Act 3

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OUR GOBBLE-GOBBLE AMERICANS

35

The Little Mermaid

"She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart."

― Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

"Man, I'm starting to think we'll never find this thing's lair or whatever." Lucy groaned as she stumbled over another root.

"Aw, don't say that Miss Lucy!" Gemini chirped encouragingly, "We haven't been going that long. We'll find Natsu!"

Lucy gave the little spirits a tired smile, "Yeah, I know. It's just after swimming in a river full or rapids I'm not exactly at my best for a hike in the dark."

"Maybe not, but I don't think you have to worry about it much more. Look!"

Lucy's eyes widened as she spotted the torn up spot on the river, and rushed towards it with previously unknown reserves of energy, "Wow... whatever caused this did a lot of damage." She murmured, crouching down to study the destroyed plants and dirt.

Her feet sank into ankle deep mud, a clear sign of water seepage having been there at some point. Whether it was from the river or not was up in the air, but the entire area looked like it had been ripped to shreds.

It was too bad she couldn't read tracks or understand this kind of thing. That was more Natsu's territory so she had no idea if this was where her friend had come to shore or if it was where he'd met the mermaid spirit. She glanced at Gemini, "Can you see any clues that might help?" She asked hopefully.

Unfortunately, the twins shook their heads, "Sorry. We don't know anything about tracking." They replied apologetically.

"Well, it was worth a shot." Lucy sighed and stood up, "Still, it's the best clue we have that Natsu was here, and since we haven't seen him yet my guess is he's further downstream. And since the fog here and behind us has cleared I'd guess that's where our enchantress friend is too!"

Gemini glanced at each other and nodded before morphing into a duplicate of Lucy, "You go on ahead." They said, "We'll summon Scorpio to signal Aries and the three of us will catch up. Her lair is probably a water cave or something where the water is still. Summon Aquarius as soon as you find it." The Lucy look-a-like grinned, "We'll be right behind you! Promise!"

Lucy grinned back, "Thanks guys. You're the best!"

She forged ahead, feeling far more energetic now than she had with an end in sight, and prayed for Natsu to hang on if the witch already had him in her clutches.

Of course finding a water cave in the middle of a forest was a lot harder than it sounded. Lucy pushed aside hard branches and the like as she fought blindly through the dark.

It was by sheer luck when her foot sank into some swampy earth that she realized she'd somehow stumbled into the right direction.

She was getting a little frustrated moving as she was, the trees cast heavy, blanketing shadows that blocked out even the thinnest sliver of the moon. Natsu would have no problem navigating through the woods, and perhaps even Happy would be fine, but Lucy was still struggling with it.

Her breath caught as she moved a little further along the embankment and finally found the cave Gemini spoke of. She moved with a profound sense of relief, slugging her way through the ankle deep mud and towards the dimly glowing entrance.

It might as well have been fluorescent in the night, but it gave off such an eerie wave of magical energy, Lucy felt her hair stand on end.

Faint greens and blue almost replicated the patterns of the ocean surface on a clear day. They shimmered and moved, reflected across the cave walls and casting a shimmer she could used as a guide.. Lucy poked her head in, swallowing audibly.

It only took a moment of hesitation, wondering if Natsu was inside this cave already. Could she do this by herself?

Shaking her head, she dismissed the thoughts and swallowed tightly.

If Natsu had already come across the spirit and had gotten hurt, Lucy wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she simply cowered by the entrance with her fingers crossed. If he was still outside, Lucy had faith he would catch up soon. Their bond would see to that.

Summoning her bravery, she stepped inside the cave, moving deeper and deeper inside it.

Surprisingly the light grew stronger the further in she travelled, and Lucy found herself awed by how large the cave system was inside.

A hand on her keyring, and the other reaching for her whip, Lucy squeezed through narrow caves until suddenly the tunnel widened out into a large chamber. It was practically the size of a mountain, capable of housing a hundred villages within.

How had they not seen something like this from the woods?

The traitorous little voice in her head that loved to speak of all things sci-fi and nerdy, couldn't help but giggle 'It's bigger on the inside.'

The thought over how she missed certain television shows cut off as she was treated to the sight of hundreds of men submerged halfway in a black fluid. Many of them looked to be dissolving within the strange water, while others were in better shape.

Among those was a familiar figure, sprawled out on his back, eyes closed as the black water crawled over his body.

"Natsu!" Lucy gasped in horror, forgetting herself for a moment to rush towards him. She dropped to his side, her hand dipping into thick, pink hair. Her trembling fingers tugged past the wet scarf around his neck to feel for a pulse.

She almost sagged into the waters next to him when she felt one beating strong under her hands. His expression seemed tense, eyes flickering under his eyelids as if searching and he was unusually warm, even by his standards.

"Just hang on Natsu," Lucy assured him, "I'll get you out of this. I promise."

Before she could so much as twist her arms under his heavy body though, the waters rippled in warning. Slowly, towers began to rise from the underwater lake, blooming upwards in steady geysers.

"Well... what have we here?" A female voice laughed menacingly from seemingly everywhere at once, "The little female wizard from before? My, my, I am impressed! You're the first woman to actually find my little hideaway!"

The mermaid appeared out of the thickening fog, looking radiantly beautiful, and terrifying in a way that was giving Lucy flashbacks of Aquarius' worst moods. For a spirit she sure looked solid and Lucy was suddenly, painfully, aware that she was nearly surrounded by her element.

This was not good. This was extremely not good.

She managed to keep that to herself however as she narrowed her eyes, "Let Natsu and the other men go!" She growled, "These people have done nothing wrong and you're terrorizing them!"

The mermaid just laughed.

"Terrorizing? Ah, but you're wrong! These men belong to me! They came of their own free will when I called, and gave themselves to me! Including your Natsu. Though I admit he did put up quite a fight at first."

Lucy felt a surge of satisfaction course through her at that. So Natsu had put up a fight huh? That was both good to hear and not surprising. It was just too bad that this bitch had beaten him in the end. That was alright though. Because she was there and she was not going to let this mermaid have her way.

"I don't care what you call it lady!" She snapped, pulling Aquarius' key out and unhooking her whip, "You're not getting away with this, and I will be taking them back!"

"Oh really?" The mermaid taunted, a wall of water rising up behind Lucy, "And just what are you going to do about it? Summon your precious Aquarius? My fog lets me see all! I knew your plans from the beginning!" She smirked as the wall crashed into Lucy, "Let's see how well you can summon her from the bottom of the river!"

Lucy didn't even have the time to scream as the water engulfed her in an angry torrent. She disappeared below the surface in a second, as easily as a ragdoll being tossed into the wind.

The mermaid smirked as her waters calmed, leaving her alone with her precious treasures. She moved over to where Natsu, still unconscious, rested.

His brow furrowed but he didn't rise, almost as if he were instinctively sensing what happened to his companion. Silly dragon. She touched a hand to his jaw and tilted his head to the side. His fingers twitched, a low growl rumbling from his throat. Natsu's lips parted, ash trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Lu…c"

"What a pity," She tsk'd at him and slid damp fingers through his pink hair, "To waste his heart on a weakling like that. Still, he's such a curious mixture of magic. He'll be more than enough to sustain my presence here for another few centuries."

"Just like all men, he has a soft heart," She moved her hand from his hair down to his chest, her fingers hooking in his shirt and tearing the fabric away. Her nails had turned razor sharp, leaving red lines on the dragon's chest from where her hand had been.

"And just like all men, it'll belong to me," Her voice purred, slowly beginning to sink fingers into his skin. He was a tasty looking morsel. All creatures knew about the ferocity of dragons. In their mortal forms they felt deeply, and with everything in their soul. He would be a particularly delectable meal.

Before she could sink her fingers through the muscle of Natsu's chest and rip open his innards, her waters swirled behind her. Once, twice-

And then a wall of water erupted behind her; she gasped, whipping around to see what had dared to control her waters.

Floating before her was a waterlogged looking Lucy, kneeling side by side with the mermaid spirit Aquarius.

"You!" She gasped, "How did you survive my torrent?"

Lucy coughed a bit wetly, but braced herself on her knees and smirked.

"Please, Aquarius was my first spirit! You think your little temper tantrums are any match for her power?"

Or her rage?

Not that Lucy would say that in front of the spirit. No, she valued her life too much.

In fact, Aquarius already looked furious, lifting her urn above her head and a deadly flame burning in her eyes.

"YOU HUSSY!" She roared.

Lucy's smirk widened, thoroughly enjoying watching someone else be on the receiving end of that rage for a change, and edged away to give her spirit room to work. And hopefully herself something to grab onto when the inevitable tidal wave hit her too.

"What?!" The mermaid exclaimed, paling a little in the face of Aquarius' fury, "But that's impossible! She should never have been able to summon you from underwater!"

"Heh." Lucy laughed, coughing up a little water in the process, "Shows what you know." She grinned wickedly at the spirit, not bothering to elaborate that that wave hadn't kept her below water and whispering the incantation worked just as well as saying it normally.

Let her think she could do it silently or something.

"Enough talk!" Aquarius snarled, her fury not abated in the slightest by the aside, "I'm going to do to you what I should've done from the start!"

She waved her urn and Lucy braced herself as the expected flood smashed into the other mermaid, Natsu, and all the other men. Though, much to her surprise, it didn't go after her as well. At least not yet. Instead Aquarius seemed intent on turning it into some kind of version of a typhoon. One she was extremely glad to be on the outside of if Aquarius' smirk was any indication.

"You think you can get away with stealing other people's men?!" The zodiac spirit demanded over the sounds of rushing water and the other mermaid's screams of terror, "I'll show you! You'll never touch another man again!"

Lucy stared at the absolute pummeling Aquarius was beginning to lay on the other mermaid, and she realized at the moment the true, frightening, power of the zodiacs. They were the leaders among their kind.

This mermaid really didn't stand a chance.

Spirit or not, Lucy had a feeling this would not end up well for the other.

Shielding her had, Lucy ran through the spray over to the dark water. Hopefully that would cause Aquarius to narrow the field of her attack on just their enemy, but Lucy wasn't holding her breath.

She boldly stuck her arms in the black water, almost ripping her hands away as she felt a horrible stinging run along her skin. Whatever they were laying in, it seemed to eat away at her magic.

Who knew what it was doing to these men who were absolutely submerged in the stuff.

Biting her lip, Lucy huffed out a breath and plunged her arms into the black substance, pulling them underneath Natsu's shoulders and tugging upwards with all her strength.

Whatever was hanging onto him didn't seem to want to let go. Whenever she tugged at him, it pulled back just as hard.

She buried her fingers into his torn shirt, "Natsu! Come on! Wake up!" She pleaded, her foothold growing slippery in the wet cave.

She refused to give up though, yanking again so his head rolled back onto her shoulder. Nose against her cheek, Lucy tried not to blush at how close Natsu's face had come to hers.

But she felt his nose twitch, and a low groan came from his throat.

"...Lucy...?" His voice was hoarse and body was limp, but just the sound of him waking up filled Lucy with such irrational joy she felt like crying.

"Natsu! You're okay!" She held onto him tightly, arms shaking to try and keep him from sliding back into the water.

"Hold on Lucy! We're coming!" Lucy's own voice cried out as Gemini, Scorpio, and Aries rushed into the cave as well startling both Lucy and Aquarius.

"Scorpio?" Aquarius asked in surprise and then squealed in delight, "I didn't know you were here!" She exclaimed rushing over to him and forgetting her fight for the moment, "How did you get here?!"

"Gemini found Miss Lucy earlier and we gave her our keys my bikini bombshell! We've been helping her out!" Scorpio grinned, pulling her into a hug and giving her a quick kiss, "Can you keep your water going while we help her rescue her man?"

"My... man?" Lucy squeaked, caught between mortification over what Scorpio was implying about her and Natsu and shock over the revelation that he was apparently Aquarius' much talked about boyfriend.

"Heh. I won't let this guppy come near you!" Aquarius smirked, and Lucy gawked in shock at how easily she co-operated.

"You're the best my Bahama mama!" Scorpio grinned again and pulled back to join Aries and Gemini who were already joining her to try and help pull Natsu out.

"We got this!" She called, waving him off, "Try and help the other villagers! But be careful! This water seems to drain magic!"

"Is that right?" Scorpio purred, aware Aquarius had heard, "Then I think it's about time we gave it something else to focus on right Aries?"

"I-if you think it will help." Aries murmured and thrust out her hands, "Wool wall!"

Lucy gaped as a huge puffy wall of pink wool appeared and began absorbing the surrounding water, draining it away and making it much easier to get to the trapped people. An effect Scorpio helped by filling the newly sectioned area with sand to absorb what was left. It was amazing. And the first time Lucy had ever seen what multiple spirits working together could really do.

She was definitely going to be redoubling her training after this!

First things first though.

She gave Natsu another hard tug, and this time with the water down to his knees, he pulled free with the barest of resistance.

"Got him!" She crowed, "Now let's free the others!"

"No you can't!" The vengeful spirit screamed as one by one her prisoners were released. And with each one pulled from her waters, the control over them seemed to completely drain away.

Her powers fell to such a degree, she was unable to even stand against Aquarius. Lucy watched the mermaid's beautiful form fade down to something smaller and smaller until all that was left was a tiny water snake.

Removing the captured spirits of the men she had ensnared had eradicated her powers, and the snake attempted to flee back into the waters.

Aquarius caught the creature and extended it in front of her by the neck as if she were holding something filthy.

"Pathetic," She sighed, a vein throbbing in her temple and her expression dark, "So this is your true form? You give mermaids a bad name."

Her attention immediately wavered away and Aquarius rushed over to Scorpio, flinging the trapped snake around without a care. She stuffed the poor creature into her urn and immediately cuddled up to Scorpio in such a sweet display of affection, Lucy thought she would be sick.

"Oh honey!" She gushed and snuggled into his chest, his arm wrapping around her securely, "Why don't we get out of this smelly cave together?"

"Absolutely wicked idea!" Scorpio laughed and flashed Lucy a salute over his shoulder, "See ya around Miss Lucy! We're outta here!"

Lucy watched as Aquarius and Scorpio disappeared, taking the water spirit with them as they faded back to the celestial realm.

"What's going to happen to her?" Lucy asked after a moment, "The snake I mean...?"

Aries shuffled a bit and used some of her wool to help dry Lucy off, much to her gratitude, "Ah... well..."

"She's going to face the Spirit King," Natsu's gruff voice came from her side and he rubbed his arms. Lucy dragged her attention over towards him.

Natsu looked quite a bit like a grumpy wet cat, and he had a strange look in his eyes she wasn't used to seeing.

"What?" She asked for clarification.

Aries nodded, "Ye-yes. She's a spirit, even if she isn't a celestial one, which means she will be given a punishment appropriate to her crimes."

Lucy blinked a little at that, "I didn't realize that the Spirit King ruled over all spirits and not just the celestial ones." She murmured, wondering if Juvia came under his jurisdiction too, but smiled, "At least it's all taken care of now, and everyone seems to be okay."

She glanced around for a moment to where the confused men were milling around, trying to understand what had happened to them, before looking back at her new spirits proudly, "You guys can head back if you want. I doubt I'll be up to making any contracts once we get everyone home." She laughed a little, "I'm pretty exhausted myself."

Aries smiled back at her new mistress, a good feeling settling into her heart at the promise of a contract with her, and nodded, "Of course Miss Lucy." She murmured, "We'll be ready whenever you are!"

"Thanks." Lucy murmured back and watched them vanish back to their world as well. She looked over at Natsu, who was still doing a good impression of a grumpy drowned cat, and giving her that weird look.

"Are you alright?" She asked, moving over to him and curling her hand around his arm, concern bright in her eyes.

He stared at her for a long moment, his memories of what the mermaid had done to him still fresh in his mind. But that simple touch, so full of care and concern and everything that was them, reassured him.

This was the right touch.

This was his Lucy. His weird, dimension traveling, partner. She looked like a muddy drowned kitten, and he could practically taste their history between them.

It was wonderful.

His lips split into a wide grin as he curled his hand into hers, "You betcha!"

He would just keep what exactly had happened, and the new fire now sizzling through his veins for her, to himself. She didn't need to know any of that.

Not right now anyway.

Maybe later he would get the courage to tell her.

For now, this was okay.

Lucy's touch was reassuring, her presence soothing. While his pride was injured thanks to the spirit, for whatever reason Natsu never felt safer.

He squeezed his fingers around Lucy's hand, wondering why his heart felt so light. It was as if weight had been stripped away from it.

It was strange, but despite being half-drowned and basically useless in the last fight - Natsu felt stronger.

AGAIN! HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Thank you so much to everyone who dropped us a review! We really appreciate hearing from all of you! We got a few questions that I'll address and then do guest responses!

1.) How many reviews equal a sneak peak? It depends on the chapter and circumstance, but it's usually at around 40 although I started them when we hit 50 per chapter.

2.) Again, we update once every two days. Which means there are two days sandwiched between every update day.

GUEST REVIEWS! - Guest (Yep! Enter the other keys!) - Animallover (Oho! Yeah here is your update and yep you were close when you guessed Siren. It isn't one, but it's close! Natsu is a little rough around the edges) - Little Red (Yes he did act on his confused feelios. He'll work on them some more!) - joide's kb 4ever (Yep! We do have fast updates! This whole fic is written already!) Guest/GraceRoyal (We aren't too fond of them either, but it's definitely fun when their plans are foiled. :D Don't worry you won't have to worry about breathers, the whole fic is done already! And Nalu lemons are coming. Soon. Very. Very. Soon) - Chipmunk (BARELY chapter 34 you say? BARELY? The fic is over HALFWAY comes. It comes in waves.) - Guest (We will never stop updating!) - Avengerika (Sign up sheets to fight the ghost chick are in the lobby. I'm glad you're enjoying the fic as much as you are!) - Guest (Don't worry, we're both okay! You're a little early in the schedule, the update happens tonight/tomorrow. Those were some interesting theories about the bond, but nope :'D )

Here is your sneak peak guys! You definitely earned it!

"I told you before I was born a human," Natsu looked at Lucy, who stared back at him with her full attention. He couldn't help but feel warm at how intently she was looking at him, as if knowing this was important.

"Not a lot of people actually know that fact about myself," He rubbed a hand through his hair, "Or know that my brother, who brought me back to life as a demon, was Zeref."

Lucy's eyes widened, her mouth opening as she tried to place where she had heard that name so many times in the past. Natsu grinned crookedly.

Look at who was starting to recognize names. Finally.

"Wasn't he the one who started the Celestial War?" She asked, putting the pieces together with shocking speed. Natsu was impressed and nodded his agreement.

"Yeah. He was sort of like you."