Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters

So here is the next chapter and I do hope everyone loves it!

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"So how did you even find Loke?" Gray asked as he helped the blonde over a rather large crack in the ground.

Lucy smiled gratefully and answered. "He found me! I was at a diner after being on a train all night and he just came right up to me to flirt!"

"Sounds like him all right!" The raven bellowed out with a loud snort.

Almost three hours had passed since the two Fairy Tail mages had entered the cave looking for the artifact. At first, the two had been in an uncomfortable silence but after some time Lucy had decided it would be a good idea to make conversation with the ice make mage. Now they were chatting like they'd known each other for years rather than a couple days. Gray was really impressed with the blonde for being able to take down both him and Natsu. The only one who'd ever done that was Erza or Laxus! And even Erza sometimes ended up involved in the brawls because of it.

"Where did you learn hand to hand combat?" Gray asked as he observed the celestial spirit mage.

Lucy answered without missing a beat, "One of my spirits taught me."

Gray accepted the answer but somehow he felt as though it had been rehearsed. It wasn't that he didn't believe her but he wondered why she didn't specify which spirit had taught her. Before he could question her, they heard the sound of what seemed to be a crash in one of the tunnels up ahead. The raven was about to go investigate when Lucy grabbed his arm and shook her head no. It seemed like she knew more about what was going on than he did and somehow that wasn't very comforting. Reaching onto her key ring, she pulled off one of the zodiac gate keys.

"Open gate of the lion, Leo!" She whispered as she held out the key.

A golden light engulfed the two before it dimmed and a orange haired man was standing in front of them. Gray's jaw dropped when he took in the appearance of his former guild mate. The fact that he'd seen him a few days before and he looked ten times more different than he had then. His green jacket had been replaced with a suit and the close shaved hair had grown out into a fluffy mane with strands of hair sticking up in a fashion reminiscent of ears. How could someone change this much in three days?

"Oh my princess!" Loke swooned as he wrapped an arm around the blonde's shoulders. "Gray, I see you've garnered my princess's attention for the day!"

Gray was a little confused. "Princess?"

"It's just a nickname." Lucy stated with a smile. "It's infinitely better than being called master."

The lion spirit cleared his throat. "My princess, what would you like me to do?"

"There was a suspicious sound up ahead, I'd like you to check it out." Lucy instructed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Loke gently kissed the blonde's hand before running off in the direction that the sound had come from. Gray was a little annoyed that he couldn't go fight whatever was up ahead but he knew that the blonde was just trying to keep them both out of danger. After all, their job was to locate this book not fight some creature inside of the rocky labyrinth. The two decided to separate and go into the two other tunnels to search. Gray was primarily a fighter so he wasn't worried about any attacks and Lucy had her spirits in case of emergencies. Neither really payed much thought to Loke or if he had found anything where the crash had came from.

The farther she walked, the darker the cave became. Lucy was in no way afraid of the dark but it was becoming a lot harder to see her own feet. This caused her sandal to catch on what seemed to be another large crack in the cave floor. Tumbling, her knees impacted the floor and pain shot up through her body. After a moment she was able to move again and stood up to continue her search. There was the feeling of something dripping down her legs and it didn't take long to figure out that it was blood.

"Damn it!" She cursed as she started sifting through her bag for some bandages.

After a few minutes of looking through her bag she realized that they were gone. Cursing, she kneeled down to try and search for the bandages. The search proved fruitless though and the feeling of the blood soaking into her knee socks was making her extremely uncomfortable. But she continued her walk deeper and deeper into the darkness. But once again, she tripped over her own two feet. This time she fell into some kind of crack and fell down.

All the breath in Lucy's body was knocked out of her the moment she hit the floor. Luckily she hadn't fallen as far as she originally thought judging by how little pain she felt in her extremities. But it took a moment for her to regain her normal breathing and when she did she stood up. Looking around, she realized that sitting in the middle of the little cavern was a pedestal. And on that pedestal was, you guessed it, the book they were searching for. Too Lucy, this felt way too easy so as she approached she kept her eyes peeled for danger.

As her hand brushed the binding of the book, she was thrown back against the wall by a sonic boom. A pained groan escaped her mouth as she slid down onto her bottom. Her eyes slowly opened and she blinked away the blurriness. Brown eyes met steel gray as the winged creature descended to stand in front of the book. The appearance of the creature was more like a human if not for the pair of large velvety wings on it's back. Keeping her eyes on it, she used the wall to help her stand.

"Human!" It yelled with a deep baritone. "Leave before you really get hurt."

Lucy hissed in pain as she finally got herself upright. "I can't!"

"Oh? Tell me why that is." The obviously male creature crossed his arms back over his chest as he asked this. "Do you have a death wish?"

The blonde, despite the situation, snorted with amusement. "Some say I do but that's not why I'm here!"

"This book is very rare and important." He stated as he flexed his wings. "It won't do any good in the hands of a silly little girl."

Lucy felt an angry twitch start to form when she heard his words. It wasn't the first time she'd heard such words from an opponent before a battle. Although in the past she eagerly beat up all the guys that dared to insult her in such a way. Now, she guessed, it was this man's turn to feel her wrath. Pulling her whip from her hip, she flicked it towards the creature. But he moved to the side, holding the book in his arms, as the whip came down on the pedestal that was once behind him. It crumbled from the force of the blow and the blonde tsked with annoyance.

"You cannot beat me with such simple attacks, human." Came the arrogant statement.

Lucy snarled. "I will beat you if it's the last thing I do!"

"So be it then."

Setting the book at his feet, he lifted both hands and then smacked them together. The blonde's eyes widened when the area around her started crumbling. Sound magic. It was the only explanation and it meant the blonde was doomed. Rocks fell from above and Lucy knew she was going to be crushed. Closing her eyes, she waited for darkness but it never came. Her eyes snapped open when she realized she was underneath an ice barricade. Gray! A smile lit up her features as she saw the now shirtless mage come into her field of vision.

"Gray, what happened to your clothes?" She asked.

The raven let out a sheepish laugh. "Lost them somewhere in the tunnels."

"Of course you did!" Lucy let out an amused snort.

The man hissed. "More humans to deal with."

"Not just humans." Lucy muttered with a smirk.

At that moment, Loke ran in from behind and slammed his fist into the side of their opponents face. It wasn't just a regular punch either. It had been a regulus infused punch that sent the winged man flying to the side and released the book from his hands. Gray, using his ice make, created a slide for the book to fall onto and it came skidding back over to them. Lucy smirked as she picked it up but noticed there was something stuck between the pages. Opening to the page she gasped with surprise. There, in between the pages, was the silver gate key belonging to the bat spirit Komaru. Her eyes widened and she held the key up.

"You're a celestial spirit?"

Komaru growled and flexed his fingers. "Give those back you stupid human!"

"If you're a spirit then where is your summoner?" Lucy asked gently, hoping to keep him from attacking. "Unless you're a free spirit."

The bat spirit grit his teeth as he answered, "My summoner was the one who left me in this cave."

"What?" She looked sad. "Why would they do that?"

Komaru was silent for a moment before he replied. "My summoner was abusive to all his spirits. More so towards us when we lost in fights. Finally, he decided to abandon all his keys in locations such as these where no one would ever find them."

"That's disgusting!" Lucy snarled. "How could someone do that to a living creature?!"

Komaru seemed to consider her words. "You're a summoner but you don't seem to treat your keys as tools for battle"

"I would never!" She sounded offended by the notion. "They're my friends not my shields."

The bat seemed to consider her words. "You are a strange human but I don't feel any deceit in your words. Tell me human, why do you want that book?"

"Well, we got a job to retrieve it." Lucy answered, feeling confused. "Why were you so against us getting it?"

Komura motioned her forward and when she was directly toe to toe with the spirit he made a motion for the book to be handed to him. Hesitantly, she allowed him to take it. "This book holds knowledge of spells that are far too destructive to be in the hands of anyone of impure heart. One of these could level this labyrinth. Who requested this book be recovered?"

"We don't know who it was, just where we were supposed to meet him when we got it." She answered.

She watched as he glared at the floor. "Someone is planning on using these spells to cause destruction and I cannot allow that so you will take me to this meeting place."

"I will." Lucy stated as she took the book back from him and placed it in her bag. "Let's go then."

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So here is where I end this chapter. We're gonna learn more about what is going on and this will have a connection to something more which will be explained next chapter! Review please!