A/n This takes place between chapter 13 and 14 of My Own Way. I wanted to get this up before I posted the next chapter, for those who follow these side stories.
Draco appeared in the spirit world. He flew off immediately to alert his fellow spirits. This was something they'd want to know about. It took them several minutes to gather. By then, Draco was shifting between yellow and red as he paced.
"Draco, what's going on?" Loke took charge immediately before any other spirit could comment on the dragon's state.
"You know that Fairy Tail was attacked by Grimiore Heart, correct?" He paused to let everyone agree or disagree. Those that didn't know were quickly informed with what details were known, though most knew because of the appearance of Capricorn. "Well, after they defeated the guild... All that fighting attracted Acnologia. The dragon of destruction. I... I do not know if that island will survive, let alone anyone on the island..."
There was stunned silence.
"You're joking..."
"I don't think he is..." Loke stated quietly, watching the dragon spirit. "We're going to have to prepare for the worst. We'll know if she dies. If she doesn't, then we can go from there. We can't deny the danger the guild is in."
"Why didn't she call more of us?" Aquarius demanded, glaring daggers at Draco. "We could've helped."
"The most efficient method to take out a dragon involves the use of dragon slaying magic, there are none that are as effective against dragons. And... that dragon has taken on five strong dragons and defeated them in the same fight. I do not think that the dragon slayers of Fairy Tail can manage this, and us spirits can't do much against an actual dragon," he explained grimly.
"That would be correct," Loke sighed. "I wish we could have been of use and that she had tried to call us, though. Is there anything more you can tell us, Draco?"
"I believe I covered it all."
There was a variety of reactions, from tears, to sad silence, to loud wails, to those spirits furiously trying to come up with another solution. They had not really progressed much beyond that initial shock when they felt something change about their contracts. Which of course incited panic.
"Wait, wait, calm down everyone," Loke called. "Really concentrate, I don't think Lucy is dead, I think... stasis?"
"Hmm. I believe Leo is right," Capricorn spoke up stoically, arms crossed. "It seems that the contracts are now dormant because she cannot call on us, but she is also not dead." Thankfully, this seemed to calm the other spirits down.
"How long will this last?" Virgo wondered. "What do we do?"
Loke sighed. "I suppose I will have to go to the Celestial Spirit King and discuss the changed circumstances with him. He may have some ideas on both how long this will last, and what we will do now. I suggest... for now, take some time to process, and grieve, just work out your feelings. Then, we shall train, so that we are able to be of better help to Lucy when she returns." He turned away and walked to his house, not quite ready to face the Celestial Spirit King. Not knowing how close he had come to losing Lucy. He may have a bit of a crush on her, but after Karen and multiple bad owners in the past, he found it hard not to be infatuated with Lucy.
He sat down and buried his head in his hands. He had had good owners in the past too, but none had ever made the impact that Lucy did. She had been kind to him even before knowing he was a spirit despite his odd behavior. She even was willing to kick his butt over the stupid things he said.
Leo tried not to think too hard about everything about her, but found himself crying. She was still alive, but she had come so close to death, and who knew when she would return? It could be years, for all they knew. At least whatever caused the stasis allowed her to survive.
He knew and had resigned himself to the idea that she would never love him, and that was for the best really, since he was a spirit, even if he had been human once centuries ago. But that didn't stop him from attempting to show his appreciation at every opportunity (though he had to eliminate actual fights and even sparring matches as opportunities when she decided that she wanted to get stronger and better). Admittedly his appreciation probably did come off as cheesy and a bit too romantic, but he didn't care that much. Lucy deserved that and more.
She was a light for all of her celestial spirits, and even a light for those who had never met her as they listened to the growing amount of stories of how she cared for spirits. Gemini had been a big help in spreading that after facing her under Angel. She was the sort of owner every spirit wanted. Heck, the spirits who were very specific about the kind of owner they wanted were willing to give her a chance, and they were notorious for not giving anyone a chance. Lucy just had that kind of effect.
He rubbed his face wearily before getting up. He shouldn't put off the conversation any longer. He had to discuss this with the Celestial Spirit King. But... at least he felt more ready for the coming conversation than before. He had done some grieving, the rest would have to wait until later. He needed to learn how this would affect all of Lucy's spirits. Because it was going to be bad enough that their contracts were in stasis with Lucy.
Loke left his house, then their section of the spirit world. He walked quickly, a frown pasted on his face. He nodded at other spirits he passed, but did not stop for them. It thankfully did not take long before he reached his destination.
.
One long conversation later, he returned and called everyone together once again. "I spoke with the Celestial Spirit King, he believes it could be years. There is nothing we can do about it, but wait for our contracts to become active again. So, we have a couple of choices. We can leave the way the time runs the same as it is now, equivalent to the speed at which Earthland runs. We can revert to the general speed of the spirit world. Or, we could go allow time to pass faster, just not as fast as usual. We don't need to decide right away, after all I can change it at any time, but keep in mind that it could be years, and that the best way for us to show our support when Lucy returns is to have improved ourselves, so going to the usual spirit realm speed would not support that. That said, I'm not sure we would need years to improve substantially. If anyone needs to talk, you can come talk to me." He stepped away as they broke into murmurs, sighing softly. Sometimes he hated being the leader.
Aquarius had spent the time time he was gone sobbing with Scorpio. She may have spent a long time hating Lucy before realizing she was acting like a spoiled brat, but she had always loved Lucy in her own way. To come so close to losing her was a blow. Lucy was so much like her mother it hurt, but in many ways she was even better. Layla never caused the stir in the spirit world Lucy has already, at the age of seventeen. Aquarius' father, Poseidon even went out of the way to talk to her despite ignoring her for years before that. Apparently even he was impressed by Lucy and the fact she was one of the girl's first spirits. Once her tears had run out, she talked with Scorpio, who was upset, though he didn't have the same emotional connection as he had been with Lucy for such a short period of time. Now, now she was ready and determined to do everything she could to help Lucy out. Even if that meant a lot of training and trying to get even better.
Cancer quietly moped, remembering Lucy as a little girl and watching her grow up. He felt useless in a lot of fights, but she still called on him to help her out. And he could a lot of the time, it was just that unlike most of the zodiac spirits he wasn't well suited to fighting. He was still going to miss her, regardless of which time conversion they set their little section of the spirit world to.
Taurus cried loudly about Lucy and her body. Gemini were floating around aimlessly, not sure what to think of the situation. Capricorn was stoically silent, fuming silently about how just after he was finally able to fulfill his agreement with Layla, he nearly lost Lucy, and the Heartfilia line. And there was nothing he could do about it. Aries and Virgo were crying together, talking quietly about what they liked most about Lucy, despite their widely differing opinions. Sagittarius was quiet, watching everyone before deciding to attempt to calm Taurus down so he would at least stop wailing so loudly.
Kiara went around trying to comfort some of the other spirits, but found she couldn't help much. By the time she realized this, her brother had already disappeared to talk to the Celestial Spirit King. So she sighed and sat down to watch everyone. It was hard to see everyone react so badly to the news. And she already missed Lucy too, Lucy was the best owner she'd ever had, even if it'd only been a short time. After her brother's announcement, she went over to him to silently support him, despite her own grief about the situation.
Crux was stoic about the news, but anyone who knew him could tell he was devastated even as he searched for information about what kind of magic could have put her in stasis. Plue was unusually silent as he hung around some of the other spirits, but not quite going up to them. Lyra started playing and singing a song about how upset they all were. She got some dirty looks for it, but continued on anyways.
Draco had calmed down, and was pacing, muttering to himself. He enjoyed Lucy's company, liked the opportunities being her spirit gave him, and was angry with himself about how he reacted to Acnologia, acting like such a coward. That was something he'd definitely have to work on. And he needed to talk to the dragon spirits about this turn of events; Acnologia was still around after all.
Lupus watched everything silently, not really grieving. Like all of the Lupus spirits in existence, he did not really grow attached the way other spirits did. It probably had to do with how Lupus spirits came to be compared to other spirits, though that didn't explain too much. He had grown fond of their owner though, as she was an interesting specimen of a human. Feisty, not willing to give up, and perfectly content to fight alongside them. And she had touched all of her spirits, to the point all of them were grieving. It was a fascinating phenomenon.
No one could really tell what Plue was thinking; he always looked like that. But most had been along him long enough to read his body language; he was just as upset as the rest of them.
Loke had noticed Kiara joining him but didn't say anything right away. Eventually, he spoke. "We'll survive, Lucy won't want us to be upset for long."
"Probably..." Kiara responded, smiling a little. "But I think everyone needs to grieve a little... We must've come pretty close to losing her."
"Yeah, I think we did. But, we ultimately did not lose her. So we need to spend time training, and preparing for the day she needs us again. And I cannot wait." Loke smiled slightly. The group of spirits was a bit happier after his announcement, some talking about how they could improve themselves while they waited. It was too bad that it took a lot to increase their magic, so that wasn't a good route to go. Spirits tended to rely on the strength of their owner to determine their strength after all.
Things would be alright, even if they did have to wait a long time before Lucy returned.
A/n Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what your favorite parts and least favorite parts were! This ended up being harder to write than I thought it would be, and I'm not exactly happy with this end product, but I also got stuck figuring out how to make it better.