"So, here we finally are." Jellal said, staring up at the guild building of Blue Pegasus. "I don't think I've been to this place for years…"

Lucy looked up at the extravagant building, observing the wing-like protrusions on the side. Fitting for the hub of a guild named after a flying horse. "The place looks rather extravagant." She couldn't help but notice the grand dome on top and stained-glass windows.

"Wait until you see the interior!" Jellal laughed, before putting a hand to his chin. "I believe the place used to be a church of all things before Bob redecorated. At least, that's what they said when me and Laxus visited."

"You and Laxus went on a mission together?" She turned to her travelling companion in shock. Everything he had heard about Laxus was that he was a loner who only hung out with his team of followers, the so-called Thunder God Tribe.

He got a nostalgic look on his face. "We went on a lot of missions together, actually. Back when I first joined, I didn't really have anybody to look after me, so Master Makarov practically adopted me. Due to that, I got to spend a lot of time with Laxus. I was the only one his age that was as tough as him, so he dragged me along to a bunch of jobs." The look on his face began to sour, however. "Of course, that all changed after the business with his father."

"His father?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. She had honestly never heard anyone discuss the Master's son, but from the way Jellal put it the story wasn't pretty. But before she could dare ask, a person phased through the front door of the guild building.

"Oh, Jellal, aren't you a sight for sour eyes! Please come in already, we've been expecting you." Guild Master Bob said sweetly with a wave.

"Master Bob, it's a pleasure to see you again." Jellal said politely as he and Lucy walked up to the building finally.

"Oh please, Makarov's already told me, you can just call me Bob now! Congratulations, by the way!" Bob said, leaving Lucy rather lost.

Jellal quickly coughed, gesturing with his eyes to the girl beside him. "T-Thank you, but we haven't quite announced it yet, so…"

Bob finally turned to Lucy and gave an understanding nod. "Apologies, it seems my excitement got ahead of me! And who might this lovely lady be?"

Lucy quickly bowed as the attention was turned to her. "My name is Lucy Heartphilia, Master Bob! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Such manners! I like this one." Bob said cheekily. "But enough pleasantries. Let's get out of this sun and talk business, eh?" They turned and opened the door they phased through a moment ago, leading the two Fairy Tail mages into the guild hall of Blue Pegasus.

"Wow…" Lucy stared in amazement at the sight. Jellal wasn't kidding when he said the inside of the building was extravagant. The place was built like an elegant pub, with red and black checkered floors, a well stocked bar, and more mood lighting than seemed appropriate for a Mages Guild.

"Welcome to Blue Pegasus, feel free to make yourself at home." Bob said, gesturing to the bar. "Me and Jellal are going to have a chat in the back. I'm sure one of the gentlemen around can keep you entertained until then. Tootles!" And with a wink the two walked away, leaving Lucy alone in the center of the hall.

"Oh okay, cool…" She found herself suddenly aware of the many men staring at her from around the room. For some reason, none approached her yet. Were they playing chicken to see who would approach her first, or did they have enough sense not to overwhelm a guest of their Guild Master? She decided that her best bet was to head to the bar and get a drink but found herself being approached not by a man but a woman.

"Well, who do we have here? Are you looking to join our guild?" A woman with green hair and red eyes asked. She wore a red coat with white fur trimmings but left the front open revealing only a bikini top over her chest, had a long black skirt and fishnet leggings, and topped it off with a sky-blue hat.

"Y-You're Karen Lilicia!" Lucy recognized the woman immediately. She was almost always on the front of Sorcerer Weekly and was famous as a renown model and user of Celestial Sprits. "I-I'm sure you get this a lot, but I'm a huge fan!"

"Oh, one of my followers?" Karen raised an eyebrow as she smirked. "I'm flattered you're here, but I'm afraid Blue Pegasus's recruitment criteria is quite strict. You'd best quit while ahead."

"Oh, no! I'm already a member of Fairy Tail. I'm just here on some business." Lucy clarified. Karen seemed to be relieved by the news, but Lucy ignored that as she continued. "But still, you're a huge inspiration to me as a Celestial Spirit Mage. There aren't many of us around, after all!"

But Karen didn't seem to be paying attention anymore, glancing behind herself suddenly distracted. "That's great and all, but I'm sure we're both really busy, do you mind if I-"

"Oh, my lovely Karen!"

"Where are you going Darling?"

"Please come back, my angel!"

Three men came running around the corner and up to Karen. One was orange-haired and serious looking, another was tan and casual, and the third was blonde and much younger. Karen muttered a curse under her breath before putting on a smile as she turned to them. "Hello Hibiki, Eve, Ren. I was just on my way to the spa. Is there something I can help you three with?"

"The spa? But we had arranged a date for today!" Eve cried.

"A date with you? We had already agreed for lunch later!" Hibiki replied.

"You two are fools. I was going to take her to the local sights." Ren said to the two.

As the three continued to bicker, Karen let out an exasperated sigh. "You three are all so argumentative. You can't be my boyfriends if you can't last a day without me. If you really need to spend so much time with me, then here!" She threw up a golden key, and Lucy's eyes widened in recognition. "Open, Gate of the Twins: Gemini!"

In a flash of golden light, two near-identical blue beings appeared next to Karen. "Piri-Piri! What do you need done, Miss Karen!"

Karen flicked her hair over her shoulder as she turned away from the boys. "I'm going to the spa, entertain these three for me until I get back." She ordered seriously.

"O-Oh, I see! Understood!" The twins both said, a hint of disappointment in their voice. They threw their hands together, and in a puff of smoke transformed into an exact replica of their Master. "So, which one of you boys want to hang out with me?" They said with her exact voice. As the three boys scrambled over themselves to ask the copy out, Lucy raised an eyebrow at Karen, who was seemingly panting from exhaustion.

"Seems a bit excessive to use a Zodiac Celestial Spirit to get out of some dates." Lucy admitted, watching the display with curiosity.

"They turn into an exact copy of people, what did they expect?" Karen shrugged, wiping a bead of sweat from her head. "If a Spirit has a use, then I'll use it. They wouldn't have keys otherwise."

"I…" Lucy wanted to argue against the woman's harsh words, but thinking of her own keys, she felt the argument die in her throat. She had spirits that did plenty of odd things, like look up information or sing. "I guess you have a point. I mean, I use one of my Zodiac Celestial Spirits to cut my own hair, even if he enjoys it!"

"Oh, you have a Golden Key? You must have gotten quite lucky." Karen said, a smirk growing on her face. "But I-"

"Yeah, you have no idea!" Lucy said, not realizing she had cut the other woman off. "I'm so thankful that I've managed to find five of them. It's allowed me to make so many friends!"

"Five?!" Karen suddenly croaked out, staring at her in surprise.

"Uh, yeah… I guess it is kind of impressive, considering there are only twelve of them-"

"Sorry, but I have a spa appointment to get to." Karen said as a dark look crossed her face, bumping into Lucy as she passed.

"Oof, sorry!" Lucy apologized as the woman passed her. She watched as she stomped out of the building in a rush. She must have really wanted to get to her spa appointment on time. As she turned away from where Karen had exited, she noticed that almost every man in the building aside from the three distracted by Gemini were now approaching her.

She didn't have the energy to deal with so many men and knowing she didn't have a distraction like Gemini available to her, she quickly followed Karen's example and ran out the door.

Lucy found herself wandering down one of the winding paths that lead out of town, taking in the nature surrounding her. It seemed to be the only place around that wasn't filled with well-dressed men that wanted to flirt with her.

While the idea of having a mob of men fawning over her sounded nice in concept, it quickly became exhausting. She couldn't blame Karen for wanting to have some time to herself. Besides, she already had half of Fairy Tail breaking into her house to hang out with her on the regular. She didn't need some wannabe playboys on top of that.

Maybe she could use the peace and quiet to try out some of those magic techniques that Jellal had explained. He had spent most of the train ride over detailing the fundamentals of Heavenly Body Magic, but she was afraid that most of it went over her head. The main problem was that her Keys were a type of Holder Magic, meaning all she needed to do was pour magic into them to activate their effect. But Heavenly Body was Caster Magic, meaning she had to use magical power inside herself directly to cause the desired effect.

As she approached what appeared to be a run-down church, she nodded to herself. It was the perfect place to get some training in! But when she passed through the mossy doorway, she noticed there was someone already inside. It appeared to be a man with spiky orange hair, wearing a suit much like the other members of Blue Pegasus.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize someone would be here!" Lucy said, apologizing as the man looked up at her. She turned to leave another potential flirt, but stopped as she noticed the condition the man was in. He appeared to be drenched in sweat and had bags under his eyes. "Hey! Are you okay?!"

As she ran over to the man, he looked up at her with tired eyes. "Don't worry about me. This is none of your business."

"I can't just sit here while someone is in trouble. I don't know what is wrong, but you're clearly exhausted. Are you a member of Blue Pegasus? I can take you to their building." Lucy offered. She put a hand on his shoulder, but the man shrugged it off.

"I told you, I'm fine. Besides, this isn't something that can be fixed with a nap." The man said cryptically. He looked down, but his eyes caught on Lucy's waist. "Wait, those keys! Are you a Celestial Spirit Mage?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! If you are part of the local guild, then you probably know Karen. I'm just like her, but I'm from Fairy Tail!" Lucy explained to the man, who merely scoffed in response.

"Just like her, huh? I should hope not…" He said, spitting on the floor in front of him. "Trust me, that woman is nothing more than a snake. You'd best keep your distance from her."

"How dare you!" Lucy shouted defensively for her fellow Celestial Spirit Mage. "I'll have you know I just ran into her at the guild, and she was perfectly fine! She even approached me herself!"

"The first thing she did was ask if you were planning to join Blue Pegasus, right? And the second was how you would have no chance getting in and shouldn't even bother." The man smirked at her. "How am I doing so far?"

"W-What?! How is that important?" Lucy asked in surprise. How did this random guy know that?

"It's important because she's full of shit. Bob is willing to give a guild mark to anything with a pulse." The man explained. "She does the whole greeting routine whenever some new woman comes in. Scares them off with stories about how they're not good enough for the guild so she has less competition. Tell me, did she ever notice the number of Golden Keys you had?"

"Golden Keys? Yeah, I brought up I had five of them up when I saw that she used one." Lucy said. What did that have to do with anything?

"Ha ha ha! Seriously?! Man, I wish I could have seen the look on her face!" The man laughed, before coughing roughly. "I bet that really got under her skin, 'only' having four of them herself. You're lucky you made it out of that conversation with your reputation intact."

"That's preposterous!" Lucy said, but she couldn't help but think back to her interaction with Karen. Karen did seem rather relieved that she wasn't joining the guild. And Karen did have a strong reaction when she mentioned the number of keys she had. "What's your beef with Karen? You one of her ex-boyfriends or something?"

"Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of getting cut off from her. I'm stuck with the woman for as long as my contract lasts." The man stood up angrily. "Along with everyone else who made the mistake of agreeing to work under her…"

"Contract? Wait a minute, you can't be!" Lucy shouted, finally realizing what he was saying. "You're a Celestial Spirit?!"

"Leo, at your service." The Spirit finally revealed with a mocking bow. "I'm sure I must look like a rather sorry site, compared to the rest of your Zodiac Spirits."

"Leo? Wait a minute, your exhaustion!" The pieces began to fit together as she realized what was plaguing the man in front of him. "How long have you been in the human world?!"

"This time? I think I've reached about four months. Probably a new record…"

"Four… Months?!" Lucy's jaw hit the floor. According to her other Spirits, even a week in the human world is enough to kill a weaker Spirit. Just being in the wrong world for too long causes immense drain to your life force. The same would apply if she were to somehow enter the Celestial Spirit World. "How- No, why are you still here? Is Karen keeping your gate open as some sort of punishment?"

"It's the other way around, actually." Leo revealed. "It started three years ago, when Karen wanted to punish Aries for her own shitty behavior. She was going to leave my friend in this world for a week just because Bob lectured her. So, I took Aries place and used my own magic to prevent a gate closure. I told her that until she either got her act together or released our contracts, I would stay summoned and prevent her from doing any work."

"Wait, so you… went on strike?" Lucy said in amazement. She didn't even know such a thing was possible.

"Pretty much. It was hell for a few weeks, but after three months or so you build up a resistance to the pain. Not that the drain on your life lessens any." He said far too casually. "Eventually we came to an agreement, and I summoned myself back. But after a few months she fell back on her old habits, and I summoned myself again. I've been doing this song and dance with her for over three years to try and get her to treat us with more respect, but she always just sees us as tools."

"But like you said, being in this world drains your life force! If you keep doing this, you'll eventually die!" Lucy cried out in worry.

"That's fine. As long as it means my fellow Spirits don't have to suffer under her rule, I'll stay here as long as I need to!"

Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Celestial Spirit Mages were supposed to work together with their Spirits, not use them like slaves! It went against everything her mother had taught her. As she looked back at her interaction with Karen in disgust, she realized something odd. "Wait a minute! If you're here, then how can she summon Gemini?"

"She can because she's damn talented." Leo looked down at the ground in annoyance. "All the effort she's put into dealing with me has paid off, and she can open another Golden Key's gate, if only for a time. At least she's learned to leave Aries alone, but Gemini doesn't understand how to say no, and Scorpio wouldn't deny her requests. He has more pride than a lion, and that's saying something coming from me."

"Wait, what?!" Lucy nearly jumped out of her skin as an angry Aquarius appeared in a flash beside her unannounced. "That bitch is the one holding Scorpio's keys?!"

"Aquarius? This is the one you made a contract with?" Leo said in surprise.

"Yeah, she's Layla's brat, but we can talk about that later!" Aquarius brushed the other Spirit off. "You mean to tell me that woman is the reason that Scorpio keeps disappearing and coming back looking like hell?!"

"Yes, she is. I'm sorry, I try to get her to treat us better but there's not much I can do now that she can summon two of us at once. I'm afraid me being here amounts to little more than annoying protest to her nowadays." Leo admitted with a sad smile. "If I could force her to break the contacts, I would, but there are rules about Celestial Spirits raising hands against their masters."

"Well, I'm not one of hers! Lucy, let me at her!" Aquarius shouted, yelling at her own master.

"Enough!" Lucy shouted, surprising both Spirits. "Please go home Aquarius. I can handle this." The Water Bearer looked like she wanted to argue, but eventually capitulated, disappearing in a flash of light. She then turned to Leo and took his hand, leading him out of the church.

"Hey, wait! Where are we going?" Leo asked frantically, too weak to fight back as he was dragged down the path. Lucy looked back at him with an uncharacteristically cross expression.

"I'm going to give that witch a piece of my mind."

"Well, this has been a productive discussion, Master-, I mean, Bob." Jellal quickly corrected as the two exited the office.

"Agreed! You've certainly have the aptitude for these things. It's such a shame Makarov got to keep you to himself!" Bob said with a giggle.

"Right, a shame…" Jellal said, glancing around the guild hall of Blue Pegasus. "Strange, it appears that Lucy isn't here."

"So she isn't!" Bob remarked, before nudging Jellal. "Perhaps one of my boys swept the girl off her feat?"

"I doubt that, considering she's not on the market currently… I think?" Jellal honestly wasn't sure what was going on between Lucy, Lisanna, and Natsu. They certainly got closer after the battle with Phantom Lord, but it wasn't like there had been any obvious signs that things had changed. Though he attributed most of that to Natsu in particular. The Dragon Slayer couldn't read a room to save his life. "She more than likely got ran off by everyone being too pushy."

"Want to bet?" Bob said, glancing slyly at the younger man. Just then, the doors to the building slammed open, and Lucy stomped in dragging Leo behind her. "Ah, see! What did I tell… oh dear."

"What? Who is that man?" Jellal asked, suddenly worried by the Guild Master's shift in tone. She watched as she stormed through the crowd of mages to what appeared to be two identical women being swarmed by three young men. "What's going on?"

"I think it's best we let this one play out, honey." Bob said somberly. "This has been a long time coming.

"Hey!" Lucy shouted, getting the attention of the two Karen's, along with most of the guild. They both turned to her, and both looked shocked to see her being accompanied by Leo. "Which one of you is Karen?"

"Ah, but that would ruin the surprise!" The right Karen said.

"That's right, we decided that whichever of the Trimens could guess the real one would get a date!" The left Karen said.

The right Karen nodded. "Exactly, so how about you wait until after this and-"

"You lost all your clothes on a job once and had to make Aries use her wool as cover for a replacement." Leo suddenly said.

"Seriously?!" The left Karen gasped, suddenly turning to her duplicate aghast.

"The monster used a lot of fire and-Um…" the right Karen began to defend herself, until she realized what had just happened. "You jerk! Tired of ruining my work? Are you trying to sabotage my love life as well?"

"I think you're doing a plenty good job of that yourself." Lucy spat back, raising a hand up.

The real Karen turned towards Lucy in a fury. "How dare you! What right do you have to-" Her voice stopped abruptly as Lucy's palm made contact with her cheek. She stumbled back, moving a few feet away from Lucy.

No one dared make a sound as the slap echoed across the room. Everyone stared in shock at the woman who had just laid a hand on one of their most famous mages. But Lucy didn't seem to notice them, to busy glaring at Karen.

"How dare you! What right do you have to treat the ones who want to help you as tools?" Lucy shouted at Karen, who seemed to be too stunned to move. "Celestial Spirits are living beings, not cheap tools for you to use and discard whenever you want."

"Wha-?! That's what this is all about?" Karen put a hand to her reddening cheek. "Why should you care how I use my Spirits?"

"I care because I have basic empathy, a quality you seem to lack!" Lucy said, gesturing to Gemini beside her. "Look at you, throwing all your dating problems onto Gemini because you couldn't be bothered, just like you used to with Aries. Or using them as living shields instead of putting in a modicum of effort to make life easier for them."

"Like I said earlier, if a Spirit has a use, then I use them. So what if they might not be the perfect fit when I call upon them. They removed their right to complain when they signed their contract with me!" Karen shouted angrily.

"You know what your problem is Karen? You're selfish. You can't work around anyone's schedule except for yours. Not your Spirits, or your boyfriends!" Lucy exclaimed. "Everyone has to do exactly what you say, if not with words, then by force."

"Hey! Karen is a wonderful girlfriend! She always tries to make time in her busy schedule for the three of us." Hibiki declared, and the two other men nodded in agreement.

"Is that so? It's such a shame she can't extend that same courtesy to the ones responsible for her livelihood." Lucy said snidely to him. "Do you know that one of her Spirits and mine date? I do, because I go out of my way to work my schedule around when mine says they'll be together. But despite hers doing the same, he got summoned away in the middle of a date in order to act as Karen's personal shield." She turned back to Karen with a fury. "Do you have any idea how it feels to see the one you love disappear in front of your eyes, only for them to keep popping back in worse and worse condition. From the way I've heard, it's torture."

"What? That's heart wrenching!" Eve said in horror.

"That's not true, is it Karen?" Ren also asked, looking at his girlfriend in surprise.

Karen turned back to the three. "O-Of course not-"

"It is! every word of it." Leo declared, finally speaking up. "I never wanted to bring this up in front of the guild because I still had a shred of respect for you, but enough is enough."

"Silence you!" Karen shouted, holding up a golden key. "Go home already, you damn nuisance!"

Leo could be seen struggling as Karen attempted to close the gate. He glowed a golden light but stood determined. "You can try and get rid of me, but I'll keep coming back. I won't stop until you nullify your contracts or shape up."

"I told you to shut up!" Karen finally snapped, thrusting Leo's key one final time. "You're my property, damnit! That means when I give you an order, you fucking listen! Now stop bugging me and go home!" With a final magical push, the gate of Leo closed, and he vanished in a golden light. Everyone stared at Karen in shock, watching her huff in exhaustion. She gradually started to laugh, and everyone flinched at the sound. "Finally, I thought he'd never stop annoying me. Hey, Gemini, can you go home now? I'm feeling tired after that tantrum of his."

"No."

Karen slowly turned to Gemini, a crazy look in her eyes. "What?"

"We said no!" Gemini said in Karen's voice. They reached over to grab Lucy and copied her form in a puff of smoke. They turned to Karen with a serious look. "We don't want to do work like this anymore for you. Whenever we copy you, we can tell you are only thinking about yourself, and not your boyfriends or Spirits, and its awful. Lucy has real feeling for us Spirits, and we want to be with a master more like that. Until you get better, we're staying here on our own magic like Leo!"

"How dare you two!" Karen growled, but she quickly tried to compose herself though. "No matter, I can still open a second gate. This little tantrum is meaningless in the end."

"Yeehah! You sure about that, Karen?" A new voice suddenly spoke out. With a flash of light, a tanned man in red with a robotic scorpion tail appeared, standing next to Gemini with his arms crossed.

"Scorpio!" With a flash of light Aquarius summoned herself again, throwing herself into the arms of her boyfriend.

"Yeehah! It's been a while since we got to meet in this world, baby!" Scorpio said, holding the mermaid in his arms gently. "Hope you haven't been too lonely without me."

"Oh, I've missed you so much! Tee hee!" Aquarius giggled, nestling into the scorpion Spirits chest with a giddy glee. She had a starstruck look on her face that made Lucy complete freeze up. Seeing the usually scowling Spirit so happy was almost concerning.

"Sorry about that, that's my own fault." Scorpio said. He looked up at Lucy, throwing her a far-out gesture with a hand. "Yeehah! But your holder's words got me all fired up! My pride as a Zodiac Spirit made me think I should suck it up. But if it's hurting you and our friends, then it wouldn't be very honorable of me to stay silent!"

"What is the meaning of this, Scorpio?!" Karen shouted.

"Yeehah! Exactly what it looks like! I'll be sticking around in this world for a little while. Maybe finally get in a couple missing dates with this lovely lady." Scorpio said, producing another uncharacteristic giggle from Aquarius. "If that lion can last in this world for a couple months, then so can I. Gemini might not have as much magic as the two of us, but even Aries is willing to help now and switch places for a time. I guess she's finally grown a spine against your abuse."

"Wait! But that means…" Karen's face began to contort in horror.

Lucy realized the importance of Scorpio's statement. Karen could only open two gates but had four Zodiac Spirits. They could only be in the human world for a certain amount of time before having to revitalize themselves in their home dimension. But if all four were in on this protest, then two could occupy the gates while the other two regained their life force. Karen wouldn't be able to do any jobs at all, like back when Leo first went on strike!

"So what?!" Karen scoffed at her two spirits in annoyance. "I can keep this up for longer than you stupid Spirits, just like every time before this! Hell, maybe all this work will let me open a third gate!"

"A Celestial Spirit Wizard opening three golden gates at once hasn't happened in centuries. I doubt a bully like you will be able to reach such heights." Gemini said in Lucy's voice, giving Karen a skeptical look.

Scorpio laughed at Gemini's words. "Yeehah! You said it, you two!" He turned to Karen with a serious look on his face. "I'll be honest, you may be able to open a Silver Key's gate eventually. But good luck getting any of them to listen to your orders when you have a third of the Zodiac's standing against you."

"You… You…" Karen was quaking in place, staring at the floor. She eventually brought her face up in a glare, staring murder at Scorpio. She raised her fist back, about to swing it at him. "You bastard!"

"No!" Lucy could see that Scorpio, nor Aquarius were expecting the strike. If nothing happened, Karen would assuredly strike them. In the back of her mind, she knew that such a weak punch would do next to nothing against either combat-focused Spirits. But she when she saw the look of shock on Aquarius's face, her body moved on its own. There was a distance of a few feet between the women, and she wouldn't be able too reach them in time. Under normal circumstances.

'No! I won't let other Spirits be hurt like this! I promised to make things better for them today, and I won't go back on my word!'

She recalled the basic's that Jellal had explained to her on the train over and called upon the magic in her body. She felt it seep through her, but she was too distracted to focus its effect. She just leapt forward with an explosive force, letting the magic carry her across the room in a flash. 'Meteor!'

A split second later, Karen's fist made contact not with Scorpio or Aquarius, but Lucy's open palm, having caught the blow. Lucy was sparking violently with a golden light as the magic leaked out of her half-baked spell, but she stared at Karen through the pain of the blowback. "Don't you dare ever lay a hand on your spirits in front of me!" She growled, pushing Karen's hand back. The woman stumbled back from the enhanced force behind the blow and fell onto her back.

"Grahhh!" Karen let out a scream, scrambling back and crawling back up to her feet. "How dare you! What are you all doing standing around?! Someone help me already!" She commanded hoarsely, but as she looked around the room, no one dared move. All the women stared at her in disgust, while the men looked on in shock and betrayal. "I-I mean… P-Please?"

Quickly realizing that no one was willing to stand up for her anymore, she silently ran out of the guild hall, head ducked in shame. Once she passed the doors, everyone quietly turned back to what they had been doing awkwardly, whispers echoing across the hall.

As the confrontation ended, Lucy finally looked around, still covered in Meteor's golden light. She was happy that the Spirits had finally stuck up for themselves, but that warmth quickly faded when she noticed Jellal and the Guild Master standing just outside the office door staring at her, and the realization of what she had done finally kicked in. In a stream of light, she shot out the front doors as well. But her spell finally collapsed at that moment, and she ended up tumbling down the steps until she lay on the sidewalk outside.

"Ow…" She moaned in pain as she finally felt the strain from her incomplete spell catch up with her. As she crawled onto her knees, she heard Jellal and Bob catch up to her, and she felt her face flush in embarrassment.

"Lucy, Are you okay? That looked like a big blowback from your spell! Did you break something in that fall?" Jellal asked in concern. Of course, he would best know the risks from misusing his own magic, but that was furthest from Lucy's mind currently.

"I'm sorry. I screwed this all up for you." Lucy said, tears slowly dropping from her eyes. She couldn't look him in the face, she felt so ashamed.

"What are you talking about? What did you screw up?" Jellal asked, putting a hand on her shoulder, but she threw it off and finally looked up.

"Your job! You saw what happened! While you were talking with Bob, I was humiliating one of their best mage's. I slapped Karen Lilicia in front of her entire guild! Oh god, I probably ruined everything you were doing, didn't I?!" Lucy began to panic, breathing growing erratically. As she began to hyperventilate, Jellal took her by the shoulders and standing her up.

"Lucy! Lucy!" Jellal shouted in an ever-growing voice. "Everything's fine, okay? You didn't ruin anything! Just take a deep breath." She stared into Jellal's eyes and seeing how calm the man was made her realize that she wasn't about to be excommunicated for her actions, and she began to take deep breaths. Once she had calmed down enough, Jellal continued. "I saw the whole thing. While I can't say I understood exactly what happened, it was clear you were standing up for the wellbeing of those being abused, which I will never fault you for. I can't stand people like that…" He thought back to his time at the Tower of Heaven. Yes, anyone who flaunted total control over another's life like that was scum who deserved to be punished.

"But…"

"Your friend is right, my dear." Bob said, finally speaking to Lucy. "Karen has been doing this for years, but no one in the guild was willing to stand up to her due to her fame. I'm sorry you had to be the one to step up, but this had been a long time coming."

"Even still, that was extreme. How can you be okay with my actions?" Lucy questioned.

"It's like you said, Karen's supposed to trust her Spirits with her life." Bob explained. "If something like this didn't happen, then one day she'd find herself in a situation where her life would be at risk and no one wiling to stand up for her. Better embarrass her today than have her dead tomorrow. I know Karen can be better, so I hope this is the first step towards that."

"See, everything is fine." Jellal agreed. "Besides that, your Meteor was impressive, for a first attempt. I look forward to teaching you more on my next trip."

Lucy looked at him in shock. "Wait, you want to take me on more of these trips, after all of that?!"

"Yep! I need to make a visit to Lamia Scale in a couple days and could use the company." He shot her a bemused smirk. "I'm pretty sure they don't have any Celestial Spirit Mage's, so you should be fine."

"Oh, ha ha, very funny!" Lucy pouted, slapping him lightly on the arm. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Especially since Aquarius will want a break for a while." She glanced up to the doorway of Blue Pegasus, where Aquarius, Scorpio, and Gemini were all chatting. One way or another, they were going to be in a better place after this. "Alright! If your business is done, let's go back to Fairy Tail!"

As the sun rose in Magnolia the next day, three mages walked into town. They all wore the Fairy Tail symbol, but despite that, they only held allegiance to one man. The Thunder God Tribe reached the front gate and looked between each other in understanding.

"It's time to begin preparing the game." Freed said seriously to the other two.

"Yeah! Laxus really knows how to have some fun!" Bickslow laughed, his three puppets mimicking him.

"It's time we finally put these pretenders in their place." Evergreen agreed, sticking her nose up at the town.

The Magnolia Harvest Festival was only a bit over a week away, meaning they had just as much time to set up everything as their leader had specified. They each went off in their own directions, quick to start working. Once they had fulfilled Laxus's plan, he will finally be Guild Master, as he rightfully should be.

They couldn't let him down. They were the Thunder God Tribe, and nothing would stop them from completing their orders from Laxus, no matter how many of those weaklings he always mentioned got in the way.

Next Chapter: The Wayward Fairies Warmth