Lucy's Identity Revealed

Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August, x784.

Around the time Alfonzo defeated Gajeel in Oak Town, shortly after sunrise, Ultear woke up in her bed at Ur's house. Then, after performing her morning rituals, she came down the stairs to the first floor and saw Gray sitting in the living room.

"Good morning, Gray." Ultear said. Then, she continued in a mock surprised tone. "Huh? You have clothes on? What happened? Is the world ending?"

With that, Ultear rushed over to the nearest window and looked around.

"Weird, the sun is rising from the east, and it is shining normally." Ultear continued with her act. "I don't get it. What could be wrong?"

"Ha ha… Very funny, Ultear." Gray said in a dry tone.

"At least you're not still blaming Mom for you bad habit." Ultear said, continuing to look out the window as she spread her [Magic Power Detection over Magnolia.

'Yeah, I've taken enough beatings over the years to know that it's not worth it to say anything.' Gray thought to himself. 'And you're even heavier handed about it than Master Ur.'

Just like that, Gray and Ultear continued to chat while they both watched over the town with their [Magic Power Detection].

"Well, since we're both up why don't we---" Ultear began to say .

Before Ultear could finish, however, two things caught her attention. First, rain clouds suddenly appeared over all of Magnolia. And all though she found this weird, the thing that truly caught her attention, Gray's as well, were the two S-Class magic powers that just entered the town.

"Damn, Alfonzo was right." Gray said with a frown on his face. "But neither of those two feel the same as the guy who attacked Levy and the others last night."

"Yeah." Ultear replied with a nod. "Let's get going. We'll keep an eye on them. There's a chance they aren't with the one who attacked last night. But if they are, we'll make sure they regret ever coming here."

"Damn right we will." Gray said as he stood up.

Like that, Gray and Ultear left the house. Keeping a safe distance from the two unfamiliar magic power signatures, they made sure that they were close enough that they could intervene should anything happen.

When they got close enough, they saw that their observation targets were a slender azure blue-haired young woman with long hair that curled tightly at the ends, black eyes, fair skin, and a curvaceous figure and a slim man of average height with green hair, a thin, pointy mustache, and a monocle over his right eye.

To Gray and Ultear's surprise, the two outsiders did not go anywhere near the hospital. Instead, they made their way towards where Lucy's apartment was located. Although the thought that the outsiders were not part of Phantom Lord surfaced in their minds after seeing that, they still remained on alert.

After the blue-haired woman stopped outside Lucy's apartment and the man positioned himself close by as well, their suspicions rose once again. Then, Gray and Ultear hid and watched the outsider's movements closely.

After that, it did not take long for Lucy to arrive and offer to help the blue-haired woman inside the apartment building, since, in theory, no one who doesn't live there should be able to enter on their own. Though, Natsu and Happy seem to somehow get around that detail rather frequently.

"Drip, drip, drop." The blue-haired woman said in a monotone voice. "Juvia is the rain woman. What kind of woman are you?"

'Wow... This girl is kinda weird.' Lucy thought to herself. 'But what does she mean by "the rain woman"? Does she have something to do with all this rain? Is that even possible?'

"Um… The normal kind?" Lucy replied in confusion.

"I see." The blue-haired woman, Juvia Lockser, said as she started walking towards Lucy. Then, just as she passed by the confused blonde, she spoke once again. "I'll be going now; It was nice to meet you."

"Uh… Okay…" Lucy replied while watching the unfamiliar woman walk away in utter confusion.

"Non, non, non." Came another unfamiliar voice, this time from a male, before Juvia would get too far. "Juvia, you can't leave just like that. This is the one we came here for. We have to bring her back with us."

With that, Juvia came to a stop. Then, she turned around to face Lucy once again. Shortly after that, a slim, green-haired man rose from the stone road just to her right.

"Who are you?" Lucy asked in an aggressive, yet wary, tone. "What do you mean you have to bring me back with you? Are you with the guy that attacked my friends last night?"

"Oh, where are my manners?" The green-haired man asked while performing a gentlemanly bow. "My name is Sol, a member of Phantom Lord's Element 4. And I would assume that you are referring to Gajeel, correct? To answer your question, yes, we are 'with him' as you so eloquently put it."

Hearing that, Lucy quickly reached her hand into the pouch on her waist. As she prepared to summon a Celestial Spirit, she spoke once again.

"And why would you be after me?" Lucy asked, her gaze sharpening as she spoke.

"Your father has hired our guild to bring back his runaway daughter, Miss Lucy Heartfilia." Sol replied with a smile.

"What? My father?" Lucy asked, panic surfacing in her tone. "That's impossible. I've been gone for so long, and he's never cared before. Why would he send someone after me now?"

"That is not a question for which I have an answer, Mademoiselle." Sol replied.

"That doesn't matter." Lucy said while shaking her head. "You can tell my father that I'm not going back. Because of his request, your guild hurt my friends. Now, you should leave before I'm forced to make you."

"I'm afraid that is not an option, Mademoiselle." Sol replied. "Our quest is to return you to your father. And Phantom Lord does not fail a quest. Juvia, take her."

"Understood." Juvia replied with a nod.

"I don't think so!" Lucy shouted as she drew Aquarius' key, thinking to take advantage of all the rain. "[Open! Gate of the Water--- *Glug*]."

"[Water Lock]." Juvia said in an emotionless tone as she raised her left hand towards Lucy.

Before Lucy could finish her incantation, she was surrounded by a spherical mass of water. Due to the suddenness, she involuntarily swallowed a mouthful of water. On top of that, because she was unprepared, she did not have much air in her lungs.

'No...' Lucy thought to herself as she watched her captors through the water. 'Am I really gonna be forced to go back home...?'

As time went by, Lucy realized that she was quickly running out of air, and she began to despair. Then, just as her vision started to darken, she felt as if the water around her was starting to get colder at a rapid rate. A moment later, all the water surrounding her froze into a solid block of ice.

"Even though Alfonzo was wrong about them coming after Levy, Jet, and Droy again, it's a good thing he convinced us to stay behind." Gray said with his hand resting on the ice sphere trapping Lucy.

"Yeah, but he did say that we should be here to protect the three of them and Lucy, too." Ultear added as she flicked a finger against the ice sphere.

*Shatter!*

With Ultear's finger flick, the ice encasing Lucy shattered and fell to the road.

"Ultear... Gray..." Lucy said between greedy breaths of air. "Why are you here?"

"Alfonzo told us to stay behind." Ultear replied.

"Yeah, he thought that you or the other three would be targeted since you stayed behind." Gray added. "Though, I'm sure he thought that Levy, Jet, and Droy would be their primary targets."

With that said, Gray turned his attention to Juvia and Sol with a solemn expression on his face.

"So, what do you want with Lucy?" Gray asked.

At the same time, unnoticed by Gray, Lucy's expression turned a bit conflicted.

"We are here to return her to her father." Sol said in response. "Monsieur Jude Heartfilia hired us to bring his runaway little girl back."

Gray and Ultear, with shocked gazes, both turned to look at Lucy, whose head was lowered with her fists clenched. Just from her reaction to Sol's words, it was clear that he was telling the truth.

"It doesn't really matter why you're here." Ultear said, turning her attention back to the Phantom Lord wizards. "If Lucy ran away, she definitely had a good reason for doing so. So, unless she wants to go back, she'll be staying with us."

Immediately, Lucy raised her head and looked at Ultear with shock.

"That's right." Gray added. "And why in the hell would we let you jerks take someone from our guild? Especially when we're at war."

"By asking us why you would let us take her, you make it seem as if we were asking for permission." Sol said, his tone becoming more threatening with every word. "Non, non, non! She will be coming with us. There is no room for discussion."

"Those are some pretty big words, 'Monsieur'." Gray said mockingly while taking a fighting stance. "Why don't you show me if you can back them up."

While Gray prepared to fight with Sol, Ultear's attention was locked onto Juvia, who seemed like she was lost in her own world.

'Those magnificent appearances. That cold aura they both exude.' Juvia muttered internally as her gaze flickered between Gray and Ultear. 'Oh, fate, why must you be so cruel. How can you present two soul mates before Juvia? Juvia never even imagined being attracted to another woman, either. Yet, both this man and woman are making Juvia's heart race like never before. What should Juvia do? How should Juvia choose?'

"Juvia, you must pay attention." Sol reprimanded as she was the only one whose tension for the upcoming battle was lacking. "We cannot fail this quest."

Snapping out of her thoughts, Juvia's determined gaze focused on her opponents. However, her determination was far from what Sol expected.

'That's right.' Juvia thought to herself. 'If we defeat them, Juvia can take them with her and make them fall in love slowly. Juvia is brilliant.'

With that, Juvia's determination to fight and win, without causing too much damage to her opponents, burned more fiercely than ever before. Taking her fighting stance, she was the first to attack.

"[Water Slicer]." Juvia chanted, swiping her arm in the Fairy Tail wizards' direction.

In that instant, Juvia's arm seemingly liquified. Then, a compressed water jet in the form of a crescent was shot towards Gray, Ultear, and Lucy.

Reacting quickly, Ultear stepped forward, her [Ice Magic] coating her left hand. Then, as the water jet neared her, she slapped it aside, freezing it on contact.

Though the newly created ice slash did not hit anyone, the gash it left in the cobblestone road showed just how potent Ultear and Juvia's magic was.

Meanwhile, just as Ultear deflected Juvia's opening attack, Sol used his [Earth Magic] to spawn several stone statues from the ground. As they formed, they took on the appearances of Gray, Ultear, and Lucy. Then, they rushed forward in an attempt to surround and confuse the three Fairy Tail wizards.

Luckily, Sol's trick was not enough to catch Gray off guard. Making the hand gesture for his [Ice-Make Magic], Gray swiftly countered Sol's attempt to add chaos to the battlefield.

"[Ice-Make: Floor]." Gray chanted as he slammed his palms onto the ground.

In the next instant, the entire block froze over, resulting in the moving statues slipping and falling to the ground in a pile.

"[Open! Gate of the Archer, Sagittarius]." Lucy chanted as she used one of her Golden Celestial Gate Keys to summon a spirit.

Sagittarius' Key was among those Lucy received from Elicia in Crocus. As it turned out, it was the reward from the quest on Galuna Island. Along with Sagittarius, she also received the keys for Scorpio and Gemini, which Elicia took from Angel after defeating her, as well as Leo and Aries, which Elicia took from Karen due to her abominable behavior toward her spirits.

A moment later, A tall, lanky, black-haired man wearing a horse costume with a green vest with yellow trim, a white dress shirt underneath it, and a red and yellow pair of striped pants with purple frills appeared. Also, he carried a large bow with an equally large quiver of arrows on his back.

"My Lady, how may I be of assistance?" The Celestial Spirit, Sagittarius, asked as soon as he was summoned.

"Sagittarius, I need you to take out those moving statues." Lucy replied while pointing at the statues that took on her, Gray's, and Ultear's appearances.

"As you wish, My Lady." Sagittarius replied as he swiftly drew his bow from his back.

In the same motion, Sagittarius also pulled four arrows from the quiver on his back and knocked them all fluidly. Then, he pulled the bowstring and let loose the arrows with incredible accuracy.Without pause, he repeated the process until all the statues were laying on the frozen ground, motionless, without heads.

"That was some nice marksmanship." Gray said as he gestured to use another spell.

"Much obliged." Sagittarius replied with a salute.

'He didn't even hesitate to shoot them in the head.' Lucy thought to herself. 'Even the ones that looked like me. That's kinda terrifying.'

"[Ice-Make: Lance]." Gray chanted as he pushed his hands forward.

In the next instant, a magic circle appeared in front of Gray's outstretched hands. Then, in the next moment, two dozen ice spikes grew from the magic circle and extended towards Sol.

In response, Sol, with seemingly little effort, twisted his body as if he had no bones and evaded all the incoming attacks.

"What the hell?" Gray exclaimed in disbelief. "What is this guy made of?"

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the frozen road, Ultear had shortened the distance with Juvia. As she approached, she used her own [Ice-Make Magic].

"[Ice-Make: Skates]." Ultear chanted as ice skates made of ice materialized under her feet and she began sliding towards her opponent. Then, with little pause, she gestured once again. "[Ice-Make: Claws]."

After the second chant, ice grew from Ultear's fingertips, producing a set of claws. Once Ultear was close enough, she raked her claws across Juvia's chest.

To Ultear's surprise, her attack delt almost no damage. Instead of cutting open Juvia's skin and tearing her flesh, the attack passed through Juvia as if she were dragging her fingers across the surface of a body of water.

Instead of continuing to engage after seeing Juvia's strange bodily constitution, Ultear leapt back and regrouped with Gray and Lucy.

"That girl seems like she's made of water." Ultear said as she eyed Juvia with a bit of interest.

'She's looking at Juvia so intently.' Juvia thought, her cheeks gaining a hint of red as she felt Ultear's gaze. 'Has she fallen in love with Juvia, too?'

"The other guy's body is weird, too." Gray muttered in annoyance. "No matter what I throw at him, he just starts twisting around like some kind of snake."

"If we can't hit them, what do we do?" Lucy asked with concern in her tone.

In response to Lucy's question, Gray and Ultear exchanged glances. Then, they both wore similar, confident smiles.

"That's simple, Lucy." Ultear said. "We'll do what we do best…"

"… Freeze them into popsicles." Gray said, finishing Ultear's sentence.