A/N: New chapter! Can you believe it? Sorry for being away for so long. The usual excuses apply: college work, writer's block, and general RL suckiness. However, I've been working really hard the last couple of days to get this chapter finished, though nothing of real significance will occur just yet. Still! I hope everyone likes this chapter! If the muses remain with me, hopefully there will be another in the near future. *fingers crossed*

On the long train ride from Era, the location of the Mage Council's headquarters, to Magnolia, Tanaka Yamagato felt very awkward and uncomfortable. He now understood why Jude had warned him against his daughter's headstrong attitude. She was the spitting image of Layla Heartfilia but her personality was far stronger, more reminiscent of her father.

She had lectured him all the way to Era, which had taken place inside of an hour of her so-called "test". Luckily, she hadn't yelled; it was not an outburst reminiscent of a typical guild member of Fairy Tail. Oh, it had been obvious that the young girl in front of him was angrier than he had seen even Jude, which had resulted in him missing every third word.

When the Magic Council had taken it upon themselves to fully impress upon Tanaka the seriousness of the situation, the master had realized he'd been a complete dunce. As a matter of course, the magic signature test had been necessary. He'd needed to be sure that Lucy was adequate for the job at hand. But despite the fact that they had just recently received the pendant into their inventory, he knew from experience how innocuous magical items could be, especially the more dangerous ones.

Opening his mouth in preparation to apologize to the blonde that hadn't spoken to him since they'd boarded the train to Magnolia, he was fully surprised when she spoke instead.

"Gomen nasai, Master Tanaka." Lucy lifted her chin to look at him with her large, honey-brown eyes. "I shouldn't have snapped at you. This type of thing is likely to be my responsibility, after all."

He smiled, a quirking curve of his lips at the girl's maturity. "It will be." He had to admit that he should have expected her to be circumspect. Despite Fairy Tail's very distinctive reputation, this was Jude Heartfilia's daughter, after all. "I must apologize as well. I would never have subjected you to such an item if I had been aware."

Lucy waved a hand dismissively, effectively batting his apology away. "This is my job, Master Tanaka. I should have reached out for the signature before handling a magic item. I know well enough how harmless Zeref's toys can be. The first few months I was with Fairy Tail, we dealt with at least two of his demons."

"Two?" Tanaka swallowed past the thick lump in his throat at the idea of the daughter of one of his better friends being in that kind of danger. "You seem… unscathed."

Lucy laughed, the sound like tinkling bells even though he got the distinct impression that she was laughing at him. "Oh, I didn't fight them. I'm not nearly strong enough. But my friends…" She paused, her smile broadening with pride. "They're all battle mages. They like that sort of thing."

"You don't?" Tanaka chuckled to himself. "You did join Fairy Tail, after all."

"I did." Lucy leaned forward, her earlier animation returning as her eyes brightened and her hands moved in time with her words. Despite his earlier spite at such openness, he decided that he liked the blonde better this way. While Jude had definitely taught her to be proper, he could see Layla shine through when she was allowed to be herself. "But you can't rely on everything you hear, right?"

"That's smart," he agreed, inclining his head in a slight nod. "I'd always heard they were very destructive."

"Oh, they are," Lucy agreed with a laugh. "It was a little bit of a shock at first. But they're the closest guild I've ever seen. They're more like family," she added, her smile fading into a soft frown.

Tanaka tilted his head at her very slightly, wondering at the sadness her face exuded before he remembered something. He could remember nighttime calls from Jude after Layla died, worrying that his busy schedule was a burden on his only child, his dear Lucky Lucy. He could remember visits to the Heartfilia home where his only glimpses of Lucy were of a small blond girl hiding behind pillars and walls.

"You don't feel like family?" he asked her softly.

"I don't know how," she admitted in a small voice. After a moment, she laughed to herself, her lips curving upward in a bemused expression. "I didn't exactly grow up in a normal family. After Mom died, I was usually closer to the staff than to Dad." She fixed her brown gaze on him again and Tanaka felt transfixed by the sadness found there. "He was always so busy."

"I'm sure you've bonded with Fairy Tail by now," Tanaka assured her, hesitating for just a moment before placing a placating hand on her shoulder. "You've been with them for a long time now."

She nodded. "There's a bond, I guess. I just… maybe growing up the way I did, I'm always waiting to see if that bond will disappear."

He smiled and leaned back into his seat, remembering Jude's earnest expression when he'd sought to rejoin the Love & Lucky Guild. "I'm sure it won't," he told her in a soft voice. "There's something about the bond of a guild – it ties all of its members together irrevocably. When your parents left Love & Lucky, there was a lot of anger but it was never enough to fully sever ties with them. Jude would even consult with me from time to time."

Lucy nodded, her smile regaining its rightful place on her face. "I know. I would… listen through the doors sometimes." She turned her head to the side, her smile turning shy. "For a while, I wanted to be part of the world that so often took him away. It took a long time for me to realize that he wasn't letting me in."

Tanaka smiled sadly at her, trying his utter best to refrain from looking pitying. "Is he still that way?"

At that, Lucy laughed, her somber expression suddenly turning brilliant with mirth. "Definitely not. If anything, he's trying to drag me in, kicking and screaming if need be."

Lucy stared into space as she sat in the guild hall, trying to wrap her head around her late-night visit from Cana. Within hours after returning to Magnolia, during which time the Love & Lucky's guildmaster had offered her the official contract for the Caelum dig, she had discovered Cana, drunken and more desolate than she had ever seen her. By that time, Lucy knew that all of her friends in Fairy Tail would be competing in the S-Class exam, a fact that only made her feel that much lonelier about the idea of spending so much time in a foreign waterlogged country with guildmates that she didn't know.

Throughout her visit with Cana, it had taken surprisingly little time for the brunette to reveal that Gildarts Clive, a particularly absent-minded mage that she had only seen the one time and had never personally interacted with, was her father. Reflecting on her memory of the older man and Cana herself, Lucy could admit that there was an intense resemblance. When Cana also relayed that she had promised herself some time ago that she would tell the man in question about his relation to her when, and only when, she could reach the S Rank, Lucy felt saddened beyond measure. It was clear that Cana's mother had died when she was very young, much like Lucy's had, and that she felt that she wasn't good enough for the man that was her father.

Her face twisting into a scowl, Lucy slammed a fist down on the table hard enough to leave a tingle thrumming through her palm but not so hard as to actually hurt herself. "Damn it!"

Unfortunately, Lucy had not been by herself. Loke, otherwise known as the celestial spirit Leo, had been trying to convince her to delay her trip to Caelum and join them on the island that would be designated as exam space. Given that she was so focused on the predicament that Cana faced, she had heard little of what he'd said. At her sudden and angry outburst, the man in question leaned back in his seat, his normally smiling face suddenly wary. "Have I offended you, Lucy?"

Closing her eyes for a moment, she forced herself to remember that Loke, more than any of her other spirits, had been traumatized by his previous owner, to the point that he had punished himself more than he actually deserved. "No, Loke. It's not you." She waved a hand in front of her face, offering him a bright smile in apology. "I'm angry at... someone else."

"The demon?" the spirit in front of her guessed, simultaneously somewhat correct but also so, so far off the mark. "Before I suspended our contract, Draco seemed to having been making quite a bit of progress with it."

"Erebus," Lucy reminded him idly. "His name is Erebus. You can't just call him 'the demon'." She sighed to herself. "I don't think he's even truly a demon anymore."

In a gesture of reverence, Loke bowed his head. "You're right, Lucy-hime, as always. I should refrain from being overly bigoted."

She laughed at him, a happy sound that caused him to smile in response. No matter the reason, her joy always filled his chest with warm pleasure, though there was no way to communicate that to his owner without seeming overly rakish. "You don't have to be so formal, Loke. And just so you know, it's not Erebus that I'm angry with."

Loke tilted his head at her, curious about who it was that the celestial mage could possibly be angry with, and then he leaned forward. "Who, then? I can't think of anyone in the guild you would argue with. Your father, maybe?"

Lucy immediately clucked her tongue at him, her honey brown eyes glittering with mirth. "If I was angry with my father, would I have joined his guild?"

He frowned at that, inclining his head to her logic. "I'll admit that's true. But, Lucy, who else would give you a reason to be so angry?"

"Gildarts Clive," she answered her most powerful spirit, enunciating the syllables between clenched teeth.

"Why would you...? Oh."

"Oh?" Lucy arched an eyebrow at Loke, the wavering fury in her expression melting away. "Do you know? About him and Cana, I mean."

"I joined after he left on that hundred-year quest, so I never met him before he showed up a couple weeks ago, you know." Loke sighed, his hazel eyes cutting across the expanse of the guild hall to look at Cana's hungover and napping form on the first floor. "I could instantly tell that there was something about them that was similar. Usually, you'll get that around family members."

"He doesn't know," she told him. She put her face in her arms and nearly collapsed on the table they shared. "She told me because of what I've been through with my father. Well, with what they know that I've been through with my father."

Loke hummed affirmatively but didn't reply outright. Lucy knew that this was one of the times that he was respecting her boundaries. Despite the time she had spent with Fairy Tail and the bonds that she had formed with its members, some of those bonds having been recently reaffirmed, she was intensely close-mouthed about her past. Everyone knew the basics: that her mother had died when she was very young; that her father had gotten increasingly involved with his business; and that her very public defiance had essentially been the final nail in the coffin that was her father's organization.

Anything and everything else was considered out of bounds. Not even Natsu asked about her past. Though, in retrospect, it was likely just as much that her dragon slayer friend merely did not think to ask about her past. He was often so mired in his constant search for Igneel that his curiosity about others fell to the wayside. That was just as well for Lucy, who was content in leaving her past where it was, pristine and undisturbed. Dredging up particularly painful details about her life before Fairy Tail would likely not accomplish much more than to make her cry.

"So... about Caelum," Loke continued, a broad grin gracing his face.

"I'm going. You can't change my mind," the blonde told him immediately, not even bothering to look up at him. "You know that."

"I know." He shook his head as if he was trying to knock something loose and then placed his chin in his hands. "I've just got a bad feeling."

Lucy finally lifted her head a fraction and gazed up at him with brown eyes that were somehow warm and penetrating at the same time. "You're worried," she accused softly.

He inclined his head, yet again surprised at the depth of her insight despite the fact her mind was far more logical and rational than her actions and build sometimes implied. "I am. I'm not certain why."

Her lips curled into a smile, a hint of mischief turning the expression devious. "Would you feel better if I sent protection?" Though she had already been playing with the idea of sending Draco to watch over her fellow guild members, she was relatively certain that that was not the conclusion to which her celestial spirit would jump.

And jump, he did, his body jerking instantly and his feet taking two unintentional steps backward. "No, absolutely not. I will not allow that... abomination anywhere near Fairy Tail!"

Lucy chuckled to herself, finally straightening back into a sitting position and stretching her arms above her head, heedless to the slight amount of bare abdomen she revealed in the process. "Your bigotry is showing, Loke. I was talking about Draco. Erebus wouldn't have the will or need to protect you or the rest of the guild."

With a heavy sigh, the spirit sat down in his seat again, his movements ginger and measured. "That doesn't seem like a good idea, either. Wouldn't the drain be too much for you to handle?"

Lucy merely grinned at Loke, choosing to keep it to herself that opening Draco's gate was far less draining than she had ever anticipated, especially when he opened the gate on his own. "If he takes a smaller form, the magical drain is much closer to keeping your gate open for long periods of time. I get tired faster but it's not as exhausting as you would assume."

"Oh." At that, he nodded at her, his attention breaking off when Gray entered the guild from the ground floor and caught the spirit's attention. "Gotta go, Lucy." Standing up, he leaned across the table and left a light kiss on her cheek, the sensation gone before the celestial mage could even think to complain. "I'll look to Draco at the exam!"

Laughing to herself, she watched Loke disappear to his daily training with Gray and felt glad that she had allowed herself to talk with him. Earlier that day, she had had half a mind to confront Gildarts before the exam, perhaps even hoping to force some interaction between father and daughter. But looking down at Cana's sluggish body, she had to admit that Cana and Gildarts were not Lucy and Jude.

Lucy and her own father were strong-willed, stubborn people. Even though Lucy strove to imitate what she remembered of her mother, she was fully aware that she was not gentle enough to do so. Like her father, she preferred to face her problems as head-on as possible, even if she ended up making a fool of herself in the process. Cana and Gildarts, on the other hand, were avoiders. Whereas Cana buried her feelings in booze, Gildarts avoided his own by losing himself in his work, it seemed.

And in women, if Mirajane was to be believed.

Turning her mind away from a problem that would likely resolve itself on its own as well as being completely none of her business, she focused on her next course of action. She would need to talk to her dragon spirit, probably coerce him into watching over her friends but not interfering with the exam. If she was successful in that venture, however, she had a sneaking suspicion that she would end up having her hands full of a former demon turned celestial spirit.