LS CHAPTER 25 IS OUT! This chapter contains exactly 4,530 words, not including A/N! Yup, I know! It's longer than the usual 3000 words! Well, it's to make it up for you guys, I guess. I won't be able to update soon. So, enjoy this while you can!

On with the story!

A few miles away from the Visna castle, a certain peculiar shadow formed and grew larger and larger, until it stopped growing and had formed a round shape. Then it started disappearing into smoke and shrank. It revealed that within it, there were figures, people, inside of it. As the shadow around them continued to disappear, it became clearer who were the people inside of the dome-like shadow. The dragon-slayers and the SSS all looked around to see where they currently were. The shadow shrunk and formed into a figure of a person, and it became someone's shadow.

They all found themselves in the middle of the forest, and the dragon slayers immediately found it familiar. They somehow knew that their base, where they had settled in and set camp, was close by.

"Alright, is everyone here OK?" Addei asked, searching for anyone and making a headcount, just in case one of them didn't make it.

Sounds of approval were heard throughout the group, and she sighed in relief before turning to look at the castle. Even in such a distance, everyone could still see the castle from their current location, but not that much of course. "It looks like we all made it out of that place, safe and sound."

It's been a while since Addei and the rest of the SSS had gone outside of the castle's territory. In fact, ever since they became part of the SSS, they've never been able to go outside of the Visna castle. As the king's body guards, they must remain near the king, if not by his side, at all times. And since the king is not allowed to leave the castle for his own safety, neither are the SSS. Even all of their battles were done within the castle.

Addei thought it felt nice to finally be able to go outside. All this time, she had only stared at the view of her window from her room. And she could only dream that time, of what it could've been like to be able to enjoy the outdoors. Well, a woman can dream, can't she? But she never thought it would be granted like this. She thought it will be because of the king's orders and all, not because they were going against the king. Addei almost forgot why they were doing this in the first place.

Oh right, they were doing this for Adora-chan.

"Thank goodness." Mia said, before realizing something. She clumsily turned around with an apologetic look. "Oh, and thank you, too, Aeschylus. Galan. Artemis."

"You're welcome." Aeschylus smiled at her.

"No problem." Galan yawned.

"Whatever." Artemis scoffed.

"C'mon, the Christina should be close by. Let's go find it." Laxus said, looking around.

"Who . . ?" Mia tilted her head.

"Christina. It's kind of a big ship and I think it was called a Magic Bomber." Sting explained.

"Oh."

"But wait, didn't it get taken when we charged into the castle?" Sting asked.

"No, those guys from Blue Pegasus set it on auto-pilot and it went back to that same place we settled in before." Laxus explained.

"Oh."

"We can settle in there, and then I'll be able to heal everyone's wounds, especially Lucy's." Wendy said. "And even if I can't heal all of you, there's a first aid kit there."

"Heal us . . ?" Kiyomi asked.

"Ah, yes. I can heal wounds." the little girl smiled up at the older woman.

" . . . I see."

"Well then, let's get going." Laxus said, and they were on their way.

There was an uncomfortable silence that befell the group as they followed Laxus, in search for their base. It didn't even seem like they were enemies a few minutes ago and were trying to kill each other.

A few more moments of silence passed, until Laxus broke it.

"So, why did you guys help us?" he asked, turning to Addei.

She blinked in confusion. "Pardon?"

"Why did you help us?" he repeated, slightly annoyed at the lack of answer.

"Yeah, weren't you guys going to kill us before?" Gajeel batted an eyelash at them.

"You guys have some major mood swings." Sting added, earning a smack in the head from Rogue.

"Sting, I told you; that isn't the case." Rogue dead panned.

"Weren't you guys listening?" Mia asked, annoyed. All eyes turned to her. "We just realized the wrong in our ways, you know? And we're sick of that bastard of a Prince bossing us around all the time. So yeah, this is kind of a form of going on strike I guess."

"But why now? And again, why help us?" Rogue asked.

Kazuki snorted. "Oh man, look you guys got it all wrong; we weren't helping you guys, we were helping Adora-chan."

"Who?" they all asked in unison. And every one of the SSS looked at Lucy. She was still unconscious and was currently being carried, bridal style, by none other than Natsu.

"She's a nice girl." Addei said.

"Adora-chan . . . well, you all know her as Lucy of Fairy Tail, I guess." Kiyomi smiled sadly.

"Lucy-san . . ?" Wendy asked, covering her mouth, their eyes widened and Natsu's grip on the blonde tightened as he growled at them.

"Woah, chill, Dragneel, we're on your side now, remember?" Kazuki said, trying to calm him down.

"What's your relationship with bunny girl?" Gajeel asked, making them raise an eyebrow at him.

"Bunny girl . . ?"

"Lucy." Laxus said, clearing it up for them. "He's asking; what's your relationship with Lucy?"

"Bunny girl? Really?" Hyosuke scoffed at Gajeel with his arms crossed.

"Look, there's a story behind that nickname! And I'm not in the mood to tell it."

"We're her friends." Kiyomi answered them.

"Friends?" Natsu eyed them suspiciously. "You've only known her for a little bit over a month."

"Which, mind you, is more than enough time for us to establish a rather close bond with her." Addei said.

"So, you're doing this as a favor for a close friend?" Rogue said, finally contributing something in the conversation.

"Well, yeah." Kazuki nodded.

"Well then, why didn't you just help her escape in the first place?" Sting asked. This caught them a bit off-guard. They flinched at this and looked down and away from them in both shame and depression.

"We've . . . made some mistakes." Addei said, still not looking up.

"We've had . . . wrong assumptions." Kazuki added.

"Look, the point is that we screwed up, okay?" Hyosuke said, straight forwardly.

"Damn right you did." Gajeel said, earning a glare from Hyosuke.

"Oh, shut up already. We know, we should've helped her escape when we had the chance. We were idiots to think that it was best for her if she stayed here. You think we're not blaming ourselves for all this? We let the only person who ever cared about us get hurt!" he snapped at Gajeel. Silence filled the air as they were too shocked by his sudden outburst. The SSS still had their heads bowed in shame. But then, Hyosuke continued, oblivious to the tense atmosphere he had caused. "Besides, you bastards don't have any room to talk, we screwed up just as much as you guys did!"

"Hey! When the hell did we screw up on something?" Gajeel was starting to lose his patience with these guys. The entire SSS turned to look at Natsu and started glaring at him. The fire mage flinched as he felt a shiver run up his spine at their cold and hard glares. He looked down at Lucy who was still unconscious and felt a familiar and great amount of guilt slowly engulfing him once again.

'Lucy . . .' he thought.

It's okay, Natsu. Don't push yourself too hard.

'Igneel . . . but . . . it's all my fault.'

No it isn't, Natsu. You never wanted it to happen.

'But I could've prevented it from happening! If only I've realized it earlier! If only I wasn't such a jerk to her that night! If only . . .'

Natsu, everyone makes mistakes. Everyone makes a lot of bad decisions and does some things that they regret. And there's no reason to feel bad about it. I taught you that.

Natsu didn't reply and he just stared at Lucy with a blank expression. But one thing was for sure, he was really worried over her. He just wanted nothing more than to see her open her eyes and tell her that she was okay.

Don't worry, Natsu. She's going to be alright.

'Oh? And how do you know that?'

I just do.

Natsu was about to snap at his foster father, but was cut off when Mia said something that made him direct his attention to the other blonde.

"Don't worry about her to much. She's going to be alright."

"How can you be so sure?" he scoffed. Kazuki was the one who turned to him and explained.

"When the prince cast a spell on Ad- Lucy that made her hypnotized, he also cast a spell on her that gave her power and made her stronger. One of the powers she received is immediate recovery. That's why she survived such a strong attack from the prince earlier. That's why her wounds immediately closed a while after receiving them and that's why that is happening." Kazuki explained then pointing at Lucy. They were all shocked to see that steam were coming from Lucy's wounds and they were now slowly disappearing.

"Yeah, amazing isn't it?" Addei smiled.

"So she's going to be fine?" Wendy asked. "I won't have to heal her?"

"No need. She's going to be alright." Kiyomi smiled at her.

"I see. Well, that's good. I was worried my magic might not be enough to heal her and the others." Wendy sighed in relief.

Meanwhile, the trio that was far behind the group were having their own conversation.

"Hey, guys . . . do you feel it too or is it just me?" Artemis asked, eyeing the fire mage suspiciously.

"Yeah, it's been bugging me for a while now . . . what was his name again?" Galan asked.

"I think it was Natsu." Aeschylus told him.

"Right. He's . . . emitting some sort of magic energy. It's strange . . . it's as if . . ." Galan struggled to find the correct words to describe what he, as well as the others, was currently sensing.

"It's as if his magic power is connected to another person's." Aeschylus said.

Galan nodded at this. "Yeah."

"But . . . it's so odd." Artemis said. "He's making the same kind of connection I currently have with you two, only stronger."

"How stronger?" Aeschylus asked.

"In our little trio, only I can speak without the others hearing. But with the sort of connection he has, he can read the thoughts of the person he's connected to." Artemis explained.

"You mean like read minds?"

"Yeah, exactly." Artemis nodded.

"But . . . the person he's connected to . . . I can't sense who it is." Galan looked around, throughout the group, no one is emitting the same type of magic he is.

"Maybe it's Lucy." Aeschylus suggested. This made them stop at their tracks and think about it for a moment.

"It's possible." Artemis said.

"Yeah, but they're too close to each other. It's too hard to tell." Galan sighed.

"Well, let's say Lucy is the one he's connected with. Who's the other one, then?" Artemis asked, making them look at her, confused.

"Oh, c'mon." Artemis said, obviously annoyed. "Don't tell me that you haven't realized that it's like ours. He has a three-way connection with someone. Meaning he can read the minds of two people."

"Geez, this is so confusing." Galan sighed.

"Why don't we just ask him?" Aeschylus asked.

"How do we know that he'd even tell us? And other than that, is he even aware of it?" Artemis reasoned.

"Well then, what's the problem? I mean, if he isn't even aware of it, why are we even bothering ourselves with it? It's way too much trouble." Galan complained.

But Artemis was seriously concerned about this, they noticed that much. She kept eyeing the fire mage, making them look at her with a confused stare until she finally explained. "With such a strong magic power emitting on his body, the prince will be able to rack us down in no time." she said with such a serious tone, making her two companions' eyes widen. But before they could react, they heard someone yelling.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

They turned to see a very angry Erza who had requipped into her Purgatory armor and was currently glaring at Addei. Behind her, all the other mages from Fiore were staring at her, shocked and confused.

"Oi!" Gray yelled, looking at Kiyomi.

"A-aren't you . . .?" Yukino asked, pointing an accusing finger at Mia.

"A-ah, well . . ." the two girls looked at each other before glancing back at their two former opponents.

"Th-that man!" Jura yelled, pointing at Aeschylus who backed away in fear and hid behind Galan.

"Scarlet, relax. Look, let me explain!" Adderi tried to say, but the Titania had already gone and tackled her.

"YOU! You are an enemy!" Erza cried, remembering how she was almost killed by the woman standing in front of her.

"A-Addei!" Hyosuke called after her, but seeing the demon of an opponent his ally had, he had no courage to step up. Yes, even the SSS have never encountered a person scarier than Erza. Well, except for Addei that is.

"Look! Just hear me out for a sec!" Addei tried to calm her down, but immediately failed. The SSS member knew she couldn't hurt the Titania. No, not after everything she's done to her. But if she didn't do anything, she was going to be killed.

"Erza! Calm down!" Laxus yelled at her, but before he can do anything else, Erza was already about to cut Addei's head off. The latter wasn't able to react quickly enough and could only stare as the blade neared her.

"ERZA!" The said woman stopped, just as the blade she was holding was just about to hit her opponent. That voice . . . it was so familiar. She knew who it belonged to. But, it was impossible wasn't it? It can't be. She was gone. But then again, there's only one person who that voice belonged to.

Erza quickly turned around to face the owner of the voice. Her eyes widened. There she was . . . Lucy. She was in Natsu's arms, although she seemed hurt, she was alive.

"It's been a while . . . Erza." the blonde smiled at her.

"Lucy . . ." Erza requipped back to her Heart Kreuz armor and blue skirt. She ran towards Lucy as Natsu put her down. As they came face to face, Erza stopped at her tracks and stared at her for a while.

"I-is that really you . . ?" she asked.

Lucy continued to smile at her before nodding. Tears were forming at the corner of her eyes. "It's good to see you again . . . Erza."

Erza couldn't help but smile as tears of joy continued to roll down her cheeks band she tackled the girl into a hug. Lucy was a bit startled at first, but soon she returned it.

"I can't believe it . . . you're . . ." the blonde could hear Erza sob against her shoulder. But before she could even reply, the two were tackled to the ground by Yukino and Gray.

"Lucy!"

"Lucy-sama!"

Natsu growled, feeling slightly jealous and being a bit possessive. "Oi, Gray!"

"Let it go for now, Salamander." Gajeel smirked.

He's right, Natsu. It'll be fine.

"Lucy . . . she's alive." Sherry covered her mouth in shock.

"No way . . ." her cousin mumbled.

"Who would've thought?" Jura couldn't help but smile and feel happy for them.

" . . uh . . . I don't mean to break such a happy reunion, but . . ." they turned to look at Addei who was rubbing the back of her head and feeling uncomfortable.

"YOU!" Erza yelled, she had completely forgotten about her and so she got up and requipped back to her Purgatory armor.

"She doesn't like you very much, does she?" Hyosuke whispered to Addei who sweat dropped.

"Well, I did try to kill her."

"Erza! Hey look! It's us!" Mia yelled going in front of Addei.

"You . . ." Erza muttered, recognizing Mia. "What are you doing here . . ?"

"We have a death wish, that's what." Galan dead panned, appearing next to Mia with Aeschylus right beside him.

"Way to go straight to the point, Galan." Artemis smirked.

"Wait, Erza, you know these guys?" Minerva asked.

"Well yeah, we met at the cells. They patched me up." Erza replied.

"Anyway, due to strange circumstances, they're on our side now." Laxus said.

"What?" the Titania looked at them in shock. "You're helping us?"

"Yep!" Mia grinned.

"So if you'd be so kind as to put your weapons down, we'll be able to negotiate." Addei dead panned as they uncomfortably stared at Erza who was unconsciously emitting a terrifying aura with a mixture of killing intent.

"Hmph, fine." she grumbled before requipping back to her normal clothes, making them relax.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Sting popped up the big question.

Silence filled the air.

"The prince would have already set a search party for us." Aeschylus muttered.

"We're dead meat. He would've told the soldiers to take us back, dead or alive." Mia shuddered.

"We're all going to get executed anyway, so it won't be a problem if the soldiers kill us themselves." Galan explained.

"But Lucy and Dragneel are a completely different story." Kazuki said, all eyes turned to the pair. "They need you both alive."

"Knowing that, the soldiers probably won't use any long-range attacks, because there'll be the danger of getting them hit." Kiyomi concluded.

"So we should be expecting an ambush of some sort. They'll be fighting in hand-to-hand combat." Hyosuke said. "That means we have the advantage . . . right?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Absolutely."

"They're going down."

"I'm sure we can beat them when it comes to skill."

"Good. But then again, we'll be completely outnumbered by then." Addei said. "I'm guessing that their plan is to split the army into groups to cover more ground. The first troop who'll be able to find us will alert the others. Then they'll fight us only to distract us long enough for back up to arrive. By that time, we'd already be outnumbered and it'll be an instant lose."

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Erza asked, finally managing to trust Addei despite the short period of time they've had the truce.

"Simple. We sneak into the palace unnoticed and create a magical barrier preventing any of the troops outside to get in. Kiyomi and I will be able to handle that."

"Rufus would also be able to assist in such a task." Minerva said, looking at her guild mate who nodded.

"Leave it to me."

"Well then, Kiyomi, myself and . . . Rufus? The three of us will be left behind at the gates to create the barrier. That will prevent anyone from the outside from entering and vice versa. In such an emergency, the prince would have sent majority of the troops in the search party. There are sure to have a lot of them left behind, but I'm sure we'll be able to manage."

"So, the problem with numbers is solved. The soldiers are no longer a problem and the SSS is now in our side. Looks like we have the complete advantage." Laxus smirked.

"Not really." Hyosuke said. "You're forgetting about the Prince."

"And, as you've already know, he's not someone to be taken lightly." Kiyomi added.

"So, what do we do about him?" Hibiki asked.

"The key to win is to defeat that man." Addei's face darkened. "I'm afraid I must leave that to you."

"WHAT?" they yelled.

"Keep your voices down, dammit!" Kazuki hissed.

"Wait, why can't you come and help us defeat him?" Jura asked.

"Because we have our own job to take care of." Mia said. "The current king."

"It's likely that he still hasn't known of our betrayal yet." Galan explained.

"So we'll be like double agents and take him down!" Hyosuke smirked.

"But wait, the prince is hard enough to take care of. Wouldn't the king himself be much stronger?" Sting asked.

"Nope. He's been really letting himself go these past few years." Kazuki chuckled.

"Well, to get straight to the point, he's dying due to a very grave illness." Addei said. "So it won't be a problem killing him."

"W-wait, wouldn't it be cruel to kill a dying man?"

She scoffed. "Believe me when I say that man will deserve it."

"Anyway, every one of you will be divided into groups." Hyosuke said.

"The first group will be the one who'll fight the prince." Mia explained.

"And the others will take care of all the other troops who may still be in the castle." Kazuki said.

"The ones who'll be doing that are better off to split up. That way, you can cover more ground. But make sure that no one goes alone." Kiyomi advised.

"So, all we have to do is sneak into the castle and defeat the prince, right?" Laxus asked.

"There's no time to waste, so you guys can choose the ones who'll take on the prince when we get to the palace." Hyosuke said.

"Alright! I'm all fired up!" Natsu cheered, earning a smack in the head from Kazuki which almost made him lose consciousness.

"Didn't we tell you to keep your voice down?" he felt a vein pop on his forehead. "Do you want us to get caught?"

"D-don't be so harsh on him, Kazuki-san." Lucy sweat dropped.

"Well, now that I think about it . . ." Addei said thoughtfully. "We'll need a lot of stealth to get to the palace undetected. But with this many people, it would be rather difficult."

"Artemis can hide us in her body." Aeschylus suggested.

"I cant hide all of you, moron!" she yelled.

"Sorry . . ." he mumbled.

"Well, she can't hide us all now, can she?" Addei said.

"That's right!"

"Sorry . . ."

"But it would be a great help." Addei said, all eyes turned to her. "How many people can Artemis carry?"

"Eh? Well, around 20 at most. But then she'll be moving a bit slowly." he answered.

"There are 31 people here. So, 11 will have to sneak into the castles on their own." Erza said.

"Ah, actually, we're going to stay behind." Jenny said, and the Trimens along with Ichiya nodded.

"Eh?"

"Well, we're going to have to take care of the troops that'll be outside the castle, right?" Ren asked.

"And we'll be able to do that easily with the Magic Bomber; Cristina!" Eve cheered.

"Well . . . I suppose they're right." Erza sighed.

"Well then, it's down to 26 people, I guess." Addei said.

"In that case, we'll help them." Lyon said. Behind him were Sherry, Toby and Yuka who're all willing to some with Blue Pegasus.

"Shelia and Jura are both strong so it'll be best if they come with you guys." Sherry added.

"22 left." Addei stated. Then, Lisanna, Wendy and Yukino stepped in.

"We won't be of much help inside, so I guess it'll be best if we stay behind." Lisanna rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"It's down to 19 people. That'll be enough." Addei said. "Everyone get ready! We're leaving."

"Eh? Already?" they asked.

"We can't afford to waste any time now, can we?" Addei argued with them.

"B-but . . . shouldn't I at least heal them first?" Wendy asked.

As they continued to fight, Yukino approached Lucy with Lisanna tagging along.

"Lucy-san, here are your keys." Yukino smiled at her.

"Eh? Oh, that's right . . ." Lucy paused for a moment in deep thought.

"Is something wrong?" Yukino asked.

"Silence."

"Maybe . . . you should hold on to them for a little longer."

"Eh?"

"Well, it'll only be temporary, and I guess you'll need it more than I do."

"B-but, how will you fight?" Yukino asked, panicking a bit.

"A lot of things has happened." the blonde smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I promise."

The Sabertooth mage paused for a moment before nodding. "Okay." she smiled at her and Lucy smiled back before she watched her walk away.

"Lucy . . ." Lisanna said. Lucy flinched upon hearing the youngest Take Over mage.

"Y-yes . . ?" she asked. Lucy wasn't really comfortable with talking to Lisanna anymore. After all, she's had a lot of terrible thoughts about the girl. She had even wanted her to be dead! You can't just think that and then suddenly have a normal conversation with the person. That's just plain wrong.

"It's good to see you alive and well." Lisanna smiled at her, and she could do nothing but smile back.

"Thanks. It's amazing, isn't it?" she giggled.

"Yeah, a miracle. Almost like the time I came 'back from the dead'." they giggled, before there was another silence.

"Hey, Lucy . . . be careful, okay?"

"Huh?"

"Well, Natsu was really upset when he thought you were gone. I mean, you should've seen him be all depressed like that. Well, everyone was, but he was even more upset than the others were. It just wasn't right to see him like that. And . . . I'm positive that none of us, especially not Natsu, will ever want to go through that again."

Lucy could do nothing but listen to the other girl's speech in shock.

"So, be careful, alright? I'm sure Natsu would want to go home, back to Fairy Tail, with you." Lisanna smiled, grabbing her hands.

Lucy was silent for a moment before she smiled. "Of course."

"Okay look, I don't mean to get in the middle of your oh-so-touching conversation, but we're ready to go." Kazuki said before grabbing Lucy's hand and leading her to the other group.

"Be careful!" Lisanna called out to her.

"Alright. Let's go, Artemis!" Addei commanded.

"I know! Don't tell me what to do!" the shadow yelled, then she surrounded the group and enveloped them inside of her.

Well, that's it! Lucy and Lisanna made peace and so did Erza and Addei! Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Please review ~ !

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