A deafening crescendo of destruction assaulted the ears of the four mages stumbling through the maze-like corridors. Each body and mind thrummed with agony and exhaustion, but something danced in their eyes, a something that always came out on top, a something that could sum up – if anything could – Fairy Tail. Any who saw the dirty, bruised, weary mages would know, by that very something, that all four would sooner fight the sun than collapse.

"You don't get to do that, Black Mage!" Gray was bellowing, eyes reflective as they scrambled over a piece of wall, dodging as another crashed on top of them.

As they turned a corner, they all cried out, "Aki!" seeing her familiar–

Death.

Their minds screamed it to them, urging them all to flee and never look back, to run from this place and hope to never meet that gaze again.

Gray and Lucy were frozen in place, the icy claws of death wrenching their beating hearts from their chests before their eyes, leaving them gasping. The look in Aki's eyes wasn't that of the girl they knew – it wasn't the mage they knew – it wasn't even the Black Mage they knew. It was bloodthirsty and brutal, a gaze so frigid and burning, so infinite that they felt as though they were facing down Hades again, hundreds of times over.

Natsu, however, didn't slow, continuing his attempt to outrun light in his desperation to reach his sister.

"OI!" he practically spat as Zeref caught him round the waist. "LET ME GO!"

They wrestled for a moment, Natsu overpowering his brother by a considerable degree, twisting in his grasp. He froze at Zeref's expression. Face contorted, agony dancing across it in its practiced way, his voice broke as he gasped, "You can't go near, Natsu."

A vein popped on his head. "WHY NOT?!"

"You'll die."

The world was dead silent; as unknown assailants continued their battle against Tartaros, as the gargantuan floating cube collapsed in on itself, as the symphony of destruction pummeled them from all sides, the world was silent for those four, motionless, incomplete.

It broke.

Lucy's hands flew to her mouth in horror as Natsu yanked himself free of his grip. "LIKE EDOLAS I WILL!"

"NATSU-!" Zeref screamed, voice catching painfully in his throat, racing after him, racing to stop him from approaching the thing that had been their sister—so menacing and insane the aura seeping around her, so inhuman her expression and demeanor, it was impossible to reconcile it with the Aki they knew.

The thing, pain and cruelty given monstrous form, turned its head. Its pupils dilated momentarily, then contracted into slits, gleaming with the eyes of a demon. Its mouth widened, grinning too broadly, leering, sneering, as though to swallow the whole world whole.

"AKI!" Natsu called desperately, reaching out a hand.

"NO!" Zeref lunged forward as the thing rose a hand, releasing a wave of death that cascaded through the air, ripping towards Zeref's only blood brother, towards – he refused to acknowledge the possibility, though it whispered in the back of his mind – what might now be the last of his blood family.

Natsu fell, tackled from behind, missing by an inch the death that tore through the space he had occupied. "Zeref!" he growled, looking round. But it wasn't Zeref who had hold of him.

It was Gray.

And it was Gray who berated, "YOU DOCKED FOOL! Don't you get it?! You – will – die!"

Natsu bared his teeth, choleric. "That magic ain't gonna hurt me! It didn't hurt me on Tenrou-"

Gray cut him off, shaking him violently. "It wouldn't be by accident, Flame-Brain – won't be by the curse's love killing thing! Look at her!" he howled, pointing to the thing. It tilted its head, watching them in sadistic amusement. "That thing isn't Aki!"

Natsu's eyes flashed, and he started gutturally, "The Edolas do you-"

"She's cursed again, idiot!" Gray bellowed hoarsely, tears spilling down his cheeks, the damn breaking as soon as the first tear fell. "She's gone off the deep end! Or do you have so few braincells that you've forgotten that part?!"

"Grab my hand!" Zeref called urgently, reaching one hand towards Lucy and the other to touch Natsu and Gray.

They looked up to see the thing flying towards them, leering. Before Natsu could protest, they felt a familiar shing of magic, blinking to find themselves on the cube's surface.

A moment of stillness before a deafening BOOM shook the already crumbling cube, deafening the wizards, undoubtedly heard for miles around. A subsequent tremor told them that at least one side of the cube would entirely cave in, and that that side was theirs.

"What was that!?" Lucy shrieked, leaping nimbly from one falling rock to the next as she and the rest did their best to not be crushed.

"That was Aki-" —Zeref's voice broke— "-'s attack!"

"What do you mean attack?!" Natsu demanded indignantly, but Gray snapped back before Zeref could answer.

"SHE IS INSANE!"

Natsu bristled. "What do you-!?"

"Flame-Brain, she is crazy! Dragon egging crazy! If you don't realize that, you're going to die, and she's going to have to live with the fact that she killed you! So shut up and think about someone else for once!"

Natsu was silent, face twitching uncomprehendingly, teeth bared.

Zeref glanced at the ice wizard as they dodged another piece of rubble. "She gave you a message, somehow, didn't she?" he called over the din.

Gray grimaced, turning away from Zeref.

"Here!" Lucy shouted, pointing towards a small recess that was still, miraculously, stable.

They piled into it, squeezing together, barely able to fit in the cranny. Natsu, the fight in him leaving him to fend for himself, croaked weakly, "What- what do we do, then?"

Lucy could barely stand it; rarely had she ever heard Natsu speak like that, in a constrained and passively anxious way – a fearful way. Her own thoughts flashed back to the moment Aki had met her eyes from the floor, to the sinking feeling in her stomach and the certainty that she knew what Aki wished to say, what was practically spilling from her eyes in written words.

She restrained a sob.

"First," Zeref was saying in a practiced, brusque way, tears flooding down his cheeks, "what was the message, Gray?"

Gray didn't speak. As Natsu opened his mouth, no doubt to verbally abuse the other, he ground out, "The idiot said she wouldn't be safe."

Zeref surveyed him. "Tell us the rest," he said eventually.

Lucy blinked at him in surprise, but Gray resolutely shook his head. "I'll only say it when I'm yelling at her in the guild's infirmary for being so stupid."

Lucy glanced sideways at him. His eyes were burning with conviction, and with…

"Natsu!" she cut sharply as the Fire Dragon Slayer opened his mouth to protest. "Don't-"

"Lucy?!"

Exchanging looks, they all stuck their heads out of the crevice to see Levy leaning over the edge of the crater they were in. The dust finally (mostly) settled, they could make out what looked like the rest of Fairy Tail duking it out with Tartaros behind her.

"Lucy!" Levy shouted again in relief. "You're okay!"

"Levy!" Lucy hollered back, thankful, if confused.

"Get up here!" Levy swept her finger through the air. "Solid Script: Ladder!" A ladder materialized, letters spelling it out held together by magic unfurling to their feet.

"It is time," Mard Geer's voice echoed around them, sending shivers down Lucy's spine, "to end this farce. Goodbye, pesky humans."

Everything froze, the cube turning into some pulsating flesh and trapped mages. Lucy blanched as Mard Geer's voice spoke once more. "Whoever gets rid of the last insect will be promoted."

–––––

Two dragons were warring in the sky, a black and blue beast that sent shivers down her spine and a red one they knew to be Igneel.

"I'll find Aki-chan!" Lucy asserted as tears continued to trace down her cheeks, giving her partner a nod. "Go help your dad!"

Natsu, staring at her for a moment, jerked his head. Hurtling himself forward, he launched himself into the air, rocketing to join his adoptive father.

Lucy turned around, wiping the last of her tears from her eyes. She would mourn Aquarius later, when she didn't have another friend she could still reach. Several yards away, she spotted Zeref. "Any ideas where to start?" she asked thickly, running up to him. "What are we even going to do when we find her?"

Zeref turned away from the scene above them. "The…" he breathed, unfocused, dazed. "I…"

"Zeref!" Lucy shouted, hitting him on the shoulder. He looked up at her, tears tracing down his cheeks. "We have" —her voice broke— "to save Aki-chan! Focus! What do we do?!"

Zeref stared at her. "I…"

"Zeref-!" she started, but Zeref's knees seemed to give out. "Zeref?!"

He didn't respond, eyes wide, mouth gaping.

"What's wrong?! We've got to save Ak-"

"Lose her…" His breath stopped her, and he continued, hopeless, "I can't… after all this… Even then…" He grabbed his head, shaking it viciously.

"Zeref-!" Lucy began, alarmed.

"Zeref!" another voice called, and this one roused Zeref. He looked up in time to see Mavis catapult into his chest, sending them both flying backwards. "Zeref, Zeref, where is Aki-nee?! What happened?!"

He stared at her, a fresh wave of tears washing over his face.

Lucy started forward, saying, "Aki-chan was-"

"I understand," Mavis nodded, not looking at her and rolling off Zeref. "Zeref, how do we reverse it? Tell me."

Zeref blinked at her. "We… I don't… I-"

"Aki-nee is not going to leave us, Zeref!" Mavis interrupted, grabbing his shoulders. Lucy, watching, almost felt she should look away. "She isn't leaving! So think!"

Zeref stared for a second longer, then blinked. "I… how to reverse it…?"

"Yes!"

He nodded vaguely, then shook himself. He looked around, apparently surprised to see Mavis. "Mavis, how- what-"

"No time," Mavis forestalled, taking his hands with her own and meeting his eyes with reassuring conviction, honed by years directing troops. "What are the options?"

If he found this odd, he didn't mention it. "One," he started scientifically, "the Etherious Franmalth; he has the ability to take specific portions of a person or their abilities and- and-" He twitched, then shook his head, not seeming to notice Lucy's presence. "Keyes-" He stopped, looking disgusted. "No. No, no, no, no-!"

"What-" Lucy began.

"But he could- no!" he yelled, covering his face with his hands. "Why do I default to this!? Why do I still-!?" He cut off, trembling. After a second, he seemed to shrink, speaking in an ashamed mutter. "Three, Kyo- tails…"

"Not Etherious," Mavis breathed in his ear so that Lucy didn't hear her.

He bobbed his head, but didn't speak. He made a couple choking noises, muttering inaudibly. Finally, he swore, turning away.

"Mavis," Lucy intervened; Mavis turned to her. "You and Zeref figure something out, but I think it would be best to start looking for her right now."

Mavis nodded, not waiting to see her dash away.

"I'm still evil, Mavis," Zeref said shakily, one hand still held to his face. "I'm still evil and now Aki's-"

"No," she said firmly, wrapping her arms around him from behind. She rested her head against his back. "You're good. Why else would you be repulsed by those thoughts."

"But I still think them!" he ejaculated. "Whenever I don't know what to do- and I don't have time-"

"Tell me, then."

He looked around at her, face contorted in pain.

She took his head, meeting his eyes. "Tell me. Lucy's looking for Aki-nee. I know you have some ideas. Tell me."

He grit his teeth. "K-Keyes… he could reanimate a corpse, and we could transfer the imposter-curse to- to that." After chewing on his cheek for a second, he resumed, in a sickened voice, "Kyouka combines Franmalth's and Keyes's powers; it would have much the same effect. There are a variety of living magics that could use a sacrifice, but obviously–"

"I know, Zeref. I know," she soothed, giving his hand a squeeze. His pitch had risen as he spoke, and now he broke off with a hiss. After a minute, she prompted, "What are some other spells?"

"The only other ones I can think of are Territory," he muttered, "making another book – which, now that I'm not immortal, would be impossible – Ushi no Koku Mairi, high level Personification spell, FranÇoise Catelyn – that would work better than Ushi no Koku Mairi, actually – and maybe Arc of Embodiment."

"See?" she murmured, standing on tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. "You have plenty of ideas. You just had to break past what you learned to do."

He shook his head, but nevertheless looked slightly less disheartened as he continued, "The spell they used must be different from the true Curse. It required more from the recipient; there wouldn't have been a reason to mortally wound her, and it shouldn't have affected her the way it did; last time it took more than a century to reach that level of- of insanity."

"So if it's not the same, it might actually be possible to dispel?"

"I want to say… If it's not yet had the full effect, then we can pull her back."

Mavis smiled, kissing him. "See? Not evil at all."

Zeref's lips twitched, but, cleared of his paralyzed state, he didn't waste time. "We need to find her as soon as possible."

Mavis nodded, looking serious as she stepped away from him. "We'll split up."

He looked reluctant, but agreed nonetheless. "Don't die."

They took off.

For all our sakes…