Missing in Fiore

Sarah stood in the house of Lucy Heartfilia with Natsu, who had let himself in and was wondering where Lucy was.

"Shouldn't you be at Lucy's house?" asked Sarah as if Lucy had moved into a new house.

"Yeah but I can't find where she lives now. I only remember the directions to get to this house." answered Natsu truthfully.

Sarah had a weird feeling that she took Lucy's place in the story, but ignored it.

Natsu didn't leave. Instead he sat down in a chair with his feet up on the coffee table.

"I still remember all the amazing days we hung out together in this room." said Natsu, reminiscing.

The weird feeling kept bugging Sarah till she found herself searching the room for something that belonged to Lucy.

Natsu watched her with interest, getting up to help her search.

She finally found what she was looking for: Lucy Heartfilia's stellar spirit keys.

"What's Lucy's keys doing in your house?" asked Natsu.

"I think Lucy has been replaced by me. I've taken Lucy's place." answered Sarah.

"If you've taken Lucy's place, I wouldn't have all these memories of her." said Natsu with a laugh.

"Let's go find her. If we can't, then what I said before is true." said Sarah, heading out the door.

Sarah and Natsu looked everywhere for Lucy, but couldn't find her. Whenever they asked someone in town, they were always pointed toward Lucy's house that Sarah now occupied.

They walked back to the house and started brainstorming reasons someone would want Lucy replaced but have everyone still remember her.

"Maybe it has to do with Eclipse. Someone went back in time and traded Lucy for you." suggested Natsu.

"Yeah, but it might have something to do with the Black Wizard, Zeref." said Sarah, believing that it might truly be Zeref's fault.

At the thought of Zeref, the Black Wizard appears before them.

"What did you do to Lucy?" accused Natsu.

"Where's Lucy?" asked Sarah.

"Since you're so persistent on accusing me of something I didn't do, no I didn't do anything to Lucy nor do I know where she is." said Zeref.

"Then why do I have her keys?" asked Sarah.

"'Her' keys? Those are your keys, Sarah." replied Zeref.

Sarah held out the bag that held the keys. She picked one out and held it out in front of her like she was going to unlock something.

"If the gate opens, Zeref is telling the truth. Open, gate of the clock! Horologium!"said Sarah.

The sound of something unlocking was heard and the clock face called Horologium appeared. Sarah stood shocked.

"Is something the matter, my lady?" asked Horologium.

"Um, do all the keys I have have contracts with me?" asked Sarah.

"Yes, my lady. We do." replied Horologium.

"I've officially replaced Lucy Heartfilia. You may go back home, Horologium." said Sarah miserably. Horologium left.

"But why do we still remember Lucy?" asked Natsu.

"A change in the present can happen instantly. It's the memory of the missing person that takes a long time to fade." explained Zeref.

"And who made this change, Zeref?" asked Sarah.

"You did, Sarah?" said Zeref.

"But I'd never want to take Lucy's life from her. She was happy here." said Sarah, feeling terrible.

"You're very powerful, Sarah." said Zeref.

"I'm not that powerful. I'm not as strong as you think." said Sarah.

"You're powerful and you don't even know how powerful you are." said Zeref.

All of a sudden, Sarah felt this urge to hug Zeref.

"I hope you don't mind, but I have to do this." said Sarah.

Zeref looked surprised as Sarah walked towards him and put her arms around him in a fiery hug.

"You do realize I have no desire to fight you." admitted Zeref.

The flames extinguished as Sarah still held Zeref in an embrace.

"Are you finished yet?" asked Zeref.

"Just one more thing to do to finish this hug." said Sarah as she gently kissed him on the cheek.

Zeref stood there, blushing deeply.

"You look cute when you blush." said Sarah, smiling.

Zeref blushed even more and gave Sarah a charming smile.