Welcome back!

Ok, I know I took my time to post the next chapter, but my family had sort of a crisis, and I wasn't really able to sit down long enough to write it. I hope you aren't too angry with me and continue to read the story!

I'm especially sorry for leaving with a cliffhanger and I swear it wasn't my intention to leave you hanging. I hate it myself if I had to wait too long after a cliffhanger. (I'm a very impatient person:D) To make it up to you, I wrote a longer chapter.

Anyway I hope you still with me on the journey and I hope you like it so far:)

Music inspiration for mostly the first half of the chapter: Fairy Tail Official Soundtrack: Ankoku no Madoushi (Dark Mage)

And for those of you who didn't know: The songs I put here as Music Inspiration are the ones I recommend you to listen while reading the chapter. (Your choice)

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or the song.

Laxus had only few things that were important to him. His grandfather, the Rajinshu and the guild.

But when he saw Lucy falling on her knees and her hand clutched over the bleeding wound, he noticed that something had been added to that list.

"LUCY!" he shouted. A wave of anguish and fear washed over him and rooted his feet to the ground. He couldn't move a muscle. But then anger took over him and Laxus only saw red. He clenched his fist so hard, that his nails were breaking his skin. That fallen bastard would pay for hurting Lucy.

He readied his magic and was about to attack, when Lucy held up her hand that wasn't clutching the wound.

"No! Stay there! It's fine, I got my healing, remember?" she said strained. Yes, the stab wound would heal fully in a minute, but she still felt the pain. Laxus took a deep breath, and tried not to act on his intent to murder that bastard. But he still was ready to act on any second.

Tertius meanwhile watched the knife with the blood on it with a sick smile. Then he held it above the podium. Slowly, the red liquid of life dropped down onto the cold gray stone. For five seconds nothing happened while everyone was holding their breaths.

Then light began to shine, and it magically formed a rune with blue light on the stone. The ground began to shake and here and there were bits and crumbs falling from the ceiling. Dust was clouding some parts of the room.

Tertius began to laugh maniacally, and shouted.

"Haha! Finally! Finally it's mine!"

When the rune was completed, the shaking got worse, as a part of the podium was lifted up. Like a little pillar, the stone rose and nearly shined blindingly. Everyone was in awe, while Lucy checked her wound. It was fully healed. Her senses tickled and she noticed something. She looked at Tertius, who was still fascinated by the relict, which appeared in a hole in the pillar.

It was a star shaped blue crystal, which got an mystical light flickering inside of it. The man carefully grabbed it, and held it up to examine it more closely. Lucy's gaze shifted over her shoulder to Caster. He felt it, and they eyes met. With a nod he indicated, that he got what she meant. They both took a deep breath, then they started to move.

Caster sprinted towards Nyx, tackling the surprised woman to the ground. At the same time, Lucy throw herself at the fallen, who was still distracted with the relict. Nyx gasped loudly, then groaned as her back hit the floor hard, and the sudden weight on her. Lucy managed to bring the fallen to stumble backwards. She rolled to the side, and saw, that the relict had been flying out of Tertius's hands. With a 'clack' it hit the ground, still intact and shining. Laxus was watching this whole thing with wide eyes.

"You little bitch!" the fallen shouted enraged, while he stood up. He was about to kick Lucy who was trying to stand up at the moment, but just after he lifted his foot a yellow beam of light tackled him again. Tertius went flying a few meters this time, while the light stopped, loosing it's shine to reveal Jellal.

"You came just in time." Lucy said to the blue haired man. She knew he was coming, she could sense him a mile away. The sound of many feet hitting the ground at the entrance of the room indicated, that the rest of their group arrived.

"What's going on?!" Natsu asked while tensing up as he saw the chaos in the room. Lucy knew they hadn't any time to explain which was only confirmed as she sensed Tertius moving again. She looked around thinking of something. The crystal laid only few feet away from her. Caster still had Nyx in his grip, as he lay over her while she was struggling. Tertius was slowly standing up and at the sight of his face Lucy tensed up. He was more than angry. She turned back to her group. Quickly she took the crystal and threw it to Jellal, who caught it by reflex.

"Jellal, take this and Erza. Everyone, get as fast as possible out of here! Evacuate the city! Caster and I will stop them." she instructed them, as she fully stood on her feet again.

"No way we're leaving you here!" Laxus argued back, while Gray and Natsu grunted in agreement. Jellal and the rest looked distressed. Lucy knew this would happen. Emotions were crashing on her wall like never before. She recognized fear. Fear of letting her friends get hurt.

"We are the only ones capable of holding them off! We have no time to argue! GO!" she shouted, and for the first time since they met again Lucy showed a little hint of emotions. They all were shocked. Laxus eyes widen at the display.

"Lucy.." he whispered. The blonde heard, but they had no time to discuss this any further.

"NOW!" Lucy hold up her hand in a dismissing gesture, while she turned to the fallen angel who was now standing and glaring at her. Jellal was definitely not happy with this, but he couldn't argue against her. Besides that he was really startled by her display of emotions. Sighing he activated his meteor magic and took the still unconscious Erza into his arms. The others started to move. Only Laxus was still not going. He watched the blonde take a battle stance.

He never felt the need to protect something or someone so badly as in this moment. Even not when Tempesta threatened the Rajinshu. It came close, but still nothing like this, because this time he couldn't fight. For a second he was shocked and asked himself why he felt so, but he quickly recognized that this was wether the right place nor right time to think about it. He pushed his emotions down and started to move.

"You better make it out alive, Lucy." he mumbled before he rushed out of the room with his lightning magic.

Lucy heard it. Those words builded a huge wave of determation inside of her which clashed hard on her inner wall. She watched as Tertius was getting into a battle stance.

Last time they thought he easily overpowered her. She knew he was stronger than her, but Power alone didn't win battles. This time her chances were higher because she knew what he was capable of. She wasn't going in blind. But still she had to even out their differences in strength.

Concentrating on herself she called her dark blood. It was risky, but she had no other way to call on so much power fast enough. Lucy could feel the black marks as their carved their way up her back in a artistic pattern. Once it reached her shoulders it began to crawl down her arms. Then she stopped. This was the limit. If she would draw more magic from the black blood she would loose her control over her demon. She already could hear it slightly cackling in a corner of her mind.

The blonde chose to ignore it, and she threw her body forward.

"Star Angel's Star Force!" she chanted as her fist began to glow golden. Tertius was surprised by her speed and was unprepared for the punch he received. She hit him right into his stomach. He was pushed back a few meters by the force. Lucy used the time to change her bracelet into a katana.

The fallen growled before he summoned his magic.

"Mass Control: Tsunami" he shouted. A purple mass was building up behind him, which was behaving like real water. It grew wider and higher, before swapping over him and rushing right towards the blonde.

The other part of the group meanwhile reached the exit of the canals. Stepping into the daylight they immediately began to move.

"Natsu send the signal!" Laxus instructed and the fire mage nodded. He lifted his arm over his head and sent a huge beam of flames into the sky. On the other side of the town the the mages of Lamia Scale saw the the flames.

"That's the signal! Start to evacuate the townspeople! Hurry!" Sherry shouted at her guild mates from her position on the first floor. The mages didn't waste time and ran out of the building.

"I hope that the Fairies are ok..." Yuka mumbled as he ran besides Lyon.

"They're alright. These monsters are hard to kill off." Lyon chuckled but he couldn't help but to worry a little about his 'brother'.

Wendy was running out of the guild, too.

"Wendy, wait!" Chelia shouted after the blue haired girl.

"Sorry, but I have to make sure my nakama are ok!" she answered over her shoulder, not slowing down.

Back at the entrance of the canals Jellal was gently laying down Erza. Juvia and Meredy were beside him with an worried expression on their faces.

"Is Erza ok?" the water mage asked.

"She is still breathing, and I can't see any heavy wounds." Jellal told them after he examined his childhood friend.

"So what are we doing now?" Gray asked irritated. He didn't like to sit around and just wait.

"Lucy gave me the crystal. The smartest choice would be to run and hide." the ex-council member said, while his eyes were closed. He was rubbing the back of his head.

"No way! We're not running away, and leave Lucy here!" Natsu argued angrily.

"I never said that we're going to do it. I just stated facts. If Lucy can't beat Tertius I highly doubt that anyone of us could defeat him." Jellal looked up at Natsu.

"It doesn't matter if we face him here or anywhere else. Because I think he will find us regardless of how good we hide. Besides there's no way we're leaving Lucy here." Laxus explained.

"That's insane. Just like the Fairy Tail mages like it." Jellal smirked at Laxus. The blonde man smirked back.

"Alright!" Natsu shouted excited. He was about to ran back into the canals, but Laxus was quickly enough to grab him by his scarf.

"Stop Natsu. We're not going back. We will help evacuate the town, while she and the demon will hold off that bastard. We have to make sure, no innocent people will get hurt." The older slayer said to him. Natsu pouted, but didn't argue back. He understood that saving the citizens was more important right now.

"Guys!" a female voice shouted in the distance. They all turned to the source and saw the tiny blue haired Slayer heading towards them.

"Wendy!" Gray said as he recognized her. Wendy reached them and stopped. She was bending over with her hands on her knees and tried to get air back into her lungs. Once she thought she calmed down enough to speak, she stood straight again.

"Are you all alright? I saw the signal, what- "she stopped talking once she saw Erza laying unconscious on the floor.

"Erza-san!" she exclaimed worried. No second later she was kneeling beside the red haired woman and held her glowing hands above her body.

"What happened?" she asked not looking up.

"She was knocked out. We got attacked by another Himmelsjäger." Natsu angrily explained. He was still sour about how easily they were defeated.

"And where's Lucy-san?" she asked.

"Still down there. She's fighting the fallen angel." Gray said clenching his teeth.

"What?!"

Caster was dodging another attack of Nyx's shadow daggers.

"You know I taught you this magic? It's way too easy for me to fight you." he smirked while merely leaning to the side. Nyx clenched her teeth.

"I was naive back than. I got a lot stronger since then!" she shouted back at her old teacher and friend. She rushed towards him trying to hit him with her 'Night Angel's Night Force'. But still, Caster could evade her attacks easily.

"You mean, when you decided to give your demon blood the control?" Caster sneered. He lost his jokingly tone.

"What do you know? You ARE a demon! Don't lecture me!" she screamed. She was loosing her cool and she got frustrated that she couldn't land one hit on him. She stopped and breathed in. Letting the air escape her lungs, along with her 'Demon Rage'. Her opponent casted a wall of shadows who stopped the beam with an loud clashing sound. Once the magic subsided, Caster called upon his own shadows which builded arms, which were heading to her.

"You're right, I am a demon. But I have emotions and a soul, too. I chose to abandon the way of the demons, to walk the right path!" he exclaimed seriously. His shadow hands reached her, and while she could evade many, a few could grab a hold of her legs. The hands lifted her up in the air and she was hanging upside down.

"You feel emotions?! Well, then you must understand the anger and pain those humans caused me!" Nyx let and shadow dagger appear in her hand and cut herself free. Falling she did a flip to land on her knees.

"They took everything from me!" she stood up, and summoned more daggers, who cut the leftover shadow hands.

"But that were only a few people, not the whole human race! Remember what you said back then? 'They just acting that way because they're afraid'!" Caster almost sound pleadingly. Nyx never heard him speaking like that to her. She was so stunned, that she didn't saw the magic beam which was heading towards her. It hit her and she flew back.

"Please Nyx, I know this isn't you who is acting that way! Don't let yourself be controlled by that dark blood!" the demon said, while he walked to her. For a moment his gaze shifted to Lucy, to see how she was fairing. He needed her magic to get Nyx on the right track again, if she don't change her mind.

The blonde noticed his gaze and understood, but she shook her head.

After Lucy avoided the tsunami by lifting herself up with Virgo's earth magic, she went into the offensive.

Lucy was using her speed to handle the fallen. She ran towards him, slashed at him with her sword, then moved away quickly and charged again from a different angle. This procedure she repeated over and over again, but Tertius could block every attack with his purple mass.

As she fell back a few meters, she changed her plans.

"Star Angel's Meteor Shower!" she casted her magic, and not a second later hundreds of golden meteors were falling upon Tertius. Lucy used it as cover to get close to Tertius, who let his purple mass build up a wall to protect him. She rounded the magical wall, and brought her arm up to strike. But the fallen noticed her and he grabbed her golden katana midair. She couldn't even react before he kicked her in her stomach hard. She flew backwards, and hit the wall. Hard.

Coughing blood at the impact, she knew this was bad. She fell down to the ground. Tertius was insanely strong even without his magic. She had to change her tactic again. Feeling a gaze on her she turned her head to Caster who was walking towards a beat up Nyx. He looked at her asking. She understood that he asked her for help with Nyx. But with Tertius still here, there was no chance, that she just could stop fighting him, and help Caster.

"What are you thinking about, wench? Did no one told you it is rude to ignore his opponent?" The fallen ripped her out of her thoughts. He suddenly appeared right in front of her and grabbed her by her throat.

This was is. He just had to squeeze a little harder and she would be a goner. But while she was still emotionless, she wasn't willing to just gave up. She gathered magic in her lungs and released it right into his face in form of her 'Star Angel's Demons Rage'.

Tertius let her fall to the ground and stumbled back. The fallen couldn't believe this mere human could actually land a hit, and even worse hurt him that much.

Lucy was not waiting for her enemy to recover. Releasing another Demons Rage, but this time with much more power, she immediately started to attack again. Tertius was barley able to avoid the beam. He looked at the blonde woman, and smiled upon her miss, but he didn't expect her to shout something to her ally.

Just then he noticed that the whole roof of the room was shaking and dust was falling upon him. Then more of the structure fell down, and the fallen knew that the whole canals were breaking down. He turned back to the blonde to see her helping the demon to lift up his slave. So this weak human didn't tried to hit him, but to destroy the canals? He had to admit she was not as dumb as he thought. This distraction caused him to miss the huge stone which was falling right down on him.

Opening her eyes slowly Erza came back to herslef.

"Erza-san!" Wendy said right next to her. Opening her eyes fully she looked around to see Wendy and Meredy standing at each side of her, looking at her with relief. Furthermore she noticed that they weren't in the canals anymore.

"What... happened?" she asked grunting as she felt pain in the back of her head. Then she remembered that the other Himmelsjäger attacked them, knocking her out before she even had the chance to fight.

"Where is Nyx?! I have to teach her some manners!" Erza angrily said, while standing up.

"Calm down, Erza. This isn't our biggest problem right now." Meredy said to her and Erza didn't like the worried expression the pinkette wore.

Just as she was about to asked what problems she meant, an explosion was heard and the ground shook. Looking up they saw a huge dust cloud reaching the sky some blocks away.

"That must be from the canals!" Meredy shouted.

"You mean Lucy?!" Wendy asked shocked.

"What?!" Erza asked confused.

"We have to check!" the pinkette said as she started to run towards the dust cloud. Wendy was helping up Erza, and the both followed.

"Are all citizen out of town?" Laxus asked the mage of Lamia Scale which was near to him. The blonde Slayer ran around town shouting at people to immediately leave the town, when he saw the other mage.

"Not yet. The west part is empty, but there are still people in the east." he answered stressed, before he remained to lead a group of families away.

That's when the explosion occurred. Laxus quickly faced it. His gut sank, and he felt a heavy chill going down his back. His worry and fear for Lucy gripped him hard.

"Fuck." he mumbled. Then he sprang into action and used his Lightning Teleport towards the dust cloud.

Coughing Lucy heaved herself up, out of the whole. Caster was beside her with the unconscious Nyx on his back. The dust was still clouding the air and made it hard to breath. She sat herself up and tried to regain her strength. Facing the whole, she saw the damage. Her attack caused the canal to gave in, and were once stood a block of houses, was now a huge whole which was filled with fallen apart buildings. She was lucky they were fast enough to get out of there. Scanning her surroundings she relaxed her tense body when she couldn't spot the fallen angel anywhere. It meant that he was still down there, buried.

"Lucy?" Caster besides her adressed her. She turned her head towards him. The demon was kneeling besides the still out of it Nyx, who was laying on her back where Caster laid her down.

"Are you ok?" he asked her. Lucy nodded.

"Some scratches, only minor wounds. What about you? And Nyx?" she stood and and got down on her knees at the other side of the black haired woman. Lucy examined her carefully. No heavy injuries, but a lot of dirt covered her body. Her black and purple hair was open and laid messily spread under her head. She had a peaceful expression on her face, and Lucy had to say, that it suited the beautiful face much better, than the always angry face.

"I'm fine. I knocked her out. It was the only option. She wouldn't listen to me... But like that, we can use your magic to break the black blood's claim over her." he said almost with sorrow in his voice. Lucy watched him, as he starred at the female with an loving but also sad gaze.

"Are you sure we should do this? I'll do it, but we do force it upon her. Even if we succeed, she might hate us, for not giving her the choice." Lucy warned him. It was no problem for her, since she could not feel regret, but she expected that it would hurt Caster if his former friend would reset him.

"It's ok if she hates me. All I want is for her to be happy again." he said determined. With only these two sentences Lucy know that Nyx meant everything to Caster. If he loved her or was in love didn't even matter. It only mattered that he would do anything for her.

"Ok. Let's do it." she said to him. Lucy leaned over Nyx and held her outstretched arms above her.

"You have to give me instructions." she reminded Caster. The demon nodded, and took a seep breath to calm himself down and to focus his nervous self.

The sudden crack of thunder startled them both. Turning to the source they saw Laxus forming from the light with a sort of panicked expression.

"Lucy! Are you ok?!" the lightning mage nearly shouted once, he spotted her. He almost ran towards her.

"Thanks for asking, I'm fine, too." Caster sarcastically said, with an annoyed frown. But the blonde man ignored him.

"We're fine. I destroyed the canal, in order to get us out of there, and trapping Tertius at the same time." Lucy told him, before he even could asked what happened. Laxus exhaled loudly, and the tension left his body.

"Damn Lucy, don't scare me like that." he grumbled sort of embarrassed that he showed his feeling this open. Then he spotted Nyx lying on the floor.

"What's with her?" he asked. He knew about Caster's plan to bring her back on the right track, but he was still cautious. If the plan didn't work she would still be the enemy. The Dragon Slayer didn't appreciate the fast that Lucy was so near to her.

"We were about to start the Cleaning Process, before you interrupted us." Caster said to him bluntly. Laxus was about to growl, but he decided against it, as he saw that the demon was tensed up. He understood him. If he was in Caster's position and it would be Lucy laying down there, he would be a fucking mess, too. So instead of snapping a mean comment back, he just sat down.

Lucy looked at Caster again, and he nodded.

"Ok, first concentrate on your magic. Feel the pure light of the stars, which flows within you." The white haired man said. Lucy closed her eyes and like Capricorn told her so long ago, she grasped her magic. Her body began to glow slightly golden, and the wind around her picked up. Laxus was awed by the way the light surrounded her and let her appear even more beautiful. Then he sensed the huge magic in her and he was shocked. It was such a heavy pressure that he believed not even Gildarts possessed. All this time she must have hidden it.

"Now widen you view and see Nyx's magic aura." was the next step, and Lucy shifted her inner eye towards the other Himmelsjäger. She saw the aura, which had the color of black which sometimes flowed over in purple. But in the middle of it, was a angry red spot. She saw how the red spot pulsated like a vein, and it gave off an evil vibe. Concentrating on her task again, she nodded to show Caster that she found it.

"Good. Now guide your magic towards hers and try to erase the dark blood's grip with your light." he said. This would be the hardest part of the procedure. Not only that Nyx's aura would fight against any invading magic, like any mage would instinctive do, but also the dark blood wouldn't let go of the power source voluntary. It would resist with all it got.

Lucy changed her magic flow and let it stream towards Nyx. The light traveled down her arm and began to engulf Nyx's aura. The blonde immediately felt the resistance. Using force she willed her magic to overpower the purple and black closed magic. Caster and Laxus saw the first sweat drop to appear on her forehead.

After a minute she succeeded, and her magic flowed into the aura of the Night Demon Slayer. Nya's body gained a soft golden shimmer, but not as bright as Lucy's. The blonde exhaled. Now to the hard part.

Her magic reached the outline of the red part, and as soon as it was touching it, the dark blood pulsated more strongly and fought against the strange magic. It began to stab at Lucy's magic, and while someone outside couldn't see it, it hurt the blonde woman. A mages aura was a part of their soul. When two aura's fought each others, it was not a physical pain, but a mentally. While Lucy's soul was not whole it remained thanks to the corobice mostly functional. The jabs the demon blood clashed onto her corobice and caused her the sensation of pain.

But Lucy was not willing to give up. She commanded her magic to fight back. Piece by piece her magic could erase the angry red color. Her complete forehead was now drenched in sweat, and Laxus and Caster were tensing up. Clenching her teeth, she used a great part of her magic and let it directly flow towards the last spot of the demon blood.

"Stars high above us,

light, which erases the dark of the universe,

lend me your purifying shine,

light up the darkness of our hearts!"

Lucy chanted, with her eyes still closed. Her body began to shine even brighter, to a point where it was almost blinding. The demon blood couldn't stand the light and the overpowering magic and it gave up it's claim in Nyx's aura. The light disappeared, and Luny nearly hunched over. She heavily breathed and tried to calm her racing heart down. Laxus and Caster were baffled by the light which was showcased. But the demon was the first to snap out of it.

"And?! Did it work?!" he desperately asked. Lucy straightened her back and opened her eyes.

"Yes. I could break the control of the dark blood." she answered. Laxus smiled. He was proud of Lucy, and happy for Caster. The demon himself hunched and lowered his head. After a second he lifted his head again. Laxus was surprised, and Lucy didn't say a word. Tears were streaming down on the demons face and he wore a smile.

"Thank you." he said in an grateful voice. Caster felt so relieved that his childhood friend could be herself again. No longer would anger and hatred taint her feelings. She could live a happy life again.

Hope you enjoyed it!:)

Alaina Kuski: Sorry I trolled you, but as you could read, she's fine:)

kurahieiritr JIO: Good to be back again:) (Even after a pause again:/) Of course she wouldn't let him get away so easily;)

dogsrcool5: Wish fulfilled :)

DeathAssassinFaerie: Sorry for the long wait, i hope you could enjoy it!:)

Till next time,

Kitty