Chapter 2

"Magic is an unreasonable power, but it is born from reason! It is not some miraculous ability. It is the combination of the spirit that flows within us and the spirit that flows within nature itself, incarnated into physical form! It takes a strong mind and focus! In fact, magic is the pouring out of one's entire soul! One cannot progress in the way of magic by being mindful of the watchful eye from above! Follow the path you believe in! That's what it means to be a Fairy Tail wizard!"

Master Makarov, I still remember those words you said on my very first visit to Fairy Tail, before I was even a guild member. Friendship, the path you believe in…

Lucy's thoughts churned as she took a step away from the sphere. Saber Tooth… Shaking her head to clear it, Lucy looked up at Natsu and Gray, who were both running towards her with worry and another expression on their faces that Lucy couldn't quite put her finger on. Almost as if they had never seen her before… Smiling at them in relief and reassurance, Lucy took another step forward and looked down in bewilderment as her knees buckled. Both Natsu and Gray sprung forward to catch her before she could fall completely to the ground. Oh yeah. Minerva did still kick my ass before I could get my keys.

Smiling at both of the guys who had caught her, Lucy looked up. "Ow." Her eyelids fluttered and closed. Lucy had fainted.

Natsu yelled back toward the dugout where the other members of the team were waiting, "Wendy!"

The pint-sized dragon slayer sprinted toward the huddled guild members, followed closely by Juvia. "We need to get her to the infirmary! But I can do some emergency treatment now!" Crouching over Lucy's form with her hands extended, Wendy concentrated on healing and reversing the damage done to her comrade. A soft light began to glow around her hands and Wendy smiled grimly to see that her magic was having an effect on Lucy's wounds. In their arms, Lucy sighed and made small shifting movements, her body adjusting to the small doses of tension and pain relief.

Seeing that Wendy was taking care of Lucy, Erza stepped closer to Minerva.

"What are you staring at?" barked Minerva. "I acted within the rules of the competition. She'll be fine, she won."

"The rules, you say? She'll be fine?" scoffed Erza. "You mean trying to torture our guild-mate? Our nakama? She would never have called Aquarius without her keys if you weren't beating an opponent who had already lost!" Erza glared at the unrepentant mage standing before her, incensed by her brazen attitude.

"The crowd ate it up, didn't they?" bantered back Minerva. "Lucy should be grateful. She won the match, and even discovered a new level of magic, summoning a celestial spirit without her keys! Even though the girl is a useless piece of garbage…"

"What?!" barked both Natsu and Gray as they stepped up to match stride with Erza, leaving Lucy in the arms of Juvia and Wendy. Glaring at the Saber Tooth guild Natsu and Gray took a step forward, only to have the remaining members of the Saber Tooth team step in-between Minerva and themselves. Threatening stares bounced back and forth as the emcee commented on the budding tension between the guilds for the crowd.

"Uh-oh! What's this?! Are both teams about to rumble?! Are they gonna start something here?" yelled the emcee into his microphone, escalating the tension between the guilds. The crowd started yelling, anxious for more action after the excitement of the preliminary round.

"Saber Tooth versus Fairy Tail!" egged on the emcee.

The crowds screamed louder and louder as the guild members glared at each other, as Wendy frantically tried to restore some measure of vigor to her fallen guild-mate. The tension mounted and the crowd began to speculate on the outcomes of such a match.

Lily, the Exceed companion to Gajeel, slid into a fighting stance on the sidelines. "This isn't an official match. If this really does happen, we're going out there too!"

Carla, the Exceed companion to Wendy, burst out, "Calm down, for crying out loud! We don't need a fight here!" Stepping up to Lily, she glanced out at the arena, hoping for a lack of confrontation. "There is enough to deal with without an all-out brawl right now!"

Happy, sitting between both Carla and Lily, looked out at the arena, and thought about pulling out his fish. I'll want a snack if the fighting gets good…

The other guilds in the tournament began to shout and cheer for the action from the sidelines, joining with the crowds in their anticipation. The renamed Quattro Puppy couldn't resist howling, while Mermaid Heel just looked on, calmly assessing the situation. The tension mounted as more and more people in the stadium began to cheer for the unscheduled violence about to erupt at any moment.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" echoed throughout the stadium, as the crowd began to demand for the tension to break, for a result, for anything to happen besides the glares. The pumpkin-headed referee bounced around, speculating on just how lively the match had become as the attention of the audience sharpened on the two teams in the middle of the arena.

The dragon slayer from Saber Tooth leaned forward, stepping into his fighting stance and Natsu copied him. Taking a step forward, violence was promised in every line of Natsu's body when Erza intercepted his movement. Stopping Natsu midstride with a hand on his shoulder, she turned to face Saber Tooth and replied to the insults Minerva had dared to utter about Lucy.

"I don't care if you're the strongest or number one in Fiore, I'll just tell you one thing. You people… have made an enemy out of the one guild you don't want to anger." Her gaze darkening as she looked at the guild she had just proclaimed her enemies, Erza finally turned away and walked back to where Wendy was buckled over Lucy.

"Natsu! Gray! Help me get her to the infirmary. We can settle our problem with them in the arena. Lucy is more important than they will ever be."

~oooOooo~

Happy was stationed on the hospital bed near Lucy's bandaged head and worriedly questioned her unresponsive form, "Lucy, are you alright?" Still knocked out, Lucy didn't reply and Natsu just sat at the foot of the bed, worrying over her. Erza, Gray, Grandine, Wendy and Carla all stood about, a silent vigil for the celestial wizard.

The door burst open, and Juvia scrambled through. "Is Lucy okay?!" Seeing her on the bed, not moving, Juvia stopped in the doorway before slowly finishing her entrance into the room. "Lucy…" Gajeel, Cana, Mirajane and Laxus filed in after Juvia.

"You guys…" greeted Gray.

"Even though we're on different teams for the competition, we're all in the same guild." explained Cana, establishing why they had come to check up on Lucy. Gajeel stepped forward. "So, how is she?"

Gradine staunchly declared, "Thanks to Wendy, her life isn't in danger."

Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," murmured Mirajane, an expression of worry on her face as she examined Lucy. "It looks like her major wounds are gone, so I'm relieved," contributed Erza as everyone in the room settled in for a discussion on what to do next.

"Those bastards…" raved Natsu, obviously planning retaliation for Saber Tooth, and the treatment of Lucy by Minerva. "I know what you wanna say…" rumbled Laxus, glancing once again at the form of his unconscious guild-mate. Shifting on the bed, Lucy opened an eye as Happy alerted everyone to her rousing. "Lucy!" Looking around the room, Lucy saw her guild-mates gathered in her room, all various degrees of worry on their faces and she couldn't stop the words from her mouth.

"Everyone… I'm sorry." Huddling under the covers, Lucy hid her face from her friends in the room.

Natsu looked at her, puzzled. "Huh? Why are you apologizin'?"

Gray was quick to follow with his own reassurance. "What are you talking about?! We took first place thanks to you, Lucy!"

Wendy piped up, "We got ten points!"

"Yeah, you did very well." complimented Erza.

"To make you all worry… to lose my keys… Oh! My keys! Where are they?!" exclaimed Lucy, trying to sit up and begin looking for them.

"Here they are." soothed Happy, passing them forward with the pouch in his paws.

"Oh, thank goodness. Thank you!" sighed Lucy, collapsing back into the pillow, clutching the keys to her chest.

"You got them back in the sphere." reminded Laxus, looking at Lucy with a sharp expression.

"Oh," sighed Lucy. "Yeah. I did, didn't I?" Her head falling to the side, Lucy's breath evened out as she fell back asleep, safe in the comfort of her friend's presence.

~oooOooo~

As Makarov walked into the room to tell the two Fairy Tail teams of the combination decision of the judges, Lucy drifted further and further into her subconscious mind while her body slept on. Healing both her weary limbs and her depleted magical core, she rested in the hospital bed, desperate for the reprieve her dreams could provide. Her eyelids fluttered while the two teams learned that they must combine into one; her consciousness sank deeper and deeper into herself as Natsu declared they must get revenge against Saber Tooth for laughing about one of their own. Drifting about her magical core once again, she wandered the pink pathways that were the same exact shade of her guild tattoo, looking at the designs of the gates and wondering in a hazy way why she hadn't seen them before.

The Spirit King came upon her there, as she loitered in the middle of her core, soaking in her own strength and comforting herself with the heightened sense she now had of her own magic.

"I spoke with Aquarius," he rumbled, beginning the conversation.

"Oh?" Lucy dreamily replied, drifting on pink clouds of her own untethered magic. Her core, her magic that had yet to be tamed to a specific gate just flittered about, waiting for her to acknowledge it. Manifesting itself as fluffy clouds drifting across the pathways, her magic was everywhere. Lucy pet the nearest cloud, comforting it, receiving comfort from its mere presence, establishing a bond of mutual trust with her own core magic and the new power that rested there.

"She told me what happened."

"Okay. And?" Lucy drifted to a new cloud, making friends all over again, absorbing its affection. She tilted her head and looked at the Spirit King. Her normal fear and respect were somewhere, but this was her magical core and her dream and if she wanted to make friends with the clouds, she could. She'd never read a single instance of where the Spirit King could visit dreams, so she just looked at the imposing figure nonchalantly. It was all probably just part of her weird dream, if the Spirit King wanted to talk, he'd call her to his realm again, she figured. Take away more of her time…

Frowning at the reminder of her training time wasted, she looked at the dream king and waited for his response.

"It has been a long time since there has been a wizard of the strength or caliber to even imagine such a feat, much less perform a Gate opening without the aid of the key."

"Huh?" stuttered Lucy, suddenly becoming suspicious of the character and the serious dialogue he kept mentioning. Dreams weren't normally this serious, were they? Giving him more of her attention, she turned from the cloud and looked at Spirit King as she became aware of just who she was speaking with. Blinking the dreams from her thoughts, her eyes sharpened on the force before her.

"Your keys were captured, and you summoned Aquarius anyway. Have you forgotten?" said the Spirit King, a kind expression on his face.

"N-n-no. I-I just hadn't thought much about it yet. I don't really know how it happened. I-I just knew I needed her, knew that if I trusted her enough she would be there for me."

Nodding, the Spirit King replied, "Yes. You were right. Are right. The key is needed for the initial summoning, but once the Gate is unlocked… you can do more than simply call forth the Celestial Spirit."

Staring at the Spirit King dumbly, Lucy reiterated, "I… can do more than simply call forth a Celestial Spirit?" Calling them forth takes work! Summoning isn't that easy you know!

Nodding in response, the Spirit King smiled. "Yes. A wizard can merge with a spirit, if they both have an accord. You can use Aquarius, be Aquarius, use her magic as your own... all through the power of the unlocked gate. There is more, so much more, to being a Celestial Spirit wizard than simply summoning a Spirit to do your bidding. You… you might have the potential to truly tap into what Celestial Spirit wizards were made to be."

Staring at the Spirit King in shock, Lucy lost control of her knees once again and slumped against the lingering pink cloud. It nuzzled her as she looked up at the Spirit King, questions and disbelief lingering in her gaze.

"Talk once again with your Spirits girl. Renegotiate the contract. You can do more, be more than what you have become." Turning, he began to walk away from her kneeling form. Down the pink pathways of her magical core he went, fading with each step he took away, until there was only a lingering sense of his presence and the faint scent of oak in the air.

Hugging the cloud to her, Lucy looked about her magical core, looked at the gates and wondered. Just what do I do now? Sitting down amidst the magic of her core, she decided she wasn't leaving, wasn't waking up, wasn't caring a whit about the world until she had figured it out.

Clouds danced upon the pathways of her magical core as Lucy settled in for a nice, long sit.