Author's Note:

Hello, Hello! Another shiny bright fresh chapter! Yay!

In terms of answering questions, last chapter Elphaba818 made a very good point and noted that several of Lucy's spirits are missing in the scene where she summoned them all. As for Virgo and Sagittarius, they aren't her spirits yet - and as for Plue and Lyra, they aren't actually in this story. Plue will be replaced by a different canine, so never fear. :D

Also, as for reviews, ironically we just reached 8 reviews today, so since it was too late to do an early posting, I'll just make sure to post next chapter a day or two early. If we get another 8 reviews next chapter, I'll even post as early as Wednesday, and it'll just be an extra chapter. :D

As always, a huge, sparkly, shiny thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys are all absolutely amazing and wonderful. Thank you Elphaba8181, WisdomDragon27, Wolves silver wind, and GoPackGo27 for your repeat reviews! And thank you 19vanelkc, RavenAthos, Daisy Shields, moeruhoshi for your first reviews!

And of course stay tuned for the sneak peek of next chapter. ;)

A couple of weeks passed by normally for Natsu and Lucy, with several missions for food money and Lucy kicking Natsu out of her apartment.

And then, one day they got two new additions to the guild. To Lucy's excitement, one of the new members was none other than her odd friend Juvia – who tried, but failed to keep her eyes off Gray as she was introduced to them. It was only a matter of time before the bluenette exposed her true feelings for Gray, and Lucy couldn't wait to see his reaction. Juvia struck her as a really strange mixture of shy and bold – one moment she was a blushing, stuttering, flustered girl in love, and the next she was a crazy, obsessed, stalker. It was going to be beyond amusing to see how Gray dealt with her.

Above all though, Lucy hoped he might end up feeling the same way for her friend, because she would hate to see the water mage's hope go down the drain.

The other addition to their guild was someone less than pleasant, and many people complained to the master about it. Letting Gajeel Redfox into the guild was a decision that nobody could really figure out. The sulky iron dragon slayer didn't even seem to be all that happy about joining up. He just stayed by himself in the corner, brooding. If Levy hadn't agreed to it – with the stipulation that he wouldn't do anything bad of course – Lucy might not have accepted it. Even so, she wasn't entirely happy about it.

Mostly she just stayed away from him and focused on reining Natsu back as well, because for the first few days he continually tried to pick a fight. After that she just let him go, with the condition that he not kill or seriously maim Gajeel.

The day after that, it seemed the dragon and dragon slayer had come to an understanding, probably because they had beaten the snot out of each other and came to respect the other's power. From then on they almost had a relationship like Natsu and Gray – as friendly rivals in a way, although a little less friendly.

As for Juvia, Lucy made it a point to visit with her from time to time over the next week and check to make sure she was settling in. Every time Lucy found her, the stalker was hanging out behind a pillar or around a corner from Gray and was watching him as always.

It took longer than Lucy would have thought for the ice mage to notice.

One day – about a week after Juvia and Gajeel had joined up with Fairy Tail – Lucy plopped herself down at a table with Gray, and Happy quickly joined them. Natsu was picking a fight with Gajeel today instead of Gray, so she was free to join her teammate for lunch as a nice change of pace.

"What's that chick's deal?"

"Hm? Who?" Lucy murmured around the mouthful of chicken salad that she was munching on. Unlike Natsu, she covered her mouth though as she spoke.

"That blue-haired girl…Juvia. She keeps showing up everywhere I go."

Happy piped up. "She looooooves you."

"For once, Happy's right." Lucy agreed. "Juvia obviously likes you."

Gray cringed and grimaced. "Shit…"

"What's wrong? I mean, she's super pretty."

"Yeah…but I think she might be stalking me…"

Lucy refrained from confirming that right then and there. Two weeks later, he had figured it out by himself anyways.

This time, he was the one to join her table and slammed his mug of beer down so hard it made her jump, and her pen scratched across the page.

"Gray! Watch it!"

Her words were swallowed up by his hissed growl of, "Yeah, she's definitely stalking me! And now she's starting to actually talk to me too!"

"Who? Juvia?"

"Who else?! She's completely nuts! I mean look!" he shoved a lunchbox under her nose and she pulled back to see that the rice had been colored to look like his face with a heart around it.

"Nuts for you maybe…" Happy teased and Lucy hid a snort behind her napkin.

Gray showed his discomfort with a twisted facial expression. "Stop that!"

"Come on Gray…honestly, what's the harm? I mean, aside from her being a little socially awkward-"

"Oh, so now being a stalker is just, 'a little socially awkward?'"

Ignoring his comment, Lucy just plowed on. "-aside from that, she's lovely. What could possibly be bad about having her like you? I mean she's pretty, smart, and sweet. You just have to get to know her."

He grimaced again, but Lucy caught the tiny hint of a flush that dusted his cheeks slightly, and it gave her some hope. He was obviously uncomfortable with Juvia and the way she expressed her feelings, but maybe he wasn't entirely opposed to them.

On the way home, she mentioned it to Natsu.

"He actually blushed?" Natsu guffawed.

"I don't know…but I think so."

"He looooves her," Happy sing-songed, grinning a shit-eating grin. The little cat knew just how annoying that phrase was, and never hesitated to use it…repeatedly.

"I hope so. It would be nice to see Juvia happy."

Natsu just laughed harder at his rival's predicament.

Lucy just grinned as she watched him, and then slowly an evil thought began to percolate in her mind. It was probably Cana and Mira's bad influence on her, but she just couldn't resist voicing the sudden idea that sprouted in her brain. "What if we…I dunno, set them up or something?"

An evil grin spread across Natsu's lips, probably at the thought of causing his rival discomfort. "I'm fired up now Luce! Let's do it!"

"Maybe we can get them to go fishing together! There's nothing more romantic than fishing!" Happy suggested.

"Um…I think we're gonna need something stronger this time Happy."

"Stronger than fishing?"

"Yeah." Natsu agreed with her, and then his grin widened and grew positively devilish. "How about we get Erza in on it? And maybe Mirajane?"

Lucy felt her own lips tug upwards. "Natsu Dragneel…you have a wicked mind."

His expression shifted ever so slightly and something about the look he sent her had the muscles in her stomach fluttering for some strange, unknown reason. Whatever it was disappeared before she could identify it though.

"Let's do it then." he said with a more normal smile, and with that, Gray's fate was set.

The next day they didn't waste any time getting Erza and Mirajane in on their plan to set up Gray with Juvia. Both of them lit up like Christmas trees and they were on board almost before Natsu and Lucy had finished explaining what they had in mind.

It wasn't long at all before Erza was announcing to Gray that she'd signed them up for a mission. Luckily, the board contained a mission just perfect for this prank. It was located on an island for couples, which meant he would have to pretend to be "Erza's" boyfriend while they were on the mission so that they could remain inconspicuous. He only very reluctantly agreed …. and that was when he believed he was doing it with Erza.

She sent him home to pack and get ready, since they would be leaving tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, Lucy quickly found Juvia and held her back from following Gray home. She looked majorly pissed, and Lucy instantly knew that Juvia had overheard them and was probably upset about Erza pretending to be his girlfriend.

She was muttering "…love rival, love rival, love rival…" under her breath and glaring at Erza.

"Juvia…" she whispered urgently, "We're gonna set you up with Gray!"

"What? With my darling Gray?" she asked, spinning around and doing a complete 180 in personality. Instead of the crazy, slightly homicidal look before, she now had hearts in her eyes and a vivid blush painted her face a pretty shade of pink.

"Yeah. Erza told him he's going to take a mission with her, but at the last second she's going to back out and you'll take her place. So go get packed."

She looked both freaked out and delighted as she hurried out of the guildhall. Meanwhile, Mirajane was informing Master Makarov about what they were doing, and getting him on board with the plan. It would be his job to say that he needed Erza for something when they were getting ready to leave tomorrow morning, and he would appoint Juvia as her replacement so Gray wouldn't be able to complain. As expected, he was absolutely thrilled.

That night, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy couldn't help but laugh and talk about all the trouble Gray and Juvia might get up to on this romantic getaway.

"Oh please, there's no way that Gray would get naked with her on the first day." Lucy sputtered as she finished draining the pasta for their dinner.

"Um…Luce…"

Realization hit her hard. "Oh. Right. Yeah, this is Gray we're talking about – so, yes, he totally would. However!" she plopped the noodles back into their pot. "He wouldn't get naked WITH her. As in, sexually."

"You don't think so? He is a guy you know." This coming from the asexual Natsu was hysterical, but she contained her mirth somehow. However, she couldn't quite hold back her guffaw when he added, "And he's human so he can't control his dick."

After she got over her amusement, she countered with, "Maybe. But he's obviously freaked out by her particular brand of crazy."

"Heh heh... True. And lately she's been getting a lot bolder. Did you see the way she shoved her cleavage at him yesterday?"

"Ha! That was too funny. And his face? Priceless. It was like he didn't know whether to run or …"

"Take her up on the offer?"

"Yeah! Exactly." Lucy laughed as she poured the sauce over their pasta.

"She practically plastered herself next to him on that bench when he said she could sit there. You couldn't fit a penny in between them. And that shirt was…"

"One of mine actually. I lent it to her." Lucy interjected with a smug grin.

Natsu busted out laughing. "No wonder it looked familiar! It was just the boobs spilling out of it that was different. Yours do a lot more spilling."

"Hey! That shirt fits perfectly fine!"

"Yeah. But it definitely shows off a bunch of your chest."

"That's cause Lucy's a pervert!" Happy interjected, and Lucy scowled at him as she brought over the spaghetti and meatballs to the table.

"Watch it!" she snapped as she set down the dishes and joined them at the table.

After a moment filled with the sound of Natsu's pasta slurping, she sighed and conceded, "Okay, so it is one of my lower cut shirts, I'll admit that. But I only wear it when I'm on a date, or want to feel sexy, or need to impress someone."

"I've seen you wear it a couple of times." Natsu said around a meatball.

"Both times were when we were on a mission where I needed to distract a guy…so yeah. It comes in handy. And don't talk with your mouth full!"

Happy laughed. "It's always funny to see guys get stupid around Lucy!"

"Yeah, it's too much when they start trippin' over their own tongues. Human males are so damn predictable." Natsu seconded.

"Pretty much." She grinned back and started on her own plate of spaghetti.

…

The next morning, their morning routine was rushed as they hurried to get ready, so they could get to the guild hall early enough to catch Gray's reaction when he found out about his predicament. It was so rushed in fact, that they were both fixing their hair as they walked out the door – Lucy pulling hers into a side ponytail and Natsu spiking up his bangs with heated fingers. For Lucy, breakfast was a granola bar that she munched on as they walked, and she promised to get Natsu something to eat at the guildhall, since he already scarfed his granola bar down and still complained of hunger. Luckily, thanks to their hustling, they made it with plenty of time to get settled, and Natsu tucked into a big breakfast plate at the bar while Lucy slurped up a strawberry smoothie next to him.

Just as planned, right before Erza and Gray set off on their mission, Master Makarov called them over. "Erza, I have an S-class mission that needs immediate attention."

Erza, being the great actress that she was, put maybe just a little too much gusto into her line. "I can't! I've already agreed to do this mission and backing out would be exceedingly bad form."

Lucy almost facepalmed at the exaggerated intensity she put into the words. Gray was going to catch on even sooner if she kept that up.

Erza was good when it came to putting up a bluff, but anyone who knew her as well as Gray or Lucy would quickly pick up on the excessive ferocity that always seemed to happen when she took on a role. Lucy could still remember how she'd behaved when they worked together as waitresses at a maid café…almost every one of her poor patrons had been cowed into buying the whole menu. Although, weirdly enough more than one group had actually seemed to like it.

Master was unfazed by Erza's emphatic refusal and countered with, "Oh, don't worry. I've already picked out your replacement."

Gray scowled, though thankfully still seemed oblivious to the prank being pulled. "So who am I gonna go with then?"

Makarov gestured, and out stepped Juvia, blushing wildly and shifting from foot to foot like she just couldn't contain her excitement.

Meanwhile, Gray looked like he might make a run for it at any second. He was definitely freaked for sure. "Wait just a moment! Why HER?! We don't exactly get along you know…"

Lucy had never heard that particular whiny note in Gray's voice, and she hid a smirk behind her hand.

Juvia visibly shrunk just a little, and the hopeful smile on her face faded a tiny bit – but then she bounced right back, and Lucy silently cheered her on for not giving up.

Makarov did a really good impression of a disappointed master who had absolutely no ulterior motives. "Juvia's only been a member of Fairy Tail for a few weeks Gray. She doesn't have a team and has only been on one or two solo jobs so far. I was hoping you could help her get used to how things work in our guild. Going on a job with you will give her good experience."

With an all-suffering sigh, Gray drooped and finally grumbled something resembling, "…fine whatever. Come on, let's go." He turned and gloomily grabbed up his luggage, not even looking back to see if she would follow.

Follow she did, at top speed and with an excited high-pitched sound.

"Coming, my love!" she chirped and hustled to join him as he walked out the doors. Everyone could hear his exasperated groan at her confession.

It wasn't the first time she had boldly declared that she loved him … it was becoming quite commonplace in fact. Though it had obviously shocked him the first time – near the middle of this past week – the novelty of it had worn off after the last couple of days and now he seemed to just kind of ignore her. Hopefully this little trip they had set them up on would get things rolling in the right direction.

Once the ice and water mages were safely out of the guildhall, everyone shared grins and high fives. Happy flew around in a couple of celebratory circles and then landed on her shoulder.

Since they were there anyways, after gloating for a bit over their brilliant plan, they headed over to the job board for a mission of their own. It was that time of the month again and Lucy needed her rent money.

"Erza, do you have a job?" Lucy called over her shoulder.

"I just signed up for a solo mission."

"Oh, alright. Then I guess it's a solo mission for me too."

"Hey, what am I, chopped liver?" Natsu sulked as he ambled over to join her at the board as well.

"No, of course not! But you are one of my celestial spirits, so when I sign up for the two of us, it's technically a solo job."

He huffed.

After signing up for a promising looking mission – ironically also located on an island – Natsu mentioned casually on the way out, "Hey, do you think I could join Fairy Tail as a member too? Leo, I mean Loki, is a member."

Lucy stalled. "I never thought about it…but I don't see any problem with that if you want to. Most of my spirits can't use their own magic to come and go as they wish, but since you can…yeah, it should work just fine. Do you want to be a member of a human guild?"

"Sure!" He grinned brightly at her, "It sounds like fun!"

"I think it would be fun too!" Happy offered, and they both grinned at the blue cat.

"Okay then. We'll talk to the master when we get back and see if we can't get you in."

"Cool!" Natsu crowed at the same time Happy said, "Aye Sir!"

And with that, they set off. Soon, Lucy found herself alone with Happy on the train, thinking that – at moments like this, when transportation was involved – it really was a solo mission. So, the trip to the port was basically boring, especially since Happy decided to take a nap, and as usual she spent the time working on her novel.

She repeated the process again on the boat to the island, though Happy was much more active since he'd put out his fishing line and was chattering away about any fish he saw in the ocean around them. She halfway listened, but mostly focused on her writing since their conversation was actually just a fish monologue on Happy's part.

Natsu only made an appearance once they were on solid ground again. "Yo! What's up Luce?"

"Nothing much. Just signing us in at the hotel." she responded, ignoring the way the receptionist jumped with a little scream at Natsu's sudden appearance.

"Wh-where did you come from!?"

Lucy just grinned at the young woman. "This is Natsu, my partner. We'll be sharing a room, so two beds as I requested, please."

The receptionist seemed to regain some semblance of professionalism, though her eyes darted to Natsu every few seconds. "Oh, um, r-right. Of course, Ma'am. That'll be room 225 on the second floor. Here is your key."

She grabbed the key, thanked the poor young lady, and made her way up the stairs at a fast trot with Natsu hot on her heels.

"So what's the mission again?"

Lucy heaved a sigh. "You forgot already?"

"I wasn't paying close attention when you described it the first time actually."

"Fine." She sighed again, rolling her eyes and unlocking the door as they reached it. The conversation paused as Lucy busied herself with heaving her luggage onto the luggage rack, and then flopped back onto the bed with the paper for their mission clutched in her hands. Reading from it, she said, "Wanted: a mage to apprehend the fiend that took over the island of Florian Bark."

"Sounds interesting."

"Yeah, that's what you said last time."

He shrugged unapologetically. Happy had already distracted him with the room service pamphlet.

"Hey! What's all this food?"

"It's called room service, and no we are not getting it. They charge way too much for food. If you're hungry, we can stop into one of the little restaurants nearby.

Both dragon and cat pouted but didn't complain too much.

"First thing first. Let's find the person who issued this job request." Lucy ordered, and her two companions followed her as she led the way out onto the street.

Following the directions, she found an innocuous little house and quickly knocked on the door. When a kindly elderly man opened door, she smiled and presented the job request. "I'm looking for Mr. Barsky. Am I in the right place?"

"Ah yes! You must be the wizards from Fairy Tail! Come in!"

They were ushered into a lavish living room, where tea was served promptly.

"Thank you so much for coming." the gentleman started, sipping on his tea gingerly.

"Of course. That's what we do. Now, about this job. Is there anything you can tell us about it? The request said you needed us to take out someone who had … hijacked the island?"

"Ah, yes indeed. Gekko Moriah. She has been a thorn in my side for a while now." Mister Barsky sighed, suddenly looking glum. "It was many months ago when she first showed up. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Soon though, people started disappearing. They would be reported kidnapped, and then the next day they would return out of the wild blue. Nothing seemed amiss with them at first, but soon it became apparent that they were…different."

"Different how?" Lucy prompted when he stalled.

"Well, it's difficult to describe. According to the reports, they seemed perfectly normal, but then a few odd things would happen. They would go missing for hours, sometimes days at a time. They always seemed absentminded, and the reports even said that sometimes they would forget to eat or sleep. It was as if they were possessed by something. And then…several weeks ago, all of them showed up at my doorstep, demanding that I step down."

"Step down?"

The older man blinked and then chuckled. "Oh goodness. I'm so sorry, it seems my mind has slipped after all this distressing business. You see, I was the mayor of this island. It was more of an elected kingship in a way, but we always titled the position 'mayor' and had a whole cabinet of elected advisors - one for every district - to give an equal share of power to the people. However, that changed after Gekko forced me out of my office and took over."

"Oh. I see. And I'm guessing she's not a very good mayor, huh?"

Barsky grimaced. "No. She is not. And she has decided that being a mere mayor is not enough for her. She's taken complete control and fancies herself a queen instead. She thinks this island is hers, as is everyone on it. If anyone disobeys, she performs her black magic and steals their soul, taking their will and controlling them. More than half of the people on this island are merely puppets, held as hostages to keep the rest of us in line."

"That's…awful."

Lucy cringed hard, getting creeped out beyond belief at what was being described to her. Why did they have to get the creepy island?

Natsu on the other hand didn't seem fazed in the least. That broad grin was still sitting on his face without a care in the world. "Sounds like fun! I'm all fired up now! Come on Luce, let's go roast this guy!"

"Hold up Natsu, we don't even know where to find her." she hastened to say and caught ahold of the tail of his scarf as he started to run off. By this point, she was familiar with his tendency to go off halfcocked and run head first into a fight, so she was expecting the way he dashed off the couch. Her grip on his scarf nearly strangled him, which caused Happy to smother a snicker with his blue paw.

"She's got you on a leash, Natsu." he teased, and the dragon sent him a baleful look as he slammed back down into his previous seat.

Ignoring her two teammates, she turned back to the old man, who was watching the exchange quizzically over his cup of tea.

"Mr. Barsky, would you happen to know where we might find this person?"

"Ah yes. She would be in my previous office, which she has turned into a monstrous visage. Here is the address. And be careful, she will undoubtedly use the islanders to fight you. Please remember that they are innocent and don't hurt them. I beg you."

"Of course not. We will do our best to cause as little damage to your citizens as possible."

He sighed and nodded. "I understand there may be casualties, but I just beseech that you try to keep them to a minimum."

Lucy nodded solemnly, and they headed out – her fist still firmly holding onto Natsu's scarf. He was biting at the bit to run ahead of her, but she wasn't having any of it this time. Trying to run after him was always murder because he seemed to forget that he was frickin' fast and she couldn't keep up.

Once outside, she gave him a stern tug and he winced as it tightened the scaly cloth around his neck again. As usual, she wondered just what this scarf was made of. It was incredibly strange feeling, like snakeskin or something, and had absolutely no give to it – which explained why he was so uncomfortable at the moment.

"We talked about this remember? No running off without me! I can't keep up with you, and you know it!"

"But Lucy!" he whined, his voice a little squeaky from the compression around his throat. "Happy can catch you up to me no problem!"

"Yeah, but half the time he's flying along with you, and I get left behind!"

"Sorry Luuushy." Happy murmured, giving her his big kitten eyes that she couldn't refuse.

"It's okay…but both of you have to promise not to do it again!" she gave a yank on the scarf and Natsu whined, his hand coming up to clench at the offending material.

"Okay, okay, I promise!" he gasped.

Finally she released his scarf and huffed, turning to walk at a reasonable pace in the direction of their assignment.

"Alright. Let's go get a look at what we're up against and do some recon. Then tomorrow we'll come up with a plan of attack. Okay? That means no busting in and exposing us Natsu."

"Right." he grunted, rubbing his neck and scowling at her. "By the way, did you have to strangle me to make a point?"

"Yes. Sometimes it takes a lot of force to get something through your thick skull." she countered, letting him come up to walk beside her and then emphasized her statement by lightly rapping her knuckles on the side of his pink head.

She misjudged the location though and accidentally rapped her knuckles against the little horn that barely peeked out of his hair. Half the time she forgot it was even there, but when her bones came into contact with it she winced. Those little dudes were kinda sharp.

He caught her wince and grinned just a little, sharp fang poking his lip.

She ignored it and focused on just getting to their destination.

When they got there, she saw what Mr. Barsky had meant by, "a monstrous visage." She could sort of see what the original building had looked like, probably a stately mansion, but now it looked like a horror house. Gargoyles hung from the roofline, thorny rosebushes covered every available surface – emphasis on the thorny part – and the stone walls had been turned a dark ugly gray. If there was the opposite of a white wash for stone, they had done it. It had been Gothicized basically, and not in a good way. In fact, it was downright atrocious.

Lucy curled her nose and crept through the disastrous landscaping to the nearest window. Her clothes suffered a bit on the overabundance of brambles, but she ignored it to the best of her ability. Happy and Natsu followed her lead and crept up behind her. They all looked through the window. There was nothing to see really. It seemed like an unused room, with all the furniture being covering in white sheets and everything.

They were hidden pretty well behind a large bush, so it seemed like a good spot for a bit of breaking and entering. Although, with Natsu here, it wouldn't be breaking … so much as melting.

"Alright Natsu, were going in. Quietly. So do your thing on the glass."

He nodded and pressed a hand to the panel of glass near the lock. The glass soon turned red hot and melted under his palm, and he reached in to unlock the window. As always, he heaved a sigh and glared balefully.

"This is so boring Lucy, can't we just bust it down?"

"No. Absolutely not. We're going for sneaky here, Natsu."

He just sighed again and rolled his eyes as he followed her through the window.

They snuck down the hall after checking to make sure the coast was clear. Happy came in handy since he was so small and could dart ahead and then come back to let them know they were safe. They dashed from room to room like that without meeting anyone for a while, but eventually Happy ran back with his eyes wide and frantically whispered, "Someone's coming!"

Cussing under her breath, Lucy spied a large closet nearby in the room they were currently in and shoved Natsu and Happy inside before piling in herself. It was a bit of a squeeze – not for Happy, he could just curl up in the spaces between their legs – but for Natsu and Lucy it was tight. She had to be pressed right up against him and found her nose buried in his scarf, which unsurprisingly smelled smoky.

He squirmed a little, but when they heard the door click open he froze alongside her. Gingerly she twisted very, very carefully so she could peer out of the door, and Natsu made a few very quiet squeaky noises as she rubbed against him in some weird ways. She ignored the sounds in favor of getting a peek at their visitor…hoping it wasn't the boss right off the bat.

When a young maid passed by their hiding spot, Lucy relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, after a moment, a thought occurred to her, and she acted on it before she could lose her nerve. She sprung out of the closet and grabbed the slight girl, making sure to cover her mouth. Naturally she screamed, but Lucy urgently whispered into her ear, "We're here to help! Shhhh!"

The maid quieted, sending her a confused look over her shoulder.

As soon as she seemed amenable, Lucy released her and asked, "What's going on here? Do you know? We've been hired by Mr. Barsky to help."

"Mr. Barsky?" The young girl's eyes filled with tears. "He sent you?"

Lucy nodded and then hugged her as she began to cry.

Once her tears had quieted, she told them everything she knew about it, which turned out to be a pretty good amount. It really gave them a good idea of what they were working with.

"I just know it's going to happen to me any day now…" she heaved a shuddering breath, obviously absolutely terrified. After what she had described, Lucy could understand why she was so frightened.

"Do you know why she hasn't done it to you yet? You said almost all of the staff here have been taken already."

She shook her head. "I don't know! But maybe it's because I always follow her orders? I think she doesn't consider me a threat."

"Well don't worry, she'll be burned to a crisp by tomorrow." Natsu comforted with an evil grin. The girl stared at his fist cloaked in fire and squeaked something incomprehensible.

"Stop it Natsu, you're scaring the poor girl."

He grimaced and put out the fire.

"Just hang in there. We'll be back tomorrow, and it'll all be sorted out then okay?"

The maid nodded, sniffled, and stood. "I'd better get back to work then. I don't want her to notice my absence."

Lucy nodded and watched as the maid walked out of the room.

"Come on Natsu, I think we know enough to go off of for now. Let's head back to the hotel and make a plan for tomorrow."

He heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes, but thankfully he didn't argue or put up a fight. Thankfully, the room they were currently in had a window, so they just slipped out easily and dropped down from the second story – Happy helping Lucy of course. From there they snuck back off the grounds and then returned to their hotel to talk about what they'd learned.

Sneak Peek

He grappled with her, grabbing her other wrist as it swung at him again. Somehow - with a twisting motion that wasn't really physically possible and nearly pulled her shoulder out of place - she wrenched free of his grip and skipped back a step. All her muscles, tendons, and bones protested the unnatural movements they were being forced to perform.

"How fun…making two friends fight never ceases to amuse."

Natsu sent the witch an evil look as flames licked his lips.

She distracted him though by essentially throwing Lucy at him. Her body hit him and they both fell to the floor from the strange attack.