The next day, the ruins of the Fairy Tail guild hall were a hive of activity. Wounded mages were being tended to, and the first plans for rebuilding were already being shouted over the hammering.
In the midst of this, Blake Corvus, his face clean of the battle's grime, walked to his dark green Urus, which had miraculously survived the war, parked three streets away.
He walked over to a very stressed-looking Lucy, who was sitting with Natsu, Erza, and Gray.
"Alright, let's go," Blake said, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Lucy's head snapped up, her eyes wide with panic. "Go? Go where?! We have to help rebuild!"
"We will," Blake said, opening the car door. "But first, you're going to see your mother. We're going to the Heartfilia Mansion."
The color drained from Lucy's face. "No. No, I can't. Blake, you don't understand! My father... after all this... he'll never let me leave. He'll lock me in a room! He just... he just proved he would!"
This put the brakes on Lucy's plan of just grabbing Natsu and running away on a quest for a few days to let things cool down.
"That's why we are coming with you," Erza said, standing up, her arm in a fresh sling. "Your father declared war on our guild. He will answer to us."
"Yeah! We'll go tell him to back off!" Natsu declared, punching his fist. "Now, let's go!"
Lucy reluctantly got in the car with Gray, Natsu, Erza, and Happy. The vehicle was a silent, powerful beast, a product of the very company that made her family so powerful.
Because of the rise of cars brought by the companies of Heartfilia, which had risen even more by the intervention of Layla, the roads were better, and the magical vehicle technology was common.
Blake's Urus, however, was in a league of its own. It devoured the road and was able to quickly move towards their destination within a few hours.
The speed, however, was not helping.
"Oh my god, I'm almost there..." Lucy was shaking with fear. She was pale, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were white. She was sure that her parents would lock her in the room and was extremely worried about what she will face.
"Blehhhhhh..."
The immediate, grotesque sound of Natsu vomiting due to motion sickness shattered the tension.
"Oh, come on!" Gray yelled, grabbing the Dragon Slayer's head. "Not in Blake's car! This thing's worth more than the entire guild hall!"
Happy and Gray tag-teamed him, making sure that his head was always outside the car window, a blur of pink hair and... other things... trailing in their wake.
Erza, ignoring the chaos, put a kind hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Be calm, Lucy. I'm pretty sure your parents must be worried about you. So, it's better if you remove that worried expression from your face by the time we reach the residence of your family."
"You're right, Erza... I just..." Lucy trailed off, looking out the window at the passing landscape of rolling, green mountains. "Well, we already passed on to my residence after that mountain, Erza," Lucy replied off-handedly, not even knowing what she just said.
The car was silent, save for the sound of the wind and Natsu's heaving.
Gray, who was holding Natsu's scarf, slowly turned his head. "...What did you just say?"
Happy, who had been fanning Natsu, froze. "Aye...?"
Erza's eye twitched. "Lucy... what do you mean, we 'passed' your residence?"
Lucy, finally pulled from her spiral of fear, looked at them. "Hm? Oh, that. That was just the eastern summer villa. The one we use for mountain retreats. The main estate is up ahead. It's... bigger."
Gray's brain stopped working.
Happy's brain stopped working.
Erza's brain stopped working.
Natsu was still vomiting.
Blake was chuckling, seeing their reactions.
The three guild members stared blankly ahead, their minds collectively short-circuiting.
The "summer villa" they had just passed was a three-story mansion on a private mountain that could have housed the entire population of Magnolia.
"I can't believe she is the same girl who gets tensed up every time the due date of rent comes along at the end of the month!" Gray muttered, having a full-blown existential crisis. "She... she... her summer house? I'm done. I'm just done."
"Lucy, we have reached the mansion," Blake's deep, calm voice cut through the mental breakdown. He was the only one completely unfazed, having been here before.
He turned the Urus onto a private road and through a set of gates so massive they could have defended a city. They drove for another five minutes before the main house even came into view.
It wasn't a mansion. It was a palace.
"Whoa! Lucy, you gotta mansion bigger than Blake's!" Happy exclaimed, his eyes turning to literal stars.
The car stopped. While the other members were looking around, their brains still broken, Lucy's sights were on two figures.
A woman standing on the steps of the mansion—Layla Heartfilia, looking elegant and worried, with a maid with green hair (Grammi) standing behind her.
Lucy's fear returned, sharp and sudden. This was it.
"Mom... Grammi..." Lucy said gently and began to walk forward, her head down, expecting to be punished, yelled at, and dragged inside.
"Mom, I'm so sorry... I never meant for... for...Abou—"
But Layla did not let her finish. She ran down the steps, her usual grace replaced by a frantic, motherly desperation, and hugged her daughter tightly, pulling her into her arms.
"Oh, Lucy! My baby!" "It's alright. I'm just glad you're safe," she said while hugging her tightly. "I was so worried. We heard about Phantom... about the war... I..."
Lucy, expecting a cage, got an embrace. She broke, clinging to her mother, all the fear and trauma of the past 48 hours pouring out in a flood of tears.
The rest of her members did not know what to do in the situation and stood there awkwardly.
Natsu had finally stopped vomiting and just looked confused.
Gray had, at some point, put his shirt back on. Erza was just... watching, a small, tiny smile on her face.
After a few minutes, Layla pulled them all inside, her arm securely around Lucy's shoulders.
"I don't know how to thank you for everything that you all did for my daughter in the time of her crisis," Layla sat down on the living room with everyone. "And I am... I am so sorry about the difficulties your guild faced due to our Lucy. Jude... my husband... he is not well. He let his grief and pride make a terrible, terrible mistake. I will handle him. But you... you saved her."
"She was a part of our guild, so it was our duty to do it," Erza replied formally, with a respectful nod.
"THhaffs rriigfht!" Natsu replied, his mouth already stuffed with the mountain of exquisite pastries on the table. He'd been silent for two seconds and had immediately located the food.
"Swallow before you talk, idiot!" Lucy scolded Natsu, her old, fiery self returning instantly. "You're a guest in my... in... you're a guest!"
"But itfs tastes ds really good!"
"Still, eat a bit slowly, sigh..." Lucy brought water to him while sighing, her motherly instincts taking over her embarrassment.
"Sorry about our Natsu," Blake apologized from his seat, sipping his tea with the casual air of someone who belonged there.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Layla watched their interaction with a smile. "Growing kids their age are a bit wild."
Her smile was genuine, but her eyes were sharp. 'So, this is Natsu, huh,' she thought, her mind flashing to the journals Anna Heartfilia had left in her care. 'Anna was right about him being an innocent child. And Lucy seems to have taken it upon herself to take care of him already.'
As a Celestial Wizard, Layla was an expert at seeing the bonds between people. She was able to clearly see the bonds between Lucy and her friends being strong, and at the same time, see that Lucy had a stronger, more complex impression on Natsu.
'But looking at Natsu...' Layla sighed on the inside. 'So innocent. He has no idea who he is. For now, we can ignore the dark path his father, Igneel, and his brother Zeref have put him through. But Lucy... she will have to work a lot harder because of his innocence.'
Layla's gaze drifted to Blake, who was quietly observing the room, a silent, powerful guardian.
'But that's something fun that she will have to do in her life.' Layla smiled, a genuine, relaxed smile. 'The chances of her having a harder life... have been reduced by a lot.' She had feared the future Anna had warned of—Acnologia, Zeref, the dragons. But that was before Blake. 'Even if the problems told by Anna are still there, she knew that Blake was powerful enough to take care of them.' He had saved her life. His ideas boosted their company. And now, he had saved her daughter. 'Blake... the boy she met years ago was proving to be growing into the most powerful person on the continent.' The future was in safe hands.
She turned back to her daughter, her heart full. "I will talk with your father, Lucy. He will not trouble you or your guild, ever again. So, enjoy your life in Fairy Tail, and have fun adventuring all around the world."
Hearing that, Lucy, her face stained with tears, beamed with a light that filled the room. She nodded, "I will, Mom! I'll enjoy it to my heart's content!"
Layla smiled, then turned to Blake. "Blake-san, a word? I know this is a bad time, but the new production line is ready. Can we talk privately about the next direction the car industry will move?"
Blake nodded and stood. They both move to another room, Layla's study, to discuss the logistics of building a new factory and the new "Monster Truck" line he'd designed.
Meanwhile, Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Happy are taken to the grand dining room, where a feast—a real feast, not just pastries—was prepared for them, a heroes' welcome from the true Mistress of the Heartfilia Mansion.