Chapter Text
“Lucy!” Jason calls, bursting into the office with a broad grin on his face, speeding over faster than a non-mage should be able to slam his hands down on the desk.
“Jason,” Lucy says, smiling back as she presses send on the final article. If it gets through Camarie’s final edits, then it would be published by the next morning. “What brings you to the office an hour after your shift starts? Did you just finally feel like joining us?”
The blonde raises a brow, and Jason’s smile grows slightly sheepish and he raises a hand to rub at his neck.
“I was late because I was caught up in a hot story…” He mumbles, and Lucy stifles a giggle, brushing her blonde hair from her eyes. She was due for a cut soon, the bangs were growing mildly inconvenient— at that point where they wouldn't tuck behind her ears, and didn't stay in high ponytails like the one she had in now, but were long enough to tickle her nose and obscure her vision.
“Right,” she drawled playfully. “What drew you from it to bring you here?”
His smile widens again, and he almost vibrates in excitement.
“There’s a priestess here to see you!”
Lucy pauses, ochre eyes blinking slowly as she turns her entire body to her clearly hallucinating boss.
“What?”
“A priestess!” He honest to god squeals, and she's pretty sure she hears the echo of an ‘oh yeah! So cool!’, but maybe she’s the one hallucinating from all the time spent around the man.
“She said she needs the coolest, most radical badass of all time to help her!
Lucy snorts.
“I think you may be paraphrasing. But sure, I’ll humour your priestess.” Jason waves his hand flippantly, chattering beyond her comprehension. She smoothes out her clothes, a purple singlet, light blue jean shorts and trusty brown leather belt. It was the same top she’d worn when fighting alongside Flare in the Sun Village. Lucy smiles fondly at the memory.
It’s getting easier to think about things like that. Things that involved her nakama. In the first 6 months, upon thinking of the family she’d lost, she’d burst into tears, and sometimes she still does, but recently that was reserved for Aquarius, though she is slowly working through that too.
Coping mechanisms work differently for different people. Gajeel copes with his personal sins by enforcing the law with the magic council. Natsu, this is a difficult train of thought to hold, copes with his dependency issues by leaving behind everything and everyone he's ever known to be alone. And Lucy? Luce copes with the crippling terror of unawareness by creating the most intricate and wide stretching information that the continent has likely ever has been.
Phantom Lord could've been avoided if they’d known it was coming. The Eclipse Gate, and its subsequent consequences, would never have happened if Lucy had known in advance what would happen. Tartarus was sprung upon her guild, and had there even been the slightest indication of something of that scale happening, maybe her mother figure wouldn't be dead.
No, Lucy was beyond finished with being uninformed. She refuses to ever let herself be slighted again for the mere fact of not knowing. So, over the course of these 6 months, although ome of it was in the works beforehand for up to a year, she established connections across every single country. Moreover, she had recently infiltrated the Steel Council’s informant grid.
Technically, Hayley Grant did that.
See, people may not always trust Lucy Heartfilia, the reporter. But, Pergrandian royal guards just loved to chat with Jude Bell about his ever growing wine vineyard. Rebel forces in Enya are rather fond of their Wyvern healer, Michelle Kylie, who visits once a month and sends healing supplies. High ranking temple officials in both Joya and Bellum will never say no to their Mysterious benefactor. Of course, being co-owner of the most popular dance club in Minstrel, Layla Snow, has its perks with more influential clientele.
Joyfully, for Seven and Ca-elum, she hasn't needed a persona with a perfectly crafted background and personality. No, she just needed to briefly go back to her roots as the Heartfilia Railroads Heiress. Her father, in the years she'd been trapped on Tenrou, had sold the company to a trusted companion of his with a clause that stated if Lucy returned, the company was to be transferred back to her. That huge business does generate a lot of revenue, but for the most part she lets Doug do all the practical work for the money while she reaps the benefits of networking.
Of course, in Bosco she was in regular contact with the Ambassadors son, but who was Lucy Heartfilia without a failsafe? So, she began her needling into Steel Council internal affairs. IT took an entire month of all nighters to get into Steel Council lacrima reserve servers and embed an untraceable signal. She’d studied lacrima devices, to the point she could probably release her own, in order to figure out how the fuckers work.
In short, the things work by detecting a directed mana signal, interpreting it, and sending it out. For certain types of networks, like that of the Steel Council, the lacrima devices have a ‘home port’ that all information travels through for interpretation and subsequent coding in case of interception.
Unfortunately for them, Capricorn had taught Lucy all the fun, fantastic ways to find a thread of magic and entangle her own into it.
It took a lot of effort to seamlessly blend her magical signal into the database, and only very recently was she confident enough in its camouflage to activate it for the first time, focusing on signals about the weather for a start.
Lucy is no longer in the dark. She could, if she wanted, know more about the political state of the world than the governments did, but that wasn't her goal. Also, she didn’t feel like being hunted down and silenced.
Her goal is to stop being the weak blonde fairy that was somehow always stripped of clothes. She would make herself prominent enough in the world to not be fucked with; not by demons, not by megalomaniacs who want to turn her into a clock, and not by anyone who wants to take from her ever again. Everything she’s done in the last half year has been to protect herself, and for the first time in a decade, secure her future for good.
A finger snaps in front of her face.
She blinks, and Jason has a hand propped on his hip in that diva pose he likes to pull.
“You done thinking, Missy? You’ve got an epic quest to overcome!”
She honestly forgot he was there, too busy being proud of herself.
“Yes, J. Let’s go meet this priestess you’ve incorrectly quoted.”
She strides out the door, leaving Jason to mutter something about hyperboles.
Lo and behold, sitting in the empty waiting room of Sorcerer’s Weekly, was a priestess. Her white robes almost glowed in the low light, her body so swathed in the thick cloth only her gentle honey eyes were visible.
“Starbringer,” The woman greets, bowing lowly with her eyes crinkling in awe. “It is my pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”
Lucy smiled awkwardly, gesturing for the lady to rise.
“No need for bows, Miss..?”
The priestess stood, bringing her long sleeved arms before her.
“Cassio,” the woman introduced. “I am sorry to disturb you as you work. However, you see, I am in dire need of your assistance.”
Lucy tilting her head, guiding the lady to the seats and shooing Jason away. She felt her keys warm at her hip, even without Jason in the room she is never alone.
“What do you need help with?” She asked softly.
“My sister temple in Bosco,” Cassio began, tears welling in her eyes. “Every single one of the priests and priestesses arrived at my temple on the outskirts of Fiore, saying that a fire had broken out in their temple, and though they called for aid, not one person came to them — which isn't unusual, as they are very secluded in the forests, and the nearest people are us, right at the border, and then a three day travel to Clover Town.”
Lucy listens carefully, brow furrowing. She knows what temple the woman is talking about. The one in the forests of Bosco is dedicated to Asteria, the Titan Goddess of falling stars and astral divination, and the one near Clover Town a tribute to her brother Astraeus, Titan God of rising stars and dusk.
Both temples are largely uninvolved in their communities, providing all they could need from private farms and funding from ‘mysterious benefactors’.
“The thing is, today I sent one of my monks to investigate the cause of the fire, whether it was accidental or not, and the last correspondence we had from him was something about the ruins around the temple. Then his connection to the temple was severed!” Cassio was well into tears by now, and flung her head down to bury her face in her hands, sobs wracking her body.
Lucy gasped, pulling the woman into her arms. Fiore in particular had a tradition of connecting their devoted priests and monks mana force to the Temple of their devotion, strengthening the foundations of the Temple itself, but also heightening the faith of followers. To sever it… to sever it is either to renounce your faith, be renounced by your faith, or die.
“Cassio,” Lucy said gently. “Do you want me to go find what happened to this Monk?”
The woman nodded, still shaking.
“And the temple.”
Lucy bit her lip, glancing around the still empty room. She hasn't been on a job, an actual commissioned job, since before Tartarus…
“Why me?” The blonde asked softly, and Cassio pulled back to staring at her with teary, but almost reverent eyes.
“Because who else? You’re a woman not just blessed by the stars, but adored. As a result we adore you. At this time, my sister nuns are in dire need of some hope.”
“Elaborate, please?”
“The Pantheon of Star gods recognises you, particularly the Spirit king! Most temples know of the Star Cleaver, but it is only us, the few in Fiore, that know it’s you. We guard that knowledge very closely. No one is as diligent in her faith as you, and my fellow devotees of Stars and I have theorised that you could step into any Celestial Temple and be welcomed by the Temple itself. That’s why we need you.”
Right. She’d known about her notoriety, of course, but it still surprised her that she really had an impact like this. Or at all. Many Celestial Temples were obliterated in the Infinity Clock incident, and though she wasn't particularly a woman of faith, she devoted a lot of time after the fact to rebuilding those communities, and had gained a lot of understanding of their worshipping.
She almost cringed at the Star Cleaver, a reference to the title she’d gotten after defeating Flare in the Grand Magic Games, when the King had thought it the perfect time to solidify her role as his ‘daughter’.
Lucy feels obligated to help. Celestial spirit magic, one of the rawest forms of connection to the stars, was a dying breed. She feels it is a part of her duty to aid the people that have faith in her and her magic, and more than that, Lucy Heartfilia would not be half the woman she is if she didn't help people in need.
“It’s entirely likely that Sirius was camping in the ruins nearby, and there are a lot of snakes there.. I would like his body back, if you can. And, I know that you would do it for free, but I’d like to offer you these as a premeditated thank you.”
Cassio dug into her robes, and held her hand out with three little silver keys on it, and Lucy just wouldn't be able to say no if she had even wanted to.
Aquila, Auriga, and Canes Venatici.
The Eagle, Charioteer, and Hunting Dogs.
Lucy needed a break anyways. Maybe this would give her an opportunity to really tap into the Steel Council database.
So, after clearing it with her beloved boss, who was clearly eavesdropping the whole time, Lucy got a few more details on exact places, the ruins, what Sirius looked like, and roughly how long the trip would take. Even though it would take her days, at most, Jason gave her 2 weeks off, citing her lack of ‘radical enthusiasm’ as a reason she needs a break. Which, fuck you, Jason.
Before she leaves, she makes a contract with her new family members.
First was Aquila, the Eagle, who, to her surprise, actually looked like a normal human, aside from the great brown and white eagle wings protruding from his back. He was dressed in white robes that exposed his muscular midriff, and brown sandals, alongside a golden laurel wreath around his auburn hair. His eyes were a dark brown, skin a sandy tan, speckled with the occasional patch of feathers. Aquila was available every day except Tuesday.
He’s said that his abilities included flight whilst carrying up to 300 kilograms, and being able to generate kinetic energy by rubbing his wings together, essentially creating a thunderbolt. He’d leaned in conspiratorially, and said in his unusually chirpy voice that he used to carry thunderbolts in the God Wars. How sweet. And non-alarming.
When he left, she was thrilled to feel their connection snap into place, and though it hurt her heart, it amused her to see the mental image of Aquila swooping Aquarius. Aquarius said they were close. Though the way the mermaid phrased it, she tried to drown him just as much as he tried to pick her up and drop her.
Second, she’d summoned Auriga, and the very first thing the spirit had done was drag her into a massive hug. And introduced her to his goat.
He was a short man, dressed in ragged yet colourful scraps of purple and yellow, greying hair held out of his eyes by a yellow threaded band around his forehead, and the most ridiculous red shoes she’d ever seen. In one hand, he held riding reins, and in the other he held a small goat that shimmered with stardust at every shift. The baby, introduced as Capella, seemed content to rest against Auriga, who also insisted upon being called Riga. He was only available from dusk to dawn, not during the day, as his chariot was starcharged.
He had informed her, with much glee, that now she had acquired him, she could also harness the ability to gate jump. Though, that took quite a bit of magic, so she always had the option to summon him, and he’d pull up with a sky chariot that could take them as far as her magic could last for a silver key. Which is quite a while.
Last, but certainly not least, she’d summoned Canes Venatici, and swooned right on the spot as these two massive, but adorable and cuddly, greyhounds came through the gate, one a shimmering silver and the other a smoky grey. She got many face licks and gave many pets.
Through barks that she only understood through their connection, she learnt that the silver one was named Cor Caroli, and the darker one Chara. Twin brothers. Available every day as long as they haven't already been summoned.
Their abilities included being able to hunt down anyone within 2500 km, just under half the size of Fiore, as long as they had either their scent or magical signature. Which was fantastic enough, but if they could get the physical DNA of any person, they could immediately know their magical affiliation, and identify connections between all the other DNA samples they’ve tasted.
So, with the new additions to her family, and letter to Levy that she was going on a job, she set off, eager to complete the mission for Cassio and get back to work. She wasn't as much looking forward to finding a likely dead Sirius, or the venomous snakes, but she had Gemini prepared with Wendy, Lucy’s little darling, to heal her. Her first choice would be Erik, but she theorises that the man would sooner rip her spine out than let her have every memory he does.
It might be nice to catch up with him and the rest of Crime Sorcerie, sometime this month. She’d come across them last month, and the month before that, and both times it had been a riot. It was especially nice to see Erza the first time, even if it hurt, but she was disappointed to hear that she was on an arduous mission last time, and would be for the foreseeable future.
She packed all her things, and Virgo popped out to whisk them to the spirit world without Lucy even having to ask, which just made her smile. Then, while walking down the quiet streets towards the train station, she called Bickslow.
The lacrima warmed in her hand, and pinged with several updates from her sources across the continent, but nothing particularly interesting at first glance. The most interesting thing was one of contacts from Minstrel mentioning how two of her frequent clients, which she knows by now to be Bloodhunters, are being worked to the bone. Maybe when she’s brave enough to tap into the Steel Council mana stream she’d see what that's about.
Bickslow picked up on the third ring. The mage had grown out his trihawk now, and instead his thick navy hair fell alluringly around his flushed face, and judging by the hazy look in his eyes and slightly sheen of sweat on his brow, Lucy had caught him ‘post-coitus’, as Capricorn would eloquently put it.
“Cosplayer,” he drawled with a grin, almost singing that absurd nickname. “To whom can I owe the pleasure?”
Lucy smiled, running a hand through her hair. She hadn't even realised she was slightly on edge until Bickslow spoke and she instantly relaxed. They’d gotten very close after the Fantasia incident, and she would say that currently Bickslow is the friend she is closest with. Which used to make her heart ache, but now fills her with joy. The silver lining, as her therapist (Capricorn) would say.
“Hey, Bix. You can owe it to me, when I get there. In about a month.”
Bickslow blinked slowly, smiling dimming slightly in confusion, before he presumably leapt up from whatever bed he’d been in with an excited holler. Lucy felt a laugh of her own brew. His joy was infectious.
“You’re coming to Bosco?! Oh man, Evergreen’s gonna explode! And Freed! And Laxus! I can finally introduce you to my brothers and sisters. I’m finally going to have the chance to convince you–”
“Calm yourself, Bix! I won't be there for weeks yet. I’ve got a job to do, and who knows how long that’ll take with my track record.”
“Oh, shush. It doesn't go wrong every time.”
She cocks a brow, waiting for him to mull it over in his head.
“...Okay, maybe it does, but I have a good feeling about this job.”
“You don't even know what it is!”
“Don't need to, if my Cosplayer is on it then there’s no need to worry.”
“Thank you for your confidence in me, Bixy. Now, I have a favour to ask.”
“Shoot, ‘player.”
“Don’t call me that. The favour is that you don't tell anyone that I’m coming. I want it to be a surprise.”
Bickslow groaned loudly, throwing his head back.
“‘Player–”
“Don't call me that.”
“–do you have any idea how hard it is for me to keep a secret around these people?! Half of them basically read minds.”
“Think of something else then!”
“Like what?”
She grins wickedly, glancing around to check no one could overhear, then leaned in close to the lacrima.
“Like that time after the Halloween party when you, me, and Erik–”
“Yep! Okay, okay, no more from you, Cosplayer! God, that was the sexiest night of my life. Do you have any idea what it takes to make me shy about something like that?”
“Clearly it took Erik and I tag teaming–”
“No. Shut up. I meant to be the flirtatious harlot here. Bring back the spluttering prude that was the old Lucy Heartfilia.”
Lucy snorted loudly, clapping a hand over her mouth. The train station came into view.
“You don't really want that.”
“Hah. No, no I don't, but god you’re teasing is worse than that of almost anyone I know aside from Vander. Which fucking says something, ‘player.”
Rolling her eyes, Lucy turned the lacrima away for a moment to hand the station clerk her ticket. By the time she’d raised it again to tell Bickslow to not call her that, she was stepping onto the train.
“Hey, I’ll talk to ya later Bix. As much as I enjoy your company, I enjoy the pleasure of a nap slightly more.”
Bickslow grinned devilishly down at the camera.
“I can think of something infinitely more pleasurable–”
“Bye, Bixy.”
Though she hung up before he could laugh at her, she still heard his phantom cackles, and it made her smile too. She curled against her window seat, head leaning against the cool glass, and let her eyes slip shut.
For just a moment, she enjoyed the peace.
She would never have it quite the same again.