The Scars That Make You Whole

By CrimsonStarbird

Sacrimony, Part 3

-Fools and Brave Men-

Colonel Lydiatt of the Royal Army was nothing like Lucy had expected.

The commander of the Bishop's Lace garrison shook their hands, greeted Levy and Gajeel with the formalities due to their rank as Rune Knights, and welcomed them all into his office with tea and spiced fruitcake… all of which was as different as possible from the usual reception Fairy Tail mages received from the authorities.

His official uniform aside, Lydiatt did not look much like a colonel either. He was far older than she'd have expected for a serving military man – though not necessarily for an active mage, and when she focussed on his presence as discreetly as possible, she could sense the steady thrum of magic beneath the blue-gold striped tunic of the Fiorean Royal Army. It was unusual indeed for a mage to choose the king's army over the Magic Council's Rune Knights. She wondered if he was particularly patriotic.

White hair hovered around his shoulders. His eyes had the hardened sheen of a man who had seen many battles, yet the well-worn crinkles around them softened them again. There was a sword at his hip, though it was the kind of thin blade Freed liked to use, rather than the heavy-duty weapons usually carried by soldiers. He held himself tall – in defiance of both his age and his armour – and his every movement was steady and sure.

Despite the urgency of their meeting, he insisted on greeting them properly: with patience rather than disbelief, grace rather than rudeness, and cake rather than, well, immediately shouting at the guild mages to keep their noses out of military business. It felt more like visiting an elderly relative than a top military commander.

Then again, seeing as the only other colonel Lucy had ever met was Arcadios, who scored full marks on the Protecting Princess Hisui scale but whom she had never actually seen doing anything else, maybe colonels in modern-day Fiore weren't supposed to be as harsh as the ones she read about in books.

Lucy, Levy, Gajeel and Pantherlily explained what little they knew about the current situation. The latter had taken Zeref's place upon his return from delivering Briar to the Rune Knights. This suited both of them, as the Exceed wanted to be involved and the Black Mage didn't want to be involved if it meant having to deal with people. He had told Lucy he would wait outside. With any luck, he'd still be there when they came out, and not lost in some labyrinthine bookshop.

They told Lydiatt about their clashes with the elusive Avatar and the possibility that the cultists were the ones behind the trouble in the town. He informed them that his men were already out investigating the explosions – which explained his lack of urgency – and they would soon confirm whether or not Avatar were the perpetrators.

When a messenger knocked at the door, and Lydiatt excused himself from the room, they were all relieved – Levy and Pantherlily because it meant they would soon have answers and be able to put together a plan of attack, and Lucy and Gajeel because it gave them an opportunity to dispose of their slices of cake without seeming rude. For two people who had spent most of the afternoon comfort-eating in bookshop cafés, hospitality was a dangerous foe indeed. Gajeel mushed his into the soil of a potted plant, while Lucy wrapped hers in a napkin and stuck it in her bag. She knew someone who wouldn't turn down cake under any circumstances.

When Colonel Lydiatt returned to the room, the friendly crinkles had all but disappeared from his face. "It is as you suspected," he reported gravely. "The attackers claim allegiance to this group called Avatar, and they are causing widespread destruction across the town. There is every possibility that they intend to slaughter enough of our people to enact the ritual you described."

"Then let's go grab 'em!" Gajeel declared, jumping to his feet only for Levy and Pantherlily to immediately pull him back down again.

"You're the one who wanted to bring this to the attention of the authorities," Levy sighed. "We might as well coordinate our efforts."

"Right," Gajeel muttered sheepishly. "The Law, and all that…"

Lucy spoke up. "Since we don't know the details of Avatar's plan, we thought it would be safest to just evacuate the entire town. Is that something you could help with, Colonel?"

"Of course. An evacuation plan is something we must have in place before we can establish a garrison within civic boundaries. There is a designated evacuation zone in the north-east part of the town, consisting of a town hall, a school, and a gym all close together, which are stocked with emergency first aid and rations."

"That's really impressive preparation," Lucy remarked. She couldn't help wondering if they could learn something from the Royal Army – especially with an attack from Zeref's mysterious new army on the cards.

Lydiatt dismissed the praise with a wave of his hand. "Protecting the people of this kingdom is our duty, nothing more. Allow my men to handle the evacuation."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Gajeel demanded.

"I suppose you could go after these Avatar fellows and try to slow them down."

"We'll do more than that!" the Dragon Slayer grinned. "We'll beat 'em all!"

"You'd best proceed with the evacuation anyway," Lucy whispered to the colonel.

"I intend to," he nodded, bemused. "With our town in danger, we cannot afford to take risks."

And just like that, they had a plan.

By the time they left the garrison, Lucy was seriously considering switching allegiance to the army. Pragmatic, sensible, capable of planning ahead, and with competent leadership to boot – if one could look beyond the distinctly unflattering blue and yellow striped uniforms, their organization really had a lot going for it.

They split up.

Gajeel and Pantherlily took to the skies. Depending on which one was asked, this was either to get a better picture of how the evacuation was progressing, or to help them find the culprits before beating them up became redundant (or, in fact, illegal). The two flew not as a usual Dragon Slayer-Exceed duo, but side by side as independent warriors – something which made them both very proud.

That left Lucy, Levy and Zeref as the team on the ground.

At least, that was the plan – right up until they left the garrison to find that Zeref was nowhere to be seen. The bench where they had left him was empty.

"You have got to be kidding me," Lucy huffed.

"It seems your friend has got lost again." Levy offered her a resigned smile. "I know it often comes with the territory for absent-minded geniuses, but… he didn't really strike me as the type when we were talking. Is he usually like this?"

"No, not at all," Lucy answered at once, and then paused. She had seen flashes of disassociation from him before, hadn't she? But that was a symptom of his curse, something he couldn't control triggered by extreme circumstances. There was no excuse for this entirely unhelpful obsession with old books.

"Do you want to look for him, or…?" Levy tried, but tailed off.

The soldiers had already swept through the streets around the garrison; the streets, houses, and even bookshops had been cleared of customers and owners alike. Things were progressing at a quite frankly professional pace, and if they didn't keep up, there would be nothing left for the guild mages to do.

"Just one quick thing," Lucy requested, pointing to the bench which should have contained a Black Mage. "Sit right there, look around, and tell me which shop looks the most interesting."

Levy gave her an exasperated look, but did so, glancing round the crooked streets laced with arcane graffiti. Eventually, she pointed towards a tiny store so old that the black paint had long since peeled from its front. Lucy dashed over and peered through the dirty glass. Sure enough, it contained one common or garden Black Mage, cautiously lifting a book from a shelf. Making a mental note to patent her Zeref-dowsing technique (she'd make a fortune flogging it to Avatar), she pushed the door open and strode inside.

Zeref did not appear to notice her, too busy easing shut a disintegrating tome and adding it to his Requip Space with a flash. Which, since he hadn't paid for it, was probably stealing.

"A-hem," Lucy said.

"Oh, hello again, Lucy."

"What are you doing?"

Zeref looked at Lucy. Then he looked at the books. Then he looked back at Lucy.

"Helping," he answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Helping," she echoed flatly.

"Yes. I heard the soldiers talking about evacuating the town, so I decided to help."

"By stealing books?"

Zeref looked scandalized. "By rescuing books! If the shop survives unscathed, I'll give them back. If it doesn't… at least the owner can rest assured that the most valuable editions have survived to benefit humanity. That's the point of evacuating the most vulnerable, right?"

"What about the people?" Lucy demanded.

His eyes widened. "Of course! The people! They could help me carry the books!"

"No – I mean we're supposed to be evacuating the people," Lucy sighed. "They're more important than the books, Zeref."

He blinked at her. "Are you sure? That doesn't sound right to me."

"I'm going to ignore that. If there's still time once we've got the people to safety, then we can come back for the books. In the meantime, come and give us a hand."

He was still looking at her like he didn't understand the concept – and it wasn't cute this time, it wasn't amusing; did he not realize this was neither the time nor the place for his false childishness?

Although, that did give her an idea… "Tell you what, if you help us out, you can have this slice of cake I've been saving for you."

"Hmm… now that you mention it, I am rather hungry."

"That's because every time Gajeel and I offered you food this afternoon, you and Levy had your hands full of books you refused to put down," Lucy pointed out, handing him the cake she had saved from their meeting with Colonel Lydiatt. He followed her back out onto the street without further protest.

Levy raised her eyebrows at this obvious bribery, but Lucy didn't regret it, not when she saw those black eyes finally beginning to process the situation with their old, familiar keenness. She remembered how eager she had been to get rid of him during the attack on Marguerite Town, and wondered when she had started feeling safer with him by her side than without.

In the distance, the light of the evening sky was rapidly being replaced by an earthbound orange glow, rigging the nightscape with heat and danger. Word had spread quickly, and the evacuation was proceeding apace under the soldiers' supervision.

They had been exceedingly lucky, Lucy thought, that Colonel Lydiatt had been so sympathetic to their request. Fairy Tail didn't exactly have the greatest reputation amongst law enforcement officials. Most Rune Knights – anyone associated with the Magic Council, in fact – would likely have dismissed their pleas. This way, once they found Avatar, they'd be free to go all out-

A hand seized her wrist. "Careful," a quiet voice warned.

She had barely registered that it was Zeref who had spoken, not Levy, when she caught the glimmer of light in the corner of her eye. By the time the explosion struck, she was already twisting away from the source. The wave of heat and light broke around her, but Zeref had stopped her short of the danger zone, and the explosion that consumed the unfortunate shop did not harm a single member of their team.

"Thanks," Lucy muttered, surprised.

Zeref gave no sign that he had heard her, releasing her hand and pointing towards a shop on the other side of the street in the same motion. "That one next."

A moment later, that shop followed its comrade in transcending its earthly existence and becoming pure energy – right as a barrier materialized to protect them. Lucy knew it was a barrier because it consisted of the word 'BARRIER' written out three times in blocky letters.

"Is it Avatar?" Levy shouted, not glancing away from her word-shield until the fiery wave had dissipated against it.

"No," Zeref answered, before Lucy could. "Just exploding lacrima, triggered remotely. Magic from a lacrima feels very different to magic wielded by a person."

"Good job these streets are already empty, then," Lucy pointed out. Then again, having to check for traps in every road would really slow them down.

As if he had read her mind, Zeref volunteered, "I'll lead. I can sense them before they explode."

"Huh," Lucy remarked. "Look at you, being useful for a change."

He glanced over his shoulder at her. A shadow of that brilliant little smile touched his lips – the first trace of it she had seen since he had struggled to heal Gajeel that night – and her heart leapt, unbidden. "There's no need to sound so surprised. It might lead me to wonder if my other fans might appreciate me more."

"Certainly, if you're happy to be known as Master Green Tea for the rest of your life."

He grumbled something wordless and led them on down the road.

The exploding lacrima embedded in the streets were no danger to them with Zeref helping, but the deeper they travelled through the town, the more uneasy Lucy became. Despite the destruction all around them, they had yet to encounter a single member of Avatar.

So when an eruption of white blasted from the next street over, Lucy started running immediately. She didn't need Zeref's senses to tell her that that magic hadn't come from a lacrima. No, there was only one person who could have produced that inverted explosion – blue-white rather than hellish-red, cold enough to crack metal rather than hot enough to melt it, painting frost rather than ashes over the street.

She stopped just before the corner and peered cautiously round it.

There, amidst the smoke and the screaming, was Gray.

Her former guildmate sauntered down the street, the king of this panicked town. Shadows mingled with the darkness staining half his face. Never mind the buildings blazing all around; every step he took left a footprint of unmelting frost behind him.

From up ahead, a woman burst through the door of a house with two small children in her arms. She looked at Gray, and froze. His single red eye glittered back at her. Then the stalemate broke – she turned and fled in the opposite direction, risking turning her back upon this terrifying man if it might get her children to safety.

Gray responded by raising one lazy hand and making a sharp upwards gesture. An enormous geyser of ice burst through the ceiling of her house. Walls exploded outwards; tiles were ejected up like boulders caught in a volcanic eruption. The last thing the woman saw before disappearing round the corner was the assurance that she had nothing worth returning to.

Lucy's fingers gripped the corner of the wall. It was one thing acknowledging the accidental destruction that followed her guild like a huge, tangible, and particularly clumsy shadow, but it was quite another to see it executed with such controlled purpose…

"Great," Levy muttered. "We finally find a member of Avatar, and it's the one we can't fight."

"You've been spending too much time with Gajeel," Lucy reprimanded her, trying to force some levity into her voice. "Next you'll be declaring that Natsu is your sworn rival, and your life's ambition is to become S-Class."

Levy pulled a face. "You know that's not what I meant. I just feel so useless. Not only can we not find the enemies, but the single useful thing we could do is already being done a hundred times more efficiently by the army! It isn't fair!"

Lucy rested her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I know. We're too used to taking it all on ourselves, aren't we? There must be something we can do to help…"

They watched, still hidden, as Gray took another three roofs off with a sweep of his huge ice blade, flinging burning debris across the street.

Zeref warned, quietly, "You may have to fight him, Lucy."

Lucy bristled at once. Not this again. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not doing anything that might jeopardize his cover."

"What if it isn't cover? Look at what he's doing!"

"I am looking," she told him coldly. "And do you know what I see? I see a Fairy Tail mage destroying empty buildings. I see my dear friend scaring the inhabitants into vacating the street before producing the devastation Avatar's leaders expect of him. I see a man whose circumstances prevent him from directly helping the townsfolk, and so is using flashy displays of magic to herd them in the direction of the evacuation!"

Zeref opened his mouth, and then closed it again helplessly.

"That… that can't be right," he pleaded.

"It makes perfect sense to anyone who understands what it means to have faith in their friends," she asserted bluntly, and she was satisfied to see him once again looking lost and overwhelmed. "If you're not capable of trust, that's your problem, not ours."

Levy snapped her fingers. "Gray's actions explain a lot, actually. We've seen a lot of destroyed buildings, but no bodies. He must be controlling the lacrima, and detonating them only once he knows the citizens have been evacuated."

"Then we've got nothing to worry about," Lucy realized. "With Gray and the Royal Army on our side, Avatar doesn't stand a chance. Come on, let's find their leader and put an end to this!"

"GODDAMMIT!"

A steel-toed shoe booted the defunct sphere of crystal down the street.

"Another lacrima?" Pantherlily called down sympathetically, from where he was circling overhead.

With a grunt of acknowledgement, Gajeel jumped back into the air and re-joined his teammate with three beats of his steel wings. "This ain't right! The town's supposed to be under attack by a cult with thousands of members, so where're all the villains? Who wants to just punch bomb lacrima all night?"

"We'll find them soon," the Exceed assured him.

Gajeel grumbled something under his breath, and banked left to follow his partner. This proved to be easier said than done, as Lily continued to climb until they were higher than Natsu's accidental fire tornado had carried their battle – higher than Gajeel had flown since he'd learnt how.

"Oi, Lily, what's the big idea? There ain't time for a flying competition; I've got criminals to arrest!"

"Look at the town," Lily instructed.

It wasn't as easy for Gajeel to hover as it was for the near-weightless flying cat, and he turned in slow circles with his wings outstretched for gliding, trying to see what had caught his partner's attention. The scene below was beautiful enough – a nest of twisted streets protecting little eggs of ruby and amber, enchanting despite the knowledge that most were fires started by the enemy – but there was a time and a place for enjoying the bird's-eye view of Bishop's Lace, and… well, he supposed this was the place, but with dark cultists down there just waiting to be introduced to his fist, it most certainly was not the time.

"What is it already?" he grunted.

"Look at the pattern of explosions."

They soared for a minute in silence, too far away to hear the explosions peppering the outermost streets of the city. That was long enough to hit the limits of Gajeel's patience, and he demanded, "What about 'em?"

"They're mostly coming from the south and west, and spreading slowly through the city from there, right?"

"That's good, ain't it? Makes it easier for us to get the people to the north-east zone the soldiers are protecting."

"It's certainly very fortunate," Lily allowed. "Almost too-"

His words cut off with a soft flump. Startled, Gajeel twisted to see the Exceed tumbling out of the sky, his wings nothing more than a smattering of downy feathers in his wake.

"Lily!" he roared.

The falling Exceed gave no sign that he had heard.

Cursing, Gajeel tucked into a dive. White streamers of air coiled up from his wingtips as he accelerated. He was glad indeed that they had climbed so high – and that his friend had been in his little cat form. Both of those combined to allow Gajeel to snatch him out of the sky before landing with a tremor-inducing impact in the street below.

"Lily!" he shouted again, though it was hopeless; he could clearly see that Pantherlily was unconscious. There was no sign of what had hit him – no lingering smell of magic – just his partner out cold in his arms.

Worry flickered in the Dragon Slayer's eyes, but fear could gain no traction there, and that single spark was rapidly doused by an overflowing pail of anger. "Avatar… you're gonna pay ten times over for whatever you did to Lily."

"That's odd," Zeref remarked.

Lucy, who hadn't realized he had stopped, jogged back to him impatiently. "What is it?"

"My curse just activated," he said, fixing her with a frown. "Something just tried to kill me."

"An enemy?" Her fingers tightened around her keyring, although there was still no one in sight.

"I don't know. I didn't sense any magic, or… feel anything at all, in fact, and if we have an enemy capable of getting past me then we have bigger problems. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Lucy prompted, aware that Levy was making her way back towards them.

"Could be poison," he reported thoughtfully. "My curse is very intolerant of lethal poisons. It shuts them down as soon as they start trying to alter the function of my body in any way that could be fatal, usually before I even notice any symptoms."

"But how could you have been poisoned?"

He gave a shrug.

"Okay," she ventured, fumbling for options to stem the rising tide of panic. "Things that could poison you without you noticing… what about gas, poisonous gas? What if that's why there are no Avatar mages in the town? You wouldn't be able to sense it if it wasn't magical – it's probably being produced in some chemical reaction when the lacrima explode!"

There was a ring of triumph in her explanation, right up until the implications brought her crashing back down to earth. All three of them had been breathing the same air for several long minutes. Only one of them was immortal.

Lucy transitioned to her Scorpio form – with its high toxin resistance – at the same time that Levy conjured a magical 'MASK' to cover her mouth and nose. Zeref's immortality had triggered because the concentration of poison in his body had reached a fatal level. But maybe, just maybe, a dosage fatal to his not-fully-developed body might not be to her and Levy…

The troubled look Zeref gave her was not reassuring.

In the heavy pause, Levy spoke up doubtfully. "But we're in a wide open space. If the gas was thick or heavy enough to not immediately disperse, wouldn't we be able to see it? Or… struggle to breathe, or something?"

"I don't know either," Lucy realized. It was hard to tell if the crawling sensation in her stomach was sickness, or the product of a violent reaction between her hope that she hadn't been fatally poisoned and her dismay that she was back to square one. "It does seem strange for a black magic cult to not use magic in their ritual… wait, would poisoning people even work?"

She realized then that had been so preoccupied with the attack on the town that she hadn't even considered how Avatar were going to turn an attempted mass slaughter into a precise magic ritual. Once again, she felt as though she was beating her forehead against walls made of her own limited knowledge. "How does one even do an ancient ritual that requires so many living sacrifices?"

Levy looked as bleak as Lucy felt.

"…Yeah, that wasn't really aimed at you," Lucy sighed, turning to fix Zeref with a glare, though it was another moment or two before he seemed to register it with his lustreless eyes. "How, practically, does one sacrifice three thousand people to the same ritual?"

"I… don't really remember…"

"Don't give me that," she snapped. Part of it was anger at herself, for not thinking to ask for clarification earlier, but at least as much was directed at him for not volunteering the information straight away. He knew this magic. Hell, he had invented it. And he was supposed to be helping!

"You could remember the human sacrifices bit just fine," she persisted. "The entire town could depend on our actions right now, so wire up that brain of yours and think."

"I…"

Zeref screwed his eyes shut, rubbing at his forehead with the heel of his hand. Lucy waited with angry patience. Levy glanced awkwardly between them.

"Intent," Zeref said, at last. "The method of death doesn't matter, nor who carries it out, as long as the one responsible intends for it to power the ritual."

The more he spoke, the more dispassionate his voice became. It wasn't the emotional, persuasive explanation of the nature of magic he had woven while telling her about the Academy, nor was it the confident, relaxed manner in which he had taught her the magic to summon her keys that night in the forest. His words had sung with enjoyment, then – with enjoyment and with life. There was nothing so warm about him now.

"The magic itself is woven into a small-" he gestured about a four-foot diameter with his hands "-but incredibly complex runic circle, fuelled not by magic but by the life of those sacrificed to it. It will capture that energy from anyone so sacrificed within range, and charge up until it has enough power to activate and manifest a fire god."

"What sort of range are we talking about here? The size of the town?"

Zeref shook his head. "Nowhere near that big. A few hundred metres in radius, at most."

"Why did you not mention this earlier?"

Zeref glanced at the ground and said nothing.

She pressed, "Seriously, all this time we've been trying to get the townsfolk into one place to protect them, we've actually been making it easier for Avatar to…"

She tailed off.

"No," she whispered. "That's got to be a coincidence."

Levy said, "Lucy, I don't feel too-"

And she collapsed before she could finish the sentence.

Lucy caught her and lowered her to the pavement. "Levy- what?" Her own frantic words choked her. Levy was breathing, albeit faintly, but there was no visible sign of what was affecting her. Yet Lucy herself still felt fine…

"The poison," she hissed. "Of course it wasn't gas. It was in the cake that traitorous colonel gave us." A tiny spark of deductive elation ignited a whole powder keg of self-loathing for not realizing it sooner. "I should have known. No figure of authority is that helpful to Fairy Tail mages. None. And we knew they had contacts in the military. This whole town was a trap, and I've led us all right into it."

"Lucy…" Zeref started uncertainly, but she cut him off.

"Zeref, you have to heal Levy."

"I can't."

"How do you know if you won't even try?" she shot back.

"I can't," he repeated, helplessness flickering in his eyes. "I'll kill her, Lucy. You have to get her to a hospital. They might be able to save her."

"I can't abandon the town!"

A deep breath shuddered through her, trying and failing to find some sort of calmness. Zeref was watching her uneasily, not taking charge of the situation in the way he had done when Juvia had been injured, the way she wanted him to right now. He was just waiting for instructions, one hand curled around the pendant at his neck… and she had to pull herself together, because if she didn't act, no one would.

"Okay," she said. "Okay. Gajeel didn't eat the cake either, so if I'm right, he'll be fine. Zeref – can you draw him over here?"

He nodded. Taking a step back, he raised his hand towards the sky, and a pulse of dark energy streaked upwards. Soon after, the reflection of firelight from steel wings signalled the Dragon Slayer's approach – he must have seen the unfamiliar magic and assumed he'd finally found an enemy he could fight. After all, Avatar weren't trying to find their victims in the streets. They were using the explosions to encourage the evacuation.

Gajeel barely had time to register the lack of a deadly battle when Lucy thrust Levy's pallid form into arms already carrying an unconscious Pantherlily.

"They've been poisoned. You've got to get them to hospital," Lucy ordered. A stroke of inspiration hit her, and she added, "Fly to the station and follow the railway line north. I remember seeing a large hospital in the second stop before Bishop's Lace. Go!"

He went.

And just like that, their strong and enthusiastic team was down to the two of them.

Not to mention, the reassurance she had felt from Zeref's presence earlier had vanished. He was staring up into the night sky, seeming not to have noticed Gajeel's arrival or departure, and the fact that she had to repeat her question twice before his attention swayed back to her only heightened her unease. "What are they planning, Zeref?"

"I don't know," he mumbled.

"Yes," she accepted. "But we've got upwards of three thousand people squeezed into a small region of space, as Avatar wanted. They have no inkling of what is about to happen to them, and we know little more than they do. So, work it out. This is your area of expertise, not mine." She slammed her hands down on his shoulders. "Think, Zeref – if you were in Avatar's position, how would you kill those people?"

When his gaze shifted minutely, a cornered animal seeking escape, she loosened her grip a little, trying to dial back the urgency in her tone. "Zeref, please, focus. I need you," she murmured, desperate. "I know you would never do anything like this, I know, but please just pretend that you would, just for a moment, and tell me what they're planning…"

His eyes closed for several long breaths, and this time, when they opened, they were almost unrecognizable.

"I would use my curse to do it, naturally," said he. He smiled at her, and it was horrible. Slowly, he raised his hand and pushed her arms away from his shoulders, one after the other. He did not need to do more to get her to step back. One look in those red-burning eyes, and it was a struggle to stop with only one pace between them.

"For those who do not have my gifts," he continued, "but who do have unlimited preparation time, the most efficient method would be to use another rune circle, concentric with the ritual one, but large enough to enclose the whole evacuation zone. Once in place, it could be activated at a moment's notice to kill everyone inside in any number of ways… limited only, really, by the creativity and runic knowledge of whomsoever created the outer circle in the first place."

"Like the self-destruct circle they used to obliterate the evidence at the black church?" Lucy guessed.

"That would do it, yes."

Then cracks flashed through black marble, and he frowned, suddenly anxious again, suddenly lost. "But we'd have noticed if there was a huge rune circle enclosing part of the city…"

"Would we, though?"

"Well, perhaps not from down here, but Gajeel and Pantherlily would have seen it from the sky. You can't hide a circle that large drawn on the ground."

"It isn't on the ground," she told him numbly. "And it isn't hidden. It's in plain sight."

"What do you mean?"

"The rune circle is drawn on the walls of the houses. We thought it was graffiti, but it's not, is it? It's a fatal trap, and we've been walking back and forth past it all day without realizing."

There on the wall of an adjacent alley, cut in bold white and black, screamed a symbol that wasn't a harmless display of esoteric knowledge any more than it was the emblem of some well-read gang. Glancing left, she saw another on the wall of a fire station; glancing right, one was slapped to the front of a garage door. Not random tags, but a very deliberate circle.

"Yes, this would work." Zeref placed his hand against the spray-painted symbol, the strength of his concentration almost a visible haze in the smoke-laced air. "At least five internal layers, with one – no, two – to almost completely damp the magical reverberations. Even right in front of it, I can only sense it because I'm looking for it. That's clever. Very clever."

"Then I'll put a stop to it."

A heartbeat later, Lucy had changed into her Taurus form, and that would have been the end of the poor wall the runes were painted upon if Zeref hadn't seized her wrist. "No!"

"I've got to destroy the circle!"

"This magic is active, Lucy. All you'll achieve by breaking the circle now is to hasten the demise of the people you're trying to protect."

Unwilling to accept that, Lucy gave a firm shake of her head. "There's got to be a way of disarming it safely. Can't you counter the runes somehow?"

Fierce exasperation flashed through his eyes. Just for a moment, he looked more alive than he had all day. "Lucy, if you knew the first thing about rune-based ritual magic, you would appreciate that, were I anyone else, the answer to that question would be a categoric no."

"I'm not asking anyone else. I'm asking you. Can you do it, Zeref?"

"I… maybe," he said, and then he steeled himself and looked her in the eye. "Yes, I think so. I've not seen anything this complicated for a very long time, and I don't know how long we'll have before the caster activates it, but if I can find a weak point, I should be able to dispel the magic harmlessly."

She nodded. "Is there anything I can do?"

He hesitated.

"Zeref?" she pressed.

"Stay with me," he blurted out.

"I can't just stand around watching you! There has to be another way of disrupting it!"

Unhappily, he glanced away. "The only other way to stop it would be to incapacitate the caster before they can activate it… though you'll have to go inside the circle to do so, and you'll be as vulnerable as anyone else in there if it activates. I would say you should stay outside it, but…"

"But you know I won't listen," she finished firmly.

After a long moment, he conceded the point with a nod. "Then promise me this," Zeref said. "If you are in mortal danger, I want you to use your Keyless Star Dress."

"You… want me to use it?"

"Yes. I will be able to sense it. I will come straight to where you are."

"Stopping Avatar's rune circle from sacrificing the inhabitants of the town is far more important than me!"

His eyes flashed cold in the firelight. "If you die here, I will kill everyone in this town myself."

Not a threat, but a promise.

The simple inevitability of cause and effect.

And then, to her astonishment, he smiled and touched her arm so very gently. "But it won't come to that. We can fix this, Lucy. It'll be okay."

And then he was gone, searching for a weak link in the coil of death wrapped around the unsuspecting townsfolk, leaving Lucy to stare after him for far longer than she could afford before gathering her wits and plunging into danger herself.

Lucy felt nothing as she entered the ritual circle.

No rush of magic. No feeling of being watched. No indication that she had gone from a place of safety to the inside of a snoring dragon's mouth, just waiting for those jaws to snap shut and snuff out her little life.

But of course there wasn't. The soldiers would have aborted the evacuation at the first sign that something seemed off.

No, Avatar had planned their trap well. They had only recovered Zeref's book yesterday, but some of this graffiti looked months old, a snare built up so gradually that the residents had stopped noticing it long before it had become fatal.

And that patience was what made Avatar so dangerous. Perhaps they hadn't known the details of the ritual to summon a fire god until they had stolen Zeref's book, but they had known what the cost would be, and rather than being put off by it, they had spent months gradually preparing a method of fulfilling it. The thought that they were so comfortable with magic too dreadful for even Zeref to contemplate chilled her. They didn't care how many they killed. And what greater terrors could people like that accomplish with the power of a fire god at their disposal?

She had to stop them.

No, she would stop them.

That was why she was glad she couldn't sense the magic about to wipe out the townsfolk. It meant there was no fear to hold her back.

Besides, there was no need to be afraid. Zeref would undo the deadly outer circle in time. He had assured her he would do it, and it would have required a childishness she had long since grown out of for her to pretend that she didn't believe in him.

But it had never been in her nature to rely on others when she was capable of fighting herself. She had her own task: to apprehend the one behind this.

Down empty streets, over piles of debris, between the patches of fire and the worst of the devastation – she could hear nothing beyond the distant screeches of all society collapsing, could sense nothing of magic apart from her own.

She heard a shout, and she had changed into her Cancer form before she had even registered the words. The soldier who had shouted took a startled step back. He gestured weakly towards the school behind him, which was no doubt currently serving as a shelter. She shouted back that it was a trap, that he had to get people out of the town completely, but she wasn't surprised when he just stared at her. What was the word of one guild mage against his own commanding officer?

There was no time to argue, so she ran on. It wasn't the soldiers' fault. They were only following orders. The unfairness of it all stung her eyes worse than the smoke.

Round the corner and- there!

A lone figure stood in the wreckage of a building, watching a family flee in the direction of the school. At once, she dived back the way she had come and pressed herself into the shadows. She may have only seen him for a moment, but a moment was all she needed to identify someone she knew so well.

Gray.

Like the soldiers obeying the evacuation order, his attempt to help the townsfolk had only driven them faster towards their doom.

And then, with a sudden intake of breath, she realized why he was here – and why only he was here, of all the members of Avatar's inner circle. They didn't trust him any more than they trusted Levy. They were going to use the ritual to kill him too.

She had to warn him.

You should prepare to face him as an enemy, Zeref had said. You trust me, don't you?

And she was very glad indeed that Zeref wasn't here to watch her right now.

"Gray!" she called, waving to her friend.

His hands twitched, drawing imperceptibly closer to a battle stance, and then relaxed again as he recognized her. "Lucy. You shouldn't be here."

"You shouldn't be here," she countered firmly. "This entire town is a trap. Avatar already has a rune circle in place to blow up the entire evacuation zone – and everyone in it, including you."

He fixed her with a thoughtful look. It was an odd expression to see on the face of someone only slightly less guilty than Natsu when it came to charging in head-first, and his red eye, a garnet set in a socket of obsidian, glimmered with piercing light. "That's not what I heard. What makes you think that?"

"I've seen the rune circle. And Z- I mean, Levy knows about that kind of thing. She worked out what it would do before the poison got to her."

"I knew Natsu wouldn't be able to keep her locked up for long," he mused, with a slight smile.

Despite everything, she laughed. "I don't think he was expecting to contend with Gajeel and a collapsing mansion, but I'm certainly not disputing the point. Still… we don't have time for this, Gray. They're planning to kill you too."

Just like that, the smile was gone from his half-demonic face. "You should go, Lucy. Get out of here while you still can."

"I can't. I've got to find the one responsible and stop him from using the summoning ritual."

"Arlock's smart, Lucy. Smarter than you." Gray took a step forward. Ash crunched under his foot. "Please, Lucy. Go, or you'll die."

"Since when do we run when there are people who need our help?" she retorted hotly. Not even Zeref had tried to talk her out of her mission, and his grand plan seemed to hinge on her being alive. "You should be telling me you'll come with me!"

Gray processed this for an agonizing moment. "I'll come with you, then," he decided.

She beamed. "I knew you'd say that. Come on, the culprit should be at the centre of the circle – this way!"

She set off down the road, listening as his footsteps picked up after her and then immediately slowed back to a walk.

"Gray, hurry!" she insisted. "The circle could explode at any moment!"

"Lucy…"

"What now-?"

Impatiently, she spun back to face him, but he didn't ask a question.

He didn't offer an explanation, either.

All he gave her was a blade of ice rammed straight through her heart.

The thing was, it had never been a choice between trusting Zeref and trusting Gray.

She could trust that Zeref was genuinely trying to help her without agreeing that his interpretation of the matter was the correct one.

She could trust that Gray would always be a good man while acknowledging that she didn't have all the details of his situation.

It wasn't about choosing one over the other; it wasn't having to pick between her old and new friends. Once she'd realized that, it was so much easier to step back from the situation and admit to her own ignorance, her own fallibility, her own imperfect reliance on emotion rather than evidence.

And when she did, there was one factor that stood out above all others.

When had she ever known Zeref to be wrong about something like this?

That was why the Lucy who died vanished in a burst of smoke, and, hidden behind the corner, a sob escaped from the real Lucy's lips, whose heart had been rent in two just as surely as that of her Gemini duplicate.

A/N: Woo, drama. I don't want to leave it hanging in a place like this, so I'm going to try to get the next chapter up next week, but no promises, because November is looking horrendously busy for me. If it isn't up next Sunday, it will be the Sunday after. Thanks for your patience, and I'm hoping to return to normal scheduling soon! ~CS