Okay, this took shamefully long time to update. But here it is, the chapter 21! Hope you like it!

Thank you for all the amazing reviews the story has received!

Hiro Mashima own Fairy Tail and I'm just playing with the characters.

Someone was talking... The voice was the first thing to push trough the darkness indicating that I was getting free from the unconsciousness grasp. The voice got clearer every passing minutes until I finally could make out the words spoken. And there wasn't any doubt who the melodic voice belonged.

"How's Wendy?" Lucy's voice was like best delicacy to my ears, pushing me to regain my full consciousness faster. Blue sky was the first thing to greet me as I cracked my eyes gently open. The brightness burned my eyes, but at least i could assume thanks to it that it was still day, and that I hadn't been out cold too long. Fifteen to thirty minutes, max an hour.

"She's alright. Needs just some rest-" Gray's voice had answered, but was cut short with a shriek of a Banshee.

"Alright?!" The female Happy hissed, braking our eardrums, mine at least. "Wendy is far from alright! She passed out thanks to using too much of her powers! Don't go saying that she's alright!" The white cat was obviously not in a good mood, though I wasn't sure did it even own one.

I wasn't completely sure what the situation was, but if Gray, Wendy and the female Happy were here, then it must have meant that Gray succeeded in retrieving the blue haired girl. None of them had realized that I had regained my consciousness, not even Lucy who was sitting right beside me, well her head was pointed to the opposite direction. Only when I tried to get up to sit and a groan escaped my lips as a pain shot through my shoulder, the three of them turned their attention to me.

"Laxus! You're wake!" Lucy exclaimed, lips curving up to a smile only to take a strict turn down. Her brows furrowing I could see the rising anger in her expression. And she wasn't just a little angry. 'What the-' "You idiot!" She snapped. "Never do that again! You hear me?! Never!" Tears shining on the corners of her eyes she demanded. The outburst startled me a little, even making my eyes widen a little, but then soften down. I knew exactly what she meant with her words, but that was something I couldn't agree to. Lucy could only blame herself for me wanting to protect her over myself. 'That strong of a grab you have on my heart, Blondie.'

As Lucy stared down at me, I couldn't help my eyes from studying her face. It was covered in dirt expect for the lines that traveled from her eyes down to chin. She had been crying that was sure, but why? For me or because... My eyes hardened as I started to notice what the dirt was hiding under it. A half dried trail of blood on her left temple, new cuts littering her skin and a deep purple bruise on her chin.

Anger was starting to dwell inside of me at the though of that mother fucker touching Lucy. Yeah, I knew very well that the new damage had been done by Zero. 'I'm gonna fucking kill him!' Not only had he succeeded in humiliating me, but he had also dared to hurt Lucy. Zero was going to regret the day he was born!

I was about to ask Lucy witch direction the fucker had gone, when the girl exploded with such a force the anger was blown out of the window and my eyes fly more open than they had probably ever been. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?!" She shouted grabbing the front of my shirt. "You shoved me aside and the next thing I saw was you lying on the ground, motionless, blood pumping from your wound! I have never been so scared! I- I thought you were dying." i could feel her hands shaking as she clenched my shirt, a tear escaping her eye. The tiny droplet traveled down her cheek, discover a little more of her milky white skin as it did. An odd throb of guilt stabbed my chest. Lucy was crying because of me, for me... I knew I had done the right thing and I would do it over and over again, I would always chose to push her aside, but it still didn't help against her tears.

"You idiot!" The blonde girl exploded again, completely without a warning, starling me yet again a good time. "Do you know how stupid I felt?! I cry my eyes out for you only to hear from Wendy that there wasn't any real danger! While Cobra's wound went trough bone, yours only pierced flesh, and... and even though in theory you passed out from blood loss, it was more because of a low blood sugar! Meaning you actually passed out of hunger! Meaning I cried for a man that just hadn't eaten enough! Meaning you're a big, big, BIG idiot! And stupid on top of that!" With every word her grip on my shirt tightened and Lucy leaned closer to me. Finally when she was close enough, she dropped her forehead on my chest and whispered into it. "What kind of a mage passes out of a hunger on a mission? Idiot... Thank god you are okay. I was so worried..."

Her whispers went in from one ear and come out from the other as my thoughts where tied to the thing she had said before. 'I passed out because of... hunger?!' The ridiculous thought made me want to wrinkle my nose out of disgust, but at the same time it made cold sweat brake on my skin, because the more I thought about it the more realistic the claim turned. I had hardly eaten anything last evening or this morning and the little I had was now lying somewhere in the middle of the endless forest below us.

And what comes to us Dragon Slayers... We need energy. A lot of it. Even without using our magic we still consume enormous amount of energy.

So the endless stomach of Natsu isn't just characteristic quality (though how Flame-brain can eat that MUCH is a complete mystery), because roughly you could say that food is equal to energy. Of course consuming our own element is the best way to keep our energy levels relatively high for a longer period, but what comes to thunder storms, they are not very common in Magnolia.

So... No food, no lightning, no energy. And what we get is me passing out of a tiny blood loss thanks to a low blood sugar...

"I love you."

"Pathetic."

And my heart literally stopped. Had Lucy just...? She did, right?! She said- Lucy said she loves me! 'Shit... I'm so happy...' and I truly where. I had to seriously fight back the overly exited grin that tried to surface. I never thought that three so simple words could make me feel like I could explode from happiness any second. Lucy really loved me! I hadn't even started my wooing yet... with full force at least. In a way I had waited it. Those rose red cheeks, surprised eyes, shy smiles... Well, now I would just have to make her fall harder for-

"Pathetic?" Lucy whispered into my shirt, her forehead still pressed against it, stopping my thoughts and my heart a second time. 'Fffuck!' It was until then that I realized I had voiced my previous thought out loud, on the worst possible time on top of that. There was no way the blonde girl wouldn't misunderstand it. Screw the insult I have said about her team, screw the almost kiss, screw me for being me. This is absolutely one of the worst things I have done!

"Lucy, listen-"

"Pathetic?!" Lucy shot her head up and glared down at me with tear filled eyes - rage-tear filled eyes. "Do you even realize what I just said?!" She cried out. As the firsts of the tear she so clearly tried to hold on bay rolled down her cheek, I felt my heart being crushed. The pain on my shoulder had been a tiny sting of a mosquito compered to this.

"Lucy-"

"I can't believe you! I practically hand my heart to you and you... and you..." She hiccuped and wiped the corner of her eye with the heel of her palm. "Pathetic... Out of every existing things you call my feelings pathetic..."

"Lu-

"Maybe I am pathetic! Pathetic for feeling like this, pathetic for caring so deeply for a guy like you! But no matter how much I would like for these feelings to disappear, they don't, because I can't help my heart-"

First it had pained to see the girl so miserable because of me, but with every word she let out without giving me the chance to explain myself made the pain turn to irritation until i couldn't take it any longer. I shot my better arm up, diving my hand in her golden locks on the back of her head. With one swift, gentle pull, I brought her head down. Lucy didn't even have time to realize what was happening before it was too late, before our lips connected. The kiss was fast (more of a peck actually) hardly letting me even feel the softness of her lips, but it did the job by shutting Lucy up. A moment I wasn't going to waste.

"And you don't have to. So shut the fuck up for a second and listen." A growled letting my irritation sound. My hand, still placed behind her head kept the girl from moving away from me, leaving only couple of inches between our faces. Her brown eyes stared down at me shocked, still clearly stunned by the kiss. I heard her swallow.

"The thing I said… It had nothing to do with your confession. It was just something connected to my thoughts that had nothing to do with you, that I by chance let slip by my mouth. It was just pure bad luck." 'Something that seems to have been following me recently…' "You understand?"

Lucy blinked couple of times, the left over tears rolling free. I had to repeat my question before the girl was freed from her paralyze. She nodded her head carefully, our noses brushing against each other gently. With a satisfied huff I let the corners of my mouth curl up, genuine smile forming on my lips as I loosened my hand on her head. "Good."

But instead of slipping away as I thought she would do, Lucy stayed still, her eyes searching something from my own ones. I felt a hand clenching tighter on the front of my shirt, before she spoke. "What did you mean?"

"What 'what did you mean'?" And I thought she nodded to the question 'You understand?'.

"With… the thing you said…" She mumbled shy blush creeping on her cheeks. I arched by brown indicating that I still didn't know what she meant. The blush deepened, before she averted her eyes. "…'and you don't have to'…" She spoke so quietly that I had hard time hearing it even with my abnormal hearing. It took a couple of second to recall what I had said and why, but when I did almost devilish smirk spread on my lips.

My hand slide down from her head landing on her side, while my other hand secured itself on Lucy's other side. With sudden yet easy movement I shifted the blonde girl from the uncomfortable position she was in at the moment to lie on top of me, of course earning a shriek from her on the process.

"What I meant-" I started wrapping my arms around her firmly, preventing her from any escape attempts. But to my surprise the girl kept still as a statue not even trying to get away. It almost seemed like she feared to move. As she glanced down to my wounded shoulder I understood and my smirk only widened. It was so Lucy to worry about the wolf just about to devour her. "-was this." I continued.

I sandwiched her head between my hands and pulled. Slowly enough for her to register this time what was going to happen, but fast enough to not give her time to escape. I could hear the one last sharp inhale of the girl and then her lips were on mine again.

Lucy's first reaction was widened eyes and her whole body tensed, but mere second later she already relaxed, pressing her lips down harder but shyly. Her eyes closed slowly as if she was trying to fight back sleep, eventually losing. As her brown orbs vanished completely behind the beautiful lids, I too closed my eyes to completely concentrating to enjoy the feeling of her lips.

The kiss wasn't flawless. It was a little awkward. Grains of sand and dirt stuck to our lips ruined the velvet touch of Lucy's lips. A cut on my lip I hadn't noticed before stung at the skin to skin contact. But still, despite all these and many other flaws, it was perfect. The kiss was perfect. There wasn't any other word to describe it. The place and time might not have been the best and it might not have been flawless, but to me it was perfect. The kiss was perfect. Plain and simple. And I knew, it was like a promise, promise of what was coming, that every kiss and moment with Lucy would be better than the last yet still they would all be as perfect as this one. Will be, because there was no way. No fucking way that I was going to let Lucy go, ever.

The moment was over when a sound of someone clearing their throat broke the magic, which locked rest of the world out. Our eyes snapped open and for a second we just stared at each other, both asking the same question silently. 'What was that?' Slowly Lucy's head rose parting our lips and my hands as slowly lowered back to her sides.

Eyes leading Lucy turned her head toward the sound, my eyes following. My mood soured further as I saw the audience we had, a white cat nose wrinkled with disgust and a raven haired guy with small tint of blush on his cheeks and a half of smirk that didn't seem to know should it be amused or horrified.

"I just…" Gray started, clearing his throat a second time. "We're kinda like middle of a mission here and…" He seemed to forgot what he wanted to say as our eyes met and I can assume that my expression wasn't one of my prettiest. Lucy "thankfully" understood the hint. Face scarlet red she jumped up with such a speed I had hard time seeing her movements. On the same heart beat her hands were covering her face and battalion of things like 'So embarrassing!' and 'Please let me die!' sported out of her mouth, muffled by her hands.

I rolled my eyes. The girl had much to get used to, because I in hell wasn't going to restrain myself just because of a unwanted audience. Well, not like there really was wanted audience…

I brushed the thoughts out of my head and was about to get up, when a huge blast followed by another blast shook the air and the whole city itself.

The only warning I got was the sky going dark and a scream before I found myself again under Lucy. Pain shot out as some part of her hit my shoulder, but I could not have cared less about it right then, my head being somewhere else. Heaven being one word to describe it. Face pressed between Lucy's breast was indeed a new kind of experience. Which I liked more than I probably should have, but I blamed the genes I have inherited from Gramps for it.

Had I not just exhaled before my routs for breathing were blocked, I could have stayed in the position much longer. However, when my lungs started to scream for oxygen, I didn't have any other option than to get Lucy move her equipment off my face. I started to tap Lucy's side, and thank to the gods on earshot for my girl being a bright one. Lucy understood my message right away and jumped to the side. I immediately took a deep breath to fill my lungs with fresh air.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry! Are you okay, Laxus?"

I couldn't be noticing the overly worried almost guilty look she shot toward my shoulder. Lucy must have noticed that she hit it on the fall. Yeah, it hurt a little, but not enough to worry the blonde over it. It was almost like she thought I was going to… 'Better get the girl's thoughts away from my wound.'

"I'm okay. Just…" I rose up to sit, placing my eyes on the same level with Lucy. A little smirk appeared in my lips. "Next time you want to fall over me warm me first, and nice plus would be lesser clothes." Okay… that was definitely tasteless…

As I struggled to keep my calm facade up - inside I was anything but calm - Lucy's eyes widened first, then her cheeks reddened. "Pervert!" She exclaimed punching my shoulder, the healthy one of course and with such a strength that I knew it wasn't even meant to hurt. And her softened expression confirmed my hunch. Her brows were still knitted together as if she was angry, but small smile played on her soft lips and in her eyes I could see relief and something else. But before I could recognize what it was, Lucy turned her head more to Gray's direction.

"But seriously… What was that?" She asked obviously meaning the blasts. 'What indeed?'

"Nirvana…" Gray started, drawing my attention to him too. He himself had his eyes fixed at the horizon. "…fired."

"What?!" Both me and Lucy exclaimed shocked, heads snapping at the same direction with him. 'And I thought I hadn't been out long! But apparently I had been too long!' The buildings around us prevented us from seeing the damage done to the guild, which was probably just barely on the eyesight. Only the stream of smoke rising to the sky from the canon indicated that the attack had really happened.

We had failed…

The feeling of anger, hate and humiliation rose slowly inside of me. Not had the bastard only succeeded in beating me, but also in completing his goal. Even if the mission wasn't mine on the paper, i had still failed. And I never fail a mission. On top of all this shit was the promise I had failed to keep. Promise to save Wendy's guild. I might not be the most honest and honorable man on Earth, but promises were something I respected. When Laxus Dreyar promises something, he means it.

"Wendy's guild… it's gone…?" Lucy asked with quiet voice, the question not really addressed to anyone,shoulders sinking.

"No… It was saved." Gray said and turned almost completely around and pointed toward the sky. "The canon missed thanks to that!"

Lucy and I both turned to see what the man was pointing, both of our eyes widening as we saw a huge vehicle sailing in the air. 'Battleship Christina?!' I had seen it only couple of times, never in the air though, but I could still recognize it immediately. It was clear that the ship had seen better days Smoke rose from every hole in it's broken body and the other wing was completely replaced with something that looked much like ice. Even in that condition it still had something majestic in it as floated high above the ground. 'Of course! The other blast!'

"Can anyone hear me?" A voice suddenly spoke in my head. 'What was that?' Unconsciously I raised my head toward the ship in the air. As I saw Lucy and Gray do the same, I knew they had heard the voice too. When it spoke again, I recognized who it belonged. "If you're all right, send me a reply!"

"Is that Hibiki?" A second voice echoed in my head. It was Titania.

"Erza-san? Glad to hear you're okay!"

"I'm all right too… more or less." The third voice send disgusted shivers down my back. 'Don't tell me his here too-'

"Sempai! Thank goodness!" Hibiki's voice exclaimed. And I was correct – unfortunately. Ichiya Kotabuki, should have guessed that Blue Pegasus would send him… No matter how much I would have liked to argue his S-class mage status, it was true he had some…remarkable…powers. He was able to make me, the great Laxus Dreyar, turn on my heels when entering the same room he was in.

"What's going on? I remember Christina came under a fierce attack…" Erza continued talking, completely ignoring the tiny man.

"The wings were broken, but with Lyon-kun's magic and Sherry-san's Doll Attack magic, and Ren's air Magic, we managed to get it float!" Hibiki explained rather proud sounding. "Our attack just know was Eve's Snow magic…"There was a pause in his talk and it almost sounded like he was panting. "...We're all at the limits of our magical energy. We can't attack from here anymore…"

And just like to prove his words, a cloud of smoke exploded from Christina's side and it started to sway from side to side and lose altitude with alarming speed. We all gasped at the sight, Lucy raising her hands cover her mouth and Gray taking a step forward like ready to dash to help them. Of course he wouldn't make it in time, but me…

I was about to inform trough the telepathy that i would be there in a sec to help them, but Hibiki was faster. "Don't worry about us! But there's one last thing I have to tell you! It took a long time to retrieve, but I finally found it in the Archive! The way to stop Nirvana!"

"Is that true?!" Once again Titania stole the first spot to comment.

"There are six leg-like things on Nirvana, right? Those legs are actually pipes that suck magical power up from the earth!" Hibiki didn't lose anytime answering her. "There are lacrima crystals located near the base of each leg that supplies the extracted power! A simultaneous strike that destroys them all at once should stop Nirvana! Doing it one at a time won't work! There are other lacrima that will repair any damage to them!"

"A simultaneous strike?! How?!" Erza's confused voice boomed trough the telepathic connection.

"I'd like to coordinate the timing for you, but.. I don't think I can last that long." Hibiki's voice sounded strained as he spoke. Suddenly the ship took a fast dive from the sky, vanishing behind the buildings littering the surface of Nirvana. Soon the sound of Christina hitting the ground reached our ears.

For a second it seemed that all noise vanished, the air heavy with waiting. Everyone tried to listen, hoping to hear something trough the telepathy. He might have wanted a simultaneous attack, but for the time Hibiki had to settle for a simultaneous sigh of relief, because that was what he got as he finally spoke again. "Instead I'll upload the timing to your heads. I know you'll be able to do it! I believe in you!"

And like he had promised, an odd ping went off in my head and like the information had always been there I now knew that the attack would happen in twenty minutes. Why then exactly, Erza made sure to ask it. "That's just prior to the next charge of Nirvana's power." Hibiki explained and it made sense. The bigger the magic the longer it would take to recharge it, even with as big power source as Earth itself.

"A wasted effort…" A new, dark voice entered the connection, hint of amusement in it. As Hibiki's and Titania's shocked questions of the voice's identity filled the telepathy, I knew exactly how the owner was. 'Zero…!' I cursed silently, teeth gritting and fists tightening. "I am Zero! Master Zero of the Oracion Seis!" The man was generous enough to introduce himself for the wondering people, before he continued. The smug smile on his face could be heard in his voice. "First, I must commend you. I never suspected any other wizard had Archive ability like Brain did…" A snort like sound came trough the connection. "Now listen carefully, wizards of light! I will now begin to destroy everything in existence! My first act was destroy three of your friends. The Dragon Slayer, the Celestial wizard as well as the-"

I couldn't stay quiet any longer. The poor guy was making an idiot out of himself. "Sorry to disappoint you, but the three you 'destroyed' are still very much around." I glanced at the unconscious Natsu on the ground, Wendy sleeping soundly next to him. 'Well, most of us…'

"Laxus?! Was that you?!" Erza's voice sounded as surprised as she most like was. But for the moment I ignored her, listening for Zero's reaction. And after a short quiet moment it came.

"Interesting…" He mumbled amused, it was like he was talking more to himself than to us. "Sadly it won't make a difference." He let out a self-centered laugh of a mad-man. "I am in front of one of those lacrima right now! And as long as I'm here, you will never be able to destroy them all at once!" And with a laugh cut short he was gone from the conversation and the connection.

For a long moment no one spoke anything, but then Titania's calm voice pushed into our heads. "One-in-six chance then… The lucky one gets Zero."

"Wait!" Female Happy's voice pierced my head, and most likely others' too. "Do we even have six wizards?!" That actually was a very good question. Me, Lucy, Gray and Erza… It was only four, meaning we were two too short.

I could almost hear the sound of Erza's brain cells in work trough the connection as she too much have noticed that what the cat had said was absolutely true. Then she spoke again. "Laxus, who else is there?"

"Icicle and Blondie. Flame-brain and the kid are out of the count."

"That makes five then… We need one more!" Five? Was she just counting wrong or… Was there someone else there with her?

"This is bad…" Hibiki spoke suddenly. "My magic… My telepathy will…cut off soon. I sent a map into your heads… It's got…a number assigned for each lacrima… You need to each choose one…"

"But we still need the sixth one!" Erza shouted hint of panic in her voice.

"I'm here, aren't-" The voice that sounded much like Ichiya's was cut of by one other much more familiar voice.

"I've got number 1!"

A snapped my eyes at the spot where Natsu was supposed to lie. But as expected, the spot was empty, and i couldn't help the curses that slipped past my lips then. 'That little…!' I knew exactly why Flame-brain had called the first number. It was where Zero was, I had smelled it. And I was supposed to be the one to get to send the fucker to the next dimension! God dammit! I made a mental note to beat the heck out of the pink head when this all was over. And if he dares to lose…! It was hell waiting for him.

"2!" Gray shouted fast after Natsu and took off toward his lacrima.

"I'll take 3." Lucy announced.

I sighed, trying to calm my worst anger as I picked my own lacrima. "4…"

"I shall take the number 5." Erza informed.

"Then I-" Ichiya's voice tried once more, but again he didn't get to finish his sentence.

"I will-" It was a completely new voice speaking. It was a male voice I didn't recognize – though it had me wonder if I had heard it somewhere before. But it was stopped by Erza.

"You will take 6."

"Who was that?! Was there som-" Natsu's shouts were cut off as the connection died.

I glanced at Lucy, who looked back at me. She gave me a smile I wasn't quite sure how to construe. "Well, good luck, I guess..." She said and then headed to her lacrima's direction mumbling about how she wished that Zero wouldn't be there. I watched a moment longer after her before spinning around ending up face to face with Happy. It took a great effort not to show the start it gave me. I hadn't realized at all that the annoying blue hair ball was still here.

"What?" I stated dryly.

The cat hovered in front of me a little longer before it landed back down to the ground. Looking down ashamed it talked. "I would like to go with Lucy, but I don't want to leave Wendy and Carla here alone..." I turned to look at Wendy, who laid still on the same spot she had been laying when I came to. 'That's true. The kid should be moved to some where safer..'

"I can protect Wendy alone perfectly well, thank you." The female-Happy hissed sounding almost offended, while glaring both of us. I stared right back at it hint of irritation tingling the back of my neck. It was clear that the female-Happy was also short on magic power and most likely wouldn't be able to fly the girl to safety if the occasion would require it.

I moved my eyes to the direction where my lacrima was and then slide them back to Wendy. I knew that my magical power was low too, and I also knew that I couldn't leave Wendy, nor the annoying cat, here just like this. They had to be moved to somewhere safer. But to get them off this thing I would need to use my teleportation... It would take a little of time, and lot of magic power, rest of it actually. 'Oh, fuck it!' Pure physical strength would have to do when destroying the lacrima.

"You go after Lucy." I commanded Happy. Then with couple of swift movements I had grabbed the female-Happy and picked up the unconscious girl, and second later my body with their's transformed into lightning.

Only moment or two later our bodies materialized on the forest floor, not that far away from the walking city. I placed the two of them on the ground and pointed down. "You stay here." Not even waiting to hear the cat's reply, i was already traveling trough the air back to the city in the form of lightning, soon reaching the tunnel leading to my lacrima.

Lightly panting I checked how much time I still had left to the simultaneous attack. 'Ten minutes... That's more than enough for me, but...' I listened, trying to hear the sounds of fighting from the first lacrima's direction. Would it be enough for Natsu?

Small smirk crept on my lips. Of course it would be. We were talking about Natsu here, the most annoying little cockroach that wouldn't die even with his head smashed. He would beat Zero for sure. It was a shame I wasn't the one to do it, but I could always beat the shit out of the Flame-brain knowing that Zero had been even weaker than him.

Shaking my head at my own stupid reasoning for not to head toward the first lacrima instead of the one i was supposed to destroy, I started to head inside the tunnel. One last time I looked over my shoulder to Lucy's direction. Thankfully she would be safe at least, and next time Zero, or Brain, or any other member of Oracion Seis steps 30 meters closer to her there would be some serious damage coming their way. 'No one will ever mess with my girl again.'

So, how was it? Finally some real Lalu moment there.

Please review! I want to know what you think about the story, especially now that it had been some time from last time I updated this story. If there is any conflict between this chapter and the previous story, please tell me and I will fix it.

See you in the next chapter!