Still don't own Mashima's Fairy Tail or Desna's Pradeshes. Or anything else for that matter. I rent.

Reviews are always welcome and make me feel pretty. Enjoy. Note at the end. Artificial citrus flavor included (as in, not the real deal.)

"Bix."

Bickslow ignored the silken voice in his mind. He was what one might call incapacitated and happily so. He watched the lilac head rock to and from his body keeping a delicious rhythm that bordered on excruciating in the best way possible. The female attendant lay panting beside him, coming down from her high, which made the Seith mage nearly beat his chest with pride. It was damn near impossible to bring a Boscan bath attendant to orgasm, but no one, even the most trained of bath attendants could keep their composure when he got his tongue involved.

"Bix!"

"Nggh…" he groaned mentally and aloud. "Busy," he grunted back, feeling the heat pool in his body. "Wrap it up and get to the room. We need to talk. Now." With a slew of rather impressive, creative curses, Bix threaded his fingers through the lilac hair, thrusting gently into his mouth. The man on him teetered the edge of pretty. And that was how he liked men.

"Fine… Fuck. Get out." He felt himself alone in his head just in time to tip over the edge in peace. It was his third of the tryst and it was just what he needed. It didn't stop his thoughts of his brother. It didn't stop the thoughts of Ever. But it helped to make him feel alive. He was reminded of an old proverb from his clan. "Death is for the dead." He vaguely remembered attending a clan funeral once as a child. It had been beautiful and lively. It had been a celebration of life, not the weepy, unpleasant affairs of the Fiorians. There was no black, there was no keening. It was bright, beautiful, and oddly reassuring.

Bix untangled his long fingers from the man in front of him. Bending down, he placed a kiss on the man's full lips and leaned over to nuzzle and kiss the woman by his side. With a wink and grin, Bickslow excused himself. He stepped out of the steam room and into a stall for a quick shower. He'd need to sink into the bath later, but just then, it was enough to smell the water from the Grass Sea that filled the pool-sized bath. It was soothing as he felt a teardrop from his eye, lost in the shower spray. "Bickslow!" He groaned at the sound of his full name. Kaleb, and frankly the rest of his family, rarely called him anything but Bix or Bixy. Well, that and a few certain swear words if it was Vander. "I'm on my fucking way!" he shouted through the link. Grumbling softly under his breath about nagging brothers and just trying to get the fresh smell of sex rinsed off his body, Bix bent at the hip and towel-dried his hair. It was longer than it had been since he had been sent to Fiore as a young man. It hung just below his shoulders in the tradition of a clansman, the blue and black locks a point of pride. A certain someone had made a few lewd comments about long hair in Bosco, and he had paid attention, especially after his pardon came through and he was able to spend significant time at home.

Five minutes later, he strode into the room their family had been sharing aboard the airship. While he wasn't surprised to see Farron sitting on a lower bunk, his forearms resting on his thighs and Kaleb leaning against the same rack, he was shocked to find Vander sitting opposite Farron looking like his exact opposite mirror reflection. His dark, red-streaked hair fell over his shoulder in waves and black not-quite-leather made of shadows hugged every inch of him. At first glance you could miss it, he thought, noting sadness in his brother's wine-colored eyes. Vander smirked at him as he entered the room. "Look who decided to surface," he smiled, pulling his brother up and wrapping him in an embrace. Bix knew what Vander had seen. Kaleb had shared it so that he could help with his soul if need be. But Vander's soul was the beacon of light it had always been, not a dark spot to be found, despite what he had gone through in Romell.

The former Bloodhunter hugged his brother back. "Gods, Bixy you reek of sex," he started, pulling out of his brother's arms and looking him over. "Couldn't be bothered to shower properly or bring the fun with you?" A playful smirk lifted the corners of his mouth. Bix grumbled and glared at Kaleb, "It was cut short." Kaleb shot an unamused look back at Bix through his eyelashes.

"I wouldn't have called you if it wasn't important," he said, his tone hinting at his annoyance with his brothers. "It's about Lucy." He had their collective attention at the last words. Kaleb couldn't help but be happy to see his grinning brother get serious. "Cosplayer's awake?" Bix asked hurriedly, perking up immediately. Lucy was more than his sister-in-law. She was his family before she had met Cristoff. They were guildmates and had even settled into the weirdest friendship either of them could have pictured.

"This will just be easier," Kaleb replied through a link he established for them all. He tried to tone down the din that was Lucy's mind, the memories that had flooded him and overwhelmed him as he shared their conversation with his brothers. Farron sighed audibly, bringing his forehead into his hands. There was a sting at the back of his eyes, but he held it together, though just barely. Bix crossed his arm over his chest and rested the other elbow on his wrist, thumb pressed into his lower lip. Vander took his seat on the bunk again, wringing his hands lightly. They all took a moment to process what they had just seen and heard. All of them were shaken to varying degrees by her resignation. The sound of defeat in her internal voice was unnerving.

Farron batted a tear from his cheek, his will slipping and sighed again. None of them knew what to say or do. A pregnant silence hung between them, Kaleb trying to let them come to terms with what they had seen. He had been grappling with it himself, cycling between grief for his brother and his mate, anger at Lucy for giving up, and an uneasy feeling keeping everything from his father. Kaleb's relationship with Arman was fantastic, little kept from either, full of respect and love. But he just couldn't bring himself to break his father's heart all over again. It was wreaking havoc on him, which is why he had brought his brothers in.

Vander cleared his throat, breaking the silence. With a deep inhale, "So what now?" he asked softly. They all looked around at each other for a moment. "Has dad left her side?" Farron asked, the sting behind his eyes lessening again. It would be back, he knew. It had been coming and going since he had been told about Cristoff. "No," Kaleb answered. "Dad has been watching her like a hawk. Zen hasn't left dad's side. Xally and Emi were asleep in a pile when I was down there." His lavender eyes took in each of his brothers. He was getting impatient with them, his normal calm fraying at the edges. He had done this for their help. Kaleb took a steadying breath and sat down next to Farron, mimicking his brother's position.

"Fuck," Bix breathed, racking his fingers through his damp blue and black locks. "Well, we can't let this happen," Vander blurted out and started pacing a few steps in either direction. "She can't give up. Fuck that." Bix nodded his agreement and worried his bottom lip. "You're going to have to go back in there and drag her out by her hair if that's what it takes," he looked pointedly at Kaleb. Bix felt his lip curl at the thought of Kaleb dragging lucy by a handful of mental hair, the blonde spitfire fighting like a demon the whole time.

"Or we could take the approach of not knowing enough to write her off. I mean, how long does it take?" Farron spoke gently, tiptoeing around saying it. They all knew he meant her dying of a broken heart. With head shakes, grunts of uncertainty and shrugs, he had his answer. None of them knew how long it was going to take for the dragon magic to claim her. "I'm not opposed to either method," Kaleb sighed. "We just need her awake. Once she's awake, we can cross bridges as we come to them." With a glance down at his watch, Kaleb muttered, "Shit. I need to go check on her again."

His brothers all moved to come with him. He looked over them. Bix rolled his eyes and huffed at his brothers, but it was Farron that spoke. "We can't all go. Dad will know something is up and it's safe to assume you haven't told him?" Kaleb nodded his reply. "Fuck that, I'm going." And with that, Vander slipped into the shadows, likely to beat whoever else to the infirmary. Kaleb shook his platinum head and smiled lightly. Leave it to Vander to be able to make them smile, no matter what was going on. With a sigh, Farron took his seat again, thumb and index finger resting on the bridge of his nose, a mannerism Kaleb couldn't help notice that he shared with their father. Taking in Bix's squared shoulders and determined look, Kaleb assumed that the Seith would be coming with him. With an eye roll and a breathy, "Fine," Kaleb began the short walk to the infirmary.

Arman sighed at nothing and everything. The mahogany and blonde-streaked head of his son slipped off his shoulder, startling the man awake. Arman almost smiled as his purple eyes snapped open at the sudden shift in weight brought him straight to consciousness. He watched as Zen took in his surroundings. "Anything changed?" he asked his voice heavy with sleep, looking at the blonde in front of them. He exhaled deeply through his nose, feeling the weight of the situation more than ever. "No." She was still sleeping, seemingly slipping away, Kaleb was keeping something from him, which he knew for a fact as the man's father, and dealing with the conflicting joy and misery of a son returned and a son lost.

Zen rolled his shoulders and his neck, shrugging off the odd angle he had been sleeping in. He was having a difficult time processing everything that had been happening to and around him. He had been out of the pits for less than thirty-six hours. He has been a slave for years so the idea of sleeping in a bed was foreign. The idea of being surrounded by people that not only didn't want to see him dead or rape him was foreign. And above all, having the warm embrace of his family surrounding him, quite literally at first, was the most foreign idea of all. Though, thankfully, they seemed to have backed off enough for him to breathe if not spread his wings. But the added complications of not only the brother that had died saving him but his dying wife and the weight of guilt that hung on him was starting to feel crushing. Factor in the fucking magical pull to his sister-in-law, it was all he could do not to crawl out of his skin. But he also couldn't bear to be away from his father after spending so much time away from him.

Arman looked at the grown man beside him. He had held Zen in his arms for the first time in far, far too long only the day before. No father should have to wait for decades to embrace his child. He had had a hard time not reaching out to touch him just to prove he was there. And though he couldn't even begin to imagine being away from any of his children right now because every one of them needed him and each other, he was in dire need of a bath, a proper meal, and some companionship. His jade green eyes slid closed imagining himself lounging in the waters of the Grass Sea, placing his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose.

The heavy metal door opened quietly and in stepped more of his children. It wasn't very often that Arman had had all his children in one place. Between Bix being unable to legally come home regularly, Kaleb running the largest wizard guild in Bosco, Xally being in medical school, and Farron often traveling wherever he couldn't, getting them all in one place was damn near impossible. But knowing that nearly everyone, the thought causing a massive rip in his heart, on the same airship was enough to make him both the most devastated and happy man. Kaleb's platinum hair swayed, tied back with a strap low on his neck as he strode into the room, Bickslow on his heels.

A look of concern spread across Arman's face. There was definitely something going on. "Dad," Kaleb said aloud gently, "Would you mind taking Emi, Xally, and Zen to get something to eat? Maybe a shower?" Arman's eyes narrowed at his son. "What's going on?" he asked in return. Kaleb looked at his pile of sisters and Zen in turn. He didn't want to have this conversation yet. They needed to try to get to Lucy again before filling in their father. Bix's eyes darted to a shadow hovering around the couch their sisters were sleeping on. Vander. He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to keep his gaze neutral. He hated keeping things from all of them. Even though he knew it was for the best at that moment.

"Dad, please," Bix said in a normal volume and nearly desperate tone, hoping to wake his sisters. Xally slept feather-light. It was a wonder she hadn't been distributed yet. "Trust us," Kaleb added. Arman looked back and forth between his sons. Bixy's neutral face was out of the ordinary, which meant it was something important. Kaleb was keeping secrets, which could only mean it was bad news. His hand ran through his jet black hair, unveiling some of the silver around his right temple. Zen looked at his father and his brothers and he knew their father was right. No one could lie in his presence without him knowing, and while neither man had lied, it was clear they weren't telling the truth either.

Xally was the first to stir, bringing a small hand to her right eye and rubbing lightly before she realized that she had nearly crawled into her sister's veil dress with her. Not that either of them cared, but it was still not the best place to wake up to a room full of people. Emzadi purred her little snore as Xally sat up, blinking at her brothers. "Xally," Zen addressed her without looking at her, "Let's go get something to eat. Mind waking Emzadi up?" She muttered a positive response, growing more confused by the second. With a small shake and an utterance of her name, Xally had orange eyes on her. "We're going to eat and get cleaned up. C'mon." Kaleb looked pointedly at his sister. "We need time with Lucy. Alone. We need you, Xally, and Zen to take dad with you for a bit."

"Please, Emi," Bix added. Like she could deny them anything.

With a long blink, sharp exhale and clearing of her throat, Emzadi stood, walked over to Lucy's bed and kissed her sister on her clammy forehead. "Whatever you're doing, make it quick. He's not going to stay away long," she thought at Kaleb, keeping the conversation private. "C'mon, Dad. Let's go eat something."

Bix and Kaleb remained where they were as the watched a reluctant Arman stand, brush a kiss on his daughter-in-law's cheek and eye them both suspiciously. "I won't be long," he muttered to them before following his other children out of the room, the door clicking shut behind them all. Before their footsteps had even begun to fade down the hallway, Vander stepped out of the shadows by the couch and he joined his brothers. "What do you see, Bix?" he asked, looking at the blonde in the bed. Her breathing was even, her skin had a thin sheen of sweat, but that was no indication of what was going on with her. The damage she had suffered, other than a few scrapes and bruises, had been in her mind and her soul. Luckily, they had ways of accessing and helping to heal both.

A faint green glow filled Bix's eyes. He was familiar with Lucy's soul. It was a glowing, radiant gold that seemed to have no limits, woven together with a swirl of midnight blue that had represented his brother. It was truly a sight to behold. Or, at least, it had been. But the part of her soul that had been ripped away and replaced during the mating, the piece of soul that had belonged to Cristoff originally was gone, leaving her soul damaged beyond anything he had ever seen. It was still golden, still radiant, but it was smaller than it had been, the midnight glow of Cristoff's soul gone without a trace save for a gaping hole. Worse than just missing what appeared to be a quarter of its size, it was, for a lack of something better to think of it as... "Still leaking," he answered. "But it doesn't look like it's quite as bad as it was. Maybe it's slowing down. It's hard to tell." He shook his head. "I've never seen anything like this before." He didn't know when he had brought his thumb to his lower lip again, but he felt it suddenly as he felt the weight of his brother's hand on his shoulder.

A sparkle of light shone in the room and Leo appeared standing beside Vander. With a side-eye for startling him slightly, not that he would ever visibly show it, Vander asked, "Any news on your end?" Leo nodded, walking over to the bed and taking Arman's chair. "Don't keep us waiting, Loke," Bix barked to his guildmate. He was steadily falling into a sour mood, making a mental note to go back to a certain pair of bath attendants later. "I can't say. But take me in with you. I have to talk to her," he said, looking at Kaleb with pleading eyes set behind blue lenses. Kaleb looked at the spirit with a hard gaze. "It's not pretty in there," he warned. Leo nodded once to show he understood. With a small sigh, steeling himself once again, Kaleb set up the link between his brothers, Leo and himself first. "She is scattered, disoriented, and not the Lucy we know. You need to prepare yourselves for that," he pushed through the link. The other men in the room acknowledged him with nods. "Here we go."

At once they were all hit with the same sounds of laughing, crying, screaming, flashes of Lucy and Cristoff over the whole length of their relationship that Kaleb had shown everyone but Leo. It was loud, disorienting, and left them breathless. But it didn't take long to regain their bearings. "Lucy." Kaleb tried to reach out to her, hoping that she wouldn't just shut him out right away. She had already proven that she could remove him if she didn't want him there. "I told you to stop, Kaleb," she answered, her voice firm and full of sadness. Kaleb, Vander, Bickslow, and Leo all felt the weight of that sadness come off her in waves. "And I told you I wouldn't," he challenged. Her sigh rang out clearly over the dulled din of memories. "Just let me go," she said, just as she had before.

Bix was overwhelmed with emotion. "Cosplayer, you can't mean that," he said, his voice heavy with emotion. This wasn't his cosplayer. This was an imposter, determined to give up and let fate, of all things, decide for her. There was a pause before she answered. "Bixy." The lessening of the sadness in her voice was a relief to them all. "He's not the only one," Vander piped in, his voice flatter than his brothers had ever heard it. He glanced around the room at the other men, worry etched into his near-perfect features. "Gods, Kaleb is everyone here?" she asked, her tone sharper. "No. Just us…" he looked to Leo. "And me," he finished. "Princess. Please come back to us," he pleaded gently, softly. His heart was breaking seeing her in the state she was in. He felt like he had failed her, failed her mate. He couldn't let this happen. Not again. Another Celestial mage could not die under his care.

Another sigh filled their minds. "Why? He's gone. Why would I come back just to be the living dead for however long it takes for my heart to finally give out from the pain? Why would I come back just to face that he's not here every day and I'm going to die no matter what? Why would I do that, Loke?" Kaleb looked at the Zodiac spirit and nodded. Not only was that the most she had said, but it was the most passionate she had sounded about anything. Loke was striking a nerve that he just couldn't touch himself. And that was what he considered progress.

Leo looked at the platinum blonde, his dark brown eyes meeting lavender ones, catching the nod and sending a pleading apology to the men in the room. "Because you don't have to die," he answered simply. Vander and Bickslow nearly gave themselves whiplash turning to look at the spirit. But they didn't see any doubt in his eyes, no sign of lying or bullshitting his way through this. He meant it. She could survive the death of her mate. There was silence in her mind for the first time and it hung in the air for what seemed like hours. The memories had stopped playing at even their lower volume. They had her attention. Bix took a steadying breath. "Cosplayer, I'm looking at the bastard. He's… he's telling the truth." Kaleb could have kissed the orange-haired man sitting by her bed. He had given them something they hadn't had before. Leverage. And he wasn't the only one to see it.

"Lucy," Vander addressed her gently. "Let's make a deal." More silence was his answer, which wasn't a no. "Come out of this. Come back to all of us and we will find a way to what this asshole knows out of him together. We'll find a way to stop the magic." Leo shot the Shadowquip mage a glare, who met it with a shrug. More silence hung around them for what seemed like hours as it started again. Like a door slamming in their faces, they were pushed back out of her mind. Kaleb, having experienced it before, wasn't shocked. She was done talking. But that didn't mean the other men weren't caught off guard. "What the fuck?!" Bix hissed aloud. Vander glowered at the blonde in the bed. Yes, he was concerned for her, she was family, but that didn't mean he couldn't be pissed at her. And Leo, still sitting beside her, reached for her hand as her fingers twitched, his hand pausing above hers. And then they twitched again.

They all stared at her still sleeping form, collectively holding their breath as her breathing hitched for a moment before becoming slightly faster and more shallow. "Dad!" Kaleb shouted through their family link. "She's waking up!" There was a din of several family members speaking at once as they heard the thundering of multiple people running down the hallway outside the door only moments later. The metal door swung hard on its hinges scraping as it hit the wall behind it. Arman led the pack, running to the bed and sitting lightly on the bed beside her.

Her head swam and her body ached. She groaned slightly, trying to move her legs which felt incredibly stiff. Her whole body felt stiff. And then there it was, the pain buried underneath her sternum. Sharp, sizzling, and throbbing. Had she been wounded in the chest? She didn't think she had. But it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. With a deep breath, she gave her eyelids a try. They felt heavy, but not as heavy as the last time she had tried to open them. With a small groan, her eyebrows knitted together for the briefest of moments. She relaxed again, trying her eyes once more. It worked.

Chocolate brown eyes fluttered open slowly, dropping closed a couple of times before she could keep them mostly open. The room swam with color, shapes taking longer than normal to focus. Lucy was awake.

A/N:

So things have been nuts in my little world. That's why it's been longer than it has been between chapters.

I know that this was kind of meh, but I wanted to get something up for those of you reading.

Please let me know if you love it or hate it in the reviews. For folks reviewing, I've reached out to do so, but I'd like to thank you again. Taking the time… can't tell you how much it means. There are no words.

Additionally to Guest Reviewer, I know that posting this story was a little bit of a risk. Cristoff's death was savage. I know this. And while I'm so happy that people have been sticking it out, I didn't like it any more than you. Glad you kept reading.

Finally, I don't see it taking long to get something up again soon. I've been itching to get back to this story.

You may have noticed what appears to be a continuity error. It's not. Anyone want to hazard a guess?