Summary: Inspired by the new filler arc of the anime.How I think Loke might be restored to his normal self….

Pairings: Loke/Lucy friendship (or romance depending how you want to look at it), implied Evergreen/Elfman, Hero-Worship Bickslow/Laxus, Bickslow/Lucy friendship, Bickslow/Loke friendship (sort of) brief mention of Loke/OC, implied Gray/Juvia, Gray/Loke friendship (or romance if you are Juvia and rather delusional), and implied Natsu/Lucy.

YouTube Prompt: A Tribute to the arrogance and vanity of male Fairy Tail Characters to John Barrowman's cover of 'You're So Vain'…..because they are sometimes.

After the worst days of Lucy's and Yukino's lives, it had come to this. A battle between all of Fairy Tail and Loke.

The rest of Lucy's and Yukino's spirits had been restored to their old selves thanks to mostly Natsu, Gray, Erza, Wendy, Gajeel, and Juvia though everyone else certainly helped, and it was now Loke, in his gold armour and crazy hair, that was left to deal with.

The Thunder God tribe were fighting this one. With even Natsu, of all people, weakened, it was time for them to step up and take an enemy out. Bickslow, especially, relished the opportunity and the battle that now raged between four of the stronger members of Fairy Tail and the Leader of the Twelve Zodiac was at epic proportions.

(Somewhere, Master was praying desperately that the Celestial World won't bill him for expense damages….)

Eventually Freed was knocked out of his dark form and into unconsciousness, several of Bickslow's poor babies were slaughtered brutally, Evergreen had been badly injured (but most fortunately Elfman was there to catch her and was tending to her wounds as they still fought), and even Laxus, super cool mega awesome Laxus, was beginning to break a sweat and struggle against the armoured spirit.

Let Bickslow take a moment to comment how completely trashy Loke's gold armour was. Both he and Erza were in agreement that it looked terribly cheap, and they should know, they were experts in tasteful, fashionable, and awesome looking armour. It looked like it was glowing in this damn poor light, in fact Loke as a whole seemed to be glowing gold as did –

Oh fuck!

A memory from the last time Bickslow fought Loke flashed across his mind; My Master's belief in me makes me strong….

Bickslow could see souls. He could see spirits even better, perhaps, than a celestial mage, which was why he always thought something was fishy about Loke when he first joined. This power of seeing souls had always allowed Bickslow to see other things, like when someone is being possessed, or when a spell has connected two souls together, which has always been useful on jobs.

Now he can see Lucy boosting Loke's power just simply by believing in him. Even though this twisted arsehole version of Loke had done a lot of shitty stuff to her and the rest of the guild, she still believed in him.

And that was making it fucking hard to beat him in a fight.

"For God sake Lucy!" Bickslow roared. "Stop believing in him!"

Lucy blinked up from her corner, her lip was still bleeding from Evil Virgo's attack, her body was terribly bruised, and Bickslow was certain he could make out a broken bone or two with the way she had hunched over herself.

Damn, he really didn't want to be these spirits when Natsu finally got his hands on them.

Realisation of what Bickslow had shouted seemed to have sunk in as Lucy's eyes widened and then instantly watered with tears. Oh come on! Bickslow inwardly screamed. Don't cry, Natsu will fucking kill me if you cried because I shouted at you!

And quite frankly Bickslow liked his body in one piece and not charred.

"I can't," Lucy whispered, tears were now definitely rolling down her cheeks (fuck, he was screwed.), "I can't stop," she said loudly. "Don't you see? He is the Leader of the Twelve Zodiac. To be the leader he has to be strong, he has to be powerful to the point of being undefeatable, and then there is the fact he has proven himself to be one of the strongest spirits," she was babbling now, definitely babbling like the crazy cos-player queen she is, "He survived years living in the human world, cut off from his own magic, and still he was able to fight mages, beasts, and bandits, he is one of the strongest and most powerful mages I have ever met. And he is Fairy Tail, he embodies everything a Fairy Tail mage should. How can I not believe in him? How can I-?"

"Stop it!" Loke yelled. He seemed to shaking with fury or terror or something, Bickslow couldn't quite name it. "STOP IT, I SAID!" he bellowed as he glowered at Lucy. "I don't want your believe! I don't want my power to come from you! I want my ultimate freedom to be as strong, and independent, and powerful in my own right not from you!"

"I know," Lucy murmured tiredly, "but that doesn't change a thing."

"No!"

Lucy stood up and began to slowly make her away towards Loke, her arms reaching out for him.

"I still believe in you."

Another step.

"I said no!"

"I will always believe in you."

She took another step and Loke backed away as quickly as he could while his hands shot up to his ears in a desperate, childish, attempt to block her out.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"I will never stop believing in you."

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

Lucy's arms wrapped themselves around him and she rested her chin on the cold, still disgustingly trashy if you ask Bickslow, armour while her eyes closed with a blissful sigh.

"And I still believe," she said so quietly that Bickslow had to lean in to listen, "that you are still inside there, Loke, and I believe you can fight this. Because you have never, not once, let me down and I refuse to believe you ever will."

Loke trembled in Lucy's arms. "Fuck!" he screamed, and Bickslow barely had time to duck down when a radiant, blinding, gold light enveloped the pair.

(He's been on the bad side of Loke's magic before and did not like the searing pain in his eyeballs, thank you very much.)

When the light finally cleared up, they were greeted with the sigh of Loke looking normal (well as normal as someone who has cat ears in his hair) and sobbing in Lucy's arms. "I'm sorry," he choked out between sobs, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so-"

"Shh, shh," Lucy hushed him as she rubbed his back, "it's all right. Everything is going to be all right."

There was a very awkward, tense, silent moment as everyone stood there, battered, bruised, and bleeding, as they watched Loke cry in Lucy's arms…..

"Party?" Cana suggested.

Fifteen minutes later, you would think Loke had never been evil and trying to kill them all, nor would you have thought he had been brawling like a little baby mere seconds later. Instead he had smartened up, had a cup of beer in one hand, and a gorgeous spirit girl on the other as he chatted to everyone.

"You see my beautiful master makes me stronger than all of you," Loke boasted, "her believe in me makes me more powerful than Natsu."

"Like fuck it does!" Natsu roared. "As soon as this party is over, you and I are going to-"

"Natsu!" Lucy snapped. "If I catch you fighting with one of my spirits again, you will never see the inside of my apartment again."

"What?!" Natsu shrieked. "No! Lucy please!"

Much to the embarrassment of everyone that was male, Natsu threw all dignity out of the window in order to fling his arms round Lucy's legs and refuse to let go….

He was one of them, why?!

"Actually," Bickslow heard Loke whisper to Gray. "I could probably beat everyone here but Natsu. Just don't tell Natsu that she believes in him more than me. I'll never hear the end of it."

"Dude," Gray said as he patted Loke's shoulder (unaware of the jealous glower Juvia was now sending the ginger spirit), "what sort of best mate do you take me for? Of course I won't say a thing."

Gray won't…..but Bickslow made no such promise.

Heh.