In a place, cold and dark and completely emitting a dark prowess. Dark robed men and women wandered around the compound in their symboled masks, speaking, gossiping, preparing the special event approaching in a few months time, according to Lady Evanora's "grand" plan.

"Mother? May I enter?" Ivory rapped her knuckles against the metallic door of her mother's quarters.

A minute or two passed without an answer. Ivory could hear the suffocation of her mother's latest...squeeze, you could say. She felt his heart stop as his life force was drained from his body. The man was a mere follower of The Father. He held no importance at all, no important role within the facility. Ivory cringed at another life lost to her mother's insufferable hunger, which as she puts it "needs to be taken care of twice a month." First, she uses lust through her forbidden Seduction Magic and then she rips the man's soul from his lips using her Soul Drain. The Seduction Magic was merely a tool, a decoy. The Soul Drain is much more devastating than it actually sounds. Ivory never knew why her mother stole the souls of many men, and she couldn't quite ask randomly.

"Enter."

The metal door creaked open. The back of the red-tinted room, in the center of the wall, there lay the corpse of the follower with Ivory's mother within scanty undergarments, sitting atop the body, licking her rosy lips as if she finished a delectable meal.

"Mmm..." She moaned with satisfaction, popping her index finger from her lips rather loudly. "He was rather delicious."

"Must you eat the Followers, Mother?" Ivory nearly cringed as her violet-haired mother slipped off the dead body and onto the floor, flaunting her very voluptuous body that was barely clothed.

"It is a necessary sacrifice, Darling, " She replied, taking a black satin robe from the bedpost and wrapping it around her body. "Have you any amends?" She looked at her daughter.

Ivory closed the door behind her. "No, " The woman breathed out almost too quietly before speaking up, louder this time. "But I caught wind of something perhaps even be more intriguing."

"Oh?" The older woman hummed sinisterly as she gracefully plopped into her velvet armchair just a few feet away from the fireplace. The flames' glow cascades over the woman, giving her skin a reddish gleam. "Do tell me about this intriguing find."

Ivory inhaled deeply and breathed out, "It's Igneel's son."

The older woman tensed upon hearing the name. Oh, how long-forgotten obstacles come to reminisce within her mind. The room suddenly became cold and dimmed. Her crimson eyes narrowed dangerously at her daughter to this information.

"He, too, is after the Heartfilia girl."

~

Obnoxious laughter fills the room, it was very loud in my ears. But I doubt my ears are any better than the dragon slayers'. My lungs are painfully wheezing out every ounce of air they had. My body shook with each giggle turned laugh.

"Why are you so stupid?" I chortle at Sting and his Exceed.

"I'm not stupid!" He defends poorly.

"You picked a fight with a porcupine!" I laugh out, picking up my glass of water.

"It was antagonizing me! You would've done the same thing!" Sting puffs his reddening cheeks out.

"I really wouldn't have, " I deadpan. "I'm smart enough to know they shoot quills."

"He found that out real quick, " Rogue smirked with amusement, sipping his drink. "He still has the scars."

Cobra snorts with a sharp chuckle, "Dumbass."

"What'd you say, Freak?!" Sting exclaimed at Cobra.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you not hear me the first time, Dumbass?" Cobra taunted Sting with a growing smirk.

"Alright! Cool it, guys! I don't want any fighting in my apartment." I say, which makes Sting sit back down. "Thank you." I breathe out.

"Anyone want more?" Yukino asks, holding out the plate of beef tips and a bowl of brown rice.

"No thank you, " I shake my head at her offer, causing her to go on to the others. "But, do we have any of those hot stuff left?" My eyebrows go up in hope.

"I'm afraid not, Lucy-san, " Yukino giggled. "You've eaten all the spicy beef."

"But there was a giant thing of them!" I pout disappointed.

"You completely hogged out, Lucy!" Happy suddenly piped up from his spot next to me. He insisted on staying after Makarov left, meaning he latched himself onto me and refused to leave and he used his claws. Furball nearly ripped my shirt. But, I'm glad Makarov allowed Happy to stay with me, he was the support I needed to stay together.

"Wha-?! N-no I didn't..." I trail off, thinking about it. I bump my forehead on the table is misery.

I ate it all...?! I cry crocodile tears, pouting about my loss of food. But, now that I think about it, I've been wanting hot and spicy foods lately. Yes, don't correct me. I know they're weird cravings. I haven't thought much about them, and I should probably stop eating the hot stuff, it comes back and bites me in the ass at night with painful heartburn.

"Are you seriously moping?" Midnight says giving me an annoyed side-glance.

I lift my head and glare at him. "Yes. My food is gone."

"You're weird." Cobra chortles chugging this drink our guests brought, I couldn't drink it because it had alcohol in it.

"Aren't we all?" I spout sarcastically grabbing my glass of water and gulped the rest of it down, gasping out for air after the liquid rushed into my esophagus. "Oh, man. I wish I could drink." I whimper looking at Cobra's cup, which was empty but some of the alcohol residing in the bottom.

"You can, " Sting chimed in. "In ten months." He added mischievously.

"Ten?" Yukino looked at her teammate. "I thought it was nine?"

I sigh, hitting my head on the table again. "It is. Ugh! I don't even know anymore! I need a doctor!!" I whine loudly.

"Actually, I think I know someone!" Sting says, lightbulb-ing while exclaiming.

"I doubt that--"

"She's actually Orga's mom! Uh...what's her name again?"

I lift my head, my brain sparking to life, remembering the bubbly teal-afro woman with a kind face. She's a baby doctor?

"Cora...?" I suggest, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah, actually. How'd you know?" Sting and the others look at me.

"Um, I guess we met the night you mistook me for..." I reluctantly pause, but I manage to croak out the rest. "Someone else. I got sick and we met in the bathroom."

"Oh! So that's why you were taking so long!" Midnight laughed, actually laughed. It surprised us all. It wasn't the cold, dark, and mean chuckle he usually snorts out, but a nice, friendly and amused laugh. It was nice. "And here I thought, after all this time, you were screwing around."

"Lushie...he's scaring me..." Happy shrinks into my arms as he sees Midnight be cheery.

That was gone as soon as Happy said it. Midnight glared at the feline fiercely, "I'll show you scary, you mangy tomcat!" He growled, holding up a finger with a tiny glowing magic circle sat on his fingertip.

"Ah, ah!" I hiss out, shielding my friend with my forearms. "Don't make me ground you!" I warn, squinting a glare at the emo man.

"Gr-ground me? Are you kidding? What are you? Five? You can't ground me! I'm a man!" Midnight sputtered out, the magic circle disappearing as he slapped the table with his hands.

"Well you sure aren't acting like one now, are you?" I shot back.

"Alright! Calm down, everyone! This stress isn't good for you or the baby, Lucy-san, " Yukino silenced us sternly. "We also mustn't fight at the dinner table."

"Says who?" Cobra made the mistake of speaking out, and immediately, the two dragon slayers across from us paled, Sting sweating bullets with Lector.

"I did. Do you have a problem with it, snake boy?" Yukino gained this expression I never seen her wear before. Her eyes were like Mira's when she was in Satan Soul. Her eyes shadowed, but you could still see her eyes.

"Tch." Cobra rolled his eye, leaning back, propped up by a straightened arm.

"Anyway, Lucy-san, " Yukino looked at me, returned to her cheery smile and kind gesture. "I can ask her to make an appointment for you, if you want."

"Can you? I-I mean, she won't mind?"I curse myself for stuttering.

"I'm sure she won't! She specializes in pregnancies, after all!"

"You're an angel, Yukino!" I say, smiling brightly.

"Does this mean we don't have to go back to that mean old lady in the forest anymore?" Midnight said, hope dripping from his voice.

"Oh, that's right! The one who hates us, right?" Sting nodded his question out, scratching his chin.

"That's her!" Happy giggled. "She just hates humans."

"Why?"

I shake my head, chuckling. "She says it's because we're foolish, ugly, and stupid."

"That's a stupid reason!"

"Well, I don't blame her for not liking humans, some of us are so rude and arrogant." Yukino mused, rubbing her chin in consideration.

"You're not supposed to agree with an old hag hiding in a tree, Yuki!" Sting said, pouting with his arms crossed over his chest.

"But I am." Yukino giggled mischievously.

~

In the abyss of the Father, as always, Followers wandered the hidden territory in their masks and robes, trying to make themselves look useful. Some had a purpose of being a Follower, and some were in for the thrill of blood. Most of these people were victims of the Tower of Heaven, some tried to go down different paths, and the rest who couldn't deny the trauma that swallowed them into darkness, drinking the evil being hand-fed to them, killing under whispered commands soullessly.

On a balcony that had no real view, there sat Ivory on the balustrade, legs over the edge and no care if she happened to fall or not. It wasn't her biggest concern. Ivory likes to be alone when she casts her mind into the near-present and future, fewer distractions.

"I see now." Ivory frowned grimly, staring off into the patch of pitch black, her eyes giving off this ominous golden glow, blinking like a hummingbird's wings in which would be slow to the human eyes.

Footsteps sounded from somewhere within the room the balcony lead to. A Follower entered the room almost quietly, but no one could sneak up on Ivory. The woman could sense a tiny desert mouse from a mile away. Any Follower would tell it true, Ivory's sensory magic was truly accurate and near terrifying.

The woman sighs, her eyes returning their original shade of amber. Her body shifts around on the balustrade, now facing the Follower with a frown.

"Lady Ivory, what have you foreseen?" A robbed follower knelt down before the woman, ducking her head in respect.

At first, Ivory didn't respond. Her mother was very unpredictable to point of her hesitating on even giving the information of her premonition. Blood is always shed, and quite frankly, Ivory hated the color red. It sickened her, yet she is always ended up drenched in another's battle sweat.

"Send word to Mother, Girl." The lavender-haired beaut waved the masked girl, making her jolt in either fear or the jump to run and hurry back as fast as her legs could carry her.

"I have incredible news."

🤗

~