I had a horrible case of writers block this week, but I managed to finish the chapter before Saturday. Thanks for all follows, favorites, and the reviews. Enjoy the chapter.
In a puff of smoke the ram spirit made her appearance, standing where Plue was originally. Timidly, she held her hand up to her chin like she always did. Regardless of the way she held herself, Aries was willing to fight.
There were about five, maybe six people that stood a few feet from them, but the blonde already knew they were strong. Without Loke's assistance the last time, she would have been captured, there's no doubt about it. To think they would come all the way to Magnolia to try and kidnap her again. She couldn't focus of their reasons right now though. Lucy may have been outnumbered and down by one spirit, but that didn't technically mean she was outmatched. She had enough magic to hold out.
"Okay, we're going to take care of this quickly," Lucy informed the spirit. She didn't precisely have a plan, however thinking on her feet was something she became quite good at after being part of Team Natsu for so long. "All I need is a distraction of some sort. Do you think you can do that for me?"
Aries nodded her head and drew back her arms. "Wool bomb," she exclaimed, moving her hands forward, shooting a massive amount of pink wool at the opponents. The enemies became relaxed once they felt the soft fleece around them. "I'm sorry. Did I do okay?" she asked afterwards.
"Yes, thanks. Your attack really comes in handy. Now that they're preoccupied, I have to get out of here," Lucy said but suddenly stopped. "Oh, I wanted to let you know that Loke's fine. I can't explain everything in detail right now, but he can't return to the Celestial World because of some spell. We're working as fast as we can to remove it. If you tell the Spirit King, I'd appreciate it."
"I was worried because he hasn't returned," Aries told her, making sure the foes were still stuck in place. "I'll do my best to make sure the he knows what's going on. Leo normally summons himself here but he's never been gone this long. The King isn't strict about it but most spirits aren't able to survive being away from home for extended periods of time."
"I just don't want Loke getting into any trouble for this. I really don't know Celestial Law all that well," Lucy mentioned, checking her surroundings. "I should get going though, thanks again for the help."
"Anytime. I'm glad you were able to help Leo the way you did. He's really happy now," Aries said just before her gate was closed.
Lucy shook off the feeling she got after hearing the spirit's words. There was no time for that. Knowing the ram's magic would soon dissolve, the mage took off down the street. She knew going to the guild was the best option and it's not like she wanted to stick around anyway. Those guys were more intent on taking her then she originally thought. Questioning them didn't get her anywhere last time so there was no point in trying to now.
The blonde turned a corner and banged right into more of the wizards, being sent to the ground from the impact. "You've got to be kidding me," she muttered, rubbing her head. Apparently, a bigger group was sent than she assumed. They most likely decided to spilt up in means of locating her faster.
"That's the girl," one of them shouted. Upon his words, they all tried to grab her at once.
Lucy let out a squeal before seizing another key. "Open Gate of the Giant Crab, Cancer!"
"Shall I give you a trim, ebi?" the spirit asked upon appearing, snipping his scissors in the process.
"Maybe some other time. Can you just do something about them for now? I really need to get out of here." As the spirit proceeded to cut their hair and knock them out one by one, Lucy got on her knees and glanced around. "There's probably more here and I'm only drawing attention to myself like this. Plus there's a bunch of people around who could get hurt." She bit back on her lip after voicing her thoughts.
She had to think of some kind of plan. The blonde continued to look at her surroundings until an idea came to mind. As soon as Lucy got back on her feet, Cancer was finished and vanished with a farewell. Not wanting to waste any more time, Lucy ran in the opposite direction she was heading, the woods to be specific. That way she could circle around and get to Fairy Tail without running into anyone. It was the perfect plan.
After taking a few more turns and pushing through a crowd, she made her way out of the town and into the wooded area. Trees would definitely provide enough cover for her, after a few minutes though, Lucy paced down to a walk. Tired and out of breath, the celestial mage resting against a tree, feeling the small prickles of bark against her back. It was silly of her to think they wouldn't come looking for her a second time.
"I already used two of my keys and Plue was out before too," she mumbled to herself. "If needed I could still summon more of my spirits but so far no one seems to be around." The blonde peered past the tree, scraping her shoulder a bit on the wood. She didn't see anyone, yet their voices were easy to hear.
"Okay, I can deal with this," Lucy quietly reassured herself. "All I need to do is get out of here without making a sound. Once I get back to the guild, I'm home free. They wouldn't dare go after me in there. Once the other know they're here maybe then we can capture one of them and finally know what they want with me." She smiled a little deviously at her own idea. Then they could be the ones being chased instead of her all the time.
Lucy waited another minute before deciding to go. She went into a full out run, not taking anything but her destination into account, causing her to not notice the elevated root. Her foot got caught, sending her crashing to the dirt. What was with her and hitting the ground lately? Maybe she was picking up Wendy's tripping habit or something.
"Oh, come on! Why don't things ever work out for me?" she hissed out in slight pain. If the impact didn't catch their attention her short scream did. Pushing herself up again, her ankle throbbed as soon as pressure was applied.
With no time to dwell on it, she just kept moving. Looking behind, Lucy saw a few of them and they were gaining on her fast. Loke would easily be able to take out these guys, but she couldn't summon him. And the likelihood of him showing up was slim. The lion spirit would have no way of knowing she was in trouble, although for some reason he tended to pass through the gate just in time to save her.
As she heard their shouts, Lucy brought her keys up to eye level. Looks like another spirit had to be brought out. Who to summon was the problem. Taurus or perhaps Scorpio? Either of them were strong enough to get the job done but she was feeling drained at the moment. It was then her ears picked up on something else, the sound of yelling?
Wait, she recognized the voices. "Natsu! Gray!" she called out, hoping they would hear her. Despite the injury, she sped up until she saw the two mages fighting one another, with Happy watching from the sidelines. Panting, she rested her hands on her knees. "Will you guys cut it out?!" To her surprise, the two mages actually listened to her for once.
"What happened to you?" the dragon slayer asked, getting a look at her appearance.
"It looks like you were attacked by a giant sea monster!" Happy exclaimed, starting to float in the air.
Her eyebrow twitched. She didn't look that bad… or did she? That wasn't even the issue right now. "No time… to explain…" the mage said between breaths, deciding to ignore the cat's ridiculous statement.
"Looks like you don't have to," Gray noted as her pursuers came into view. "These guys again. They're really starting to be a pain in the ass."
The blonde shifted her weight on one leg as the two mages stood behind her. She couldn't even count how many where here now. Lucy figured whoever sent them must have really wanted the job to be done. Although with things like this, normally people try to be discreet unless for some reason they wanted their objective and presence known.
"Hand over Lucy Heartfilia," the one in front of the group said. Most of them already had their magic activated and stood ready for a fight to break out. And they had good reason to be. Fairy Tail was known for striking first and asking questions later.
"Like we'd ever do that," Natsu yelled before racing out, making sure he got the first move. "Fire Dragon Roar!"
The ice mage was about to join in too, but Lucy stopped him. "Gray, if we can get ahold of one of them we can bring them back to the guild and get them to talk. That way we'll finally know who's behind all of this."
The black-haired man nodded his head. "That would be a lot easier if Natsu wasn't so reckless all the time," he mentioned while looking at the dragon slayer's array of attacks. He was actually doing a pretty good job holding them off.
"Who are you calling reckless?!" Natsu demanded, stopping to come face-to-face with the ice wielder.
"Who do you think, you fiery mouth breather?! You're going to burn down the whole woods at this rate," Gray shouted back.
"Well, maybe if you were doing some actual fighting, that wouldn't be a problem!" The two mages started bickering back and forth once again, completely disregarding the fact that they were in the middle of a battle.
Lucy slapped her forehead due to their childish antics. "And here I thought I could count on them. They can't even stay focused on the matter at hand. If Erza was here right now this wouldn't be an issue."
"Aye," Happy agreed, standing at the blonde's feet. "She would have stopped the guys coming at you right now too."
Upon his words, Lucy turned to the side, seeing that what he said was indeed true. Mentally panicking, she made another attempt for her keys almost dropping them in the process. A second after she looked up, the maiden spirit was there. "Virgo?"
She sent a few of them to the ground and landed gracefully on her feet. "I felt that you required assistance, Princess. Punishment?"
"I really wish you'd stop asking me that," she replied with a sigh. "Just do what you can." As soon as the pink-haired spirit bowed her head, Lucy glanced around at the current battle. Natsu and Gray were, thankfully, back to fighting the hooded men instead of themselves along with Virgo's assistance but the brawl was getting out of hand. Trees were getting knocked down and fire and ice were everywhere.
The blonde wished she had her whip so she could lend a hand, but it was left on the island. Lucy didn't exactly get around to acquiring another one either. Not being skilled in combat left her pretty much standing around, regardless with a twisted ankle there wasn't much she could do.
The wizard had to suddenly duck her head to avoid being hit with one of Natsu's attacks. "Watch where you're throwing those flames! You're going to knock me into the river." She paused, realizing something. "Hold on, I can summon Aquarius from here."
Lucy leaped down into the icy water, nearly soaking her skirt from almost stubbing in. She really had to start taking her injury into account before doing things. A shiver traveled up her spine. The stream was absolutely freezing, not that she expected it to be warm when winter would soon be approaching.
"Open gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!" Lucy announced, dipping part of the gold key down. She didn't anticipate a happy greeting from the mermaid, knowing she was always irritated when called upon.
"What's the big idea summoning me when I'm in the middle of a date with Scorpio?" the spirit questioned. "Just because you don't have a boyfriend doesn't mean you can keep taking me away from mine."
"Sorry…" Lucy said back a little nervously. She brushed that aside and pointed to the enemies. "I know your strong enough to destroy half the forest but if you could just focus your attack-"
Aquarius didn't even let her finish taking before sending a giant wave out. Virgo proofed away just in time, but everyone else got swept up in it. By the time the water settled down Lucy and the others were soaked. Shaking some of the water from her hair, the blonde looked over at the spirit. "Was that really necessary?"
"They're defeated just like you wanted," the mermaid replied in a curt tone. "Now if that's all, I would like to get back to my date with my boyfriend." She sent a small smirk in her master's direction before leaving.
"You don't need to put emphasis on the word!" Lucy yelled out. She could totally get a boyfriend if she wanted to. In fact she already knew Loke was interested in her and would probably jump at the chance but with her confused mindset, Lucy was still trying to figure things out. Although, she would have to say the mermaid's constant taunts were not helpful by any means.
"You could have at least warned us or something," Natsu said to Lucy as he used his fire to dry himself. "I think you caused more damage than I did but at least the fires are out now." He grinned and glanced down at the spinning Exceed. "You okay?"
"Aye, now I know what it's like to fish in the ocean," Happy replied, rambling in his dizziness.
Lucy felt another chill and sneezed a few times, suddenly not feeling that great after being drenched in cold water and on top of that, her ankle was still hurting. "I don't feel very well," the blonde said, sniffling.
"That's probably because you're still all wet," the dragon slayer pointed out.
"I can't do anything about that. I'm not human drying machines like you two." Lucy really didn't need to this along with everything else. The only good thing was Wendy would be able to make it go away faster. Lucy glimpsed over at the retreating men and remembered that they still needed one of them so she called out to Natsu. "You have to grab one of them before they all get away."
"Got it," he announced suddenly running and jumping at one of them. He probably crushed the guy.
"I said grab not tackle!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Whatever, we still got him," Gray said, coming over to her. "We should head back to the guild. It's about time we got some answers."
"You might want to put your shirt back on before going through the town," Lucy pointed out prior to sneezing again.
The wizard they apprehended was taken to Fairy Tail and was currently being interrogated by Makarov and a few other members of the guild. Lucy only got worse over the course of the journey back so she and they others decided to talk at her apartment. Wendy was in the process of healing the blonde's injuries and doing the best she could with the cold Lucy caught.
"I knew I should have gone with her," Loke expressed in mild frustration. "If I was there, I could have at least done something." The lion spirit was well aware that she was capable of taking care of herself, but the fact that he was at the guild oblivious of it all was bothersome. He ran his fingers through his shortened mane still unable to take a seat and relax.
"Calm down," Erza told the pacing spirit, even she knew it was rare for him to raise his voice. "I'm angry about this too, but freaking out over it isn't going to solve anything. Just be happy that she's still here. At least Natsu and Gray were there to help so it's not like she had to do all the fighting alone." She sat the table with the fire dragon and ice mage.
How could she possibly expect him to calm down? What would have happened if those two weren't around? With that many people after her at one time, there's no telling what would have happened. In the worst case scenario Lucy could have been kidnapped without them even knowing or ended up getting a more severe injury. Did Erza really expect him to just be okay with that?
"If I wasn't on my way back from a job, I wouldn't have been there in the first place," Gray mentioned, lounging back on his chair. "Lucy ended up taking them all out anyway. Even if we weren't there, she would have come across the river eventually and summoned Aquarius."
"That's true but Natsu and I still would have been fishing if you didn't show up and started fighting," Happy said.
"Who really cares about what happened or what could have? I think it's more important finding out what they want with Lucy. I knew we should have just demanded some answers when we had the chance," Natsu told them, surprisingly sounding like the voice of reason. "But Gramps should be able to get that guy to talk soon."
"It's not like we expected them to make a move like this so soon though," Erza stated, bringing her hand to her chin in thought. "The Master is still trying to get some information himself but with everything going on lately he hasn't had a lot of time."
"That's exactly what I mean," Loke said, speaking once again. All their eyes turned up towards him. "After we left the island everyone we were so focused on trying to remove the spell preventing me from going back to the Celestial World that we completely disregarded the fact that they were after Lucy in the first place." On top of trying to deal with his feelings for the girl, he now felt guilty for not being able to do anything. "I'm her spirit; I should have been there to protect her." Loke let out a sigh before finally taking a seat with the others.
"Like I said, the important thing is that she's here with us now," Erza reminded the lion spirit. "But you have a point. We should have taken that into account before. I think it would be best if she's not alone for an extended amount of time. They're after Lucy for a reason. We just don't know what it is yet."
"She's with Loke constantly so we pretty much have that covered," Gray said. "I can already tell you though Lucy's not going to like having people watch over her all the time like that."
"Yeah, I know. Whenever I'm at her house for too long she complains about how I'm invading her personal space or something and kicks me out," Natsu said, crossing his arms. He leaned back in the chair, tilting it a little.
"Aye," Happy replied, confirming what the dragon slayer said. "Lucy yelled a lot the last time you started reading her novel too."
"Either way," Loke said, bringing the discussion back on topic. "We all know that keeping a close eye on her is all we can do, but don't you think we should ask her what she wants? Lucy should have a say in all of this." The spirit would still be with her no matter what, regardless of how serious the situation was. "I may not be able to use a lot of my magic right now, however if it comes down to it, I will do whatever I have to."
"I expected no less from you," Erza responded, nodding her head. She wouldn't say anything now, but she has been noticing how close the two of them were getting over the past few days. At first the red-haired woman just thought Loke was flirting with Lucy, much like the blonde did, yet after seeing the way he was when around her, she knew there was more to it then she originally believed.
"So what, do we just sit here and wait until Lucy wakes up?" Natsu asked, slumping down in his seat.
Wendy came over to them just as the fire dragon asked his question. She had a small smile on her face. "I was able to heal Lucy's injuries and I did my best to help with her cold but it won't be gone probably until tomorrow morning." She let out a breath, feeling out of tired and drained. Actually, everyone was pretty much beat.
"I told you that was too much," Carla light scolded the girl. "You don't have to keep pushing yourself so hard."
"All Lucy really needs is some rest," Wendy informed them. "She said something about it being too loud with all of you here though."
"We should probably go then," Erza said to the other. "If the Master hasn't gotten a word from that wizard yet I'm certain I could be of some help. I'm sure you three could find something useful to do. You could start by cleaning up the mess you made during your battle. I heard that you two went a little overboard with you magic again." Gray and Natsu looked about ready to protest but stopped when they caught her eye.
"I could stay and help out," Wendy offered, feeling a bit bad that she couldn't do anything more for the blonde.
"Don't worry about it, you should rest. I can take it from here," Loke told the young dragon slayer.
"Good luck man, Lucy's not that easy to be around when she's sick," Gray said, getting up to leave.
Natsu was going to climb through the window, but Erza grabbed him by the scarf and dragged him out the door, muttering something about how he should be normal and actually use it when entering and leaving someone's home. She would be bringing Wendy and Carla to Fairy Hills before going to the guild. Natsu, Gray, and Happy weren't left with any other choice but to do what the armored mage said. They really didn't want to get her mad.
As soon as everyone was gone the place was quite again. Loke let out a sigh, as frustrated as he was for not being there with Lucy when all of that happened; he was more concerned about what he was supposed to do now. Lucy would most likely want to sleep for the rest of the day, nonetheless things were still a bit difficult between them. That would have to be pushed aside for now considering the circumstances. He had never taken care of anyone when they were ill before, but he figured it couldn't be all that hard and besides it was still a chance to spend more time with her.
I don't particularly like writing fights which is why it didn't last all that long. It was nice to write the others though, it's been a while since they were all in the same chapter together. I wish Hiro Mashima would go into more detail about the Celestial World and explain more of the rules. That would be extremely helpful. Please review.