Oh, look at that, I'm updating on time! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for keeping this promise. Thank you to the support!

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05| EDGAR 

It was a new day in the newly established Sakamaki Manor that was previously known as the Heartfilia Estate. The change of name hardly bothered Lucy, surprisingly. She just requested that her parents' gravestones and burial ground be left alone, which was allowed.

Reiji was pleased that the reward money from the job Ayato, Lucy, and Subaru took was enough to actually last a while if they used it smartly, and since he was ahead of all financial situations, they would be set for a month or so.

At the moment, Lucy Heartfilia was sitting in the very library she spent most of her time in as a child. Around her were all the books she never got to in her education, books she never wanted to look at or read again. Yet Reiji wouldn't have any of it.

"Reiji-sama, are you sure that me continuing my education as a heiress is what I have to do?" Lucy asks. She would study anything, but this was something she had not wanted to ever go back to.

Only the look in Reiji's red eyes made Lucy shut her mouth, the look being the same one her father once gave her. It was funny, how she wasn't scared of the abuse, the biting, the pain these men brought her. Yet one look could have her quiet, because the look was the very look that made her feel as alone as ever.

"You are an heiress, and you will be married to one of my brothers or myself. Therefore, you must be fit to be a wife and continue these studies to the offspring you will produce." Reiji simply stated, as if it was the most obvious thing.

Offspring, wife, married were the only words Lucy actually heard in that sentence. Everything else she tuned out. She hated it, this life of nothingness. In the beginning, she thought she could run away, that maybe just maybe someone would come to her aid.

Only she had come to the harsh reality of what her life was, she was completely and utterly alone. Her life was decided for, her family was gone. In her heart, the emptiness was anger and pent up hate. She hated how easily she was left behind, how she was forgotten, how they didn't even blink an eye to come and visit or write to her.

Lucy Heartfilia was nothing. Just a girl who was left behind, a girl who saved her family to be left. A girl who fell in love just to lose that love. A girl whose heart had too much pain to even care anymore. Her life would be simple. She would marry, she would be safe and cared for and in return she bare children for a man she didn't love.

"Yes." Lucy whispered, ignoring the look Reiji gave her since she would always mutter a comment under her breath.

He sat in silent contentment that the woman in front of him was slowly accepting her fate, seeing the fight slowly leave her body in a way he didn't expect to gain so much pride.

Of course, it was ruined by the doorbell ringing, followed by the awful stench of the half-bloods his father had to send to live with them. The reason was still unknown to him, which made Reiji trust the damn half-bloods less than he originally had, which was pretty much nonexistent trust.

"You stay here and continue your studies. If you're not done with the readings assigned tonight, I will personally punish you." Reiji tells Lucy, feeling her brown eyes bore into the back of his head as he walked towards the door. Yet he stopped right before leaving and looked over his shoulder. "Is that understood, Miss Heartfilia?"

Lucy sighed again, looking down at the damn book in front of her and nodded. "Yes, Reiji-sama."

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Ayato glared at the four filthy half-bloods in front of him in pure and utter hate. His green eyes full of disgust as he stared at the vile trash before him that dared taint his presence. It wasn't like the four half-bloods greeted him any friendlier.

"What the hell are they doing here!?" Ayato spat, his distaste strong. He hated these four with everything in his being, mostly because he believed he was better than them. Yet they took Yui once, and now they were obviously here to take Lucy from them too. Filthy half-bloods.

"We were told to come here." Ruki replied, almost as emotionless as Ruki. Honestly, Ayato believed if the two were different vampire status, that being Reiji and Ruki, they would be friends or people with the same interest.

Literally. Ayato thought both were boring but prefered his brother, and that was saying something because they all hated one another.

"That man gave them no choice, and us no choice." Shuu muttered from his spot, annoyed with all the noise everyone was making at the moment. The fuss of the Mukami's was honestly over rated for the blonde pureblood, and he was over it.

"For once, we will have to deal with it." Reiji sighed, giving the four half-bloods a look. "None of like this situation, but we will accommodate it. Though I must be clear with you four. Do not touch or go near Miss Heartfilia, she is not yours to talk to or touch."

Kou couldn't help but chuckle. "He mentioned that name. Lucy?" The blonde said the name too cheerfully for anyone's liking, which started a round of insults from both parties, including Kanato and Azusa.

It was tense for a moment, until Yui came into the room hearing all the commotion. She took in the extra four vampires, a bit surprised to actually see them here in the living room of the new Sakamaki Estate.

"Ah! M neko-chan!" Kou teleported in front of the platinum blonde, grinning. "Still looking as cute and edible as before!"

"Oi! Don't touch what belongs to Yours Truly you filthy half breed!" Ayato snarled, teleporting behind Yui and gripping Kou's wrist before he could touch Yui.

Kou dropped his cheerful persona, his blue eyes narrowing at the pure blood that gripped his wrist. This man, oh Kou really hated. In fact, it was stupid because everyone in this room hated each other.

"Sow is still as scared as ever." Yuma chuckled, knowing well that Ruki and Reiji wouldn't let this get out of hand due to the fact they both wanted to impress that man more than they let on.

Once again, the doors open, but this time they were slammed against the wall which caused silence to fall in the room. In the doorway stood a blonde, whose eyes were on alert and taking in the situation as if calculating what to do next, but before anyone could say anything the blonde's brown eyes fell on one particular person and widen in surprise.

"Edgar?" Lucy muttered under her breath, causing Shuu to snap his attention to her. How the hell does she know that name?

Yet her eyes weren't on Shuu, they were completely on Yuma, much to most of the Sakamaki males disliking. Lucy was now taking slow, tentative steps towards the towering half blood, who tried to glare his way at her and looked away when she didn't even bat an eye.

Yet there was something strange about the blonde in front of him, a feeling like he actually knew her but couldn't remember. A feeling that he never felt before as a vampire.

"Edgar." She called again, now placing her hand on his cheek and forcing him to look at her. There was a low growl from around them when his brown eyes focused on hers, the Sakamaki's not liking how familiar Lucy seemed to be with Yuma.

"Oi, Melons! Stop touching him and pay attention to Ore-sama!" Ayato shouted, crossing his arms as he moved closer to Lucy than Yui now.

"Your face is the same from when we were children." Lucy whispered, ignoring Ayato as she felt the tears prick in her eyes. "I thought you were dead, Edgar."

It was then Yuma growled; his eyes narrowing and gave Lucy a forceful shove where she backpedaled a few steps. Her brown eyes were wide, and hurt, but she said nothing. She knew this man; how could she forget?

"Don't touch me woman." Yuma muttered out bitterly, glaring harshly.

Lucy felt her heart break a little more, looking away from the heated glare. Maybe she was wrong? Yet how could someone look so much alike, nearly identical? Maybe it was another version of him, just like there were other versions of her, like in Edolas. It made sense, to her at least, and here she was jumping to conclusions.

"It seems like I'm in the wrong, I apologize." Lucy says, taking a step back away from Yuma and closer to Laito, who wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

"Bitch-chan here isn't usually this well behaved, so it pisses me off a bit that she's acting this way for the four of you." Laito's voice had an edge to it as his arm held her a bit tighter, yet she remained impassive as his stare stared holes into her skull.

"I'm intrigued by Miss Heartfilia." Ruki spoke up, stepping closer to her and Laito, which only earned a growl from said male. "My name is Ruki Mukami, the blonde is Kou, the one with bandages is Azusa, and the one you called Edgar is named Yuma."

Yuma. She had been wrong after all, how embarrassing. Yet Lucy offered a smile at the man in front of her, still a bit wary of the strange four men who seemed to be moving in, wondering if they were as bad as the Sakamaki's or worse. "Lucy Heartfilia, glad to make your acquaintance."

From the corner of her eyes, she swore she saw Reiji's lips twist into the faintest of smiles. She was being proper, and she hated absolutely every second of it. This was the speech and mannerisms she was more than happy to leave behind.

"Please forgive me for mistaking you for someone else." It was like a different person speaking, the words flowing out of her mouth forcefully

"Why did you call him Edgar?" Shuu questioned, needing to know where she got the name of his friend that died because of Reiji.

Lucy smiled sadly. "He looks just like my cousin, but he's not him." Lucy looked up at Laito, having to manually remove his arm, much to his discontent. "You come from another world, but there's also other worlds were different versions of yourself live."

"You sound like you experienced this personally, which isn't possible." Subaru stated, glaring at nothing in particular.

"I've been to Edolas, were people are opposite than here. Myself from the future also came to this timeline, saved my life. It's weird watching yourself die, makes you really think about life." Lucy shook her head, getting off topic. "It could be that Yuma is just another version of my cousin Edgar. I hoped it was him, seeing as it's possible for people to accidentally go to another world. It happened to a girl in my guild named Lisanna."

Shuu hummed, intrigued. "What happened to your cousin?"

"He disappeared with his mother, the same day my mother passed and the dragons in this world disappeared from their slayers on 777." Lucy says, but what caught their attention was dragons.

"Dragons are really here?" Kou asked, looking a little excited.

Lucy nodded. "Yes. Recently we were able to locate one, Natsu's father Igneel. Yet he gave his life."

"That guy is dragon?" Kanato asked, holding Teddy close to him as he listened.

"A dragon slayer." Lucy corrected. "He was raised by Igneel as the other slayers were raised by their perspective dragons."

It wasn't settling well, something in Yuma as the blonde spoke in front of him. His head hurt slightly, which never happened. He never got headaches. Yet the more this damned woman spoke, the more it increased and he wanted to make her shut the hell up.

"Edgar!" A small cry of delight left the little girl's lips, her brown eyes looking up at him happily as she ran to hug his legs.

"Lucy." Yuma heard his own voice. "You have to be careful, what if your father saw you greeting me like this?"

"Mama told me to come greet you with a big smile and hug." Lucy frowned a little, tilting her head. "Is mama going to be okay? She's really sick onii-san."

"Yuma." Ruki shook his brother's shoulder, earning a grunt and a glare.

"Don't touch me right now." Yuma muttered out, his brown eyes locking on Lucy and snarled at her. "Who the hell are you? A witch? Playing with my head like this?"

Yuma stood tall, and when he took a step forward to the blonde Laito took a step forward as well, tisking at him and waving his finger at Yuma to more so annoy the tall giant.

"I wouldn't hurt her if I was you." Laito's voice was playful, but there was a sharp edge. "We don't want bigger problems here."

Lucy frowned, but Yuma merely huffed and gave her one last glare before turning away. She then let out a breath she hadn't been realizing she was holding. Then she felt that hope deflate in her chest, leaving her feel more empty than before.

"Lucy, go back to your studies and take Yui with you." Reiji instructed, already tired and annoyed with everyone in this house.

"I finished my studies for today, Reiji-sama." Lucy says, already going to grab Yui and walking towards the hallway. "We'll go to our rooms."

Reiji wanted to correct her mannerism, but the two females were already out of the room. It was then Reiji looked at the four Mukami brothers and decided that they were going to have to make this arrangement work somehow, even if they all really did hate each other.

"We will allow you to feed from Yui, but Lucy is off limits to all of you." Shuu spoke, causing the others to look at Shuu in surprise since the blonde never took interest like this in anything. "You touch Lucy, I will personally find a way to send you back. You're here for a reason, telling us or not, so you do what's expected of you while you're here."

"That's where your rules become useless." Ruki started, crossing his arms. "We were sent here to protect Lucy, so you see we can't merely stay away from our objective."

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The sounds of feet hitting the floor echoed around the dark walls of the corridor, the moonlight being the only source of light giving very little insight of what the cause of the commotion was. Blonde hair washed past, so fast it seemed to be a flash, but like a camera moving Lucy had suddenly come into focus.

Her brown eyes were wide and alerted, blonde hair a mess as if she barely woken up, whipping around as she moved her head as if she were looking for something, for someone. Her chest heaved up and down at a fast pace, panting for air as her head suddenly snapped to look over her shoulder.

"I made sure Yui was placed somewhere safe in the spirit world for now." Loke said softly. Suddenly appearing next to Lucy, nearly causing the blonde to have a heart attack from how silent he was.

"Thank you Loke." Lucy whispered, giving him a small smile of gratitude.

"I highly advise you come with her, with me, to the spirit world, at least for now. until the morning." Loke seemed to plead with the stubborn blonde.

"MELONS WHERE IS PANCAKE!?"

"Fufu, bitch-chan is being naughty tonight. I can't sense Yui anywhere on this property. Who to punish, who to punish you naught girl~"

"Loke-" Lucy started, hearing the other voices growing closer. She needed to run and hide but really it was useless because they could find her and she couldn't disappear completely.

"Found you, you troublesome woman." Shuu's lazy voice lowly whispered into Lucy's ear, pushing her into the wall and sinking his fangs into Lucy without a care for Loke, who stood there with clenched fists as Lucy cried out for the first time that night.

Carla nearly jumped out of her bed as she woke with a startle, startling the sleeping dragon slayer next to her enough to wake up. Wendy slowly sat up, rubbing her brown eyes sleepily as she looked over at her white exceed, who was all too startled.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Wendy asks softly, becoming more alert and a bit worried. "Or a vision?"

Carla didn't understand what it was she saw, because vampires were a myth, they weren't real. She didn't know what the vision or dream meant, but she knew all too well that it had something to do with Lucy. In fact, Carla wondered what the blonde was up too nowadays because Wendy had promised to send letters before she left, which was a promise she kept. Only she got none back in response from the Celestial Mage.

"I don't know." Carla admitted to the person she held dearest to her heart, looking at Wendy with worried eyes. "I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen, and Lucy is in the center of it."

Wendy's eyes widen at the mention of Lucy's name, and worry was quick to flood through her very being. "Do you think we should go to Magnolia and visit her soon?"

Carla could only nod her head. "We haven't heard a thing from her. Gray and Erza, even Mira and Gajeel answer you back. Why wouldn't Lucy?"

Wendy frowned as she realized Carla had a point. Besides Erza, Gray and Gajeel, or even Natsu- Lucy was the one she was the closest too. She considered the blonde kin, as did her inner dragon. Only Lucy never replied back to her letters like she said she would. Now all aware that she hadn't heard a thing since the actual disbandment of the guild from Lucy.

It was decided she would check on Lucy with Carla before asking Erza or Gray if they had heard from Lucy, or even Natsu in that fact since no one knew where he was at. Wendy just hoped Lucy was with Natsu and Happy, adventuring away from home and that being the reason she wasn't replying to her letters.

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I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts on this chapter. If there is certain character interaction you'd like to see, please also let me know in the comment section! Love you guys so much, and thank you again!

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