A New Beginning

by Bloody Amethyst

Lucy is awaken by a knock on the door in the middle of the night, outside is a wounded Cobra, and he is asking for her help. She gives it and never regretted the choice with all that follows. Read to find out what she and her new teammate encounters after she was kicked out of her old team.

7. Chapter 7 - Missions, Shadows & A Spider

AN / Yey :-D I managed to post this chapter despite working nearly 24/7 right now. I do hope you will love this chapter. :-D

Chapter 7 - Missions, Shadows & A Spider

Nobodys POV
The two women walked carefully through the rocky terrain, keeping their eyes open for any sign of the monsters. They had just walked around a huge rock when Mira screamed, Lucy turned and saw her friend fly through the air and one of the monsters raise its clawed hand, ready to strike her.
"Celestial Shield!" Lucy screamed, and a glittering shield appeared between herself and the monster. "Mira? Are you okay?" She shouted, then winced as the monsters clawed hand landed on her shield with enough force to nearly shatter it.
"Darkness Stream!" A shout came and a a dark beam hit the monster at the base of its neck and it fell dead to the ground, its head nearly severed from the rest of the body. Lucy lowered her shield and looked over at Mira who was in her Satan Soul form and smiled.
"Nice hit." She said as Mira landed.
"Thanks. You okay?" She asked
"Yea, I'm fine, what about you?" Lucy asked
"Just a couple of bruises." Mira said
"Good, then lets go find the two last monsters." Lucy said, Mira nodded and they continued to walk. Mira still in her Satan Soul mode.
They found the remaining two a few minutes later and took them out pretty fast. Lucy used Mammon and took out one of them and Mira took the other.
After Mammon had left Lucy said.
"I so have to get stronger. I used up more magic with just one of the Hell gates open then I do with two zodiac open double the time." She grimaces
"But that was still really good. He really is very strong." Mira said and looked at the head that Mammon had severed from the body with a kick and Lucy nodded. Then they walked back down to the town. They had to stop for a few minutes so Lucy could catch her breath once.
"Ne, Lucy. What was that you used when the first monster attacked?" Mira asked suddenly
"That was a celestial shield. I learned it a while back, it's still not perfect but I'm working on it." Lucy smiled
"Sweet, it seemed pretty strong." Mira said, Lucy nodded.
"It is. But that monster nearly broke it after just one hit." Lucy said with a small wince
"I will help you train." Mira smiled. Lucy smiled back at her.
"Thanks, Mira." She said
After that they talked about what kind of training they could do so they both could get better.

~ on the train after having gotten the reward ~
"So, what keys did you get?" Mira asked, Lucy took the two keys and studied them for a second.
"This is Andromeda, the Chained One." She said and showed one of them. Then looked at the other. "And this is Cetus, the Sea Monster." Lucy smiled. "Now I have one more water spirit that I can use, one that won't drag me in to the attacks, hopefully." She said.
"That's great. I look forward to see them." Mira smiled
"Want to be there when I contract them?" Lucy asked
"I can?" Mira asked, surprised but glad. Lucy nodded. "I would be glad to."
"Then let's do so as soon as we get back to Magnolia." Lucy smiled and Mira nodded.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Lucy asked.
"Did you solve the misunderstanding with Freed?" She looked at Mira who nodded.
"Yea, a while after you had left yesterday did I talk to him and we are still together." She smiled
"That's great. I'm so happy for you." Lucy smiled
"Thanks. It's nice that someone in the guild knows about the relation between me and Freed." Mira said
"Why haven't you told the rest of the guild yet?" Lucy asked
"Freed is afraid that the rest of the guild is going to take it badly." Mira said
"Hmm, I don't think they will. I know he and the other three did some bad stuff before, but they have made up for that a long time ago." Lucy said
"That's what I have been trying to tell him as well, but he just won't listen, he thinks that even if they have forgiven them in general they won't accept that he is dating me, who is like the poster girl for Fairy Tail." Mira said, rolling her eyes about the poster girl stuff.
"Want me to try to talk to him?" Lucy asked
"You could do that? I don't want to trouble you." Mira said, Lucy smiled.
"I would be glad to help." She said
"Thanks, Lucy." Mira said
"No problem. Does his team know about your relationship?" Lucy asked, Mira nodded.
"Yea, he can't keep anything from Laxus." Mira smiled, Lucy also smiled.
"Tomorrow he and the others will be coming over for dinner, care to join us? We could try to talk to him together then." Lucy said
"Sure. Which time?" Mira asked
"At 6pm." Lucy said
"Can I come earlier?" Mira asked
"You can come whenever you want." Lucy smiled
"Then I will be over sometime around 3-4." Mira said, Lucy nodded.

~ the next day ~
Lucy and Mira stood in Lucy's kitchen fixing the food when a knock sounded at the door, then the door opened.
"Hello, we are here." Laxus shouted
"We are in the kitchen." Lucy shouted back, shortly after the four mages came in to the kitchen, the two women smiled at then.
"Hello." Mira smiled
"Hello." They answered back.
"Dinner is nearly done, why don't you sit down at the table?" Lucy said, the others nodded and went to sit down.
"How was your first mission as a team?" Laxus asked Mira when she came in with plates, glasses and silverware.
"It went well, we went up against three monsters, but we took them out pretty easily." Mira smiled, then she looked at Lucy who had just entered with the food. "And I have to say, Mammon is one demon I would hesitant to go up against, he was strong." Lucy smiled at her.
"And he sucks up my magic like a sponge." Lucy laughed, and put the food down.
"Is he really that strong?" Laxus asked, the two women nodded.
"He might be on pair with master when he is in his titan form in physical power, if not more." Mira said, making the others stare at her and Lucy.
"At the moment he might be a little bit less powerful, but as I get stronger so will he." Lucy said and sat down, they started eating and talked about her Hell keys, and how powerful they were.
After the dinner was over Laxus said.
"You really are the best cook in the guild, if you ever open up a restaurant I will come everyday." He patted his stomach.
"Isn't that what you four are doing already, or at least close to it." Lucy mused.
"Oh, shut up." Laxus growled without heat, Lucy grinned.
"So, shall we do what we talked about on the train now or wait a bit more?" Lucy asked and looked at Mira. The others looked curious.
"We can do it now." Mira said, Lucy nodded with a smile.
"What is it you are going to talk about?" Freed asked, Mira just smiled.
"You actually." Lucy said. Freed blinked.
"Me?" He asked
"Or more accurately your stupidity and lack of balls." Lucy said and looked at him.
"I'm not following." He said, his team looked amused.
"Why won't you let Mira tell the guild that you two are dating?" Lucy asked bluntly. "And don't come with this bullshit about the guild not accepting it. I know that not all will do that, but most of them will, there is no reason they wouldn't." She said, looking Freed right in the eyes. He blushed.
"You told her?" He asks Mira.
"I needed someone to talk to." Mira said, shrugging. Freed sighed.
"Look at my past, and look at what I have done to the guild. It's obvious that they won't accept it." He said, Lucy scowled at him.
"So what if not all of them will? Your friends will accept it, because it makes you both happy. And those who aren't your friends shouldn't mater, they aren't important." Lucy said
"But..." Freed started
"No. If you don't stop focusing on what others will say and start listening to what Mira wants as well, you might lose her. Because you refusing to tell others is making her insecure about if you really love her. And to be honest so am I. If you really love her, shouldn't you care more about what she wants and what makes her happy then those close minded idiots who might object? So what if someone object, there will always be someone who does that, no matter the pairing, because there will always be someone who has a crush on one or the other of the pair. So straiten your back and grow a pair." Lucy said with anger, Freed just gaped at her, his team also looked shocked. Mira had a sad smile on her lips. She hadn't told Lucy about her insecurity, but obviously she hadn't needed to. She had seen right through it. Freed looked at Lucy, and then at Mira.
"Is it true?" He asked, she nodded. "How can you think that?" He asked, hurt in his voice. Mira looked at him, suddenly angry.
"How would you feel if I told you I didn't want to tell anyone we dated? If our situations were reversed, how would you really feel?" She asked, unsheed tears in her angry eyes. But everyone could see the pain. Freed opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again and really thought about what his girlfriend had said, and he paled. He understood what she meant. He would have felt like she tried to hide it, as if she was ashamed of dating him. He was horrified when he realized how he had made his girlfriend feel.
While he had his mental realization and slight breakdown, Lucy beckoned the others to follow her, she and Freed's team left so the two could be alone for a while. They sat down outside beside the canal.
"That was some speech, Blondie." Laxus said, Lucy sighed.
"I just spoke the truth. If I had said it in a gentle way he would never have understood, and Mira wouldn't have gotten the courage to asking that question. And I will never lose that nickname from you, will I?" She said, and looked at the water.
"No, you won't. By the way, smart thinking about making Mira angry, so she could yell at him as well." Laxus said
"Yea, let's see how long it will take before they come down." Evergreen said

They sat there for ten whole minutes before the door opened and the two came out. Lucy looked at Mira and raised one eyebrow. Mira smiled at her.
"We will tell the guild tomorrow." She said, Lucy smiled at her. Then she glanced at Freed, then looked back at Mira.
"So he did grow a pair." She said with a smirk. Freed blushed, and Mira laughed.
"Yes, he did. Thank you, Lucy. It's thanks to you he changed his mind." Mira said as they come up to them. She gave Lucy a hug.
"No problem. I'm glad that I could help." Lucy smiled as she returned the hug.
"Well, now that this is fixed, I'm heading home. See you all tomorrow. And, Lucy, thanks for a great dinner." Evergreen said, smiling at the younger woman.
"See you tomorrow." Lucy said
"I should leave as well." Laxus said, and Bixlow nodded.
"Same here." Freed said
"Yea, I should probably head home as well." Mira said
"See you all tomorrow." Lucy smiled and went back up to her apartment. A smile on her lips.

~ next day ~ a couple hours after they had told the guild about the relationship ~ Lucy POV
I was sitting with Mira at one of the tables, we were having lunch and talking about going on a mission again, since Mira liked my idea of a new home so much she wanted to get a bigger place for her and her siblings as well, rather then the one story four room and a kitchen place they now had.
"Hey, Lucy, I have an idea. How about we ask Crime Sorcière if they want to come on a S-class mission with us? That way we can take one that is a little bit harder, so you can test your own limits better." Mira suddenly said, I thought about it then smiled and nodded.
"Sure, we just have to find a way to contact them, so we can ask." I said
"That's easy, Jellal has a comm. lacrima that we can contact him on. I heard him tell master that the last time he and the others were here." Mira said, I smiled wider at her.
"Then lets ask them." I said, she nodded and took out her lacrima. We both had one, in case something happened while we were out on a mission.
"Hi, Jellal. This is Mira. I was wondering if you and your guild mates wanted to go on a harder S-class mission with me and Lucy." I heard Mira ask
"Sure, but can it wait for a day or two? We are escorting a group of prisoners right now, and will be done tomorrow morning." Jellal said
"Sure, that works perfect for us, since we came back from an other mission the day before yesterday." Mira said with a smile
"Good, then we will contact you tomorrow when we are done here." Jellal said, I could hear a slight smile in his voice.
"Talk to you then." Mira answered and ended the call. "So, that's that. Let's go and see if there is a hard one that would fit our two groups." She said as soon as she had put down the lacrima, I nodded.
"I'm looking forward to this mission." I said as we walked up the stairs. She nodded.
"Me too. I have never seen what they can really do." Mira said
"I have seen some of it. And they are strong." I said
"They would have to be, to have been able to climb so high." Mira said, I nodded.
"Yea, but I'm curious to see how Angel fights now, since she used to be a stellar mage, just like me." I said as we came up to the mission board
"I'm sure she is a great mage." Mira said, I smiled.
"Yea, I'm sure she is, she has never been a bad mage, I just didn't like her way of thinking when it came to spirits." I said, Mira laughed.
"I have noticed that the only thing you can really hold a grudge against is people who treat spirits like tools." Mira laughed
"Yea, it is just wrong to do, but I have a feeling Angel has changed." I said, then I pointed out one mission. "What about this mission?" I asked, Mira looked at it and nodded.

*S-class mission : Take out the dark guild 'Black Widow'
Location : Mountains around Micher
Reward : 150.000.000J + 4 keys*

"Sounds good to me." She said and took it down. "Lets go and tell Lisanna, and that we will leave tomorrow or the day after." She said, I nodded and we walked down to Lisanna and explained.

~ the next morning ~
We sat on the second floor, to get away from the fighting two of my ex-teammates had started a few minutes ago, when Mira's lacrima went of.
"Hello." She said in to it.
"Hello. This is Jellal, we are done with the mission now. Have you found a good one we can go on now?" He said, Mira nodded.
"Yea, we have one here, it's up in the mountains around Micher, we have to take out a dark guild called 'Black Widow'. The reward is 150.000.000J + 4 keys." Mira said
"Sounds good to me, we can meet up half way there, we are in Crocus right now, so we are between Magnolia and Micher." Jellal said
"Good, then we will go down to the station, there is a train leaving for Crocus in half n hour. Then we can take the train from there to Micher." Mira said,
"Okay, see you in a few hours." Jellal said
After that we told Lisanna that we were leaving and went to the station.

~ In Micher, the next morning ~ Nobodys POV
They had just gotten off the train, Crime Sorcière would wait in the town square while Mira and Lucy went to talk to the major about the mission.

~ After having talked to the major ~
"Okay, so, 'Black Widow' has 7 strong S-class mages and the others are average and slightly above. And from what the major said the guild hall is located somewhere in the mountains west of here." Lucy said
"Good, then lets go." Cobra said, and they all started towards the west.
They had walked for a couple of hours when Lucy said.
"I'm sending Canes Venatici out ahead of us to see if they can pick up any traces of the mages." The others nodded. After having summoned the hunting dogs and explained to them what she was after they gave a yip in understanding and took of on either side of the group. Lucy smiled after them as she and the others continued walking. Angel came up beside her.
"Do you have many new keys since we fought?" She asked, Lucy smiled and nodded.
"Yea, I have all the golden zodiac and one Chinese zodiac, and two hell keys and a bunch of silver keys." Lucy said, Angel smiled.
"Not bad. You most be the first to have that many of the powerful ones since they were created." She said, Lucy nodded.
"That's what I have gathered as well. It's pretty nice to have that kind of power, but most of all, it's nice to have a family that large." Lucy said
"You really treat them as family, don't you?" Angel asked, Lucy nodded.
"I didn't really have any family after my mama died, so I'm happy to have one now, both with my spirits and with the guild." She said, a little pink on her cheeks. She didn't know how the white haired woman would take that.
"That's great, I know what you mean, after I was taken to the tower the only family I had was these guys, and we weren't that close until recently, now they are like my brothers, and so is Jellal, and Meredy has become like a sister." Angel said, they had gotten a bit behind the others.
"You also have Yukino." Lucy said
"I haven't gotten up the nerve to talk to her yet." Angel confessed
"Want me to go with you after this mission is over?" Lucy asked
"You would do that?" Angel asked, Lucy nodded.
"Of course. I was planing to go there anyway to show my newest keys." Lucy smiled
"Then let's go later." Angel said with a small smile, but she looked a bit nervous. Lucy nodded.
"Hey, are you two coming?" Midnight shouted from ahead of them.
"Yea, yea. We are coming. Don't get your panties in a twist." Lucy shouted back with a smile. She and Angel speed up and reached them quickly.
"I do not have panties." Midnight said between clenched teeth. Lucy just laughed.
"If you say so." She said, the others also laughed. Midnight just grumbled something about she not having as much respect for him now as during the Nirvana battle. Lucy smiled and said. "I do, I just refuse to treat you as anything but a close friend who I can tease without risking being choked by my own clothes." Midnight smiled at her.
They walked for a few more hours before deciding to make camp. Canes Venatici came up to Lucy and said they would return home, Lucy thanked them for their help and after they had returned she called Virgo and asked her to set up a camp for them. Jellal had just started but was suddenly standing in front of a swirling mass and when it calmed down a nice camp stood there and a pot with soup stood boiling over a fire. Virgo bowed and said.
"The camp is up, Hime. I also prepared some food for you and your friends. Punishment Hime?" Lucy smiled at her.
"Thanks Virgo. And no, no punishment." She said, Virgo bowed again and left. Jellal looked at her.
"That was handy." He commented, Lucy nodded.
"She is great." She smiled and walked over to the pot, sniffed and smiled broadly. "And this smells fantastic." She said
They ate while talking about what had happened since they last saw each other.

~ Time skip ~
The next day they started out just as the sun rose over the horizon, Virgo had packed down the camp while they had eaten, and Lucy had called Canes Venatici again to run ahead of them.

Lucy POV
We walked for a few hours before the two dogs came back with news that they had found the dark guilds base. I sent them back with thanks and then we continued cautiously until we saw the guild building.
"How do we do this?" I asked
"Shall we just attack and then see who we end up against or try to plan it?" Mira asked
"I don't think we can plan this very much, since we don't know much about them." Meredy said
"Then lets just attack and beat them up before they have time to fight back." Midnight said, we nodded. Then we walked right up to the guild and Cobra kicked open the doors. We walked in, I looked around and had to fight not to gag. This place looked more like a whore house then a guild hall, everywhere was half naked women who, by the looks of it, didn't want to be there.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" A large black haired man with black eyes said, he looked mean.
"We are here to disband your guild and bring you in to the Rune Knights." Mira said in a sickly sweet voice. The dark mages laughed. A slim woman with pink hair and purple eyes walked up to the black haired mans side and said.
"And who are you to think you will be able to do that?" She asked, none of us answered. Just assessed our opponents. "Fine. Take them out." She ordered the rest of her guild mates. We attacked as well.
"I will take the weaker ones, you guys take the others." Razer said, we nodded. We ran past the mages attacking us towards the ones who had stayed back, me and Jellal ended up facing of with the man and woman who had spoken earlier and I saw Meredy and Angel standing in front of a pair of twins.
"What do you say, shall we take this outside, so we don't get in the way of the others fights?" Jellal said
"Sure, that way we won't have to clean up your blood from the guild floor." The man said and we walked outside. We walked to an open space among the rocks that surrounded the guild.
"Here will do just fine." The woman said, then she turned and sent a thread at me, I dodged and pulled out one of my keys.

~ with Razer ~ Nobodys POV
Razer watched as his friends faced of with the others and how they all left the guildhall and moved their fighting somewhere else, he looked at the ones that was left and smirked. This was going to be easy. The women that had been there when they came left running through the doors. He slowed down the dark mages sense of time and attacked them, when he stopped they all fell to the ground unconscious. He took out some magic canceling ropes and tied them up, then he left to go snoop through the other rooms to see if he could find anything they could need.

~ with Midnight ~
Midnight was up against a requip mage, he yawned when he saw how long it took the man to equip his sword. As long as he isn't as good as Erza he wasn't worried.
"Oy, why are you yawning just before we are going to fight?" The man asked
"Because this is going to be easy." Midnight said
"Why you! I will show you easy." He screamed, he obviously didn't have much patients and was a hot head. Midnight used his magic and choked him until he was unconscious. He yawned again and tied the man up and started dragging him back to the guild hall and wait for the others to be done while Razer looked through the storage rooms.

~ with Angel and Meredy ~
The two women was up against a pair of twins with long red hair and cold blue eyes.
"Look at those two, thinking they are so tough." One of them said
"Yea, lets show them tough." The other said
"Damn, seems we drew the bad one." Meredy said
"You bet you did, tho that blue haired guy and that ugly blond bimbo drew the worst, they are up against our master and Erica, they are the strongest ones here." One of the redheads said
"That wasn't really what I meant, I just meant that of course we would end up against the bitches of this guild." Meredy said, then a hard glint appeared in her eyes. "And did you just call Lucy an ugly bimbo?" She asked her voice threatening and low.
"So what if we did? She is a nobody." The other redhead said, Angels eyes flashed and she lifted her hand and sent a beam of light at the twins.
"Do not, I repeat, do not, speak like that about our friend." She said with a voice that shook with rage. The beam hit the ends of their hair and they screeched.
"My hair! How dare you, you fucking SOB."
"That should teach you not to speak ill of our friends." Meredy said. The twins glared at them.
"Fine. Lets finish this." They said together. Then they took a leap up in to the air and stayed there. Then they sent powerful torrents of air at the two women, who had to lift their arms to protect their eyes.
Meredy retaliated by sending her swords at them. But they just went right through them. She blinked at that. The twins laughed.
"No offensive magic can hurt us unless you hit us both at the same time." They said, Meredy and Angel looked at each other then smiled. Meredy lifted her hand and sent a sensory link at them and connected them together.
"Thank you for telling us your weakness so fast." Angel said and sent a sphere of light at one of them, she didn't even bother dodging and got hit right in the chest, both twins screamed as they felt the attack hit, then they fell to the ground.
"How? How did you do that?" They asked, looking at the two with hatred as they stood back up.
"You see the thing on your wrists, it's a sensory link, I have connected your senses and made them into one." Meredy smiled
"What?!" The twins asked, horrified.
"As you said, lets finish this." Angel said and sent a beam of light at one of the twins, Meredy sent her swords at the other. The twins screamed with pain before falling unconscious.
Angel and Meredy smiled at each other, then tied the twins up and dragged them back to the guild hall to wait for the others.

~ with Cobra (and Cubellios) ~
"Are you fucking serious?" The man in front of Cobra asked. Cobra lifted an eyebrow.
"What?" He asked
"A fucking snake? They are disgusting. How can you stand being so close to it?" He asked, shuddering. Cobra glared at him.
"Cubellios is my partner, don't you dare speak ill of her." He hissed
"It's a fucking snake. If I had to choose anyone in your little group to partner up with it would be that blond hoty. At least then I would have something to amuse myself with between fights." He said with a smirk, Cobras eyes widened.
"Not only are you speaking ill of Cubellios but now you are insulting Lucy, one of the bravest mages I have ever met." He said, he could feel himself getting angrier.
"Oh, did I hit a nerve? Maybe I should play with her later, if there is anything left of her after master and Erica is done with her." The man smirked. Cubellios hissed at him, poison flying from her fangs. Cobra smiled.
"You are right. There is no way Lucy would lose, to anyone. No matter who they are. She is way too stubborn." He said, petting Cubellios on the head. Then he turned to the man and said. "And you should stop kidding yourself. Lucy would never want to partner up with the likes of you. She has too high a standards. You would never make the cut, you are too stupid and too out of her class." Cobra said with a smirk, the man shook with anger.
"You will regret those words, you bastard." He shouted, then he lunched himself at Cobra, who stepped aside. The man growled.
"You are a palm mage, am I right?" Cobra asked
"So what?" The man asked
"Just wondering." He said, then hit the man hard with a 'poison dragons sharp horn', hitting him square in the face. He walked up to the fallen mage and said as he tied him up. "As I said, you are way out of her league." Then he thought. And so am I. He then dragged the man back to the guild.

~ with Mira and Hoteye ~
They had ended up against the same mage.
He sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"Is there any way I can convince you two to just leave me alone?" He asked
"Only if you give up and comes with us without a fight." Mira said
"I'm afraid I can't do that." He said
"Then we have to fight." Hoteye said and prepared for battle.
"Fine." The man said with a sight. He then sent a huge amount of spiky rocks at them. Hoteye made them in to liquid form.
"I will take care of this guy. You can give me support." He said and looked at Mira, she hadn't even flinched when the rocks came at them, trusting her partner for this fight. She nodded at him and used her Satan Soul and flew up in to the air, waiting for her chance to attack.
"Oh, so you also use earth magic, interesting, too bad we have to fight." The mage said, then he gave a sound of surprise when the ground under him went soft. He jumped away from the aria and was met with Mira's fist to the face. She sent him spinning down towards the ground again. Hoteye quickly made the ground liquefied. The mage hit the soft ground and got stuck. Then Mira sent a 'Soul Extinction' at him and knocked him out. She landed beside Hoteye.
"Nice job." He said
"You too." She said, then they got him out of the ground and tied him up.
"I wonder how the others are doing." Mira said and looked in the direction Lucy and Jellal had left.
"I'm sure they are all doing fine. The are all strong after all." Hoteye said, Mira smiled at him.
"That is true. I just hope they aren't too hurt when they are done." Mira said as they walked in to the guildhall and saw the others there.
"Do you know if Lucy has had Gemini copy Wendy?" Angel asked, she and Meredy had cuts from the wind the twins had sent at them.
"Yea, Wendy is one of the people Gemini has copied. What happened to you two?" Mira asked, so Angel and Meredy told of their fight.
"They weren't that smart. If they were they should have kept their weakness a secret." Meredy said
"Better then go up against someone who is both an idiot and a disgusting perv." Cobra said
"He hit on you?" Mira asked
"No, he said he would use Lucy as entertainment between fights." Cobra explained, Mira got a dark aura.
"I hope you brought him down hard." She said
"I did." He said, Mira nodded once. Glaring towards the tied up palm mage.
"Anyway, the only ones who isn't back yet is Lucy and Jellal." Angel said

"Yea, seems like the rest of us had pretty easy fights, surprisingly enough, since these guys was supposed to be powerful." Mira said, the others agreed.
"Hey, guys, look what I found in one of the storage rooms." Razer said as he came back, he held a silver key in his hand.
"Is that a gate key?" Midnight asked, Razer nodded.
"Don't know which one tho." He said, he gave it to Angel who looked it over.
"This is Leo Minor." She said with a smile.

~ at the same time with Lucy and Jellal ~
They had been fighting for a while now. Lucy was breathing heavily as she dodged a thread. It hit the ground with a sizzling sound as the acid on the thread ate the ground the thread hit. One wrong hit by that thread and she could be dead. And unluckily for her it seemed the woman was faster then Lucy herself. She had already used Virgo to try to take her down, but her chains had just been melted by the woman. Now she saw her shift, her form change, and when Lucy saw what the woman turned in to she screamed, a short scream of shook, fear and disgust.

Jellal had as much trouble with his opponent, he was a shadow mage, someone who could manipulate the shadows around him. Luckily it seemed as if he was strong enough that the dark guild master couldn't control his shadow. He knew Lucy was still alright. That's when he heard her scream. He turned his head and his eyes widened. There, in front of Lucy, stood a huge, hairy, ugly, black spider. It sent a huge amount of threads at Lucy, and she was barley able to dodge. She pulled out an other key.

"Open, gate of the ram! Aries!" And Aries appeared between Lucy and the woman, Erica.
"I'm sorry." She said
"Aries, I need you to create a wall around her, to keep her from attacking." Lucy said
"Wool wall." She said as she surrounded the spider-woman with her pink wool.
"Thanks Aries." Lucy said as she bent forward and rested her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.
"Are you okay, Lucy-Hime?" Aries asked as she walked up to her. Lucy smiled at her.
"Yea, just a little irritated at that woman. And I really, really hate spiders, they are disgusting." Lucy said, shuddering slightly.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help." Aries said a minute later, her head bowed.
"You have always been a great help to me." Lucy smiled, and Aries looked up blushing with a small smile before she returned to the spirit world. The wool disappeared and Lucy once more faced off with the spider-woman, now with an even breath.

In the mean time was Jellal trying to get to the master, but his shadows was too hard to penetrate.
He turns when he heard Lucy scream in pain and when he sees her lying on the ground, holding her leg and the spider-woman aiming a new attack at her, he panics slightly. He uses 'Meteor' and gets her away from the attack, noticing in passing that it would have hit her in the head.
"Are you okay? Can you stand?" He asks her. Lucy nodes.
"Yea, it's just pain, it will pass." She say as he puts her down, they look over at their opponents, they are talking as if there is no danger.
"You seem to have some problems with that spider." Jellal comments, Lucy nodes.
"Yea, she's pretty fast, and if anything holds on to her she just melts it." She said, then looks over at the master. "You don't seem to be having much luck against yours either." She say
"No, he uses shadow magic, and I might be fast, but his shadows can shape in to any shape he wants it to." Jellal say
"That's it." Lucy say, snapping her fingers.
"What is?" Jellal asks
"We just change opponents. The spider is too fast for me, and the shadows are too versatile for you. So if you, who are very fast, takes the spider, and me, who uses a magic that is very versatile, takes the shadow mage, we should have less problems." Lucy say, Jellal smiles.
"You are absolutely right. Lets do this." He say and they both turn towards their opponents.
"You done saying your last farewells now?" The spider hisses
"Not really." Lucy say and takes out three keys, Jellal used his 'Meteor' and attacked the spider and punched her hard, she flew backwards, away from the other two.
"What the?" The master asked
"Open! Gate of the Lion, the twins, the greedy demon! Loki! Gemini! Mammon!" She said, power in her voice. The master turned towards her as her two spirits and her demon appeared.
"So, you changed opponent." He said, smirking.
"Gemini, I need you to turn in to Rouge. Loki, Mammon, work together with Gimi-Rouge and take out that man, fast. I won't be able to keep your gates open for long." Lucy said as she sank down on the ground.
"As you wish, Lucy-Hime/Lucy/Milady." The spirits said, and Gemini turned in to Rouge, and when the master attacked using shadows Gemi-Rouge just ate them, then sent them back in the form of a roar, Loki used a Regulus Beam and Mammon sent a tornado of Fire at the man. The three attacks hit him head on and took him out. Lucy smiled.
"Can one of you tie him up in magic canceling ropes? I don't think I can stand, let alone walk, to do it." She said, Loki disappeared and then reappeared, this time with some rope that he used to tie up the master with.
"There. We will return to our worlds now. See you later, princess." Loki said, giving her a bow. Lucy smiled at him, then thanked all of them as they left. A few minutes later did Jellal come back, he was dragging the spider-woman.
"I see you are done here. Are you okay?" He asked, Lucy nodded.
"Yea, he didn't even manage to land a single hit on me." She smiled
"Good, you can tell me later how you did that, for now, lets get back to the others." He said, Lucy nodded and stood up, but she staggered and Jellal caught her arm. "Can you walk?" He asked
"With help I should be able to. At least back to the guild where the others are." Lucy smiled, he nodded and grabbed the master with the same hand he dragged the woman, then he used his free hand to support Lucy. "I take it you didn't have much problem with her either." She said, Jellal shook his head.
"No, it just took two attacks and she was out." He said
"We should have changed opponent from the beginning." Lucy said, her voice betraying how tired she was.
"Yea, then we would have been done long ago." Jellal said, a few minutes later did they arrive at the guild hall, their friends met them outside.
After some fussing they all left, Lucy sat on Cubellios back since she didn't have the strength to walk on her own. The others helped drag the dark mages. They would tell the others about their fights in more detail when they got back to town and found an inn to sleep in.

END OF CHAPTER 7