A/N: And we're nearly done with this arc. This chapter is one of my favorites, so I hope you like it, too!


The dragons' keening reverberated through the destroyed buildings. Everyone covered their ears as the steel and ice dragons began to disintegrate back into skeletons. The bones crashed to the ground, and the awful sound died away into deafening silence. The gray figures vanished with them, and the Fairy Tail members began shouting and celebrating, but Natsu's eyes were fixed on his best friends, silhouetted against the flames that still raged in some of the fallen buildings. Happy hovered in the air at Lucy's shoulder; both still had solid black eyes. And neither looked pleased by the turn of events.

"This isn't over, yet," Natsu said. Only Gray and Gajeel heard him. They followed his gaze to the blonde and unconsciously took up battle stances. Lucy put a hand on her hip and laughed. The twisted sound bubbled up from her throat. The wrongness of it brought everyone's attention back to her.

"We don't want to fight you, Lucy," Gray called out. "We just want to help you get back to normal. The dragons are gone, which means Rogue probably is, too. Come back to us."

She stopped laughing and stared at him with dead eyes.

"You think I care that the dragons are gone?" She asked quietly. "You think I care that Rogue has been defeated? Fuck the dragons. Fuck Rogue. I only helped him because I want to watch things burn. I don't need Rogue to do that, though. I can destroy you on my own."

She pulled out a golden key.

"I'm so sorry about this, Luce," Natsu whispered. Then, he let out a full-powered fire dragon's roar directly at her. A scream tore through the air, and when the smoke cleared, Lucy stood as she had been but her eyes were wide with shock. A small figure hovered in the air in front of her for a moment before crumpling to the ground; its fur was singed so badly that it was impossible to tell the original blue color.

"Natsu, you don't want to hurt Lucy," the Exceed mumbled before passing out.

"Little blue?" Lucy whispered. She knelt down and picked up the cat gently to cradle him to her chest. "I didn't mean you, you stupid cat. When I said I wanted to watch things burn, I didn't mean you."

"Happy…" Natsu said. He looked stricken, and it hurt even more to know that could have been Lucy instead. He just wanted to burn the shadows out of her, to wash away the taint of Edo-Rogue. He could have killed her. Natsu hit his knees, and a tear slid down his cheek. He hadn't thought what the fire could do instead of freeing her. Now, he didn't know if Happy would survive the blast.

As Natsu stared blankly ahead, Lucy gently laid the Exceed among the nearest dragon bones. Shadows swirled around her wildly as she stood back up to face her guildmates.

"Now you really will suffer," she said flatly. She pulled out a key.

"I don't want to fight you, Lucy," Natsu said. "Happy was right. I don't want to hurt you."

"I'll fight you," a new voice said. Everyone turned to see Sting standing next to the remains of the ice dragon with his smirk firmly in place and his arms crossed over his chest. He strode closer to Lucy, and she quirked an eyebrow at him.

"And you are?"

"Oh, forgotten me already, Sunshine? I'm wounded," Sting said. He brought a hand to his chest and sighed in mock dejection. "And after we had so much fun together."

"Cut it out, Sting," Natsu snapped. "I won't let anyone hurt Luce."

Sting strolled up to Natsu and bent down to where the fire dragon slayer was still kneeling. He leaned in to speak quietly.

"I know what I'm doing, Natsu. You can't help her now. I can. Stay out of it."

He straightened again, and the two slayers stared at each other for a long moment before Natsu gave a minute nod. Sting smirked and turned back to face Lucy.

"So how about it, Sunshine? You wanna go?"

Lucy's evil giggle bubbled up again.

"Sure you can handle me, hot stuff?"

"Oh, I know I can, but I have a condition: just you and me, no spirits," he said.

"Fine by me," Lucy replied. Shadows formed around her hands as more wisps coated the rest of her body.

Sting concentrated his power into his fists as he lunged at the blonde. She dodged the hits while striking at him with the butt of her whip. They ducked and weaved through the dragon skeletons while throwing kicks and punches at each other. Neither held anything back. Sting glanced a blow off her shoulder as Lucy nicked his calf with a kick. Sting grinned as they kicked up dust, and Lucy answered with a grin of her own.

"You're pretty good at this, Sunshine," Sting said. He crouched to dodge a high kick and came up punching. She twirled away from the hit as she threw a fist at his ribs. He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him to whisper, "Makes me wonder what other physical activities you'd be good at."

"Oh I just bet you'd like to find out," Lucy said huskily. "Maybe after I kick your ass, you can. If I don't kill you, that is."

She kneed upward, aiming for his crotch, but Sting released her arm and jumped backwards. He punched at her stomach with a fist coated in white light, which she blocked with shadow-covered arms. The shadows burned away at his touch, and Lucy leaped away from him, hissing from the slight pain.

"You know, it's kind of refreshing that you aren't spouting some bullshit about getting me back to normal or how I'm not still the woman you fell in love with," Lucy said as she launched a fist of shadows at his face. Sting stepped back from the blow, catching her arm once more and pulling her close.

"Oh but you are the woman I fell in love with, Sunshine," Sting whispered in her ear. Lucy gripped his wrist and used his body as a balance to flip over him, kicking him in the back as he lost his hold on her. He surveyed her for a moment as she glared at him. "The others don't see it: the sassy, strong woman with a bit of a sadistic twist. They don't want to see it because you only show them the brightness of the sun and a kind heart. But I know this side of you has always been in there. Even the sun has spots of darkness."

He smirked before leaping back at her. Lucy was too preoccupied with puzzling through his words to react in time. Sting tackled her to the ground, and she once again found herself pinned under a man with her hands and legs trapped. She opened her mouth to call out a spirit, but Sting had both of her wrists clasped in one hand, and the other came up to cover her mouth.

"Ah, ah, nope, not happening, Sunshine," he said. "I don't know if you'll remember any of this after it's over, but I want you to know, I love your light and your darkness. The brilliant glow you show the world and those little specks of black you bury so deep I'm not sure you even know they're there. And I feel lucky to have seen them in our brief encounters. I like you when you're bubbly, and I'm definitely liking you the way you are right now."

Lucy stared up at him. She wanted desperately to break free of his grasp. She didn't like being caged like this. But she couldn't stop listening. She only had a few hours' worth of memories, but she felt that this—this acceptance—was something she wanted.

"As much as I love your darkness, it's time to bring you back to the light, so you can decide for yourself if you want to keep hiding it. A white dragon's holy light purifies all it touches. But I'll see if I can help kiss away the pain." Sting smirked as he finished his spiel. He bent down and removed his hand so his lips could meet hers. She found herself returning the kiss as a blinding white light surrounded them. Lucy felt it searing every part of her as the shadows that had clouded her mind withered and died. Sting's mouth captured her scream as pain enveloped her. But as soon as the pain came, it vanished, soothed by the purifying air of the white light and the distraction of his lips on hers.

Sting broke the kiss as the light faded. Lucy saw only spots as she tried to blink away the haze. He stood up and offered her a hand. She took it gingerly. He released her hand instantly when she regained her feet. Lucy stared around and tried to make sense of her surroundings. She seemed to be standing inside a giant skeleton.

Dragons. Shadows. Darkness.

The words whispered through her mind, but Lucy couldn't seem to make sense of the words or the images that accompanied them. She shook her head and turned to the dragon slayer beside her.

"I don't know that I've ever seen you without a smirk, kitty cat," she said lightly. Immediately, the smirk appeared. "Oh, there it is. Guess whatever's happened isn't really that bad after all."

"I'll let your guild fill you in, Sunshine," Sting said. "Come on. I'm sure they're waiting on us."

He led her out of the skeleton and over some rubble to the waiting members of Fairy Tail. Natsu held a still unconscious Happy close to his body. Most of the guild members were either seated or leaning on someone for support.

"Lucy, is it you?" Gray asked. He pulled himself from where he had been leaning on Juvia's shoulder to take a tentative step towards Lucy.

"Yeah, who else would it be?" Lucy asked in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Wait, we have to make sure it really is her," Cana said. "The first night in town we played a game, and you had to confess something. What was it and who to?"

Lucy blushed profusely and stammered incoherently for a minute before steadfastly refusing to answer the question.

"That's her!" Cana yelled happily. The guild members rushed her, and Lucy found herself at the epicenter of the largest group hug she had ever witnessed. Sting hung back not far from where Natsu was still crouched.

"Thanks for bringing her back, Sting," Natsu muttered. He stared down at Happy and wondered if the cat would be alright.

"Didn't do it for you," Sting said. "And don't worry about the Exceed. I'm sure he'll be fine. I don't sense Rogue's shadows in him. I doubt he was as heavily dosed as Lucy was, so your fire was probably sufficient to get rid of them, if a bit heavy-handed."

Sting turned to walk away; he had his own Exceed friend to find. He paused to throw one last glance at Sunshine. He could just barely see her face through the bodies swarming around her. She was smiling uncertainly as she tried to make sense of the things they were yelling over each other. He smiled slightly as he made his way through the debris. He was going to miss Dark Lucy; actually, he was going to miss Lucy in general.