A/N: Sorry! I know this is a short update after being absent for a week! Hope you enjoy anyway!

Lucy was scrolling through job postings on the lacrima system she helped Sting set up. To make it easier for mages to find jobs at their level or that involved specifications that matched their magic, jobs had been entered into a database and tagged for key requirements, magic, or mages requested. Level had been created and each job was assigned a level based on Sting, Rogue, and Rufus's research. The Levels were B (Beginner), A (Advanced), T (Team Required), AT (Advanced Team), S (S-Class), or ST (S-Class Team).

Sting had purchase the system from a guild in Bosco whose guild master was particularly gifted in mixing magic with technology. Lucy and Rogue had been tasked to reading and understanding the three inch thick instruction manual that came with the system. Tireless nights and some trial and error lead to a smoothly running system that allowed mages to log in, see jobs within their level and interest, sign up for said job, and then mark the job complete upon return.

Lucy had been approved for B, A, T, and AT jobs. So when she logged in to the Sabertooth system, a compiled list of jobs that were at her approved level were listed. She opened a filter and checked to see if any jobs required a Celestial mage, when nothing specific showed up, she changed the filter to see if any of the jobs showed a reward of a Gate Key. Only one job was left in her list, it was marked A for Advanced. She selected it to read the description. Basic monster hunt: "Large, ugly beast causing local hunters to disappear in the woods. Investigate and resolve."

The forest was to the west of Crocus. A small village that was practically unknown and on the edge of a mountain range known for housing Wyverns. The reward was 500,000 Jewels plus the Gate Key. There wasn't anything listing what type of Gate Key it was, which was normal. Usually customers didn't know enough about gate keys to give too much of a description. She had once taken a mission where they key they had was simply a replica of one of the Zodiac Keys. It had been disappointing, but a neat souvenir.

Lucy tapped on the lacrima to view how soon the customer needed a mage. They were requesting someone to show within the next two weeks, which was doable, so Lucy accepted the job request. A notification in the form of a automated video message was sent to the customer on their communicator indicating that their job had been accepted by Lucy.

"Wow, that system is so cool, Lucy!" Happy cooed while hovering just over her shoulder. He had been oddly silent as she went through the process of looking up a job, but now he seemed super excited about the whole process.

Lucy smiled at the blue cat and felt a sense of achievement. "Rogue and I get it set up! It tracks a lot of data about the jobs posted and how they were completed."

"How does it do that? Does it visually record the jobs you do?"

"What? No! That would be creepy!" Lucy shivered at the thought of having a flying lacrima camera following her around on missions to record and archive everything she did. "We have a form that we fill out on job completion." Lucy pointed to another lacrima that was set on the other end of the bar. "That system is where I'll go when I complete the job and will have to fill in a questionnaire on how the job went."

"Oh! That's so cool!" Happy did a loop in the air to show his excitement before landing on top of Lucy's head.

"Oi cat! Watch it! You're pulling my hair!"

"Sorry Luce," Happy said.

Lucy froze. That was the first time someone had called her 'Luce' in months. Since Natsu. A shiver of awkward and painful nostalgia wracked though her. She didn't like it. She didn't want to be called that ever again.

"Um, Happy?"

"What is it?" that small cat wondered. He could hear a tinge of sadness and uncertainty in her voice and wondered what could have upset her.

"Could you call me 'Lucy' or 'Lu' from now on?" Lucy asked quietly.

Happy was off her head and hovering in front of her face in an instant. "But Natsu always calls you Luce, why can't I?"

Lucy looked pained, "Isn't it obvious why?"

Happy thought about it and the conclusion he came up with made him sad, "You don't want to be reminded of him, do you."

"No, I don't," Lucy admitted. "He is free of me, now, right? I need to work on being free of him too, I guess. I need to move on. That's why I'm here in Sabertooth."

Happy frowned and in one of his rare moments of insight replied, "I don't think he will ever be 'free of you', Lucy. Natsu may no have access to his memories of you, but I know there are parts of him that will never, can never, forget you."

Lucy huffed, "I don't want to hear this right now. Natsu is happy, right?"

Happy nodded.

"Then the rest doesn't matter. He is happy and now I am trying to move on to be happy too. Natsu doesn't need me. And I am learning to not need him either."

Happy couldn't help how sad hearing this made him feel. While he couldn't argue the fact that perhaps Lucy had been a bother to Natsu, that had been proven earlier in the morning, he couldn't help but feel a sense of wrongness with the two of them a part like this.

Suddenly a warm arm fell across Lucy's shoulders and a fur lined vest tickled at Lucy's cheek. "You never needed him Blondie!" Sting said confidently and playfully squeezed her shoulder before dropping his arm. After their conversation earlier he had made a decision to do what he could to help Lucy move forward. He couldn't force her to change the actions she took in the past, but he could help her rebuild a life in Sabertooth.

"Of course she needs Natsu!" Happy admonished the guild master. "They were partners! You can't just walk away from that!"

"Hah!" Lucy couldn't help but laugh. "This guy breaks it off with his partner at least once every two weeks when they argue over petty shit!"

"Speaking of Shadow-dick, have you guys seen Lector this morning? He spent the night with Frosch and I haven't seen him come down into the guild yet."

"I saw him head into the library," Lucy answered.

"Whaa?"

"He was chasing Frosch, who was chasing a bug, I think," Lucy clarified.

"Gotcha! Thanks," and Sting was off.

Lucy watched him go and chuckled.

"Hey Lu-chan!" Yukino called.

Lucy smiled and waved back at the white haired, sweet faced mage. Lucy was about to walk towards her fellow spirit summoner when her gut wrenched uncomfortably. Her hand instinctually went to rub at her stomach worried that she was starting to get sick. The feeling faded, however, so the celestial mage ignored it and went to join Yukino at the table she now occupied with a serious-looking Rogue. Happy flew ahead of her and landed on the table and started to excitedly yap about how cool the lacrima job request system was to Rogue, who smiled kindly at the compliments thrown his way by the blue cat.

Before she could join her furball friend, her stomach twisted painfully and this time her magic responded to the feeling with a surge of energy that washed over and through her in an unsettling motion, not unlike sitting in a wave pool. The pain she had first experienced in her gut moved upward towards her chest and Lucy gasped as the intensity of it as she fell to the floor, landing harshly on her knees. Lucy tried to react to the sudden upheaval of her magic, quickly trying to form some sort of mental barriers to trap her magic and keep it from releasing. But the force of it was like a tornado and her magic stormed against the barriers she created, breaking them to pieces before she even had them constructed.

The whirlwind of magic overwhelmed her so completely and soon it was leaking out around her creating a gust of power that swirled dangerously outward and pushed tables full of people back and away from her epicenter. The pain she felt in her chest made her think that her magic might be ripping her in half in its effort to escape and so she screamed, unable to hold it back any longer.

Suddenly all of her gate keys activated and her spirits were standing amongst the tornado of magic unaffected by the windscape it created. Then the gates were forced closed and again moments later, forcibly ripped open. This time even Yukino's keys were activated and her spirits were thrust into the maelstrom of power erupting from Lucy. This happened a few times before the gates stayed activated. Yukino's spirits tried to escape to their respective summoner, but found that they were stuck within the magic circles of their gates. Libra attempted to cast her gravity altering magic to force Lucy into the ground, but found that she could not reach her own well of magic. The mother and son duo of the Pisces Zodiac were similarly enraged as they pounded against an invisible barrier that trapped them in place and prevented them from reaching their scared celestial mage.

Lucy's spirits, were not faring much better. Even Plue was taking it upon himself to push and shove against the magic circle that had them trapped. He scraped his drill-like nose against the magic circle's lettering in an attempt to break whatever spell Lucy had unconsciously cast. He shook violently as all of his attempts failed.

Lucy's screeching came to a halt as words she had no control over spilled from her lips, "Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic! PATHETIC!" The word was mumbled at first, but then each restatement of the phrase was ripped from her throat with heightening aggression until she screeched it louder than anyone believe possible. "Fix it, fix it, fix it! LAXUS BROKE IT, FIX IT!" Again her voice started at a mumble before she roared Laxus's name and for him to fix it.

For a microsecond, everything froze. Her magic glittered in the sunlight that was beaming through the guild windows making the air shine golden and silver. Her hair, which had been blowing wildly in the storm of magic, now stood frozen, on end, half whipped around her face. Her face was a portrait of pain and fear. Her mouth was still open in a silent scream. For a moment the Celestial World opened up above the motionless mage showing just a hint of the Spirit King staring down at the phenomenon in awe before time sped forward to make up the difference. Lucy's arms spread wide as the last of her magic burst out of her to force close the gates and also the rip between worlds before she fell back, unceremoniously cracking her skull on the floor.