NORMAL POV

The team have now split to 7 groups. Six groups are off to find the lacrimas and one group stays put to keep the mind link and maps going. They must hurry before it's too late. The sun is about to set. Hibiki has lost track of time even with his magic archive. Judging by how the sun is setting, they have less than an hour left before Nirvana activates.

"minna...how are you guys holding up there?" Hibiki asks his fellow men.
Eve inhales and exhales deeply balance his breathing and conserve what magical power he has left. "I'm okay here...the map is draining my magic slowly but I'll be okay."
"yeah..same goes for me." Says Ren.

" just a little further minna...the other teams ghave now reached their destined pathways so it's only a matter of time before they destroy it." Hibiki kept track of the other. Infront of him was a map of Nirvana's pathways of legs. It was yellow designed to clearly see the details. The red dots represent the teams running to their locations.

All is going smooth until...

*BEEP ...BEEP ... BEEP...BEEP*

"what is that sound?" Hibiki asked startled by the alarm.
"Hibiki..come check this out." Ren viewed another picture of the map to the lacrimas. In addition to the red dots, there were black mists coming towards the others.
"what is that?"Ren asked really worried
"Trouble." Says Hibiki. "Eve..contact the others..tell them what's happening."
"roger that." Eve started touching buttons and hightened the frequency level for hearing. "it's on."
"okay...minna can you hear me?" Hibiki mind linked the others.

(A/N: as always, '' represents different scenes)

"Nani? What's wrong Hibiki?" Erza made a halt fllowed by Happy and Lisanna.
"Hibiki...did something happen?" Lisanna questioned in her mind

"I think I know what you're going to say Hibiki...we've stopped cuz they're here." Gray said while glaring at the hundreds of black souls screaming

"Juvia has a bad feeling about these spirits." Says Juvia. She got on fighting stance.
"minna...be on guard..you never know what they'll do next." Meldy observed the sorrounding spirits.

"so you've noticed. Has anyone else seen it?" Hibiki gestured to other members.

"yeah...we see it..they are here too...slowly coming out of the walls." Lyon replied.
"they don't look too friendly." Says Cheria

"ahhhh!...t..these things look scary." Wendy shivered in fear while pointing at them
"No need to cry Wendy-san...I'm here to protect you..just get behind me." Sting offered the frieghtened bluenette

"that's Sting-kun for you..Sting-kun is not afraid." Lector praised.
"I'm scared..Fro wished Rogue-kun was here." Frosch hid behind Carla.

"I'll help fight too." Carla transformed into her human form.
"wow..Carla I didn't know you could do that." Lector was suprised.
"I only use it when it's important and this is important." Carla flickered her white hair.

"Ne Ne..I wanted to see Carla's human form again." Happy oogled about it.

"these souls are lost and are consumed by the darkness...they can not be left wandering around the outside world" says Kagura. She took out her sword and positiined it infront of her.
"Meow...Kagura-chan..I wanna give the first slash" Millianan extended her claws.

"men..you will not block our path." Ichiya took out his smelly parfum and blew it towards the souls but there was no effect. Ichiya stiffened and sulked on the other side of the tunnel
"please close you parfum bottle." Jura held is nose to seal out the foul smell.

"Minna listen up...these souls are blocking your way to the lacrimas. If you can defeat them all, then you can pass but you nned to hurry..time is runing out...once you get pass them, proceed to destroying the lacrimas." Hibiki informed.

"why are they here anyways?" sting asked

"In my opinion, I believe Zero put them there for us...it's blocking our way to make us use up all our magical power so when we do get near the lacrimas, we won't have enough energy left to destroy it...this is why teo or three people should go because with the power of Onyxx, the Lacrimas are two times stronger the old ones." Hibiki further explained

"Zero has done his homework..Impressive for a villain." Jura aknowledged Zero's plans.

"Minna..you know the plan..defeat them to get through but don't over use too much power..that's what he is expecting." Says Hibiki

All the wizards redead themselves for battle as the souls started coming towards them. They may be slow but they have strong holds to pull you into the darkness.

Natsu's POV

I can smell Lucy's scent. Just one more floor below and I can finally save her. The screams of lost souls from above are still heard even when I'm far below. I hope Rogue can handle those souls.

Running towards the center of Nirvana was all silent. No other voices was made. Until...I heard sobbing...that voice...I went further down the tunnel till I smelled those chocloates again. It's Lucy!

I didn't hesitate to punch the door open with my fire dragin fist. Once the smoke cleared off, I registered the image right before me. There was Lucy...trapped inside a glass lacrima. Tubes were flowing from it and running through the walls. Lucy was glowing. She was sobbing on the bottom part of the lacrima. I ran up to her and tried banging on the glass to wake her up.

"Lucy! Lucy! Wake up Lucy!" I know she heard me because her ears perked. Slowly, she lifted her head to see who it was. Her eyes were red from all the crying.

"Lucy...hang on..I'm gonna get you out of there." I tried to look for a spot where there may be a crack..there was none... "guess I'll have to make my own crack."

I started using all of my strength to crack the glass.

"Fire Dragon's iron fist first!" the glass was starting to show scratch marks. "that's a start"

"Roar of the Fire Dragon!" I lightly roared at the glass trying hard not to boil Lucy in the process. There! A crack has finally appeared. Okay one more attack.

"Wingslah of the Fire Dragon!" that did the trick! I heard the glass break into a million pieces. I ran over to Lucy's side and picked her up bridal style. The glowing marks on her stopped glowing. Wherever it spread, it stopped there. Half of Lucy's body is sky blue and half is still normal color.

"R...Rogue" she muttered. It seems she doesn't know that it's me who saved her. It hurts that she called for another person to save her rather than me. I have no right to feel hurt when I caused it in the first place.

I carried Lucy out of the room and into another tunnel towards the exit. I can't go back to the previous way..I might endanger Lucy.

"Lucy...I'm here...Just rest up.." I whispered to her ear. Lucy flinched after I said that. I think she noticed that it's not Rogue just by the sound of my voice. As if on cue, her weak state just disappeared and normal Lucy was now standing infront of me.

The sight of me made her eyes squeezed tight. She glared at me. Lucy was on defense mode. She was currently holding her whip right infront of me as if telling me to back off or get hurt.

"y..you dare touch me!" she spat
"Lucy..I know I hurt you but you need to rest up...you're still weak." As if my problem couldn't get any harder. She misunderstood what I just said just now.

"WEAK? WEAK? Me? I'm weak?!" I think she was referring to the other problem.
"n..no..not our other issue...I meant right now..you're hurt and need to rest up." I tried to explain it to her. An angry Lucy is not in my to do list.

Lucy didn't listen to me. I tried to calm her down by saying nice words to fully make her understand her condition. Instead of calming down, she went beserk and tried to slash my face with her whip. I can see it in her eyes. The pain I've caused her, the loneliness and the anger she has towards me.

Nothing can solve this problem now. Not even words. There's only one way to get inside her mind. Violence is a must.