"Come on Luce you gotta wake up," Natsu begged as he felt Happy sit on top of his head, as the dragon slayer tried to shake his partner awake. A small desperate whine filled the cave as he continued to shake her as he noticed that her scent had seemed to slightly diminish.

Soon Lucy began to mumble as her eyes began to move behind her still closed lids, slowly she opened her eyes and Natsu let out a relived sigh.

"Thank god, I thought I lost you," Natsu mumbled as he buried his nose in to Lucy's neck as he inhaled her scent as it returned stronger that it was before.

"Natsu," Lucy grumbled as she felt the dragon slayer grip her tighter.

"Lucy I was so scared," Happy cried as he flew down and buried himself in to her chest.

The three Fairy Tail members sat there for several minutes as they clung to each other. After a while Natsu loosened his hold on the Celestial Wizard. As she sat up they all looked around the room and marveled at the changes. The once empty space was filled to the brim with keys, all of different colors, shapes, and sizes but Lucy could feel the pulse of magic flowing form each one of them. Their all gate keys, Lucy thought as she stood up and began looking them over. The keys reflected the light of the glowing spheres that lit cave, causing every inch of it to be brightened.

"What is this place?" Lucy asked as she stared at several jewel encrusted keys.

"This is the Great Well," a voice said, the three tuned around to find a girl standing before them.

Natsu recognized her at the child from before but she seemed to have aged; now looking no older than Lucy. Her hair was much longer, though still in its two pigtails trailed down her back past her knees to pool on the floor at her feet, her clothing replaced by fine materials. Dark purple trimmed with silver, as the halter style dress fit her like a glove. The strange symbol now sat on the high waist belt. The large skirt sparkled with groups of dots. Her bare arms still bore the markings of the twelve zodiac spirits.

"I hope there are fish here then," Happy said.

"Wait aren't you?" Natsu asked as he scratched his head.

"Yes son of Igneel, I was the girl you saw before," the woman nodded her head.

"But how?" The dragon slayer asked.

"As I said this is a sacred place, the Great Well houses nearly every celestial key in existence. Only the high twelve and those who choose to leave this place are out in the world," she said as she turned her attention to Lucy and began circling the girl not noticing the happy smile that broke out on the girl's face.

"High twelve?" Lucy asked as she tried to get a good look at the woman who was circling her.

"I believe you refer to them as zodiac keys," the woman spoke as she finally stopped moving standing right in front of Lucy as the hope in her eyes deflated, well then I guess even if Aquarius got a new key it wouldn't be here.

"I thought this place was a myth," the Celestial wizard said calmly as the woman leaned in close to her face.

"No it is very real, and only those who have passed the trail may walk here," the odd woman said as she turned and walked back towards the center of the room.

"But what about?" Lucy asked looking over at Natsu who at the moment she had looked over at him was biting down on a key; "Natsu!" the blonde wizard shouted causing him to drop the key in his hands.

"The son of Igneel is most welcome, the great Dragon king asked that I allow him leave," the woman said bowing slightly to Natsu as he sheepishly placed the key back where he had found it.

"Great Dragon King? Are you talking about dad!? You know him?!" Natsu asked excitedly.

"Igneel is not the great dragon king," the woman said as she turned her attention back towards the Celestial wizard. "Daughter of the stars you have passed the trail and now shall receive your reward. You may choose one key to take with you, each is a precious spirit. Choose wisely," the woman said as she disappeared in a shimmering light.

"So which one are you going to choose Luce?" Natsu asked as he looked at the jewel encrusted ones enviously as Lucy moved on and began to walk around the room.

The keys laid scattered on and around various rocks, ledges, and serval hung from the ceiling, there were standing metal racks that had that house many keys each glowing in the lights that hovered in the room. Lucy wandered aimlessly as she tried to find a way to choose a key. As she wondered she felt her magic pulled her towards a group of rocks on the left. As she looked over the keys that lay on the rocks near the wall one stood out to her.

It looked like a plain iron key, unlike the others in the cave it did not sparkle or stand out in any way. It sat in a layer of dust surrounded by cobwebs. Unlike every other key it seemed like it had been forgotten, and that thought broke Lucy's heart. Gently she picked up the key and felt the power flow through her as it surged to life, causing her to become oddly dizzy. Shaking her head to clear the odd feeling, she blew on the key removing several layers of dust. Turning around she walked back towards the oddly quiet dragon slayer as he sat on the floor in the middle of the odd circle with the blue exceed still sitting on his head, reaching down in to her pack she pulled out a shirt and wrapped the key in it as she tucked it back in to her bag.

"You found a key?' Natsu asked as Happy clung to his head.

"Yeah," almost as soon as Lucy spoke the cave was filled with a great light and the trio found themselves at the base of the mountain again.

Happily the dragon slayer reached in to his pant pockets growling in frustration as he turned them inside out finding nothing in them. Dumping his bag on the floor he began digging through the random pile of food and clothes that had fallen out.

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked as she looked at Natsu as he furiously started shoving everything back in his bag.

"Oh Natsu tried to get you more than one key," Happy giggled as he watched the pink haired mage spit out a fire ball and pout.

"What?" the Celestial wizard asked as she looked over at the brooding Natsu.

"Yeah but apparently that damned girl is greedy. Why does she need so many keys?" Natsu grumbled as he pulled Lucy along a path that looked and smelled familiar.

Looking around for several minutes the trio began to walk back towards the professor's house. As they neared it they spotted a group of rune nights, surrounding the house.

"Commander, what are we doing here?" Dorenbolt asked as the trio hid behind several large shrubs.

Despite encountering no resistance at being restated as a guild, Fairy Tail's relationship with the magic council was still rocky in the best of times. Master had warned everyone to be on their best behavior and above all else to do what you could to avoid any confrontations with the council or their police force. And yet in spite of that Dorenbolt and a man that neither had seen before stood in front of the small house as it was surrounded by half a dozen rune knights.

"Professor Kindler was supposed to deliver something to the magic counsel," the man spoke plainly as he stared at the door.

"What is so important that the council has sent us out here to escort him back?" Dorenbolt asked as his gaze flickered over to the shrubs the trio were hiding behind but quickly returned to his partner.

"I do not know, all I do know is that I am following orders, you should remember Dorenbolt that it is not our job to question the counsel only follow their orders, I would have thought Lahar had taught you that," the man said as he turned to look at his partner.

"Sirs, he is not here," a rune knight spoke as he walked out of the house.

"How long do you think he has been gone?" the commander asked.

"A day at most," the man responded.

"Well then, I will take the contingent back to town and alert the council about this. Dorenbolt you stay here in case the professor comes back," the man ordered as he turned and walked away from the house as the contingent followed him.

As the last of the guards round the corner Dorenbolt spoke.

"You three can come out now" he said quietly as they stood.

"How did you know," Lucy asked as she and Natsu walked out of the shrubs, Happy floating behind them.

"I saw you out of the corner of my eye I didn't say anything because I know what he will assume, and Fairy Tail has enough to worry about," Dorenbolt said as he looked over his shoulder.

"What's going on?" Happy asked as he landed on Natsu's head.

After the guild had found out about Mest's true identity they had been excited to finally remember their missing comrade. But not three weeks later he had disappeared once again but thankfully everyone remembered him this time. All that master had told them was that he had sent the teleportation mage on an assignment that only he could do.

"I don't know. The new council has been getting increasingly paranoid, they are searching for something but I don't know what it is or what it's for all I know is that is has something to do with Celestial magic. That's why the old man had me go undercover again, Lucy I would advise that you not go anywhere alone for a while, and keep a low profile." He warned as he stared down the celestial wizard.

"Mest…" Natsu began but was interrupted by the Fairy Tail mage in rune knight clothing.

"Please pass the warning on to the other Celestial Wizard, it's imperative." As he spoke he heard laughter coming over the hill. "Say hi to Wendy for me," he said with a smile as he teleported the trio to the next town over.

"Well that was weird," Happy said as the trio looked around to find out where they were.

"Looks like he sent us just south of Meriden," Lucy said as she found a map with a train schedule on it, "and there is a train going to Diovan in ten minutes."

"Let's go I want to put as much distance between us and those rune knights as possible," Natsu grumbled as he dragged Lucy towards the train station.

A/N: Wow! Can I just say I am really feeling grateful. So far this story has revived so much positive feedback I am really Honored by how many of you have favorited, followed, liked, and even read this story. It touches my heart, to see such a response. As I have said before I have much planned for this story and hope that you all stick with me to the end. So until next week...