A/N: Hello peoples, this is my first fanfic so please try ot be gentle on me. It's set in the Fariy Tail universe assuming that nothing horribly wrong happens after the Grand Magic Games, that means no 10,000 dragons thank you very much :) Hope you enjoy and are looking forward to it's continuation!

"Cheers!"

Lucy could still hear the shouts of her guild mates celebrating their victory in the Grand Magic games. It hadn't been easy, and the part she had played had been minuscule in comparison to her friends, but they had won. Fairy Tail was officially the strongest guild in Fiore, not Sabertooth, not Lamia Scale, Fairy Tail. Secretly she'd hoped to use the games as a way to show case herself, show the world her own strength, and although she'd only succeeded in getting severely beaten and captured maybe she had, in her own little way.

She could still remember the party afterwards, the joyous crys, the chanting, it had been a Fairy Tail party through and through, over the top and destructive. She'd loved every second of it, just as she'd never regretted a single moment she'd passed during her time in the guild. Cana had drunk the store room dry, barrel upon barrel left empty by the wayside. Gajeel, alcohol pumping through his metallic veins, had sung song after song despite the ridicule and tables thrown in his direction. She'd spent most the the party with Natsu, explaining how stupid some of his ideas were, never seemed to work, so it was up to her to help him pick himself up afterwards. She never questioned it, in fact she enjoyed it. Barrel surfing, another thing she needed to make sure she was out the way of when Natsu decided it was a good idea.

The party had been large, even by Fairy Tail standards. Not only the guild but the entire town had joined in, drunken ecstasy apparently a cure for any financial troubles the guild may have been in with the local council. It had consumed most of Fiore that night, a party the entire country could enjoy, Fairy Tail was the strongest.

So why was she in so much pain.

Lucy was lying face down in the dirt, blood trickling slowly from a wound on her head. The steady stream ran through her hair, over her ear and below her jaw making her look like a creature from a horror movie. Her hair was dark with dirt and her clothes ripped, torn in so many ways leaving only a sliver of cloth to keep her decent. How often had she ended up like this?

Least pain means I'm still alive.

The thought didn't make her feel any better but it was something.

Maybe it was overconfidence that her caused her to be so carefree in choosing the mission. After the guild reclaimed the top position requests had flooded in, people all over the country wanted their problems solved by the guild that had dared to break the Sabertooth reign. So many requests, too many requests. It wasn't like Fairy Tail to let anyone down, no matter the danger, no matter the problem, the guild always did it's best to help those in need. When she'd seen the request she'd automatically jumped on it, even before checking to see what it entailed. It was worth 500,000 jewels for goodness sakes, she could be forgiven for her greed. When she'd read the small description and asked Mirajane about it, she'd been sure that it suited her just fine. It was a simple bounty request, take out some bandit that had been terrorising some rich old man and bring him to justice. Easy right? Even so she'd decided to bring Natsu along, you could never be too careful and Natsu was one of the strongest in the guild these days as well as being her partner, her best friend. Besides 250,000 jewels was more than enough for anyone, even her.

They'd travelled down to the little hamlet on foot, Natsu refusing to take the train, not that the train seemed to stop anywhere near the village anyway, and spent the next few hours tracking down the culprit. The bandit had turned out to be some dark mage that was trying to force the mayor to pay money for protection. It seemed odd therefore that they'd offered such a large reward to get rid of him, slightly ironic, though she had pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

Maybe she should have acted on that niggle earlier. The mage had turned out to be far nastier than she could have possibly imagined, and stronger too. He'd beaten her down without a second thought and was now fending off an enraged Natsu.

Lucy dragged herself to a seated position, and lay back against a near by tree. They'd found the mage's camp not too far into the thicket of trees close to the hamlet in question. It wasn't the most original of settings for an evil mastermind, but it was the camp itself which spelled doom. In a perfect circle around the clearing they'd found dead creatures, badgers, foxes, birds and mice, it seemed like the entire woodland had been hunted down and slaughtered as if to say, "Keep out".

Lucy began to focus her attention of the fight. No matter how strong this mage was Natsu would surely beat him, that was Natsu's forte, his battle strength, his need to save his friends. So why was Natsu so short of breath, why were his shoulders slumped forwarded as he shook where he stood? They were in trouble.

Natsu surged forward, his hand lighting up, fire burning over his fists, he smashed into the hooded figure that stood before him. They crashed the ground rolling a few metres before Natsu brought his fist into the mans head. Or rather what he thought was the man's head. The dark mage had been replaced by a thick army of vines which entangled themselves around Natsu's extended arm, wrenching the dragon slayer to his knees. Natsu let out a low hiss of pain before his flames burnt the thicket away, freeing his arm. Long, thick cuts covered the pink haired boy's arm, blood dripped from the wounds like rain down a window pane. Natsu cursed to himself, he glanced at the blonde who was slouched over a tree, he could see the puddle of blood that was beginning to form around her. He had to end this here.

"Bastard"

Natsu growled as he put all his remaining magical power into his flames, he felt reenergised. Reeved up though he was practically running on empty. Sparks flew from his body as he sucked in as much air as he physically could,

" Lightning flame dragon's roar!" he bellowed, his attack finding its mark, both burning and shocking the mage at the same time. The blast left a cloud of dust reeling around the air making it hard to breathe. Natsu was done, he sank to his knees, exhausted and almost entirely out of magical energy. He began to move over to Lucy, he needed to get her some help and soon. However, a deep icy laugh broke his concentration.

"Too bad Salamander, looks like this fight is mine"

He couldn't be surely? Natsu turned to see the mage standing before him, Natsu noted that the man's hood had been completely blown away and his left arm hung limply by his side blood falling neatly over the man's fingers. But he was standing, he'd taken Natsu's best attack and was still standing! If only there was some fire around Natsu was sure he could win, the mage had clearly taken a lot of damage, he was struggling to stand just as much as Natsu was but Natsu had put everything into that last attack. There was no way he could defend himself now. Natsu stiffened as the mage drew his hand back, a thick tree branch appearing in his hand. The mage smirked and swung the 'club', the intent to kill paramount.

Lucy