This was requested on AO3 by Andromeda_Isan.
This is probably the most difficult oneshot that has been requested. I've never written or read a "characters react" type of fic, so I hope that this turns out well.
This story takes place two weeks before Lucy arrives at the guild.
Also, it's been a while since I last watched Fairy Tail, and plan to give it another watch soon, so I apologize if things are inaccurate.
Laxus' Soulmate (Laxus x Lucy ft. Levy, Thunder Legion, Loke, and Makarov)
Laxus groaned as he slowly opened his eyes, dim lighting around him. He raised a hand to rest over his forehead and leaned forward in the cushioned seat that he was sitting in. He gave another groan as his headache began to slowly dull.
Where the hell was he? He looked around, finding to his surprise that he wasn't alone. He was sitting in what looked like a theater, on a cushioned seat within a row of them. To his left were Freed, Evergreen, and Bixlow, all three of them still out cold. To his right were Levy, Loke, and Makarov, who were all also unconscious.
The dragon slayer rubbed his temples as he looked around. High on the wall in front of them was a huge, black screen. The room was dimly lit. He stood up and looked at the back of the sloped room, seeing a pair of closed doors. With haste, he went up a ramp that was on one end of the row of seats and pressed against the metal bar that was connected to one of the closed doors, only for it to not budge a bit.
He continued to struggle to open the pair of doors with no success. He groaned in frustration and pulled back a fist, intending to break open the locked entrance with a lightning-fueled punch. However, to his shock and dismay, his magic didn't appear. He looked down at his fist and tried to conjure his lightning again, but nothing happened still.
As Laxus gritted his teeth, a tenor voice asked, "are you alright, Laxus?"
The blonde man turned around to see Freed standing there, his face stoic as usual, but confusion was clearly visible in his sea-green eyes. Laxus grunted, "what the hell is going on?"
Freed shook his head, answering, "I don't know."
Laxus furrowed his brow and gave a grumble as he walked past his best friend and to the others, finding that they were all awake and trying to regain their bearings. Laxus crossed his arms over his chest and snarled out a question, "where the hell are we?"
He watched as Makarov stood up and looked around. The old man asked his grandson, "have you found any exit?"
Laxus jabbed a thumb in the direction of the doors, "some doors over there. They're locked though."
Levy stood up next and looked at the doors. She then looked Freed and asked, "are there any runes?"
Freed answered from his place next to Laxus, "I can't sense any." The green-haired man then added after a short, thoughtful hum, "it seems that this room is keeping us from being able to use magic. Laxus wasn't able to summon an attack."
Evergreen and Bixlow both jumped up, exclaiming in unison, "what?!"
Bixlow then looked around himself, almost frantically. He sighed, "my babies aren't here, so I'm useless."
Evergreen looked around, failing to hide her nervousness, "how did we even get here?"
Makarov spoke up, "that's a good question." He looked around at his guild members, "what is the last memory everybody has?"
Laxus walked over and plopped back down in his seat as he muttered, "I was walkin' home."
Freed answered next, "I was at home reading a book."
"I was going to bed," Evergreen unfolded her fan and held it in front of her face.
"I was going to a bar to get shit-faced," Bixlow chuckled and stuck out his guild-marked tongue.
Loke strolled forward to join the rest of the small group, "I was on a date." He then flashed a flirty smirk at Levy and Evergreen, only to pale and back away a few steps when both of the women shot him dark glares.
Makarov hummed thoughtfully and spoke, mostly to himself, "I was in my office. None of that tells us how we got here."
Laxus rolled his eyes and looked at the huge, black screen on the front wall. He nodded his head at it and asked, "what the hell is that?"
The others looked up at it, silence following before they muttered their responses of not knowing what it was.
Before anybody could say anything else, a voice sounded over a loudspeaker that was hanging at the back of the room, "please sit down for the viewing."
The voice repeated this one line three more times, drawing the attention of the mages. Levy asked, a slight tremble in her voice, "what's going on?"
Laxus growled at her, "calm down!"
Suddenly, the screen lit up, the words "please take a seat" in white lettering appearing across it. Makarov stated, "I suppose we don't have much of a choice."
The mages, not seeing any other options, sat back down in the seats that they had woken up in. Laxus leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, peering up at the screen with a furrowed brow and a mixture of frustration and annoyance rising within him.
The white-lettered words faded to give way for more, the sentence reading, "witness Laxus Dreyer's soon to arrive soulmate."
Laxus raised a confused eyebrow at this and stared up at the screen as if it was a person who had asked him the stupidest question he's ever heard. What the hell was this? His soulmate? He didn't have any interest in romance, nor did he have any time.
Freed whispered to him, "I wasn't aware that you had your eyes on someone."
Laxus bit out a whisper back, "I don't!" He had no idea who are what was behind this, but he sure as hell was going to get answers for why this stupidity was happening, and he didn't care how he got those answers.
Bixlow laughed, "as if the bossman would get with a girl anytime soon." He seemed to be having too much enjoyment already.
Evergreen scoffed, "this is stupid. Why should any of us care about this?"
Levy only chuckled while Loke leaned forward, muttering something about hoping this soulmate of Laxus' was hot. Makarov gave Laxus' arm a slight nudge. When the blonde man looked down at him, he found that his grandfather was smirking up at him. Laxus gave a silent groan and rolled his eyes before he returned them to the screen.
The white words and black background faded to reveal a giant waterfall. Jutting out toward the waterfall was what resembled a cliff ledge, and resting on the ledge was what resembled a memorial structure. The mages watched as a figure slowly approached the memorial, quickly zooming in to reveal that the figure was Loke.
Laxus' confusion grew, and his facial expression reflected that. Wasn't this about his soulmate? What the hell was Loke doing on the screen?
The Loke who was on the screen stared at the memorial, appearing to saddened by something. The long stretch of silence was quickly broken by feminine voice saying in relief, "there you are."
Loke turned around to face a woman with blonde hair, muttering, "Lucy."
The screen then cut to a shot of the woman's face. Laxus' breathed hitched, something that thankfully went unnoticed by everyone else, at the sight of her. She was beautiful, incredibly so. Her eyes were a dark brown color that held a sweetness in them, even as she stared at Loke with a worried expression on her face.
Was she Laxus' soulmate that the screen spoke of? He would be liar if he said that there was no chance of him being interested. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to date her if she wasn't strong, so he kept his eyes on the screen, waiting to see if she was strong enough of a wizard for him to even consider her as a potential romantic interest.
The woman, Lucy, smiled at Loke as she informed him softly, "the whole guild's looking for you." She then paused before asking, "that's Karen's grave, isn't it?"
Laxus heard the real Loke give a light gasp at that question. He glance sideways at the man, seeing that he was staring at the screen with wide, almost fearful eyes. Laxus' confusion continued to grow as he looked back up at the screen.
The Loke on the screen stared at Lucy with surprise as the blonde continued, "she was a great celestial wizard, and she had a contract with you right?" There was a pause. Then, she muttered, almost to herself, "the spirit Loke." She then looked down slightly and backtracked, "wait, that's not really your name." She looked up at Loke, finishing, "your name is Leo. Leo the Lion."
Laxus had no idea what he should be thinking. So, what did that mean? He had no idea what this Lucy woman was talking about. Loke? A spirit? Leo the Lion? Celestial wizard? What the hell did any of this mean? He couldn't lie, he was now more curious than he was confused.
The scene continued to play at as the small group of mages watched with curiosity. In silence, Lucy watched Loke, seeming to expect him to say something. Loke closed his eyes and tipped his head forward slightly, saying with a small smile, "well, I won't deny it. How did you find out?"
Lucy answered, "don't forget, I'm a celestial wizard too and I have contracts with a lot of spirits. It wasn't too hard to dig up the truth." She then took a step closer to him and added, "still, you should have come to talk to me about this. Normally, whenever the owner of a gate key dies, the contract between spirit and wizard is terminated. The spirit is then forced back into their world until the falls into knew hands a contract is made. Your contract with Karen should have ended on the day she died. I don't understand why you're still here! I've never heard of that before! I mean, that's just not how it's supposed to work, right? I know you kind can't survive in the human world for long, just like humans can't survive in your world. It'll slowly sap away your life, until, finally, there's nothing left."
Loke closed his eyes as he spoke, "that's right," he opened his eyes to look at her, "and it's been three years now."
Lucy sputtered, "three years?! I didn't even think one was possible!"
Loke sighed as he turned away from her, "pretty amazing, huh? But I don't have the strength to keep it up."
Lucy exclaimed, "hold on! There's got to be some way that I can save you! Why can't I just open a gate for you? Tell me why you can't go back to the Spirit World!"
"Don't need to save me." Loke looked away from her before promptly turning his back to her.
"What do you mean? If you don't get some help soon, you're as good as dead!"
"Look, there's no way I can go back."
"I broke a fundamental law that applies to both wizard and spirit. And, as a result, I was banished from the Celestial World for all eternity"
"Loke...Just what did you do?"
Loke turned to look at her as he responded, "I can't deny my crime, so I have no choice but to face the punishment. I'm a traitor to my own kind. I was contracted to Karen, but she died, because I killed her."
Lucy gasped as she stared at Loke in horror. Levy gasped, "you did what?"
Laxus looked over to see the blue-haired woman staring at the real Loke, who was staring at his lap, the look on his face unreadable. Laxus grunted. Who cared if he killed someone? When you're a wizard, you had to do that sometimes. Sure, it can be bothersome for those who weren't used to it, but that was just a part of being a wizard. He didn't see what the big deal about any of this was.
Loke on the screen began telling a story, however, Laxus honestly couldn't give a fuck about this Karen woman, so he instead leaned closer to Freed and whispered, "what the hell is a celestial wizard? And what is Loke supposed to be?"
Freed whispered back, "a celestial wizard is a wizard who uses Celestial Spirit Magic. It's incredibly rare. Celestial wizards use special keys that summon celestial spirits to fight or do other tasks. The spirits have a wide range of uses. It would appear that Loke is once such spirit. Leo the Lion, to be exact. That means, he's pretending to be a human."
Laxus nodded, now understanding what was going on. He still didn't know why he had to watch this, though.
He looked back up at the screen, seeing that Loke was finishing up his sob story by saying, "it was my fault and I've lived with the guild ever since. When someone dies, they're gone forever. I wish I could bring her back, but it's just not possible. The only way I can make things right is if die too."
Just after he said that, Loke fell to the ground, his body fading in and out of visibility. Lucy called his name as she rushed toward him and crouched onto the ground. Loke spoke, his voice carrying an echo, "I guess this is it. It's my time."
Lucy exclaimed, "what do you mean your time?" Laxus rolled his eyes for what was probably the umpteenth time. Did this woman not listen? Loke clearly explained what was happening.
"For me to disappear...forever." Loke stared down at the stone ground, a look of dispair on his face.
"You can't just give up!"
"...Karen." He raised a hand and looked down at it as he repeated, "ever since that day, I've been banned from the Celestial World."
"When I killed Karen, I broke a fundamental celestial law. Now, I have to pay the price. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her and what I did. I tried to stay distracted, so it won't constantly be on my mind, but it's like she's haunting me. I've been waiting for this, for my magic energy to finally run out. And now, it's finally about to happened right in front of Karen's grave." He looked up at Lucy. "Then, I'll be free from the guilt that's burdened me. Before I go, I want to thank you. You restored my faith in celestial wizards."
Lucy yelled at him, "wait! I can save you! You can't give up yet!"
Loke, however, ignored this and continued to speak, "please tell everyone in Fairy Tail I said goodbye."
Lucy let out a sob as she hunched over on her hands and knees. She then slammed her fist onto the ground and yelled, "it's not fair! I won't let you die! All you have to do is go back to the Spirit World and your life force will be restore, right? There's gotta be a way we can send you back!"
"I'm afraid that's impossible. I broke the law and I'll being punished."
"Even so...It isn't right! You didn't kill Karen! It was just an accident! It wasn't you fault!" With a sob, she threw herself over Loke's fading form and hugged him to her.
Lucy cut him off by begging loudly, "Open! Gate of the Lion! Take Leo back to the Celestial World! Please! Open!" She rested her head on Loke chest as she sobbed out, "...please."
"Calm down. It won't work. It's okay." Loke gently pushed her off of him as he failed in his attempt to calm her.
Lucy looked back at him with a mixture of sorrow and anger as she continued to yell, "it's not okay! I can't just sit here and watch as my friend disappears right before my eyes!" She then gave a scream as a circle of gold magic energy appeared around the pair, and that same gold magic energy surged into the sky. Lucy continued to beg, "open! Gate of the Lion!"
Loke spoke to her, more forcefully this time, "stop it! You're going to use all of your magic ebergy like this!"
However, Lucy didn't seem to listen to him. She instead yelled, "whatever it takes, I'm gonna save you, Loke! I'll open your gate! I won't give up! I promise, I'll get you to the Celestial World!"
Loke countered, "it's too dangerous!"
"Open! Gate of the Lion! Open!" Magic energy surged all around the pair as Lucy continued.
"It's not gonna open for you! As far as they're concerned, I'm responsible for Karen's death! They're not gonna let me go back!" After Lucy gave another scream, Loke continued to plead with her, "stop this Lucy! You're starting to assimilate! If you don't stop, then you're gonna disappear too!"
"I won'r stop until it's open! I won't let you die! What's the point in having magic power, if you can't save the people you care about?"
Laxus watched with a furrowed brow. He wasn't sure if he should marvel at the amount of magic power that she was giving off or at how stupid she was being. Maybe both. Yeah, both sounded good to him.
Loke continued to beg, "please don't make me live with the guilt of killing you too!"
Lucy argued, "you didn't kill her! Whoever decided that you were responsible needs to know that they were wrong!"
With that, the magic energy stopped and time appeared to freeze as everything with the exception of Lucy and Loke froze. The held onto each other as, with burst of water and swirling of stars, a huge creature appeared before them.
Lucy questioned, "whoa, what's going on here?"
Loke responded, "impossible. It's him: the Celestial Spirit King! What in the heck is he doing here?"
Lucy gasped out, "he's the king? He's the ruler of the Spirit World?"
The king then spoke to the pair, "hello, my old friend. As you know, both wizards and spirits must obey Celestial Law, and taking the life of a keyholder is forbidden under any circumstance. Though not by our hand, you are still responsible for your keyholder's death, Leo the Lion. Therefore, you have been banished from the Celestial World for eternity."
Lucy shouted up at the king, her anger clearly shown on her face and in her voice, "hold on, that doesn't seem fair at all!"
Loke begged her, "Lucy, stop!"
The king then spoke, "old friend, human girl, I have made my judgment and it stands. Leo has broken Celestial Law."
Despite this, it seemed that this Lucy woman still wasn't going to give up. She shouted back, "Loke's been suffering for three long years! He didn't kill her, but he did stand up to her, because somebody had to protect Aries!"
The king responded calmly, "I must say, I find it heartbreaking to see my old friend in such a fragile condition."
Lucy took a step forward and she continued to yell, "what is wrong with you? An old friend is still a friend, right? There's one in front of you right now asking for a second chance, so open you eyes, stachface!"
The king seemed to peer down at her in surprise as he echoed, "stachface?"
Loke muttered, "uh...Lucy-"
"Karen died because she took a job she couldn't handle!" Lucy continued to argue. "He had nothing to do with it! You have to change your verdict! He's innocent! Please, sir!" As she begged, more magic energy eminated off of her.
Loke yelled, "just drop it already! It doesn't matter if the verdict is changed! I'm not looking for forgiveness! I want to disappear and finally be free from this guilt!"
With a large blast of magic energy, Lucy yelled back, "I won't let you! You disappearing won't bring Karen back to life! All it's gonna do is create more sadness! You did nothing wrong because it can't be a crime to protect the people who you care about!"
Laxus stared at the screen with interest and surprise as several creatures and people, who he guessed were more celestial spiritsm appeared to stand behind Lucy, as if to show their support of her.
Lucy looked back at Loke and questioned him, "what about all of your friends? You're just gonna leave them? If you were to die, you'd leave me and Aries and everyone else here behind! Think about us! How miserable we would be without you!" Then, as quickly as the large amount of magic energy and the spirits had appeared, they disappeared, and Lucy fell to the ground, clearly exhausted.
Loke called out her name and she pulled herself up as she spoke in a quieter tone, "all of my friends who came forward just now, they feel the same I do."
Loke whispered, seemingly to himself, "your friends?"
Lucy the looked back at the king, continuing to yell at him, "if you're a celestial spirit too, you can sympathize with what Loke and Aries went through."
Loke grabbed as he demanded, "would you stop! You're gonna end up like Karen if you keep this up! Don't risk your life to save mine!"
The king hummed thoughtfully before he spoke, "hearing you speak so highly of my old friend, has lead me to think that maybe it is not his actions, but the law itself that should be in question. Leo was forced into his crime to protect Aries, his brethren, and the human girl is willing to risk her life to save Leo. I am so moved by your bonds of loyalty, I shall make an exception in this case. Leo the Lion, you are hereby granted return passage back to the Celestial World."
Laxus watched as the scene wrapped up with the king disappearing after declaring that Loke will be Lucy spirit and Loke gave her his key before he too disappeared in the same way that the king did.
The screen faded to black, leaving Laxus to continue staring up at it. He had to hand it to her, this Lucy woman had some great potential to be a strong wizard. The burst of magic that had displayed was nothing to sneeze at. He looked over to Loke, seeing that Levy and Makarov were both talking to him in low murmurs as he was hunched over with his hand covering his face. Laxus scoffed at the sight. He didn't care if Loke disappears or not, he's not strong enough to be in Fairy Tail anyways.
Freed muttered beside him, "that was impressive."
Laxus looked down at him and questioned, "is Celestial Spirit Magic particularly strong?"
Freed glanced up at him and answered, "in terms of strength, it's much like any other type of magic: depends on the user."
Bixlow chuckled and remarked, "if she's the bossman's woman, then she's gotta be crazy strong."
Evergreen commented, "it would be nice to have another woman on the team."
Laxus watched as his three closest friends talked about what they had just witnessed. He gave a short hum to himself and leaned back in his seat to look back up at the screen. Sure, Lucy had the looks, and she was evidently strong, but that didn't mean he was going to take her with no second thought. There was more to it than just that.
White-lettered words reappeared on the screen, reading out "Lucy vs Bixlow." The seith mage in question snorted in laughter at the words. Laxus rolled his eyes and set them back onto the screen. He wouldn't admit it, but he was interested in seeing if Lucy would win against Bixlow.
The scene opened to show two people facing each other. One was on an elevated pointed while the second person was on a shorter building, some distance away. Laxus could tell that they were Lucy and Bixlow. He could also see that Nastu's annoying exceed was with Lucy.
The Bixlow on screen spoke, "yo. You must be the newbie that everyone's been talking about."
Lucy stood up and responded, "is that so? You want to tell me what they've been saying, cause I'm dying to knowing."
"Just that you're into whips, playing dress-up, and you like bossin' people around."
Lucy exclaimed, seeing to be mortified, "geez, they make me sound like some kind of pervert!"
Bixlow laughed before commenting, "nice cheerleader costume by the way." His babies echoed mocking words behind him.
Lucy wrapped an arm around herself and muttered, "no, I just..."
Laxus crossed his arms over his chest, feeling an unexpected sense of uneasy in his gut. He hasn't even met this woman and he already doesn't like when people mock her! How pathetic!
The Bixlow on screen grinned and commanded, "alright, babies, time to tear it up!" With that, the wooden totems began attacking Lucy and Happy as the pair ran away from the green bolts of magic energy. They jumped out of the way of a small explosion, which followed by Bixlow saying, "too bad, normally I'd go easy on you since you're just a newbie, but this here's a war, and losing is simply not an option for us."
Lucy called back, "if you think the Master's gonna let you get away with this you have got another thing coming, pal!"
Bixlow raised his arms as he responded, "the Master can go suck it for all I care. By the time this is over, Laxus will be the new Master of Fairy Tail."
Laxus raised an eyebrow at this. Did this mean that he'll be able to organize a coup in the future? Once corner of his mouth ticked upward in a half-smirk. Maybe becoming Fairy Tail's new Guild Master wasn't a bad idea.
The Bixlow in screen had his babies attack Lucy once again, causing her to jump back and say to herself, "those flying things are really annoying." She then pulled out a key and called out, "Open! Gate of the Archer: Sagittarius!"
A man man in a horse costume appeared and greeted her, "howdy-do, My Lady, you called?"
Bixlow remarked, "ooh, a celestial wizard, so your spirits like to wear costumes too?"
Lucy exclaimed in irritation, "that's real funny!"
She then ordered her spirit to aim for Bixlow's babies. The spirit complied, shooting them down as Bixlow feigned dispair. He quickly dropped the act and blasted at Sagittarius, sending the spirit back to the Spirit World. He then revealed to Lucy that he was standing atop a toy shop by raising the toys that he had possessed. After Happy informed Lucy of what he magic was, Lucy reached for her keys, only for them to be taken by one of the toys.
Happy chased after the keys as Bixlow used the other toys to cause Lucy to fall. He sneered, "too bad, little miss cheerleader. I'm afraid the game just went into sudden death. But don't worry, I promise to take extra good care of your soul."
Laxus bit back a growl at that. What had gotten into him? Why was he suddenly angry about what the on-screen Bixlow said. He looked over at the real Bixlow, seeing that he was smiling up at the screen, clearly enjoying what was happening.
Back on the screen, Bixlow had formed several of his dolls into a circle and used them to blast a green beam at Lucy. The blonde woman stared at the incoming attack with widened eyes and a fearful expression. This caused an explosion, however, when the smoke cleared, Lucy was revealed to be held by a man. The question of who the man was was answered when he remarked, "it's strange, isn't it? For some reason I have no problem traveling between our worlds without you even having to summon me. That means the wall between humans and spirits is no more. Together, you and I have broken it down, and it's all thanks to the power of love."
Loke sat Lucy down as she responded, "power of love? Oh come on, don't joke around like that."
Bixlow yelled to them, "I know you, you're Loke!"
Loke stared back at him with a serious expression as he spoke once again, "so, the time has come to fulfill my promise, huh?"
Lucy exclaimed, "thanks, Loke!"
"Well, what do you know, so you were a celestial spirit," Bixlow mused, "I've kept your secret all this time, and this is the thanks I get?"
Lucy then questioned how he knew, which Happy answered by explaining Bixlow's ability to see souls, something that celestial spirits apparently lack. The two men engaged in a short back in forth argument before go back into a fight. Loke and Lucy did a good job at fighting the dolls, with Lucy even being able to jump to where Bixlow was standing and nearly take him out with her whip a couple of times.
This lead to Bixlow removing his mask to use Figure Eyes on his opponents. Laxus clenched his fists on his arms. He was silently hoping that Lucy would win, the reason for this being unknown to him.
Happy explained what Figure Eyes did while Loke and Lucy closed their eyes to avoid the effects. Bixlow then laughed and mocked as he had his babies attack the pair, trying to get them to open their eyes.
Loke quickly formed a plan and instructed Lucy to open her eyes and hit Bixlow as hard as she could when he gave her the signal. After slight resistance, Lucy agreed to the instructions. Loke quickly used a spell to blind Bixlow before Lucy wrapped the Thunder Legion memeber in her whip. The battle was ended when Loke gave a short speech and blasted Bixlow across Magnolia.
The screen faded to black and Laxus glanced at the real Bixlow, already annoyed by his complaining that he got beaten by a cheerleader and a lion cub. Laxus looked down at Freed when he heard the man ask, "what did you think, Laxus?"
The dragon slayer looked back up at the black screen as he thought about what he had watched. The fight didn't go how he would have liked it to, Lucy wasn't as strong as he was expecting, but she did, nonetheless, defeat a member of the Thunder Legion. That was no small feat, even if she did have help.
His thoughts were interupted when the doors opened with a bang, drawing the attention of the mages. Laxus muttered his answer, "we'll see when I meet her." He then made his way to the now-open doors.
He was stopped when he heard his grandfather say from behind him, "we will speak once we get back to Fairy Tail, Laxus."
Laxus glared down at Makarov for a few moments before he scoffed and turned back around, muttering, "whatever" before he continued to leave the theater.
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I hope that this turned out well. I'm sorry that the Bixlow vs Lucy fight wasn't as long/detailed as the Loke's rescue scene. I didn't want this oneshot to get too long. I was also getting tired by the time I got to the fight.
