Summary: One of the possible scenarios of this new filler arc in the anime. Lucy protects Aquarius.

Pairings: Implied Natsu/Lucy, some implied Gray/Juvia, some Charle/Wendy friendship, lots of Aquarius/Lucy friendship, and a slight implication to Aquarius/Scorpio.

YouTube Prompt: Fairy Tail girl tribute to the song 'Everything She does is Magic' by John Barrowman.

In another attempt to prevent the Spirits from attainting her 'ultimate freedom', Team Natsu and Juvia were suddenly ambushed by the evil version of Aquarius. It turned quickly to a fearsome battle that led to Juvia being severely injured (as she used her water against Aquarius first and managed to hold up the evil, child version, of the spirit for quite some time), Gray knocked out (in defence of Juvia), and the rest of them were very bruised and battered round the edges.

It was when Lucy was thrown down to the floor for the fifth time that Natsu lost the last shred of his restraint and shot one of his more deadly attacks at Aquarius.

"AQUARIUS!"

Natsu's eyes widened in horror as he watched Lucy leap in the way of his attack, sweep the child version of Aquarius into her arms, and take the full brunt, her head snapped back, and a horrific scream tore itself out of her throat.

He instantly felt cold, as icy as Gray did on a normal day, as Lucy fell to her knees with Aquarius still bundled in her arms. The back of her clothes were burnt away, black marks covered the expanse of her milky white skin, and the ends of her hair were singed.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

Oh my fucking God!

He had almost killed Lucy! The icy, sickly, feeling strengthened as he lost all feeling in his legs, and almost collapsed to his knees as well.

"Why?!"

The question did not come from him (though he was sure hell thinking it!). It had come, instead, from the childlike Aquarius, who was now blinking up at Lucy with her big, falsely innocent, eyes. It seemed to have come out of her mouth involuntary as she looked quite cross at herself for asking it.

That didn't stop her from asking again.

"Why?" she demanded more fiercely. "Why did you do that? I'm trying to kill you."

"Because," Lucy managed to croak out, she sounded like she was in utter agony, and Natsu felt something icy pierce into his heart….he did this. He had been the one to put her through this. "Because," she repeated again, "I promised you, I would."

Aquarius' eyes widened at that.

Jude Heartfilla had done it again – he had manage to piss someone off with his business dealings, and once again, the person decided to take it out on his daughter. Aquarius' fury of being called out mid-way through a date had been halted to a terrifying stop as she realised some fucking bastard had sent fire mages of all things to assassinate her brat.

She had barely covered the child with her own body when they attacked once again, and as soon as the horrible burning stopped (she tried very hard to ignore the fact her tail now smells like fried fish), she took great pleasure in drowning them.

She had then planned to go back and allow herself to be pampered by her beloved boyfriend when her stupid brat insisted she should be the one to look after Aquarius. "After all," she said as she dragged Aquarius to the first aid box, "it's my fault you're hurt."

Well….there's some truth in that. But her stupid, obnoxious, brat didn't seem to realise that it was Aquarius' job to get hurt on her behalf.

Lucy's hands were gentle as she dabbed the anti-burn cream into Aquarius back and their touch was even more gentle as she rubbed the cream into Aquarius' tail, her fingers softly petting the shiny blue scales.

"One day…" Lucy spoke up suddenly in a shy voice, "one day I shall shield you from an attack like that."

Aquarius' eye twitched at that as she wanted to know exactly why her brat would want to be in a situation like that again.

"You damn ungrateful brat!"

She then promptly drowned her ungrateful brat for being such an arrogant and selfish child.

"Lucy…." Aquarius whispered. Natsu looked up from his own guilt filled thoughts to see the child version of Lucy's, to be honest if you asked Natsu, already evil spirit. The little girl was now clinging to Lucy who seemed to have lost all consciousness now and hand slumped forward, her hair was tickling Aquarius' cheek, and if it wasn't for the girl holding her up, Lucy would have definitely squashed her own spirit to death. "Lucy…..Lucy….LUCY!"

"The fuck?!"

That was all Gray managed to get out as he was suddenly awoken from a cold blast of water. Natsu agreed with the sentiment as water filled the room at a dangerous level and moved rapidly and forcefully. Natsu instantly gave into that churning sensation of motion sickness that quickly grabbed hold of him and almost collapsed out of the nausea while Wendy struggled to keep her head above (Charle was helping by dragging her charge up by the collar of her dress but the water was coming from all angles and even she was starting to go under), Juvia clung to Gray and tried to use her magic to push back the water (and failing epically), and Erza was flailing about in an attempt to reach them all.

But then, as quickly as it came, the water disappeared and they all fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Natsu looked up, and his eyed widened at the sight of Aquarius, the real Aquarius, bitchiness, tail, and all, floating mid-air, her long blue hair flying in all directions, and giving the impression of a rather furious avenging angel.

Lucy was cradled in Aquarius' arms. Her head resting against the spirit's shoulder, her legs slung over Aquarius' arm, and her whole body in general seemed to have lost all life as she flopped lifelessly when Aquarius jolted her slightly. "YOU DAMN BASTARDS!" Aquarius roared furiously. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL FOR LAYING HANDS ON MY BRAT! ONLY I'M ALLOWED TO BEAT THE SNOT OUT OF HER!"

There was no shame from anyone in admitting that they all screamed at that and tried their damn best at running away.

Even if Natsu deserved this particular drowning and beating….he still had some self-preservation that won out on his guilt.

After all whether she was brainwashed by whatever or her normal self, Aquarius was one evil bitch (if you ask Natsu). Which she proved once again much later when she had no qualms in slapping Lucy, while she was still laying in a hospital bed recovering from her injuries, and telling her off for stupid sacrifices….

Wait, why did they want Aquarius back, again?