Chapter Twenty Eight - Starlight

Draco was monster. Not because he kidnapped Lucy, caused a war and wanted to enslave the world, it was also because he was jealous. Jealousy makes a monster out of everyone. The dragon blasted the pair with the smokey chains, hoping to end it in one hit. Take out Lucy, and he takes out Leo. Lucy was about to reach out to help Loke until she looked up and saw the glimmer of Draco's blade coming straight towards her. She couldn't move, her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to come out of her chest.

Loke's heart shot into his throat, his fingers clenched against his side as he was clamped by the chains that struck him previously. "..." There was something in his pocket. As quickly as he could he pulled it out. The green card!

"Lioness armour!" Lucy's dragon armour glowed a pure white, quickly forming into Leo's mothers impenetrable armour. The blade shattered as it impacted on her chest.

Lucy had the breath knocked out of her. "D-Damn.." She felt back and landed on her ass, letting out a 'ooooft.' Her vision was a bit hazy, but once she regained it, Lucy looked up and seen the devil himself before her eyes. "Oh god..no..."

The lion was panting, his heart was racing, "Thank you spirit king..." He panted. The chains were dragging him down to the ground.

"You've chained me like some kind of monster..." Loke growled.

Draco was furious. "You broke my sword..." The black smoke swirled around him. Fire rose from the ground. "You've left me no choice." He was fed up with fighting on the ground like this. He needed to show his power, his dominance. Time to end it all.

The dragon felt he was losing this fight and took to extreme measures. He tripled, to quadrupled in size... He formed into a huge, vicious, Dragon. His horns twisted around his skull, razor sharp wings soared out of his back, and his entire body was protected by thick blood red scales.

"Your cities will burn... Your friends and children and families will burn..." Boomed a terrifying voice. His chest glowed orange, like molten lava.

His army were cowering in fear at the sight of him. "T-The world eater..." they muttered.

The air became still and the only sounds that could be heard was the heavy breathing from Draco. It was deep, demonic breaths. Lucy looked over at Leo and then back at her spirits whose eyes were wide and full of terror.

"I have to do this..." And without thinking, Lucy rocketed over to her wyvern, hopping on it. She didn't hesitate to crack the reigns.

"LUCYY!"

Was all she heard as the wyvern flapped it's wings. She looked down at Loke with a smile and took off into the sky, soaring towards Draco, her sword at her side. "You know what to do Loke..."

Reluctantly, The lion nodded back to her and quickly looked back at his friends and family.

"In order to even stand a chance against Draco is to fight fire with fire… Nemean, had a point.. I can't beat a monster like that on my own. But… Draco always listened to only parts of the old stories which made him look good,he never followed it through until the end ... If he actually listened, he would know that light will always shine over darkness..." He winked at his mother who still had a worried expression across her face. It was calmed by his words and she gave him a weak smile. His army cheered him on. Today he truly felt like a leader, but Lucy showed to be more fearless than him. He was proud of her.

"LUCY. BE CAREFUL UP THERE." Loke said as he turned back to Lucy and Draco, raising his palm into the air.

"Regulus light of the king, Nemean... Lend me your claws!"

The sky roared as light blasted down onto Loke's body. Those chains that pinned him down dispersed into pieces. His figure vanished, expanding greatly, taking shape, towering over the armies. Towering over the wyverns too.

Great horns were the first to appear from the golden light, following after was a majestic mane, powerful, strong body, and huge claws.

The little bear sat On Leo's mount stared up in amazement. "The city destroyer and the world eater... Nemean and Draco…" She gulped a little. "How exciting!" She hopped around, causing the mount to look up at her in confusion.

This lion was the lion in the drawings from the books that Lucy had been shown by Draco. Just as foretold, he towered over buildings, had a strong body and a fierce looking set of teeth and claws. The lion was only once pictured with a happy looking woman after he was accepted into the sky. After his reign of terror on earth was over, and after he changed for the humans as requested by Zeus, the spirit king at the time.

Loke roared, the boom could topple a mountain. The ground rumbled, with each step. He joined Lucy quickly as she was still flying up. "Time to show You why we lions are fit to be king..." The lion's voice was deep and fierce. He pounced up at Draco who soared back at him…

Lucy gazed back with wide, amazed eyes. "Loke..." Her eyes narrowed back to their target. Draco. He was soaring towards the two. He shot out a tremendous amount of flames that headed towards Lucy. Luckily, with quick thinking, Lucy pulled the reigns.

"Pull up and circle!" Just as the flames were about to strike her, Lucy's wyvern flapped it's wings and shot up above them, and even above Draco.

The beast circled back and sent more flames towards them.

"Round about!" The wyvern swooped down and did a 360 around the flames. Draco didn't seemed please, but boy was he stupid for turning his back on a Lion. Leo struck him from the back, digging his teeth and claws into Draco's neck The beast let out a loud, ear piercing roar that sent a shock wave towards Lucy.

"Oooofffft!" She clung to her wyvern as they did a few spins.

"Damn..he's strong..." Lucy rolled her eyes back down to the fight. It seemed as if Leo had the upper hand, which he did, for now. She kept her eyes glued on them, just in case she needed to strike...sooner.

"Come on baby...you got this..." her grip tightened.

The lion roared fiercely, crunching down into the back of Draco's neck. His claws dug into his shoulders and back. Draco twisted and turned,shooting fire out in all directions. Many of the blasts shot down to the soldiers, causing them to scatter from both sides of the fight. The flames were intense. The rocks they struck melted under the heat. His huge tail swung up and struck Loke in the back, hard.

He roared out and jammed his teeth back into the dragon's head as he was being hammered with the tail. The dragon's wings were failing as they were being shredded, causing him to lose altitude, he was heading for the ground. If Loke could make the dragon lose his wings he would have the advantage.

His claws glowed golden, with regulus. He kicked his feet up into his wings, tearing through them, taking a heavy blow in the side from the dragons spiked tail.

"Argh, you have to do better than that dragon..." He said through gritted teeth as Draco crashed into the ground, cracking a dark laugh,

"Very well... Watch your friends burn..."

The dragon growled and lifted his head from the dirt. His large jaws opened, heat waves ripped out in front of him and then he blasted molten flames out at Lokes soldiers…

As the flames shot towards the other spirits, The house of Aquarius sent up a water barrier to protect the others. Unfortunately, even with all of their strength together, it wasn't powerful enough. They were being pushed back by the weight of the flames, the heat singeing everyone's bodies.

"Nggh...can't hold on for much longer..."

With no hesitation, Lucy headed down to help. It was like the flames were never ending. She was attempting to help, but Draco had other ideas. His big scaled claws quickly reached up and hit Lucy's wyvern, tearing one of it's wings off.

"Damn!" They began to spiral towards the ground at high speed. But the wyvern had bonded with Lucy. With the last of his strength, he used his reminding wing and started flapping.

"Huh?" His eyes narrowed back to meet hers. There was trust and friendship between them now. Even if they were meant to be enemies, there was no stopping friendship. The wyvern flapped a few more times before turning upside down, dropping Lucy down and onto the back of Leo, as he spun to the ground and crashed before his others. "Ooooft!" Lucy felt the warm fur and clung to it, trying to stand back to her feet.

"Well this ruined my plans...time for plan B, I suppose..."

Back where the spirits stood, the flames had broken through the water barrier and knocked down almost half of them. Aquarius was burnt, but not broken yet. She looked up at Leo and Draco, one eye open, and her teeth clenched. "Kick...his ass already you idiot..." she ordered her lion.

Loke shook his mane, removing the dust and ash that had got caught in it. He grinned as Lucy clung to him. The red robe that he proudly wore flickered out from behind him.

The lion heard the cries of his friends, and those from Draco's army who got caught up in the fire too.

"Draco, stop it!" He growled, pushing off the ground and pouncing on the top of his head to force his jaw shut. He clambered around the front and stared at him right in the eyes. The lions horns were a dark red.

"You change into your primal self at will... You truly haven't learned anything from the humans. You drove yourself into the darkness because of your selfishness... Think what your poor little sister could of done is she was on the key instead of you..." He raised his arm and swiftly slashed his claws at Draco, causing him to raise up. "Hold on Lucy!" Loke quietly said as he managed to dig his claws into the dragon's scales, only just staying on,

The dragon tried to snap at him by thrashing his head around. But the lion slammed his foot back on his snout, "Quit your yapping, your next king is talking..." Loke smirked at him.

"Do you want to know why the lions changed so much... Why we don't look and act like tyrants anymore?!"

Draco growled at him.

Loke narrowed his eyes at him, " We grew to love the humans we served... We don't look at them like pieces of meat, tools to get us into the human world... We offered our lives to our humans and they love us in return..."

Draco snarled, "That's not what I heard... Human slayer..." His voice boomed.

Loke slammed his foot back on his snout, "That was different, you filthy lizard. Be quiet and listen to me... Listening for once will do you some good... When you form a bond with a human, you form a bond with their hearts, and your spirit friends respect you in return... They fight by your side out of love and not fear... Lucy's wyvern even proved that with a little respect you will have a friend for life. "

The spirits, although injured raised their swords and chanted in unison. They cheered for Loke and Lucy to beat him, to win this and end all their pain.

Loke felt Lucy shuffle up to look over his head, resting on his shoulders. "Lucy here has tamed this lion, and therefore earned the respect of my friends and family... And now we fight together to stop a tyrant like you from causing more pain and destruction..."

Loke tilted his head up to face the dragons large eyes. "Look into the eyes of your prince and apologise to everyone... Otherwise I have no choice but to discard my mercy..."

Lucy peered over Leo's mane to see Draco. This was very intense and she could feel the heat rising from a very pissed off beast. Draco's eyes rolled up to her and he snarled. Lucy wasn't afraid anymore...She had to stand her ground. If he won, the spirit world would be a disaster and the stars wouldn't shine anymore. She wasn't about to let that happen.

"Come on Loke...You got this..." Just as she said those words, Draco attacked with full force, knocking Lucy back. She rolled down Leo trying to latch onto his fur, or something. As she rolled off, she felt the air whipping through her hair, but luckily, Leo's tail swished to the side and she was able to grab hold. But how long could she actually hold on?

Lucy's words warmed the lion's heart, he wasn't about to let Draco ruin everything he held close. He tried to swish his tail around to his body so she could get a better grip.

"Well, Draco? What will it be?" Loke asked, once more.

"Death to all..." Draco growled with a deep, angry tone.

The dragon jolted his head upwards, throwing Loke and Lucy from his snout. He quickly lunged upwards and snapped down on Leo's left claw quickly. Those powerful jaws crunched down with such force you could hear it from both sides of the celestial world.

With that sudden motion, all the cheering seemed to stop, as everyone held their breaths.

Loke and Lucy were falling but it felt like time stood still for a moment. Draco had taken Nemean's ring from his hand. No, Draco had taken the entire hand causing Loke to glow a bright gold. He phased back to his normal, suited self before slamming down hard onto the ground on his back. Lucy fell onto his chest causing him to wince. He grabbed onto her with his other arm, to stop her tumbling onto the ground.

Selene cried loudly and charged over, whilst the lions from Leo's family attacked Draco. They had to get their grandfather's ring back, they had enough of standing around and watching Loke take all the glory and pain for himself. Selene slid off her lioness and grabbed his arm. Blood spilled out from his wrist. This pain was very real, it's not like he could go back to the spirit world to easily heal it up, he was in the spirit world. Selene ripped her cloak off and quickly wrapped it around to stop the bleeding.

Loke groaned and sat up, holding Lucy with his right arm. "Are you okay?" He gave her a weak smile. He didn't wish to worry her.

The lions managed to jam a few spears up into Draco's mouth, holding his mouth open. Heat started to form in the dragon's throat.

"GET DOWN!" Aquarius roared, whilst her sisters and her shot water jets into the dragon's mouth. He slammed his tail at them pushing them out of the way.

"Leo, you're going to be alright...We will hold them off for as long as you need... But you know what you need to do..." His mother was desperate. Loke's father was the one holding a spear up into the dragon's mouth.

Loke nodded to Selene, trying not to think about the pain that he was experiencing from having his hand bitten off. He raised his right hand seeing his other rings still there, his silver ring, his plain gold ring and his families Leo ring. He smiled slightly and looked at Lucy, helping her back to her feet.

"Lucy..." The green card in his pocket glowed once more, causing Lucy to be wearing her Leo Star dress. "That always did look beautiful on you..." He laughed.

Meanwhile, Yukino had managed to sneak past and unchain Ophiuchus. She rode on the serpent's head and attacked Draco. "No one hurts my Spirits!" The snake struck Draco whilst the lion's attacked his face. They were giving them time. Draco merely slammed them all to the side with a powerful blow from his spiked tail.

As the pair faced Draco, Loke placed his hand on hers. "Lucy... " He looked at her, "I know how to beat him now...It's not monsters.. It's not fancy weapons or huge armies... It helped, yes but I feel Nemean was missing the point as to why we changed… And so was Draco. There is one thing that he has never had and never will... I need your hand, Lucy..."

He looked down at her left hand, realizing how it sounded. "...I don't mean I need to cut off your hand I..." He cleared his throat, and looked at her awkwardly. He was full of nerves, but it seemed to block off the pain.

"I was going to do this right, but Draco rudely interrupted me last time... What I am trying to say is..." He stuttered on his words once more.

The lion slipped his Family's ring onto her ring finger. It now fitted perfectly.

He gave her a small smile, "Lucy Heartfilia... Will you...be my Lioness?"