Two days later, they find themselves out in the forest in a clearing. Draco changes into his dragon form the size of when he first showed up, leaving Freed, Evergreen, and Bixlow speechless while Master just laughs. "This is good. I've never heard of a celestial dragon."

"I am the first dragon," he speaks right into their heads, startling them. "That is why the Iron Dragon Slayer could not oppose me the other day, and that is why I knew their dragon parents. All the dragons on Earthland evolved from me. I've kept tabs over the years on my children's doings."

"Wow. So you could pretty much control any dragon slayer?"

"Any dragon too, but I have to be there to do it, so there was no way for me to counter Acnologia for you guys. I wasn't able to leave the celestial plane, even when Leo wanted me to. I didn't even have a gate."

"That's no matter now," Master says, perched on a rock. "Now you can help Lucy grow in magic."

"And now we can get started, right?" He turns to Lucy. "Crux wasn't kidding about how powerful you would be able to be. Are you sure you want to master everything about what it means to be my dragon slayer?"

"Of course. I would have the strength to help protect my family."

"With as much magic you will be cycling through and holding, you may even feel worse on transportation than your other slayer counterparts. It is the magic embedded in them that throws off their equilibrium."

"Worse?"

"Yes. It takes tremendous energy to summon spirits to start with, but you also temporarily hold Aquarius's mark, and now you're adding to that tenfold. Should you get her back though, that will leave, but I can't say that you will feel better."

"I'll...I'll manage it. Somehow."

"Okay. Did Laxus tell you about your energy when you master it?"

"Uh, no? He just summed everything up."

"Ha. Figures." The dragon stretches out his wings a bit as they all sit upon rocks. "These are the trusted people, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, they can hear then." He commits their faces to memory. "When we are almost done, you should be able to open all of your gates and keep them open at one time."

"How does that work?"

"You know that your spirits feed on your energy to stay here, right?"

"Yes."

"As a celestial dragon slayer, you would be able to do the same to them to power up. By the time we're done, you should be able to keep that loop up to keep them here. At the same time, you could add power to the mix because of your sun and stars."

"An indefinite loop of energy...that sounds pretty cool." We could all hang out together and do something. I don't know what exactly we could do, but something.

"That is why celestial dragon slayers holding keys are the best."

"Have there been many?"

"No, you're the second. I've only taken on one other student and that was early on when I came to Earthland. He didn't hold the Zodiacs though, just the silvers I had on hand. It was early, the first times we were contracted by keys. Well, I lived freely where I pleased then."

"So how long would it take for me to be finished with training?"

"Well, you're body has already changed and that usually takes a long while. It will be five or six months until you could probably take that Natsu character you wish to show up. A year to a year and a half to work up to the full loop while adding energy to the loop, maybe a few months after that if you wish to teleport. We can work on streamlining energy use so you aren't excessive. That's all doing it twice a week for a full day anyway."

"Could we do more than just twice a week?"

"We could work up to it. I don't want to take away the social aspect of your life, nor burn you out. When we add days, we might make them all shorter, but I'm limiting you to five days a week maximum, and we will work on meditation and control with Capricorn between each session."

"So it would be three with just you and two with you and Capricorn?"

"Alternately. We might add Leo as well for some physical days to get a proper defence up, possible offence. Laxus could join us actively on meditation days and train his own focus too with his lightning dragon slayer magic."

"He could?"

"I don't see why not. He'll gain control enough to do things like I did with the little boy or play around and do what he wants too. I don't know how the rest of yours' works or I would say is take you all on those days."

"I'll do it. Your trick the other day with Romeo was interesting."

"You're joining us?"

"Yes, Blondie, I'll join those days. Maybe they'll let me in on the physical training when you have to fight bigger people as well."

"An excellent thought. Okay. Today, we're meditating and finding the dragon within you."

"Call Capricorn?" She readies her keys, but he stops her.

"Another day. I assume you have found your celestial magic before, correct?"

"Yes."

"This is just the same process, but it may be a different part of you when you feel it. Do you remember where the celestial magic came from?"

"My heart. It was like sunshine."

"Good. This may feel similar to that, but it may not produce a spring or summer-like feel that your key power would give you. There's a lot of space and it is more visible at night. It might be a bit cooler, like a winter sky without the ice."

"What?"

"You'll understand when you find the dragon magic. It might even be more predatory."

"So what about Laxus?"

"Are you joining us today?"

"Uh...sure."

"Have you found your magic before?"

"You mean meditating and all that? No."

"Okay. Lucy, you're going to have to pull Capricorn out to get Laxus up to speed. They can do that at the other side of the clearing; lightning has a tendency to shoot out."

"Got it." Capricorn comes out and takes Laxus to the edge away from the other spectators as Draco and Lucy sit with their eyes closed.

"Now, with the same process, find your key magic to recognise it again, then look past it. It could be a bit deeper."

Twenty minutes later, Lucy says she found something. "It feels like a beach."

"That doesn't sound right. Where does it originate?"

"My collarbone, but I feel it in my hips too."

"That could be your Aquarius Mark. We'll need you to look farther than that."

"Okay." It takes a long time before Lucy says anything more and she says she think she has it again. "I feel it in my stomach. It feels like...night?"

"That should be it."

"It feels kind of funny though."

"How so?"

"Invigorating like anything can happen, but also like I'm walking in a dark alleyway, waiting for something bad to happen."

"That would be the predatory part. You feel a slight amount of danger, correct?"

"Yes."

"It basically means that in the wrong hands, your magic can be dangerous. Like meet-your-new-dictator dangerous. But from how you treat your spirits and how I heard you turned away from power before, you'll be just fine for me to teach. Now, can you focus on that energy and send it out steadily? It isn't going to clash with your other magics because they are all celestial based, but this one is a more raw form." He opens his eyes to watch her now and sees her face scrunch up. "It might enhance the others and be confusing, but I only want you to focus on this one for now. Later we can work with them in tandem. It might work better if you call a few of your spirits out to...distract it? I think that is a good way to put it. Practice calling silently. Just push the magic into your keys with the intent to pull them through, not just talk. It may take a couple more of us to distract it."

"Who should I call?"

"No one that will mess with your focus, and do not open your eyes to do it." She reaches down and sends power into the keys to find the ones she is looking for and silently summons Aires and Plue. She hears them some through a minute later over by the spectators, a mumbled apology from the sheep spirit and Plue goes to sit on Freed's lap. "Capricorn can work on that later with you to speed it up, but good job for your second, but even better, silent summons."

"Thanks!"

"Now that your key magic is busy, as it should be. That is two Zodiacs, right?"

"Yep!"

"Now, focus on the dragon energy. Gather it up and send it outward, but don't rush it."

Oh, like working with Aquarius's magic then, she simplifies in her head. She inflates it like a balloon until it fills her whole person. The night feeling spreads and she can feel her body hum with the energy.

"Whatever it is you're doing, keep it up. Are you feeling tired?"

"Now that you mention it, I am."

"Okay, we'll be incorporating a lot of things today I guess. You passed the other part sooner than I had thought." I thought it may take a couple of days, not an hour, maybe. "Do you feel the sun above you?"

"Yes?"

"I want you to pull that energy into your body."

"I'm going to eat the sun? Isn't that not a good thing?"

"You aren't going to make it dark or anything, you're just feeding on it's energy, kind of like a plant."

"Am I going to turn into a plant?" She jokingly asks.

"You may not eat as much meat as you once have, but I still want you to eat it."

"Wait, I'm not going to want to eat a whole cow or something?" She opens her eyes in surprise to see the dragon.

"You'll eat plenty, but I don't think you'll eat that much meat, even for a dragon slayer. Laxus may even have to make sure you get it into you at times. Now shut your eyes and draw in the sun: you're losing focus."

"Right." She closes her eyes and imagines the sunbeams as a semi-tangible substance to consume. How do you even? What does sunlight even taste like? How about when I eat it? You can see Natsu eat flames and Gajeel eat iron and sort of see Wendy, but would I just be standing there with my mouth open?

"Quit overthinking it," Draco says. "Just get the energy so we can keep working."

"Fine."