Author's Note:

So here it is! The next chapter! Huzzah!

Why is it begin posted on Wednesday? Because we've had a ton of reviews since the last chapter! So many in fact, that I'll be posting the next chapter this weekend, so you get two in one week. ;D

Speaking of reviews, you guys really hit it out of the park this time. I'm ecstatic about how many new readers discovered this story over the weekend!

As always, huge, huge, huge thanks to everyone who reviewed! Thank you Wolves silver wind, WisdomDragon27, Daisy Shields, mueruhoshi, pixiecatost, and Elphaba818 for your repeat reviews! I always, always look forward to hearing what you think of the newest chapter. :D And big thanks and welcome hugs to all my new reviewers, bacchus in vines, Galp, mumof4, and TheOGFTfanatic!

Also, as you can see we have plenty of reviews for a sneak peek, so stay tuned till the end for that.

On with the show!

Back in their room that night…

"Do you think she was telling the truth?" Lucy asked her teammates.

"Yeah…?" Natsu said with a question mark, as if it was obvious. Even Happy nodded.

"That's what I was afraid of. So what do we do now guys? How do we beat some crazy witch who can turn people into puppets by stealing their shadow? What if she steals one of our shadows?"

"Well, if she steals my shadow, you can just close my gate. I bet that'll break whatever dark magic she's using." Natsu pointed out, surprising Lucy with the sound reasoning.

She sent him a surprised look, wondering if she had underestimated him. "That's … a really good idea Natsu."

"Hey! Ya don't have to sound so shocked!" he protested, sounding mildly offended.

"Uh, right. Sorry."

"And what about me?!" Happy asked with a worried tone.

"Well…I dunno about you."

"How about you stay airborne as much as possible? That should make it harder to pin down your shadow." Lucy pointed out, and Happy relaxed some.

"Good idea Lucy!"

"Now the only problem is if I get my shadow taken…" she said, chewing on her lip in concern.

"Even if she sicks you on me, I think I can handle you." Natsu responded with a grin. "And it doesn't sound like she takes control of their minds right away, so you can still close my gate if she gets me."

"Can't you just send yourself back?"

"Well yeah, but what if she can somehow prevent me from it? By controlling my body or some shit like that?"

"We won't know until we fight her I guess…"

"Yep! So that means we're gonna just charge in there through the front door right?" her fire breathing friend asked with undue excitement in his tone.

"Yes Natsu, we'll just bust down the front door I suppose. I can't really think of any better way to go about it in this particular situation."

He whooped, and she shook her head at him in fond exasperation. He was such a weirdo.

After that, the planning came to an end, and with a yawn she excused herself to take a bath. Happy joined her as usual, and through the door Natsu asked, "So why does Happy get to take a bath with you?"

"Because he's a cat, Dummy."

"A talking cat…"

"But still a cat."

"I'm right here you know!" said cat protested, putting his paws on his hips and glowering up at Lucy.

"Sorry Happy." She smiled down at her friend in apology. "Did you want to explain it to that numbskull out there?"

"It's cause I'm a cat!" he repeated, and Lucy snorted, but then froze at his next words. "And she liiiikes you…so no way is she gonna take a bath with you. It'd be waaaay too embarrassing."

"Happy! Stop being ridiculous!" she snapped, and sat down in the hot water to sulk. "If you're going to be that way, then you're gonna have to leave."

He turned his big eyes to her and made them water a little. "But Luuucy…I wanna take a bath too!"

She tried to resist, but just couldn't under the full force of his baby face. "Okay fine…but stop talking nonsense."

He grinned and cheered, then did a cannon ball into the tub. Since he was so small it only caused a minimum amount of spillage, but she still sighed at the mess she would have to clean up.

"I swear, that dumb dragon is a bad influence on you."

"I can hear you!" came from the other side of the door.

"Stop that, you creep!"

"Can't really help it you know!"

Happy snickered.

…

The next day, Lucy woke to find that unsurprisingly Natsu had transferred from his bed to hers sometime during the night. As always, the first indication was the amount of heat she woke to.

With a groan she sat up and looked down to her left to see Natsu cuddled up to her. His arm had been draped over her, so when she sat up it fell from her waist to her lap. Instead of waking up like a normal person who was jostled, he simply curled his arm around her and snuggled close to her hip.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she growled and knocked him off her. He fell off her and flopped over flat onto his back. "Natsu! Wake up!"

"Wha…?" he snorted, and bleary black eyes opened to peer up at her through his messy pink bangs.

"Why are you in my bed instead of yours?" she growled down at him, and her tone prompted him to wake up a bit more.

"Uh…cause yours is more comfortable?"

"What the…?! No it's not! I even let you have first choice last night!" Lucy screeched in shocked aggravation.

"Yeah it is." he stubbornly insisted and then yawned and stretched.

"They are exactly the same! Why is mine more comfortable than yours?!"

"Because you're in it. Duh."

At that, Lucy paused and just stared at him in shock. "What's that supposed to mean?! Why does me being in it make it more comfortable?!"

"I dunno. Just does." he said with a shrug and sat up before stretching again. "Maybe it's cause you're so soft and warm?"

She felt her eye tick in a disturbing manner. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Maybe you're so soft because you've been eating all that fried food lately Lucy…" Happy teased from his pillow, and the celestial mage turned to fix him with an incensed glare.

"What is it with you two? Why all the jokes?! Do I look like a fat, perverted, stupid, wierdo to you two?!"

There was a pause, and then Happy burst into laughter upon hearing every repetitive joke they made about her put into one sentence.

Natsu also started to laugh, and then sputtered, "Wow, that sure is a lot of words for first thing in the morning."

"Maybe for you. Now move your butt out of my bed! It's time to get going anyways!" And finally she resorted to a Lucy Kick.

After getting ready, they set off for the mayor's mansion and the impersonator that currently occupied it.

As they had discussed, Natsu busted through the front door with as much subtlety as an ox on steroids. "OI!" he bellowed. "WE'RE HERE TO FIGHT YA!"

Lucy almost facepalmed and couldn't quite keep the small snicker from popping out at his ridiculous behavior. He was so predictable.

Natsu charged on in, and Lucy followed with Happy perched on her shoulder. As soon as they crossed the threshold, the door abruptly fixed itself and slammed shut behind them. They all whirled around to stare at it. Lucy's gut clenched in foreboding.

A voice suddenly sounded from everywhere at once. "Welcome to Thriller Mansion…we've been expecting you."

They whipped back around and started looking about wildly for the source of the disembodied voice.

"Where are ya?! Come out and fight!" Natsu bellowed, his fists bursting into flames.

"No…I don't think so. If you wish to fight, you must come to me. I'm much too comfortable to move." the voice intoned, sounding smug.

"What a frickin' coward." Natsu scoffed, sounding disgusted.

"Have fun, Kiddoes. Try not to die. I would be so disappointed to not meet you in person."

That was the last thing the voice said before it cut off. Lucy shivered, entirely unhappy with the way this was going.

"What do you suppose she meant by, 'try not to die?'" Happy squeaked, clutching onto her neck.

Lucy groaned. "She's probably got all sorts of booby traps and stuff."

Natsu scoffed again. And then he puffed up and said, "Bring it on! Let's get goin' Luce!"

She nodded and then snagged his scarf when he started forwards much too quickly. This was no time to charge in blindly.

"Slowly Natsu. We don't know what sort of traps she's got for us, and I'd rather not trigger them all at once."

He pouted but slowed down, and they proceeded forwards at a more reasonable pace. From the foyer, they went up a rather impressive staircase staring them in the face. In an almost cartoon fashion, midway up the overly tall staircase it collapsed and turned into a slide. Meanwhile, the floor at the base of the staircase opened up to expose a pit of spikes. Lucy shrieked, Happy yowled, and Natsu cussed as they started sliding back down towards the pointy death waiting for them at the bottom.

However, this particular trap wasn't overly dangerous for them, because Happy quickly lifted Lucy up into the air, and Natsu spread his wings and did the same. They both flew up to the top of the staircase and parked on the landing.

Even though they weren't truly in danger, it had gotten Lucy's adrenaline going, and she was breathing heavily and dealing with a pounding heart by the time they landed.

"Well, she doesn't waste any time does she?" she wheezed, trying to stop the slight tremors in her muscles from the adrenaline still rushing through her.

Natsu snorted. His wings snapped closed and disappeared. It had only been a partial transformation, so the only thing that had changed about him was the wings.

Early on in their partnership, Lucy had quickly discovered that Natsu had almost complete control over his transformations and could alter just one aspect of his form at a time if he wanted. And while he always gave off some magic when he transformed, the amount was in direct correlation to how much of his body he changed and also his mental state at the time. So normally, he just sent out a moderate blast of heat, but didn't often give off the massive amounts of magic power that he had the first time she saw his transformation…. which was good. She didn't really want to have to duck and cover every time he transformed within fifty feet of her.

A lip curled to expose longer-than-normal fangs, and he sneered. "That was dumb."

"For anyone else it probably would have killed them." Lucy pointed out, and Happy nodded with a worried frown.

Natsu simply shrugged, looking utterly unconcerned and just kind of ticked off.

After a moment, they turned to eyeball the wide hallway leading off the landing. It was pretty obvious what the next challenge was going to be, because the path forward was lined with suites of armor.

"What do you wanna bet those are going to come to life and attack us?" Lucy asked dryly.

With a feral grin, Natsu chuckled. "Then let's attack first."

He inhaled a huge breath and then let it out with a roar that had Lucy flinching back and pushing her fingers into her ears. She also flinched due to the heat that exploded out of him as fire burst down the hall with his roar.

When the fire disappeared, it was to expose a scene of destruction. The nearest suites of armor had partially melted, and even the furthest ones along the line were glowing red hot. A lot of them had been blown apart. It was a good thing the walls were stone, otherwise the house would have burned down around them. As it was though, all carpeting and paintings and anything else burnable was now alight and turning to ash, and the walls were scorched black.

"Well…that's one way to do it I guess. But let's try not to destroy the mayor's building okay?"

Natsu didn't seem to hear her and instead just marched into the hall with an eager grin. With a sigh, Lucy followed, only to come to a screeching halt as one of the melty armors lunged off its pedestal and tried to attack. It lurched as the softened metal made it lose a foot, but it kept hopping forwards on the remaining one. She shrieked and dodged the wild swing of a glowing sword, which was thankfully pretty easy to do since the thing had such bad balance.

Glancing around, she saw all the suits popping to life, despite their current state of disrepair. Some were scattered bits that bounced forwards and posed little threat, aside from the fact that they were glowing red-hot. Others were still mostly intact and did seem rather dangerous…even more so with the heat radiating off them.

"Uh…I think you may have just made it worse!" Lucy squealed, and Happy quickly whisked her into the air to avoid another red-hot sword.

Natsu didn't seem too concerned and just bashed through the metal army with a big grin on his face. The heat didn't bother him in the slightest, and he proceeded to tear them apart. Lucy watched him work with wide eyes. She'd seen him fight before of course, plenty of times, but somehow she was still a little surprised to see him dealing with red-hot metal without any problems. Apparently he was impervious to any kind of heat…which was good to know.

In short order, the hall was littered with bits of metal – some were whole pieces of armor he had simply disassembled, and others were twisted shreds of shrapnel from his ripping the armor apart. He had partially transformed again, this time just changing his hands to make it easy for him to rip through the metal. The red scales on his dragon hands were impervious to sharp metal, and his impressively long claws did a shocking amount of damage – sliding into the armor like it was made of paper.

"Wow…he really is scary sometimes…" Happy whispered from behind her, and she nodded in agreement.

Once the pieces of armor were cooled off and no longer dangerous, Happy set her down again amongst the rubble.

"Well…okay then."

Natsu turned and grinned at her, flashing his fangs, and she shivered a little, glancing down at his razor-sharp black claws. Sometimes she forgot her goofy partner was a dragon at all, but moments like this reminded her sharply of the fact. It didn't scare her, but it did send chills up and down her spine. Mostly she was just impressed though.

With a thick swallow, she walked forwards and through the door at the end of the hall with Natsu hot on her heels.

For the next long while, they got themselves utterly lost among a mess of dark halls. It seemed like this part was simply a maze, though there were also scares and some traps hiding here and there. Any paintings they came across proved dangerous in various ways – one shot poison darts at them, another exploded, and a random landscape actually launched itself off the wall at them. They all ended up as ash though of course. Naturally there were also a few trapdoors that they nearly fell into, and a few incidents were triggered by either pressure plates in the floor or trip wires. And all while they had to deal with the maze itself. After ending up at what seemed like the hundredth shadowy dead end, Lucy groaned and slumped against the wall.

"For crying out loud! Where's the exit!?"

Natsu was even more aggravated than her. In fact, he was downright pissed, and with a yell he burst into flame.

Lucy flinched back and stared at him with a frown. "What are you-"

The answer came before she could finish her question. Natsu charged forwards and busted down the wall. She stared at him wide eyed…. and then realized she'd better follow quickly because he was on a roll – charging forwards at top speed and busting down every wall in his path.

"Happy!"

"Aye Sir!" he chirped, and once again she was airborne, whizzing down the halls and catching up to her dragon partner.

They stayed out of his way as he created a path of destruction through which they forged on. With this new tactic, they found the way out relatively quickly. By the end of it, even the great fire dragon was a little out of breath. Even so, he cheered and pumped a fist as they finally emerged into a large chamber.

"Well, well. I didn't expect you to make it this far." A familiar voice spoke, and they whirled around to see a woman sitting in a large throne-like chair.

It was the maid from yesterday - right down to her big blue eyes, doll like face, and long curly black hair.

"What the…you?! You're Gekko Moriah?!"

"Of course. Did you really think I would allow someone who wasn't under my control to wander around my house?"

It was definitely her, but she was entirely different. She wore a gothic Lolita sort of outfit, complete with ruffles. It somehow looked menacing on her though, as did the sinister smirk gracing her blood red lips.

Natsu just grinned and pounded one fist into the other. "All right then! Little girl or not, I'm gonna burn ya to a crisp!"

She just snickered. "Oh please. Like you could."

She snapped her fingers, and from hidden doors all around the room people started to flood in and surround the two mages.

"These must be the islanders…remember, don't hurt them too bad. We just have to try and knock them out. Let's take them from the air, it'll be easier."

Natsu nodded with a scowl, obviously irritated at this new development.

His wings popped out, driving back a good number of people as the breadth knocked them back into each other. Happy lifted Lucy into the air as well, and from above they swooped down and tried to knock out some of the people with light blows to the head. They went down, but just got right back up, even though their eyes were rolled back into their heads.

Cackling sounded from the chair, and both Natsu and Lucy turned to look at her. "If you haven't already figured out, I control their bodies. Even if they're passed out, I can still make them fight."

"Well shit." Natsu cussed, hovering next to Lucy as they stared at the mob under them. "Now what, Luce?"

"We have to immobilize them somehow…Oh wait! Virgo!"

She had recently acquired Virgo's key on a mission, and she could dig holes. With that power, they could drop them all down into pits with steep enough walls they couldn't climb back out. These were just villagers after all.

"Go for it!"

"Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!"

Virgo popped into being under them, dressed in her normal maid outfit. She looked up at Lucy. "What can I do for you, Princess?"

"See all those people? They're possessed, and we can't hurt them. Can you drop them all down into a hole that they can't climb out of without hurting them?"

"Of course, Princess. Right away."

With a spin, she disappeared into the ground like a drill. Soon she popped back out and grabbed one of the people, then hopped back into the hole. When she popped out again, the mob attacked her, but Lucy and Natsu kept them away from her as - one by one - she worked to drag all the islanders into the hole she had created. Within a couple of minutes, all the islanders were piled in the hole, and it was just Natsu, Lucy, Virgo, Happy, and the witch.

Said witch was steaming, and with a growl she pushed out of her chair and stomped over. "How dare you bury my puppets!"

"Thanks Virgo! I'll call you again to help get them out after we've beat this crazy witch okay?"

"Of course, Princess." With a puff of pink smoke she disappeared.

Happy set Lucy down, and Natsu landed next to her as they faced off against the enemy.

What they didn't expect though, was for a sticky white substance to shoot from the ceiling and hit Natsu. Looking up, they saw a mass amount of plate-sized spiders aiming their butts at them.

Natsu cussed and struggled in the white web. No matter how he wiggled though, he was securely plastered to the floor.

"Don't bother. My pets' webs are stronger than steel. They're also resistant to magic of all types."

Natsu tested that instantly by setting his body on fire. The white web glowed hot, and it took much longer than it should have for him to burn it off. What should have taken mere seconds, took nearly a whole minute, and by that point fresh webs had been launched at him. He amped up his flames, burning through the spider silk more quickly, but the spiders also sped up their web shooting. The most progress he made was to stagger almost to his feet before being knocked over again.

He thrashed in his bindings, ripping and tearing at them with tooth and nail as he rolled around and scrambled to dodge the fresh webs. It was a terrifying and heartbreaking sight to watch him struggling like that. Most of the time he barely made it to hands and knees before he was plastered to the ground again.

Lucy winced a little at the snarling, spitting growl of pure rage that escaped him, and then with a flurry of sparks and a wisp of smoke he disappeared. He reappeared only moments later, but as soon as he popped back into existence the spiders shot him down again, though he managed to dodge them for a moment.

"Damn it!" Natsu roared, spitting fire at the spiders themselves now, but they just spewed thick webs that burned away midair but mostly stopped his flames.

Those spiders were shockingly tough, and there were just so many of them that it was overwhelming even Natsu's awesome power. They all came from a hole in the ceiling, and even when he did manage to crisp up a few spiders, more just flowed out of the hole to replace them.

Lucy was thoroughly distracted by his predicament and she quickly grabbed a new key. "Open! Gate of the-"

Her voice cut off on a shriek and her summoning broke before she could call out Cancer as a viciously bright light suddenly switched on right in front of her, blinding her. She threw her hands up to guard her face in a kneejerk fashion, and it was only when Natsu yelled, "Lucy! Your shadow!" that she suddenly realized the intention of the light.

She spun around with a gasp to see her shadow stretching all the way to the witch, and Happy immediately whisked her off her feet to try and keep it away from their enemy. Unfortunately with that light behind her, her shadow still stretched out across the ground, and in one horrible moment, the witch grabbed hold of her shadow and yanked. Lucy screamed as she was dragged down to the ground by her shadow, which was such a horrifying sensation that her body shut down. Happy strained to keep her airborne, playing tug of war with the witch over Lucy's body and shadow.

"Don't worry Lucy! I won't let that nasty witch get you!" he yelled as he put all his power into pulling her back.

Unfortunately right after that statement, several spiders shot him out of the air with a wad of webbing, and they dropped to the ground. From there, the witch found it easy to drag her over, while Happy and Natsu screamed.

"You let Lucy go right now! If you hurt her, I'll kill you!" Natsu roared – sputtering a little when he got a wad of webbing in his mouth.

Happy yelled something right along with him, but his face was partially covered in spider silk, so the sound was muffled.

She vaguely heard Natsu yelling in the background as he apparently ripped free and got snagged again in increasingly frequent intervals. His struggles kicked up a notch and the temperature in the room started to rise dramatically as he put out more and more fire.

Natsu was positively livid at the sight of Lucy being dragged across the floor to the witch, and he could feel his body turning molten. The spider silk melted off him now almost as fast as they could put it on, making smoke hang heavy and thick around his body as the mass amounts of webbing burned, which gave him a slight advantage. It made it harder for them to aim at him, but unfortunately they could still apparently see the flames around his body through the smoke, because they continued to shoot relatively accurately. However, they were just a little bit sloppier about it, and he used that to mostly free himself.

He managed to lever himself to one knee, and snapped his wings open, letting flames explode out of him to blast away the rest of the webs. He launched himself up into the air and got shot down again almost instantly, but he managed to burn and tear the webbing off his wings before he hit the ground. Very slowly he struggled to gain altitude, fighting against and through the waves of spider silk. For every two feet he gained, he dropped one, making his progress agonizingly slow. His wings got stuck every couple of seconds, only getting in one or two wing beats before having to be freed again.

As for Lucy though, she barely noticed any of that. All her senses were seemingly in shock and the only thing she could concentrate on was the sensation of what was going on with her shadow.

She was lifted, dangling from her feet as her shadow struggled in the witch's claws, but her physical body was limp. The feeling of having her shadow touched stunned her so much that she couldn't move for a long second. It was so wrong…like someone had reached inside her and grabbed something that wasn't meant to ever be touched. It didn't hurt exactly, but the feeling of wrongness was worse than any pain.

When the witch pulled out a huge pair of scissors though, Lucy kicked back into gear and she started struggling.

"No! Please! Stop!"

Her pleas were of course ignored and the witch lined up her scissors to Lucy's heels.

It was at that moment that a brilliant flash of light distracted everyone for a brief moment, and then the witch was really distracted when a glowing fist was shoved into her stomach.

Lucy dropped…and was caught in a pair of strong arms, as Leo's smooth voice said, "Sorry for arriving late."

"You're right on time." she managed to gasp, letting her body stay limp for a moment and then scrambling to her feet.

They were still close enough together that the witch attempted to grab them both by their overlapping shadows and yank them off their feet, but Leo countered with his own light that neutralized the light behind them. Without their shadows, the witch was just grasping at thin air, and she let loose a shriek of fury.

At a loud roar, Lucy glanced behind her to see that Natsu was now actually fighting back against the spiders and holding his own. He was currently airborne, beating back the webs they shot at him and having to pause every few seconds to yank, burn, and tear the webs off his wings so he could continue to make upwards progress, but he was indeed heading towards the ceiling – slowly but surely.

Her attention was yanked back to her own predicament though, when a swarm of spiders spilled off the ceiling and landed on and around Leo and her, taking them completely by surprise and successfully binding them together into one cocoon. After teetering in place for a moment, they fell onto the ground. Struggling was both painful and awkward in such close proximity. Lucy's nose nearly poked out Leo's eye, his elbow ended up planted in her ribs, her hand and wrist wedged into his stomach region, and her leg was twisted in a very uncomfortable way between his.

The web also had the unfortunate affect of snuffing out Leo's light, which allowed the witch to drag them both across the ground to her. They were lifted into the air to dangle in front of her and she chuckled, sounding smug once again.

"Two for one…I've always been a big fan of deals."

As before, the sensation of being lifted by her shadow made Lucy go limp, though she had a tiny bit more wherewithal this time around. Being his first time, Leo was even more stunned than her and she could feel him shuddering next to her as the sensation of wrongness wracked his body with tremors. There was nothing they could do as the witch once again lined up her massive scissors against their heels and severed their shadows in one sharp moment.

If Lucy had thought the feeling of having her shadow just touched was bad, then she was suddenly realizing that she had been incredibly wrong. That was nothing. The feeling of having her shadow severed from her was both wrong and it hurt. It was the worst feeling in the world, and she couldn't help the scream that escaped her. Leo cried out alongside her.

Her mind blanked out and she went limp again and fell to the ground with a thump that hurt her head.

She was brought back to awareness by the sound of yelling. "Lucy! Oi! Lucy! Wake up! Are you okay!?"

"N-Natsu?" She blearily opened her eyes and turned her head to see Natsu landing.

The entire ceiling was blackened with soot, and ash littered the ground, suggesting that he had burned the spiders to a crisp. Deep pockmarks and cracks also indicated that he had used physical force to pound them flat as well.

She also noted that Leo was gone. The shock and pain of having his shadow taken must have driven him back to the celestial world…which she didn't blame him for in the least. Heck, she would have sent him back anyways if he had stayed. On the upside, that meant the cocoon around her was now loose enough for her to wiggle her way out of it…though she made it only halfway before collapsing again as dizziness swamped her.

She was distracted by the witch nudging her with a boot. "Now, what should I do with you? Should I keep you in my collection? Or dispose of you?"

A knife was held out to her and - to Lucy's horror - her hand reached up and took it. The sensation of having her body move without her consent was absolutely mind jarring, and it almost made her throw up.

"It seems like you have a strong mind, many people succumb both mind and body instantly." Gekko's eyes snapped up as Natsu started towards them with a growl, and she grinned sadistically. "Ah, ah, ah…watch yourself."

She had Lucy bring the knife over her own throat, and the celestial wizard cringed in horror as the tip pressed to her skin.

"Shit! Sorry Luce!"

Before she could wonder what he was apologizing for, a ball of flame hit her hand, knocking the knife free with a mini explosion. Normally a celestial spirit could never aim an attack at their mage, but he was probably aiming at the knife. Even so, he must have known that the fire might hurt her hand – thus the apology.

She gasped as the heat assaulted her skin. It burned hot, but strangely, though she could feel the heat, it didn't hurt. When she glanced at her hand after, she was shocked to see that it wasn't burned. There was no doubt in her mind that she should have a couple of blisters at the very least, but no, there was nothing.

She didn't have time to ponder it though, because her controller was highly displeased and ready to make use of her.

Gekko growled and stood, having been knocked back by Natsu's fire ball. "I'll show you to mess with me…"

She forced Lucy to wiggle free of the rest of her cocoon and then stand up, facing Natsu. Her gut clenched as she realized that now she was the only thing standing between her incensed partner and the witch.

This wasn't going to end well.

Sure enough, as Natsu advanced - aiming to go past her and get at Moriah - Lucy's body lunged forwards and one fist swung at his face. He dodged with a grimace and caught her wrist. Her knee jabbed up, aiming for his crotch, and he countered with his tail. The appendage slid out through the hidden holes in his pants as fast as a whip and coiled around her leg to freeze it in place. The only blow that connected was her free fist … which landed in his stomach. He grunted, but otherwise didn't react. As for Lucy though, she cringed from the sensation of her fist colliding with solid muscle at a force that she couldn't normally achieve. It hurt her actually, and she couldn't imagine it hadn't hurt him. Then again…it really might not have.

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. He grunted as his back met the hard ground and Lucy's elbow ground down into his solar plexus. A wrestling match proceeded to take place as he knocked her elbow out of his gut and then grabbed her arm.

Something snaked between her legs and up her back to snag in her collar. With a yank, she was pulled back and he surged up beneath her, flipping their positions. Her hands and his fought for dominance – which, in a different situation might have been humorous since it was basically a slappy fight. It certainly wasn't fun though when she actually managed to slap him across the cheek hard enough to make him bite his own lip and draw blood. He was barely fazed though and just kept grabbing for her hands, finally getting one and then focused all his attention on the other.

Eventually, Natsu managed to snag both of her wrists and then pinned them to the ground above her head. His tail, which was still coiled in her collar, released its hold on that to wrap around her wrists instead. Once her arms were immobilized though, her legs came into play and both reared back to slam into his stomach. Her heels connected hard and she felt the hot breath that was forced out of him as she compressed his lungs and gut with the violent blow. It hurt her too, because Natsu was so dang solid that it felt like kicking a wall of immovable muscle. For most people, a kick like that should have sent them flying off her, but of course he didn't budge aside from curling in a little and grunting. His face twisted with pain though, and Lucy felt tears leak out of her eyes at the sight.

"It's okay Luce, don't cry. I'm fine." he coughed, wheezing a bit but otherwise sounding just fine.

In fact, the grin that crossed his lips and the twinkle in his eye said he might be having just a little fun. That was somewhat overshadowed by anger though, which she knew was directed at the witch, and concern for her. In all honesty, she probably should be more worried about herself too, since it was much more likely that she'd hurt herself by attacking Natsu.

When her legs kicked again, both his hands snapped up to wrap around her ankles tightly. He forced them down, tucking her calves against her thighs and then wrapped his arms tightly around her folded legs, successfully immobilizing them. Her shins pressed tight against his chest and stomach. It was sort of a compromising position, and Lucy certainly wasn't comfortable with it, but at least she couldn't punch or kick him anymore.

Moriah sighed. "Well that was no fun…only a little blood. I guess I'll have to change my tactics then…"

To Lucy's surprise and confusion, her own tongue poked out of her mouth, and Natsu frowned down at her…almost looking amused but a little confused and concerned too. At first she thought the same thing he obviously was – that their opponent was making her stick her tongue out at Natsu in a childish insult. She was the first to realize the danger though, when her teeth clamped down on it.

"Release her, or I'll make her bite her own tongue off."

Natsu's eyes widened, and she could feel her own do the same in fear as her teeth started to compress harder and harder.

His arms were currently occupied, so he obviously had to figure out some way to fix this without them. "Shit Luce…I'll stop it, hold on."

Cursing some more, his eyes darted over her body quickly and then locked onto her wrists. Suddenly he yanked down on them with his tail, forcing her hands behind her head, and then his tail quickly shifted. The coil that bound them together never let up, but she could feel it moving further up his tail as the tip slid up the side of her face. It was a good thing that the end of his tail was so pointy, because when it reached her mouth he was able to squeeze it into the small space created by her tongue and force her jaw open. Even more of it slithered in and wedged solidly between her teeth to protect her tongue, but of course the witch had her bite down – hard – on it instead.

It seemed that even with his scales, the tip of his tail must be pretty sensitive, because he winced and one of his eyes squinted closed when she clamped down with her teeth. At the very least, thankfully – no matter how hard she was forced to bite – Lucy couldn't feel the tough scaly hide in her mouth breaking at all.

As soon as he was sure she was incapable of being forced to harm herself, Natsu looked up and turned his attention to Moriah with a vengeance. "Now you're gonna get it!"

Lucy flinched and squeezed her eyes closed as he inhaled sharply, knowing he was about to do a fire dragon roar. She was right under him though and just really hoped she wasn't about to be roasted. This was the closest she had ever been to him when he did one of these fire breathing things, and it was kind of terrifying.

Before she could even come up with a protest, he was already spreading his jaws and blasting the witch with everything he had. Intense heat blasted her front and she felt like she couldn't breathe. It was way too hot and burned … but again, it didn't hurt the way Lucy thought it should. After a few seconds, and she wasn't crisping up like a hotdog in the camp fire, she risked peeking through her eyelashes. What she saw made her eyes fly open wide and a scream of shock to come out around his tail in her mouth.

The flames licked bare millimeters from her nose. No wonder the heat was so intense. She had never been so close to any fire before, much less dragon fire of all things, which always burned way hotter than any normal flames. She would have totally expected to get burned. It was beyond frightening, and Lucy cringed back into the ground, doing her best to get away from the dangerous stuff.

Thankfully, it sounded like Moriah was much less fortunate than her, and the flames hit her full force. Based off her scream, it must have been quite painful. When Natsu's teeth finally clicked together, cutting the fire off, Lucy risked craning her neck back to see what remained of the witch. It seemed like she had been able to put up some sort of magical shield – at least for part of the roar – because she was still in one piece. But she was definitely out of commission after being blasted full-force with Natsu's dragon fire. Luckily he had been able to take Moriah by surprise, probably by doing it while still on top of Lucy.

Seeing their enemy pretty much out cold – or roasted, as the case may be – Lucy let herself relax with a deep sigh. With the defeat of their enemy, she could feel the snap of her shadow returning. Without it, she had almost felt like she was under the effects of vertigo or something, but now it was as if the world had righted itself again.

"I'm good Natsu, I think the spell over me broke when she was knocked out." she tried to say around his tail, but of course it came out muffled.

Even so, it seemed he understood her somehow, because he grinned down at her and his tail slipped out of her mouth and uncoiled from around her wrists. He also unclamped his arms from around her legs but left her shins braced on his chest.

Natsu sat up fully, still grinning down at her, and then abruptly his facial expression flipped to one of concern. "Hey you okay? I didn't burn ya did I?"

Suddenly Lucy was just a little peeved at the reminder of how risky he had been. "No, but you know what? I don't know why I'm not burned! I really should be! I can't believe you! Those flames were literally less than an inch from my nose! What were you thinking?! And blowing fire at my hand? That totally could have roasted my whole hand off!"

She waved said hand around in exasperation and then gasped when he quickly caught it and looked it over closely.

"I was aiming for the knife, but yeah, I figured it might singe ya a bit. But you aren't hurt at all…" There was a tiny note of wonder and maybe even hope in his voice that made no sense, but Lucy ignored it in favor of being mad.

"I know! I expected to get blisters at the very least! Come on Natsu, be more careful would you?! Not everyone is fireproof like you!"

"It kinda looks like you may be fireproof though."

"That's ridiculous. I'm not a dragon."

She shoved him off her, having to use a surprising amount of force to get him to budge. He seemed to be in a state of shock.

"Hey Happy! Are you okay?!" she called out to the blue cat, and a groan was her response.

"I'm okay…"

She saw him wiggle inside his cocoon of webbing.

"Oh right…you're still all wrapped up. Hold on." Looking all over, she quickly located the celestial key she had dropped earlier and finally summoned Cancer, who cut Happy free in a second. After sending him back, she summoned Virgo and they freed all the islanders, who had their shadows returned as well.

And then it was just a simple matter of handing Gekko over to the previous mayor. He put her in magic binding handcuffs, promising to turn her over to the Magic Council, and then of course he paid them. Even better, Lucy got another golden zodiac key along with their payment. She was so excited that she immediately summoned Sagittarius and made a contract with the posh centaur archer.

The posh centaur wore a hunter's green tunic vest with gold trim over a creamy shirt with billowy sleeves. His sleeves were cinched tight around his forearms though, thanks to a pair of arm bracers that were the same shiny dark brown as the coat of fur on his lower horse half. His shiny black tail was as neatly groomed as his shiny black hair. Even his hooves were neat and shiny. When she first summoned him, he greeted her with a salute and, "Well howdy do my Lady."

All and all, he seemed like a well put together, extremely polite and chipper spirit, who obviously saw the benefits of good grooming. Lucy liked him right away and knew they would get along swimmingly.

By the time everything was all taken care of and they were heading back towards the harbor to go catch a homeward bound ship, Lucy should have been feeling nothing but happy and satisfied and maybe a little sore. Unfortunately though, a queasy sensation was beginning to gnaw at her insides, and she was starting to feel slightly unwell…as if she was coming down with an illness. Her gut instincts were telling her that she wasn't quite out of the woods yet and there were going to be some unforeseen repercussions of this mission.

Sneak Peek

Before he left to get her some soup, she added, "Oh, while you're there, could you ask Levy to look up the magic Gekko Moriah used? I really think this illness has to do with getting my shadow removed."

"Sure. No prob. I'll be back in a flash."

After closing the window behind him, she collapsed back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling – her feverish brain consumed with thoughts of her kind partner. It was so weird to her that he was acting so nice. Not that he was an unkind person – quite the opposite in fact – but he was incredibly dense when it came to feelings. Or maybe he just didn't care about embarrassing or irritating her … that was always possible. But he had never struck her as the type of guy who would take on the position of nursemaid.

Apparently she had been wrong.