A/N at the end.

As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!

Lucy was sitting at her altar, alone and invisible, just enjoying the silence. The gods and goddesses raged all day about the war now, so it was never quiet at home. Plus, she missed Natsu, and this was where they always spent their time together. She could see the field where he gathered his flowers before he visited her, and she enjoyed watching them sway in the breeze. She wished the field was part of their holy land so she could walk there, but she was also glad it wasn't. If it were, it would be protected by their laws and Natsu wouldn't be able to pick any for her.

She perked up when she suddenly heard voices; no one ever strayed this far away from the other altars. When she saw Zeref walking her way, she nearly entered the human world, but refrained when she saw he wasn't alone. The man he spoke to had long hair and wild eyes that gave her a bad feeling.

"So it's going well?" Zeref asked. "I haven't heard any news about how your man is doing. Has he managed to finish the job yet?"

The other man glanced at her temple and frowned. "You sure you should be talking about this in front of the goddess' place? Doesn't she like your brother?"

Natsu? Lucy floated outside so she could hear better. Why were they talking about Natsu? Was he okay?

Once a battlefield was chosen, Freedel always cast a barrier over the armies so only their side could hear their gods, but they could only hear the ones on the field with them. Due to the barrier, she wasn't surprised she hadn't heard from Natsu, she just hated not knowing how he was doing.

"It's fine. She won't show up until I enter," Zeref said, folding his hands behind his back. "So, is it done yet?"

"My man's been working on it, but he said your brother seems to have a stronger stomach than most. The amount of poison he's consumed-"

Poison?!

"-would've killed a dragon by now." He shrugged. "I sent him something stronger that should arrive within the week. It'll ensure that he either dies from the poison or from being unable to fight correctly. It'll mess with his muscles and put him so out of his mind he won't know which way is up."

Lucy didn't even have to think about showing herself before she was in the human world. This far on the outskirts of the holy land she didn't have much room to move, but there was enough she could easily deal with the pair in front of her. There was a blast of black magic that swirled around them as she stalked closer. "What have you done?"

She didn't even try to hide her power. As she was now, she would no doubt draw the attention of the other gods in the human world, but that was fine. At best they would stay out of the way, at worst they'd come watch, if only to see if she planned to kill either man.

Zeref's eyes widened and he paled as the other man tried to run. Lucy stretched out her hand, and immediately the other man fell to his knees, his hands and face pressed against the dirt. "I will deal with you soon," she said as she turned her attention to Zeref.

"Why?" she asked, the force of her glare directed solely on him. "He is your brother- your only living family! Why would you have him killed?"

Zeref's eyes widened even more as he put the pieces together. "You made him your Champion," he whispered. "That's why they're having trouble killing him."

"Why?!" she roared. Zeref's body buckled under the force of her command and words fell from his lips without filter.

Natsu had discovered what he'd done. Zeref had been involved in human trafficking for some time, to help get them out of poverty and help them survive. Not only that, he'd been part of the shadiest trade of all- children. Under the guise of an orphanage, he'd been collecting lonely and lost children to sell to wealthy men for purposes that made Lucy's skin crawl. The men paid him handsomely for his discretion, and he would find them more when they needed them.

He listed names- Erza, Jellal, Gray, Sho- names she recognized. They were the friends that Natsu had mentioned. The friends that had gone missing.

Lucy's heart ached for those children. "You… you took all of his friends."

"I sold them. As Natsu's friends, they had no value to me while they were still here." Zeref spoke in a monotone, his free will gone under the strength of her power.

"I… I blessed you," she said in disbelief. "I helped you succeed with your business ventures so that you and Natsu would be better off." Regret washed over her as her hands dove into her hair. Her stars swirled around her, the blackness of her magic growing as her negative emotions intensified.

"This is my fault," she gasped. "I helped you sell children, sell his friends!" She wrapped her arms around herself. "I'm a monster. It's no wonder Natsu didn't want to be with-"

"There's something I have to figure out."

"I… don't know how long it will take but I won't be able to live with myself if I don't take care of it before we talk about… us."

"I'm afraid if I don't fix this, you'll… you'll blame me, or maybe yourself. Worse, you might even hate me, and I just can't risk that."

"Natsu knew," she breathed. The fight went out of her as she floated back to the ground. "He knew what you were doing and he was trying to stop it. That's why he didn't want to tell me. He wanted to fix it so I wouldn't blame myself for it happening." Tears spilled from her eyes. "He didn't want to be with me while feeling guilty about what I'd helped you do. He wanted to make it right. That's why you wanted to have him killed."

"He was trying to stop me," Zeref said. "I was able to use my connections to get out of being sent to fight. He managed to find out who got me out of it, and why, so I made sure he was sent in.

"He knows that I did. He wants to try and stop me when the war is over, so I had to make sure he doesn't make it home."

Lucy allowed her magic to explode forth once more. Her hair whipped around her with the force of her anger, her stars shining so brightly they were blinding. "For your crimes, I will punish you. For your intentions to kill your family, I will punish you. For your insolence in thinking that I would not find out it was you that caused your brother's death, I will punish you." Her constellations burst forth and began to spin around Zeref, faster and faster as she spoke again. "For attacking my Champion, the one who has the protection and the blessing of the last of the Hearfilia line, I. Will. PUNISH YOU!"

The world exploded around them, and with a flick of her wrist, the other man vanished, sent to a special cell in her home in the gods' realm, while Lucy, Zeref, and her loyal Zodiac appeared in the Origin.

The Origin was a realm of pure darkness, a black void full of living shadows with no entrance or exit. When they arrived, Lucy took a deep, cleansing breath. She filled her lungs as full as she could with the dark, familiar air. The small corner of her mind where her memories of this place were hidden unlocked, and she sank into the darkness as she remembered everything once more.

Zeref looked around in a panic, his own emotions on display again without her power controlling him. "Wh- where are we?"

"Somewhere you can be properly punished," she answered. "The Origin." There was a duality to her voice, and she welcomed the power of her ancestor once more. "I believe you humans call it the Dark Plane. It's where everything once started. Where the original goddess was first formed."

"Th- the original was a god," he stuttered, "not a goddess."

Lucy laughed, and the echo of another's laughter added to the terror on his face. "She was a goddess, and her name was Anna."

"H- how could you possibly-"

"Because she is me," Lucy said, gesturing to herself. "She is me, and I am her. Her power has always resided in the heir to the Heartfilia line; the Keeper of the Stars and Night Sky. I don't remember when I'm not here, which is inconvenient, but it keeps the others from trying to take over by stealing her power for themselves."

"Wh- what are you-"

"Oh, there you are…" Lucy chuckled as she felt the shadows slide against her. She raised her hand and her precious stars returned from their place around Zeref, highlighting her so that he could see her in the pitch black space. The shadows continued to writhe around her, their touch cool and smooth against her skin as they said hello. She could feel their interest in the human she had brought, but being who she was, they gave him space, waiting for her to give them permission to approach him.

"I sometimes think we're cursed, us children of the Hearfilia line," she said conversationally. "My ancestors only ever had one friend. Only ever loved one person. Only ever had one child. It's almost as if we understand that being created from this place means that we shouldn't allow it to spread its dark fingers into too many others' lives, so we close ourselves off. Or in my case, avoided by the others."

One of the shadows slithered along her arm, so she held out a hand and let it glide along her palm and fingers. "Since we're so lonely, we visit this place more often, which the void seems to like. The things here like attention, and they're greedy when they have the chance to have it." She could see some of the shadows getting bolder, moving closer to Zeref as he squirmed, his nostrils flaring as his breath left in bursts.

"I never had the chance to find out much about my ancestors. I don't know what any of them were like. Even the first. I know from accounts kept by the other gods what they thought of her, but I have no history of my own, from my own flesh and blood." She floated closer. "The part of her that resides in me only allows me to remember and visit this place. It doesn't talk to me or anything like that, which is unfortunate."

Lucy reached out a hand, and the shadow that had been wound around her arm slithered away and wrapped around Zeref's back. He jerked away with a curse. It did it again, this time against his neck, and he swatted at it as he covered his skin.

While the touch of the beings from the Origin felt nice to her, they hurt anyone that wasn't part of the Hearfilia line. The shadows scraped, burned, and cut outsiders they touched, all without leaving a mark. She chuckled, but deep down, a part of her was scared at how happy it made her to see him in pain. Lucy ignored it as she continued to watch him squirm.

"I don't know for sure, of course, but I think just being here I can guess what she was like." Her smile twisted across her face as she said, "And I think she would approve of what I'm going to do."

"What?" Zeref growled. "Did you bring me here to scare me?"

"Kind of, yes." Zeref's breathing grew even louder as more shadows appeared around him, touching him lightly as they moved. "I think that some of these restless shadows used to be people that were brought here. Humans that angered my ancestors in some way or another." Lucy moved forward and grabbed his face in her hand. "And you, my dear little human, are going to help me test a theory I have."

"Go to hell," he spat at her.

"Don't you get it yet?" she asked sweetly. "We're already here." She pulled away and reached out with her magic, letting the shadows know they could play. "And I am at home here."

Zeref jerked as the shadows finally began to touch him. He swung at them, trying to push them off but failing time and time again. The shadows slid across his skin, some of them nipping him as they passed by, before more joined in, over and over again.

She reveled in the fact that each touch hurt him. The more they touched him, the more pain he felt. The more pain he felt, the more noise he made. The more noise he made, the more beings he drew in, in a continuous, torturous cycle.

His panic became a palpable thing, feeding her anger as he writhed in the darkness.

She smiled as she spoke between his screams. "You know, I've always wondered how long a human could last in here. What do you think?" Zeref cursed at her as he yelled, desperately trying to separate himself from the writhing mass around him. Some of the shadows took the opportunity to slide into his mouth, occasionally silencing him as he disappeared from view. His voice climbed in pitch as he begged her to let him out, offering anything he could to make her change her mind.

"I have things to do," she said as she recalled the Zodiac slowly. One by one they returned to her hair, slowly reducing the light Zeref had to see by.

When Leo was the last one, she moved him closer to her face so Zeref could get a good look at her before she left. "Don't worry, I'll be back to check on you soon."

She tapped her chin. "How long do you think I should wait? A few days? A year? I get busy so I may forget for a while."

Lucy took in Zeref's wide eyes and desperate face once more before Leo's light disappeared as well. "Maybe I'll see you again," she said as she left him alone to his new hell, that dark part of her hiding itself once more.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you think we were going to find out what was happening with Natsu? Whoops. (But now you know what happened to the others! (kinda))

I did a count, there are 7 chapters left (or was it 8? I'm tired, I might be misremembering.) I have to actually write one of those and do a big rewrite for another, but the rest just need the usual amount of editing. So, about a week and I should have the rest posted. Hope you're looking forward to it! (I know this part added to your questions, but don't worry, answers will come.)

And remember to stay safe, healthy, hydrated, and happy!