Welcome back to chapter 4 of Infinitum! It has been a while, so I have done my best to get this out over the last week. It took a lot of referencing previous chapters, deciding which of my new plot ideas to use, and was ultimately finished five minutes ago (1:00 AM, Friday, March 6, 2015) while waiting for my animation project, due in seven hours, to render.

Without any more blathering from me, here's the update! I hope you enjoy!

Infinitum

Ch. 4

Aries tried her best not to run the opposite direction in shame whenever she saw another spirit out on the streets. For the next few weeks, the knowledge that she had been drunk at the party Scorpio had set up for Aquarius for their 200th appalled her. In fact, just knowing that she had passed out and that Leo had carried her back pretty much sealed the deal—she would be mortified for the rest of forever. There was absolutely nothing else worse than having her unrequited love spend most of an evening wrapped up in a gorgeous fashion spirit, only to wake up after drinking herself to ruin and have him hold her hair back as she prayed to the porcelain gods for all she was worth.

She couldn't apologize enough.

The Ram found herself apologizing even more profusely than ever before any time she saw someone on the streets, or even accidentally bumped into Lyra while they were working together in the kitchen of their apartment. The first time she had talked to Scorpio after the party, when he had dropped by to thank her for the cake she had made, she was absolutely lost. She blubbered through about forty-seven apologies in the span of their ten minute conversation, and she was sure it had annoyed him even though he had laughed it off and assured her that it was okay for her to have fun once in a while and that she hadn't been the worst of the partygoers by the end of the night.

After about two and a half weeks, though, which was a remarkably fast recovery for the amount of shame she had brought upon herself, the pink-haired spirit was finally able to pull herself together a little more. She went out to the market, only uttered half of the apologies she had offered the week before, and managed to keep her composure without going beet red and fleeing the crowds.

Yes, things were mostly back to normal. Aries felt almost like she could do anything.

Almost.

The one thing she couldn't do was face the Lion with any semblance of normality. He had carried her back to the apartment after she had passed out and had waited until she woke up again two hours later. He had held her hair while she had expelled the entire contents of her stomach, and on top of that he waited to make sure that she drank some water and that she would be okay before leaving around three in the morning. And as sweet as the gesture was, it only made her more and more conscious of the orange-haired womanizer.

The fact that she was in love with him constantly travelled through her mind, and it had done so ever since Lyra had convinced her to admit it out loud. Thus, all she could think of was the fact that the man she was in love with had witnessed her vomiting an evening's worth of food and alcohol over a toilet for at least thirty minutes.

He had seen her vomiting.

There were no reparations. He probably thought that she was disgusting and had only stayed with her out of pity. Maybe he had remained out of a friendship that was fast deteriorating because he'd finally realized how completely unattractive she was, especially after seeing her hanging over a toilet. If he stopped hanging out with her, Aries reasoned again and again in her head, he'd be more popular with all the other lady spirits that he hadn't dated yet.

The thought made her weak at the knees. Although she loved him, she had survived on his friendship for as long as she could remember. They had joined the Zodiac spirits at the same time, if she recalled correctly, so although he was considered the leader, they had learned the ropes together. Of course, as spirits they had already known the basics, but with the Zodiac rank came greater power and a few more rules that the Spirit King wanted them to abide by. In effect, they had been together forever, even just as friends, and if she lost that now she didn't know what she would do.

And then…the dreams. She had experienced a few every day moments between Arielle and Loke in dreams since the party, but nothing as significant as the first few. But in each dream, she felt herself becoming more involved in the story.

What was going to happen to this other Aries and other Leo? Because she could no longer deny that the Arielle in her dreams was almost a carbon copy of her, just as Loke was a carbon copy of Leo. She had always passed these dreams off as her subconscious giving form to her feelings, but sometimes she thought they were a little more. There was just so much substance, so much heart, that she felt exceedingly attached to her other self.

A few times, she had let herself fancy that Arielle and Loke were kind of like Edolas versions of herself and Loke, although Celestial Spirits were already part of almost every world, as far as she knew.

If they really were alternates, though, Aries was both embarrassed and hopeful after getting brief glimpses into their lives. Arielle was what Aries wanted to be—she was just a little more confident than the Ram was, and had a closer relationship with Loke than Aries had with Leo. They had grown up together and spent most of their lives together, but even so, the Zodiac spirit could see that they got closer and closer with each dream she had. She was, admittedly, jealous of this other self.

But she couldn't deny that, somewhere deep down, she wanted these dreams to mean something.

And so, as she continued cleaning the bathroom and trying desperately not to remember that fateful night, she listened to Lyra humming while cleaning her side of the bedroom and tried to figure out how to talk to the musical girl about these dreams. Talking, she knew, was supposed to help, and Aries wanted someone else to look at them objectively. The Ram knew that she was too invested in them to examine them from every angle.

Well…Lyra may not be the best spirit to go to, but she would know that the Zodiac spirit wanted serious, truthful answers, even if they hurt.

But then she felt her gate opening, and she had to put those thoughts out of mind.

"Lyra, I'm so sorry!" she apologized quickly, putting down her rag on the edge of the sink and dropping her apron across the side of the bathtub as the Lyre's humming stopped. "Lucy's calling me!"

She did all of this in just a matter of seconds, feeling the urgency in the summons.

"You're fine, just go!" Lyra poked her head in, and Aries scarcely heard it or saw the other spirit before disappearing in a flare of golden celestial light.

The scene that she arrived to in Earthland wasn't quite as bad as she had feared, so she felt a little bit of relief. Lucy was facing off against a few forest vulcans whilst Natsu was off blowing things up somewhere nearby—probably, the Ram assumed, dealing with more of the giant monkeys. That was just his style. Her blonde master, however, looked frustrated, determined, and was flushed a lovely shade of scarlet. Her left arm, the key of the Ram clutched in her fingers, covered her chest and her right hand gripped the handle of her whip.

"These damn perverts!" the girl cried shrilly, trying to adjust her torn top so that she didn't have to hold it up. "Every time we go on a job that Natsu chooses, they have to be perverted monsters! Every fucking time!"

"How would you like me to handle them, Miss Lucy?" Aries asked politely, tip-toeing around the furious celestial mage's temper.

Lucy blinked, as if she had just realized that Aries was already there, then smiled cheerfully at her, despite the situation, and suggested, "Just take them out?" with a light laugh.

The spirit bowed her head politely in acknowledgment, and she was extremely relieved to see that her master had regained her usual cheerful outlook. Lucy was always Lucy, of course, no matter what mood she was in, but it was just more natural for her to be in good cheer.

"Oh, and Aries?" the blonde's questioning tone got the pink-haired girl's attention. When eye contact had been established, the human woman grinned and said, "It's just Lucy!"

And with that, she cracked her whip and dodged something that one of the giant monkeys threw at her. It reminded Aries of the imminent danger and she spun to action as well, issuing a well-timed wool wall to protect both Lucy and herself from a magic attack. The shy Zodiac spirit then followed Lucy's slightly harried suggestion for a wool bomb to throw one of them off balance. The blonde then latched on to his giant foreleg and surprised Aries with a show of brute strength, using the whip's length as leverage.

The beast toppled over into another, but just as that happened, Aries felt the ground beneath her shudder. In an instant, she found herself dangling in the air by one leg, face to face with a new vulcan that had come from behind. Her heart leapt to her throat in surprise, and she found herself preparing to scream. She stopped herself, somehow blundered through an apology that she wasn't entirely sure Lucy heard, and cast another quick wool bomb at the creature's face. When the fluffy explosive went off, the overgrown primate reared back and roared in shock and discomfort. His grip on her had also loosened, so she tumbled unceremoniously—and moderately painfully—to the ground below.

"Aries!" Lucy cried, and the crack of her whip sounded above the spirit's head. Aries scrambled to get up more quickly while her master distracted the creature, doing her best to ignore the scrapes and bruises she had acquired. It took more effort than it should have for her to bite back a whimper when she put pressure on a swollen ankle, but she did so.

"I-I'm sorry," she managed, "I-I'm fine now, Lucy."

And she leapt at the vulcan again, using a wool blindfold to temporarily confuse the beast. That was just enough for she and Lucy to team up and deal the final blows to knock it unconscious. As they backed away, both slightly breathless, Lucy let out a satisfied sigh. A grin spread across her features, and she turned to her spirit, lights twinkling in her eyes.

"Thanks so much, Aries!"

"It's nothing," she murmured, embarrassedly, as she looked down at her feet momentarily. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help than that."

"No, you helped plenty!" the blonde insisted, and Aries looked up at her shyly to assess the truth in her words. And the Ram was very glad she did, because even as her master opened her mouth to say something more, the pinkette dove forward and pulled her out of the way while wrapping them both in a wool cocoon of sorts. And then Aries saw stars as the larger vulcan swept her roughly aside and she slammed bodily into a tree, wool cocoon and all.

She scarcely registered Lucy's worried cry as her vision danced in and out of focus. She tumbled to the ground, immobile, as she struggled to regain her senses. She could hear her pulse clearly in her ears and she desperately fought to gain control of her motor skills.

The crack of Lucy's whip sounded again and again, and Aries knew that the only reason the girl hadn't tried to use a Forced Gate Closure yet was because she was being pushed back by the giant monkey. And so the Ram fought even harder to return to her master's side, because she didn't want the blonde to regret choosing her.

When she managed to find her feet, she grudgingly allowed that Leo would have been a better choice, because wool, of all things, was a little too soft to do much damage. Then again, that was probably Lucy's intention. She didn't want to kill the creatures…she just wanted them to stop interfering with whatever the job was. Aries understood that, but when she felt the bruises and realized that her left arm was dangling limply at her side, she knew that one of the more physical spirits would have been more advantageous for the situation.

"Get…back!" the frustration in the blonde's voice was clear, and Aries turned her full, albeit wavering, attention back to the enemy. With more determination than she really ever felt, she raised one hand and pointed towards the beast's back, silently willing her wool to compact itself.

"Wool bat!" she created on the spot, and to her own surprise, the woolen baseball bat connected with the monkey's head in a convincingly solid thunk. It dropped almost instantly, and Aries stumbled backwards a little to slump against a tree in relief. She tried to ignore the fact that it was this very tree that had broken her arm, and maybe fractured a rib or two.

"Aries!" Lucy cried out, rushing forward again. The pinkette quickly raised her eyes to examine the other girl, and to her relief found the blonde only a few more cuts worse for wear. "Aries, are you alright? No, of course you're not, what am I saying?" she began to babble. "Your arm's definitely broken, and there's a nasty cut," here, she reached up to lightly touch a throbbing place on the Ram's forehead that she hadn't even noticed before, "not to mention all the bruises and scratches…"

The ages-old automatic, "I'm sorry," escaped Aries's lips, and then she continued, "but as long as you're alright—"

"No! It's not okay, so don't even go there! Get back to the Spirit World now, Aries, and rest up. I want you to recover as quickly as possible!" Lucy stepped forward to give her a light, considerate hug before pulling out the zodiac key of the Ram. "And if you even think about arguing, I'm going to use a Forced Gate Closure to send you back!"

With a tired, apologetic smile, Aries inclined her head and said, "If you say so, Lucy. I'm sorry," before slowly fading back into her own world.

When her feet were on solid ground—her apartment, she assumed—she stumbled sideways and fell to the floor with a clatter. Blinking, she realized belatedly that she had landed in the kitchen and knocked over a chair as her adrenalin gave out and she herself had crashed to the floor. She closed her eyes for a moment and then leaned back against the counter, taking measured breaths. She had to get up and clean herself up soon, but for now she would sit here and take it easy.

Yes…taking it easy was definitely the route she should take…

"Ari! Arielle!" the voice sounded kind of distant, but she recognized her name. Her thoughts were groggy and barely coherent, but she knew it was directed at her. "Ari, you need to wake up now! Please, get up!"

The voice was familiar, and frantic, but she couldn't fathom why. But they were insisting that she needed to wake up, even though she was warm and fuzzy and comfortable, so she couldn't just ignore them. There had to be some sort of reason that he was trying to interfere with her sleep. After all, Loke is the one who always told her to rest up when she wasn't feeling well—wait. Loke. It was his voice calling to her. If that was the case, though, why did he sound so worried?

The pinkette had a struggle then, coaxing her eyelids open. She blinked, finding herself bemusedly staring at familiar dark orbs. Another blink, and she realized that Loke was hovering right above her, his dark eyes full of worry.

"Arielle!" he breathed, hand finding a place on her forehead. "Thank the gods, are you alright? How are you feeling?"

"What…happened?" Ari was surprised to find her voice came out gravelly, as though it had been a while since she had last used it. She couldn't fathom why, though. She had a slight fever when she got up this morning, sure, but she had been cleaning the house because it was cleaning day. She cleaned every Thursday morning, so it made sense. The girl didn't want to get behind on the housework, since her weaving was taking off fairly slowly and Loke was doing all the breadwinning.

"You tell me!" he cried, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I came home to find you unconscious on the floor! The dusting rag was right beside you and your legs were tangled up in the chair you usually stand on to clean! I thought you had fallen and hit your head and died on me! But then I saw that you were breathing, even though you had definitely fallen off the chair, and when I felt your forehead I found out that you were running a fever, so I tried to cool you down and made sure that you didn't hit your head too hard when you fell and dammit, Ari, I've been so worried!"

His voice had become tight from lack of breathing, as he had given most of his tirade in one breath. She felt a little ashamed for worrying him so badly, but she also felt happy that he cared so much. Of course, they'd been through a lot together, so it would hit them hard if they lost one another, she was sure.

"Well, I'm…fine now," she tried, an apologetic tone in her voice. The weaver could tell that her friend didn't believe her in the least, but she understood that, too.

"I'll only believe that for as long as it takes me to go find the nearest doctor," was the response he gave her, pushing himself rather heavily to his feet. His calloused fingers brushed across her arm as he reached to feel her still warm forehead once more. With a relieved but determined sort of grin, he patted her cheek and let his hand rest there for a few moments. "I'll be back soon, so stay awake for me, okay?"

Flushing, she could only nod.

And there you go! Have another dream!

But wait...Aries is still out like a light! If you want to know what happens next, stay tuned for the next installment of Infinitum.

And this, my friends, is what you get when I'm tired as fuck and finishing fanfiction at one in the morning. If there are any mistakes, please kindly point them out, and if anything seems a little rushed or confusing in the fight scene, just point me to it and I'll gladly re-evaluate it and do my best to fix it.

Thanks for reading!