Levy had no idea how long they lay there. The night air was chilly but Gajeel was a burning source of heat under her, radiating a kind of comfort she really didn't want to give up. His breathing was a rumbling purr that vibrated through her skin and bones, dissolving any anxiety she might have had about their exposed positions. As much as she would have loved to stay there though, she could tell from the chirping of the birds that dawn would be breaking and they would need to get back before Jet and Droy decided to go looking for them. She sighed, moving a hand over his chest to prop herself up. His eyes were still closed but he hummed in approval at the touch.

"I think we should probably move," She whispered, smiling.

The satisfied hum turned into a groan.

"Why you gotta say stuff like that?" Gajeel whined pitifully. Instead of moving, he wrapped his arms around her and held her to him tightly. "I think we're just fine here, gihee," She didn't even have to look up to his face to know he was smiling that smile of his.

"Gajeel," She started her protest. "My butt's cold," She laughed. "And I'm topless," She wanted to sound serious but even saying it out loud made her giggle.

The Dragon Slayer slid both of his hands down her body and cupped her ass cheeks. Levy tilted her head up and speared him with a pointed look as the heat from his hands seeped into her. He tried to look as innocent as he could.

"There," He grinned widely. "Problem solved."

Out of nowhere a small stone stuck Gajeel in the side of the face. The Dragon Slayer yelled in surprise and Levy was subsequently rolled off him; falling into the damp grass. The cold shocked her; the woman squealing as she covered her bare chest with her arms. She sprang up to her feet while Gajeel propped himself up on an elbow looking around, fully prepared to murder whoever tossed the stone. He couldn't see anyone else there, though. He felt around in the grass and picked up the stone he'd been hit with, frowning as he looked at the smooth black sides. He turned it over, examining it and blinking stupidly. Stupid Dragons!

Now standing, Levy rummaged around at their feet, plucking what remained of her tank top up. There were claw marks rimmed with blood stains all over it and it had been literally sheered in half on one side. She looked up and saw that Gajeel was now standing holding the remnants of his shirt; the torn bloodied garment had left in a similar state. Levy exchanged a sheepish look with him. She could see cuts all over his body and his torso was one enormous patchwork of bruising. The darkest purple grouping around the Dragon Slayers sides. Levy looked down at her hands. There was dried blood under her fingernails but they looked altogether normal. She could only remember snippets of what had transpired early on.

"Did I have claws? I have this vague recollection of having claws?" She murmered.

Gajeel blushed and Levy smiled wide at the look on his face.

Gajeel took a few purposeful steps toward her and brushed the back of his hand gingerly over her shoulder and Levy hissed at the sting. Looking down she stared in a morbidly detached curiosity at the cuts and bruises she was also covered in. The pair of them looked like they'd been mauled. It wasn't that far from the truth, if Levy was honest.

She didn't necessarily feel any different to before. Apart from the aching muscles. She checked her arms and her legs and back for anything unusual like scales or a tail. Anything that might outwardly reveal that she was now mated to a Dragon Slayer. Everything was as normal as she'd come to expect. She checked her teeth and found she still had the elongated canines. A huff of disappointed air left her lungs but was swallowed when she looked up to see Gajeel laugh at her. She narrowed her eyes; embarrassed and a little bit put out by the reaction.

"What?" She asked him, humorlessly.

That just made him grin wider.

"Nothin'…" He said through barely suppressed laughter. She watched his eyes closely. The quick darting of his pupil downward. Levy followed his line of sight and squealed, batting away the wet leaf that had stuck itself to her left breast. She slapped it away with far more force and vigor than would entirely be necessary and winced at the sting. An angry blush crept up her cheeks as she wrapped her arms tightly around her herself; covering her chest again.

"You're a jerk!" She ground out at him.

Gajeel scratched the back of his head, chuckling softly.

"You ain't wrong," He offered with a soft, sheepish smile. Levy had great difficulty keeping her frown in place when she spotted the pink tinge to his cheeks.

"And a giant dork," She snorted suddenly unable to keep the laughter back.

Gajeel growled lightly, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her flush against him. Levy melted into him as he leaned forward; lightly dusting her lips with his. Her heart rate skyrocketed from the barest of contact and she felt weak in his arms. He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers.

"Like you're one to talk?" He gave her a crooked smile. His eyes challenging her to say or do something else.

Before the Dragon Slayer could even contemplate the possibility of a round two with the love of his life, something large and heavy struck him in the side of the head and sent him staggering to the left. Levy grunted, taking a step back as she was hit in the face with a wall of black hair as his head whipped around.

"QUIT THROWING THINGS AT ME!" The Dragon Slayer yelled into the air, righting himself. Frantically looking around for their invisible assailant. This would be the second time in a handful of minutes that he'd been hit with something.

Something brushed Levy's elbow and she recoiled immediately before letting out a shaky breath in relief. Ossa was standing at her side holding her backpack out to her. A knowing smile on her face. Gajeel stood, picking up his own bag and glaring intensely at the woman who'd hit him with it. Ossa ignored him and brushed her fingertips over the deepest of cuts on Levy's back. The largest wound was dissecting her guild mark and still weeping the smallest traces of fresh blood.

"The others will be mostly gone in a few hours…but this one, this will need to be cleaned," The obsidian Dragon spoke, carefully giving Gajeel a scathing look. The Dragon Slayer turned away, awkwardly trying to hide the blush that was now burning its way up his neck.

Levy crouched down and pulled out some first aid supplies along with a small bottle of antiseptic and a clean top. Ossa plucked it from her hands before she could say anything, motioning for the woman to follow her. The former Dragon sat Levy down on a slab of ruined stone and fixed the Script Mages' hair up into a neat bun on the top of her head to keep any stray hairs out of the way; tying it with one of her spare bandannas. Cool fingers prodded the cut, carefully checking it's depth, before applying the disinfectant. Levy stiffened against the pain but didn't say anything about it. For someone who used to be a Dragon she clearly had practice treating Human wounds. As though sensing Levy's silent question Ossa sighed.

"We'd sometimes need to put Natsu and Gajeel at opposite ends of the valley to stop them fighting," She remarked waving her hand absentmindedly at the memory. Levy's mouth fell open and Gajeel dropped his bag. The Script mage thoughtlessly tried to turn and look at Ossa but the Woman stopped her with a hand on either side of her head; gently guiding it back to face Gajeel.

"Young Dragons are pretty resilient, and they've got good instincts that tend to stop them getting into situations where they'll be hurt. Human children are complete lunatics in comparison," She laughed heartily. "No sense of self-preservation, at all," At Gajeel's shocked, speechless expression she shrugged. "Your father and Igneel had about as much ability to treat wounds as I have to float. Grandine used magic for the serious injuries and I would take a smaller form like this to treat the minor ones. It's not necessarily good to use magic too often on young children," She added knowingly.

"What... the fuck you talkin' about?" Were the words that came tumbling out of Gajeel's mouth when he finally found his voice. As far as he was aware he'd only know Natsu a few years; only since joining Fairy Tail.

"You didn't think that with only a handful of Dragons remaining in the entire world that we didn't interact with each other?" She gave Levy a pitying look. It was clear Ossa had been hoping Gajeel would have figured some stuff out on his own. Levy chose to say nothing. She'd never considered it either.

"With so few of us left we would sometimes need to meet, face to face, you know," She laughed humourlessly, taking a seat behind Levy as she applied another coating of antiseptic. "We would update each other on what Dragons we knew Acnologia had slain," She waved to the forest around them. "This was the only place Igneel was willing to meet with us. He believed after my death that Acnologia had come to fear my presence here," Her expression cracked. "After all, I have no body to kill. I am in the stone. In the very mountain itself. I may be dead but that also means I cannot be killed," She looked thoughtful. "I do not think he fears this place as Igneel believed. But he was always a pragmatic man. This place is little more than a tomb."

"Acnologia...did he...?" Gajeel left the question unsaid. They'd both seen the remains of Ossa's true body in the arena.

"And my hatchlings," Something black leaked from her right eye, like a tear and she wiped it away absently examining it between her fingers; a curiosity of her conjured Human body. Levy thought back to the smaller obsidian statues. How tiny they'd been in comparison to Ossa. If she could have replicated full sized Dragons, why did she give life to such minuscule imitations. The realization struck her like a punch to the gut. A mother having lost her children, her mate, alone in an empty home for a possible eternity. Levy had been right. Ossa must have been so incredibly lonely.

The obsidian Dragon gave Gajeel a soft smile, patting Levy on the head affectionately. "Some of my children anyway, as long as the Dragon Slayers remain there will always be something of my legacy left," Her expression turned suddenly serious. "The power to split a soul is a skill that took me millennia to master. There will never be a Human in this world or any other that will be able to replicate my magic, and while I did not give birth to you, I am the mother to all Dragon Slayers," She paused, her face morphed into one of acute, absolute torment. Gajeel knew why. Because, if she was the power behind Dragon Slayer magic, then she was the hand that had given that power to Acnologia. Inadvertently dooming her own kind to extinction and releasing a blight upon the world.

"Did you make the lacrimas?" Levy asked, sensing the suddenly dark mood and trying to steer the conversation away from it. She wasn't sure how she was going to process all this new information. Forget about breaking it to Natsu, they'd have to convene some sort of meeting with the other Dragon Slayers. She felt a headache at the thought.

"After my death, I lost the ability to pass on Dragon Magic like before. I had enough of my power to create the lacrima; capturing the remaining magic and memory from the Dragons Acnologia slew. As a way to preserve Dragon Slayer magic," She grinned widely at the thought. "Are there many?" She asked hopefully. Collecting her excitement. " I think I'd like to meet them."

"I'm fairly sure they'd probably like to meet you, too," Gajeel looked passed her thoughtfully. Eyes boring holes in the treeline. "Though, think Cobra is still in a council cell. That might be a problem,"

Ossa smiled wickedly.

"Ah yes, the Human wizard's council," Having finished with Levy's back, she stood and walked into the center of the ruins, stretching her arms over her head growling, gathering magic to herself. "Now, there's a conversation I've been dreading for four hundred years,"

Notes

So, we're reaching the end of the story, just two more chapters to go now, but I kinda felt like I wanted to go out on a bang. You know, fuck it, lets do this. LOL I've also got it in my head that out of everyone, Ossa would probably take particular issue with Laxus. Uber powered knowitall is her thing, and Dragon's aren't ones to share. I haven't decided if I can work in some sort of throw down between them yet, but it would be pretty fun. I'm enjoying working some of the manga into it as well.

Again, thank you to everyone reading and reviewing and following. Your support has meant the absolute world to me! Hopefully you'll like the ending!