Hey y'all sorry for taking a little longer to update this time, last week was midterms and I needed to focus on my exams.

Chapter 9: Tartarus/Alvarez

Bickslow watched with a small smile as Lucy donned her dragon queen stardress. She had worked so hard to achieve this star dress and he always felt so proud of her whenever she pulled it out and people could physically see the accomplishments of all her hard work. It was the same whenever she used her celestial princess stardress. The sheer power these stardresses held was unbelievable.

Bickslow only lingered a moment, knowing he needed to talk to his family. Natsu wouldn't take long to arrive anyway, he never went far from her even when he was in his END form.

Turning around Bickslow saw that they had all followed him and that his two draconic siblings were struggling not to go to her and beg her to accept them. His eyes widened when he saw that their scales had started forming and he quickly shut the door and pushed them into the living room.

"Talk to her later. Natsu will tear you apart if you get in between them when she is calling for him."

Their scales didn't disappear but their minds seemed to clear a bit so Bickslow continued herding everyone into the family room.

Once his family was seated Bickslow leaned against the wall leaving no obstacles in his way to get to Lucy should she need it. He doubted it, she was way stronger than most gave her credit for and definitely stronger than him. Also though, Bickslow felt awkward being around his family after so long. It was great seeing them again but it'd been twenty years, well really only thirteen for him but still. That's a lot of time to go without seeing or hearing from your family. They may as well be strangers.

"Bickslow what was that about? Is Lucy okay?"

Bickslow looked at his dad. He could see where he had aged a little but honestly he pretty much looked the same. It actually hurt that he didn't look any different from when he was a kid, he could almost imagine he hadn't had to leave and that nothing had changed.

"Cosplayer's fine. She's just calling Natsu to her to calm him down."

"Why does she need to be the one to calm him down? If he's that dangerous shouldn't someone else do it so she doesn't risk getting hurt and losing the baby?"

"No Cosplayer has to do it. Gray is also able to but no one else would be able to except maybe Lisanna since she's his mate but she's never tried. Natsu won't hurt her. It's almost impossible for him to hurt her because they are so close. As to why she has to be the one to calm him down it's because she is the one who rewrote his book. They have a connection that lets his demon relax enough that it fades and the fact that she is the dragon queen also helps."

"His book?"

Bickslow sighed. "Right, we never made that public."

Bickslow slid down the wall and took off his visor to run his hands down his face.

"A lot happened during the war with Tartarus. We all lost a lot. My team and I almost died, hell there are still days where we still feel the effects. Lucy, Erza, Gray, and the first gens probably had it the worst though. Those are their stories to tell though. Anyway despite all the things we lost and the year we spent apart we learned and grew a lot. During the Alvarez war we learned that Natsu is Zeref's younger brother. He apparently died when he was young and Zeref brought him back which made him a demon. Zeref's higher demons have a book and when we defeated Zeref we would have lost Natsu but Lucy poured her magic into his book and rewrote it so that Natsu wouldn't die. It created a connection between the two of them that's just as strong as any soulmate bond I've ever seen. They were kin before but after they were so much more.

When Cosplayer rewrote his book she was technically using celestial magic but it was in its purest form and when she calls on that bond she lets out that pure magic. Emi if you had touched her she really would have burned you, not because it's hot but because it's pure magic energy."

"You almost died!? You still don't feel one hundred percent?"

"Can I look at you? I might be able to help."

"There's no point Cris. You can't do anything and the lingering effects aren't life threatening. We got the cure, we aren't at risk of dying anymore, we just occasionally have fits, almost like seizures."

"What happened? How do you know Cris can't help?"

"Before the war with Tartarus really even started, my team and I were working a job when one of the demons attacked. We fought him and mostly defeated him but he blew himself up forcing us to inhale the bane particles. Laxus used his dragon lungs to inhale the most to try to save us but there was no way for us to not breathe at least some of them in. Wendy, Chelia, and Porlyusica all tried everything they could individually and combined and nothing worked against them because they are anti-magic particles. We wouldn't have made it without the cure they got us. As it was my team and I were bed ridden and comatose for almost the entire war and only know of what happened from stories."

"What happened to Lucy and the others? You said they had it worse but how can it be worse than you and your team?"

"They're not my stories to tell."

"It's ok Bix"

Everyone turned to see Natsu walking while carrying Lucy. Bix was ready to jump to his feet in concern but Natsu had more or less beat him to it as he had headed straight for Bickslow to drop Lucy in his lap.

Lucy, recognizing the look, was quick to answer the unasked question.

"I'm fine babe. I've just used a lot of magic recently and you know the drain is worse at the moment since I'm pregnant."

Lucy turned to the rest of the Pradesh family.

"You wanted to know what we lost during Tartarus?"

Seeing the nods she continued.

"I'd like to start by saying there is no way to measure anyone's loss so there is no way to say who's loss was worse. That being said I'll start with what the others lost and leave mine for last. The first and third gen slayers finally found and then lost their dragon parents, Erza was stripped and tortured, Gray had to kill his resurested father and was then forced to take his father's demon slaying abilities, and I…"

Lucy paused and took a deep breath.

"I was forced to sacrifice one of my keys to summon the spirit king. I had to sacrifice one that I had a close connection to for it to work, so I did. I sacrificed one of the keys given to me by my mother, the one who practically raised me after my mother died."