A/N: I'm not feeling talkative today but I feel obligated to include an author's note anyway for consistency.


The rest of the team met Natsu and Lucy as they waded through the rubble. Levy and Juvia had awakened and were being carried on Gajeel and Gray's backs, and the previously missing members appeared unscathed.

"Thank goodness you're safe!" Lucy cried, throwing herself at Wendy.

"Natsuuuu," Happy wailed, doing the same to Natsu.

"That was scary, huh, buddy?" Natsu said, stroking Happy between the ears.

"What happened to that dude?" Gajeel said.

"His name was Jackal," Lucy said. "Right when we got the upper hand and were about to defeat him, he blew himself up."

"He said something about going out with a bang, or not wanting to lose to humans, or something."

"He didn't say that last part."

"It was implied," Natsu said. "In any case, he's dead. One less Tartarus demon to worry about."

Erza's eyes widened. "Tartarus? No wonder he was able to subdue us before we even knew he was there."

"What happened to you guys anyway?" Natsu asked.

"I found 'em locked up when I was looking for a place to dump these two," Gajeel said, jerking his head at Levy and Juvia. "They were restrained with anti-magic cuffs. Sorry I couldn't come back to help, but I was busy unlocking them."

"We took care of it," Natsu said.

"The handcuffs were government issue," Erza said, expression grave. "They're the same kind I use as a knight. And he snuck up behind us so quietly that even Wendy didn't hear him. I'm not surprised he's Tartarus; not only are they demons, but they're government-affiliated which could explain how they got those anti-magic handcuffs."

"It's exactly as Makarov suspected," Levy said. "He—"

"First let's find a place to rest first and assess damage. We have at least two concussions here. Probably more," Gray said. "Besides, local authorities will probably be here soon so we should skedaddle before we get arrested for using magic."

"We were fighting a demon!" Natsu said.

"A mage is a mage," Erza said, "and mages are technically criminals. Gray's right. Let's find a place to set up camp."

They set up tents by the riverbank upstream from Oak Town proper, right on the fringe of the city where it became too rocky for most citizens to settle. From here, they could see the dust cloud that still hung in the air around Ivan's former mansion.

Ivan himself was nowhere to be found, and the dragonslayers couldn't catch even a whiff of him, which meant he had probably skipped town long ago. That or Tatarus had already caught him and the Fairy Tail group was just unlucky that Jackal lingered behind. Well, Ivan was evil anyway, so Natsu wasn't particularly disappointed or worried. They could get their information elsewhere. The less he had to see of that man, the better.

Once Wendy had treated Natsu and Lucy's injuries and concussions, it didn't take long for the team to pool their information and figure out what was really going on.

"It all makes sense," Levy said, head in her hands and eyes wide with horror. "Lucius Mard, Mard Geer… Gods, we were idiots."

"There are plenty of people in the world with that surname," Lucy said. "Convenient for him, I suppose."

"But a lot of Tartarus has unusual names," Levy said, scanning the list Makarov had given here with the demon's names. "For humans, anyway. Other than Mard, Seilah is the only one whose name particularly common. Wait, you don't think the princess of Bosco is… Isn't her name Seilah?"

"And the Dowager Queen is Kyouka," Juvia said, pointing to another name on the list. "That can't be a coincidence. They're definitely Tartarus."

"No way," Lucy said.

"Silver is a common enough name," Gray said. "Maybe not as common as Seilah, but my father's name was Silver."

"No wonder you're so insufferable; you've been half demon all along," Natsu joked.

"I didn't bring up my dead father so you could joke about it," Gray snapped. "I'm just saying that the Silver character will be harder to find if we rely on his name alone, unless we find a preexisting connection like with Mard Geer being Chief Advisor Lucius Mard."

"Not if he's in a high position," Erza said. "Other than Jackal, they all seem to be people of some distinction in society. Chief Advisor, royalty..."

"But there are obviously some among them who didn't integrate themselves into human society, like Jackal," Gray said.

"Maybe Jackal was someone important, too. It's possible he didn't use his real name" Levy said.

"Yeah, I'm surprised even the human-named ones kept their names the same," Lucy said. "The ones with more unusual names probably used pseudonyms for sure."

"If we follow the pattern, Silver probably used his real name too," Gray said. "We should be able to find him."

"And Keith," Juvia added.

"So that leaves Franmalth, Tempesta, Ezel, and Torafusa," Levy said.

"Ezel sounds like it could be a real name in another country, so let's keep an eye out," Gajeel said. "I agree that the rest are likely to have changed their names if they joined human society like Mard. But really, how simple can they get? I thought they were supposed to be powerful demons, so why are they doing something as obvious as going by their real names?"

"They're Zeref's most powerful demons, not his smartest," Natsu said.

Gajeel snorted. "That much is obvious."

"We should skip Crocus and report back to Makarov right away," Erza said. "This is exactly the kind of information he sent the three of you back with us to find out."

"Crocus is on our way," Levy said. "It can't hurt to poke around a little more now that we know Mard himself is Tartarus."

"I honestly thought he was just a go-between," Lucy said. "I didn't think demons could be so…human-like. It's almost frightening. Lesser demons look demonic, but these Tartarus demons could be anyone."

A short silence fell over the group as that sunk in.

"We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open at all times," Gajeel said.

"The k— My father was very careful not to let outsiders know of Natsu and my presence in the castle, so Tartarus probably doesn't know we were there investigating them. Probably," Lucy said.

"If we go to Crocus, you're gonna hafta wear a wig again," Gajeel said, grinning. "I wanna see it."

"Only if I'm interacting with higher-ups," Lucy said. "Commoners won't recognize me. A lot of people have blonde hair."

"You're an exact replica of the late Queen," Erza said. "Someone more perceptive than us could probably figure it out easily."

Lucy pouted. "I'm glad that I take after my mom, but if you're going to use this as an excuse to dress me up every time we go out in public…"

"Oh, we are so using it as an excuse," Levy said mischievously.

"Please don't," Lucy protested.

"Don't need to. We were fine walking around the streets when we were there together," Natsu said, feeling the urge to stand up for Lucy. Even if they were just teasing, he felt weird that the others were so excited about dressing her up in those weird clothes again. She looked lovely in them, yes, but it didn't feel like she'd enjoyed it much.

"Natsu is ruining our fun," Juvia said.

"If we're all agreed to stop by Crocus on our way back to Magnolia," said Erza, returning to the topic at hand, "we must prepare for a long trip. Without teleportation lacrima, it will probably take us two weeks including a few days spent in Crocus proper. Are you all prepared?"

"Aye!"

That night, Natsu returned from getting firewood to find Lucy and Gray sitting beside the dwindling campfire, talking quietly but animatedly. Hearing him approach, Gray stood up and bid Lucy a quick goodnight. He sent Natsu a long look before disappearing into his tent.

"What was that about?" Natsu said, dropping the firewood and beginning to stoke the fire.

"What was what about?"

"Gray looked at me funny."

Lucy sighed. "You always think that. Well, maybe you were right this time. We were talking about you, actually."

Natsu pointed a stick at her. "Whatever he said, don't believe it."

"It was just how you and all the others grew up together," Lucy said, laughing. "Sounds like you had a really fun childhood. You say you don't get along with Gray, but I think you two seem pretty close."

"It's not by choice," Natsu mumbled, unable to deny her observations. Gray was one of his best friends, despite everything.

"And you say you're scared of Erza, but you actually care about each other a lot."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I guess I'm just stating the obvious to you," Lucy said with an awkward laugh, tucking her hair behind her ear. It fell again right away, so Natsu reached his hand to her ear and tucked it properly this time.

"I've said before that Fairy Tail is a family," he said. "Being close and caring about each other despite everything kind of comes with the territory."

"I guess I'm just not used to this kind of family," Lucy said.

"Rich families aren't very close, huh?"

"Many are, despite the stereotype," Lucy said. "Mine may have been one of them. But after Mother died…"

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"But now you can talk about it with us if you ever need to."

She smiled. "Yeah. I'm glad I told everyone. I was really nervous, but it went well."

"I told you, Fairy Tail doesn't judge based on your background," Natsu said. "Fairy Tail is family. And you're part of Fairy Tail now."

"The solo vigilante, the Celestial Spirit, is now affiliated with an underground mage guild. I wonder what the public would think."

"I think they'd support it. You're still doing the same work, it's just that now, you have friends helping you."

"Well, I hope so, because I'd like to stay with you guys if you'll have me."

"You don't even have to ask," Natsu said. He thumped his heart with his fist. "You don't have the guild mark yet, but you've got the heart of a Fairy Tail mage. We're partners now. You and me and Happy are a team."

For a moment, Natsu thought she was going to cry. Her eyes glistened in the firelight, and a gentle smile crossed her face. "Mm."

He leaned down to meet her eyes. "You okay?"

She nodded. "I just…I know you've said all this before, but I think it's finally sinking in."

He sat back and crossed his arms, satisfied. "Good. It would be really inconvenient if you didn't think you were one of us and tried to leave because of that. There's a special send-off we gotta do."

"I'm not leaving," Lucy said. "Not anytime soon. We still have to take down Tartarus together anyway."

"And after that?"

She thought for a moment, then turned to Natsu and winked. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't we?" With that, she called out Plue and headed to her tent.

It took Natsu a moment to start breathing again. That wink was not fair. It was so not fair. And what did "we'll have to wait and see" mean? Was she planning to leave after beating Tartarus or not?

Suddenly Natsu kind of hoped their mission would drag on for a while, but he shook that thought from his mind. Lucy was here because people were dying. The longer it took for them to figure this whole Tartarus thing out, the more civilians would die at the hands of demon attacks. They had to finish this quickly.

Quickly was a relative term, of course; with a week ahead of them to reach Crocus and then another week before reaching Magnolia, they had a long journey ahead of them before they could get back to the guild. And then after that, who knows?

The week to reach Crocus was indeed boring, filled with lots of petty bickering between the boys, secret snickering among the girls, and the usual love/hate dynamic between the two exceeds. But one morning, they found themselves waking up to a gorgeous view of Crocus and its sprawling suburbs, a field of shining wood and clay that all culminated in the castle peaks.

"And you grew up there," Gray said, standing by Lucy.

Lucy nodded. "For twelve years. Until I was there with Natsu, I hadn't even stepped foot in it since."

"Has it changed much?"

"Not at all," Lucy said. "Nobility are very particular about their traditions, and the royal palace in particular is preserved to a disgustingly immaculate degree."

"Gihi," Gajeel chuckled. "So even the princess herself thinks it's disgustingly immaculate. I couldn't agree more."

"That's because you're a slob," Levy said.

"Let's not fight," Erza said. "If we're all done looking at the view, can we sit down at eat breakfast?"

Natsu's ears perked up at that, and he finally paid attention to the savory smells invading his senses. "Breakfast! Bacon!"

"Eat slowly," Erza warned, but it was too late. He'd already dug in, and there was no stopping him.

"Are you sure this will be okay?" Wendy asked Erza as they all gathered around the fireplace to grab their share of meat. All of them except for Lucy, who still seemed transfixed by the glorious view of her former home. Erza followed Wendy's gaze to look at Lucy's silhouette against the sunrise.

"Well," Erza said, "I think so."

"It'll be fine," Natsu said.

Levy interrupted, "But if she's recognized—"

"It'll be fine," Natsu repeated. "We'll stay and take care of camp while you guys snoop around. Nobody's gonna recognize her if they can't see her."

"Natsu's right," Erza said. "Now eat up."

Natsu didn't need to be told twice. The rest could worry all they want; he was gonna eat his fill and then relax the rest of the day. Just how it should be.


A/N: Thanks for reading! (And thanks for reviewing!)