Author's Note:

Hello all! It's Wednesday and time for a new chapter! And it's another double chapter to boot!

As always, a HUGE thanks to all my wonderful reviewers out there! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: WisdomDragon27, Firefly9917, Ikityan, KitsuneLover05, TheJSmooth, Lucinda, ravenqueen162, Leomae2.0, valerioux, Alice, kilatails, loopymama, and TheAvatarShadow. Equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers: stranger1999, Softkittypaw, and Kzykat.

For once I don't have much to say beyond that, except I hope you enjoy the new chapter! So on with the show! And stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter. :D


Natsu and Lucy ran out of the clearing like a fire had been lit under their tails – not that that would actually do anything to either of them, since Natsu would just eat the fire. But in any case, as soon as Makarov gave the signal that the trial had begun, it wasn't just them running out … everyone dashed off in search of the gravesite. Of course Lucy ended up being dragged behind Natsu, as usual, and very nearly tripped over about a million roots as they catapulted through the woods at top speed.

Eventually she ground them to a halt after running at full-tilt for several long minutes with seemingly no reason or rhyme. It wasn't easy either, she had to dig in her heels and throw all her weight back to prevent herself from getting literally dragged – and eating dirt wasn't on her list of to-dos.

Natsu nearly fell backwards when she put on the breaks, and then spun around, looking bewildered.

"What's up Luce? Why the heck we stoppin'?"

"Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Uh, to find this Mavis person's grave right?"

"Well yeah, but we can't just run around blindly and expect to trip over it! Not when we just have six hours to do it in! We need a plan!"

Natsu pouted for a moment and rolled his eyes. "Aw, fine I guess."

"First of all, a grave is typically in soil, and right now we're pretty much on bedrock. I mean the roots of these trees are all practically above ground. So, we need to find somewhere that has deeper dirt."

"Deeper dirt? Isn't that just a matter of how deep ya dig?"

Obviously he didn't get it. "I mean, dirt that's softer and easier to dig, Numbskull!"

"Oooh, yeah I guess that makes sense. But this is Fairy Tail we're talkin' about... They could dig a grave in anything."

He actually made a good point, which left them back where they started…at nada, plus zilch, and a dash of zero.

"Well…shoot. Yeah, I guess you're right. Damnitall."

He grinned broadly at being right, seeming to ignore the fact that it just made their search harder. "See? So let's just keep goin'! I'm sure we'll find it sooner or later."

"Sure, but how much later? We only have six hours!" If she was going to have to remind him about the time limit every few minutes, this was going to get seriously tedious.

Just then, their conversation was rudely interrupted by an enormous crash that resounded through the nearby forest, and Lucy jumped, looking around for the source. Even more alarming were the deep thuds that were gradually building up intensity and making the ground vibrate. By the time an enormous, dinosaur-looking critter emerged from the tree line – literally, its head was way above it – Lucy was sure that there was more to this challenge than just finding a grave. They also had to survive the apparently prehistoric-sized creatures that inhabited this godforsaken place.

With a squawk that would have done a primeval bird proud, she turned to run in the opposite direction, which seemed like a pretty good idea when a thousand-pound creature of unknown heritage and temperament was barreling down on you. Natsu had other ideas of course, and with a fierce grin, he ran in the opposite direction…towards the thing.

When they passed each other, Lucy skidded to a halt and spun around, yelling, "Natsu! What the heck are you doing!?"

"I'm gonna see if this thing knows were Mavis's grave is!"

"Say what now?!"

She gaped as he flung himself at the huge beast and fire coated his fist. With a bang that sounded like Thor had decided to play one of those strong hammer games at the fair, the dragon's fist met the dino's face, and suddenly a big scaly green body was plummeting nose first into the soil, practically on top of Lucy. With another primitive sound, the celestial mage scrambled back to avoid becoming a pancake.

She was gearing up for an epic scolding on how Natsu should aim his victims – when he did something that derailed her tirade. He jumped on the thing's snout, grabbed one nostril, and yanked hard, asking, "Where's Mavis's grave!?"

The green creature's enormous snoot wrinkled up in discomfort as Natsu pulled on it, and the dino whimpered surprisingly pathetically, before grunting, "I don't know!"

The voice was deep and nearly incomprehensible, but the fact that it answered at all had Lucy's jaw nearly touching the ground in shock.

Natsu, on the other hand, was completely unfazed by the spectacle of a talking dinosaur, and just grinned, releasing his prisoner with a friendly wave. "Oh, okay then. Thanks!"

As he turned and sidled off back into the woods – looking for all the world like he was just taking a Sunday stroll through the park – she followed him with her eyes and slack jaw, still unsure if that had really happened or if some funny mushrooms were sprouting hallucinogenic spoors into the air. Of course, with what they'd already seen of this island, she really wouldn't be surprised by anything.

They continued on for a bit but didn't make any more progress … which wasn't a surprise given that they were still walking around in blind circles.

"Hey Natsu…we still don't know where we're going." she eventually pointed out, and snagged the tail of his scarf to make sure he actually stopped with her.

A sound like, 'Urp!' came from him as he was pulled to a stop, but by this point he was so used to her using his scarf like a leash that he didn't even comment. Instead, he just stopped and turned to face her, looking around and scratching his head in a manner that said he had no idea what to do either.

Eventually he just sent her a grin and asked, "Well, what d'you wanna do?"

"I don't know! There has to be some sort of rhyme or reason to it!"

They both looked around some more – an effort in futility if ever there was one since they were surrounded by trees and couldn't exactly see very far. It wasn't as if the grave was just going to pop out of the bushes and yell, "Here I am!"

"Hey! How about we go to the top of that huge tree!" Natsu eventually suggested, looking up at the massive umbrella of foliage that they could still see through the branches of their patch of trees.

"There's no way a grave could be in the branches of a tree. It's gotta be in the ground. However … getting a bird's eye view is not a bad idea."

He perked up from the slight pout he had started sliding into. "Yeah?"

"Yeah!" She nodded, warming to the idea even more. "If we fly around the island, maybe we can see this grave from above!"

"Alright! I'm all fired up!" He pumped his fist in the air, a broad grin splitting his lips now that they had a plan and weren't just standing around talking about it.

As he stepped forwards and reached for her, she thought better of it though and warded him off with her hands up. "I think I'd better ride piggyback, so I can see over your shoulder and help look. If you carry me like you usually do, I won't be able to look down at the ground."

He blinked and then shrugged before turning around to present her his back. "Hop on then, and let's get the lead out!"

She placed her hands on his shoulders and hopped a little to hoist herself up – with the help of his hands under her thighs – and then wrapped both arms and legs tightly around him. Her limbs clenched even tighter – probably nearly strangling him – when a blast of heat cooked the nearby foliage and his wings popped out on either side of her.

She'd seen them plenty before, but she had never ridden him like this or been on his back when his wings extended. So understandably she was shocked by the tingling rush of magic and the sensation of his back rippling under her chest. His muscles and tendons slithered under his skin like a mass of snakes as they rearranged to connect to the pair of wings that emerged, and she couldn't help but flinch as the two massive red appendages snapped out on either side of her ribs.

It also took a little adjustment for Natsu, having her on his back.

Normally, he would have taken off right then and there as soon as his wings were out, but with Lucy between them, he had to flex a little to make sure this was even gonna work. He couldn't bring them fully together, which would make taking off a bit harder, but shouldn't affect his flying too much otherwise. Lucy grunted a little in his ear when he squeezed her between his wings, and he felt her squirm into a better position. He tightened his grip on her thighs and helped hoist her higher up on his back, thoroughly enjoying the feel of her boobs squishing against him as she did so.

Lucy wasn't sure what he was doing, only that he was moving his wings around like he was stretching or something, and his wing muscles were surprisingly powerful. When he squeezed her between them, she was a little worried that he would crush her or pop her off his back, but he only did that a couple of times before he figured out how far back his wings could go with her there.

Then, suddenly they were taking off. All she had as a warning was the way Natsu suddenly crouched and how all his muscles bunched up under her. The wings flanking her arched up, and then they were airborne. It all happened so fast that she hadn't quite prepared herself, so she yelped and clenched him tightly with both arms and legs at the abrupt jerk upwards. His wings pumped faster than normal to get them airborne – probably because of her – and they bounced off a couple of branches on the way up.

Once they'd cleared the tree line, Lucy risked opening her eyes and then stared down in shock at the ground falling away beneath them. It was obvious that he couldn't climb as fast with her between his wings, but he was still getting some pretty good altitude fairly quickly. Abruptly, Lucy realized she'd never actually spent all that much airtime with him. Their flights had always been a matter of him catching her and then quickly landing, or else flying close to the ground from point A to point B…. But they hadn't ever flown together way up high for any length of time.

Somehow it felt very different from when she flew with Happy. She didn't know how really, maybe it was because she was essentially ridinghim instead of being carried. Maybe it was because the way he flew was so different – his wings beat much slower and stronger than Happy's, and that meant the ride had an up and down motion that she wasn't used to. They dropped what felt like a full foot through the air every time his wings swept up, and then jumped back up on the downbeats.

She could practically feel the power in his body, as if she was perched on top of a coiled spring, and she had the unnerving sensation of sitting in a very dangerous place…like a bomb could go off under her butt at any moment. Even though Happy could go super-fast, there was a palpable difference in raw power and untamed energy. It was like the difference between…. riding a very speedy pony and a Clydesdale. Then again, what should she have expected? She was comparing a magical flying cat and a dragon for heaven's sake.

He rose through the air so much faster than he should, given his size, and it left her breathless as they broke through the canopy and careened up towards the Tenrou crown. By the time they were level with the branches of that massive tree, her adrenaline was running wild through her veins, and the sound of her heart almost overpowered the sound of Natsu's wings beating.

It wasn't just fear though that had her pulse so fast though … there was a thrill too that made chills run wild all over her body and butterflies pound away in her stomach. If butterflies could resemble Gajeel at all, she could totally see the ones currently assaulting her as metal studded.

Natsu must have felt her heart beating against his back, because once they'd reached the height he wanted, he spread his wings and started a glide, his legs stretching out behind him as they moved forwards.

"You scared or something?"

The only reason she could hear his words over the air going past her ears was because the side of her head was pressed up against his.

"Uh…a little," she admitted, clutching him tightly and staring at the island so far underneath them.

"You'll be fine." he chuckled, tilting a little to start spiraling around the island. "So where do ya wanna start?"

"Um…" She glanced down and stared at the geography, trying to spy anything that looked like it might be a good grave site. Nothing popped out at her, so she just sighed and suggested, "I guess let's start at the coast and then spiral inwards?"

"Sure!"

And with that, he laughed and apparently decided to try and scare the ever-living-daylights out of her, because he suddenly dove down to get a slightly closer look – leaving her stomach and ability to scream behind them somewhere.

He sharply pulled up after a short ways, with powerful wing beats that plastered her to his back and made her feel like a hippo was trying to catch a ride on top of her. Then he started flying around the coastline as they both looked carefully for any sign of a memorial. When none showed up, Lucy squeaked again as Natsu made another of those powerful, fast, unpredictable movements and shot back up into the air. By this point she was starting to think she should have compared him to a bucking bronco. Every simple turn, dive, and climb threatened to unseat her as the air and gravity worked to yank her off him in a hundred different ways….and that wasn't even considering his more acrobatic aerial maneuvers.

Eventually though – after flying around for a little while – Lucy started to relax and increasingly enjoy it as the sensation of absolute freedom set in. Feeling him moving under her became less and less of a worry as she grew accustomed to how he flew. The unpleasant swoops in her tummy quickly changed to much more pleasant flutters of excitement, and her grip on him loosened just a little as she looked around more freely.

When she spied a dark spot on the ground below she pointed it out. "Hey Natsu, look at that!"

He immediately dove down for a closer look, and she gasped at the abrupt drop, but ended up laughing instead of afraid as her stomach did a summersault. The dark spot turned out to be nothing, so he built up speed to climb again, and Lucy found herself raising her head to feel the air fly past.

"Starting to enjoy yourself?"

"Hm?" she questioned, not quite hearing him since she'd been sitting up a bit and looking around.

"I said, are you havin' fun now?"

"Yeah actually! It's still a little freaky, but as long as I don't think too hard about it, it's really pretty fun!"

"Good!"

She saw his broad grin out of the corner of her eye and felt some of his tense muscles relax just a little.

After that, they started having a little more fun with it, swooping through the air and making sharp turns as they canvassed the island, spiraling in from the edges. She had to make sure to keep him on track though, otherwise he would start peeling off in a random direction – his attention being caught by something else. He always grumbled a little when she redirected him, but would return to their charted course with a sigh. Occasionally though, if he'd been really interested in checking out whatever had distracted him, he would do a barrel-roll in retribution, and she would screech bloody murder.

"What are you doing?! Do you want me to drop off and die!?" she exclaimed after the second time, and he just laughed.

"You wouldn't drop off, I've got a good grip on you. And besides, even if you did fall off, I'd just double back and scoop you out of midair. No problem."

"No problem he says…" she muttered sourly, displeased by his assessment. "Yeah right, you wouldn't be the one free-falling."

She could practically feel him rolling his eyes at her. "We've really gotta get you more comfortable with this, Luce."

It would be handy to have, she had to admit. Being comfortable flying, and maybe even fighting midair, could prove very useful. But to even consider going into battle with her on his back, he was right. She would have to get a lot more comfortable flying with him… which meant more training. Knowing him though, there was no doubt in her mind that he wouldn't make it easy for her, and they'd end up doing all sorts of terrifying acrobatic feats midair.

"Alright, we'll work on that after the trials," she conceded with a slight groan, and practically felt the vibration of excitement go through him – which certainly didn't make her feel any better about her decision.

"But until then, try and keep your flying a little smoother please! I keep feeling like you're gonna knock me off!"

"Fine, fine," he agreed, though she could hear the tone of a pout in his voice. Thankfully though, he did smooth out a bit and stopped making such unexpected dramatic maneuvers.

That made the rest of their flight much more pleasant for Lucy, and also helped her to focus on the task at hand … which was to find a stupid needle in the form of a grave in a haystack the size of an island. After another hour of searching, Lucy was starting to worry that it was underground or something and had no landmarks that they could see from above.

After a bit more searching, they were diving down for a closer look at a promising ravine, when suddenly something distracted her from her task. A strange shape off to the east caught her attention, and she glanced that way for a second only to look again when it registered as not normal. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a ship. She decided to keep an eye on it while they continued to hunt for the grave and was rather alarmed when she determined that the thing was slowly getting closer and appeared to be heading right at them.

When the unidentified object hadn't changed course at all after another couple of rotations around the island, Lucy gave it a little more attention and stared hard at it. It seemed to be a flying airship of some sort, kind of like the one she'd heard Blue Pegasus had. But this was Fairy Tail's sacred ground … there was no reason for anyone to come here.

"What's got you so tense Luce? Is something wrong?"

"Oh, uh…do you see that thing over there?"

He turned to look and then cocked his head. "Yeah…what about it?"

"It looks like a ship right? I've been watching it for the last thirty minutes or so, and it's definitely heading this way from what I can tell. And it's going pretty fast."

"Do ya think it could be part of the S-Class Trials?"

"I guess…maybe. But something about it just doesn't seem right."

"Let's go check it out then."

Before she could protest, he was already swinging in that direction, and they were off.

Natsu could be damn fast when he wanted to, and Lucy abruptly had to duck her head when it felt like the air resistance was going to either rip her head off or tear her clean from Natsu's back. Even with her face pressed into his shoulder, she had to close her eyes to prevent them from watering. Maybe investing in a pair of goggles would be a good idea. The wind also nearly deafened her as it roared by her ears, and she didn't even want to think about what it was doing to her hair.

Before she knew it, they were coming up to the suspicious vehicle, and she had the presence of mind to shout in his ear, "Go underneath! If it is an enemy, we don't want them to know we're here!"

Thankfully he heard her and angled down, taking them rather alarmingly close to the water, and sea spray stung her cheeks. As soon as they were directly underneath, he pulled up. The ship wasn't anything she'd ever seen before - that was for sure - and it just made her more uneasy.

"Bring us up the side, slowly though," she muttered, knowing he would hear her since she had pressed her jaw to his.

He followed her directions for once, and they edged up one side. Then they circled the massive vehicle, looking for any markings that could give them a hint as to where this thing came from. As they rounded that side, Lucy suddenly spied a guildmark stamped across the wood and pointed to it, guiding Natsu a little closer.

When she was able to see it clearly, her heart dropped into her stomach and she urgently muttered, "Down! Go down!"

Hearing the insistence in her tone, he dropped – nearly leaving her behind – and they ended up inches from the water underneath the ship.

"What is it Luce?"

"This is a ship from Grimoire Hearts! A super-powerful dark guild that's kind of dropped off the map for a couple of months now. Nobody knows what they've been up to or why, but it's not good that they're here! We've gotta get back and warn the others!"

"Why don't we just go up there and ask why they're here? If they pick a fight, we can just blow 'em up."

"No way Natsu! Grimoire Hearts is one of the most powerful dark guilds out there! We can't take them on by ourselves. Hurry! We have to get back to camp!"

She could feel the vibration of his grumbling, but thankfully he listened to her and shot across the water back to the island at top speed. They were there in seconds, though Lucy had left her breath somewhere behind them. She directed him to the best of her ability to the Fairy Tail headquarters camp where all the teams who had lost were supposed to report. It took a couple of passes – because Natsu overshot it – but finally they careened down towards the collection of popped up tents.

They landed in a shower of dirt and sparks as Natsu softened the impact with some fire, and Lucy dropped off his back and hit the ground running…. or would have if she hadn't tripped … skipped a few steps … fell … skidded into a roll … and scrambled back to her feet. Then she hit the ground running.

She could see that Erza, Mira, Juvia, Wendy, Cana, Freed, and Bickslow were all eating food in the mess tent, so she made a beeline straight for them, waving her arms manically to get their attention.

Erza was the first to notice Lucy, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Lucy? You aren't supposed to be here until the end of this round, which is in…one hour and twenty-four minutes."

"Never mind that! Natsu and I just saw an enemy ship approaching the island, and when we went to investigate, I saw the guildmark for Grimoire Hearts!"

Instantly everyone within hearing range was paying attention and turned to look at her. "Grimoire Hearts? Are you sure?" Mira asked, her eyes tight and worried.

"Positive."

By this point Natsu had trotted up to stand next to her.

"Did anyone see you?"

"I don't think so…"

She glanced at Natsu, and he just shrugged.

"This is a deeply concerning situation…" Erza mumbled, frowning and looking deadly serious.

"That's putting it mildly." Laxus calmly commented, but his expression was anything but serene. "We need to come up with a plan STAT." His eyes shifted to his green-haired companion. "Freed, you should put up a defensive enchantment all around this camp, layer multiple if you have time, and make them as strong as you can."

"Good idea." Mira approved, and Freed instantly jumped up and started doing as the leader of the Thunder Legion requested.

"Yes, Laxus, right away."

As he ran off to start his first enchantment, Mira stood as well. "We should split up and try to find the others as quickly as possible. Right now, we're missing Gray and Loki, Elfman and Evergreen, Gajeel and Levy, Carla and Happy, and Master Makarov."

"Carla and Happy aren't here?" Lucy instantly latched onto that information, and a zing of worry stung her heart.

"No, they left a little while ago to go fishing. I think it was a date…" Mira very briefly slipped into her matchmaking mode, but snapped back to seriousness almost instantly.

Naturally, Erza took charge of the situation and started issuing commands. "Five of us should go and search for them, each one of us after a single team. As soon as you locate one of the missing teams, return with them immediately. In thirty minutes we should all return and see who we're still missing. The rest of us should stay here for the time being so our forces aren't too divided."

"We need some sort of signal system, so if anyone runs into trouble they can send an SOS of some sort." Cana suggested logically, and Lucy was totally on board with the suggestion.

"I agree. For my signal I can send up a celestial firework." Lucy offered, knowing she could use any of her keys to send up a signal flare of golden light.

Erza nodded. "That will work. Who else will go?"

Laxus shrugged. "I guess I will."

"We all know what your signal will be." Mira teased lightly, and despite the serious situation, a smile quirked his lips.

"How will we tell the difference between an SOS lightning strike and one from just fighting though?" Erza asked.

He heaved a sigh. "Not that I think I'll need it, but if something does happen, I'll send up some lightning and terminate it in a fireworks display like Blondie." He jerked his thumb at Lucy.

"I'll go as well." Juvia announced. "And send up water fireworks if I need assistance."

Cana also volunteered and said she'd send up actual fireworks from one of her cards. Wendy offered to go with her, but everyone nixed the idea, saying she needed to stay in the medical tent and conserve her energy for healing. Erza was the last volunteer and said she would send up red fire fireworks from her flame empress armor in case of an SOS.

Once decided, they all split off and left the rest to protect the camp. Lucy jumped back onto Natsu, and he took off again, since searching by air would be the fastest way to go about it. As soon as they took to the sky and got some altitude, Lucy noted that the enemy ship had already docked at the shore.

"Shit, they're already here."

"Better find the others and warn them then." Natsu grunted, already looking for any sign of life down in the trees.

They flew around in circles for a while, until Lucy spotted a flash of orange and blue dashing down a forest path they were flying over.

"Natsu! There!"

Instantly, he dove into the trees and landed, nearly scaring poor Levy half to death. She threw herself into the nearby bushes to take cover.

"Levy! It's us!"

A blue head poked back out of the leafy foliage. "Luce? Luce!"

As she dashed out from her hiding spot, Lucy got a good look at her clothing and her body – which were both all beaten up.

"What happened Levy?!"

"I don't know! These two weird guys suddenly jumped us and attacked! Is this part of the Trial?"

"No, Grimoire Hearts is attacking us for some reason. Natsu and I saw their ship approaching, and we just went to warn the others. Five of us are all searching for the people scattered over the isle, and the rest are setting up a defendable base. Where's Gajeel?"

"He's back in the clearing…. He ordered me to run and get help."

Hearing this, they all dashed back the way she had been coming and followed her back to the clearing she spoke of. When they got there, Gajeel was just finishing with some strange looking creature. It was half man and half…bird or lizard of some sort. They also quickly found out that it spat fire when its beak opened and roasted all the trees nearby – and since they happened to be running up behind Gajeel, it nearly cooked them too. Thankfully they happened to have a dragon with them, and Natsu just opened his mouth and sucked in all the fire before they could get scalded.

"Urg…cockatrice flames. Disgusting." He groaned and coughed out a smoke ring, looking a little green around the gills.

"You okay?"

"Yeah…they're just nasty sons of bitches. Poisonous everything, even their fire."

At that, anxiety sparked Lucy in the butt. "Their fire is poisonous!? Are you sure eating it was a smart idea?!"

He smirked. "It might technically be poisonous, but I can eat any fire. It'll just give me a little reflux." So saying, he hiccupped and then burped, grimacing.

Meanwhile, Gajeel had just swung his iron dragon blade down through the thing, and it disappeared in a puff of black smoke and feathers, leaving them all to blink at it in surprise.

"Did that thing just…disappear?" Levy asked, wobbling a little on her feet.

"It looked exactly like one of my celestial spirits…"

"Close. But it's a demon, not a celestial spirit." Natsu corrected, and for once his voice was completely serious, without a single jovial tone in it.

"A demon…?" Lucy started, but cut off when Gajeel suddenly keeled over and took a face full of dirt.

Levy ran over to him instantly, crying out something panicked that sounded like it could have been Gajeel's name. When she reached him, she hit the ground on her knees and checked for vital signs.

"So is Metal Head still ticking over there?" Natsu asked, and Lucy elbowed him hard in the ribs for being so callous. "I know he's still alive Luce…I can smell it," he grunted, squinting at her.

"Then why did you ask?!"

He shrugged. "Seemed like the thing to do."

Rolling her eyes at him, she ran over to her blue-haired friend who was sobbing with relief next to Gajeel's passed out body. With a gesture, she had Natsu joining her, and they hoisted him up between them to drag back to camp.

It was slow going, especially in contrast to how fast they had gotten there, but eventually they did crest the last hill that hid their camp from view and started down into the little basin.

"Oh my goodness! What happened?" Mira asked as they dragged Gajeel into the healing tent and dropped him on one of the cots that had already been set up.

"Grimoire Hearts is already here and on the attack it seems. Although…" Lucy glanced at Natsu, wondering what all this talk about demons was about. "The guy disappeared as soon as Gajeel ran him through. So we aren't dealing with just normal mages here."

"There's at least one demon that we know of. But probably more." Natsu added seriously.

Mira's eyes widened, and she kept glancing at Natsu as she helped Levy onto a cot as well. "Demons? Are you sure?" She, at least, seemed to know what he was talking about, and from her reaction it didn't seem like a good thing.

He nodded gravely, still acting very out of character. "Positive. Ya can't trick a dragon's nose."

"Well, this changes things…"

"Um…demons? You mentioned that before, and I'm still not entirely sure what it means." Lucy questioned, and Levy nodded along.

"They're like…well, they're kinda like celestial spirits really. They have keys and gates that lead to Asphodel… the demon realm. They can be summoned, and when you hurt one bad enough they go poof and disappear back to their realm."

"That sounds just like celestial spirits actually…"

"Yeah, pretty much. The only difference is that they live in a different world and their magic is different from ours."

"How is your magic different exactly?" Levy questioned, with that particular tone she got when her curiosity was peeked and she was going into bookworm mode.

"Dunno really." He shrugged. "It just is. Feels different, smells different. And they can generally use spells, which they call curses…kinda like Frito."

"Frito…?" Lucy questioned, not knowing who he was talking about, until she followed his head nod and saw that he was looking at Freed. The mirth at having Freed called 'Frito' nearly made her bust out laughing and forget about the serious nature of their conversation, but she contained herself at the last second. Levy seemed to have the same problem, as did Mira.

"So, celestial spirits don't use enchantments?"

He curled his lip. "Not usually. Our magic's generally more elemental. Although I know a few who can use divination magic, which is basically the same thing. Even Old Man Crux uses divination, though he calls it Archive, since that's what you guys know it as."

"And demons don't use elemental magic?" Levy asked.

"They use all kinds. Depends on the demon. The higher-level ones can do all kinds of crazy shit. But ya always wanna watch out for curses whenever you go up against one – even the low-level ones – 'cause they can get pretty nasty."

"So they've got levels? Is it like the silver, gold, and mythic keys of the celestial realm?"

He nodded and sent her a grin. "Yep. You got it. They've got iron, copper, and mythic keys. Though they call 'em blood, life, and soul keys."

"Why are their keys made of less precious metals?" Levy asked, and Natsu couldn't help but snicker.

"That's only to you humans, although we tend to razz them on it. Basically it just has to do with silver and gold being sky metals, and iron and copper being earth metals." He shrugged.

"Let's not get distracted. What do you think they want?" Mira interjected finally and got everyone back on track.

"First let's get everyone back together and then we can all swap info. Our first priority should be finding everyone." Lucy was the one to interject this time, and the others nodded.

"True, we're still missing quite a few guildmembers."

"Let's go back out and do some more searching." Lucy suggested, meeting Natsu's gaze and asking him silently if it was okay with him. He just grinned broadly.

"I'm in! Let's go Luce!"

And with that, they were off. Once again she found herself astride his back and clutching him tight as he flew in his unpredictable way…. Natsu was a firecracker both on and off the ground.

They spent the next few minutes scanning the ground for any sign of human life, when an explosion and a loud crash drew their attention. Flying closer, they arrived in time to see a smoking figure get tossed above the tree line and then plummet back into the foliage a good ways away. Natsu needed no prompting from her to go and investigate, and they were off like a shot, barreling down through trees that tried very hard to rip Lucy from his back.

When they hit the ground though, Lucy didn't have any time to pay attention to the cuts, torn clothing, and leaves left on her person, because lying on the ground was Master Makarov, badly beaten and nearly unconscious.

"Master!" she cried and dashed to his side, with Natsu pelting along right with her.

"What happened?!"

"Don't worry kids…I'm-" He paused to cough, and then continued. "- alright. Erza has already told me the situation."

"You've seen Erza? Why didn't you two return to camp then?"

"We ran into a tough enemy, and Erza was still fighting him when I got tossed over here. Damn it…I should be fighting with my children…" he coughed some more and then wheezed a little.

"Who did this to you? Is it the enemy Erza's fighting?"

"No … I confronted Precht … Grimoire Hearts' guild master … before she arrived. I'm ashamed to say he tanned my hide pretty good. He has acquired some new, and very … dark and powerful magic…"

That was distressing news indeed, if the master of Grimoire Hearts could beat Makarov so thoroughly. They really needed to regroup and consider their options if the enemy they were facing was this dangerous.

Right as they were getting ready to scoop him up and return to camp, another huge noise resonated through the trees, though from a different direction this time. Given how bad Makarov was hurt, they generally would have ignored it and left it up to whoever was doing battle over there, but the sound of a familiar voice crying out loudly in pain drew them up short.

"Carla!" Happy's voice rang through the trees, sounding both like he was in pain and also afraid for his lady love.

Makarov was still conscious, and with a grunt he waved them off. "Go check that out, it sounds like Happy is in trouble. I'll be fine here."

Torn, Lucy glanced back and forth between him and the direction of Happy. Thinking fast, she pulled out one of her golden keys and sent up some fireworks to show that they needed help.

Almost before she had finished her fireworks, another bright flash of light appeared, and Amy stepped out. She took in the situation with sharp golden eyes and instantly transformed into her full wolf form. "We're under attack?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes, Grimoire Hearts attacked us during the Trials. We're in the process of regrouping back at camp."

Curling her lips back to bare her teeth, Amy growled in displeasure. "I'll come with you." Another couple of wolves appeared next to her. "Jeza…Waka, stay and protect him," she ordered, nodding at Makarov.

"We just summoned for help, so backup should arrive soon. We were going to investigate an explosion… I think Happy's in trouble." Lucy added urgently.

Amy nodded and turned to the two wolves flanking Makarov. "Tell whoever comes to take the master back with them to camp. We'll join them after investigating this explosion. Does that sound good?"

"Sounds perfect!" Lucy answered, and then called thanks to the other two wolves as she ran off, following Natsu – who had of course already carved a path of destruction through the trees heading for Happy. Amy quickly sprinted after her.

Right before they arrived on the scene, the ground suddenly shook as an enormous boom sounded and cracks resonated out towards her from where Natsu was. She tripped over the uneven ground and ended up catapulting herself out of the trees and tumbling onto the battlefield in probably the least intimidating way possible. Amy followed in a more dignified manner as she loped through the air.

"You okay Luce?!" Natsu asked from somewhere nearby.

"Yep…never better," she groaned and got to her hands and knees, which were both well bloodied from the rough landing.

"Ah. Good. There you are, Lucy Heartfilia." an unknown male voice said said in almost a pleasant manner, though there was also a drone to his tone that sounded nearly robotic or just extremely bored.

In the middle of peeling herself off the ground, she clumsily shot to her feet at the apathetic comment. Looking up, she saw a dark-skinned man around her age, surprisingly attractive, with shoulder-length dark green hair. He looked utterly calm, but she had to assume he was the one who had caused the earthquake that had shattered the ground she was now standing on.

Glancing around, she spied Happy and Carla off to the side and instantly diverted her attention to them, leaving the enemy to Natsu for the time being as she went to make sure they were still alive.

"Keep him busy for me Natsu!" she called over her shoulder and heard him chuckle darkly in response.

"You know it Luce. I've got a fire in my belly now." His tone was dangerous, which said he'd already seen their feline friends' states and was none too happy about it.

She skidded to her knees next to their limp forms. Happy's arms were wrapped around Carla, and it looked like he had tried to shield her from some sort of attack, because his back was all beat up, burnt, and crispy. Amy stuck close and guarded Lucy, keeping watch on the fight as Lucy checked on the two injured felines.

"Oh Happy…" she whispered, very gently reaching out and separating him from Carla so she could check their individual pulses.

Carla groaned and blinked blearily up at her, but Happy was out cold and flopped over lifelessly. Lucy hissed, terrified, and hurried to lift him into her lap so she could check his breathing and pulse. The weak, but steady, thrumming of his blood under her fingers on his neck gave her a wave of relief, and she sighed, her eyes watery as she very carefully placed him back down next to Carla.

"Wha-…what's happening…?"

"Shh, it's okay. You just rest Carla. Natsu and I will take care of everything, I promise," she whispered back to the white cat.

She scooped up both cats gingerly and looked around desperately for a safe place to put them. Two new wolves stepped forwards on either side of her, and she looked behind to see Amy nod at the wolves and then the trees, silently telling her to give Happy and Carla to them.

"…thank you…can you take them back to Makarov and your two comrades?"

The blue wolf near her nodded. "Yes…we'll take these two to where Waka and Jeza are standing guard over your master."

She gently lifted up Happy, and the blue wolf very carefully latched onto his vest with her teeth before taking off into the trees. Lucy repeated the process with Carla and the red wolf, and then she turned back around to the fight.

The loud sounds behind her suddenly made sense when she was met with the terrifying sight of a cyclone tearing up the ground of the cliff they were currently fighting on. It looked like the thing was going to destroy the very ground they were standing on and send them all plummeting to the craggy shore that she knew was lurking below. She'd seen those jagged rocks that looked like gnarly teeth on their many overhead passes around the island, and she was not keen to find out what it would feel like to fall on them. It wasn't her fault that the shore desperately needed the attention of a cosmic dentist, and like heck was she going to be punished for it.

The rebuffing winds that flew off the unexpected cyclone nearly knocked her back into the trees, and she had to dig in her feet and throw her weight forward into the wind to hold her ground. Amy also crouched to keep herself afoot and slowly inched backwards until she was standing right next to Lucy. Natsu though – who was much closer to the thing – was knocked off his feet and sent head over heels across the ground. Lucy's scream and horrified cry of his name were swallowed by the funnel of badness bearing down on them, and then it cut between them, carving a groove into the ground that cut her and Amy off from the fire dragon.

She couldn't see him and didn't know what was happening, at least not until a flash of pink flew over the edge of the cliff.

For anyone else, that would have been deadly, and even for him it was dangerous. A shot of terror bit her in the butt, her dread only mounting as the wind funnel curved and started in her and Amy's direction. With her attention forcibly refocused on the whirlwind of death, she instinctually grabbed her dragon key and forced his gate closed only to reopen it a second later.

Normally getting blasted by heat that felt like it was coming out of a thousand-degree kiln was less than comfortable, but for her, the wave of warmth was more like a lover's embrace than being baked alive. Somewhat surprisingly though, the heat and magic came from above her, but before she could question it, the answer was presented to her as Natsu landed practically on top of her.

Amy skidded to the side to make room for him as he forced Lucy down on hands and knees – which actually did feel more stable. Then he took a protective stance directly in front of her, his tail waving over her head and nearly clipping Amy's nose. He had transformed, his wings spread, his body armored with scales, his head crested with horns, and his fingers armed with claws. One might think a form with wings was not the wisest choice to go up against a tornado, but Natsu was nothing if not unconventional, and he used them to his advantage.

"Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" he bellowed, and the mythical appendages mentioned flexed back and pressed together. Fire built in the taut arched tents of red hide, and then he snapped them forwards impossibly fast. The fire that had built inside them lashed out in twin spiral infernos with a sound that rivaled the roar of their opponent's tornado. The flames almost acted like a massive pair of wings and slammed together, pinning the tornado between them and ripping it apart like flimsy tissue paper – flaring even hotter as the firestorm consumed all that wind.

Once the blaze died down, their opponent was revealed… and he seemed unimpressed. He just stood there and stared at them for a second, but the quiet didn't last when an enraged Natsu launched himself forwards and attacked. Flames coated him from head to toe and his massive aura flashed, revealing the true dragon he was for a brief second before he landed a hit. The demon – or whoever he was – staggered back, but when Natsu made a second attempt, he countered by just touching him and saying in a mildly bored tone, "…impact."

With a gasp, Natsu was tossed back like he'd been hit by a cannon ball and landed with a crunch, only for his momentum to continue tumbling him across the dirt in a vicious skid and roll until he finally hit a tree and came to a grinding halt.

"Natsu!" Lucy bellowed, and Amy flinched in sympathy.

His whole body shuddered, and he lay still for a moment, looking shell-shocked. To cover him, Lucy yanked out Scorpio's key.

"Open! Gate of the Scorpion!"

As soon as he showed up, all she had to do was point at the guy and Scorpio grinned and aimed his tail. "Wicked!"

Sand blasted the enemy, and while he was blinded she summoned Sagittarius – who she directed to shoot a volley of arrows. Expectedly, the enemy wiped out the blast of sand easily enough, this time with a weird sphere that popped with electricity. Both the sand and the lightning disappeared a moment later, only to expose Sagittarius's arrows that had been hidden in the sand funnel.

He took the projectiles, grunting and stepping back as they embedded in his body, but he still seemed relatively unruffled. That didn't bode well at all, so she quickly dismissed Sagittarius and summoned Leo.

"Sorry Leo, I know you were fighting with Gray. Can he handle whatever fight he's in right now without you?"

"He seemed to have it under control, don't worry. Juvia arrived right before you summoned me."

She sighed with relief and nodded, refocusing entirely on the fight. Juvia's Gray-Radar really came in handy sometimes.

Hoping to catch the enemy off guard, she combined Scorpio's sand attack with Leo's regulus light, making a hot molten mess of glowing glass that spewed right at him in the shape of a tornado. It was one of her most powerful attacks at the moment.

It backfired though, when the enemy intoned, "Cyclone," and his enormous wind funnel popped back into being. Their combined attacks got sucked into it, and suddenly hot sticky molten sand was sprayed every which way and they had to dodge. Scorpio got hit, cussed, and Lucy instantly sent him back to the celestial realm to heal. She was running low on magic anyways, so keeping two spirits out was becoming difficult.

"Dragon Wing Attack!" came the voice of Natsu, and she glanced over to see he had gotten back to his feet and was slapping aside the cyclone attack like a pesky fly once again.

"Good to see you up Natsu." Leo called, apparently having seen him collapsed earlier when she had summoned him.

"Oh don't worry, I'm all fired up now…" the incensed dragon growled, glaring at their opponent heatedly.

With the cyclone once again disappearing, it revealed their opponent, who had transformed into a larger, burlier version of himself. He now looked somewhat leonine, with a nearly catlike face and a mane of dark green hair that reached his midback. His hands and arms up to his elbows had gotten black and furry, as had his lower half up to his belly button. Bloody arrows lay discarded on the ground, and he didn't even seem hurt anymore. Apparently this form gave him super healing abilities.

Blandly he shoved his hand out, palm facing them, and said, "…impact."

Half a second later, the ground crumpled up like an invisible force had been propelled from him, and the violent earthquake carved towards them faster than they could dodge – although how they could dodge an earthquake in the first place Lucy wasn't sure. The answer was Natsu's wings and Amy's flight, and Lucy quickly sent Leo back to the spirit realm as she was whisked off her feet a second before the earthquake hit her. Amy had grabbed a mouthful of her shirt to yank her into the air, and Natsu quickly swooped in to grab her from the wolf's teeth.

They all flew up high for a moment to let the earthquake settle, and while they were up there Natsu surprised Lucy with a little jolt of fire as he infused her with his magic to bolster her flagging reserves.

Being up high also had the added benefit of giving them a bird's eyes view of their battle ground, and an idea came to her as she noted that the ledge they were fighting on was getting pretty unstable.

"Natsu, do you think your roar would be enough to take out the cliff? Maybe we can drop him down to the shore."

A fierce grin parted his lips and he nodded. "Good idea Luce! Let's knock him down a peg or two."

Amy already knew what was about to happen and made the intelligent decision to poof back to the celestial realm to avoid being cooked alive.

As for Lucy, she instantly felt the natural amount of intolerable body heat he always possessed increase exponentially, and it just keep getting hotter as he started to inhale. She'd only been this close to him when he roared twice before, and at the time she'd been worried about dying. So this time, she paid closer attention to it and was amazed and awe-stuck by the experience. The sensation of his chest expanding impossibly wide and magic building alongside some sort of deep rumble inside him – like a volcano about to erupt – was all fascinating. She knew exactly when he reached full capacity, because that deep rumble suddenly peaked, and she felt compelled to duck her head down tight.

The unbelievable heat in him – mostly unbelievable because it should have literally baked her alive – rose from his chest into his throat, and then got impossibly hotter when it poured from his mouth as he roared. Possibly the least comfortable part of it though, was the ear-shattering sound coming from his throat right next to her head.

The cracked ground under them didn't last long under the barrage of fire that could melt metal, and with a truly terrifying sound it shattered, sending enormous chunks falling to litter the already jagged shoreline. Of course, along with the cliff, went their enemy.

The rockslide lasted for all of a minute, and then the dust rose up in a column, making it hard to see much of anything at all. So, for a long moment they just hung there, until of course Natsu ran out of what little patience he did possess, and they dropped as his wings pressed back. Before she could scream at him and ask why he was letting them drop, his wings slammed back down, creating a concussion of wind that had her ears popping violently and painfully. The massive downlash of wind did clear out all the dust though, so they could see whether they had defeated the enemy with that last attack.

At first it seemed they had won, but then the rocks shifted and out popped their opponent, who was at least bloody and beat up, but still unfortunately kicking. Even worse, he seemed to regenerate as they watched, and Lucy's stomach sunk to her tailbone as dread crawled up her back.

"How are we gonna beat this guy?! He keeps getting right back up!"

"Just keep hitting him hard till he stays down," was Natsu's input.

They dove down to meet him, leaving a good portion of Lucy's insides behind at the sharp drop, and Natsu landed with an intimidating bang.

"You're one stubborn bastard, you know that?" Natsu griped, setting Lucy down. "Now come here so I can pound ya!"

Unsurprisingly, Natsu was already on the attack by the end of his last statement, and the two engaged in some vicious hand-to-hand combat. No matter how many hits he landed though, their opponent didn't seem fazed. Natsu was mildly more affected by their opponent's attacks, mainly because he didn't instantly heal in that annoying way this guy seemed to do. To her frustration, for a long moment Lucy couldn't do anything besides watch the fight unfold. They were going at it so fast and hard that there was no way for her to get in a whiplash without possibly hitting Natsu, and she couldn't see any of her spirits doing any better than her. Amy flashed back into existence though and stood beside her to watch the fight.

Eventually they separated, both breathing heavier than before, and eyeballed each other for a second. When she stepped forwards to lend assistance, Natsu just met her eyes and shook his head.

"Stay back Luce, I don't want you to get hurt."

She nodded and stepped back, putting a little distance between her and the brewing fight. Normally she would have protested…but in this particular instance, she was forced to agree that Natsu was probably the best match for their opponent. If she interfered, she might just get in her partner's way.

With that, he turned back to the hulking baddy and they locked eyes. After half a second, he flew at him again, but their enemy managed to not only block, but also lay a hand on him and throw him back, saying, "Impact."

As before, Natsu was tossed back on his ass at such a high velocity that when he hit a giant chunk of the cliff that had fallen off, he crashed right through it, and only came to a halt when he smashed into the new cliff face. A new Natsu-shaped hole was carved into the solid rock, and deep cracks resonated up through the land all around him. He hung there for a moment and then flopped over to perform a limp faceplant into the ground. Amy and Lucy both flinched, and the wolf's hair rose up all along her back as she snarled loudly and viciously at the enemy.

Like before, Natsu was left mostly immobilized and shell-shocked for a long moment, but he managed to struggle to his hands and knees when the enemy started towards him. At this point Lucy couldn't just stand back and watch. Amy flanked her as she dashed towards them at top speed.

Pulling her whip out, she snapped it forwards and latched it around the big lug's neck before yanking back hard to stall him out. He did stop but seemed unaffected by the stranglehold she had on him. However, it did give Amy an opportunity to launch herself at him and bite down hard on his shoulder in an attempt to drag him down to the ground.

He just used his impact curse again, and she was sent flying to splash down in the nearby ocean. Then, he turned to Lucy and after a second of staring, he held out a hand and said, "Sink."

With a gasp, she started to do just that as the ground under her seemed to suddenly turn to quicksand. He easily uncoiled the whip from his throat and derisively tossed it away while she was busy trying to figure out how badly she was in trouble. By this point Natsu had struggled back to his feet – though he was still pretty wobbly – but she couldn't really focus on that since all her attention was on how to get out of the sink hole she suddenly found herself in.

Amy slogged out of the ocean and shook her fur out with a snort of disgust. When sharp golden eyes scanned the battlefield and noted Lucy's predicament, she immediately dashed to her side and urgently barked, "Toss me your whip!"

"Okay!" Lucy obediently snapped her whip out to land on the ground by Amy's feet, and the white wolf quickly snagged the tail with her teeth before she started to pull. Using her whip like a rope, Lucy also helped get herself out of the quicksand bath by climbing out hand over hand, and between the two of them she eventually emerged muddy from the pool and flopped onto dry ground next to Amy with a breath of relief.

At that point she immediately looked back towards Natsu.

He was on fire of course and was sending fireball after fireball flying at the enemy, followed by punches and kicks. Apparently it was a bit much even for Mister Indestructible, because he caused another violent earthquake that knocked Natsu back. As he was peeling himself up off the ground and his fire started sputtering back to life, their opponent decided to use a different attack that proved most inconvenient for the fire dragon.

"Downpour," he intoned, and suddenly they were in the middle of a deluge.

Lucy's hair was plastered to her skull in a matter of seconds, and even Natsu's fire sputtered weakly under the unrelenting flood of water that washed over their heads. It even felt a little hard to breathe … the way it did when you stuck your face directly under heavy shower spray.

Seeing his fire flickering dangerously low had fear kickstart Lucy in the gut, and she scrambled to her feet before carefully and quickly picking her way around the puddle of quicksand with Amy. She made it around in time to get an up-close view of the enemy using impact once again on Natsu, sending him crashing back into the cliff face… which cracked and dropped rocks down onto him after he had crumbled to the ground. Seeing large and relatively sharp chunks of rock crash down on top of his motionless body had Lucy picking up her pace and a cry of dismay to tear from her throat. That was a pretty devastating hit even for a dragon, and it was the fourth or fifth of them he had taken. It had to have caused internal damage of some sort.

Amy dashed forwards at top speed as the enemy aimed another of those attacks at Natsu, and four more wolves popped into being flanking her. Two peeled off to go grab Natsu, each snagging a shoulder of his vest and picking him up between them to swiftly drag him out of the way, while Amy and the other two attacked their opponent. More wolves appeared, surrounding him, and they nipped at his heels and bit whatever part of him they could reach – which thoroughly distracted him from Natsu at the very least.

Meanwhile, Lucy was already grabbing for her keys as she closed the distance between them at a dead run, but she never had the chance to use them. The enemy intoned, "Impact," again – this time directed at the ground – and another earthquake radiated outwards from where his feet touched the dirt. All the wolves were knocked back, some of them thrown into various boulders and poofing back to the celestial realm, and others just landing hard on the ground.

A ripple of earth rushed towards Lucy as well, and suddenly the ground was ripped out from under her. Not only was she tossed back, but it felt like the power that had caused the ground to buckle hit her as well and nearly drove the air right out of her lungs. It slammed into her with the solidness of a train and drove her back sharply to slam into a nearby rock. Pain bloomed all along her back and side where she had met the rock at full force, and she couldn't quite keep the cry of pain from breaking out.

The impact was such that it shook her to the core, and the pain only emphasized her need to not move as she let herself fall limply at the foot of the rock. Water from the deluge still fell over her, and she felt like she was drowning, which forced her to weakly roll to her side so she could breathe.

Over the rushing of blood in her ears and water over her head, she heard their enemy start to talk and blearily glanced up towards him.

He was holding a strange communication lacrima of some sort in front of his mouth. "I found her."

A deep voice that sent shivers down her spine was barely audible through the other side. "Excellent, Tempester. Good work. Is she alone?"

"No, she is with the fire dragon Natsu Dragneel."

"I see. That pest. He's going to be a pain … you'd better drive him back to the celestial realm. Don't kill him if you can, we need his magic, but break him until he has no choice but to return home. As for the girl… bring her alive. Don't hurt her too badly."

"Understood. I can easily capture her and will return shortly."

With a click, he cut off the connection and then turned towards her. He eyed her, crumpled up on the ground, and then after a moment he formed a lightning ball in his palm, saying, "Thunderbolt." With an almost bored toss, he flung the curse at Lucy, apparently intending to shock her into unconsciousness or paralyses.

Seeing the bolt of lightning zip towards her, she made a mad grab for her keys and somehow managed to summon Pikachu at the last second possible.

Thankfully, as soon as her little rabbit spirit hopped onto the field, he immediately noted the problem barreling towards them. Standing on the tips of his back paws, he made himself as tall as possible and reached up with his front paws, acting like a lightning rod for the attacking electricity, and squeaked, "PIIIKAAAA" at the top of his lungs. The lightning hit him with a crack, and he easily redirected the flow to hit a nearby rock instead of Lucy…far enough away that the electricity didn't still zap her through the heavy water in the atmosphere.

For a long moment, Lucy just stared wide-eyed in shock, expecting another attack…which never came. Instead she was presented with the turned back of her enemy, who apparently couldn't be bothered to see if his attack landed or not – the cocky bastard. As soon as he had flung his attack at her, he'd turned towards her partner and started towards him.

Since she'd overheard his conversation, she knew what his goal was – to hurt Natsu badly enough to drive him back to the celestial realm. Unfortunately, she also knew her partner, and knew that he likely wouldn't return even if it meant he would die – he was too stubborn and too protective of her. Amy and her pack of wolves couldn't help him either … they were still busy recovering from their recent flattening.

So, as he turned towards Natsu, she struggled to her feet and looked past him to her partner, who met her eyes. A silent message passed between them. Then she met Amy's eyes and motioned for the wolf to get herself and her pack out of here. Thankfully the canine got her message, because with several flashes, all the wolves disappeared. Finally, with a heartfelt and hushed thanks, Lucy also sent Pikachu back to the celestial realm.

Then, she pulled out the two keys that she had never summoned together before and took a deep breath, hoping she would be able to pull this off.

"Open! Gate of the Waterbearer! Aquarius!"

At her shout, Tempester turned and glanced back at her in time to see her summon Aquarius from the rain still pouring down over her.

"You look like a wet dog." Predictably her most powerful spirit was less than pleased to see her and took the opportunity to make a cutting remark. "Is this a wet t-shirt competition?"

Lucy just rolled her eyes and grabbed the second key. "Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

At that, Aquarius shut up and her eyes went wide while her eyebrows shot up on her forehead.

The drain on Lucy's magic was instantaneous and nearly crippling, both spirits would have been sent back if Natsu hadn't tapped into her magic and started feeding her some of his on a steady drip-line.

The two powerful zodiac spirits stared at each other in obvious shock and then at her, before turning to look at the enemy they were fighting … and past him to where a very bedraggled Natsu was starting to turn up the heat.

"We're going to have to do something drastic." Lucy muttered, all her focus on Tempester, who seemed to be contemplating whether he should attack her again.

For once Aquarius didn't have a smart comeback.

The three of them faced off against Tempester. Aquarius raised her water bearing vessel, and Leo's fists began to glow with the light of Regulus. The fourth member of their team was currently being ignored as the enemy focused on Lucy and her two newly summoned spirits, but Natsu was hardly sitting back drinking a lemonade. Greater and greater waves of heat began to radiate from him, and soon the rain started turning to steam as it got too close to his body.

More red scales started crawling across his skin, and his golden eyes began to glow so hot that Lucy could clearly see them from the other side of their opponent… even through the blinding rain and steam. Tempester made the mistake of turning to glance at Natsu behind him, and as soon as his attention was diverted, Lucy gave the signal. The sea was to their backs, and that worked in their favor as Aquarius drew forth a tsunami sized wave. It arched high above their heads then broke up into several individual spirals of water that shot towards Tempester at lightning speed. Soon the water was joined by rays of blinding light as Leo produced a massive Regulus attack. The two magics twisted together into a single attack that leaked so much power it rose the hairs on Lucy's arms.

The magic attack hit Tempester with the weight of the sea and the power of the sun and he was buried, blinded, and broken with water and light. When Lucy's attack finally dispersed, it showed Tempester on one knee, grimacing as he bore with the wounds she had inflicted on him. Given a minute or two, and he would be good as new, but they didn't plan to give him the time to recover.

As the wave of water and light dispersed, Lucy rose her wolf key and shouted, "Open! Gate of the Wolves! Lupus!"

The entire pack came into being with a burst of light, and suddenly Tempester was besieged from every possible angle by extremely sharp teeth and powerful jaws as wolves bit into every piece of him. They ripped into him and dragged him to the ground, where even he writhed.

When he spat, "Impact!" Lucy instantly closed the wolves' gate, and they all vanished in a split second…before the curse could affect them.

The earthquake passed, and Aquarius slammed a wave into the ground to stop it from hitting them. Dust and ocean spray coated the air thick for a moment, but when it had all fallen, it revealed Natsu perched in the air above the torn up beaten form of Tempester. The fire dragon was radiating such heat that the very air around him seemed to boil, and he gave their opponent a truly terrifying grin that showed all his fangs.

As magic built alongside a deep inhale, he let his aura burst out of his body, and the image of a dragon appeared where he hung in midair. Both images of him opened fanged mouths and let loose with a roar that flattened Tempester to the ground. Fire spat through the rain-filled air and caused any water it touched to evaporate, and then hit the soaked ground with a hiss as steam blasted everyone. The soil baked hard, any moisture sucked from it in an instant, and then it began to glow hot as cracks started radiating outwards from the hottest part of the blaze.

When the fire finally ended, they could all see the broken form of their enemy lying on the ground, and then his body burst into smoke as he disappeared and returned to the demon realm.


Sneak Peek

The ground shook, and a massive, ear-shattering boom resounded through the air. That was closely followed by the most horrendous sensation Lucy had ever had the misfortune to encounter…a cosmic ripping that felt for all the world like a gate had just literally been raped. It was a tearing sensation accompanied by a soundless screech that grated across every one of her magical senses.

Normally she couldn't feel gates opening or closing other than her own, but this one was such a massive gaping hole that she couldn't help but feel it…as much as she wished she couldn't. The sensation of a gate being split open with something that wouldn't fit, and then having that massive something shoved through anyways, was NOT pleasant.

Instead of the normal pop that she felt when a gate closed, like a satisfying click, there was a distinct crash and collapse that was almost painful in its intensity as she perceived the complete destruction of the insanely powerful gate.

It felt like gravity had just been cranked up several hundred pounds, and everyone was knocked off balance to some extent…some more-so than others. Although, the positively terrifying roar that blasted their eardrums to bits and shook the soil probably would have put them on the ground by itself. Even the air trembled with shockwaves from the sound that rent the world asunder.

"Too late. He's here." Natsu hissed.