A/N: This chapter coincides with Episode 22. I'd like to apologize for my extended absence in bringing you guys this chapter. I had tons of schoolwork that got pushed to the wayside while I was writing the last few chapters, and had to make sure I got caught up. This coming week is Spring Break, and the week after is Mid-Terms, so I'm not sure quite yet if it'll give me more or less time in the long run to commit to writing chapter 15. I promise you all, I will not ever abandon this story. I've got the whole thing plotted out, with key scenes either already written or outlined.

Also, Her Phantom will be going through all of the major canon events (Edolas, Tenrou, Infinity Clock, and GMG). The end results of those events may or may not change (I can't tell you otherwise it'll ruin the suspense), but I won't be delving into the Eclipse Celestial Arc or Tartarus.

This story will come in three separate Arcs. We're currently in the 'Phantom Arc' and I'll either be starting up a separate story for the next arc or continuing on this one with a delineation between the two. Same with the third. We're getting closer and closer to the conclusion of the Phantom Arc, and I'm so glad that you all have stuck with me on this crazy journey!

Alright, now that the crazy long author's note is finished, let's get on to the fight between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord!

(I don't own Fairy Tail.)

"That. Won't. Happen," Lucy seethed. After a few short breaths, she said, "You protect me, and I'll do the same, Gajeel. You'll never be alone again, and I'll make sure those little fuckers understand just that."

"You're goddamn right," Gajeel agreed with a nod, glaring down at the Fairies that had threatened everything that was his. "Now that their little boss man's outta the way, it's about time we throw ourselves into the mix, don't you think?"

Lucy nodded and rested a hand over her new whip, complete with Gajeel's own iron for the spikes that were jutting out along its length. "Make me proud, Black Steel," she whispered.

"I always will, little Bunny," Gajeel said, nuzzling her neck for only a second. "It's show time."

With a wicked grin and a thrill of excitement, Lucy felt Gajeel loosen his grip on her waist only to grab her hand and jump off of the rafters. Once they were in the air, Lucy could hear him cackling wildly, and she couldn't help but mirror it with a light and sadistic laugh. These Fairies had no clue what kind of hell they had unleashed in threatening her and Gajeel's happiness, but Lucy was determined to show them just what happens when you cross Phantom Lord.

~.~

A violent crack of wood split through the air and instantly silenced the surrounding battles in the Phantom Lord guild hall. Both Fairy Tail and Phantom mages alike stilled as a truly menacing aura steadily flowed from the now decimated sign that was once boldly emblazoning the wall above the bar with the Phantom name. As a large shadow appeared above the ruined sign, slowly standing from a crouch with a deep, rumbling laugh that bordered on utter madness, there was a collective gasp that ran through the room.

"Is that…" one among the crowd whispered, though it wasn't clear if it was a Fairy or Phantom mage.

"It's gotta be," came the hushed reply as the figure stood tall and proud, red eyes catching the light with a malevolent glint and piercing through the billowing dust that surrounded him.

Erza narrowed her eyes on the man, seeing for the first time the proof of his own element in the piercings that adorned his face and arms, the wild mane of raven-black hair that added to his look of insanity. "It's the Iron Dragon Slayer, Black Steel Gajeel."

Nab vaulted himself into the air, his anger at an all-time high as he tried to attack the Iron Slayer. "You attacked Levy!" he shouted, pulling his arm back and attempting to punch the horrendous mage that had hurt one of their own.

Lucy slyly peeked around Gajeel's shoulder to get a general idea of her enemies' placement throughout the guild, and saw the Animal Possession mage launching himself into the air. "That's Nab," Lucy whispered, leaning her back against Gajeel's and keeping herself hidden for the time being. "Weak as fuck. Take him out."

Gajeel smirked and sent his arm out in the form of an iron pole, connecting solidly with Nab's stomach and sending him barreling into the ground. Wanting to add just a little more pain to the mix, Gajeel kept extending his arm, forcing the mage to scrape roughly along the ground and even knocking out a dozen of his own Phantom guild mates in the process. When Gajeel heard Lucy giggling behind him, then felt her slender body shift so her chest was pressed to his back, he couldn't help but grin widely at the devastation he'd already caused.

"Mmm," Lucy hummed against Gajeel's back, "Love you, Black Steel. Go have some fun. I wanna watch them suffer for a minute."

Gajeel chuckled and whispered, "My pleasure, little Bunny. Don't take too long, or there won't be any left." He jumped down onto the first floor as the Fairy Tail mages stood stock-still, a couple voicing their confusion that he would hit his own guild mates with an attack, and let his arm shift back. Gajeel clenched his fist and drew all the attention to himself by laughing as he said, "Show me what you've got. Unless you pussies are too scared to face the great Iron Dragon Slayer."

Lucy smiled and crossed her arms under her chest, inadvertently hiding her guild mark from sight, and watched as Elfman lunged at Gajeel, turning one massively muscular arm into stone. That's right, she thought as Elfman started yelling, He always talks about things being manly…

Gajeel laughed and shifted his forearm into iron to block the silver-haired mage's attack. "You're Elfman, right?" he asked with a cocky grin. He distinctly remembered this guy being one of the last three people to leave Fairy Tail the night he attacked their guild hall.

Lucy took her time to look around the guild, trying to decide who she would go after first. It seemed that the spectacle of Gajeel's arrival and subsequent fight had drawn everyone's attention towards him and Elfman. She really couldn't decide who she would rather face off against, since each and every Fairy that was present was clearly trying to steal her away and they all needed to pay dearly. Lucy was able to see Gray, Loke, Natsu, Cana, and Erza clear as day throughout the crowd—along with Reedus based on his sheer size alone; although, she was slightly disconcerted that he had pulled his shirt up to use his Picto Magic with his gargantuan stomach acting as an easel. What caught her off-guard was the sight of a small blue cat with wings that was hovering just next to Natsu. She couldn't possibly imagine a cat doing much damage in a fight, and although the darker part of herself wanted nothing more than to rip each and every Fairy apart, she couldn't bring herself to even consider hurting the little thing. 'There are some lines I just won't cross,' she thought, 'No matter how much I may hate those Fairies, hurting a little cat is just sick.'

The slightest movement in the corner of Natsu's eye drew his attention from the fight between Elfman and Gajeel, and his eyes widened when he looked up to see the blonde girl they were here to rescue standing in the same place that Gajeel had descended from. "Lucy," he said as his obsidian eyes locked with hers. He watched her raise a single delicate eyebrow, her eyes never leaving his and her head cocking to the side. He couldn't understand why she was just standing there instead of trying to make a break for it, especially since everyone seemed to be wrapped up in the only fight that was currently happening.

"What are you staring at, Flame—" Gray started, turning to follow Natsu's line of sight to see the girl they were searching for standing on the second floor and watching everything unfold. "What the hell?" She didn't look afraid or like she'd been harmed in any way. If anything, she looked upset about something if the way her hip was cocked out to one side and her arms were crossed were any indication. He couldn't help but appreciate how she looked right then as he thought, 'Hey, I'm a guy… It's what we do.' Lucy was wearing less than she had the day he and Loke had met her on the train, but he definitely wasn't complaining in the slightest since she looked absolutely edible.

Elfman's eyes widened when Gajeel sent several pillars of iron shooting out in random directions from the iron leg he had in his grasp. None of them went to attack him, but instead shot away and hit several more Phantom members. "But, they're Phantom! You would attack your own men?!"

Gajeel grinned and pulled his fist back, shifting it into an iron pole as he said, "Because I knew it'd distract ya!" Without hesitation, he sent the pole flying forward into Elfman's face, knocking the Takeover mage into the air.

Natsu growled and broke away from the blonde woman's gaze when he sensed something hurtling towards him. Apparently Gajeel had sent Elfman flying, so Natsu decided to take it upon himself to get in on the action. "Don't worry, Lucy!" he shouted, setting his fist on fire while jumping into the air and using Elfman's chest to launch himself towards Gajeel. "We'll save you!"

Lucy stayed completely still while Natsu's fist connected with Gajeel's face, sending him hurtling towards her own personal bar stool and crushing the bar beneath him. "Yeah right," she scoffed.

As Gajeel groaned and dusted himself off, Natsu growled again and said, "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer."

Gajeel smirked and stood up, taking Natsu's momentary distraction while he argued with Elfman to get his bearings from the hit. 'This should be interesting,' he thought, 'Maybe I'll have a real challenge.' He'd heard Natsu shouting that Fairy Tail would save Lucy, so that let him know that they were all very aware of his little blonde's presence. One quick glance towards the decimated balcony only showed him barely concealed rage that flashed behind her eyes, and Gajeel growled low in his throat before shouting, "Iron Dragon Club!"

Erza watched in horror as a large magic circle appeared in front of Gajeel's fist, sending out an enormous iron club that was heading straight for Natsu. She couldn't believe that she hadn't seen Lucy before Natsu had shouted out her name, but Erza was torn between letting the two Dragon Slayers fight it out and going to the girl, or stopping them before Natsu was injured too badly. Black Steel Gajeel was well known for being ruthless, his reputation preceding him and sending fear streaking through the hearts of anyone with a brain when they heard he was coming. Erza knew that Natsu was a strong and resilient mage, but she wasn't so sure that he would be able to withstand the brutality someone like Gajeel could and would willingly dole out. The iron club connected with Natsu, forcing him to slide back along the stone floor, and she worriedly shouted out his name.

Natsu's anger was rising with each passing moment, but he was finally able to stop the powerful attack that Gajeel had launched at him without warning. His hands were wrapped around the iron club that had nearly knocked the wind out of him, and there were thick plumes of steam rising from the metal as his body started heating up uncontrollably. With his head down, Natsu clenched his eyes tightly as his inner dragon roared with conviction to protect and avenge the wrongs that had been committed against his family. "You destroyed our guild hall," Natsu said through tightly gritted teeth, "And you attacked Levy and her team." He channeled his magic into his hands, igniting them once more against the iron club. "I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" he roared, using all of his strength to lift Gajeel into the air and throw him up towards the rafters.

Lucy sneered and ground her teeth together when Gajeel sprung back from the rafters, sending himself flying back towards the enraged salmon-haired mage. 'You Fairies fucking deserved it,' she thought. Her eyes widened when Gajeel's punch was blocked, only for Natsu's other flaming fist to connect with his face and send him barreling into a wall across the room.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo," Wakaba chuckled, "The kid's fired up now."

"Yeah, I'd hate to be that other guy," Macao said, jokingly nudging Wakaba with his elbow.

Erza smiled and looked over at the panting Fire Slayer as she said, "He's quite the wizard."

Elfman sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "Alright, fine. You're manlier than I thought. I'll let you have this one, but you're gonna promise me that you—"

Natsu turned around to face Elfman with his signature grin in place. "You bet," he said cheerfully, "I'll beat him to a pulp!"

Without a second thought, Lucy dropped down from the second floor, pulling out her whip in the process. She felt everyone's eyes shoot towards her as her anger rose, a deadly aura surrounding her and increasing with each measured step she took. 'No one hurts my Dragon,' she thought. 'This kid doesn't stand a chance against Gajeel.'

"Oh, shit," one Phantom member whispered. "The psycho came out to play…"

"This isn't good," another said, the two of them taking a few steps further from the insane blonde woman that was advancing towards the Fairy Tail mage.

"I don't fucking think so," Lucy seethed, pulling her arm back and quickly lashing out at Natsu with her whip. His head turned towards her at the last second, his eyes widening in utter shock as they landed on her guild mark, and the force of Lucy's hit sent him tumbling backwards with a small bit of his blood splattering on the stone floor. "Stupid piece of shit. You'll be lucky to make it out of here in one piece!"

Every member of Fairy Tail stared at the raging blonde, their eyes instantly falling to the Phantom Lord guild mark on her abdomen. Erza's eyes narrowed as she asked, "Why is there a guild mark on you where Levy was mutilated?!"

Lucy giggled and tilted her head to the side with a sadistic grin on her face, then snapped her whip off to the side, keeping her legs spread wide as she held a defensive stance. "Black Steel!" she shouted, never taking her eyes from Titania's. "Nap time's over, get your ass out here and handle your shit!"

Erza ground her teeth together and pointed a sword in Lucy's direction. "Answer me! Why is there—"

Lucy raised a single eyebrow, that same wicked grin curving her lips up cruelly. "Isn't it obvious, Erza? I'm a Phantom."

Gray's eyes were wide in shock at what he'd seen. It wasn't often that someone was able to catch Natsu off-guard, and Lucy had actually hit the guy with her weapon. He couldn't believe what he was seeing at all, and figured he must have fallen into some strange alternate universe. 'How could this be the same sweet girl we met on the train?!' Lucy's eyes were wide and seemingly innocent, but the way she was smiling—while talking back to Erza of all people—had him rethinking his previous view of her entirely.

"What the hell?!" Natsu bellowed, jumping to his feet and pressing a hand to his cheek. When he pulled it away, his fingers were coated in blood. "We're here to save you, why'd you attack me?!"

Lucy giggled again when Gajeel's fist plowed through the rubble that had fallen on top of him, lightly biting her lower lip and pulling out her keys. "Hope you were having sweet dreams, lazy ass," she taunted as he walked up to stand next to her. She twirled her key ring around her finger and eyed their opponents with a cold and calculating eye. "You can have the baby dragon over here. I'll find some other Fairies to maim."

"Hop to it, Psycho," Gajeel said with a wicked grin, chuckling when he saw the familiar golden glint of Lucy's keys. He almost wished that Lucy had stayed up on the second floor, because then he knew that she would be out of the line of fire, but his inner dragon was thoroughly satisfied with the fact that she took it upon herself to attack the Slayer that had knocked him across the guild. Even the way she instantly handed the fight back over to him was just one more tick on the pros side of being with a woman like her. Lucy knew what boundaries were, even when it came to fighting, and she didn't overstep them unless there were extremely extenuating circumstances.

Loke's eyes widened even further when he realized what was about to happen. They'd miscalculated, made a mistake somewhere along the lines, and now Lucy was fighting against them instead of trying to get away from Phantom Lord. He saw her single out a golden key, and waited with bated breath to see which of his old friends he would be forced to fight against. 'Please… Please tell me she doesn't have Aries…'

"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull!" Lucy shouted, thrusting the key into the air before her as a magic circle appeared. "Taurus!"

"MOOO!" Taurus bellowed, wielding his axe wildly as he appeared and then standing protectively in front of Lucy. "I'll protect your beautiful body, Luuuucy!"

"Taurus, you know the drill," Lucy said firmly. "Give it everything you've got against these Fairies!" Lucy watched as Taurus stiffened and let out an enraged howl before he slid his axe behind him on the ground, and she stealthily moved to stand on the blade. "Now!" she shouted, cackling wildly and lashing out with her whip while Taurus arced the axe over his head and sent her flying. It wasn't long before she lost track of him in the ensuing battle, though Lucy was able to hear his attacks flying off. She wanted to watch Gajeel fighting, but she had a job to do as well. When Lucy looked down, she saw that she was headed straight for a wide-eyed Cana Alberona that was standing protectively in front of the still unconscious Nab.

Cana squared her shoulders and withdrew her cards to throw an attack at the advancing blonde, but in the blink of an eye, a searing pain ripped through her arm when Lucy's whip wrapped around it. The metallic spikes along the whip dug into her forearm painfully, piercing the flesh and threatening to start tearing long slashes when she felt Lucy jerking on the whip. With a garbled cry, Cana fell to her knees and was flooded with relief when the whip was retracted swiftly.

"Aww, poor widdle Cana got a boo-boo, huh?" Lucy taunted, tensing for a second and dropping to a crouch when she sensed something flying her way. Not a second after she was down, Lucy watched Gajeel soar over her head and into a group of stunned Phantom mages, then immediately launch himself past her with a fearsome growl rumbling through him. She sneered at the brunette as they both stood to their feet, and watched thick crimson rivulets flowing down Cana's arm and dripping from her fingertips to the ground.

Cana quickly threw three cards towards Lucy, deciding that she wanted to just incapacitate the girl to try and figure out what the hell she was thinking. All three cards became engulfed in flames as they zoomed through the air towards the blonde, and Cana waited only a second before sending out a second volley of cards just before Lucy slashed the first set away with her whip.

Lucy's eyes narrowed when she saw the second set of flaming cards flying towards her. Clearly, regardless of how much alcohol Cana ingested on a daily basis, the girl was smart. Lucy dove to her left and cried out in pain when the left-most card burnt a small portion of her calf. She quickly rolled and brought herself up into a crouch while sneering at the brunette. "Is that all? Come on, why don't you at least make it a decent fight?" Lucy ground out as she tried to ignore the dulling pain in her leg. "Maybe that's why you still haven't made S-Class…"

Cana gave Lucy a calculating look as she said, "I don't want to fight you, Lucy. We're just trying to make Phantom pay for hurting our family."

Lucy grinned and stood to her feet, snapping her whip quickly to the side and giggling when she heard Alzack drop his pistol. As she looked back at Cana, Lucy cocked her head to the side and asked, "Why do you think they got attacked in the first place?"

Cana's eyes went wide when she really took notice of where Lucy's Phantom guild mark was at. 'But, that's where… Oh god, Levy!' She clenched her fists and shouted, "What did they do to deserve that?!"

Lucy sighed and coiled her whip, settling it back on her belt, then took slow steps towards Cana as she said in a silky voice, "Honestly, it's not entirely their fault. They were just trying to do the right thing. I really hate that we're even fighting to begin with, since it's just a big tug of war that has me as the fucking rope." Lucy circled around behind Cana, smiling widely when the Card mage stayed in place and only turned her head to keep an eye on Lucy. "Take a look at all of this fighting. And, for what?" she whispered.

"Phantom destroyed our guild and hurt our family," Cana seethed. "That's reason enough, regardless of whether or not you were here."

"Oh, that's true… But, I am here. And Erza's got a special S-Class request to pick me up and take me back to that son of a bitch. Did your guild master even question it at all? Or was he too concerned with how much money my dad's willing to pay to get me back? Isn't it a little odd that he'd be willing to pay so much for me?"

"You're his daughter!" Cana shouted.

Lucy snorted, then grinned as she lifted her leg and swiftly kicked the back of Cana's knee. As soon as the woman was on the ground, Lucy dropped down and flipped her onto her back. She quickly straddled Cana and wrapped a hand around her throat just like Gajeel had done countless times to her during training. "I might be his daughter by blood," she whispered, "But he doesn't fucking see me that way. Levy, Jet, and Droy all got what they fucking deserved for not keeping their goddamn mouths shut about seeing me here. I wasn't being kidnapped."

Cana gasped for air as Lucy's grip around her throat tightened, and clawed at the slender arm in an attempt to pry the surprisingly strong hand from her. 'This chick really is a psycho,' she thought as small black dots started filling her vision.

"I personally don't think he should have let them live, but I guess he wanted to make more than just the three of them suffer," Lucy said with a wicked grin. "So sweet like that, y'know? If you make it out of here alive, then you can blame Team Shadowgear for what's coming. If you fucking Fairies hadn't threatened me, this wouldn't be nearly as bad. I wouldn't have been as hellbent on snuffing you all out, because it wouldn't have been personal for me. I might have even been willing to show you mercy…"

Cana gritted her teeth and punched Lucy in the face again and again until finally the surprisingly resilient woman loosened her grip and dropped to the ground beside her. Cana sucked in as much air as she could while she pulled out two Tower cards with a grimace. 'This might be overkill, but… I've gotta take her down!' Cana heard the snap of a whip as Lucy unfurled it, and she quickly scrambled to her feet. She rounded on the enraged blonde and held up the two cards, her mouth set in a grim line of determination. Summoning her magic into her hand, Cana threw the cards to the ground between them and called out, "Thunderbolt's Fate!"

Lucy was blinded by a brilliant flash of light, and screamed in agony as a bolt of lightning struck down from above. Her body tensed and spasmed, her back arching at an unnatural angle while electricity coursed through her. The spell Cana had used seemed to last forever as far as Lucy was concerned, but suddenly everything came to a crashing halt and she dropped to her hands and knees on the ground.

"Cana!" Alzack shouted in outrage as he ran up to the Card mage. He'd never imagined she would use one of her more powerful spells against the girl they were here to rescue—'Then again, maybe rescue isn't the right word,' he thought—and he knew he had to stop her. "Stop the spell, you could seriously hurt her!"

"Well, maybe she deserves to feel some pain!" Cana shouted, rounding on Alzack with a deep scowl. "She's glad that they got hurt! Someone's gotta teach this snob that shit like that isn't a joke!"

When he heard a loud thump, Alzack turned to see the spell had ended, leaving a panting Lucy on her hands and knees, with a few portions of her already skimpy clothing singed and smoking slightly. Just as he was about to move forward to help Lucy to her feet and try to get her out of the fighting inside of the guild, he heard something that made him stop dead in his tracks.

Lucy coughed and then started laughing while she slowly stood up, wobbling slightly and fighting against the painful jolts of electricity that seemed to still course through her. "Don't worry, Gun Boy," she said with a wicked grin, "You'll have your turn to die later on, right alongside your little Sniper Bitch. Cana here's finally taking the fight seriously, so why don't you run along?"

"You're fucking insane!" Cana shouted, drawing out three cards and preparing for another attack. 'How is she standing up from that so soon?! There's no way she could still be conscious after that spell!' she thought incredulously.

Lucy's grin widened and she tipped her head from side to side, then said, "You know… I hear that a lot. I'm usually a pretty nice person… until people threaten to have me fucking locked up for the rest of my goddamn life."

"What are you talking about?" Alzack asked, gripping his pistols tighter and preparing for an attack from the blonde. "No one's trying to lock you up."

"Oh?" Lucy asked with wide eyes, her eyebrows shooting up in mock surprise. "Then what do you call it, Pistol Pete?"

Cana sneered and shook her head as she said, "Alzack, go on. I've got this. Someone needs to teach the little heiress a lesson in manners." Her eyes narrowed when Lucy started cackling again, lashing her whip out in the process and crouching into a defensive stance. "No one attacks our family and gets away with it."

Lucy continued laughing wildly as she and Cana traded blows, with cards of varying spells flying in every direction and Lucy either dodging them or lashing at them with her whip. They were blow for blow against one another: every hit that Lucy took, Cana took one as well. Lucy laughed and snapped her whip again at Cana's card-holding hand, watching as an angry red line appeared across her palm and her cards scattered across the floor. "Hey, Lush," Lucy crooned. "What's the matter, only had two barrels of beer for breakfast this morning?"

Cana's eyes went wide in shock, then she firmed her resolve and lunged at Lucy. With some insane amount of luck, Cana was able to pin the blonde to the ground, but she honestly felt like she was dealing with a smaller feminine version of Bickslow with the way Lucy was cackling. The only thing that was missing was a perverted comment or two and a long tongue hanging from the girl's mouth. "What the fuck?!" she yelled, pinning Lucy's hands to the floor and ignoring the raging battles that had resumed around them. "We're just trying to help you!"

Lucy's laughter abruptly halted and she sneered at the brunette on top of her. "If you wanted to help, you would have left me the hell alone!" she replied, her voice venomously quiet. "I'm never going back there, and your pathetic excuse for a guild can't do a damn thing to change that!"

"Have they brainwashed you or something?" Cana asked incredulously. "You're father's worried sick, and he hired us to rescue you!"

"Worried sick, huh?" Lucy rolled her eyes and let out a humorous laugh. "If he was so 'worried' about me, then why is he saying I went missing a month ago? I've been gone for over six months, and he probably only just fucking noticed."

"So, what… You're just gonna act like a brat?!" Cana shouted, her anger rising with both how aggravating this whole situation was and the dwindling amount of alcohol in her system. "At least you've got a dad that wants you!"

Lucy cackled again, throwing her head back as much as she could while she was pinned to the ground. "That's… Oh, man… That's really fucking funny!" she choked out between laughs. "That bastard doesn't give a flying fuck about me!"

"Then why would he hire us?!"

"Because he just wants me back so he can sell me like a piece of goddamn property!" Lucy screeched.

Cana didn't have a chance to react to Lucy's words, instead barely feeling the blonde shift beneath her before two slender legs lifted up and wrapped around her bikini-clad chest. Cana groaned once she was roughly slammed into the ground head-first, and felt her head swimming while she tried to remain conscious.

Lucy locked her ankles over Cana's throat and quickly sat up. She glowered at the dizzy brunette and said, "It's been great chatting with you, Cana…" She paused and grinned when she felt the Card mage pass out from a lack of oxygen. "But, I've got some of your family to kill for threatening me." As Lucy untangled herself from the unconscious brunette and stood up to see a shocked Alzack staring at her, she thought, 'Hey, that was a pretty good fight. If I ever meet up with this chick again, I might just have to go for a second round!'

Gajeel grinned when he saw Taurus running wild through the guild, swinging his axe and causing quake after quake as he rampaged through Phantoms and Fairies alike. He turned to look at Natsu who had just gone flying into a wall from a kick to his abdomen. "Aww, what's the matter? You can dish it out but ya can't take it?" he taunted, watching as Natsu's ignited body sent rubble flying off in every direction.

Taurus didn't want anyone to force Lucy to go back to her father's. The previous Earthland day, she had summoned Virgo and explained everything that was going on, and the pink-haired maid had returned to the Spirit World to relay Lucy's message to her other spirits. The buxom blonde was expecting these people to come after her and try to force her back into a life with no magic, no keys, and no freedom, and she needed each of her spirits' help in making sure their keys never ended up in the wrong hands. Lucy swore to protect their keys with her life when each of their contracts were made, and though they couldn't easily die, each of her spirits silently vowed to do the same for her. His job wasn't that difficult, especially since there were only humans in the guild. Lucy had set out very specific rules for her spirits after joining Phantom Lord: "Anyone that gets in your way can be incapacitated, but do not kill any humans." His perfect, bodacious key-holder and dear friend knew that they would carry the guilt of taking a human's life for their entire existence, so she took it upon herself to do it if it was a necessity. Her reasoning had been that she was a human, and didn't have very long to live with the guilt of taking another human's life in comparison to her spirits. Lucy took the burden, the guilt, and the sadness on herself to spare them from it… During the four Earthland months Lucy had been in Phantom Lord, not one of her spirits had killed anything other than monsters when they were summoned, and Taurus couldn't have been happier to have such a wonderful woman holding his key. "Moooo!" he bellowed as he swung his axe and jumped into the air. He was aiming for the armored red-head that was currently fighting against a whole group of Phantom mages, and swiftly brought his axe down to the ground, sending a shockwave through the floor and rubble flying off in various directions.

As Taurus lifted his axe and prepared to launch another attack in a different direction, he heard a small shriek of pain, then watched as a tiny blue blur fell to the ground. He furrowed his brow in confusion and bent down to inspect what it was, and found a tiny blue cat with white wings protruding from its back lying on the ground. Its fur was matted and sweaty, but its wide eyes stared up at the Bull spirit in terror as it tried to lift itself off of the ground. Once it was up on its feet, the blue cat jumped into the air and flapped its wings frantically as it tried to get away.

Happy cried out in pain again when each flap of his wings sent searing heat travelling from them and down his small spine. "N-Natsu!" he shouted, his eyes going wide when the huge bull that had hurt him gingerly picked him up in one hand. "NATSU, HELP ME!"

Taurus frowned and slowly knelt down, setting his axe to the side so it leaned against him should he need to defend himself. He could feel each tremble of the little talking cat's body as it sat frozen in his hand, so he brought his other hand up and carefully moved the white wings to see what had happened. The cat screamed again when Taurus stretched its right wing out, and that was when he saw a nick in the base of the wing where it met his furry blue back. "I'm sorr—"

"HAPPY!" Natsu bellowed as fear consumed him from seeing his best buddy in the hands of the thing Lucy had summoned. If she was their enemy, then anything she summoned was also their enemy, and with the way Happy had screamed for him, Natsu could only assume that the big bull was going to hurt him. Natsu grunted and rolled across the ground when an iron pole landed solidly against his head, but he didn't spare Gajeel a second glance as he shakily stood to his feet and felt his inner dragon roaring to life with the urge to protect his 'foster son'. "Stay the hell away from him!" Natsu shouted as he ran towards the bull that was holding onto Happy. He moved just a little to one side, then brought both fists to his mouth and inhaled deeply. Once the magic circled appeared in front of his hands, Natsu yelled, "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

Taurus barely had time to turn around before a swirling vortex of scorching fire engulfed him. His eyes went wide as his body was wracked with pain, and he screamed his agony to the stars above while the inferno continued to burn him. Taurus curled himself into a ball to protect the small cat he'd had in his grasp, hoping that at least the injured animal wouldn't suffer too badly once he disappeared back to the Spirit World. He'd always admired smaller creatures for their agility and grace, and Earthland's natural animals held a very special place in his ancient heart. It wasn't his intention to injure the little talking cat, and he wished more than anything right then that he'd been able to finish his apology. At least if Taurus was able to keep the frightened animal from being harmed, then maybe he could be forgiven for hurting it in the first place.

Lucy froze in place when the most intense heat she had ever experienced burst across her back. It felt as though she'd been sitting with her back to a fireplace for the past several hours, but it wasn't close enough to actually burn her. The single scream that ripped through the air had her blood running cold, and Lucy slowly turned with wide eyes to see that Taurus was completely engulfed in flames. "Taurus!" she whispered, throwing a hand over her mouth to stop the sob that wanted to crawl out of her at the treatment of her perverted and lovable spirit.

Taurus heard the barest remnant of Lucy's voice, and his eyes instantly sought hers out. He could feel her sadness, anger, and pain at what he was enduring, but all Taurus could do was force himself to smile just once before he disappeared. Lucy hated it when any of her spirits got hurt, and Taurus was the most physical of her spirits so he tended to get hurt more often. The least he could do for Lucy was to be as strong as possible; even though she knew he wouldn't actually be killed from the attack, it still broke her heart to see her spirits in pain. "I'm sorry, Luuuucy!" Taurus cried out as the last of his body dissipated and he was transported back to the Spirit World to heal.

Once the bull disappeared, Natsu stopped his attack and rushed over to see Happy on the ground. His fur was a little singed in places, but he otherwise didn't seem to be injured. "Little buddy, you alright?" he asked softly, worry lacing his voice.

"M-My wings… won't w-work," Happy cried. "I got hit…"

Gajeel stood utterly still with wide eyes as he looked at Natsu and the blue cat he called Happy. The guy had just taken out one of Lucy's spirits, and Gajeel knew just how protective she was over them. The fact that the cat was talking and had wings definitely surprised Gajeel, but once his eyes roamed across the guild hall to see Lucy staring with teary eyes at the place that Taurus had once occupied, he knew it wasn't going to end well.

"It's alright, Happy," Natsu said softly. "We'll get you looked at once we're done here. Just rest. That big bull-thing is gone."

"HE'S NOT A THING, YOU STUPID FUCKING PYRO!" Lucy screeched. She abandoned her fight with a random Fairy, and dodged between the people that were still standing between herself and Natsu. Lucy lashed out with her whip, hoping to catch him the way she had with the Card mage, but Natsu just turned and glared at her before wrapping a hand around her whip and yanking Lucy to the ground. She winced when her knees scraped along the stone floor, but Lucy put it out of her mind as she got back up and lunged at him.

"He hurt my friend!" Natsu shouted, cradling Happy protectively and sidestepping the fuming blonde. He felt Happy press a paw to his chest before jumping down and rushing over to Erza—the only person that Natsu knew could keep him safe. His fists ignited and he crouched low while he glared at Lucy. "Whatever that thing was, he hurt Happy!"

"Oh, man," a Phantom member whispered uncomfortably. "That's what she looks like while she's arguing with Gajeel…"

"She's gonna kill that kid," another said.

"I heard that the last person to hurt one of her spirits got his throat cut…"

Yet again, all the fighting in the guild came to a stand-still. Each of the Phantom Lord members, with the exception of Gajeel, were slowly backing away from where Lucy was at in the hopes of steering clear of the insane woman. Fairy Tail, on the other hand, was listening to the comments of the Phantom mages with intrigue and wondering what had made the girl snap. She truly looked psychotic in that moment as she sneered at Natsu and snapped her whip off to the side, her chest heaving and each breath hissing out through gritted teeth. There was a malicious gleam in Lucy's eyes that none of them would have believed could exist in her if they weren't seeing it for themselves, but all of Fairy Tail knew that she was no match for Natsu's flames.

"You're gonna fucking pay for hurting Taurus!" Lucy seethed. She lashed out at his legs with her whip, then dove to the ground and slid under Natsu while he jumped and tried to punch her. Lucy kicked one leg into the air and caught just behind his knee when he landed, causing the Fire Slayer's leg to buckle. She quickly rolled over and pounced on his back, locking her legs around his waist in a vice-like grip while she wrapped an arm across his throat and started to tighten it. "No one hurts my spirits and gets away with it, you pathetic piece of shit! I'll fucking kill you myself for what you've done!"

Gajeel crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. Normally, he would have hit someone that had interrupted his fight, especially when he was actually enjoying the challenge. The only problem was that Lucy had every right to attack the flaming idiot for hurting Taurus, and he knew that the Fairies were going to get one hell of a show since she was so upset. With a dark chuckle, Gajeel locked eyes with Lucy for a moment, then said, "Looks like Psycho Bunny really came out to play today. Try not to get yourself killed, Salamander. I'm not done with you, yet."

Natsu growled and lifted his still burning hands to Lucy's arm when he couldn't shake her off of him. She yelped in pain when he burnt her, but her grip only tightened and constricted his narrow airways even more. "I… don't… wanna fight… you," he rasped, finally getting a good hold on Lucy and throwing her across the room. He watched in surprise as Lucy jumped to her feet and rushed at him again once he was standing. He dodged the first few punches that Lucy threw at him, and started growling when he was torn between just beating the girl up since she was clearly their enemy—even though he always hated when he had to fight against girls, since he usually felt like crap for hitting them—or continuing to dodge until she got tired.

Lucy noticed the small distraction, and decided to put some of that gymnastics training she'd gotten while she was younger to use. She quickly slid back a couple of inches, then put her hands to the ground and arced her legs backwards over her body until they were wrapped around Natsu's waist. Tightening every muscle in her abdomen, and not caring in the slightest right then that her skirt had fallen subject to gravity to show everyone her lacy black panties, Lucy gripped Natsu and swung her legs back over her body, flinging him halfway across the guild and into a few stunned Phantom mages. She quickly righted herself, taking a moment to flatten her skirt and ensure that her ass wasn't still showing, then stalked towards the slightly stunned Fire Slayer. "Do you think I give a fuck if you wanna fight me?!" she yelled.

Natsu slowly stood up and growled low in his throat, shaking his head as he tried to figure out why he hadn't even seen that attack coming. 'Why isn't she using her magic? Isn't she a summoner? I thought they just used their spirits to fight…,' he thought. They had all assumed that Lucy was some heiress that had been captured and couldn't get herself out of Phantom's clutches, but they were wrong. He didn't know the specifics of why she was in their guild, why she was fighting to stay there, or anything like that. What Natsu did know was that he couldn't underestimate this girl. Even though she was a summoner, Lucy seemed to have some pretty damn good hand-to-hand skills to back her up when she wasn't using her magic. He'd never met anyone who would use a move like that, except maybe Vijeeter—but that guy wasn't nearly as physically strong as Lucy was, so it probably wouldn't have had the same effect anyway.

Lucy sneered as she neared Natsu and feinted with a high arcing lash of her whip. When he dodged the attack and dove forward, she grabbed onto the white scarf and pulled one of the dangling ends over his head, using all of her strength to topple the Fire Slayer to the ground. "No one hurts my friends," Lucy ground out as she straddled his stomach—just high enough that he wouldn't be able to lift his hips and buck her off of him—then brought a solid punch down onto his still-covered face. "He's a spirit, not a thing. Shitty little Fairy!" Over and over, Lucy brought her fists down onto Natsu, letting her fury consume her at the mistreatment of her spirit. She ignored the pain in her knuckles from the force of her blows, along with the pain in her wrists and arms as his flaming hands tried to make a grab for her.

"Get the hell off of me!" Natsu shouted, finally pulling his scarf from over his eyes.

Lucy stopped hitting Natsu, planting her hands on either side of his head while tears streamed down her cheeks. "He didn't deserve to get hurt…" she whispered brokenly. She saw Natsu's eyes widen when they locked onto hers, and several large droplets fell from her face down onto his cheeks while she hovered over him.

"I-I…" Natsu stuttered, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. The flames in his hands instantly died down when he saw Lucy crying once she finally stopped hitting him. The girl was wracked with sobs, and in that moment all Natsu wanted to do was comfort her and make up for hurting her friend. When he thought about it, Lucy reacted the same way to that bull getting hurt as he had to the bull hurting Happy. 'I can't really blame her for trying to avenge her friend… I'd do the same thing…'

Gajeel growled and flexed his hands into fists when he saw Lucy drop her head to Natsu's shoulder. It took everything he had not to march over to the flaming bastard and beat his skull into the ground when the little fucker wrapped his arms around her and started soothingly rubbing her back. 'No one touches my Bunny like that but me…' he thought. Even Gajeel's inner dragon was roaring out its displeasure over the fact that Lucy was being comforted by someone else—not just another person, but a male… and a Slayer, at that. He snarled as he heard her sniffle, watching as those beautifully dainty hands of hers sifted into Natsu's pink hair. With the way Lucy and Natsu had landed on the ground, Gajeel was able to see the tops of their heads from where he was standing. So, when Lucy slowly lifted her head and moved to whisper in Natsu's ear, it was only Gajeel that had the opportunity to catch her eye and see the mischievous and deadly glint in those perfect chocolate orbs.

Lucy grinned when she looked up and saw Gajeel. She'd heard his growl reverberating through the guild hall, and knew that she needed to act quickly before he lost his damn mind over someone else having his hands anywhere near her. Once Lucy had a good grip on Natsu's hair, her nose ghosted over the shell of his ear and she softly whispered, "I'm sorry…"

Gray, Loke, and Elfman—along with the other male members of Fairy Tail—gaped at the sight before them. Natsu, the guild's most clueless son of a bitch when it came to pretty much anything concerning the opposite sex, had a hot blonde in a mini-skirt on top of him and it looked like they were about to get down and dirty right there with how she started whispering in his ear while he held her.

"It's okay," Natsu whispered back, burying his nose in Lucy's shoulder and taking a deep breath. "I understand…"

Loke was the only one that was able to tear his eyes away from the sight of Lucy's skirt riding up and revealing her ass to everyone behind her. When he instinctively looked up at the Slayer that Natsu had been fighting against before, a sick feeling settled in his stomach when he saw the guy snarling with barely contained fury while he watched Lucy and Natsu.

Natsu's brow furrowed when he took in Lucy's scent. She smelled like cake… Exactly like cake, in fact. There was only one other person that he'd met that smelled like that, but this couldn't possibly be her. 'That ninja girl on the rooftops a few days ago had black hair, not blonde…' When he took another whiff, trying to figure out if there was a difference between the two women's scents, his eyes shot open when he smelled metal and cinnamon—specifically Gajeel's scent—covering her skin. 'What the…' His gaze instantly landed on a scabbed up bite mark that had previously been hidden by Lucy's hair, and his inner dragon froze in place at the implications of something like this if it came from the Iron Slayer.

Lucy smiled sadly at the salmon locks that were right in her line of sight. One of the things she had learned about Natsu from her time observing Fairy Tail was that no matter how dense he might be, the guy was loyal to a fault and protected the ones he cared about no matter what. Gray had begrudgingly admitted that, although they were rivals, he really admired Natsu's ability to forgive people.

Natsu tensed and got ready to push Lucy as far away from himself as he possibly could when he realized that the bite mark on her shoulder had larger punctures that were made by insanely sharp canines—much like any Dragon Slayer's teeth. If Gajeel bit her, then Natsu being this close to her really wasn't going to end well for him. 'He wants to make her his mate…'

Gajeel's inner dragon was raging wildly inside of him, roaring with all it was worth that the Fire Slayer was trying to take her from him in more ways than one. Not just by physically removing her to go back to her father, but in taking her as his mate. The longer he'd watched them, the harder it became to control his instincts. He could tell that Lucy had a plan based on the look she'd given him, but she was his and that meant that another male being near her… in that position… with his arms around her while she cried… It shattered any control he had over the dragon within, and Gajeel snarled wildly and stalked over to the two on the ground. He roughly yanked Lucy off of Natsu and tightened his grip on her upper arms when she started thrashing wildly.

"Let me go, Scrapmetal! I'm gonna rupture his goddamn ear drums!" Lucy screeched, giving it everything she had to try and wrench herself from Gajeel's grasp. She was just about to take a deep breath when she felt Natsu go rigid—thinking that her plan had been found out—and let out an ear-piercing screech in the hopes of damaging his highly sensitive ears, but Gajeel just had to tear her away from the fiery bastard before she could do some damage.

"Shut up," Gajeel growled. 'So that's what she was planning,' he thought. Gajeel rolled his eyes and pulled her arms behind her back so her elbows were touching when Lucy kept trying to go after Natsu again. He was definitely loving this side of her, his inner dragon grinning widely at just how fiercely she protected those that she loved, but there was more than just Natsu for them to deal with. He had wanted to let her deal with Natsu for the sake of avenging Taurus, but now all he could smell was Natsu on her… all he wanted to do was cover her in his scent all over again to make sure that fucker knew it wasn't safe to touch her. "Chill the fuck out, Bu—"

"I WILL NOT CHILL THE FUCK OUT!" Lucy screeched, wriggling violently in Gajeel's grasp while she tried to get to Natsu and make him pay for hurting Taurus. "I'm gonna rip out his intestines and wear them as a fucking necklace!"

Natsu hopped to his feet with wide eyes and gaped at Lucy, finally realizing that her intent to actually mess with his hearing was why she'd gotten so close to him like that. He wanted to go after her for even thinking of messing with one of his senses just because they were heightened, but he could also see in Gajeel's furious crimson eyes that he was barely in control of his instincts to get another male's scent off of the blonde. The Iron Slayer's nostrils flared, his teeth were gritted and his jaw locked tight, while he tried to keep himself in control of the situation. Natsu knew there wasn't a whole lot of anything that he could do to get Gajeel to not kill him right then, but his instincts were telling him that he needed to make himself seem less threatening so that the guy could focus on the crazed blonde. 'She'd make a good mate for a Slayer,' he thought, 'She's acting just like we do…'

"She's insane," Gray muttered with wide eyes. Sure, he and Natsu were rivals, and were nearly always fighting each other, but he never wanted to actually maim the squinty-eyed bastard… and he definitely didn't fuck with the guy's senses. Everyone knew just how sensitive Natsu's senses were because of his magic, and his nose had come in handy more times than they could count. It was an unspoken rule at Fairy Tail to leave those the hell alone. He watched, along with everyone else, as the young heiress that they had all assumed had been kidnapped fought against the iron grip of the pierced mage just to try and get at Natsu again. She wasn't anything like the girl that he and Loke met on the train. She had the same face, name, magic, and voice… But, this girl was psychotic.

"I swear to god, woman," Gajeel snarled, holding her arms together with one hand and roughly grabbing Lucy's hair before she could headbutt him while he tried to calm his inner dragon down again. The thing was working double-time to try and break through and kill Natsu for even thinking about touching his spitfire blonde, and Lucy's anger was registering as anger towards Natsu for touching her to the dragon—not for hurting her spirit. "Fuckin' shut the hell up for—"

Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord were staring at Lucy with their mouths hanging open at the threats she was shelling out with ease. One after another came spilling out her rapid-fire, with some extraordinarily graphic descriptions of just how she was planning on mutilating Natsu making most of the men cringe. Lucy's guild mates knew that she got like this when she was crossed, but it was usually reserved for Gajeel since he was the only one that intentionally pissed her off. Fairy Tail on the other hand could only see a blonde psychopath with hatred burning in her eyes and a feral sneer pulling at her plump lips.

"Let go, you rusty bucket of bolts!" Lucy yelled. "Give me five minutes with this fucker. I'll cut his goddamn legs off, drag his ass into the woods, and watch him get fucked to death by a moose!"

Loke nodded his agreement to Gray's assessment of Lucy being insane, but he couldn't help but watch in awe of her willingness to avenge her spirit right then. Once Taurus had been hurt—something that had pained him to see as he remembered just how excruciating it was to essentially die again and again in fights only to be sent back to the Spirit World—Lucy charged at the one responsible with a fiery vengeance. He'd seen a small glimpse of tears that streaked down her face when she dodged past him to get to Natsu, but instead of summoning another spirit Lucy was handling it on her own. No matter how badly he burnt her, Lucy didn't call on any other spirits for help and instead used a surprising amount of physical power to hurt the Dragon Slayer. Maybe she's not strong enough to summon another gold, he thought. Taurus was using a lot of power while he was here… Even now, Lucy was struggling to get to Natsu for hurting her spirit… Her friend, as she'd called the perverted bull. Lucy was most definitely psychotic in that moment, but Loke couldn't help but secretly wish that he'd had an owner even half as loyal to her spirits as Lucy was.

Gajeel clamped a hand over Lucy's mouth when she continued threatening Natsu—who, for his part, was staring at the feisty blonde with both paling fear and burning rage—and growled as he leaned down to her ear. "Bunny," he whispered, "There's more than just him. Handle the other Fairy Trash that's trying to take you away, and I'll teach this fucker a lesson for you and Taurus. If you keep this shit up, I'm gonna lose it… And not in a good way."

Lucy took several deep breaths, still glaring daggers at Natsu, and gave Gajeel a short nod. Gajeel's voice had dropped almost a whole octave while he spoke, and it was normally something that really only happened when they were in bed together while he was going wild. She knew that he'd gained a lot of draconic traits from his magic, and when she actually took the time to pay attention Lucy was able to feel just how tense Gajeel had become. The previous day had been horrible for him, he'd broken down in the shower with her, and he'd been tense all morning. It seemed as though it was starting to pile up on him again, and Lucy knew that she had to do something to help him relax a little. She discreetly pressed her lips to his palm just before he pulled it away, listening to his own growls die down with the small action, then whispered, "Alright, Black Steel. I'll let you have him. I want this piece of shit dead."

"Happy to oblige. Now, get the fuck outta the way so I can show him what a real Dragon Slayer can do," Gajeel said with a wicked grin as he roughly pushed Lucy away from himself. If she was pressed against him any longer, there was no guarantee that he would have been able to let her go. At least the small kiss to his palm had given his inner dragon some sense of comfort that she was still his little Bunny, so now Gajeel could focus on beating Fairy Tail's sad excuse for a Dragon Slayer into the ground without going on a rampage that would most likely destroy the whole building.

His breathing was ragged, feet pounding the pavement as quickly as possible while he made his way towards the source of Oak Town's unnatural rumbling quakes. More and more smoke was billowing from the Phantom Lord guild hall, and although his still broken ribs protested every jostling movement as he dodged between frightened citizens, Ryos couldn't stop himself from pushing even harder to get there in time.

He had been sitting on the roof, whimpering softly and trying to hold back his fear-filled tears as he watched the guild falling apart with each explosion. His knees had been pulled to his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around them, and he hadn't realized that he was rocking back and forth while he tried to find a head of golden hair rushing towards the apartment like he wanted. This was definitely Lucy's fight, since she was the one whose freedom had been threatened, and a part of him knew that it was only logical for a strong mage like herself to be there to face off against Phantom's enemies. The scared little boy inside along with his own inner dragon could only feel worried over her not being there with him. He didn't know if she was safe. If she was injured. What if Gajeel lost track of her at some point? What if the Fairies caught her, hurt her, and then took her away? Would he ever see her again?

It felt like hours of him just sitting on that rooftop, watching and waiting for some sign that the beautiful, sweet, funny woman that he'd come to love as his own family was safe. Ryos never realized before just how much he cared about Lucy in such a short amount of time. He loved her unconditionally, and had only known her for a matter of days. Maybe it was the fact that she was actually nice to him, and had saved him from Gajeel when she returned from her mission for Master Jose. Maybe it was how she'd held onto him, and asked to be his friend. Or even how she had opened her home to him without hesitation when she found out he had nowhere else to go. It didn't matter what had made Ryos see Lucy as his sister, because all he could focus on was the fact that as long as Lucy was in his life… he wouldn't be alone anymore.

Ryos rounded a corner too sharply and fell to the ground, gasping for air when his whole torso felt like it had been locked into a vice. He forced air into his lungs and shakily got back up, then leaned against a wall to try and catch his breath. Phantom Lord was in sight now, only two blocks away from where he was standing. He could see large holes blasted in the walls; the doorway of the guild wide open and looking as though there weren't any doors to speak of; rubble littering the street even where he was standing. He heard cacophonous shouts of various spells, booming explosions, and cries of pain from successful attacks. From this distance, the thick scent of blood was just barely permeating the air, but it was mostly covered by the smell of fire and smoke. He finally felt like he could breathe, and started moving towards the guild again—albeit much slower this time—then his steps faltered, and his blood ran cold when a slender blonde flew out of the open doors and landed in a heap on the ground.

"Lucy!" Ryos screamed with tears in his eyes as he started running faster towards the guild. There was no doubt in his mind that it was her. He remembered what she wore to the guild that morning when she and Gajeel left the apartment: a black mini-skirt and a black and red crop top. Ryos took deep pulls of the air to try and pinpoint her scent, to make absolutely certain that this was her. His sense of smell was still a little hindered by having his nose broken by Gajeel, and the other more overpowering smells in the area weren't helping. The figure was only a block away when he saw her stand up slowly.

A whip lashed out sharply from her right hand.

A quick glint of gold caught the sunlight in her left hand.

The wind whipped through the woman's golden tresses and barreled down the street towards Ryos, and he smelled the comforting cake-like scent of Lucy just before her spirit appeared. "Lucy," he panted softly, holding an arm across his ribs while he continued to push past the pain. "I'll protect you… I swear…" He felt a whimper crawl up his throat when she was thrown to the side by some sort of ice, and thought, 'I'll do whatever I can to help you, big sister.'

Lucy was already feeling a huge drain on her magic when she summoned Cancer to try and take out Gray and Loke. She had told Taurus to give it his all, so he'd been consuming her magic like crazy while rampaging through the guild. That was the biggest reason she hadn't brought out any other spirits while he was out. She needed to let him use as much magic as she could possibly give him to take out as many opponents as possible, and she didn't want her reserves deprived even faster by holding two gates open at once. She slowly stood to her feet after having been barreled over by something Gray had created with his ice, and wiped the blood from her split lip with the back of her hand while she narrowed her eyes at the two panting Fairies. "Cancer," she said as she tightened her grip on her whip and prepared to attack, "You take Popsicle Dick over there, and I'll take this one. Be safe, okay?"

"Of course, baby!" Cancer said with a smooth grin, snipping his scissors and launching forward at Gray.

Gray brought a fist to his open palm and narrowed his eyes at the Crab spirit, channeling his magic and listening to Lucy already fighting against Loke. He couldn't understand what was going on with the girl, but he didn't really have time to figure it out. From what he could tell based on Natsu taking out that other spirit of hers, all Gray had to do was get a powerful hit on this one and he'd vanish. As the spirit advanced, he channeled his magic and quickly created a shield to block the flurry of scissor snips coming towards him. He could hear the spirit still cutting away at the ice and wondered just why it was wasn't trying to go around the shield. Instead of dwelling on it, Gray made an ice clone of himself and then rushed around the shield just as it broke to flank his opponent.

Cancer's eyes went wide when his scissors broke through the shield of ice and pierced through the mage's heart. He hadn't even moved, and the Crab was instantly worried that he'd been moving too quickly for the mage to have seen him coming. He watched in horror as the mage turned into ice and crumbled, but before he could even let the guilt consume him over disobeying Lucy's order not to kill any humans, he heard a shifting noise just behind him.

Gray grinned as he finished the final hand gesture he needed just as the spirit turned around, then slammed his hands to the ground and called out, "Ice Make: Ice Geyser!" Hundreds of jagged icy spikes shot up from the ground and impaled the spirit, and Gray watched as it cried out in pain before dissipating into small motes of light that faded as they floated off into the air.

Lucy was pouring sweat already, a sick dizzying feeling washing over her from using too much magic. She refused to back down without a fight, and lashed out at Loke with another quick snap of her wrist that sent her spiked whip flying through the air. He dodged it and lifted his closed fist, the rings on his fingers glowing with a brilliant light that seemed to draw her in closer. The light seemed to radiate warmth and comfort, some sort of familiarity that tried to rouse itself from deep within her. Shaking it away, chalking it up to severe magical depletion, Lucy dove to one side when Loke sent out a burst of light from his fist. She pulled herself to her hands and knees, feeling her stomach roiling when she sensed Cancer being sent back to the Spirit World, and swallowed thickly while she tried to get to her feet again.

Gray turned towards the blonde once her spirit was gone and started advancing towards her when he was tackled from the side. His head hit the ground roughly, and he groaned, then opened his eyes to see a boy with onyx hair lying on top of him. "Get the hell outta here, kid! You could get hurt!" he shouted, roughly pushing the boy off of him and jumping to his feet.

'Kid?' Lucy thought, turning to look over at Gray and seeing the form of a boy crumpled on the ground. There was a soft groan, a hiss of pain, and then she saw the boy rolling over onto his side. "No…" she whispered when she saw those familiar red eyes cracking open to lock onto her.

Loke took advantage of Lucy's distraction and lunged at her, wincing when his right hook connected with her cheek and sent her flying backwards. He watched Lucy stumble back, but she stayed on her feet. His eyes widened slightly when she returned her gaze to him and practically growled while her upper lip curled in disgust. He watched in stunned silence when she started cracking her whip repeatedly all around her, making intricate sweeping motions in the dust along the ground, while she slowly walked forward. He could hardly see where the whip actually was at any given point in time, and only occasionally saw a small glimmer of light when one of the metal spikes caught the sunlight. The violent cracking sound of a normal whip was only broken up by the occasional scrape of metal along the ground.

Lucy made her way closer to Loke, silently thankful that he didn't realize there really wasn't anything special about what she was doing with her whip, aside from making a whole shit-ton of noise. Granted, if he was close enough, one of the spikes on it could probably catch him and give him a halfway decent gash, but it was just as likely that the rippling of the whip from hitting him would make it recoil and hit her as well. Once she was within range, Lucy lashed out at Loke's midsection with her whip and grinned when he hopped backwards away from it. She dove forward and drove her shoulder into his abdomen, knocking him to the ground. After quickly straddling him, Lucy drove her fists into his face only twice before slender arms with lean muscles wrapped around her and pulled her away from the Ring mage. "Get the hell off of me!" she screeched, shivering slightly from just how cold those appendages were.

"Calm down!" Gray shouted, tightening his grip around Lucy's waist when she started flailing much like she had when Gajeel had pulled her off of Natsu. "I'm not trying to hurt you! Just come with us!"

"This is kidnapping, you droopy-eyed bastard!"

"Wow, you sound just like that Flamebrain," Gray muttered, grunting when she elbowed him in the face. "What the hell!"

Lucy screeched again and again while she tried to wriggle free, already feeling bruises forming around her waist from where Gray had barred his arms across her body. She kicked at his legs, elbowed him wherever she could, even dug her nails into his arms, and nothing worked. Finally, she looked up to see Loke slowly sitting up and just past him was Ryos, still lying on the ground. "Ryos!" she shouted worriedly, noticing that he hadn't moved aside from wrapping his arms around his still-healing ribs. "Oh god… Let me go! Gray, let go of me!"

"Why, so you can attack us some more, you fucking lunatic?!" Gray asked incredulously.

Lucy whimpered, feeling completely helpless in that moment while she continued to struggle against the freezing arms—and naked torso, she realized—of the Ice Make mage. 'There's gotta be something I can do,' she thought. 'Think, Lucy! Ryos needs help!' It didn't matter to her right then why her little brother was there, because he needed her. "Goddamnit, Gray! Let fucking GO OF ME! I swear to god, I'll skin you alive and force feed it to all of your goddamn Fairy friends!"

"Shut up," Gray seethed, drawing his brow down and trying to decide what to do with the woman.

"ARRRGH!" She knew that there was only one thing she had that could make Gray let her go. The only problem was that it was going to hurt like a bitch to do it. Lucy gripped her whip and stopped flailing completely, then clenched her eyes shut and flicked her wrist. The whip went sailing behind her, arcing around Gray, and wrapping back around until it lashed across her as well. Lucy cried out when two of the iron spikes embedded in the leather cord scratched along her leg, but based on the sound that came out of Gray's mouth he'd gotten the brunt of the attack. Again and again, she lashed at him, crying out each time her whip struck her as well. The violent sting of the whip was excruciating as she continued with the most horrendous form of self-flagellation she could ever have imagined, but she needed to get to Ryos and make sure he was alright.

"Lucy! Stop!" Loke shouted in horror when he saw her striking not only Gray, but herself with her own whip. Long angry lines appeared on her tanned skin from the leather, and there were several cuts and gashes running along her legs from the spikes on her weapon. 'What is she thinking?!' He watched as Gray's grip around the blonde's waist tightened with each strike, saw small spatters of blood flying into the air and landing in large droplets on the ground around the pair of mages.

Three, four, five times. She lost count after that. She bit her lips in an attempt to keep her pain hidden, and tasted a small bit of blood in her mouth when she bit down too hard as one of the iron spikes dug deep into her muscle. Lucy kept lashing out until Gray finally loosened his grip on her. She felt as though she would vomit, her exhaustion quickly catching up with her, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She ran forward, stumbling with each frantic step, past a stunned Loke that was staring at the dozen or so injuries she'd inflicted on herself to get Gray to let her go, and dropped to her knees once she was next to Ryos. 'I wish I was stronger… I need to have more magical power than this!'

Virgo felt just how low Lucy's magic had gotten, and worry instantly consumed her. Each of Lucy's spirits knew what was happening, had spent their time watching over her during the course of the day, and had heard from both Cancer and Taurus what was going on. Lucy looked like she was on the verge of passing out, but Virgo could feel Lucy's determination coursing through the bond between her the spirits. In response, each of Lucy's ten spirits sent their own forms of encouragement back to their key holder. Aquarius had been raging almost constantly, and for once it wasn't about not being able to see her boyfriend, Scorpio. The mermaid was highly upset that these people were trying to force Lucy back into that house, and it was one of the only times that Virgo was actually able to see that the water woman really cared about her. Without another thought, the Maiden Spirit forced her gate open and stood protectively in front of Lucy and Ryos. "It will be okay, Princess," she said softly. "I'll protect you."

"Virgo," Lucy whispered gratefully, smiling up at the fathomless blue eyes of her pink-haired spirit. "I'm so happy to see you."

"The feeling is mutual, Princess," Virgo whispered back with a small smile.

'No,' Loke thought. 'I can't hurt Virgo… It's almost as bad as fighting Aries!' In that moment, he wished that Lucy Heartfilia had never become a Celestial mage. If she'd used any other form of magic, then he wouldn't be having nearly as difficult a time fighting and incapacitating her. As it was, every spirit that popped out brought back centuries of memories—times of joy and sadness, parties when several of the Zodiacs were actually contracted to the same owner, days of comforting one another for being mistreated as time went on. The last time he'd seen Virgo was three Earthland decades prior when they had actually had the same owner. A little less than half of a Celestial year, if he were to think about it. He missed her almost as much as Aries, if not more. Granted, he missed all of his old friends in the Spirit World, but he'd made his choice to go against Karen and keep himself in Earthland, and her death was on him. "Virgo," Loke whispered, wincing when he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his stomach from Earthland leeching away at his life force.

"Oh, come on," Gray groaned, feeling weaker by the minute with how much damage he'd actually taken from the girl's whip. He was starting to get really tired of these spirits of hers popping up, and he just wanted to get the hell away from this place so they could figure out how to get Lucy back to her dad.

"Ryos, are you okay?" Lucy whispered.

Ryos cracked his eyes open and winced, biting his lower lip to try and combat the pain in his ribs from being thrown to the ground. "I'll be alright, Lucy. Just sore."

Lucy frowned and lightly touched Ryos' sides, quickly pulling her hands into her lap when he hissed in pain. "It's your ribs, isn't it? They're still not healed…"

Loke grabbed Gray's arm when his partner tried to continue the fight and go after Lucy, his chest clenching painfully when he saw the desperation and fear in Lucy's eyes as she dropped to her knees over the boy while Virgo stood protectively in front of them. "Stop, Gray."

"What?!" Gray shouted. "Loke, we've gotta handle this, and take her back to the guild!" He turned back to glare at the blonde and saw a Phantom symbol on the kid's forearm when she moved slightly. "He's Phantom, too… He's our enemy, Loke."

Lucy frowned and turned to glare at Gray. "You stupid fucking stripper, leave me the hell alone!" she shouted. She was hit with a wave of vertigo and realized just how low her magic had gotten, but Lucy wasn't willing to give up just yet. "You're not 'saving' me! You're trying to ruin my goddamn life!" She took several deep breaths and steadied herself, then looked up at Virgo with a grim set to her jaw. "Virgo, take care of Ryos. Please check his ribs again to make sure they aren't worse from the fall. I'm handling these fucking Fairies myself."

Loke watched as Virgo's usually blank expression shattered when she looked at Lucy—who was slowly standing up, and paler than she was only minutes before. Instead of holding no expression whatsoever, Virgo's brows were pushed together and her whole body radiated her concern for the blonde. 'Virgo's always been devoted to her owner, but I've never seen her like this for one of them…' He saw Virgo kneel next to the boy, finally noticing the way he was holding his ribs and grinding his teeth. Virgo lifted the boy's shirt, and all Loke could see were mottled bruises covering his entire torso. "What the hell did you do to that kid?!" he shouted at Lucy.

Lucy's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the accusation, then she scowled and said, "I saved him, Loke. Not that it's any of your goddamn business. Why can't you guys just leave me alone?!"

"Maybe because you're a fucking psychopath that's threatening to maim everyone?" Gray retorted. "Or even because your dad hired us to come get you? We've got plenty of reasons, and if you're really part of Phantom, then you're our enemy for the simple fact that Phantom attacked our guild and our family."

"Doesn't family mean anything to you?" Loke asked.

Lucy sneered at Gray and said, "You know, I'm getting really fucking tired of everyone bringing that bastard up. He only hired you guys because he cares too much about his own fucking reputation to admit that I ran away. I really don't need to explain myself to you…" She paused and looked at Loke, her eyes softening just slightly. "And family means everything to me. But the man that hired you isn't my family!"

"But, he's your dad!" Loke shot back.

"He fucked my mom, they had a baby, and named her Lucy," she replied coldly. "Sure, they were married and happy, but then he turned into a Grade-A asshole that's trying to make me miserable! I'm not fucking going back there without a fight! If anything, you little Fairy fuckers are gonna be taking me back there in a goddamn body bag!"

"There's gotta be more to it than that!" Loke reasoned. "What's so bad about going back? Why did you run away to begin with?!"

"It doesn't matter," Gray said coolly. "She's our enemy, Loke. The mission is to get Lucy to her dad, and that's what we'll do. Even if she ran away, she still has to go back."

Loke was positively torn on what to do. He knew that all of Fairy Tail had accepted the burden of bring Lucy Heartfilia with them back to their guild so she could be transported to her father's estate, but… Seeing her with the boy on the ground, how she instantly gave up on attacking both himself and Gray when she realized the boy was hurt, and even what he'd already witnessed with her spirits… This girl was extremely strong from what he could tell, since she had summoned Taurus and Cancer and was still able to hold her own in a fight against him without having a spirit to help her. She'd lost her mind and attacked Natsu for hurting Taurus, cried over the spirit's injury, and even though he could see that her magic was waning, Lucy was still going. Virgo had clearly opened her own gate to help protect Lucy, and instead Lucy had taken it upon herself to fight even though she was injured and running low on energy. She was fighting insanely hard for some reason, and he didn't understand what could have been so bad about living a life of luxury that she would want to run away from it. "Gray… I don't… I don't know…" he muttered uncertainly.

"What do you mean, 'you don't know'?!" Gray shouted.

"I mean…" Loke said hesitantly, his usual pride and confidence having dissipated the longer he looked into Lucy's chocolate brown eyes. "I don't think… Um…" A gust of wind blew by them, sending golden wisps of her hair flowing outwards and whipping around her head, and he could almost feel a deep sadness wafting from the girl at the mention of being taken back to her father. If she saved that boy the way she said, then it was obvious she cared about him in some capacity. The fact that he'd been hurt at all as a result of just being thrown off of Gray was testament to the beating he'd already received. What Loke found interesting was that a guild like Phantom Lord was known for its members not caring for one another in the slightest, yet here Lucy was… Protecting one of the guild's members even though she was on the verge of passing out.

"Fine," Gray said, putting his fist to his palm again. "I'll handle this myself. We've got a mission, Loke…" He quickly channeled his magic and sent out a barrage of crescent-shaped ice projectiles towards Lucy. He couldn't allow himself to think, because that would be when Lucy struck. While everyone in the guild had been watching her fighting against Natsu, Gray had been watching her every move and noticed that she was a defensive fighter. Lucy reacted to offensive moves sent her way, searched for weaknesses or distractions and capitalized on them. Just as he'd suspected, the blonde ducked beneath the blades of ice, but her spirit wasn't so lucky.

Lucy heard a strangled, gargling noise from behind her and lifted her head from the ground to see one of the blades had embedded itself in Virgo's back. "Virgo? Oh, GOD! VIRGO!" Lucy screamed.

"Please… Princess," Virgo whispered as she started to disappear. "Please… Be careful…" She looked up at the two mages that had been fighting against Lucy and caught the eye of the orange-haired one with the sunglasses. She smiled, watching him gasp in shock, and whispered to herself, "Leo…"

Just as she was standing, Lucy's eyes went wide when she saw a large magic circle appearing beneath her, shining an icy blue. She looked up to see Gray standing in front of her with Loke next to him, and a smirk on the Ice Make mage's face. What caught her attention for a moment was the distraught look on Loke's face, a look of indecision and torment at what he was witnessing. His eyes stayed locked onto the place that Virgo had disappeared from, and he seemed to be lost to the world right then.

"I'm not letting this drag on anymore!" Gray bellowed. "Ice Make: Knuckle!"

At the last second, just as the magical pressure from the circle beneath her feet had mounted and was ready to release the attack, Lucy was roughly pushed to one side and slid along the ground away from the spell. She looked up to see who had saved her only to let out a strangled cry when she saw Ryos being knocked into the air by several giant fists made of ice. "RYOS!" Lucy screeched once he hit the ground with a sickening crunch, his body lying completely limp and not a single sound passing his lips. She completely abandoned her preoccupation with the Fairies she'd been facing when she heard him take a wheezing breath, and scrambled across the ground in a mad dash to get to the boy she'd come to love as her brother.

"Gray!" Loke shouted, finally breaking free from his internal torment at seeing Virgo hurt and hearing her whisper his name on the wind. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"This chick is psychotic, Loke! We take her spirits out, then we go after her. Mission or not, she's still a Phantom."

"Her spirits can feel pain, you dick!" Loke ground out, clenching his fists.

"Yeah, so she said," Gray muttered. "How much of what she told us on the train do you think was the truth?"

"Celestial Spirits do feel pain, Gray. She wasn't lying when she talked about them!"

"Oh god, no…" Lucy looked over Ryos' body with wide and frightened eyes, feeling her heart pounding frantically against her chest. "No, no, no… Ryos, sweetie?" Lucy whispered as she brushed his inky black hair from his eyes. "Can you hear me? Come on, you've gotta be okay…" Lucy felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks, and brought both hands to his face while she sobbed. "Ryos… R-Ryos, please!" She couldn't hear his wheezing breaths, or see the pained expression on his face. All Lucy could see was her little brother being ripped away from her for good. "Ryos, say something… ANYTHING!"

"Gray, that kid's already been beaten up. Didn't you see the bruises on him? That hit could have killed him!"

"Loke, what's with you today? Ever since we saw her picture on that request, you've been acting really different. That kid pushed her outta the way, it's not like I was aiming for him!"

Ryos' nose twitched when he smelled her tears, and his whole body was awash in pain. The trauma of Gajeel's last beating was only worsened when he took that hit that was meant for Lucy, but he forced himself to open his eyes and saw the woman he'd always love as his sister crying over him. "I-I'm… okay… Lucy," he whispered, wincing when it hurt to even talk. "D-Don't… cry…"

Lucy dropped her head to Ryos' shoulder and openly sobbed while she held onto him. "I t-told you!" she cried, her whole being filled with relief that he was still alive, "I told y-you to s-s-stay at home! Y-You… You could have… gotten… k-k—"

"Shh," Ryos whispered, wincing as he fought against the pain radiating in his whole body and lifted his hand to lightly stroke Lucy's hair.

"Y-You're still healing! I-I said… You n-needed rest, R-Ryos!" Lucy hiccupped and felt her whole body quaking with the force of her sobs. "I-I don't wanna l-lose y-y-you!"

"What the hell?" Gray whispered incredulously. "This chick's gotta be bipolar, man…"

Lucy sniffled and held onto Ryos as tightly as she could without hurting him. "R-Ryos… I need you to g-get him… Please… I'll… I'll hold them off u-until he gets here…"

"Lucy," Ryos whispered worriedly. "You're almost out of magic… I can tell."

"I'll be fine… Just t-tell him that it's an emergency… Th-That I'm… I'm gonna b-be a shooting star… I-I'll do what I can." Lucy smiled sadly at Ryos and pulled out a silver key. She felt another drop in her magic when Horologium appeared, but Lucy forced herself past it and placed Ryos inside of her spirit. "Horologium…" she panted, propping herself up on her hands and knees and taking deep breaths to fight the constant state of dizziness she was in. "Take him… i-inside the guild… and keep… keep him s-safe."

"'Wait,' he says urgently," Horologium narrated while he stood beside his blonde friend's frail body. "'Lucy, please… Please don't do this… I'll protect you, I swear,' he sobs." Horologium wanted nothing more than to take Lucy with him as well, but he could tell that she would order him if she had to. No matter how she said something to her spirits, regardless of whether it sounded like a demand, they could always hear the small hopeful question that lied within her words. She didn't demand anything of them, only asked for their assistance when she needed it.

"Please… Take him… Get…" Lucy furrowed her brow as her body began to tremble, a cold shiver running down her spine while her magic continued to drain. "G-Get… my… D-Dragon…" she whispered. "Please…"

"Gray, if you attack that spirit, I'll never forgive you," Loke growled, clamping his hand down on Gray's wrist. He felt tears of his own welling in his eyes while he watched the beaten boy roughly pounding on Horologium's glass in an attempt to break free. The kid looked desperate to save her, as if she was the only source of light in his life, and her being taken away would throw him into a whirlpool of never-ending darkness. 'Stars, what are we even doing?!' he thought, 'This isn't right…'

Horologium held his hand over the door to his body so the boy couldn't break free, the clock hands on his face drooping with deep sorrow. "'I love you,' he cries brokenly," Horologium whispered, his voice hitching uncharacteristically just as the small Dragon Slayer's had while he pressed his hands to the glass. He took a shaking breath as Lucy crawled up to press her hands to the glass to meet Ryos', tears pouring from her puffy, red eyes and only the barest remnants of her usually brilliant smile on her face. "'Lucy, please don't leave me!' he shouts in desperation."

"I love you too, sweetie," Lucy whispered. She took a shaky breath, and pressed a soft kiss to the tips of her fingers. As she brought her fingers to the glass where Ryos was resting his forehead while he cried, she said, "You…Y-You know I'll never l-leave you. I'll find a way b-back, I… I p-promise… I'll come back, and… We'll bake another cake, okay?" She tried to smile at Ryos, to give him some sense of comfort that she would come back for him. "We'll read together, and wh-when you're healed we can start training!"

"'We'll go on a mission,' he whispers," Horologium said. "'All three of us, together.'"

Lucy nodded and added, "And I'll teach you all about th-the stars."

"We'll n-never be alone again," Ryos whimpered, trying to feel comforted by all the plans they were making once this was all done. He took in just how drained Lucy looked, something he'd never believed she was capable of. Through it all, she was still trying to make him feel better. 'She's… She's just trying to protect me…' He knew they didn't have much time before her magic ran out completely, and while a large part of him was screaming that they needed to stop with this foolishness so he could get Gajeel, his instincts were urging him to stay with her as long as possible.

"Yeah," Lucy said, swallowing thickly to try and be strong for Ryos. "We'll get a bigger place, a-and you can have your own room. We'll be happy, Ryos." She knew that Horologium wouldn't be able to get to Gajeel in time, but she had to make sure that Ryos was safe. She'd sworn to protect him, and that's just what she was doing. All Lucy could hope is that her magic was active long enough for her spirit to get Ryos to safety, and that Gajeel would come for her. She wasn't going to delude herself into thinking the Iron Slayer would save her right then, and accepted that she would be taken away, but she still hoped… She hoped that Gajeel would tear everything to shreds while he searched for her, and helped her escape her father's clutches. "It'll just… be for a little while. I'll come back, and we'll all be safe and happy."

"'Lucy, please!' he whimpers," Horologium said sadly as he took a slow step backwards, away from the blonde.

Ryos growled and felt the tears pouring unhindered down his face. He could see in Lucy's eyes that she didn't expect him to get to Gajeel in time. He saw defeat. It was a look he'd never wanted to see on her, but it was there clear as day. "P-Promise me!" he called out as Lucy's spirit started to carry him away. "P-Promise we'll always find each other!" He saw Lucy throw a hand over her mouth in the attempt to stifle another the heartrending sob that ripped through her, and then she nodded fervently while new tears welled in her eyes.

"I promise, Ryos," Lucy said, finally dropping her head so she didn't have to see him being taken away from her. "We'll always find each other…"

Horologium slowly turned, not bothering to narrate the desperate wails from the boy, and walked towards the guild's entrance. He didn't have long before Lucy's magic would run out, and he needed to keep the weakened boy protected from the violence within the building until they reached the man Lucy had fallen in love with. 'I just hope we make it in time,' he thought worriedly.

When he saw the confusion in Gray's eyes, Loke roughly wiped his tears away and said, "He's taking the kid outta the fight, Gray. Gold keys are the ones we need to worry—" Loke's words were cut off when he looked back at Lucy to see her key ring in her hands. Her head was down with her hair shadowing her face, but he could hear her crying even after Horologium had taken the boy away to safety. "—about…" he finished softly.

"I'm so sorry," Lucy whispered to her keys. "I n-never wanted you to get t-taken away…" She felt each of her keys warming up as her spirits tried to comfort her, to tell her not to give up. "I… I l-love you so much… I'll m-miss you… All of you…" Lucy clenched her eyes tightly, grimacing when she felt a piercing pain radiating from within her heart. She cried and cried as her heart shattered, and finally let out one last wail of despair. "I'm so sorry!"

"What's she going on about now?" Gray asked, furrowing his brow in confusion at how heartbroken Lucy sounded. She'd already showed everyone that she was a pretty good actress with what she'd tried to do to Natsu inside, and even how nice she had been on the train with him and Loke before, so he was having a hard time believing that she was being sincere right then. If the way she'd acted with the kid before he left was just all for show, then she was definitely in the wrong line of work being a mage. Still, some part of Gray wanted to know what could have possibly broken the girl's spirit if she was being genuine. Lucy was clearly barely conscious, her whole body showing signs of how much magic she'd gone through from the sweat on her skin, how pale she had become, the way she was panting and shivering, and even the slightly distant look in her eyes. "She's… talking to her keys?"

"Gray," Loke whispered. "This is wrong… We shouldn't be doing this…" He turned to look sadly at his best friend and partner, his heart breaking right along with the blonde woman mere meters in front of them. He'd heard every word that she had whispered through her tears, and couldn't understand why Lucy thought she would lose her keys. Fairy Tail wasn't going to take her magic away… They were just helping her father get her back. Ever since he'd seen her picture on the request form, this whole thing had rubbed him the wrong way. And now? She'd watched three Zodiacs being taken out, watched as the young boy that she very clearly cared about was hurt trying to protect her, and even now… He could see that Lucy was desperate to fight until her last breath, but she was still mourning the loss of those silver and gold keys as if it was all her fault. "Mission or not… There's something we're not seeing about all of this…"

"How so?" Gray asked, feeling a deep and unsettling coldness washing through him while Lucy sobbed uncontrollably before them.

"Look at her, Gray," Loke said as he removed his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes to try and figure out what it was that they weren't seeing. "This is completely different than how she was before… Something's not right… This—what we're doing to her—isn't right… It's like she's lost everything, and… And I don't know what to do…"

Lucy felt the familiar agitated vibration from one of her gold keys, and opened her eyes slowly then brought her thumb to the small double-wave emblem. 'I don't even think I have enough magic to summon Plue right now,' she thought sadly. Another more violent vibration from the key had Lucy frowning. Then she saw that a small pool of her own tears had collected in her hands with one key in particular sitting right in the middle of it. "I'll… I'll be just l-like those shooting stars," Lucy whispered with a smile. 'One last volley against the enemy… A last ditch attempt at victory… Just like Gajeel and I thought that morning.' Channeling the last of her magic, trying to stretch it until it filled her whole being, Lucy called out the incantation for Aquarius.

Gray and Loke stared wide-eyed as a large swirling vortex of water sprang up from Lucy's cupped hands, and Loke couldn't believe that Lucy had been able to summon a third Zodiac with how low her magic had gotten. The girl fell to the ground, her head bouncing slightly while she stared blankly at the sky above them. Tears still streamed down her face, and he could just barely hear her rasping, labored breaths over the torrent of water. When the water finally fell down to the ground, there was the dreaded Water-Bearer, Aquarius. Instead of the woman berating Lucy for taking her from a date with Scorpio—as she had a tendency to do with all of her owners—Loke was surprised yet again when Aquarius quickly lifted Lucy into her arms and glared at the two of them.

Lucy smiled weakly, feeling her consciousness fading in and out, and whispered softly to the black dots in her vision. "Just like… the stars… against… the sun…"

"HOW DARE YOU HURT HER LIKE THIS!" Aquarius bellowed, shifting Lucy's mostly unconscious body and cradling her gently, then grabbing her vase and preparing the strongest tidal wave she could manage without killing the poor exhausted girl. Without warning, Aquarius sent her water attack flying toward the two mages, and watched in horror as a wall of ice shot up just in the nick of time to shield them from the majority of the attack. "No…" she whispered with wide eyes when she realized that she was already starting to waver before disappearing. Lucy's magic was nearly drained completely, and Aquarius still wasn't strong enough to force her own gate open regularly. She maybe had enough of her own magic to stay a little longer, but not enough to launch another attack without also drawing from Lucy's nearly empty reservoir. If Aquarius used up anymore of Lucy's magic, the girl would die…

Lucy weakly reached up and grabbed Aquarius' hand as the blue-haired spirit slowly floated to the ground with tears in her eyes. "I-I'm sorry… I'm not… stronger," she whispered, fighting to stay conscious with everything she had. Her vision had already gone blurry, then darkened momentarily when Aquarius sent her attack out. As soon as she had stopped using more of Lucy's magic to power her attack, Lucy's sight brightened up just enough for her to still make out the vague shape of her oldest spirit.

"You're plenty strong," Aquarius whispered with a watery smile. "You summoned me, so of course you are."

Lucy smiled and rasped out a soft laugh, slowly lifting her free hand to the blur that she knew was Aquarius' cheek. She vaguely felt Aquarius lean into her hand, and her eyes softened when she whispered, "M-My brightest… star… gave the sun… one hell of a fight."

Aquarius let out a laugh that only increased her freely flowing tears. "Such language from a proper young lady," she teased, though there was no humor in her words. It only served to remind them of what was going to happen if Lucy wasn't able to get away from Fairy Tail.

Lucy's smile faded in an instant and gave way to her deep sadness. "I don't wanna go back… He'll… He'll take you… away from me…"

"I know," Aquarius replied, bringing Lucy closer to her and burying her nose in her hair. She took a shaky breath when she felt Lucy's sadness passing through their bond, layering itself thickly over her own. "We'll always… A-Always be with you, okay? N-No matter what…" She grimaced as she forced herself to stay corporeal using her own limited power to stay in Earthland just a little longer. "I swear… W-We'll be t-together again… I p-promise, Lucy!" She let out a heart-wrenching sob and held Lucy to her as tightly as she could, wishing that she could just steal the little blonde away and keep her safe from the bastard that had sired her. Jude had been a different man when Layla was alive, but he blamed magic for her illness. He blamed her spirits for killing her by using her magic every time they were summoned. "I love you, Lucy," Aquarius whispered into her golden tresses. "W-We all do… Sh-She'd be p-proud of you for today!"

"... Yeah?" Lucy asked while her vision darkened, a small smile on her face.

"Of course!"

Gray was about to take a step forward when Loke placed a hand on his arm again. "She's about to pass out, Gray. You go let Erza know we've got her, and I'll make sure to keep her here." When Gray nodded and ran off towards the Phantom guild's entrance, Loke sighed and crouched down while roughly grabbing his hair, finally willingly letting his own tears fall in the presence of one of his oldest friends. "Tell me what's going on, Aquarius," he whispered, looking up sadly at the mermaid who went rigid when he said her name. "I don't deserve to know, but—"

"You!" Aquarius seethed, her voice filled with venom and a constant stream of tears pouring down her face. She lifted her head to glare at Loke, letting him see just how hurt she personally was by everything that was happening to the sweet blonde that was so much like Layla. "How could you of all people allow something like this to happen?! You were our leader, the one that protected us with everything you had. You still are as far as the Zodiac is concerned!" She paused when she saw the tormented expression on Loke's face and sneered. "What gives you the right to cry over this, Leo?"

"I can't understand it. Any of it. I want to hate her," Loke said as he looked at Lucy. "I want to hate her because of Karen, and what that woman did to Aries… But, I saw how she acted when Taurus got hurt. She's not like any Celestial mage I've ever met, but we have a mission to take her back… All of this fighting… For Fairy Tail's honor, to get to Lucy, to avenge our guild mates… Virgo opened her own gate to protect her, and instead Lucy said to take care of the kid! She chose to fight!" He lifted his gaze to look into the mermaid spirit's eyes again. "Aquarius, I don't deserve for any of you to see me as a leader after what I did to Karen. But seeing Lucy… Knowing that she actually cares about you… I don't know how to handle this!"

"You're right! You don't deserve to be our leader," Aquarius spat, "But you still are in my eyes. Which means it's your job to protect us! You're the strongest spirit we've got—"

"I'm not anymore!" Leo shouted. "Don't you understand?! I'm dying here, Aquarius! That's my punishment. I'll never be with you guys again!"

"We all know that, Leo!" Aquarius shot back. "What I mean is that you can't just go back on centuries of your own ideals—how you used to live as a spirit—just because you're stuck here now. As our leader, it was your job to protect us. I know you still feel that way; otherwise, you wouldn't be so torn up about what's going on in the first place!"

"You're right… I do want to protect you guys," Loke said softly. "I don't want you to have to suffer…"

"Do you have any idea what will happen if she goes back there?!"

"No," Loke whispered. "She wouldn't tell us… It doesn't seem right, but… I don't know what to do…" He stood up and slowly walked over to Lucy and Aquarius when he saw her wince again, then knelt in front of the two women. "Tell me."

Aquarius gritted her teeth as pain started washing through her body, feeling Earthland leeching away at her with each passing second. Her tears started anew when she thought about what she and all of Lucy's spirits were in jeopardy of losing if Fairy Tail succeeded in their mission. "Her father is going to take us away from her… Sh-She loves us, Leo. We're her only friends, her family, and he's going to take it all away…" Aquarius gasped when it felt like she had swallowed a gallon of fish hooks, and looked up pleadingly into Loke's eyes.

"Aquarius, you should go back," Loke said worriedly. "You're in pain, and—"

"P-Please, Leo…" she cried, letting any form of haughtiness she always held within her wash away while she pleaded with her friend. "Please d-don't let him take her away… Sh-She always s-said she'd f-find Scorpio for me… S-So I could see him m-more often… Virgo's happy w-with Lucy, and they always spend t-time together just because L-Lucy loves her company! Cancer l-loves her to death b-because she always lets him dress her up. She named her Canis Minor, c-calls Crux 'Grandpa', and… and…" She hiccupped, feeling completely overwhelmed by what was going to happen. "We l-love her so much! A-And, she's happy here! Sh-She's in love! D-Don't take her happiness away! Lucy deserves it after everything she's been through. They all do… Please… Leo, PLEASE PROTECT HER!"

When he saw Aquarius tighten her grip on Lucy, still fighting to stay with the girl, Loke sighed and lifted both hands to her cheeks, gently brushing away her tears in a rare moment of tenderness between them. They stayed silent for only a moment while Aquarius reined in her emotions, then he said, "I'll do what I can to get to the bottom of this, Aquarius. She'll have to explain to the guild why she doesn't want to go back, otherwise they'll take her to her father's and complete the mission."

"So take her away from here when no one's looking!"

"I can't… They'll find us. Natsu's a Dragon Slayer, and he knows my scent by heart. I'll hold onto her keys until we sort everything out. You know I'll keep you guys safe."

"It's not us I'm worried about, Leo… Honestly, I'm more worried for all of you… She's got some serious protection here."

"She's also insane, Aquarius…"

Aquarius laughed and shook her head while looking lovingly at Lucy. "No, she's not. Lucy's got a temper, and knows how to handle herself. She's got a pure heart, Leo. No matter what she does, it's always with the best intentions in mind. She'll take the burden for us if she can, and sometimes even when it's too much for her to bear alone." Aquarius hissed in pain again, and felt Loke lightly squeeze her shoulders. "Keep her safe for us?"

"I'll do what I can, Aquarius. I promise," Loke said with a sad smile.

Just as Aquarius started to disappear, she realized that she probably should have told Loke one thing. "If her guild… comes for her…" she said, feeling herself wavering between Earthland and the Spirit World, "There's only one person… she trusts… The one… she loves…"

"Who? The kid?" Loke asked.

Aquarius smiled, and said, "Okay… two… Ryos… and… Ga—"

Loke watched as the last of Aquarius disappeared, the name she'd been trying to give him falling away into nothingness. He looked down at Lucy's pale and sweat-slicked body, saw the gashes and bruises all over her from how fiercely she'd been fighting. "What are we doing?" he asked himself. "You're fighting so hard to stay here… There has to be a reason for it…" With a sigh, Loke picked up Lucy's keys and put them in his pocket. Just as he was pulling her into his arms, there was a violent quake that surrounded them. It was almost as if Master Makarov had gotten a dozen bills from the Magic Council for damages and he'd gone into his gargantuan terrorizing mode. When the ground stopped rumbling, and Loke felt like he could breathe again, an eerie silence fell over the entire street. He carefully gather Lucy into his arms, and knelt on the ground until Gray came back with news from Erza.

And that's it for this chapter! What did you think of my interpretation of the Fairy Tail fight with our lovely Lucy getting all crazy?

Notes on this chapter:

-Thunderbolt's Fate, the spell that Cana uses to electrocute Lucy, is actually one of Cana's spells from Fairy Tail Gekitotsu! Kardia Daiseidou on Nintendo DS. I changed it just a little, so it strikes one target instead of the space in front of and behind the caster, but yeah.

-The leg grab that Lucy uses to fling Natsu during their fight was inspired by Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat. I plan on showcasing some of Lucy's hand-to-hand skills in later chapters (during the second arc of the story), so be prepared for more notes like this.

*Shout-outs*

-LittlePrincessNana: For pointing out that Lucy was channeling her inner Flare while she was fighting, helping me fix up the Natsu fight scene, and talking me down from the proverbial cliff over this chapter! Also, because you're my glorious triplet, and our brains will one day RULE ZE VORLD VIS PAIRINGS OF ZE CRACKENSHIP!

-Danni1496: For being a wonderful beta (that will eventually beta this chapter once you're all caught up lol) and helping out immensely on Chapter 1 so far. Also, for giving me the idea of Happy's wings getting injured. I definitely toned it down from your suggestion, but I'm still immensely thankful that you suggested it to begin with! It's fucked up, but sad. Lol!

So… Review, Follow, Favorite! I love you guys!

~~GemNika, Citric Chancellor of The Crack Fiction Liberation Army