Summary: An alternative to chapter 457 because for a moment I was half convinced Lucy was going to stab Brandish.

Pairings: Lucy/Cana friendship.

Author's Note: Warning, very dark and rather violently graphic. Read with caution.

Lucy's hand froze with indecision.

She wasn't sure what was worse, the fact one of the enemy had actually invaded her own home, helped themselves to her bath, and made her strip off before she joined them, or the fact she finally got the upper hand and was hesitating.

Just one summoning.

Just one, and her and her spirit of choice could kick this infuriating women into the bath and perhaps corner her into submission. Taking out of the strongest and most dangerous of Zeref's mages without a second thought.

All she had to do was say the words.

And yet she couldn't.

Not because it was unfair to attack someone when their back is to you (who the hell asks the enemy to wash their back anyway? This whole thing is disturbing, disgusting, and degrading, Lucy was quickly feeling like she was being treated as a joke), not because it was underhanded to strike when someone was vulnerable, and certainly not because Lucy thought there was a chance that Brandish would feel repentant for her wrongdoings and could be persuaded to join Fairy Tail's side in the ongoing battle.

No, she couldn't say the words because she could see the upcoming events all too easily. Her spirit would come out, they would battle, Lucy would be pushed to the limits, in danger, no one to come to her aid, injured, drained from her magic, and incapable of protecting the entire town and her friends.

It would be like Tartarus all over again.

She would be forced to summon the Celestial King again.

She would be forced to break another key.

Her grip tightened and she felt the ridges of the key dig into her skin. It burned lightly and she clung to that sensation to stop herself from trembling.

She couldn't lose another spirit.

Thank you, she could hear Aquarius once more, for everything.

And she then snapped.

Without a second thought she plunged the key into Brandish bare, pale, unmarred, back and the girl let out a yelp of surprise rather than pain. Lucy didn't even give her a chance to glance back as she immediately pulled back and shoved the key back into Brandish' skin with all her strength, it sank into the soft, pliant, skin and blood dribbled out.

It was not enough.

Rapidly, Lucy stabbed, and stabbed, and stabbed, she pushed all her magic into the key and she could feel it transform ever so slightly in her hand, taking the form of Cancer's scissor blades as she repeated the motion over and over again.

She felt blood splatter onto her cheek but she ignored it as she continued to push into Brandish' stupid, pathetic, vulnerable, back.

Brandish's screams echoed around her.

"You!" Brandish panted as she turned to look over her shoulder, her face was pale to the blood loss, her eyes were wild with fury, and her mouth was gnarled into a vicious snarl. "You bitch!" she growled.

Her arm moved.

She was probably going to use her magic. To shrink the room or Lucy or to make something bigger in order to use it as a weapon, or maybe even to grab that tin that definitely contained a person who probably had magic too.

But she never got the chance to.

That arm movement was the last thing she ever did as Lucy leaped up with speed she never had normally and kicked Brandish as hard as possible in the head.

There was a strange splattering noise as Brandish's head smacked into the tiled wall and a slight crunching noise as bone broke under the pressure. Lucy watched with indifference as the light in Brandish's eyes faded as slowly her body slid against the wall and landed back into the bath with a loud splash.

Crimson blood was now smeared all down her pristine white tiles, it was going to take ages to clean that off.

"LUCY!" The door banged open and Cana stumbled into the bathroom. "Lucy!" she gasped for breath, her chest heaved, and she was sweating ever so slightly, which suggested to Lucy that she must have heard Brandish scream from the street and went to come to Lucy's rescue. "Lucy, are you….holy shit!"

The bubbles in the bath were now stained pink thanks to all the blood, which was smeared on the walls, splattered all over Lucy, and dripping into the bath from Lucy's hand and key.

Those in particular were drenched in the colour of red.

Lucy must look like some sort of bloodthirsty monster. A glance in the mirror told Lucy that she did, there was a splatter of blood on her cheek. "I had to do it," she heard herself say numbly, "she was going to hurt everyone. I had to stop her."

Cana wasn't sure what to say.

Lucy unnerved her.

It wasn't because she was naked, Cana was far too used to that what with all the times they had bathed together and Cana was never bothered by naked flesh like some people, and it wasn't all the blood, she was also way too used to the sight of that, nor was it the blood on Lucy, she had seen Lucy in all the worse states she had ever been, from snotty loud tears to ripped clothing, cuts, and bruises from battle. No, it was the emptiness that bothered her.

Her voice was flat, toneless, and had no inflection of any sort, her face was expressionless, and worst of all, her dark eyes were missing her usual spark.

They were like dark tunnels of nothingness.

"Of course you did," Cana found herself saying, "you had to do what you had to do to protect us all, sweetie, any of us would have done the same." She moved across the bathroom and plucked Lucy's fluffy towel from the railing. "Come here and let's get you dried off, hmm?" she said in false cheer. "We're still in the middle of a war, you need to get dressed and ready."

Lucy stepped out of the bath and towards Cana dully. As if she was a puppet rather than an actual person. "I had to do it," she repeated flatly as Cana wrapped the towel round her, "I couldn't sacrifice another friend. I couldn't let what happen at Tartarus happen again. I had to do it."

"I know," Cana murmured as she wrapped her arms round Lucy, "it's going to be okay Lucy, everything is going to be okay, we're gonna win this thing, I promise."

The Lucy Cana knew, the one that was her best friend, would have broken down by now. She would have let out a wail of despair that she had been hiding and sob noisily into Cana's shoulder as she hugged her back and Cana would pat her on the back and reassure her everything was all right.

But this Lucy didn't do that, this Lucy, the one that fought alone in Tartarus, spent a year by herself, and now brutally killed a person in her own bathtub, just stood stiffly in Cana's arms, as if Cana's touch had burned her.

God Lucy, Cana thought as she fought back her own shudder of fear and hugged Lucy all the more fiercely, what happened to you?!