What if the celestial spirit king retained all of his memories after the eclipse that affected celestial spirits and wasn't able to restore all of the mages to normal? What if they were stuck as constellations/celestial spirits? My take on the aftermath of 'Eclipse' saga.

Here's what might have happened.

PS: I decided to take creative license and put Lisanna with the others at the Eclipse. She got turned. Also, Erza was turned into a constellation alongside most of her comrades while saving Lucy from that fate.

I own nothing except the story and the former fairy tail mages' keys (not including Leo's (If you're confused with someone being called 'Leo', that's Loke)).

Rewritten almost from scratch. Really sorry about it being complete and utter crap before. Now a multi-chapter story.

"Normal speech"

(author's comments and/or explanation)

Thoughts

ENUNCIATION AND/OR SHOUTING

POV switch

'FLASHBACKS are like this.'

After the final battle with the eclipse spirits, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Gray, and Gajeel walked the path to find their missing friends. The spirit world was restored, and spirits standing there caught Lucy's eyes. In the middle of the road stood the restored zodiac spirits, no longer affected by the Eclipse. They all stood there looking like a member of celestial spirit royalty had died. This confused everyone there until Lucy remembered the things her mother used to say about constellations.

'WHEN a constellation is formed, it can't go back to being just a collection of stars. When there is a new constellation, it means the celestial spirit king lost control of the beast lurking inside of him. But no matter what, those turned can't be turned back if the time limit exceeds three days in the human world. That's one of the contracts that the celestial spirit king made with the rules of earthland in the past. It's also how the Zodiac came to become the Zodiac.'

"Guys?" Lucy asked, looking hesitantly at their spirits. Her words seemed to put a bullet through their hearts, and Lucy knew this, but she needed to find out if what her mother had said was true. If her friends were actually staying as constellations. "Please?"

None of the celestial spirits seemed willing to talk about it. In the place of words, Virgo fell to the ground and started sobbing. Leo knelt down by her and started stroking her back as if she was a cat, which was kind of ironic seeing as he was the cat and she was the semi-human woman. The pain-filled look Leo sent Lucy confirmed these suspicions. She immediately fell to her knees.

"So... It's true?" the blonde asked.

"Unfortunately." Leo said, looking back up at the new constellations accompanying his comrades.

Lucy started crying lightly, trying to convince herself this was a dream. Of course it was a dream. It had to be a dream...

But it was too real to be a dream. That fight she had with Virgo, the last part where she had to defeat Libra with Yukino, the Urano Metria spell, the magic drain, the fight with the celestial spirit king-

Lucy's eyes suddenly flashed red. "Can't the king do anything about this?"

Leo looked more forlorn than before, but now there was a touch of anger and shock. "Don't you think that if he could, that he would have turned all of us back by now?"

Natsu stomped up to them. "WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" he shouted.

Lucy got up, but refused to look at her best friend standing behind her. "Our comrades, the ones that have been turned into constellations, cannot be turned back to their original forms, which means, in terms that you can understand you idiot, that the ones turned into constellations can't NOT be celestial spirits. It's happened before with the Zodiac, and it will happen again with our friends. They're celestial spirits and they're staying that way. The king can't riddle his way out of this one either. There is no way around this."

Plain as day did Natsu's eyes widen, which was followed by the paling of his skin to the shade of a sheet in less than a second. You would have had to be blind to not notice it, either that or completely and totally devastated with the loss of your friends.

Quickly catching up to the sobbing friends by the Zodiac (who were having such a sense of déjà vu) were the reasons why everyone was on the ground punching the gravel and sobbing. Juvia, Archadeos, Hisui, Pantherlily, Wendy, Carla, Cana, Erza, Levy, Elfman, Mirajane, and Lisanna all came running up to them, grinning until they noticed the others all sobbing, Lucy hardest of them all.

"Um-" Levy started, but was cut short by Gajeel, who quite suddenly hugged her.

"It's really you?" Gajeel asked.

"Yeah. Why would you think it's not me?"

Levy didn't get an answer. Gajeel simply clutched her tighter, until it was quite uncomfortable for the now-celestial-spirit solid script mage.

Quietly, over the course of about twenty minutes, Lucy and the Zodiacs relayed the explanation of what was happening. Everyone, including those who had already heard this, were shocked into silence.

Natsu was the first to notice the absence of one of their friends. "Where the hell is Yukino?"

Wendy sniffed the air. "Everything here smells like her. But if the others weren't affected with being turned into celestial spirits, then where is she?" she asked before Lucy picked herself up and sniffled.

"Simple, isn't it?" Lucy asked as if it were the most simple thing in the world. Tears still flew from her eyes, outlined with red. "Just like how Ophi was turned into the thirteenth zodiac and was placed above everyone else in the zodiac, she became known as the second-in-command. There was a rumor running through the celestial realm that Yukino was respected and favored by the celestial spirit king because she held three of the most powerful Zodiac keys.

"There's one little problem with the fact that the others got turned into semi-normal celestial spirits, which is that none of them were originally celestial wizards. There's a rumor the original thirteen zodiacs all used to be celestial spirits in possession of silver keys who convinced them to fight the celestial spirit beast of that time. He turned them all to quench his anger, but when the dust cleared and he was devoid of maliciousness, he could not turn them back. In the end, the Zodiac were like this because of the fact that they were turned and ripped from their comrades and took their anger out on us because the eclipse form of the celestial spirit king is too strong to go up against." Lucy explained.

All the now-turned celestial spirits/mages were shell-shocked and could not move nor speak. Erza was the first to break out of the trance. "Then... What happened to Yukino?"

Lucy slowly exhaled the breath she was holding. "Because she's the first celestial wizard turned in hundreds of years and because there's no more room for a new Zodiac, there needed to be a place for her above all of the recent ones and the Zodiac because she actually owned Zodiac keys. My educated guess?" she paused. "The princess, or even the queen, of the celestial realm."

Aires fell to the ground wailing, begging forgiveness to anyone who could hear her.

Leo knelt down by Aires and stroked her back.

Capricorn was silently crying, thinking of his own experiences as a mage-turned-celestial spirit.

Aquarius was sobbing in anger at the prospect that she was part of the reason why the others came to celestial spirit world. To liberate her and her dear comrades.

Scorpio was the one holding his girlfriend so she didn't accidentally lose control of the devil he knew was there and smash the mirror allowing the celestial spirits to see what's currently happening in Earthland.

Virgo came to the still sobbing Lucy, begging for severe punishment.

Libra was in the emo corner speaking to herself about how the balance was disturbed.

Both spirits of Pisces were playing dead on the ground.

Taurus was lying down on the surface of that path, just staring up at the constellations that used to bring him such peace. That peace had become sadness, anger, and regret. He thought back to his family when he was a true human, before the Eclipse that had turned him into one of the spirits which he had once commanded.

Ophiuchus had turned into her human form (a tanned Latina woman with aqua hair and a snake pattern slithering over her dress with a flute was attached to a string around her waist like a belt, and she had high boots that were completely black and metallic) and was fidgeting with the flute that lay on her hip. It seemed to bring her a small amount of peace, just running her fingers over the instrument.

Cancer was on his hands and knees sobbing, his salon scissors nowhere in sight.

Saggitarius was next to Cancer, sitting cross-legged and leaving the crab spirit alone. He needed to be able to learn how to deal with this on his own. How to deal with... whatever this was.

Gemi and Mini were each in their separate corners, Gemi reading a huge novel from the celestial world about its history and Mini sitting in another corner reading about the history of Earthland, also made by celestial spirits. It was book itself was physically writing itself at every moment.

After about ten minutes, even before Virgo got a handle on herself, Lucy caught the spirit of the virgin gate in a hug. The words died in the pink-haired woman's throat.

Lucy didn't bother asking Virgo how she felt. The blonde knew her spirit was dejected and full of sorrow. The blonde didn't blame her poor spirits for not being able to contain their emotions. The exact same thing happened to them some thousand earthland years ago. After only a few months in the celestial world, all their relatives or anyone they ever knew were gone. Dead.

It's even more complicated than that. Most of the people now stuck as Celestial Spirits had significant duties, relationships, and roles that couldn't possibly be filled by anyone else, especially in Hisui's case. The King had given only one daughter, and his wife had died during the fourth year of the seven-year gap.

...

Shit.

Juvia got up off her knees and came up to the blonde celestial mage present. "Love Rival, is there anything we can do now?" the rain woman asked desperately. When a drop of water fell on Lucy's face, she looked up to see clouds blocking the view of the celestial spirit world's sky. Since when did it rain here?

Lucy's eyes softened. "Unfortunately, no. I can capture all your lovers in spare keys, but I'd need their permission to, not to mention sufficient keys to capture said mates." she explained. Her shoulders shook. "I'm so sorry. If I had stopped this sooner, you would all be with your other halves, living a good life in Earthland."

Erza came up and slapped her. Lucy staggered back a bit, a red mark firmly planted on her cheek.

"DON'T SAY SUCH FOOLISH THINGS, LUCY! YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD! WE'RE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE WITH EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED! IF IT WERE SO, WE COULD HAVE STAYED CONSTELLATIONS WITHOUT KEYS AND YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BRING US BACK TO OUR HOMES, EVEN TEMPORARILY!" Erza yelled. Every single one of the slayers there covered their ears, sensitive to the sudden explosion of sound.

Lucy still looked depressed. "If I hadn't been so incredibly weak, you all wouldn't be stuck here."

"Lucy, this isn't anyone's fault but our own." Levy said, looking to her longtime friend, completely abandoning the suffix. When something glowed from inside of her dress's pocket, Levy took it out to reveal a key. Orange in color. On the part where the constellation lay was a pen-like shape with a trail of ink following past it. The tip of that pen shone brightest of those stars. At the end of the thin circular slip of metal lay one two words, each on one side. 'Solid' and 'Script'. At the top was a design of the headband she was wearing during the fight with the eclipse spirit king. Levy held it in front of her dear friend and stared at her as she wagged it disapprovingly. "Now, if you don't take this key I'm gonna find you and shatter you until you take the frigging thing."

Lucy nodded tearfully and held her hand up shakily. A whirlwind of emotions whirled up with within the short blonde as she took the tangerine-colored key from her best friend. The metal was smooth and warm, like newly hardened steel. She sobbed when the others came up to her with their own keys and closed her fingers around them.

Mira's was acid purple in color. Her constellation was a simple 'MJ', but what was really puzzling was the figures on the outside of the metal-like key. Two arms intertwined, one the plated gauntlet of Satan Soul, and the other a clawed wooden hand with purple blobs. On the top was her signature pony tail holding up her bangs. Everything was in accurate colors.

Wendy's key was a smoky white. Her constellation looked like a cloud. The end of her key looked like wind blowing. The top of her key was a mix between midnight blue and the normal blue you would see in the sky.

Carla's key was the color of a smoky quartz. Her constellation was a bubble. The top of her key held cat ears and a bow and the bottom looked like a cat tail wrapping around the key's bottom. At the end was another vibrant pink bow.

Cana's key was the color of beer. The top was shaped like a barrel. Her constellation was a glowing rectangle, and the bottom held four figures: a spade, a diamond, a club, and a heart (figures on playing cards).

Hisui's key was green. Her constellation was a 'H-E-F' figure. The top of her key was decorated with a crown. The bottom of her key was decorated with glass jewels.

Archadeos's key was auburn. The top was decorated like a knight's helmet. The bottom was decorated like a sword. His constellation was a pumpkin (Wait... Pumpkin? ... Never mind, think about it later).

Pantherlily's key was black. It was decorated at the top with panther ears. The bottom was exactly like his sword. His constellation was the shadow of a cat.

Elfman's was a white base with several beast arms sticking out from every which way. On the top, along with the beast arms (that she knew she was eventually going to hurt herself on with all the clawed fingers) was a thick mane of platinum blonde hair. There was a long scar going along the constellation of 'EM'. Within the thick mane of frozen metallic hair was a pair of glasses, a heart, and the clubs sign from the playing cards game.

Erza's was arguably the most special. The top depicted a battle full of fire, showing her past, the middle shackles and chains, depicting her imprisonment, followed by a silver sword held by an armored gauntlet, her desire to remain a knight. The entire key was colored red, sickeningly scarlet and smelling of blood. Erza's constellation depicted a brown eye being slashed twice, each slash diagonal in the form of an 'X'.

Lisanna's constellation, unlike her siblings, was a single red rose with several thorns and two leaves sticking out from the stem. Her key was purple with darker purple stripes going all along the sides. The stranger thing was at the bottom: instead of something that showcased her powers, there was a tiny figure of the Sabertooth insignia next to a tiny figure of the Fairy Tail insignia. Not even Lisanna herself understood it.

The Zodiac came up to Lucy. "We all got our keys back. We don't know how they came back to us, but they belong to you." Virgo said, taking their keys and giving them back to the blonde. Grateful to at least have some good news, Lucy took the keys from Virgo's hands. After slipping on the keys, she noticed the three rogue keys in the pile. She stuttered, staring slightly at the keys clenched within her hands.

"P-Pisces? Libra? You too, Ophiuchus?" Lucy asked hesitantly, staring at the three gate keys with confusion. "Wh-"

"With Yukino as the princess of the celestial realm, there's no one else to take over our keys." Ophiuchus said sadly, still running her hands over her flute oh-so delicately. "Besides, most of the scarce celestial mages who are left are incredibly abusive. Why would we let our keys fall down to Earthland and eventually fall into the hands of someone who's unfit to contract with us and will only cause us harm if there's a celestial mage right here who can take our keys and make us feel welcomed and safe with our lives?" Ophiuchus sighed and got off the ground. "Lucy, Yukino's not gonna go anywhere any time soon, especially being the celestial realm's princess. Her being gone isn't good for the zodiac you didn't have until now. Now take mine, Pisces's and Libra's key or I'm gonna have to go serpent-lady on you." Ophiuchus threatened.

"NO, YOU WON'T!" Came loud and radiant voice.

Libra immediately started crying. "It can't be..." Her voice stuttered. "Miss Yukino?"

Down from the no-longer-rainy sky was Yukino in all of her glory. The only thing that had changed about the girl was her eyes, which had gained a honey-like hue. Her feet connected with the cobblestone-like path. Yukino crossed her arms seriously and shook her head. "Honestly, what am I going to do with the both of you?"

Lucy shrugged. "I actually don't know."

Yukino shook her head. "You two are so ridiculous. Lucy, just take their keys. I insist."

Suddenly, the image of Yukino offering Libra and Pisces' keys to her at the times of the GMG resurfaced. Please, take good care of them, she had said mournfully, and her expression betrayed none of her emotions. Sadness at why she was giving up her beloved keys. Anger at herself for losing to Kagura. Jealously directed towards her for possessing more Zodiac keys.

None of these emotions were contained in Yukino's expression now. Instead, her expression was soft.

Lucy suddenly felt a flash of pity for the platinum blonde. Yukino is trapped in the Celestial realm for the rest of her life until her magic container fills up enough to enter Earthland through the gate without hurting herself.

This raises an interesting question, Lucy thought. Can Yukino stay in Earthland longer than Leo? I suppose if she managed her magic container efficiently, and maybe if she was taught how to withstand the drain on magic by Leo himself...

Then again, this is a completely new environment for Yukino. She's never been in the Celestial world before, and it's likely that the nature of her magic changed exponentially. It would probably take a long time for her to learn how to leave the Celestial world, even with Leo's guidance. It might take something she considered drastic, like when Mustache-face was convinced to prove to me that his verdict was true and just.

Come to think of it, I never figured out why Mustache-man was so obsessed with proving me wrong, or why he decided to change his verdict in the first place.

Lucy bolted to her feet, shocking everyone in the vicinity. Lucy slipped all of the keys in her hands into her key pouch, then stood taller despite the added weight in her right hip and the belt digging into her left side. Suddenly, it was as if the environment melted around Lucy. "I CALL UPON THEE, POLARIS, HIGH KING OF THE CELESTIAL REALM."

The Celestial king appeared in the sky. Immediately, everyone present but the Zodiac and got on their knees and bowed once Yukino did. Once the king's feet touched the ground, matter began shifting to accommodate his large stature.

"Ms Lucy Heartfilia, mage of Fairy Tail." Lucy voiced, introducing herself, bowing at a perfect 90-degree angle.

"Lord Polaris, High King of the Celestial Realm." Polaris got on one knee and bowed to the blonde as a sign of respect.

Both of them straightened.

"Mustache, I want to know why you first appeared to me. Why you changed your verdict and why you care about my opinion at all." Lucy declared proudly.

The Celestial king's eyes slid shut. "Those reasons are extremely complicated. It would take an enormous amount of time to explain."

"Then give to me a method of communication between us." Lucy protested to his saying he wouldn't explain.

The spirit king shook his head. "I must not. If this 'method of communication' were to fall into the hands of someone who would abuse such power..."

"I promise to mask it and keep it separate from my keys. It'll look like a regular telephone lacrima."

The spirit King's shoulders relaxed. "Very well." The king removed the star from his helmet. In Lucy's arms, it shrank and turned into a regular telephone lacrima. "Ms Heartfilia, there is something else you must know about that communications device. It can be used to summon my weapons. I would advise you to keep it with you always."

Lucy nodded and had to consciously keep her face straight (which was strange as she was raised in a household where she was explicitly taught to be deceptive concerning her emotions), and slipped the telephone lacrima into one of her brown boots. It would be safe there.

The blonde turned back to her friends. She hugged Levy, Yukino, Wendy, and Erza, then turned back to the Spirit King. "Please return us to Earthland."

"As you wish." The spirit king's voice droned.

With that, everything faded to black.