Lucy stared at Bickslow as he stuck his tongue out with a smile directed right at her. She hadn't ever fought Bickslow so she doesn't know too much about how his powers work. She slid her foot back, bringing her fists up to block her face. She knew Kana got her ass handed to her when she fought Fried, so she needed to be especially weary around him.

"Well looky here, it's the cheerleader and the drunk!" Bickslow cackled. His spirits bouncing up and down, repeating every word he said. Lucy was terrified to go up against these two monsters, but she had to be strong for Kana. She eyed her brunette friend, watching Kana's expression go from worried to confident. She turned to Lucy with a smile.

"You ready?" She asked.

"Definitely!"

Lucy took out Taurus and opened his gate. The bull immediately ran over to Bickslow and slashed his spirit's bodies. Lucy grinned, she didn't actually think that would of worked. But she wasn't complaining. She smirked as she watched Bickslow panicked expression.

"You destroyed my babies!" He whined.

"You should be worried about yourself!" Kana announced, throwing cards their way. "Lightning!" She yelled out.

"That puny lighting has nothing on Laxus!" Fried exclaimed, dodging the lightning with ease. Lucy frowned, but then gasped as she looked back at Bickslow. His spirits already had other bodies. She should of known it wouldn't have been so easy. Lucy huffed and took out another key. Scorpio.

"Scorpio, aim right towards them!" She commanded him, grabbing the whip to her side. She just needed to blind them for a few seconds, so she could grab one of them with her whip. Scorpio did as was told and shot a tornado of sand right at them. Using her heightened eyesight, she was able to see Fried. He had his arms over his eyes to block out the sand.

Running towards him, she grabbed his arm with her whip and yanked him towards her. Now, to finish him off. Sucking up a gust of air, she puffed up her cheeks. "Celestial dragon," she mumbled. "Roar!" She screamed, her attack hitting Fried dead on. As the cloud of dust and sand dissipated, she watched as Fried hung his mouth open in shock and fall to the ground. His clothes torn and matted.

"Good job Lucy!" Kana praised.

"Thanks! Now take out Bickslow!"

"Rodger!" Throwing another set of cards. "Water of destruction!" She announced as water seeped heavily from the cards stuck in the ground right below Bickslow. And like a raging river, Bickslow was carried away along with his spirit puppets. "Now, lightning!" Kana added, making the attack at least ten times stronger. Bickslow screamed in pain as the whirlwind of water began to sweep him under.

As the water finally disappeared, all that was left was Bickslow laying on the ground unconscious, along with his puppets. Lucy furrowed her brows. She just realized, they hadn't attacked her or Kana once through their whole battle. If she could even really call it that.

"It seems we won..." She mumbled. The win didn't feel right. Like it was way too easy. Had Fried or Bickslow even tried? She turned to Kana to voice her thoughts, but then saw the excited expression on her face. The bars to the passageway out lifted up, allowing the two to go on their way.

"Alright! Come on Lucy!" Kana grinned, jogging ahead of her. Lucy hesitantly followed, looking back on both Fried and Bickslow for a moment. They were still unconscious, as far as Lucy could tell. With a sigh, she caught up to Kana.

"Was it really a good idea to just let them beat us? I thought you wanted to be on par with Laxus." Bickslow murmured as he sat up from his spot. He rubbed his head. "I may have pretended to be knocked unconscious, but Kana's attack actually hurt." He laughed.

"I may want to be on Laxus's level one day, but making it up to them was more important. Had it been any other team, I would of went all out. But I owe it to Kana, after what happened during Fantasia. Those girls sure are lucky they ran into us." Fried muttered with a smile.

"Whatever you say." Bickslow snickered.

Lucy and Kana followed the path, smiling when they saw some light towards the end. They picked up their pace and squinted when the sun beamed down at them. They were outside at the next meeting point. Makarov was there too, along with Gajeel, Levy, Gray, Loke, Natsu, and Happy. Lucy smiled when she saw Natsu. She was glad he made it to the next round. Although, she shouldn't be surprised.

"Good job girls, you two successfully took down Fried and Bickslow." Makarov said with a smile. Lucy smiled slightly, still skeptical about the whole fight. But Kana just grinned and fist bumped Lucy's shoulder.

"I knew we could win. Lucy's a lucky gal!"

"I'm really not." Lucy sighed comically. Gray was pretty shocked by their victory, but he seemed to be the only one. Natsu hadn't even looked her way. She frowned when her eyes landed on him. His elbows were propped on his knees and he had his forehead lay on the back of his hands.

She wondered if he was motion sick or something, but that obviously wasn't the case. Became if he was motion sick then she would be too. So something else must be bugging him. Without thinking, she stocked up to him and stood next to him. She waited until he noticed her presence, which was pretty quickly.

"Lucy..." He mumbled, not bothering to look up at her. Lucy pursed her lips and sat down next to him.

"You don't have to tell me what's wrong you know."

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just thinking-"

"You're not a very good liar Natsu. I can tell when you're down or confused or just upset. I won't tell you to get over it or not think about it, but I want you to know that whatever it is, you'll overcome it no sweat. Because that's who you are!" Lucy smiled, patting him on the back. Finally, he peered up at her with a surprised expression. She only beamed at him and held up her thumb, giving him a wink. "I believe in your strength Natsu. Count on it."

With a sigh, Natsu leaned back and gave her a small smirk. "You really like to poke your nose in where it doesn't belong, huh?"

Lucy gasped and puffed up her cheeks. "Fine then! If you're gonna be a big jerk about it then forget I said anything!" She yelled, though it held no actual anger. Natsu's eyes were wide for a moment, before a shit eating grin broke out. He burst out in laughter, drawing her in too.

"You two are sure gettin chummy huh?" Gray teased.

"Lay off Natsu, that's my partner for right now. You can have her back when we win this thing." Kana snickered.

"Gah!? When you win this thing? I don't think so, I'm definitely going to win this year!" Natsu announced, standing up and pointing to each team. "Watch out, cause me and Happy are commin'!" The dragon slayer broke out into a toothy grin. Lucy smiled, she was glad he was finally back to normal.

"Nuh uh, Salamander! I'm gonna win!" Gajeel growled.

"You're not even competing!" Gray scoffed.

"Alright alright, enough of that," Makarov ordered. "It seems Juvia and Lisanna were taken out by Erza. Lucy and Kana bested Fried and Bickslow, while Gray and Loke beat Wendy and Mest. And Elfman and Evergreen also seemed to be taken out by Mirajane. It's time to announce the second round."

"Don't count us out yet!" A feminine voice hollered. Lucy's eyes widened seeing both Elfman and Evergreen. Though they were beaten, they were standing. She couldn't believe they actually defeated Mirajane.

"Well this is a nice turn of events, well done Elfman and Evergreen." Makarov smiled.

"How'd you manage to defeat Mira?" Gray asked in curiosity. They both went a bit red at the question. Evergreen and Elfman look away from each other.

"A magician never reveals her tricks..." Evergreen blurted. Lucy had a feeling they somehow cheated their way to victory, but she wasn't going to say anything. Turning to Makarov, she listened as he began to explain the next round.

"The second round is to find the first master's grave. You will be given a six hour time slot. Whoever doesn't find it in time, will be eliminated from this year's trials." Makarov explained. He fumbled with a shot gun in his pocket for a moment. Taking it out, he held it to the sky. "I'm giving you all to the count of three. One," He started. Lucy focused ahead of her and dragged Kana closer to her. "Two," In the corner of her eyes, she watched Natsu's determined grin. Which sparked her own smile. She's definitely going to beat him and bring Kana to victory. "Three!" The gun went off.

Lucy grabbed Kana and ran off into the woods. She took a path no one else had and continued to go in any direction. She didn't have a plan yet, but she was bound to think of one sooner or later. They slowed down after a few minutes, quickly hiding when they came in contact with a huge beast she had never seen before.

"Man, how are we ever going to find her grave!?" Kana groaned. "He didn't give us any clues!"

"I'm not so sure about that..." Lucy mumbled. She had a feeling Makarov gave them all a clue when he was explaining the round. She just couldn't figure out where that clue lied. Blinking for a few seconds, a thought then popped up in her head. She knew where it was. "Follow me!" Lucy said suddenly, standing up and running off.

"Wait for me!" Kana gasped. It didn't take her long to catch up with Lucy, because Lucy had stopped walking. She was gazing up at the sky. Red fireworks went off.

"What's that?" Lucy asked Kana.

"I can't remember, but I don't think it's good."

"An enemy is on the island." Gray said, stepping out from behind a tree. Loke was with him too. Lucy frowned, she had made sure to not get anywhere near another team. So how did they even find them?

"Why are you guys here?" Lucy asked, eyeing them suspiciously. They had made up some lame excuse, but she let them slide. She looked back up at the sky. Another flare went off. How could an enemy even find this island. It was exclusively for Fairy Tail members only. "I wonder how they even got on this island." Lucy wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure. They might have inside information on us, which definitely isn't good for our odds of winning," Gray sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Ugh, this is so not cool! At this rate I'll never become S-Class!" He whined.

"Hey," Kana asked as she turned to the group. "I think we should split up. That way we'll be able to search for others and get rid of some pests on the way." She explained. Lucy pursed her lips and nodded.

"Yeah let's try that. We can meet up here in an hour if we find nothing."

"Good idea, Lucy, Kana," Loke hummed. "Gray and I will go this way, and you two go that way." He said, first pointing behind him and then in front of him. Lucy and Kana nodded, running off. Lucy turned and waved to Gray and Loke.

"Be safe you two!"

"Right back at cha!" Loke responded.

Lucy ran side by side with Kana for what seemed like hours. She looked to her right and to her left periodically but she hadn't spotted anything. She was then startled put of her thoughts when Kana asked her something. "Hey Lucy?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I'm just curious. How did you find out where the grave was?" Lucy smiled and slowed down along with Kana. One they stopped and got a bit of rest, Lucy absentmindedly grabbed a stick. She began to draw into the dirt.

"I tried to look for clues in what master had said. He had talked about us only having six hours, correct?"

"Yeah?"

"Well think. That's an oddly specific number. Why six? Why not like five or four or something? So I started to think about what else he said. He said something about finding Mavis's gave. So I tried to come up with words that related to grave like death, sleep, earth, stone, star, and maybe end. Sadly none of them had six letters in them. Now I know it's a stretch, but I found a word that had six letters in it and it related to grave and time. Demise. Now what two letters look odd about this word?"

"I don't know, maybe D and M?"

"Nope. The E's. Those are the two letters in that word that repeats. So I figured her grave must be in cave E!" She finished, feeling confident in her answer. It was quite a stretch, as she said, but it made sense to her. And it wasn't like they had any other leads to go off on.

"That's incredible Lucy!" Kana praised with wide eyes. Lucy smiled widely, although now she was feeling kind of dizzy. Well, more like sleepy. Her eyes felt so heavy and her limbs weren't listening to her. "I'm sorry Lucy, but this is where we part ways." She heard a voice say. But she couldn't respond.

She closed her eyes as she finally fell to the ground.