"Sorry, Ryos. You'll have to go alone the rest of the way," Natsu says, "but I walked you this far, you can follow the scent, right?"
Ryos nods, sinking into the shadows before disappearing into the trees.
Immediately, Natsu turns back around, scaling a tree and getting high ground.
Ryos peeks out as soon as he's gone, sighing. "I keep telling him not to treat me like a kid…" he murmurs, pouting. "I can handle myself."
"It can't be helped," someone steps out of the back of the trees. It's a council member, frog-faced and all. "Natsu-dono simply cares for you, don't fault him for it," she says. "I know you're not comfortable with me, but it's necessary precaution as you're still under probation—"
"I know," Ryos interrupts, sulking, sinking back down into the shadows a little more.
The council member smiles fondly. "I can leave you once you get to Lady Porlyusica's place," she promises. "Provided she promises to vouch for you in my absence."
Ryos sulks harder. "I wanted to walk with him."
A splash in the distance surprises him, and both of them turn toward the lake to see a gaggle of frogs hopping over the mud, one after another. The frogs are now crowded over what seems like their biggest sibling, a pink frog nearly ten times their size that didn't quite make it past the huge puddle of mud.
The aforementioned pink frog now lays sprawled, face-down on the mud, as the other smaller frogs crowd around it, spectating.
Ryos stares in confusion, before slowly skulking his way forward. The council member warily follows.
Abruptly, the pink frog pops back up to life, and Ryos jerks back in surprise.
"Fro is OKAY!" the pink frog declares, arms raised.
Ryos' eyes are wide, flabbergasted, and he's already instinctively sunk further into the ground. The council member has gone back into hiding, like a traitor.
'Fro' turns toward Ryos in confusion. They stare at each other for a long, mortified, frozen minute.
"Fro found something!" the frog declares instantly with all the enthusiasm of a child, pointing at Ryos and declaring loudly.
Ryos jumps, startled, sinking down immediately and making a run for it.
"Ah! Wait!" 'Fro' picks himself up and stumbles to his feet, chasing after the slightly darker shadow across the forest. "Where are you going? Fro's coming too!"
Ryos is doing his best to escape, but he can't meld fully into the shadows without a person around. Where is the council member? Where is the council member???
"Fro loves to play tag!"
Ryos doesn't know how to handle being chased by an oversized frog.
"Ah, Natsu! Finally got you," Warren's connection reaches him as he gets closer to the city center. "Everyone's split up right now, but Erza, Cana, Levy, and Gray are out with Lucy. We have contact with them and the Thunder Legion."
"I heard what happened," Natsu says, scowling internally at the note of who was out. Did they not consider the protection of the town before leaving? Master's also still on the way back… "I checked the East, he's not here. I'll head back right now."
"Alright, I'll tell everyone. Thanks, Natsu!" Warren says.
The connection is severed, and Natsu makes a beeline toward Magnolia.
Things just weren't right. Apparently Lucy ran back home, for whatever reason he doesn't know. Honestly, just thinking about it infuriates him enough to want to meaninglessly kick a tree. Was him yelling at her not enough? Did she not get anything he was trying to tell her about not taking things on alone?
But Cana and Gray were on it, so maybe it's out of his hands now.
Loke's worrying, too. Natsu didn't know which to focus on. Maybe he should find the Thunder Legion again, just to—
"Please! Please no, why are you doing this! Stop, please!"
In between leaps over trees and building tops, Natsu halts immediately. He hurries to the side to look for the source of the sound— and finds it, in the form of a florist in the corner of the city, her shop raided and ransacked by a group of hooligans shattering and throwing things out, stomping on pots, and kicking down the signs.
"Why are we doing this? Hmmm, I don't know, you tell me!" the delinquent mocks.
They aren't wearing disguises. Most of them are dressed casually, freely, in the fashion of classic street punks— but Natsu gets close enough to spot guild marks he doesn't recognize on their clothing.
"What the hell?" Natsu frowns.
He makes a running start and leaps down, skidding to a sharp and burning stop right in the vicinity, before running forth once more to land a running fire-fueled foot on the easiest-to-reach hooligan standing on lookout.
"Ack! Bomber!" one of his comrades call out in worry. "Dude! Don't just lunge a running kick at a normal person!"
Natsu isn't in the mood to retort to that right now.
The sight inside the store horrifies him.
The male worker is bleeding from the head, having been kicked into a wall. The lady florist is being held up by the hair by who looks like the leader of the group, and they're jeering at her as she sobs, terrified.
"The hell's going on here?!" Natsu demands. How could this be happening in Magnolia?
"Ah, he's finally here!" one of the monkey-faced grunts holler, excited, "Salamander, we got the Salamander! Time to yoite, time to skeddadle!"And like a cue, they cackle and laugh and scatter, in all directions, and Natsu curses, not able to react fast enough before they've all scrambled and run off.
"Wait—" he curses again. "Which one do I follow! Damn!"
And he turns around, going after the one that seemed like the leader.
They're obviously taunting him, so he decides it's of priority to go on the hunt, rather than check on the injuries. There were already other civilians running to the aid of the florists, so they'll be fine. Natsu trusts they'll get them the care they need, and thus, he runs off without hesitation, pursuing the criminals.
He catches only the tail end of a conversation, far behind him.
"...what did they want?"
"They said," the florist sobs, "they said it was punishment for providing service to Fairy Tail…"
"So for the flowers you gave Mira-chan this morning? Just for that?"
Natsu can't call Ryos now to send an urgent message. Warren's busy with the Loke issue, too. So surely, reporting back can wait.He turns back forward, and with more vigour than before, he chases the assailants down.
Right now, the town is missing Erza, Cana, Gray, and Levy. Which means right now, only Natsu and Mira are in charge of protecting the town as its sole mage guild.
Those guys belonged in a guild. A moon wrapped around a circle… he has a feeling he should know it, it's some nonsensical, mildly notorious Dark Guild, or something. The way they attacked and scampered off as soon as he arrived— it's as if it's premeditated.
It's as if this is a trap. But what kind of dumbass would think they could confidently lead the Salamander into a trap?
No point thinking about it.
They're understaffed right now. He has no time to hesitate.
"I've got a bad feeling about all this," Freed says, standing up quickly. "I think at least I should go back to Magnolia ahead."
"Huh? But…" Evergreen sighs, holding Happy under the arm like a bundle of cloth. "Are you sure, though? No sense rushing home now."
"I wanna go after Loke," Bickslow says.
"You won't make it in time, so forget it," Happy chides. "Think logically, aye?"
"Think logically? Yes, 'think logically' is right," Freed says, nodding sagely. "I feel as if we're all thinking too rashly with Loke's disappearance. Not everything from the war with Phantom is settled yet. I feel the guild needs as many of us home now, even if it's not fully rebuilt yet. Is that alright, Laxus?"
Laxus frowns, looking forward as the wind whips his coat violently, earning a yelp from Evergreen as a magazine she was holding is taken away.
Freed is right. He hadn't even stopped to consider just who is available to protect the guild right now. Alzack and Bisca are out. Erza, Cana, Gray, and Levy are out. Natsu and Master are at the press conference. Who does that leave?
"We'll catch up," Laxus says. "Do what you need to, Freed."
Freed smiles, bowing curtly as his dark wings sprout from his back. "I will hasten, then."
"Oh, I'll go with ya," Happy says, also allowing his wings to show themselves. "See you guys home then!"
"Awh, no fair, I wanna go too," Bickslow whines, when they quickly skitter off into the sky, disappearing almost immediately past the buildings.
"I mean, if you can catch up, be my guest," Evergreen sighs. Opening her fan, she glances around the streets of Margaret, scowling as she spots a few thugs scuttering about the alleys, whispering loudly to themselves, clearly organizing an effort. "But we can't exactly go too."
The Thunder Legion walk together, heading straight to the outskirts of Margaret, for an open space to have an eventual confrontation.
"I know, I know," Bickslow says. "Geez, these dark guilds are such a pain! We're tired enough just dealing with Phantom remnants that want revenge, and Naked Mummy just has to bounce back at us like a cockroach. Can we get a break here?"
"Maybe I should just turn them all into stone statues forever," Evergreen mumbles.
"Maybe you should," Bickslow says.
"Maybe don't," Laxus grumbles. "We're in enough trouble as it is."
Laxus sighs, reaching for the Call Card with Cana's face on it. The monkey brothers of Naked Mummy are a bigger opponent than he'd initially thought, and he had been the selfish one to launch the attack first.
He decides against calling her.
They're busy enough. He'll just hurry and deal with this himself, with the help of the Thunder Legion, surely, it'll be fine. The monkey bastards are much weaker and he can handle this all easily.
"...is that the truth, Master Bob?"
Blue Pegasus isn't usually completely vacated at this time of the day, but now, it's silent, if only for the group of mages to slowly, painfully, take it all in.
The truth of Karen's death. The story of Leo's tears, and how he failed.
Lucy covers her mouth, failing to hold back the tears. "How could something like this… but it just… doesn't make sense," she whispers, "he doesn't deserve any of this."
"That's just ridiculous! You're telling me he's got a death sentence, just like that?!" Cana snaps. "It wasn't even his fault!"
"...he definitely doesn't think of it that way," Gray mumbles.
"It's a life for a life," Master Bob says. "Back before the war… this was normal, especially for Celestials."
"But it's just not fair!"
Ren falls silent, sitting by the couch, unable to say a thing. The guild has ostracized Loke for ages. He didn't have a right to give an input now. They never did.Hibiki sits on the counter, the glass of whiskey freezing through his palm painfully.
Finally, Hibiki lets out a resigned breath.
"I guess it can't be helped," he says, pulling a perfect smile onto his face. "If that's the story, then I guess I can't just leave Leo out there anymore."
Hibiki picks himself up, taking his Nicola, Kathy, away from Lucy's arm.
"Shall we go, then?"
Lucy turns around, confused. "Go? To where?"
Hibiki chuckles. "Well, there's only one place Leo would be now, right? Come on, I'll show you all the way."
Hibiki turns away so quickly, only Ren catches the way he bites down on his bottom lip, eyes straining as he evens his breaths, not letting a single tear slip.He clutches Kathy, and says nothing.
Lucy follows quickly, wiping her tears away, and Cana and Gray share a glance, look toward Ren— then nod at Master Bob, before following along.
Ren stands up."We'll be back, Master Bob," he says. "Don't wait up."
Master Bob's smile is strained. "No, I think I will," he says. "Come home for dinner."
Ren can't quite say no to that.
Lucy knows this isn't her place to meddle. This is a story that extends just beyond herself, and yet, when she sees HIbiki leading the way with steps so strong— she can't help but realize he's chasing the silhouette of someone that he could no longer understand.
Hibiki is chasing something he can no longer reach, hoping so desperately it remains the light of love he wanted reciprocated. But slowly, it's corroding in his eyes and in his heart, and he doesn't know how to accept this new reality he's found himself in.
Lucy understands.
She understands that pain so vividly.
"It's okay, you know," Lucy says.
Hibiki doesn't acknowledge her, but the way his shoulders ease, as if he's trying to seem unbothered— it's telling enough that he heard her.
"It's okay to pretend the story isn't true, if it'll make your heart feel better," she says. "If she's beautiful in your memories, then maybe, that memory should be kept alive as it is. You don't have to destroy it if you don't want it to."
It's okay to live in oblivion.
(Karen's gone. All that's left of her are memories, and human life is meant to be honoured and put to rest after not, not burned and scorned for the mistakes of her lifetime.)
"Don't mourn what you never knew," she says. "Celebrate what you loved. I'm sure your emotions weren't wrong."
Emotions are never wrong. Love is never at fault. (Neither Karen's, nor Hibiki's, nor Leo's.)
Hibiki stops, pressing the heel of his palm into his eyes as he chuckles brokenly, a bubble of a sob escaping his throat."Please. You can't do this to me right now, Lucy," he says. "Seriously, this isn't about me. It's okay, don't bother yourself with me, alright?"
It's like he's pleading.
When he turns to her, that smile is still so false, so present even as he tries to smudge away the tears that won't quite stop.
"Look, just—" he turns away, pointing forward. "It's right past here, just follow the path into the clearing and head out toward the waterfall. You can't miss it."
They can already hear the waterfall from here.
Lucy hesitates, but Cana takes one shoulder, and Gray steps over her, interrupting.
"Got it, thanks for leading the way," he says, and moves along quickly, Cana taking Lucy with them as they cross the trees once more.
Lucy stalls, turning back— but Cana shakes her head.This is no longer the problem of the Pegasi. Lucy has something important to handle, and HIbiki needs his time alone. Neither of them have a right to interfere with the other.
And thus, Lucy nods.
"Thank you."
And they leave.
Hibiki breathes, for a long moment, and then he doesn't. He allows himself to fall to his knees, and his breath hitches. He covers his face, willing his tears to stop, but it never does. Strangely enough, Kathy never leaves his side.
Ren sighs, reaching over to put his hand on Hibiki's head, ruffling it a little roughly.
If HIbiki let out a whimper, then no, Ren didn't hear a thing.
There's so much to unpack, and never enough time to get into any of it at all. But Pegasi are icons of beauty, emblems of perfection. They are hosts, flawless, ideal men that are never weak and pathetic without charm.
So they hide, because inevitably, they realize that being divine is nothing but tragic, and in the end, they're just human.
(Pitiful, full of flaws, and riddled with imperfections.)
"You know, you're not exactly supposed to find me," Loke says.
Lucy freezes in his steps.
"Loke, you basta–" Cana is stopped by Gray putting a hand on his shoulder.
"If you didn't want to be found, we wouldn't find you," Gray says. "So? What's your excuse?"
Loke chuckles, turning away, hands tucked in his pockets.
"That's so mean of you. I actually tried to hide, you know?" he says. "Finding Lucy in the Heartfilia estate wasn't part of the plan."
"Liar," Cana immediately says. "Even if Lucy didn't figure it out, we would have, just by asking Master Bob."
"I was counting on that, actually," Loke admits, "but like, I was hoping it'd be a little later and for explanations, not right now."
Loke wants to be found.
That is the undeniable truth. He runs, half-heartedly, but he clings, so honestly, because he, too, can't bear to go without them. He's lonely, and he doesn't want to go alone. It's scary there, in the world of nothingness, and he at least wants to fade out with the warmth of their hands on his skin, the glow of her light under his eyelids.
He wants it, even though he doesn't want them to be sad for him.
He's a coward, after all. His stubbornness is always temporary.
"Okay," Loke sighs. "You found me. What next?" he challenges, taking his hands out of his pockets, raising them up to his sides, where they phase out against the background, into nebulas translucent and barely holding together. "I'm sure you heard the story from Master Bob. You know what I am. You know it's too late for me."
Lucy gasps at the sight.
"Loke—" she rushes forward, taking his hands out of the air, though she can't quite grasp it right. Her breath hitches when Loke only smiles in resignation, and the tears brim through her eyes, disbelieving. "Please, Loke… there must be something we can do to help."
She is a Celestial Spirit Mage. A Heartfilia.
"Can't you go through someone else's gate, if they keep it open?"
"Of course not. I'm banned from any gate, not just from opening my own— hey!"
Cana and Gray come up to, coming at him so quickly, Loke steps back in surprise and stumbles, falling as his knees lose their strength, and they all end up in a pile before Karen's gravestone.
"Hey now, don't—"
"Don't what?" Cana demands, wrapping her hands at his collar, the other planted firmly on Karen's gravestone behind him. "Say it to my face, you asshole."
Loke's eyes narrow.
"Don't bother with me," he says, voice cold and firm. "Just let me die."
"Seriously? You're saying that? Did all our time in Fairy Tail mean completely nothing to you?" Gray snarls, grabbing his other collar, and Loke is starting to feel very manhandled right now, especially since Lucy's pinning him down by the lap and he literally can't escape this very uncomfortable interrogation.
"Look, I'll die unless I go back to the Celestial World to recover," Loke says, "I've resigned myself to death at this point, leave me alone!"
"I'll force your gate open, then!" Lucy declares.
"Lucy," Loke warns, taking her hands, eyes firm in a scowl. "I told you this already, when we were at war with Phantom. Don't make me repeat myself."
(Being reckless and selfless is not the kindness she thinks it is.)
(Because in the end, it is the spirit that hurts at her sacrifice.)
And then, softer, Loke adds, "don't make me go through that again." His voice is a whisper, a plea. "An eternity wouldn't be enough to make up for my crimes."
"What crimes, you idiot?" Cana snaps. "It was an accident!"
"No one blames you for what happened, Loke," Gray says, "it wasn't even your fault!"
"Well, that's kind of you to say," Loke smiles, "but the stars are always watching. And the stars always look fondly upon the humans," he says. "So in such a situation, it is clear that I abused my identity as a spirit, to cause harm to the human who could not protect herself. Thus, the fault lies with me regardless of the situation."
"What utter nonsense," Lucy hisses. "If the stars are always watching, then they would know why you did it. They would know that you did it for a friend!"
"The specifics don't matter," Loke says, "only the very true consequences."
"All I'm hearing is that you're a coward that wants to run away from the damn problem!" Gray snaps, "this isn't fair and you know it! Stand up for yourself!"
"There's nothing to fucking stand up for!" Loke snaps back, "My gate won't open, final damn story! Don't think our politics work the same way as you humans !"
Gray falls silent, shocked.
"Us humans?" Cana repeats.
"What?" Loke says, "did you think we were the same?"
The words are poison to his throat, and it inevitably starts to hurt as tears well up in his eyes and a wheeze makes its way to his voice, edging into a sob he tries in vain to hide.
"Did you think we spirits ever have the right to stand up for ourselves ? What are we, humans with legal rights? Do you think we had a governing body or something? Lawyers? A court system?"
The stars are always watching.
The king determines the right and the wrong, no debate. Loke was ruled as wrong by the judgment of the stars, and that was just the end of the situation.
"This is just how it's been, for the last eternity," Loke says, "nothing can change that."
Gray sucks in a sharp breath, turning away to curse loudly. Cana does the same, wrenching a hand into her hand in frustration. There's nothing they can do, when the mere concept of what they understood about each other was just so far apart.
Lucy's hands slump down weakly onto her lap, biting her lips, disheartened.
"If you understand that much…" Loke turns away, feeling guilty about snapping, and sighs. "Then let me go in peace."
Almost as if those words activated her anger threefold once more, Lucy's eyes sharpen back into a glare, and her fists tighten.
"Well, I won't accept that!" she snaps.
The golden magic spell circle opens underneath them all, faster than Loke can react— and Lucy screams out in determination. Cana and Gray gasp, stepping back from the force of the magic, before lunging back into it, grasping each other and Lucy to hold on as pure, undiluted magic force whips across them all, rising from the ground.
"I won't accept that, I will never accept that!"
Lucy opens her eyes, furious.
"It's just how it's been? Nothing can change that?" she says, incredulous. "That's a lie! It's not that it can't be changed, it's just that no one has ever tried to change it before."
She reaches for Loke, taking him so gently by his face, planting her forehead into his as her hand breaks into stars, her fingers wisp into solars, and her brown pupils shine with the glimmer of the milky way.
And she smiles.
"Being scared of change and confrontation is normal, Loke," Lucy says. "So that's fine. I'll do it for you."
"What are you—" Loke grasps her by the shoulders, pushing her away— by Cana and Gray aren't letting go of either of them. "Wait! This is dangerous! You can't… Cana, Gray, if you don't let go now, Lucy's going to—!!"
"If you're going to go, then we'll all go with you," Cana says. Her hand snakes its way up to Loke's head, cradling the crook of his neck as she smiles. "That's what friends do."
"What—"
"So you better live, dumbass," Gray says, holding onto him firmly around his back. His face wisps away into the spiral of a galaxy, and he hisses in surprise. "So we can all live, too."
"No!" Loke pleads, but the tears are past the point of withholding. "Don't. Please don't. Anyone except you three, please— you can't do this to me. I was fine with dying," he begs, "I was fine with dying, so don't make my crime any worse than it already is!"
"What crime?" Lucy says. "Look at yourself. Look how much guilt is in you, look how much regret you feel. The point of a punishment is to atone. And you've atoned enough."
"There is no 'enough' in atonement! Traitor spirits aren't redeemable, Lucy!"
"Everyone is redeemable if they have the heart to love and change!" Lucy shouts. "And if the Celestial world doesn't believe in that, then right here, right now, I'm going to change the structure of the cosmos myself if that's what it takes!"
Something snaps.
The barriers between the world shatter, and the globe spins in the wrong direction.Something rips through the fabric of the world, and something emerges, pulling the dimensions across from each other and past the eye of a needle.
Everything is present, and absent all at once.
The waterfall rises, and the stars descend, the shimmering velvet cloak of nightfall billows, presenting the arrival of the highest one above.
Loke looks up, unable to believe his eyes.
Lucy, Cana, and Gray were all blown back with such force, they whine at the aches in their limbs, and barely take in the fact that their limbs were no longer crumbling into the composition of ethernano in the air.
"What the… hell is going… Oh my god," Cana whispers, looking up to the sight above them all.
Gray lifts his head, and his jaw drops in horror.
Loke turns right around, onto his knees in the direction of the waterfall— and bows his head, for he is no longer worthy to look this beholden in the eyes.
"The… King," he says.
And Lucy gasps.
"The…" she scrambles to her feet. "The Celestial Spirit King?"
The looming figure of the heralded Celestial Spirit King represents absolute authority, and demands unquestioned obedience.
"Dearly beloved old friend of the Celestials," he begins, his loud deep and booming, "Though it pains me to see the seat of the Lion Palace depart… the ancient covenant we've vowed with humankind cannot be desecrated."
"The… the what," Gray whispers. "Wait, this is the… that is a huge spirit…"
"Desecrated?" Cana says, "but it wasn't even Loke that caused her death! How was it desecrated if the Celestial Mage was a bitch to begin with!"
"Cana!" Loke whirls around, sharply. "Don't insult Karen, and that's the KING!"
"I insult whoever the damn well I fucking please!"
"It wasn't on purpose, either!" Lucy adds, quickly, "no one meant to do it! No one meant for it to happen!"
"Albeit, the incident was not premediation, however it was still a result of an action Leo knew first the consequences of," the Celestial Spirit King calmly explains. "The wisdom of the Celestials do not pardon mistakes made in callousness. The holder of the seat of the Lion Palace is not granted such opportunities for ignorance."
"...you're kidding," Gray says, "the hell does that even— you're saying he's not allowed to make mistakes? At all?"
"But everyone makes mistakes!" Cana snaps. "That's just—"
Human.
But he's not human.
"Indeed," the King nods, sagely. "The covenant with mankind has been obliged thus far… and Leo, you were present when the covenants were first cited, and you arranged the stars, when these laws were shelved in our constellations. Thus, in accordance with the order of the Celestial Realm, you have been banished from the realm of the divine for all eternity."
Loke lowers his head.
He nods firmly, his eyes sunken in with despair, his shoulders, weak, with the vain hope and relief that he feels finally, finally leave his heart.
He is the leader of the twelve zodiacs.
Of course, the rules are strict. Strict on everyone, stricter on him, on the golden keys. They all agreed on these rules, once upon a time. Once upon a time, it was an honour to serve a Celestial Spirit mage.
(When did they start feeling like chains, anchoring him to hell? When did having contracts with humans start feeling like a chore, like a lottery, like a devastation that no one wanted to experience?)
(When?)
"Wait… wait, wait, WAIT!" Lucy snaps, louder each time. "Laws? Rules? How long ago are we talking? How many centuries or millennials or whatever ago are we talking? Have you never considered that rules need to be updated and changed with the times?"
"...Old friend of the Celestials, I beseech you," the King addresses, "this law alone, is one that cannot be changed. A sin of a Celestial runs deep and darkens the star. To maintain the purity of the constellations, that cannot be forgiven."
"Sin? What sin?" Lucy demands, the magic circle opening under her once more, spiralling into wisps of golden light and wind, scattering her keys upright, "tell me, you dumb old bearded fart, what sin are we talking about?"
"L-Lucy, heavens please…" Loke hisses, though he vaguely knows it's in vain. "Language… please…"
"Are you even listening to us, you geezer?!" Gray yells, "I'll say it three thousand fuckign times, it wasn't even his damn fault! How was it a sin!"
"Gray, don't you start too!" Loke is going to cry.
"An accident isn't a crime! Not knowing isn't a crime!" Cana snaps, louder. "How could you call it a crime when it wasn't something he could control?!"
"He did it for a friend! He's been suffering here for three years, for a friend ," Lucy's fists grip tight, "how can that be considered a crime? How is it a sin to care for your friends?!"
Lucy voice raises, slowly, bit by bit— until she's shouting, with all her strength.
"I don't care what your stupid tradition and outdated rules or lost history tell you!" Lucy yells, and one by one, gates open, wisps of golden light materializing into Celestial Spirits, coming into form by her side.
(From Aquarius, to Cancer, to Plue.)
"Loke didn't do anything wrong!"
(To Virgo, Taurus, Lyra, and finally, Crux.)
Lucy opens her eyes and roars, fierce and resolved.
"He didn't do anything wrong, and I won't accept any other verdict from you except that HE'S NOT GUILTY!"
Loke's eyes whirl around in horror as they show up, one after another, and Lucy's form quickly dissipates, speckles, and phases into the sheer magical vortex she compels around her.
"Lucy, no!" Loke gets up quickly, stumbling toward her, afraid to touch her, "no! Don't do this! Do you want to end up like Karen?!"
Very quickly, the spirits she summons begin to fade, Aquarius watching her hand flicker and turn translucent as she's sucked back through the gate— and Lucy hisses—
"Just think of what you're doing, you idiot!" Loke snaps, "do you think if you died here right now, ANY of us would be able to forgive ourselves?"
Aquarius and Cancer's eyes narrow, knowingly.
"Hey now, don't forget we're here too," Cana says. "Lucy's not dying, and no one else is. If she needs magic, then between the three of us we've got more than enough to spare."
Gray sets a hand on Lucy's shoulder, and Cana does, too.
And immediately, the magic circle under their feet expounds twice, and the spirits gasp as their forms as brought into the human world in full, all at once for the first time in—
—how long has it been? Since Layla?
"That's not going to work for long," Loke's eyes narrow, agonized. "Lucy… don't you remember what happened to Layla?"
Lucy's eyes snap open.
She bites down on her lips in anger.
"Loke, for—" she clenches her fists and, too everyone including the Celestial Spirit King's absolute horror, punches Loke in the face full force. "I've had enough of you! You just shut up and sit there! You're in for one hell of a lecture after this!"
Loke lays sprawled and mortified and baffled on the ground.
His cheek stings. Really badly. He can only cradle it, not so sure if this was truly happening.
Lyra and Taurus have their jaws dropped, and Cancer and Plue look very worried for him. Virgo and Aquarius simply stare judgmentally, like they kind of wanted to sock him in the face once, too. Crux and Horologium simply sigh.
Gray and Cana didn't exactly expect the punch either, and now, Cana looks incredibly smug, while Gray is side-eyeing Lucy with a sort of apprehension. He is definitely not going to anger her ever anytime soon.
"I've had it!" Lucy shouts, throwing her hands into the air.
She points at the Celestial Spirit King, eliciting a horrified gasp from everyone around.
"Hey, King!"
The King recoils. Very slightly. Very slightly, he swears.
"Do you really not understand?" she questions. "Do you really not understand what's going on here? Why Loke did what he did? Who he did it for, and why it's not a crime?"
She strains, tears brimming in her eyes.
"You said it pained you to see him like this," she clenches her chest. "Isn't that enough? Isn't that love enough of a reason to not want to let him go?"
The King frowns.
"Old friend, though the light of the spirits have shone together for long, it is not our nature to defy the order of our age-long commandments."
"There is no 'Old friend' here!" Lucy snaps. "We're all here, and we're all together— and nothing should tear this apart! Nothing has the right to tear this apart, not the laws that were once written and long forgotten, not the memory of anyone that died years ago, and not the stubborn ego of a few Celestials whose only crime is the fact that his love wasn't reciprocated!"
She heaves a breath, eyes stinging with tears, but she lifts her head and looks the King in the eye. Her vision sways. Even with Gray and Cana's help, she's the only one that knows how to use Celestial Spirit magic. She can't do this for much longer.
"Everyone's here," she says, turning around, eyes blurring as she reaches up to hold her head. "Then, it's easy, right?"She raises a hand."Who here thinks Loke should be pardoned and granted the right to go back to the Celestial Spirit world?"
"Lucy, it doesn't work that way—" Loke starts to speak, but his words fall on deaf ears as someone grabs her hand.
"Then, we can make it be that way," Lyra says. Her other hand is raised. Plue is on her shoulder, raising his hand too.
"We were there to witness the writing of the first laws," Virgo says, "I know the circumstances of which it was first arranged, and I understand they were much different. This applies to both the world, and to us all."
"I agree," Cancer says. "We don't even dress the same as we did back then. If clothes and hairstyles have been changed, I don't see why the law cannot be."
"We wrote the laws," Aquarius says, easily raising her hands. "I don't see why we can't rewrite it the same way."
Crux smiles. "I am here, too," he says, "I can update the records, so there is no concern to be had with the issue of bookkeeping."
"And I," Horologium, "may offer the time and coordinates of this historical occurrence. We're all set, I suppose?"
Taurus laughs, lifting his head to the king.
"Your Majesty!" he says. "It seems the humans call this democracy!"
Lucy breaks into a tearful smile just as everyone begins to fade, and her knees unwillingly buckle. Cana and Gray leap forward to catch her, and Loke falls to his knees, defeated.
He watches as Gray and Cana carefully catch Lucy, and Lucy lifts her head and chuckles right back, whining that she's completely out of strength.
"I see."
The King's booming voice finally speaks again, low and reminiscent.
"If you all speak thus, perhaps it is I who have erred," he says. He bows his head, "I implore you to forgive me, Leo."
Loke can't believe he's hearing this.
"Leo of the Lion Palace, you have committed a crime for the sake of your fellow spirit of the Ram Palace, Aries," the King says. "In acknowledgement of this bond, the realm of the Celestials shall mark a new stroke upon our constellations, and amend the laws of old to bestow eternal remembrance upon your devotion."
Loke must be hearing things.
"Hereby, as the Celestial Spirit King, I shall deem your actions forgiven by the heavens, and permit the light of your shine to open the door to the divine once more."
Lucy grins, throwing her hands up– though, from her half-lying position, it's more like throwing her arms back.
"Hah! That's more like it!" she beams.
"Wait, I need a moment to understand that," Cana mutters, a little, very, conflicted. "No seriously. That was so long winded. Was that a yes or no to Loke going home?"
"It was a yes!" Gray laughs, "seriously, you need to read more!"
"But I'm never sober enough to—" Cana groans, "why can't you just be, you know, more straightforward! Just say COME HOME LOKE! That's easy, right?"
"You know, I actually agree with that," Lucy beams, sitting up a little. "This isn't the time to be formal, Grandpa Mustache! There's something else you gotta say, you know?"
The King snorts at that. "Oh?" he's not even offended by the crude language and the nicknames anymore, and Loke is honestly a little terrified for all of them. "Ah, I see. I believe I know what you ask of me."
"Wait… you can't just…" Loke whispers, reaching toward himself, biting down on his lip, unable to stop the tears as it runs down his cheeks. "You can't just… I…"
"Leo," the King speaks up, and Loke stops talking. "If you yearn to continue repenting for your sins, then we sentence you to an eternity of becoming our guidance once more," the King says. "Shine on, so the stars may follow your lead forevermore."
Loke lifts his head to meet his King in the eyes.
Once upon a time, mercy was never heard of in the realm of the stars. Coexistence was never considered between the realm of the Celestials and the humans.
So long ago, a single woman taught the King the meaning of the Love that runs through their veins, and that is when the Celestial world became what it now exists as. Heart was introduced to the stars that never associated with each other, family resemblances soon decorated the constellations, and leadership became the crown of pride that the Lion Palace donned around their necks.
In a time that is now forgotten, the Celestials have never forgotten the woman that unconditionally loved them all. So they marked her name down in the eternal covenants, and forever, her legacy lives on in a single bond of loyalty between humans and spirits.
Her name had been Heartfilia, too.
And she said before a phrase that no spirit ever forgets. It is the sound of belonging, it is the emblem of love, that they have failed to recall until now.
Finally, the King grins, smug and wide.
"And of course," he says. " Welcome home, Leo."
Loke crumbles to pieces, curling into himself and into his hands as his throat gurgles into pathetic wails. He cries, loud and desperate, clutching at himself, finally allowing three years of agony to rush to the surface of the mask he'd long forgotten how to take off.
Someone comes to him and he thinks it's Gray. He doesn't care. He clings, and he sobs, and he revels in a love he doesn't think he has the right to accept.
(But that's fine.)
(Everyone has the right to be loved, whether they think they do or not.)
Something's broken. Something's shattered. Loke doesn't know if it's his glasses (where did that go, anyways?) or his physical body or his heart and soul and spirit, but it shatters anyway. And it leaves him in so many pieces.
And maybe that's okay.
He's surrounded by friends now, all more than willing to pick up every shard and fractal, pricking their fingers until they're ugly and scabbed over if it means they could hold his hand and lead him through the rest of his trials together.
It's finally over.
He's finally home.