Chapter Seven:

When they could still see Lucy, but she would be too far away to hear them, Mavis stopped. Perching herself on a tree stump, she motioned for him to sit as well. Laxus sat down opposite her and looked up at the tiny figure of the First master of Fairy Tail. "What happened to you First? You were gone all morning. I have no idea what to do with her." He tried not to whine, but it came somewhat close.

Waving her hand, Mavis said: "The point of me not being here was to give you time to train her. Remember this was supposed to be a learning experience."

With a grunt, Laxus said: "If I can't figure her out, how am I supposed to train her? What happened to her, First?" His tone turned serious, as he remembered the look on her face at the end of their spar.

Mavis shrugged. "I was hoping you knew. You know that I wasn't at the battle against Tartarus. Didn't you ask around while you were still with Fairy Tail?"

Laxus scowled at her. "Of course I did. Freed told me all he knew, and he talked with Mira, who was there. He didn't have anything to say about Lucy though, it was mainly Erza, Natsu, and Grey that he talked about. Oh, and the twin dragons from Sabertooth and their young lady."

The spirit hummed, tapping one finger on her chin. "So if something happened, nobody knows about it."

"I wish she would just use her keys," Laxus said bitterly. "That spar was a joke. She had no chance. There are no spells at all in her inventory, just her whip, and that's easy enough to avoid. Her melee combat skills are nonexistent, and she'll never be able to take a guy my size. You told me to teach her, but I don't know how to without her keys. If only she would keep her keys near her, Loke might show up and I could maybe get some answers."

Mavis clucked disapprovingly. "Do you know one of the best and worst characteristics of Celestial Spirit mages?"

He was dumbfounded. "What does that have to do with anything First? Stop asking me questions when you know I don't know the answer."

"Oh, it would make you think twice about wishing that one of her spirits would show up." Mavis said. "A Celestial Sprit mage holds promises in very high regard. Once they give their word, they will never go back on it. It stems from the contracts they form with their spirits, which are only breakable by the death or imprisonment of their master. Lucy in particular, I believe, has proven that she will never break a promise, no matter what the personal cost. And as to me asking you questions, I specialize in strategy, not omniscience."

"You've lost me First. I still don't know what this has to do with me getting answers if Loke should show up." Laxus couldn't tell where this was going.

Sighing, Mavis explained. "If Lucy does her best to honor and respect the promises and bonds between her and her spirits, it is very likely that they do the same. So even if her lion appears, he would likely be obeying a direct order already. I'm sure he would have his own reasons for doing so, reasons important enough to make him break his own promise, but I doubt that he would betray her confidence so much as to explain what is going on. All spirits have a very personal link with their master, especially one who loves and respects them so much as Lucy. None of them would do anything that might hurt her unless they had a very good reason."

Laxus's head dropped into his hands as he groaned. "First, I just don't know what to do. She doesn't say a word to me that she doesn't have to, no matter what I tell her to do. All morning we train and she seems fine, except for physical exhaustion anyway. But we spar, and she just gets this look in her eyes…I've never seen a person look at me like that, as if she didn't see anything at all. You told me to take care of her like a guild master, but I don't know what to do. Sure, I can train her body, but I can't train her magic at all. I'm a caster mage, not a holder mage, so she won't be able to learn anything that I know. Then there's just…her…I don't know how to put it, but something just doesn't seem right about her. And I don't know how to figure out what or even how to fix it."

Briefly Mavis studied the young man in front of her and realized that he would eventually make a good guild leader, if a bit oblivious. He still had a lot to learn, but his heart was moving in the right direction. Perhaps whatever had brought Lucy to Tenrou would end up helping both of them to move forward. The Celestial mage's demeanor was bothering her as well. From her time spent with Fairy Tail, she had gotten a good sense of the girl's personality, and what she saw now was certainly atypical. Something had happened during the battle that had left its mark on Lucy.

"How could her team just go off when she was like this?" Laxus asked of his hands. "Natsu, Erza, Grey…they all know her better than I do. Why would they just walk away? They're some of the most sympathetic people in the guild."

Mavis looked unimpressed. "Natsu is one of the most oblivious people in the guild," she commented, but Laxus ignored her.

"Or Mira, Levy or Cana…Levy's one of her friends, right? And Cana must be too, or they wouldn't have been partners for the S Class exam. Mira's the kindest person in the guild too. How come any of them didn't see this and help her?" Laxus's voice was tinged with frustration as he ranted at Fairy Tail's founder.

"Natsu and Grey left not long after you did," a voice said, and Laxus and Mavis turned to see Loke appearing from a brief golden glow. "And she put more effort into trying to act normally when the others were around."

"Loke," Laxus said, feeling relieved to see the leader of the zodiacs. "What changed?"

"The guild disbanded," he said flatly, peering at Lucy through the trees, satisfying himself that she was still there. "Everyone left, and she was all alone again."

"Again?" Laxus repeated, but more pressing questions rose to his tongue. "What happened during the battle? Why won't she summon you guys? How are you able to be here?"

"I have the strength to open my own gate for a short period of time," Loke said quietly. "Previously I haven't done so because I had promised not to pass through unless called for. I thought it would help. But I needed to make sure that she was okay, and I knew you two were talking about her."

"But why won't she summon you? Did you see her fighting earlier? She doesn't have a chance without you." Laxus said, looking up at the lion. "Convince her to start using her magic again."

Lucy's strongest spirit shook his head sadly. "I cannot," he said, the pain evident in his voice. "Do you think we would stay away if we weren't strictly forbidden to come? She doesn't want…seeing me would do more damage than good. No, she needs the help of humans this time."

Laxus stared at him. "Are you kidding me? You're her best friends! I can't help her. Go find someone on team Natsu and get them if you won't help her yourself. Don't let her suffer like this!"

He found himself flat on his back with Loke on top of him, fist glowing inches from his face. The look of pain and anger on Loke's face was frightening. "Don't ever think that I wouldn't help her if I could. Lucy is the only reason I am here right now. She saved my life and I swore that I would devote mine to protecting her. If there was anything I could do, including sending a member of team Natsu to her, I would do it in a heartbeat. But she made us promise to do nothing, and that's all we can do for her right now. It's hurting all of us as much as it's hurting her."

Unused to seeing emotion this deep in Loke, Laxus couldn't do anything but stare at the man seconds away from punching him in the face.

Suddenly, Loke's face blanched, and he scrambled off Laxus. "Oh stars, no." The lion whispered, turning to the clearing where Lucy had been. Laxus got up, and followed his gaze. Catching his arm, Loke cried: "You need to stop her, right now."

"Why, what's going on?" Laxus said, peering through the trees. Lucy was standing in the center of the clearing, arms outstretched. She was saying something, but he couldn't make out what.

"Let me put it this way: she doesn't have enough magic right now for that spell to go right. She's only cast it three times in her life, and each time she had someone else's magic to augment hers. If you don't stop her before she completes the incantation, then bad things will happen. I can't stay any longer." He disappeared, leaving a dumbfounded Laxus behind and a grim Mavis.

Frozen, Laxus looked between the place where Loke had been standing and Lucy in the clearing, who had begun to glow. Suddenly, he remembered the only spell he had ever seen the blonde use, and started sprinting towards the clearing.