She heard crying. Not open sobbing, but someone had been crying it sounded like for a while. There was a large hand resting on her right forearm. She gently wiggled her toes and twitched her fingers. Everything seemed accounted for. She tried to take a deep breath and found that it just wouldn't come. Lucy's breathing remained shallow as she attempted to open her eyes. Their lids just felt so heavy, like she was blindfolded. But she didn't feel anything on her face. There was intense, throbbing pain in her chest. Really throughout her whole body, but the worst had settled under her sternum. The blackness around her seemed to swirl as she drifted off again, letting it swallow her.

It had to have been hours. Freed clung to Laxus' shirt soaking the huge blond man with tears. His large hands moved in circles over the crying man's back as his tears slid down his cheeks. Bix sat on the floor, his knees drawn to his chest, resting on his forehead. His tears had stopped a while ago, drying him up, leaving nothing but red splotches and streaks down his tanned, handsome face. They had recovered her, tried to heal her, and then they had lost her. Brunette hair swirled around a white pillowcase and framed her face in gentle, loose curls. Freed had made sure that she looked beautiful. It was what Evergreen would have wanted.

Bickslow lifted his head from his knees and batted non-existent tears from his face, leaning his head back on the wall behind him. His red eyes slid over Freed and Laxus' embrace. He needed to be held. He needed to feel desired. He felt an urge in his body that demanded the feeling of life. And for a Boscan, there was no better way to get that itch scratched than a trip to the bath. A sigh escaped his lips and he rose to his feet, groaning softly at the weight that his body held. He was a wreck. They'd all be sore for days.

Centering himself on his feet, he walked to the side of the bed that held that woman that had been another sister to him. "Sweet sister," he breathed. His eyes took in every detail of her smooth face. She was one of the first people other than Laxus himself to take him in when he arrived at Fairy Tail beaten to hell and already up to his ass in trouble. Falling in with the wrong crowd when you had illegal magic and a shitty teenage attitude was much easier than people would probably have thought. The brunette had never been particularly kind per se. But there was a softness that he and all of the Thunder Legion had been familiar with. Evergreen was more than capable of softening her edges for any of them.

Bix was embarrassed to think of the number of times he had shown up at Fairy Hills to be promptly shooed away by Erza and told she would meet him back at his place when he had had his heartbroken. She'd show up with ice cream and every lacrima movie she could find that had a body count and/or a monster and they would snuggle on his couch. She had never said a word of reassurance or judgment if he had started to cry. She just let him be in that moment. And now, even though he was going to miss her fiercely for the rest of his life, he needed to walk away without reassurance or judgment.

Freed and Laxus needed each other. Bix needed something more primal.

His fingertips grazed the side of the bed, running his eyes over her one last time before she'd be sent back to Fiore, to her family. He said a small prayer to whoever it was that heard them take care of her soul. He, better than anyone, knew how special it was. With a deep breath, Bix straightened his body and strode across the room to his brothers, still locked in each other's arms. He wrapped himself around Freed from behind, nuzzling his face into the emerald hair of his friend before kissing his temple. He lifted a hand to Laxus' face and ran a thumb under his eye, wiping away a tear.

With that, he strode from the room toward the bath, entering autopilot. When he arrived, he walked up to two attendants, eyeing them both hungrily, and not even fussing with the bath. He'd get to that later. He ran the knuckles of his right hand down the woman's neck, feeling the vibration of her moan and with his left, he ran his long fingers through the chin-length, dark hair of her companion. "Share pleasure with me," he purred.

Arman's jade eyes danced with unshed tears as he watched his girls. Xally snuggled into her sisters bust on the couch and in her sleep, Emzadi wrapped her arm tighter around her. They hadn't left the room in over a day, but then, neither had he. They were staying by Lucy's side no matter what. The trip back home would last a few more hours and they would be moving her to their family home outside Pelerno to stay, more likely than not, until her death. Arman flinched at the thought. It was an ugly thing that their family was going to have to address and address it they would. But the blonde needed to open her eyes and come back to them.

Kaleb was making steady rotations into the room to check on his sister-in-law's mental state. And while he wasn't able to pull her out, he did confirm each time that she was in there, that she could make it out. She simply wasn't ready.

Perhaps it was his lifetime of work as an ambassador, but Arman was having a hard time thinking of the day since the battle in Romell ended as trying. The word made him wrinkle his nose, but there was little else that he felt as apt, though horribly underwhelming. The return of a son, the loss of a son. His grieving family, his dying daughter in law. It was almost more than he could bear. It was times like these when he was at his lowest, and this was his lowest, that he missed his late wife the most. He wished he had someone to help him help his children.

His eyes slid over the girls again. Kaleb was due any moment for a check-in on the sleeping Celestial mage. Zen was sleeping slumped in the chair next to him, Bix was with his team, mourning one of their own, Farron was helping Kaleb with funeral arrangements for his fellow guildmates and Vander. Well, last time he had seen Vander he was ducking into a steam room with three other White Sea mages to blow off some steam. When the Strauss siblings had made disapproving faces, Arman had taken the opportunity to educate them about Boscan culture, summing up the minute explanation with a shrug, a raised eyebrow, and the simple statement, "Essentially, my son has been through devastating trauma. He's going to fuck his way through it. When in Bosco…" He thought he felt himself trying to smile, but he didn't. He wholeheartedly approved of his son's methods to cope. And he knew Kaleb would be assisting with it as well.

"Glad you can still entertain yourself," his son quipped, attempting humor as he entered the room. "Let's see how Lucy is holding up…" A sigh escaped his mouth. Kaleb was tired. So very tired. He had been running on the same three hours of sleep in the last thirty-six. He scanned all of his siblings present in the room, which was most of them, to make sure they were alright, even just generally speaking. His sisters piled onto the couch together surprised him even less. How many times had they all slept in the same bed, a pile of children surrounding whoever had had a nightmare. Or even as adults, piling in with Emzadi after her failed mating attempts and the heartbreak that had followed.

Kaleb approached the bed and laid the back of his fingers onto his sister-in-law's forehead. She was still clammy, but that was to be expected. Most of the grime of battle had been sponged off her face and body, but they had yet to properly bathe her. He took a seat on the edge of her bed and looked into her face. Even asleep, it was obvious she was in pain. Keeping his face even, Kaleb steeled himself and touched her mind.

It was chaos, just as before. There was so much distortion. Seeing flashes of Cristoff and Lucy together, laughing, bathing, holding one another, in bed. The sound was almost too much to take, with the screaming, moaning, fighting, roaring laughter. It was like everything that had happened in the last two and a half years was playing at the same time. He saw his brother's dead eyes flash again and again. "Why are you here?"

Her voice was strong, cutting through the din of her head. It caught Kaleb off guard. He had been checking in on her every hour on the hour and this was the first time she had acknowledged him. "I'm checking in on you," he replied, his baritone steady but his words feeling weak. Her voice broke a little as she spoke. "You can stop. I'm dying, Kaleb. That's the way this works. Just let me go with him." Her voice trailed off, seeming to get far away, but he knew she was still there. She had been there every time he checked on her. He felt irritation well in his chest.

"Where is that 'go to hell, never give up' attitude we've all come to love, Lucy?" he ground out. "Do you think that's what Cristoff would want? You can stay here as long as you need to, but you need to come back. You are alive."

There was a long moment that his words had hung between them in her mind. But without warning, he felt her shutting him out. It was as if door after door were slamming in his face, forcing him out of her spaces. The din of her thoughts resumed, inundating him more than ever. And with a final push, he was out.

"Well?" Arman asked his son, desperation on his face. "I'll be back in an hour," Kaleb answered, unable to tell his father that the woman he was keeping vigil over had decided to drown in the memory of his brother and die.

"There has to be something we can do! Anything!"

Leo paced the same five steps in front of the Celestial throne, exasperated. He was restless, unable to go to his mistress, unable to bring her back what she wanted and needed most, unable to do anything but pace in front of the king and rave. The king heaved a sigh, understanding the desperation in Leo's mannerisms and tone. He was feeling equally helpless.

"You know there is nothing that can be done at this moment, Leo," he replied. He would give anything for it to be untrue, but in his heart, he knew it was. Hearing the pain in his favored mage's cries, knowing that she had resigned herself to the fate of so many dragon's mates. It broke his heart. And he wasn't going to sit by idly and watch it happen. "They should be here any moment," he reminded his old friend.

Leo growled quietly, still pacing back and forth. He knew that there would be little they could do, but there had to be something. And he knew that the meeting that was about to happen would be the first step in saving his Princess. Giving up his pacing, Loke took a seat on the left side of the table that had been placed in the room for this meeting. The king had been periodically checking on Lucy, as Leo himself had, and found that she was still asleep, something the lion spirit was grateful for. Perhaps when she came back to them he would have good news to share.

"Old friend, they have arrived," the king spoke gently. "Do remember who you are going to be in the presence of. The All-Mother does not take kindly to impertinence." Leo pouted and glowered discreetly at the king. "I'll keep it in mind," he grumbled in response, earning a pointed look.

The double doors opened and in strode four beings. The first he recognized as the Celestial Dragon, Draco. He was in a humanoid form, black suit unbuttoned at the collar and glittering scales forming the shape of his constellation peeking out from under the fabric on the left side of his neck. His black hair was waist length, swept into a loose braid that lay over his right shoulder. Draco took in the room, his gold eyes sweeping everything in a moment above a straight nose and thin lips. His lithe body moved with seemingly perfect control as he bowed to the king and took his seat, directly across from Leo. "Pussy," he grunted. "Geko," Leo mumbled in reply, earning another pointed look from the king.

"None of that," he demanded softly.

The second being to enter was awe-inspiring. Cassiopeia was truly a sight to behold. Her flowing dark chestnut hair skimmed her hips, the light fabric of her dress hugged her curved body in all the right places and her face… Leo could hardly stand to look. Her eyes were a kaleidoscope of color, her lips were rosy and full, all set into skin as smooth and fair as cream. It was nearly painful to take her beauty in for Leo who was surprised at his sudden urge to purr at her. Mortified, he bit back the impulse. He would never give the lizard satisfaction.

And what was more, her daughter, the third being to enter was practically a copy of her. Andromeda was the spitting image of her mother, though her nose was slightly wider to no detriment and her hair was a sandy brown rather than the stark chestnut of her mothers.

Cassiopeia took her seat, pulled out next to Draco by the dragon and smiled demurely. Not to be outdone, Leo rose to his feet, pulling the chair next to him out for Andromeda. These were goddesses of women. He found himself slightly intimidated as she gave him a small smile and muttered a thank you. The final being to enter the room was the All-Mother. Her hood was pulled up, casting a deep shadow across her face. Leo had been in the presence of the All-Mother before but had never laid eyes on her face. From what he understood about how she worked, that was a damn good thing.

Everyone seated at the table rose to their feet and bowed to the woman in the cloak. As she took her seat, the others followed. "Your favored one has found herself in trouble once again it would appear," she said, her words and tone even, without judgment. She was far too old and had seen too much to judge anyone of anything. She was certain nothing anyone in the realms could manage to surprise her.

"Her dragon slayer mate died. He died a good death, but dragon magic is ancient and finite. She will die without him," Leo answered her. He was appalled by the response by the beings around the table as they began to chuckle and, in Draco's case, outright laugh. "Surely you don't think anything is finite, cat. You've been around long enough to know better." Leo's mouth pulled into a scowl, determined to not earn himself another look from the king.

"What Leo is trying to say," the king started his smile fading from his lips, "is that we are concerned for our Starbringer. She is special to the Celestial Realms, a true ally and the loss of her would be detrimental to us all."

Cassiopeia smiled faintly at him. "And what are you suggesting? We intervene for one Celestial Summoner?" Draco turned to the woman beside him, resting his arm on the back of his chair and locking eyes with her sternly. "You have intervened for less," he retorted and sneered, "It is no secret that you created the compulsion that eventually destroyed the Archangel magic users. What is wrong with the assistance of a Celestial Summoner we all have a soft spot for?"

The All-Mother took in her company at the table. "There is no need to intervene," she stated simply. "Everything she needs, she already has." Leo looked at the woman in shock and was pleased to find that he wasn't the only one. Draco's brow was furrowed in her direction and the Spirit King wore a look of curiosity. The All-Mother continued, "She must find the way or she will not survive a mortal year."

The words 'will not survive a mortal year' rang in Leo's head like a gong, reverberating against every part of his skull. A year was so short. Even for mortals, a year was practically nothing. And while he thought the world of Lucy, she could be as dense as any other mortal, refusing to look beyond what she understood to be true. He had his work cut out for him.

Andromeda pulled him from his thoughts. "Nature abhors a vacuum. If the Starbringer falls, there will be another, just as there always has been. Her fate is in her own hands." Her statement was harsh but true and Leo knew it. Her soft, sweet voice didn't make the declaration any easier to swallow. "Then tell me what I can do for her," he asked of the beings. He knew if anyone could get through to Lucy it would be him. And he could instruct her in what to do.

"Lion spirit, you are not able to help her. She must find the will and way on her own, without Celestial assistance. She must make her own choices to control her fate," the All-Mother answered firmly. Leo understood. He hated it, but he understood. He was being told that he was to not divulge anything that could sway Lucy one way or another. Sometimes he hated being bound to the realm in addition to his mage. His allegiance to the realm, no matter how much he loved Lucy, would always have to come first. With a small sigh, Leo hung his head.

"Yes, All-Mother."

A/N:

It would appear I simply can't help myself. This is just happening.

Thanks to Sesshy's Rose for the kind review and to everyone favoriting and following. It means everything.

Don't know when I'll get the next chapter up, but frankly, I'd be surprised if it took too long. We've still got a bit of the weeps coming, but it'll start to get more storyline-y instead of fallout-y soon.

One more side note, it's me and Grammarly going through this before it's published so if you see something, please, please say something.