As always - Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima and everything Pradesh belongs to Desna.
A/N - I just couldn't leave it off where it was without another update! Thank you again for all the reviews, they are my motivation. Keep them coming :)
Everyone raced into the house and up the stairs to see Virgo holding a thrashing Lucy down on the bed while Loke tried to block Zen from reaching her. "Did you mate her?" Loke yelled, his fists alight with Regulus ready to attack. He growled and flashed fangs at Zen waiting for a reply. "Did you?" This was the first time Bickslow thought that the spirit really appeared to be the lion he was. Other than the hair and ears, he never really seemed well - lionish - he thought to himself. He couldn't recall if he ever saw him with fangs before either. He was broken from his thoughts, when the spirit asked again. "I will make this very simple archangel. Did. You. Fuck. Our princess?"
Zen had been sorting through options of how best to remove the damned spirit without harming anyone else in the room when the last question rolled through his brain. His anger multiplied tenfold. How dare this creature say something so crude about his Lucy! He grabbed the lion and lifted him up by the neck, ignoring the pain from the blast of Regulus to his chest. "That is between me and her and matters none to you."
Xally was practically dizzy watching so many things happen at one. While Zen and Loke faught, Cris took off his belt and helped Virgo put it in the blonde's mouth to prevent her from biting her tongue off. He assisted in keeping her still for this as he checked on the girl's health again. Her moans increased and she looked to be in pure agony. Xally was about to move towards her to see if she could assist her brother in healing when a tall man with a goat's head appeared in front of her wearing an impeccable suit and sunglasses. He seemed to ignore what was going on with Lucy and addressed Zen calmly, "It matters much archangel. We need to know if you two have bonded." Turning to Bickslow he asked if he could check their souls who nodded in return as his eyes glowed green.
"Why do you keep calling me archangel?" Zen demanded. He threw Loke to the floor and moved to sit on the bed and pull Lucy into his arms. Virgo had looked at Capricorn who nodded to allow it before she backed off. Although still in obvious pain, her convulsions lessened.
"Because that is what you are," Capricorn replied. "The first in nearly a millennium. Your kind was designed to protect and serve celestial mages and there were safety measures built in to your magic to ensure just that. You would not have been able to resist a strong mage such as our Princess if my understanding is correct. However, even our information is lacking due to the magic being lost for so long. We are working on getting details in the Celestial Realm, but Cassiopeia is being difficult. Any additional data we can feed to Crux will assist in his archival research."
"Being an uncooperative bitch is more like it." Loke ground out picking himself up from the floor. "She made the rules for that magic and now she's being tight-lipped about it. And the King won't interfere unless our Princess is in danger, which we can't determine yet."
"Ummm guys," Bickslow interrupted. "I think I sort of know what the dragon did."
"What dragon Bickslow?" Capricorn prodded, they were definitely lacking too much information about the time Lucy was missing.
Zen held Lucy close, his entire being demanding he protect her from everything and everyone there. He listened to what the spirits were saying and it made some sense of those unnatural urges, but what he and Lucy had shared was not from that. He genuinely liked her and wanted to keep her safe. Gently he brushed her sweat soaked hair from her face. His actions and care for her did not go unnoticed by his father, Kaleb or Cris.
"Evidently Cosplayer told a dragon she would save it, and light went from the dragon into her before she collapsed and entered the state she is currently in. Right bro?" Zen nodded and Bickslow cleared his throat trying to sort out how best to explain what he was seeing.
"She called it Aurora." Zen supplied, still caressing Lucy softly.
"Ummm okay then, well here it is. It's kind of like 1st gen dragon slayers. Like you Cris - your soul has a companion soul, the portion that Nurem gave you. They coexist and touch, living side by side. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy were similar. Laxus and Emi's dragon souls are more separated because they are in lacrimas. I'm not even getting into the complex mess that 3rd gens have."
"So she is slayer?" Farron asked.
"No, not exactly. At least not yet." Everyone waited with bated breath for the seith to continue. "There is definitely a large second soul and it looks similar enough I'd be comfortable declaring it draconic." He looked to Kaleb, "Maybe we could call in Beck to confirm that?" Kaleb nodded and Bickslow continued. "So umm yeah. Like I said it's similar but this soul isn't coexisting. It's latched on like a parasite aggressively tearing holes into hers to keep attached. I've never seen anything like it."
"Can you remove it?" Capricorn asked.
"Not without causing even more harm to hers. I'm honestly stumped."
"We will look into this as well. Did you find any bonds?" the goat spirit continued.
"Um yeah. She has multiple threads from her soul reaching to others. There's a thick one between her and Zen, but I don't know what a mate bond would look like to be honest. It looks similar to the ones she has with you and Virgo if that helps."
Capricorn nodded and looked to Kaleb, "Are you able to hear her thoughts mindbender?"
"She's calling for her kin."
"That explains some of the far reaching threads."
Cris and Emi looked at each other nervously. "How many Bix?" Emzadi asked.
His eyes glowed again as he rechecked. "Seven? Shit that's all of them. Hey Dad, I'm gonna ask Freed to come over and put up some protections."
"Seven dragon slayers have claimed her as kin? Are you fucking kidding me?" The solar slayer was astounded. There were so few slayers at all to begin with.
Capricorn promised to return when he had additional information, but not before instructing them not to separate her from the archangel. He also stated it would probably be unwise to put her under a sleep spell, if she was calling her kin and dragons were involved it was best to let that proceed. He took Loke with him when he left, leaving Virgo to continue caring for their Princess.
"So who should we be expecting to show up Bixy?" Cristoff asked.
The seith cringed. "Well I'm guessing it's all of the slayers in Fiore, so that would be Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, Wendy, Rogue, Sting and Cobra. Natsu and Cobra make me the most nervous. Neither are very reasonable and happen to be very powerful. Natsu is fire, Gajeel is iron, Wendy is air, Rogue is shadow, Sting is light, and Cobra is poison. You all already know Laxus. Although come to think of it I don't know how the hell she would've become kin with Cobra. He's tried to kill her several times. So that one could be a mystery slayer. And Laxus is gonna fucking kill me for not pulling him off his mission."
"Damn right I am," the lightning slayer said walking in the door, arms crossed and a scowl upon his face. "You better explain what happened to my kin and who the fuck that is holding her right now." Bickslow gulped nervously. How did he miss the thunderclap?