Hey Everyone! Sorry for the long, long break! As I mentioned in my previous chapter, I went to Taiwan. And then I went to Bangkok, and then to Bali, so I didn't have much time to write.. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think by leaving a review!

Chapter 14

"Luce! Get up!" Warm hands shook her awake and Lucy groggily opened her eyes.

"Huh? What's wrong Natsu?"

"Something is coming. Get ready." With that he dashed out of the room to warn the other villagers.

Lucy now fully awake quickly rushed out after Natsu. "We've got to lure them away, the village cannot survive another battle!"

The pair ran out of the village, Lucy easily keeping up with Natsu now, leaving Happy to warn the villagers. Only a few meters from the village, Lucy could see what had woken Natsu.

A group of the same inky black creatures have been attacking advancing towards the village. Instantly she knew they were in deep shit this time. She could make out three golems in addition to a pack of the hound like creatures and like maybe half a dozen or more of the flying types. There were also a few of a new type of ghost like creature she had never seen before. They were probably the ones that attacked Nibel over a year ago.

Seeing that they were all still clustered together, Lucy immediately went for a pre-emptive strike. "Natsu stay back! I'm going to try something" A weird thrill ran through Lucy at being able to tell Natsu of all people to stay back. She didn't look back to check if he actually did what she asked as she dashed forward, summoning a trio of golden gate keys.

"Open! The Gate of the Goat, the Maiden, and the Golden Bull. Capricorn! Virgo! Taurus!"

Lucy called out her three earth elemental spirits to perform an elemental combination attack. One of her most powerful attacks that she can only perform with all three zodiacs of the element present. The only other more powerful spell was one with all twelve of the zodiac (which she didn't have).

Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus concentrated their power over their shared earth element through their mistress. Lucy raised her hands and a huge magic circle of golden light shone from the ground surrounding the advancing creatures.

"Breaking Earth!" Lucy slammed her hands down to the ground and the earth within the circle exploded, send chunks of earth and the creatures flying sky high and crashing back down into the crater created.

Lucy gasped and wobbled as she tried to stand, disorientated from the sudden loss of magic. Natsu was at her side immediately, steadying her with warm hands.

"You okay Luce?" He asked, concern in his dark eyes.

"Yeah." Lucy nodded and steadied herself. The attack took a lot magic but she was still at slightly more than half capacity.

"That was really cool Luce, you've gotten a lot better! I think it took out a few of them!" Natsu praised, causing Lucy to blush profusely.

"I-I'm not really..." Lucy mumbled. Quickly she turned her attention towards the battle instead to assess what her attack had achieved. Her heart sank when she saw all three of the golems were still alive, although missing a few limbs here and there. The area attack wasn't concentrated enough to take out the golems but it crushed a good number of the hounds and the ghost creatures. The flying ones fared a lot better than their companions, with only one casualty.

"My turn!" Natsu shouted, rushing towards the destruction that was the battleground, "Watch this Luce!"

"Rai-en ryuu no modo!" Natsu yelled, taking his stance. "Rai-en ryu no houko!"

The lightning enhanced flame attack resulted in a huge explosion, destroying whatever was left from the previous attack. The attack left the creatures, if not burnt to crisp, paralyzed from the lighting currents. It was a lot more effective against the flying creatures this time, sending three crashing down to the ground to join their fallen companions. The blast also finished off one of the golems and another couple of the hounds.

Lucy made a quick count of the enemies left standing and came up with two golems, three hounds, three of the ghost like creatures and a couple of the flying types left. They had effectively reduced enemy numbers by half. But two of the golems were still standing, which could be a big problem. Quickly she evaluated her options and decided on her strategy.

Knowing Natsu, he'd go for the toughest, which in this case would be the golems. So it was up to her to get rid of the others.

"Open! The Gate of the Twins. Gemini!"

"Piri piri!" The twin blue spirits appeared with a poof.

"Gemini, summon Loke and Sagittarius please."

"Okay!" A second Lucy appeared, soon followed by her loyal lion spirit and the archer.

"Virgo, try to immobilise one of the golems and go back after that."

"Yes Princess," Virgo bowed and drilled into the ground, disappearing from sight.

"Alright. Loke, Caprico, Taurus and Gemini take care of the hounds and the ghost thingies. Sagittarius and I will take out the flying types. Be careful everyone." Lucy opened another two silver gates; Sagitta for herself and Caelum for Gemini.

"Let's go!"

The spirits plus Lucy rushed toward the battleground where Natsu had already begun attacking the golems as expected. One of them was sunk chest deep into the ground courtesy of Virgo, but it wouldn't stay stuck for long.

Keeping a good distance away from the melee, Lucy and Sagittarius began to loose arrow after arrow, hoping to take down the two remaining flying creatures. Sagittarius shot with unerring accuracy, going for the eyes, neck and chest for a killing blow. Lucy wasn't that picky, she was happy if her shots met the intended target and not one of her friends in the melee below.

With a dying screech, one of the flying creatures crashed to the ground, bristling with arrows. Sagittarius had successfully taken out his target.

"Sagittarius, take out the other one as well, I'm going to help the others. You can go back after that!" Lucy dashed off towards the melee, notching an arrow as she ran. She drew and held for a while, concentrating a bit more power into the arrow before releasing, knocking back a hound that was closing in on a distracted Loke. It was a solid hit, she couldn't miss at this distance, but it wasn't enough to take out the creature.

Swinging her bow in a two handed blow, Lucy knocked aside another one of the hounds that had gotten too close to shoot at. Quickly she loosed a few arrows to keep it away, but another creature, a ghost like one this time reached out towards her. She swung her bow again in an overhead blow but it went right through the creature.

"Wha-?!" Lucy ducked too late and was sent flying back, her skin tearing whenever it made contact with the rough ground. Groaning in pain, Lucy momentarily wished she had taken the time to change to her usual outfit which covered more of her. She struggled back to her feet and headed back into the battle.

"TAURUS!" Lucy screamed as she watched her bull spirit being thrown back by a powerful fire spell after his axe went right through the ghost creature that attacked him. She forced his gate close immediately, not wanting her spirit to fight with the horrible burns he was sure to have.

Lucy dashed recklessly towards the creature that had so grievously harmed her spirit. She drew her bow, not registering that all previous attacks had passed right through the ghost creature. Her arrow shot true, blazing with white energy and actually collided with the ghost creature, causing it to wail in pain and fury. Seeing that her attack actually caused damage, Lucy didn't stop to contemplate why and just kept firing one after another. The ghost quickly learned to dodge though and began to send back shots of its own.

Lucy narrowly ducked a fire spell and threw up a hasty barrier to block another. The shaky barrier shattered when the spell hit it, sending Lucy ducking for cover again as another barrage of fire spells came at her. Lucy cursed her slowness with the bow and decided to return a few spells instead. Sending out multiple, but weak flare shots, Lucy managed to distract the creature long enough to launch three arrows in succession which took the ghost in the chest, dissipate into smoke.

Resting her hands on her knees, Lucy bent over, panting for breath. She felt Sagittarius' gate close, reducing the strain on her magic. She was going to have to reconsider her strategy though. Seems like the ghost creatures can only be hit with magical attacks. Loke should be fine with the Light of Regulus, as well as Gemini with Caelum, but Caprico is probably having a hard time with just his fists.

Looking around, she quickly spotted her goat spirit facing the exact problem she feared he would. Caprico wasn't even attacking, he was just ducking like crazy, trying not to get hit by the barrage of brightly flashing spells directed at him by two of the ghost creatures. Man these creatures were smart, they knew to attack the one that couldn't attack them effectively.

Quickly she took aim and fired, hoping to take them out by surprise. Her first shot made contact but the agile creatures quickly reacted and dodged the subsequent ones. The two creatures split up, one moving towards Lucy and the other, the injured on, continuing the assault on Caprico.

Lucy forced Capricorn's gate close, no sense leaving him out here for target practice. She briefly considered opening another gate but decided against it, her magic was low enough as it is. Taking a deep breath, Lucy directed her attention to the now two against one fight.

Multiple scrapes and bruises and hundreds of magical arrows later, the last of the ghosts finally evaporated into smoke and Lucy fell to her knees, exhausted. A dishevelled Loke ran up to her, the last spirit who had yet to return to the Spirit World.

"Princess, are you okay?"

Lucy nodded in reply, too tired to speak.

"We have taken down everything; all that is left is the golems."

"Are you okay Loke? Do you need to return to the Spirit World?" Lucy asked her spirit in concern.

Loke smiled warmly at her and shook his head, "I'm fine Princess."

"Alright, let's go help Natsu then." The pair made their way to where Natsu was fighting the golems, picking their way carefully through the battle field, wary of any enemies that weren't completely dead yet.

They found a battered Natsu still facing off with one of the golems. The other one had been reduced to charred rubble that was strewn around them.

Lucy switched her bow out for her Flueve d'Etoile and Loke readied himself, charging up with Regulus. Taking a deep breath to muster whatever energy her tired body had left to offer, Lucy dashed into battle with her loyal lion spirit by her side.

"My Lady Summoner! You have saved us again!" Birk prostrated himself at Lucy's feet when she came limping into the village, leaning heavily on Natsu's arm.

"HEY BACK OFF!" Natsu yelled, fists alight instantly.

"Natsu relax. It's just Birk, he's the village chief." Lucy reassured the fire mage, pushing herself to stand by herself.

Natsu put out his flames, still a little high strung from the drawn out battle with the creatures. Those creatures were tough!

"Birk, please get up. Is everyone in the village okay?" Lucy addressed the kneeling man.

"Well Sam accidentally hammered his thumb and Ed is down with a cold-"

"I meant life-threatening okay Birk." Lucy cut the old man off. She was too tired to deal with him.

"Yes your Brightness, we are all fine, thanks to you and the divine protection of the Almighty, the Spirit King."

Lucy sighed and tuned the old man out as he continued to sing her praises and those of the celestial spirits. Grabbing Natsu's wrist, Lucy stalked off towards her hut to get cleaned up and some well-deserved rest.

Kicking open the door, she was too tired to even feel surprised that Nadea-sama was sitting at the tiny table waiting for them.

"You need to leave."

"What?" Lucy was seriously getting pissed. Can't people just leave her alone and let her stuff herself full and sleep for like three days.

"You need to leave Pomodo. You're drawing the creatures here."

"What?!" Lucy's voice screeched in disbelief, her mind too tired and too frazzled to deal with this. "You're saying it's my fault?! I nearly just killed myself protecting this tiny backwater village!"

"Fool girl! I'm not saying it's your fault!" Nadea's non-existent patience snapped, "If what the Spirit King said is true, it's obvious why Pomodo keeps getting attacked. Imperatus is trying to kill you."

"The village was attacked while I wasn't here too." Lucy argued.

"You can't deny Pomodo is attacked more than anywhere else. If anything, all those attacks were to lure you back here away from the mage-filled cities where it would be easier to kill you without any interference."

Lucy shuddered at the cold way the woman she regarded as her mentor talked about her death. Sighing, she plopped herself down into the opposite seat facing Nadea. Natsu dragged a stool up to the tiny table and sat next to Lucy.

Lucy couldn't deny what Nadea-sama said made sense. Why else would Imperatus target a tiny village in the middle of nowhere with a mage count of one old woman. Granted Pomodo was the only village that still worshipped the celestial spirits as Gods, Lucy doubted Imperatus was that petty to attack the village just for their faith. From the various texts she had read on the ancient evil, Imperatus was intelligent, calculating and manipulative. Attacking Pomodo to lure Lucy out sounded exactly like something he would do.

Lucy felt despondent, already she had fallen into Imperatus' trap. How could she hope to defeat the ancient evil?

"So what should I do now? I cannot leave the village unprotected. Imperatus would just attack again to lure me back." Lucy sighed again, resting her forehead on the table dejectedly.

Natsu rubbed Lucy's back comfortingly, the warmth from his hand easing some of the tension. "Why don't we ask Jii-chan for help?"

Lucy shook her head, "I'm no longer a member of Fairy Tail Natsu."

"But I am and so are you. You're still our nakama Lucy."

Lucy felt a familiar pang in her heart when Natsu said nakama. She was really beginning to hate that word. Even after three years it still haunted her.

"The boy is right. We will need a whole team to keep the village protected while you're gone." Nadea added.

Lucy shook her head again, "I can't afford a full team, not one from Fairy Tail anyway. I'll just leave a couple of my golden keys with you as back up."

"Fool girl!" Nadea spat with more vehemence than usual, shocking Lucy and causing her to snap her head up, off the table to stare at her mentor in shock. "You think you can defeat Imperatus without all twelve golden gate keys?!"

"But that would mean I have to take your keys! I won't leave you defenseless!" Lucy said, her own anger rising.

"Wake up Lucy! Imperatus is real and he is very, very powerful. It's going to take more than just you, even with all twelve golden gates to defeat him. Forget your pride and ask for help already."

"No. I can do this, I'll find a way-"

"Stupid girl! Is your pride more important than the fate of the world?!" Nadea repeated what she had said the day before.

Hot tears ran down Lucy's cheeks as she clenched her fists in anger. She stood up abruptly and fled the room.

Natsu shifted uncomfortably as he took in the lingering scent of Lucy's tears. The older woman was visibly incensed, muttering angrily and glaring at Natsu.

Gulping to swallow the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, Natsu managed to choke out a few words, "I-I'll go... talk to her.." before edging out of his seat and hastily traced Lucy's footsteps, leaving room.

Slipping into the room noiselessly, Natsu gently shut the door behind him and turned to face the sobbing blonde mage. "Luce... you okay?" Natsu felt woefully inadequate, standing there not knowing how to comfort her.

"Just leave me alone Natsu" Lucy sniffed and turned her back towards him.

Natsu scratched the back of his head, mussing up his already messy pink hair. A shimmer of golden light heralded Loke's arrival. The lion spirit immediately went to his mistress' side who threw herself into his waiting arms and sobbed unabashedly into her loyal spirit's chest.

Natsu clenched his fist, feeling an unease stir within his chest. Suddenly feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, Natsu quickly left the room.

Sighing for some reason unknown to him, he returned to the sitting room to find that Nadea-sama had left but Happy had returned. The blue exceed was munching contentedly on some fish left on the table.

"Yo Happy, you okay partner?"

"Natshuu!" Happy flew over to his partner, mouth still full of fish. "I'm so happy you're okay! Where's Lucy? Is she okay?"

"Uhh she's really tired, so she's resting now. Don't go disturbing her okay." Natsu fibbed, feeling a small stab of guilt for lying to Happy.

"Oh okay. I hope Lushy is okay." Happy mumbled, drifting back to the table to continue his meal.

Natsu suddenly felt very drained as the impact of his earlier battle hit him. He ached in various places and his vision was starting to get blurry from the overextension of his magic.

"Hey Happy... I think I'm gonna crash too..." Natsu barely made it to the tiny couch before crashing bonelessly on the soft cushions, and was asleep before hearing Happy's reply.

"Natsu."

A hand gently gripped his shoulder and shook him slightly.

"Natsu, wake up."

Natsu opened his eyes and blinked blearily. The image of his beautiful blonde partner focussed in front of him. Her lips were moving, she was saying something, but he heard none of it.

"Kyah!" Lucy exclaimed as she was swept from where she was standing behind the couch into Natsu's arms, on top of his chest.

"Luce..." he breathed into her hair, "You're really here... it wasn't a dream..."

"I'm really here Natsu." Lucy replied in a small voice, muffled by his chest.

"Why did you leave Luce...? Why did you leave me all alone... " Natsu's voice quavered slightly at the end.

Lucy didn't reply, just laying there on top of Natsu in his arms, listening to his thundering heartbeat.

The two of them laid there, a top the tiny little couch as dusk gathered and the sun sunk below the horizon.

Long after Natsu's heartbeat had returned to a normal pace, Lucy stirred in his arms. "Come on Natsu, I made food."

Natsu followed her off the couch to her dining table. The table visible sagged with the small feast laid upon it. Natsu quickly heated up the food and they both tucked in to the meal, Lucy at a much slower pace than Nastu.

Both remained silent through the meal, Natsu too engrossed in his food and Lucy not knowing what to say.

"Thanks for the meal Luce! You've gotten a lot better at cooking!"

A small blush painted Lucy's face prettily, "G-go take a shower!"

Natsu complied with her request, aware that he was still covered in the grim from the battle this morning.

When Natsu finished his bath, Lucy was already asleep. Grinning to no one in particular, Natsu invited himself to share Lucy's bed. Laying down on the tiny mattress, he pulled the celestial mage close to him and inhaled deeply.

For the second time since she left, Natsu fell asleep with a smile on his face.

End Chapter 14

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