A/N: POSTING THIS ONE MORE TIME. Seems like maybe ff figured its shit out. Sorry anyone that couldn't read it. Sorry anyone that could and has been spammed by posting emails. And if this fails, goodbye, cruel world. Meet me on AO3

When Natsu was small, he was afraid of the dark. Zeref would tell him everyone was, at some point, but Natsu was different than other people—he could always make his own light, so he never had anything to be afraid of.

Natsu still got scared after that, but then he'd start a small fire, let it play through his fingers, and his fear would dribble away.

"Nothing to be scared of," Natsu repeated into the orange glow of his fire. "I don't have anything to be afraid of."

Except, the space he was granted was too small. He couldn't sit up without bending at the waist, he couldn't spread his arms out to his sides all the way. And it felt like the air was getting thinner.

"Can anyone hear me?" Natsu raised his voice. It fell flatly against the soil and no one answered.

He tried kicking the walls, hoping they weren't very thick. Some soil rained down into his hair and he discovered a new fear: being stuck in a cave in.

"Hello!" His lungs were getting tight and his fire was fading. Natsu tried to make it blaze brighter. It worked for a millisecond. The flames turned pale yellow then and started to shrink. Panic pressed against his heart like a tumour, growing with every shortened breath.

He couldn't get enough air.

He couldn't see.

He couldn't think.

The fire went out. There was blackness.

Grainy wood dug into Happy's hands and knees, leaving marks in his reddening fingers. His bonds were too tight and when he suggested that to the ogre of a man tightening them, the man tightened them more.

Lucy looked down upon him from a chair so highbacked and grand, it was almost a throne. She worried her lip until it was swollen and red and made her knuckles white gripping the armrests.

Great waves beat the hull, came up over the bow and splashed the windows. Happy prepared himself for the fall, the moment the ship dived back into the ocean and his body went down and his stomach stayed in the same place like he was crashing through the air, wings tucked into his sides, except it was into the cold deep water that he had no hope of flying out of. He hit the deck with his chest, cheek pressed against the floor.

The ship came back up again as though strapped with something buoyant and Happy wondered if he was going to be like His Majesty and sick all over. The only consolation he had was that he'd probably get it on Lucy's skirts.

A pair of shiny brown boots stomped by Happy's face, missing his nose by the width of a worm. He lifted his head, and then the rest of himself into a sitting position and looked at the pacing man. He'd never seen Jude Heartfilia in the flesh, but he had the same blonde hair as Lucy, the same straight nose, and sharp, prominent cheekbones. He looked like royalty. The mean kind, like Zeref was.

"Please, father. Won't you untie him?" Lucy asked.

"So he may stab a dagger through my daughter's breast? I think not." Jude curled his lip in disgust as though Happy were a bug in need of squishing.

"Of all the times we've clashed, and I admit, there's been a few, your daughter has always been the one with the dagger in my breast," Happy protested with what vigour he had left. "She plays everyone for the fool, we believe her intentions are pure, and we suddenly end up on the deck of a rolling ship—" He really considered he was going to be sick, "—at the mercy of the gods and ruthless enemies! So, Sir, I beg you to trim your words and consider the object of conversation." He narrowed his eyes at Lucy for good measure. She looked both mildly amused and annoyed. Silly Happy, she seemed to say, this is my father. I am above reproach in his eyes.

"How dare you?" Jude exploded. "Amazing, the Alvarez royals let their servants speak to them this way. You'd be better served without your tongue if you cannot trim your words."

"Father," Lucy warned.

Jude seemed to remember himself and his company and drew some composure. He rolled his shoulders back despite the tossing waves, standing straight. "We'll deal with this one later. The most important thing is that you're safe, Lucy, and soon, you'll be home. We brought our fastest ship. It should only take two days if the winds hold. By the time you're back on Fiorian soil, the Alvarian kidnappers will be extinguished."

Lucy shook her head, eyes going slightly wide. "Father… no."

Jude waved her off. "I know battle isn't to your liking, Lucy, but taking you was a direct attack on our kingdom. We cannot let it go unanswered. My brother, the king, told me himself, we're not to return without the heads of Alvarez's royals."

"You don't understand. I was never kidnapped," Lucy said.

Happy raised his eyebrow. He was under the impression she was taken by slavers. He opened his mouth. Lucy shot him a sinister look—mention that now and die. She could say an awful lot with just a narrowing of her eyes. He covered up his dropping jaw with a wracking cough.

"I ran away," Lucy continued when Happy fell silent again.

Jude sputtered. "What nonsense."

"It's true. I planned it all out, had been working on it since the last Midwinter Ball." Lucy managed to stand, though the boat was rocking badly. Perhaps it was her cloven hooves that gave her extra balance? "The Crown Prince and I met and fell deeply in love beneath the new moon. He's written me a chest full of poems since. We wanted to be together; I knew this was the only way."

Happy gawped. Natsu never went to the Fiorian Midwinter Ball. He'd never even been to Fiore. He hated ships. Was sick even at the mention of them. What was she playing at?

"We planned my arrival here, our marriage," Lucy tagged on, speaking quickly, rushing out of the way of a falling guillotine.

"Marriage?" Jude repeated.

Lucy held out the hand Natsu had slipped the delicate silver ring onto. It was almost the same colour as her pale skin, off-silver-gold. Her hand shook minutely, enough for Happy to notice, but one might pass it off for the wobble of the ship. "We've been bound beneath the eyes of the gods."

"Preposterous," was Jude's only response.

"It's true. Tell him, Happy. You were witness," Lucy said.

Happy stuttered, unable to articulate on the spot.

Thankfully, Jude didn't need Happy's input. "Annul the wedding." He was abruptly the same colour as a cherry, an ugly, glossy red.

"We can't," Lucy said.

"Lucy," Jude yelled. "I've told you to do something; it's your duty as my daughter to listen."

She jutted her chin out defiantly. "I've had sickness in the morning."

Jude's hands flexed, released, flexed, released. Happy tried to process what she was saying, just as slow.

"Ophiuchus thinks it's to be a girl," Lucy added.

Jude swivelled on his heel and paced the length of the cabin. Waves and wind roared against the side of the ship. Lanterns swung, threatening to fall off their hooks, burst on the floor, burn them to the watery depths of the ocean.

"Is it true?" Happy was the first to find his voice.

Lucy looked at him, winked over her father's broad shoulder, and he knew at once she lied. A filthy little liar, through and through, and he could not for anything figure out her motive. Wouldn't the kingdom wonder why, when three months had gone past, their queen wasn't showing any signs of a baby? No roundness of the belly? No glowing of the skin? In six months why she did not waddle, or grow heavy through her middle? Why she stayed perfectly spry when she should be pained, plump, petulant?

"I cannot sit through this lie!" Happy erupted. "You're not carrying His Majesty's child. You're doing the same thing you always do, trick, connive, and mislead!"

Jude swivelled on Happy as fast as a hurricane. "You dare to call my daughter a liar?"

"Many times over, Sir," Happy sprouted, momentarily forgetting he was bound, a prisoner.

Jude got low, even with Happy. His eyebrows, when furrowed, were large, blonde, and so bushy, they became one. "She is pregnant with your boy king's child."

Happy remembered himself. "It's just that—"

"That what?"

"That—they've been together only a few times. I'm surprised at its swiftness," Happy recovered sloppily.

"Forgive Happy, father. He's loyal to a fault and has been displaced since I arrived in the castle," Lucy said placatingly. "He means no disrespect."

"I think he means a great deal of disrespect," Jude said.

"Tell him how we've gotten on, Happy," Lucy implored.

Could he call her Highness? Gods. He couldn't. Nope. "She's had many… ideas for our changing kingdom," he said instead. "Has helped rid it of those she finds undesirable."

"Like the slave traders you were on about?" Jude questioned; one bushy eyebrow raised. He still crouched in front of Happy, stared him down, daring him to speak against his daughter.

"That ended up being nothing," Lucy said. "I found Wendy in the employ of a merchant. She was more frivolous than I thought, I suppose."

Jude stood and turned on her. "Are they making you say such things?"

Lucy put her hands on her hips. "Come now, Father. Even you thought the rumours were nothing."

"Because I didn't want my daughter investigating them."

"Well… I did anyway, and I came up with nothing. My curiosity has been satiated."

And it seemed, so was Jude's ire. He nodded. "We'll return home and find a tincture to take care of this mess. We'll throw the manservant overboard and bury this secret."

"Father," Lucy snapped. "I will not."

They stared at each other, seemingly at an impasse to Happy, who had no experience with family relations and even less with Lucy's family dynamic.

Eventually, Jude muttered a swear beneath his breath and a smile flashed across Lucy's mouth.

"This is disgraceful," Jude added. Happy realized she'd done something to trick him, too. Her own father. How had she swayed him in her direction when he was so furious only a moment before?

Witchcraft, he thought again.

"Once you meet your granddaughter, you'll forget the disgrace."

"I would be happier if it were a boy," Jude disagreed.

"Well, think of how the king will praise you for bringing peace to our world," Lucy said instead.

"Wars create money."

"And peace. You'll have access to all of Alvarez's resources."

Happy bristled. "Shameless," he muttered.

Jude stripped Happy's next words from him with a scathing glare.

"There is another matter, Father, and it's quite a pressing one," Lucy rushed to distract her father. "A matter of a dragon."

The way she spoke with feigned casualty didn't appropriately portray the urgency of the situation, in Happy's opinion. A dragon was large enough to flatten the country in mere minutes. It could wipe out the last of the Alvarez royal bloodline without so much as a thought, without landing, without trying. Alvarez would be left in ruins, no ruler to push back the encroaching countries hungry for her resources, like Fiore, no Natsu.

"Speak plainly," Jude exhorted.

"Alvarez is under attack." She explained about Lady Eileen and the approaching threat, and the rumours she set in motion, all with the consideration that Fiore would add her navy might to Alvarez's military to quash the threat.

"Why on earth would we ever agree to help?" Jude posed when she was done.

"Because it's now my country," Lucy said plainly.

Jude scoffed, uninterested.

"Then how about the scales that can be harvested from the corpse?" Lucy braced herself against another wave. "They will sell on the market for an extraordinary price, don't you think? Imagine the wealth we can bring to our home."

At this, Jude paused. "All of it will go to Fiore?"

"All?" Happy squawked. The thought of tearing apart Lady Eileen's body after death was repulsive but considering Fiore took all the spoils of this war was preposterous. That would tip the balance of power completely in Fiore's favour. It was not in the best interest of his king.

"We've talked about this, Happy," Lucy said, though they had not. "His Majesty agreed." She rested her attention on her father again. "Once we make land, he will tell you this himself, Father." She nodded.

Would Natsu be so foolish? Happy didn't know.

"Very well. Once we make land, your boy king can make his offers and I will decide what's in the best interest of Fiore." With that, Jude stalked out, leaving Happy and Lucy alone with only a guard by the door, who looked sick enough to die.

Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief and dropped to her knees in front of Happy, grabbing his bound wrists.

"Should you be untying me?" Happy asked.

"He as good as said so," she answered.

Happy looked superstitiously at the guard again. Sweat dripped down his temple into his collar and his throat bobbed with effort. Happy felt safe enough to whisper, "Why did you lie about the slaves?"

Matching Happy's level, Lucy answered, "If my father knew Alvarez supported the trade in any way, secretly or not, he would land on her shores and lay to waste everyone that crossed his path."

"But he ignored the accusations to begin with!"

"My father is a complicated man." Lucy shrugged.

"He sounds straightforward enough to me." Unconcerned with the lives of others until they affected his, or unless there was enough revenue to catch his interest. Men like him were a plague upon this world.

Lucy pressed against the knots on Happy's wrists, trying to loosen them.

"And the baby?" Happy inquired.

"He never would have approved of the marriage. He would have made me annul it, and if that couldn't be done, he would have killed Natsu. The prospect of a baby binds us, unifies us."

"People will know," Happy reminded her. "That's not the kind of thing one can hide."

"Perhaps it's true." One knot loosened, then the next. Happy was almost free.

"And?"

"And?" She raised a brow.

"Is it?" Happy hissed.

"Anything is possible."

"You're contemptible."

"I'm a survivor," she corrected.

"You're a deceiver."

"These days, they seem to be one in the same, unfortunately."

The guard slipped the room and rushed to retch over the side of the boat.

Over Lucy's shoulder, the sun burgeoned against the horizon, struggling against forming storm clouds. Silhouetted on the thunderheads, Happy watched a massive beast spread leathery wings and descend upon the land.

"Oh." The air left Happy's lungs in a weak whoosh. Lucy swivelled on her heel to see what he had, clutched a lantern hook.

"This is too soon…" Lucy trailed off weakly before spinning on him with new fervour in her eyes. "Happy, you must fly me to the castle and help me find Natsu, get out a warning."

"I can't outfly a dragon," Happy protested.

"Please." The whites of her eyes shone; her irises were small with fear. "They must know she's coming."

"I'm sure they do," he said even as Lucy pushed open the cabin door, letting in the storm, the waves, the fear that assailed him every time the ship pitched and he thought for certain they would be sucked out and thrown overboard.

"They won't stand up against her magic, she'll see through the illusion," Lucy was muttering. "And if she sees through the illusion, he's in trouble. She won't stop until she finds him…"

"What are you talking about?"

"There isn't any time to explain." She braved the storm. Sprays of ocean water soaked her skirts and stung her skin. Her hair whipped around her shoulders, no longer bright gold, but a dirty blonde. She grabbed one of the railings. "Hurry!" she said with a look over her shoulder.

"You're a crazy woman." Happy raised his voice to be heard over the storm the closer he came to her. "I wish you'd never come to Alvarez. I wish you had a fear of heights!"

"I hate them."

"Then better yet! I wish His Majesty let those brutes cut the wings off my back those years ago! Or at least severely damage them, so when he asked me to fly you around, I was too weak, and you slipped and fell and never came back!"

"Gods, you're so dramatic." Lucy's sass was almost swallowed by the wind.

"You're standing on the edge of a ship in a storm waiting for me to cart you off, yet I'm the dramatic one."

Happy closed his eyes, felt the push of his wings against his shoulders, bone and skin and magic. Angel wings, so many said. He was no angel. He was His Majesty's servant boy, and then his manservant. He was forever being pulled into the hairbrained schemes he accused Natsu of falling victim to because the hardest word for him to say was no and he had a saviour complex. He liked to keep that tidbit as quiet as possible, but it reared its head at ugly moments. Like the time one of Jackal's fireworks went bad and was burning dangerously and he flew it into the sky. Or the time Natsu slipped off one of the scenic cliffs around the castle and nearly plunged to his death. (They didn't tell Zeref about that one.) The time Natsu accidentally set his room on fire and Happy pulled him out of the way of a falling beam by the scruff of his neck. Or one of the other hundred times Happy made sure he was in the right place at the right time.

Happy felt air gathering beneath his wings. Someone was yelling from the front of the ship. Perhaps it was Jude, threatening to cut Happy down if he did what he was going to do, or perhaps he was screaming at Lucy, warning her away from the ledge. No one could hear.

The wind tried to bend his wings back beyond what was comfortable. He turned into it, more than sure he was going to get caught in the downdraft and drowned.

The ship pitched; Lucy stumbled forward, almost over again. Happy caught her awkwardly beneath the arms before that could happen, and only because he was sure her father would find a way to blame him for her recklessness if he did not manage. Then he did his best to get airborne, fighting against the roaring wind, the screaming ocean.

The tempest, mean and unforgiving, sucked in an enormous breath, and when she let it out again, they sank in the downdraft as Happy feared, huge waves of furious ocean kissing his boots, soaking them right through the leather. He added those to the list of things Lucy came to Alvarez to ruin.

The wave also saturated Lucy from head to foot. She got suddenly heavier; they dropped several feet. Lucy squealed and clutched his arms tight as the weight of her dress tried to pull them down. Happy closed his eyes; he couldn't watch the ocean swallow them. He fought with everything he had. He was already tired after flying here. He'd never flown in a gale this awful before. He didn't know why he agreed to this. What good would he possibly do Natsu if he were dead? And all for this paltry wench? A woman he didn't even like! He'd considered dropping buckthorn berries into her tea more than once, and here he was, trying to get her back to shore. To wreak more havoc, probably.

The wind took another breath, and in the momentary stillness, Happy was able to rise, out of the clutches of the ocean, into the stormy air.

Rain shelled his face and his back, and it hurt, but he would not complain, never again, at least, at the feeling of rain on his skin. This was freedom.

Lucy shuddered in his arms and he realized she was scared, for real scared, had thought they were about to meet their end. He let out a nervous laugh and soon, she joined him until they were both gasping, scared enough to feel sick, relieved enough not to be, laughing and laughing and not able to breathe.

In an instant, the sun slipped the horizon and burned across the sky, touched upon a figure on the beach, cloaked, looking like death himself, waiting, and then, like an eye closing, the sun was covered by the clouds again and they were cast into near-dark.

Every nerve in Happy's body told him to stay away from the beach, but the wind was wicked and Happy could not correct. They were pushed toward the waiting figure, drawn in like magnets, and once they were overhead, Happy felt the charge of magic in the air, dangerous, like lightning flicking across the sky.

Lucy spoke but Happy couldn't hear her until she screamed and by then, it was too late, they were falling, knocked out of the air by a magic so fast, Happy couldn't see it to dodge.

They hit the craggy stones, together, at the mercy of August, together, perhaps dying, together. There were hundreds of other people Happy would rather die with. What had he ever done to deserve Lucy Heartfilia?

Natsu climbed his hazy way out of a black dream without shape or sound. He was being shaken and every time his head rolled one way and then the next, he was hit with a wave of dizziness. He pushed his rouser aside with a groan.

"Are you ill, Master Natsu?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

Natsu cracked open his eyes and looked at the brightening sky. He was outside, on one of the knolls that surrounded the castle. The stream he and Lucy once sat beside meandered lazily toward the horizon where the sun pushed up, up, into a thick bed of clouds like a bead being pushed beneath grey skin.

A pale maid that leaned over him. On her wrists were shackles but the chain led nowhere. "Master Natsu?"

She stunk of magic. Of Lucy's magic. His thoughts aligned and he reasoned she was one of Lucy's spirits. Perhaps even the one that buried him underground. Buried Porlyusica.

The time for asking questions had passed. He gathered his magic in a great firestorm and burned her from this realm. She did nothing to fight back, not even scream.

"It was unwise to burn the maid," said someone new in the silence that belled out after the last bit of flame crackled and went out.

Natsu turned and was hailed by his own visage. His doppelganger had returned. He looked far better than Natsu felt, standing upright, not hunched over a hole in his middle, and dressed in clean clothes.

"She was the one charged with keeping you safe, after all." It was strange watching his own face move. The copy was perfect, except for the eyes, they were liquid, dark, cold, like the bottom of the ocean. Gemini, Natsu remembered Lucy calling him.

A fierce and unnatural cry pierced the air, scraping Natsu's eardrums. A great shadow fell over the land and a stench like blood mixed magic assaulted Natsu's nose. He was young again, staring upwards, as a dragon stormed the sky and tore his parents in half, blood spraying on the snow, Zeref grabbing his arm. Run. Run. And then Igneel beating the air with his great wings, chasing off the assaulting dragon.

There was no Zeref anymore. No Igneel. He was on his own, just him and his dead-eyed look-a-like.

"Now you'll likely die," said Gemini.

A/N: Bet you thought I forgot about you? One more chapter, friends. Mayyyybe two. Thanks sm for reading. You're the best.