This is a rewrite of Linked By: humorousandparanoid because I like it and want it finished...

Her chapters are short so they won't exactly line up completely, mine have anywhere from 3 - 6 of her chapters in 1 of mine.

It's not exactly the same story I have changed, added and altered some of it not all of it.

I hope I do this story Justice...

Oh and Mostly the entire story is in Lucy's POV unless I say other wise...

And..

I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL OR ITS CHARACTERS OR THIS ORIGINAL STORY

Lucy's POV

It was a sunny morning as I walked to the guild. Something to me didn't feel right but I shrugged it off as me being paranoid. Even though I've had this feeling since returning from the Grand Magic Games a few months ago. It was like something was eating at me but I couldn't put my finger on it. But I just brushed it off to continue my way to the guild. My rent was due soon and I knew if I didn't get a job now I'd be late.

I arrived in front of the guild quicker then I thought but I continued inside. When I pushed open the guild doors I was greeted by many, which of course I waved and greeted them back. It still baffled me that none of them held my loses at the games against me. Although I did feel like my team was in a way doing that.

I looked around the guild and spotted Natsu sitting with Lisanna. Just looking at them gave me that feeling that something wasn't right. But I shook my head and continued to walk closer to the table. I stopped when I saw Natsu hug Lisanna before Lisanna walked over to the bar to talk to her sister. Again I shook my head to clear out any of those unwanted thoughts and continued walking to the table Natsu was sitting at.

"Hey, Natsu, my rent is due in a week and I'm still low on money... Do you want to go on a job with me?" I asked.

Natsu had a bit of fire hanging out of his mouth when he turned to look at me. "Hey, Luce... I was going to go on a job with Lisanna... Hold on, I'll ask if you can join..." Natsu said as he started standing up.

"You 2 haven't gone on any jobs together since she got back, right? We had the S-class exams, the clock incident and then the Grand Magic Games? So don't worry about it you 2 go ahead..." I said waving my hands in front of me.

"Are you sure?" Natsu asked. I nodded. "Well, okay then..." Natsu said with a shrug if his shoulders.

'Gray's already gone on a job with Erza... I guess I might have to go solo this time... Okay, time to look at job requests that I can do...' I thought internally as I walked to the request board. I scanned through the papers, quickly determining what job I can and can't and might be able to do on my own.

'Let's see, I need another 20,000 jewels, so I need one that's paying at least close to that... Monster hunting, Nope... Find 20 missing animals, for only 15 000 jewels, Nope, pay's not enough... This one sounds easy, and its a 10,000 jewel reward, its pretty far though, so I'm not going to have time to come back and go on another job, so that ones out... Rogue mage, 60,000 jewels, he can't be that strong if that's all they're offering for him... Well, just in case, maybe if I can get someone else to go with me, then split the reward 50/50, that's 30,000 for the both of us, I have enough to cover my rent and a bit extra...' I listed off in my head internally.

"Um, excuse me, Lucy?" A sweet timid voice said breaking through my thoughts.

"Hm?" I turned to see who it was. "Wendy! Oh My! You're perfect!" I squealed as I clapped my hands together.

"F-F-For w-w-what?" Wendy managed to stammer out, shocked by my sudden outburst it would seem.

I guess I couldn't really blame her, I was sort of over excited.

"Do you want to come on a job with me? I'll split the reward evenly, I promise..." I asked apparently still a little on the loud side, but Wendy seemed calmer.

"That's actually why I was coming over here... Natsu said that you needed to go on a job, so I was going to offer to accompany you..." Wendy said as she fidgeted a bit. "If that's alright with you that is... I don't want to intrude..." Wendy added. She seemed a bit nervous.

"Then what about this one?" I asked handing her the request. "When it comes to rogue mage requests, they usually have a reward between 100,000 and 150,000 jewels, depending on their strength of course, before they become S-class jobs... This one doesn't seem to be all that powerful, between the two of us I think we can do it pretty easily..." I said reassuringly.

"I think you could probably do this by yourself, you're thinking you aren't as strong as you really are again aren't you?" Wendy asked in a scolding manner.

I giggled as I scratched the back of my head, "Well, maybe just a little, but it's better to think that I'm weaker, rather than stronger... If I thought like that I'd end up taking on jobs that I can't actually handle on my own... Then who knows what would happen... Besides I was thinking about doing it myself, but then I thought 'just in case'... So what do you say? Do you want to go with me?" I asked almost pleadingly.

"I guess I can't argue with your logic, so yeah I'll go with you..." Wendy said with a smile.

"Great! Thank you Wendy! You're amazing!" I said as I hugged the girl. I smiled after releasing the giggling girl and started towards the bar, "Mira! Wendy and I are going to take this job, okay? We should be back in a few days..." I said as I got to the bar handing Mira the paper.

"Alright..." Mira said cheerfully as she looked at the request. "Wait!? Both of you are taking this one?" I heard Mira ask, but we were already walking out the doors.

Normal POV – Still In The Guild Hall

"Why do you look so confused, Mira?" Mira looked over to the previously empty seat to see Master Makarov and Laxus, along with the Thunder Legion staring at her.

"I just don't understand why both of them took this job... It would be easy for either one of them to do on their own... Both of them can easily qualify for the S-class exams this year..." Mira explained.

Though instead of an answer from Makarov, like expected, an answer came from Freed, "I heard them talking... It seems that Lucy still doesn't believe that she's all that strong..." Freed explained.

"Whatever, Who cares... I wanna get going... Mira we're leaving..." Laxus stated before showing her what job they were taking before turning and walking out of the guild.

With Lucy & Wendy – Lucy's POV

After we left the guild we agreed to meet up at the train station in an hour so we could go home and pack. The train ride itself was about 2-3 hours long. Which honestly didn't bother me since Natsu wasn't with to where it would be a very high chance of me getting puked on because of his motion sickness. Thank the stars Wendy doesn't have that annoying problem that so far every Dragon Slayer I've met has.

After we entered the train and the train started moving we were just talking to kill time. The subjects differed from the normal conversations girls would have to topics that would most definitely make me blush and uncomfortable to talk about with others.

Out of the blue Wendy decided to ask the strangest question possible. "Is it true that you have a crush on Natsu?" Wendy asked in an unnatural serious voice. I just stared at her blinking once and a while just waiting for her to start laughing, and say she was joking.

After so long, I broke out into a fit of laughter. "Me... And... Natsu? No way!" I managed to say through my laughter. My laughter continued for quite a while before I snorted. "If anything he's just a friend, brother, cousin, anything but a boyfriend..." I said through barely controlled giggles.

Though if I was being honest, saying it all out loud hurt because yes, I truly did have feelings for the fire dragon slayer. But I knew so did Lisanna so I decided to let her be happy since I knew Natsu didn't feel the same for me as I did for him. He truly had feelings for Lisanna.

"Well, it's just everyone seems to think that you two have a thing for each other... I mean, even Lisanna seems to think he likes you..." Wendy explained.

"Really? Lisanna?" I asked in disbelief. It was strange considering I even told Lisanna that I didn't harbor any feelings for him just to ease her mind.

"Yeah, really the only ones who don't believe that are Laxus and his friends, but I think as long as you don't end up with Elfman, or any of the girls, they don't really care either way..." Wendy said while tapping her chin with her index finger in thought.

"Hold on, my sweet little Wendy, talks to the socially awkward Laxus... But not just him, the Thunder Legion too?" I exclaimed, completely shocked that she had the courage to go up to them and say hi, let alone hold a conversation. "And fyi I don't go for girls..." I mumbled as an afterthought. "Unless you count the drunken escapade with Cana the night after the celebration of the games..." I said not realizing I said that out loud until I saw Wendy's face turn red and her eyes go wide.

"Well... Um... I... Um... I wanted to talk to him on Tenrou, and I was extremely nervous, until Erza came up to me and told me that he was really a nice guy, just awkward around other people... I finally spoke to him on the boat ride home, when everyone else wasn't crowding around him... Um... Since then I've been able to go up to him, and talk about little things..." Wendy said ignoring my last comment apparently but was still blushing at the beginning and smiling at the end of her explanation, so it was easy to tell she was fond of Laxus, and that she was very proud of herself.

"That's really awesome that you can, Wendy... If I was being honest, I'm still a little nervous around them... But, if you just talk about little things, how did mine and Natsu's relationship become a topic? I mean, Laxus doesn't seem like the type to gossip..." I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, he's not, but Evergreen most definitely is... I was talking to her and asked the others' opinions..." Wendy clarified.

"You and Evergreen talk about... Relationships?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yup! She has a huge interest in yours..." Wendy bounced a little and clapped her hands together as she said this.

"I feel a little scared by that..." I muttered.

"It's nothing to worry about... I think it's mainly because you don't really show an interest in any of the guys in the guild, so she tends to make up what kind of guy she thinks you would fall for, with my input every once in a while..." Wendy explained.

"Oh you do now? So, what kind of guy am I going to fall for? According to the 2 of you, anyway..." I asked crossing my arms under my chest as I leaned back in my seat.

"Well, we both thought that he would have to be above regular standards... Handsome, but not so much that you have to fight for his attention... Clean, strong, protective, loving, sort of like a prince from a fairy tale, and extremely gentlemanly... That last part Laxus disagreed with..." Wendy explained as she used her fingers to count each characteristic.

"Really now? Why?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"He said that you ran away from your life as, basically, a princess because you were sick of it, so why would you want a guy who would remind you so much of it... He also mumbled that you wouldn't be friends with Gray and Natsu either if that was the kind of guy you wanted, but I don't think we were supposed to hear that..." Wendy said as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"Wow... That's a surprise... I didn't think he knew that... And, oddly enough I would have to agree with him... Especially the part about Gray and Natsu..." I said rethinking the whole Natsu crush thing. To be honest I didn't think Laxus knew or cared much about my history, especially since all of that was told to the guild when he was actually absent during the Phantom attack, and a bit of a power obsessed jerk.

"One hour to Dracholt City..." A voice spoke throughout the trains loud system.

"I guess we better set a plan for once we get to the city..." I said after I heard the announcement.

"Lucy, don't you find it odd that a rogue mage would be here?" Wendy looked sort of concerned.

"Not really, should I?" I asked.

"Well this place, though it may be called a city, not many people actually live here... It's more of a tourist attraction... Not exactly a typical place for hiding out..." Wendy said scratching the back of her head.

"Ahh, you see, Wendy, that is where you're wrong..." I started, going into teacher mode, "Because there is less than 2,000 people living here, it isn't likely that the mage would be seen more than once by a single person, and because of the amount of people coming in and out of the city each day, the citizens probably wouldn't recognize him even if he were standing 2 feet away, so really it's the perfect place..." I explained.

"I see, I didn't think of it that way..." She said with slight huff, almost like a student getting an answer wrong on a test. It made me want to giggle but I bit it back.

"All of that only makes our job harder, for the same reasons the citizens wouldn't recognize him too easily... That right there doesn't help either... We won't be able to get accurate descriptions from anyone, unless we interviewed every person there and took the most common attributes and put them together to make one person, but that would take up way too much time and we'd just end up getting confused... We'd probably end up suspecting just about everyone we come across..." I said offhandedly. "Of course hiding here could backfire... If he stays too long, he would stand out more to the citizens that see him more often... If that were to happen, then we could figure out his hotel, his room number, where he likes to hang out, heck, even his favorite meal at his favorite restaurant..." Once I finished my long speech, Wendy looked quite impressed.

"You know, Lucy, with that brain you could easily make it to S-class..." Wendy commented.

"If it were only about brains, I would've been promoted to S-class the second I got to the guild... But, sadly, it's not... So, back to the planning... Once we get to town, we have to go see the mayor, get whatever details we can from him, and depending on when the mage does whatever it is he does, we'll either check into a hotel and go to bed, or go out and search... It's getting late, so we may not find much..." I explained.

"But, Lucy, its a huge city, how are we going to find him?" Wendy asked.

I brought my finger to my chin as I thought. "Well, how good are your dragon senses?" I asked. Wendy looked confused but she answered anyways.

"My hearing isn't close to Natsu's or the others, but it's above a dogs level... My eyesight, as far as I know, is perfect during the day and I've never really looked around at night for anything so I don't really know about that, and my sense of smell is pretty good, too..." Wendy explained.

"Do mages smell different from Non-mages?" I asked. Though, she still looked confused, she took a few quick sniffs, and I could practically see the wheels in her head turning as she slowly figured out what I was getting at.

"Yes, they do! Now that I actually focus on it, I don't know how I didn't notice that before... It's almost like the mages have an extra hint of spice or something!" Wendy exclaimed.

"Can you smell a difference in the types of magic?" I asked amused at how excited she was getting just over random smells.

After a few more sniffs. "Sorry, I can't really tell... It may just be that there aren't many mages on the train and I don't know their magic so I don't know what I'm looking for..." Wendy said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"It's okay, Wendy... You've already found an easier way to search for him..." I said with a smile while she beamed at me. This trip might just help her confidence a bit more.

"Thank you! I never would have thought of that on my own... You really are amazing!" Wendy exclaimed as she clapped her hand together happily.

"So, as we're walking to the mayor's, do you think you can sniff out how many mages there are compared to the non-mages?" I asked as I giggled at the determination in her eyes.

"I'll give it my best shot!" Wendy exclaimed with determination.

Time Skip - Mayor's House

It took about half an hour to get to the mayor's house from the train station. It was right in the center of the city, raised on a platform for all to see. Once Wendy and I got to the mayor's house, we were immediately taken to a study to wait for him. We decided that I would talk since Wendy is always shy around new people, especially those of importance. We waited in silence for just under ten minutes. The mayor was a short man. Not really handsome, but not unattractive either, dirty blonde hair that was swept back with piercing orange eyes.

"Good evening ladies... I apologize to have kept you waiting so long... My name is Stan McGram..." The mayor said sitting down in a chair that sat behind a very old looking desk. The wood itself was light, it almost looked unnatural. I couldn't but get a weird feeling. Something felt off. I felt some weird type pulse come him, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Hello, my name is Lucy, and this is Wendy... We came here from Fairy Tail because of your request about the rogue mage causing trouble..." I said motioning with my hand to both myself and Wendy.

"Yes, thank you for coming." He said with a quick nod.

"We're going to need as much information as you can provide..." I said slipping into the heiress part of my upbringing.

"Unfortunately I must say, we don't know all that much on him... Nobody has gotten a good look at him... He is normally in the shadows, and is only ever seen just before dawn... After that he just disappears..." The mayor explained.

"And how many times has this happened?" I asked as I took a quick glance at Wendy to notice her fidgeting and gripping the end of her dress in her fists, as well as her nose began twitching as well.

"Four times... That we've been able to document anyway..." The mayor said offhandedly clearly he just wanted us out of there which made me more suspicious.

"Do you know what type of magic he uses?" I asked trying to get as much information as I could be I pulled us out of there.

"I'm not sure, but I believe it is either air magic or shadow magic, since nobody can see it..." The mayor said with a shrug of his shoulders like he could careless about this whole thing.

"I see... Wendy, how many mages did you notice were here in the city?" I asked as I looked to my side where she was sitting.

"U-Um... I believe about one in every 200 people. But I can only tell so far out and I may have been just smelling a few mages that just kept getting within range..." Wendy said as she looked like she was deep in thought about it.

"Wendy, calm down... You did great... Mr. McGram... I'm going to need pictures of all the mages who are citizens here, along with what kind of magic they use... And a map with all the sightings of the mage marked on it..." I said sternly not really giving him much choice.

"Of course, I will get them to you as soon as they are ready..." The mayor just nodded without flinching. I didn't actually expect him to comply but I'm glad he's making it easier so we're going after the wrong person.

"Thank you... I think we should take our leave now..." I said, standing up to leave while Wendy looking at me with a confused expression for a few minuted before standing as well. "We can find our way out... You should attend to your other guests..." I said biting back a smirk.

"What makes you think that I have other guests?" He asked looking quite surprised. I doubt he even knows they're here yet. Wendy looked surprised by my words too.

"Not long after you came into the room, Wendy's nose started to twitch, meaning she smelt someone approaching... I don't blame you for not knowing they were here yet... After all nothing beats a dragon's nose..." I giggled pointing to Wendy before I quickly walked out of the room, something about him was still bugging me, and I didn't want to stay too much longer than we needed to. I looked back and saw Wendy was right behind me.

Once we were out the front door, I slowed my pace, I heard Wendy let out a sigh of relief.

"Wendy?" I asked in a serious tone while I slightly glanced back over my shoulder.

"Yes?" Wendy answered a bit shocked by my tone I'm guessing.

"Did you sense something strange about him?" I asked.

"What do you mean strange?" Wendy asked.

"Nothing about him seemed off to you?" I asked as I remembered that strange pulse I felt earlier.

"No... Not really..." I just nodded my response. "You know, Lucy, you really are quite amazing... I like how your brain is always coming up with new plans, adjusting things for every new thing that you learn... Not only that, you are super observant..." Wendy exclaimed with bright sparkly eyes.

"Oh, my, Wendy stop flattering me... Really I'm not all that great..." I said as I felt my face heat up.

"But you are! You mentioned the other guests just to see how he would react, didn't you? You wanted to know if there was something he was hiding... You also wanted him to know that you were the one in control, not him..." Wendy said as she bounced up to my side beaming a smile at me.

"You're right about that! Nothing ticks me off more than some guy acting like he's better than us... I mean, just because he hired us doesn't mean he can look down on us like we're not important... I wanted him to know that, if we wanted to, we could just leave him to deal with the problem on his own... But, there was also another reason... If we knew that something was going on in his own house that he didn't, he would have more confidence in our abilities and get us what we need faster..." I said with a grin.

"See? You came up with a new plan all because you noticed something as simple as my nose twitching... You could be on the level of Erza, in terms of plans..." Wendy giggled.

"Oh, before I forget, you looked nervous once you smelt the other people... Any reason why?" I asked trying to will the blush on my face to go away. I couldn't take all the nice things she was saying making me seem like I was something special.

"Well, it could be nothing, but there were 4 people going to his house..." Wendy said looking deep in thought again.

"What's so bad about that?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing, well except they were all mages... And I went over the request board back at the guild while you were talking to Mira... There were no other requests for this city..." Wendy explained making me wonder.

"I see... Hm... Now I understand why you were nervous... Do you still remember their scents?" I asked.

"Yeah, they seemed familiar, so they were pretty easy to memorize..." Wendy said with confidence.

"Good... Then we'll sleep tonight, wake an hour before dawn, look for that rogue mage, then we can search for those scents tomorrow during the day... We'll also continue looking for the rogue mage at the same time if we don't find him before hand... I know that this mage scent thing is still really new to you, like, today new, but do you think you'll be able to do all that?" I asked.

"If we find the rogue mage before dawn, and I can get his scent, then probably, but if we don't... Then I'm not so sure..." Wendy said sadly.

"If we find him before dawn then I sure we won't need to search for him after that..." I said reassuringly.

"I guess that's true..." She said giggling and blushing while she was scratching the back of her head. I swear it was the cutest sight I had ever seen.

"Now, let's go eat... We should also pick up something to go for breakfast tomorrow morning..." I wasn't hungry a few minutes ago. I mean, I did eat on the train. I think Natsu's starting to rub off on me. And judging by the look on Wendy's face, she's thinking the same thing.

We went to a small restaurant near our hotel. Dinner went by calmly, nothing really exciting, it was much the same as the train, only this time I got to tease Wendy about being the Juliette to a certain Romeo. Though, I guess that isn't exactly right. They aren't from rival families, and Romeo and Juliette's love only lasted a few days before they both killed themselves. Oh well. It worked at the time.

After dinner we went to a bakery and got some muffins and croissants for breakfast in the morning. After we got what we needed, we went to the hotel, and got a room, then took a bath and then we went to bed.

Time Skip – Next Morning – Still Lucy's POV

Now, the sun is going to rise in about an hour and a half. If I had any Idea that Wendy was as impossible to wake up as Natsu then I would have asked Carla how she wakes her up in the mornings. I've tried screaming in her ear, plugging her nose with tissues, tugging on her cheeks, shaking her, telling her that the breakfast was ready, tickling her, everything but a bucket of water. But I decided that was the only way I was going to get up, so I picked her up, set her in the bathtub, turned on the shower to ice cold, and sprayed her.

Let's just say she has an extremely high pitched squeal. I swear I might have gone deaf in my one ear. "Sorry, sweetie, but you wouldn't wake up... I really had no choice..." I started, handing her a towel, "We've got fifteen minutes before we have to leave... The mayor sent the maps while we were asleep and I've already looked through them... Seems the mage has been staying mainly in one area of the city, so we can just start there..." I explained.

"O-k-k-k-k-ay-y-y..." Wendy stuttered as she hugged herself in the towel and shivered from the cold.

'I didn't think the water was that cold... Next time I'll go for the hot water...' I mentally noted. "I'll go get your bag, okay? Just wait right there..." I could have sworn I heard her mumble something along the lines of 'Yeah, like I can actually go anywhere'.

I couldn't help but giggle.

North Of The City

The North of the city was completely abandoned. It was full of buildings that were probably beautiful at one time, but now were just crumbling down, the pillars of one such building fallen across the ground. The darkness of night only making the place all the more creepy.

"Are you sure this is where he's been showing himself?" Wendy asked walking closer to me as she wrapped her arms around mine.

"I get what you mean... But this is where the maps said he was seen..." I said but I was being cautious going through here, after all I'm responsible for not only myself, but Wendy's safety as well.

"There isn't anything here though... Grandeeney told me about this city a few times, but every time she did she said that the northern part of the city has been abandoned for years, mostly because of small earthquakes making the area uninhabitable, but also because of something in the earth that can warp a person's magical abilities..." Wendy explained while looking around the area.

"Why would your dragon tell you about a regular old city?" I asked a bit confused.

"You don't know why this city is so famous? Why so many tourists come here?" She asked as she looked at me completely astonished.

"No, I'd never heard of this city before yesterday, so I only got basic information on it..." I said as I looked around the area.

"I suppose that makes sense... The 'Drac' in 'Dracholt' comes from the constellation Draco, which I'm sure you know about..." Wendy said making me snort.

"Of course... It's the dragon constellation, which was supposed to be tied to a different kind of Key for Celestial mages like me... One rarer than the Zodiac Keys if I remember correctly... But I was told that's just a myth..." I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Well, before the war that Zirconis told us about, this city actually used to be a place where all the dragons gathered... Every fifty years the dragons would gather and would stay for a few months, the humans worshiped dragons during this time period, so there were always festivals and other celebrations whenever the dragons were here... It was like this for many millenniums... But then, there were some dragons that let power go to their heads and would they make the humans their slaves... The other dragons taught the humans dragon slayer magic to fight back... Unfortunately, the humans became selfish and turned on their saviors..." Wendy looked like she was going to begin crying any second, but refused to let the tears fall.

"The humans became selfish and never let the dragons come back... If a dragon ever came back the slayers would attack it until it either flew away or was dead... It didn't matter if the dragon was only a baby, an adult or an elder..." I heard a sniffle and saw the tears she was fighting to keep contained finally fall from her eyes. I rubbed her arm in what I hoped was a soothing touch.

"It wasn't until many months later that the humans began to notice that the northern area warped their abilities... They could no longer control them and the humans began gaining dragon-like features, more than just our claws, fangs or senses... The humans were gaining tails, snouts, scales. At first, they were overjoyed, they thought it was just their powers advancing, but in fact, it was killing them... Their human bodies couldn't handle these changes, and started to deteriorate... After a few deaths, the ones who weren't too far into the change left to search for the dragons... They found the dragons and begged them to help, but the dragons of course were angry at being betrayed and having their families killed, and had refused to help the humans... The dragons, however, didn't want the deaths to be their fault and gave them one piece of advise. 'Stay out of the north'... The people followed this... Those who hadn't changed much lived for a long time afterwards... It's for that reason that the north was abandoned... That is the story, though, most people don't know the entire thing... I don't think even Natsu or Gajeel do..." Wendy finished and had stopped crying, though I still had my hand on her arm.

"Maybe this mage is wanting whatever is in the ground that changes peoples magic?" I thought out loud.

"That's possible, but wouldn't it affect him, too?" Wendy asked thinking about the same thing.

"Maybe not... If its a device, then maybe that's how the dragons in your story knew to tell the people to stay out of the north... Or it's possible that his magic can control whatever it is so that it doesn't do anything to him..." I pondered.

"But didn't the mayor say that he had either air magic or shadow magic?" Wendy asked.

"Well, you and Sherria can use your air magic for healing, and a shadow magic user I once met could use his shadows for shields... Or maybe it's like that guy from the Grand Magic Games that could nullify magic around him, or Yuka from Lamia Scale that created shields that nullified the magic before it hit him, it worked as a good physical barrier as well..." I continued to ponder and I didn't take notice to the fact that Wendy had stopped walking until she called for me in a whisper.

"Wait, Lucy! I smell someone up ahead..." Wendy yelled in a whisper.

"Do you smell anything else?" I whispered back.

She took a few sniffs and gasped. "Those mages from yesterday are to the east of us, and I think they're coming this way..." Wendy said in a slight panic.

"Damn it... If they're more enemies we're going to be in heaps of trouble... We need to finish this guy fast..." I said in urgency. Wendy agreed and we both moved as quickly and quietly as we could. We got to the mage in a few minutes. He seemed to be chanting some sort of spell over a magic circle. I didn't recognize the book he was reading from, either. Soon the circle glowed and gave off the same pulse that I got from the mayor the say before. So before he could get farther into whatever spell he was casting Wendy and I decided to attack.

Wanting this to be done quick, Wendy started off with an sky dragon's roar and I bound the guy as he was flying through the air with my fleuve d'etoiles before he got too far away and brought him crashing back to the ground. We heard shouts behind us, so we quickly braced ourselves for another attack. However, once we could see the people, they looked as shocked as I'm sure we did.

"The... Thunder Legion!?" I said after a few moments. "Um... Wendy, why didn't you say it was them?" I asked the girl next to me.

"Well, I did say the scents were familiar when I caught them yesterday, but I guess now knowing the difference between mage scents and regular people's scents made me a little confused about theirs..." Wendy explained slowly. It was as if we were thawing out from the shock of seeing each other.

"Cosplayer, what are you doing here?" Bickslow finally asked breaking from his frozen state first. Oh, how I hated that nickname, but no matter how many times I tell him not to call me that, he just says it twice as much. Doesn't stop me from trying, though.

"Bickslow..." I growled through grit teeth. "Don't call me that! I am not a cosplayer! Not that it's really any business of yours we were here to catch a rogue mage... How about you guys?" I countered crossing my arms under my chest giving him a glare.

"We have to find the reason this place affects mages and destroy it..." Freed answered, sounding calm and collective as always.

"Yeah, so if you'd leave, that'd be great..." Laxus said in a bored tone.

'Is Laxus seriously that much of a jerk...' I growled internally as I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yeah, No you can wait..." I said brushing him off.

"And if I don't want to?" Laxus asked with that damn cocky grin of his.

"Then too bad for you... Our job is a mage that's already dealt with, your job is something that the people of this city have survived with for hundreds of years, it can wait five damn minutes!" I said, my voice was stern and clear, but not a yell. Just loud enough for him to know that I am not being swayed in this argument, if you could call it that.

"Dealt with, huh? Really, then, where is he, hm?" Laxus asked in a smug tone which just made me want to kick him across the ruined city.

"What do you mean? He's right on the ground over..." I began to say when I looked over where he was just laying and that he was gone. "He's gone! But How!" I shouted as I ran over to where I knew I threw him, where I knew he landed.

All I saw was a bit of blood in the in the magic circle a few feet away.

"That can't be good..." I whispered in curiosity.

"Lucy Wait!" I heard Wendy yell from behind me but I kept walking towards the circle. Once I got to the circle I knelt down to examine the circle and the blood.

"What the hell?" I began to say and as if cued by my words the circle began to glow brighter than before. I saw four other lights a short distance from us, beyond the ruins of the old houses.

I quickly stood up as the circle some how grew outwards to where I was standing in the middle of it. I had dropped my whip somewhere behind me but I felt something strange stinging the bottom of my feet. It was dull at first.

"Damn, this really can't be good!" I said a bit louder then I thought. The circle began to glow even brighter until I was completely blinded by it.

"Lucy!" I could hear Wendy calling my name and what sounded like someone banging on glass.

The circles must have connected and made a barrier between me and the others. I felt immense pain begin in my fingertips and the soles of my feet, I forced my eyes open to see that my skin was being burned and peeled away. The pain became too much and everything around me went black.

With Wendy & The Thunder Legion - Normal POV

"No! Lucy!" Wendy cried as she banged her fists against the barrier that separated the group from Lucy. She was pounding her fist so hard against the barrier trying to break it that her fist began to crack open leaving small trails of blood trailing down her arms.

"Damn it! What happened?" Evergreen hissed.

"Wendy stop! It's no use! You're just going to hurt yourself! We're going to have to wait till it disappears on it's own... There is no way for us to break it!" Freed said trying to reason with the distraught sky slayer.

"No! No! No! We can't leave her in there! It'll kill her! Damn it! Please! We need to help her!" Wendy cried as Bickslow held her back away from the barrier as it became a blinding light. "Let me go!" Wendy growled. Wendy stiffened at the sudden high pitched scream that she knew was Lucy coming from the other side of the barrier. After hearing the scream stop Wendy began struggling twice as hard to get out of Bickslow's hold.

"You need to calm down! It's disappearing!" Laxus yelled startling the young slayer.

Once the barrier disappeared they saw Lucy laying there on the ground covered in blood from head to toe. She was barely breathing and the breaths she was taking were heavy and frantic.

Wendy ran over and knelt down next to her. She could see that Lucy's body was covered in burns. Wendy was in a state of panic as her hands were hovering over Lucy but she wasn't sure where to start. Tears threatened to flood the young slayers eyes until she was startled out of her hysteric state by a hand on her shoulder.

"Wendy... You need to calm down... The more you panic the less you'll be able to do... Now focus..." Laxus said in a calm tone as he looked her in the eyes to gain her attention.

Wendy nodded weakly. Before anyone could say another word Lucy let out another high pitched scream startling the group. The circle under her began to glow again which made the young sky slayer panic wanting to move Lucy out of it so she didn't get caught in it again.

"Easy..." Laxus said as he knelt down next to her as he shrugged off his coat. He didn't like the idea of getting blood all over his coat but he didn't trust touching the celestial mage's body as not to hurt her even more then she was already. Laxus gently slid his hands that were covered with his coat under Lucy's body and lifted her slightly off the ground and moved her out of the circle. Laxus laid her back down on the ground just as gently so Wendy could try to heal her and not panic too much about the her still being in circle.

Wendy looked down at the ground as her bangs covered her eyes, "Thank you Laxus..." Wendy muttered lowly.

Laxus looked at her since he actually heard her. His nose twitched as he smelt the scent of salt and water. He then realized that Wendy was fighting to hold back tears.

"No problem half pint... Now how about you focus on how to heal her... She's lost a lot of blood... And her pulse is barely there..." Laxus said as he sounded more like he was giving orders but Wendy knew he was only doing it because he was just as worried about her friend too.

"Right..." Wendy nodded once as she steeled her resolve and held determination in her eyes. "I might know of one spell that could work..." Wendy said taking one last look at Lucy's battered and burned body.