her back. That face he made... I would do anything to see it aga-"

Luna fired the arrow. Sure enough, it hit Rityu in the stomach.

He laughed again before pulling it out. "This body isn't as weak as a human body. It's going to take a lot more than that."

Luna made eye contact with her mom.

"Where's your soul, Rityu?"

He smiled wide. "The ice wizard. He cares about you, Little Luna. That'll be his downfall."

Luna shook her head. She wasn't going to cry. Not this time.

. . . . . . . . . .

"Gray, I can't talk to her. She won't even try to communicate back. I understand that she's been through a lot but..." Lucy shook her head and buried her head in her hands. "I just want her back."

Gray frowned. "I'm sorry, Lucy. But I don't know that I can do anything to help."

"How did you rekindle your relationship with Rin? There has to be some kind of connection there."

He exhaled deeply, "look... I can try to talk her."

. . . . . . . . . .

"Virgo!"

Immediately, the spirit had her arms around Rityu's neck.

"No one deserves to be punished more than you," she said threateningly. Her eyes were fixed on him.

Lucy ran up to his face with a dagger she had borrowed from Virgo, "you will never touch her again." She pointed the sharp side towards him, just enough so he could feel it.

"Oh," he smiled. "I won't be touching her myself."

"Princess!" Virgo exclaimed.

Lucy heard a loud thump behind her.

Luna was being pulled down by what seemed like ghosts. They had no distinct face or body. They were just faceless, dark creatures.

"I can summon spirits. These ones just happened to have gone so long without moving on, they're considered lost now." Once Lucy was going to turn around and help, he stopped her, "they can only touch those without magic. They're invulnerable to everything else. Keep in mind that they're not real, either. They can't take damage."

Virgo held him tighter.

Luna couldn't move any muscle in her body. She was being held down by dark clouds, and she didn't know what she could do to stop them.

"What are you doing?!"

The grin on his face made Lucy want to kill him right then and there. She restrained herself. She wasn't sure if killing him would even get rid of them.

"It's very similar to what the twins do with their judgment day crap," he said lowly. "But instead, lost spirits will decide whether she's fit for hell."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked with her teeth clenched.

"If she's innocent, she's safe. If not... Well..."

"Inconclusive," one of the spirits whispered.

"Special case." Said another.

"What to do..."

"Don't kill him, Princess," Virgo warned. "He knows more than we do about this."

Lucy swallowed. Virgo was right. She can't kill him yet.

"What are they doing?" She threatened.

His smile was the most annoying thing in the world to her, "I imagine they'll have her meet him face to face."

Out of nowhere, Lucy felt an eerie presence.

It felt... Familiar?

"Meet who?" Lucy demanded.

"The one in charge of the underworld," Rityu said with that annoying smile on his face, "I have no idea who it is, but I knew she would be useful for something."

"It makes sense," Virgo explained. "Because of her heritage, she can be used as a gateway between the two worlds."

The creatures had disappeared. Luna could move around again. When she got up, she was faced with something that wasn't human. Still, that didn't stop her from moving closer to it and examining it.

It stood tall, it knew that it was in a place of authority. However, it was still. Almost as if it was examining her as well.

The shadow began to peel away, little by little. Until a man began to appear. The covering fell and melted into the ground. As it did so, the presence felt more pure. Like magic rather than curse power.

That's when Lucy knew.

She turned around.

"What?" Rityu said harshly.

"Luna," the figure said.

Luna widened her eyes. She knew this man. With the small amount of time she remembered, she knew the face.

Lucy stepped forward, "Natsu?"

Luna sprinted towards him.

The two embraced.

Rityu began pulling away from Virgo, "that's where he's been the whole time?! In hell?!"

"You are staying here," Virgo said as he continued to fight her off.

"I can't stay here for long," Natsu warned as he hugged Luna, "I'll be pulled back to the underworld."

All Lucy could do was stare, "you didn't think to send us some type of message?"

"It's not that simple," he pulled away from Luna. "Luce."

Lucy couldn't get mad at him. Not now, of all times. She shook her head and sniffed. She couldn't cry, either. Her husband just came back from the dead with their oldest daughter, but it wasn't the time to cry. They were facing demons. She couldn't drag her focus away from that.

She took a hesitant step forward. "I know, I'm sorry."

Then, she hugged Natsu with all the strength she had.

"This is touching, really."

The two whipped to find Luna in Rityu's grasp. He wrapped his arm around her neck as she grabbed it with both her hands. She was struggling to get out.

"Let her go, Mrityunjaya," Natsu warned. "she doesn't even have any use to you."

Rityu laughed, "if that were true, then you wouldn't have showed your face."

Lucy heard Virgo's voice, I'm sorry, princess. He overpowered me. I should be punished.

Don't apologize, Lucy communicated back, just find someone who can fight him off.

"I don't have long, Luce," Natsu explained, "but I can take him down for good."

Rityu rolled his eyes, "we both know you can't do that unless my soul is with my body, and right now it's doing its own thing."

. . .

Next Chapter: Rityu vs Gray / Caleb vs Reiki

Chapter 15: Rosemary's Dilemma

Chapter 16: The Dragneels

Chapter 17: Nashi and Storm

Chapter 18: The Twins

Chapter 19: Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 20: Courtroom / Mika Explained

Chapter 21: Drained.

Chapter 22: Future Issues

Chapter 23: Independence

Chapter 24: Never Forgive, Never Forget

Epilogue

Chapters above will give a general length of what's to come. This book has definitely been an adventure, and I refuse to leave it unfinished. The wait times, as sorry as I am, will be dragged out, but I will FINISH.

Stay safe, everyone.