Author's Note:

And here it is! The much anticipated Chapter 11! Woohoo!

We get an early chapter again! Yay! Which means you guys are amazing and awesome! If we get 8 reviews for this chapter, I'll post the next one on Wednesday, and you know what that means! An extra chapter the following weekend.

As always, huge happy thanks to everyone who reviewed! You are all so amazing! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers TheJSmooth, WisdomDragon27, mumof4, Galp, Daisy Shields, MiseryWolf97, moeruhoshi, and pixiecatost! As always I really enjoyed reading your reviews! And equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers valerioux and Donthedarkdragon26! Welcome!

And of course keep your eyes peeled for the sneak peek at the end of this chapter, and also a tiny note.

On with the show!

With a mixture of Leon and Gray's ice magic, Jura's rock magic, and various flying abilities, they all made it down to the bottom of the cliff face in short order. It turned out to be easier than they had first thought, though it still wasn't a walk in the park. But finally, they were in the jungle, and it was time to start hunting for Nirvana in earnest – or rather, to follow Jellal right to it.

The going was hardly smooth though. They ran into problems almost right away.

The first speed-bump they hit was in the form of a low-ranked dark guild composed of thugs that didn't seem overly intelligent. They also appeared to think that imitating monkeys was fashionable.

Despite their apparent lack in intellect, they did somehow manage to capture Ichiya and run off with him, almost before the rest of them had processed what happened. All they knew was that a group of thugs appeared in their path and picked a fight with them. While they were busy dealing with those, a loud squawk sounded from the back of the group, and when everyone whirled around, they saw some of the monkey gang running off into the thick forest with Ichiya slung over a thug's shoulder.

Naturally the rest of Blue Pegasus was horrified. Ren elected to stay and take out that guild, before hunting down the few who had kidnapped his team leader.

As they continued on, they were soon confronted by another dark guild, which was – yet again – obviously relatively weak. Eve opted to stay behind this time, and let the rest of them know that he planned to go help Ren find their team leader after he had finished up with this enemy. Once they retrieved Ichiya, he promised that the three Trimens would meet back up with them.

This process repeated once again with Hibiki.

So the Lamia Scale, Fairy Tail, and Cait Shelter teams left Blue Pegasus to it and continued on. For a while, they were able to make some decent headway… but eventually another misfortune befell them.

This time, the first indicator that something was wrong happened to be rather painful for Lucy. She was minding her own business, walking along behind Gray with Natsu behind her, when all of a sudden she was being hit at full force by something that felt like a magic vehicle. It happened so fast that she didn't even have time to scream, only gasp in shock as she suddenly found herself airborne and in pain. She was knocked a good distance and landed with a grunt as it felt like the air had been knocked out of her. Natsu was instantly by her side of course – fired up and ready to beat the shit out of whatever or whoever had pulled the stunt.

"What the hell happened?! You okay Luce?"

"Yeah…I think so…"

Happy flew over to investigate as well, while she peeled herself off the ground with a grimace. It didn't feel like anything was broken at least, but she'd have some pretty amazing bruises.

Suddenly, Gray also met the same fate, and everyone watched in shock as he abruptly became airborne and flew backwards to hit a tree. Now that they were watching, they all saw something zip by and hit him – so whatever it was wasn't invisible. It was simply insanely fast.

Gray cussed as he sat up before rubbing his head and angrily squinting around.

Sherry got hit next, and unlike Lucy and Gray, she did scream. Loudly. It was both terrifying and almost funny in a horrifying way.

Finally they got to see what the heck was attacking them when one of the Oracion Seis came to a halt in front of them. It was Racer, and now they all knew why he was called that. Of course they had been briefed on the members of the Oracion Seis and knew their appearances and names – but not their abilities.

Gray cracked his knuckles and stepped forwards to deal with him. "I got this guy. You all go on ahead."

"You sure?" Erza asked, and Gray nodded, his eyes firmly set on Racer.

"Oh please. Like you could take him on your own." Leon protested and stepped up next to him in a challenging sort of way.

The rest of the group all started to head out, though Sherry hung back with the two ice mages – probably to make sure that Leon would be okay. He refused to leave even though Gray growled at him to go with the rest of the group.

"Ha! I'll take you all out!" Racer scoffed and came after the group that was leaving. He managed to knock Natsu off his feet, and the dragon leapt back up snarling and spitting with rage. Lucy had to drag him behind her to get him to follow and not pick a fight.

By that point they had put a little space between them and the ice mages, and so on the next pass, Racer ran face-first into a huge wall of ice with a satisfying smack as Gray blocked him off. That certainly redirected his focus, and the rest of them were able to get away.

Naturally, they didn't get very far, because soon they ran into another cliff. This one wasn't quite as steep or as tall as the last one, but it was definitely a road block. Right as they were all getting ready to descend – with a combination of Jura's stone steps and flying magic – they all began to sink. It was as if the ground had turned to mush.

This time, Lucy did screech as she was sucked in up to her thighs. Natsu bellowed a few choice curse words and tried to set the quicksand on fire, which didn't help him at all.

Naturally, Happy wrenched Lucy out of the quicksand easily enough, with a disgusting squelching sound that had her cringing and then groaning as one of her shoes got lost. "My shoe! It ate my shoe!"

Wendy was also soon airborne with the help of Carla. Natsu and Erza both had their own wings – Erza from her black wing armor, and they quickly took flight as well. Erza dipped back down though to grab Jellal under his armpits and hoist him up into the air with her, though she wobbled a little under the extra weight. When Natsu swooped to do the same for Jura, the Wizard Saint waved him off.

"You all go on ahead! I'll hold him off!" Jura shouted, and they all turned to see Hoteye facing off with him. If there was anyone who could take on Hoteye, it was definitely Jura, and none of them had any concerns about leaving him to deal with the wretched money obsessed Oracion Seis member.

"Once I catch you, maybe I can sell you! A Wizard Saint would probably fetch a huge price on the black market! Oh Yeah!" – was the last thing they heard as they all descended to the next level of the jungle.

Erza descended first and more quickly than the rest of them, probably because of Jellal's extra weight, and her landing was less than graceful. She practically dropped the last few feet and ended up basically sitting on Jellal's head – which forced him to do an abrupt faceplant into the dirt. Naturally she sprung back to her feet with a vivid blush staining her cheek and apologized profusely while Jellal picked himself up off the ground somewhat more slowly.

Happy whispered into Lucy's ear, "She liiiiiikes him…"

She snorted. "Oh yeah, definitely. But don't let Erza hear you, or you'll be one dead kitty."

He snickered, and they touched down much more gracefully than their red-headed teammate.

Once everyone had landed, they set off again, but obviously they were on much higher alert by this point. After meeting so much resistance already, none of them were under the misconception that the rest of the way was going to be peaches and lollypops.

When the sound of an explosion shook the forest, Lucy nearly leapt out of her skin. She was already so on edge, anticipating the next attack or trap, that the loud noise made her jump a foot in the air and yell embarrassingly loud. The sound had originated from the direction they had just come from, and of course they all instantly whipped around to look back behind them. The remnants of the explosion left smoke hanging in midair about halfway down the cliff they had just scaled, and something was just plummeting into the trees below as they turned to look.

The sound of people screaming set them all on edge.

"Do you suppose someone…" Happy whispered, his paws tightening on her shoulder.

Lucy shook her head as her heart squeezed in her chest with worry. "I hope not."

"If that was one of our comrades, it must have been Gray, Leon, Sherry, or Jura." Erza commented, sounding tense as well.

There was nothing to be done about it now though. All they could do was press on with their hearts significantly heavier.

Unfortunately, with this mindset, it was easy to fall into the trap laid for them. When they rounded a small patch of trees and came face to face with the sight of Gray lying face-down in a river, they all took the bait and rushed forwards. Natsu was the first to wade into the river to fish out their comrade, and so he was the one to end up snagged in the trap that had been laid for them. Suddenly, a raft came up under him, and he lurched – instantly turning pasty with motion sickness.

As Natsu went to his hands and knees, Gray stood up and patted himself off, as if floating face-down in the river was perfectly normal. The leer on his face though was most certainly not normal and set off every alarm bell in Lucy's head.

"Oh please…that was too easy." the ice mage said with a chuckle and kicked Natsu.

At this point Lucy was positive that they were dealing with an imposter.

"Who are you?" Erza asked before she had a chance to.

The fake Gray set his gaze on her. "Gray Fullbuster. An Ice mage from Fairy Tail. 23 years old. Has a habit of taking his clothes off. And you are…Erza Scarlet. Another member of Fairy Tail. A reequip mage. Impressive. Gray is terrified of you."

"That's not Gray!" Happy yelled accusatorily.

Lucy nodded in agreement and added, "You aren't trying very hard to trick us are you?"

Natsu's groan distracted them all for a moment. Silently, Lucy nudged Happy and gestured subtly towards Natsu, and her cat nodded in understanding. Without a word, his wings popped out and he made a beeline for the dragon, who was apparently so paralyzed that he couldn't even go back to the spirit realm.

However, before Happy had even made it a foot through the air, he was blasted with ice projectiles and knocked into a nearby tree. With a thud he landed on the shore of the river, motionless.

"Happy! How dare you, you jerk!" Lucy cried, starting forwards towards the motionless form of her companion. When she reached him, she made sure he was still breathing, and then carefully placed him into a safe-looking nook of roots.

Pseudo-Gray's icy eyes landed on her. "Lucy Heartfilia…a celestial mage."

"How interesting!" a new voice said, and every head swung around to the newest arrival. It was the female member of the Oracion Seis – the one they called 'Angel.'

"You guys head on, I got her." Lucy growled, now simmering at a low-level rage.

The others sent her questioning looks, but at her furious glance, they all turned and left her to it. This was personal now. She was facing off against a wizard who had not only knocked out her cat, but also trapped her best friend using his only weakness.

"And what are you supposed to be?" Lucy spat, taking a stance and waiting to see what the other woman would do.

To her shock, the Gray figure suddenly morphed and separated into the form of two small blue-haired children that floated above Natsu's raft. They were mostly identical, aside from the fact that one was a boy and one was a girl. The girl had shoulder-length straight hair and the boy had messy short hair, but that was the only glaring difference between them. Everything else about them looked almost completely the same – the strange golden halo that circled each of them around the middle, the black poncho dress that went from neck to knee, and even the two strands of hair that stuck out and looked like antenna.

"Piiri piiri!" they said in tandem. Then both bowed and curtseyed. "We are Gemi and Mini, the two Gemini spirits."

"I see…. Normally I would say pleased to meet you, but at the moment not so much." Lucy said to the celestial spirits – seeming to surprise them. And then she turned to Angel and scowled. "I guess this means you're a celestial wizard too."

At another loud groan from Natsu, Lucy suddenly realized she should deal with him first. With a spark of guilt, she reached for his key and said, "Close! Gate of the dragon."

At the same time though, the other mage gestured at Gemini, and suddenly the twins poofed and turned into Lucy. The fake Lucy quickly said, "Open, Gate of the Dragon!" and Natsu's form flickered but stayed firmly on the raft.

"As you saw before, Gemini here can perfectly copy someone." Angel said smugly, waving her hand towards the spitting image of Lucy.

Lucy blinked, unsure about what just happened. "Okay … and what the hell just happened?"

"Gemini doesn't just imitate a person's form, they also imitate their magic. So my Lucy can control every spirit that you can."

With a sinking feeling, Lucy realized just how tough this was going to be. Going straight for a powerhouse that had a hope of defying her doppelganger, she summoned Aquarius. Plunging her key into the water, she yelled, "Open! Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"

The mermaid appeared in a fountain of water and then turned to give Lucy her normal irritated glare. "What is it this time?"

They were interrupted by the other mage cackling. "Oh dear, it seems I need to teach you a lesson in compatibility. Open! Gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!"

Scorpio poofed into existence with a sandy blast, and instantly Aquarius seemed to melt. Lucy realized why when the other spirit said, "Wicked! You must be my Babe's mage. Nice ta meet ya!"

Aquarius whipped around and hissed, "If you make me look bad in front of my boyfriend … I will crush you!"

After that, all Lucy could do was watch with her jaw hanging open in shock as Aquarius and Scorpio waltzed off together back to the celestial realm. Blinking off her disbelief, she snapped back to business.

"Fine! But she's not my only trump card. Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

He appeared in a golden flash and acted cool for all of a second – until he noticed Natsu's predicament, and then he started snickering. He jerked to attention though when the other celestial mage began to laugh once again.

"It seems I can teach you yet another lesson. You're really making this too simple. Open! Gate of the Ram! Aries!"

To Lucy's shock and horror, a puff of pink appeared, and out of it came a timid looking spirit with pink hair and an extremely fluffy dress that looked like sheep's wool. Instantly she knew that this wasn't going to work, because of what she had learned about Aries and Leo's past. It wouldn't be fair to make them fight, so she geared up to close his gate.

He stopped her though. "No Lucy, it's alright. I'm your celestial spirit, and it's a matter of pride to fight for you, even if it's against a friend."

The ram spirit nodded shakily. "Yes, that's right."

She could see how they looked at each other though – with eyes full of heartache and regret alongside their determination – and it broke her heart to see them go at each other. They didn't pull any punches, and it was clearly evident that Aries was not a combat spirit. She was able to block most of Leo's attacks with balls of pink wool that she expelled like shields, but he was definitely winning and started to land more and more blows. Each one that actually hit made him cringe imperceptibly, but Lucy could feel the pain echo through their connection and felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks.

"How can you do this?!" she turned and shouted at the other mage, only to pull up short at the sight of her laughing.

"What do you mean? It's wonderful entertainment. I certainly didn't expect them to fight."

Fury started a slow hot burn in Lucy's gut, and she clenched her fists. "Can't you see they're in pain? They don't want to fight each other! How could that possibly be entertaining?!"

"Ha! It's their job to serve us, not to make friends with other spirits."

Lucy felt a blood vessel begin to pound in her temple as her anger kicked up another notch. She controlled it though, in the hopes that she could still get through to this sadistic witch. "Please, stop this. Send Aries back."

All she got in response was laughter. The other mage dispersed Gemini and then summoned a spirit Lucy hadn't ever heard of before – some sort of metal robot ball that popped out a gun turret. She ignored it at first, because she was busy reaching for Natsu's key to send him back now that Gemini wasn't around to prevent him from going. However, she was thoroughly distracted by the next thing that Angel did.

A blast emerged from the spirit who she called Chisel, and it shot a gaping hole through both Aries and Leo, taking the two of them out at once. They both cried out in pain and fell, reaching out for the other's hand as they disappeared back to the celestial realm. Watching the appalling scene, Lucy could feel her eyes split open wide in horror.

"You just…how could you do that to your own spirit?!"

"It's not like they can die." Angel scoffed.

"But they feel pain just as keenly as we do!"

"So?" The other mage casually summoned Gemini again, and the copy of Lucy grabbed Chisel – which turned into a giant sword type of thing with a handle for her to wield.

"So? So?!" Lucy yelled, feeling herself hit an all-time high in the anger department. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she was this angry.

"Spirits aren't just toys for you to PLAY with! They're people with thoughts and feelings and should be respected! You shouldn't have those keys! You aren't a true celestial mage, not with the way you treat your spirits like THINGS! How dare you even call yourself a celestial mage!" Angry tears poured down her cheeks.

Her doppelganger looked a little stunned, but real-Lucy ignored her in favor of facing off with the other celestial mage.

"You aren't any better. You summoned Leo to fight me, and I just did the same with my spirits. The only difference is that I'm more successful. Did you think you were the first celestial mage I've gone up against? Of course not! I've defeated four! And with each, I stole their keys. It will be a pleasure to add yours to my collection. Now come, summon another spirit and use them as the weapon they are…"

"No! I won't summon any more spirits to fight you, I'll fight you on my own terms! And you'll never get my keys! I couldn't stand for them to land in your hands for you to mistreat."

She wasn't sure any of her other spirits could disobey the other Lucy, so she simply wouldn't summon any of them. She refused to let any of her friends get hurt for her sake – not when they wouldn't have any way to fight back.

With a snap, she unraveled her whip and went after Angel. The other Lucy intercepted her, and she had to skid to a halt and throw herself to the side to avoid getting smacked with that big-ass sword thing. She slipped though on some wet river rocks and fell into the water. Gemini used the temporary weakness to gain the upper hand and slammed Chisel down on her. She managed to roll out of the way, but not completely. The blow caught her right calf and even though Chisel's blade was blunt, it still wasn't fun to be hit by it in any way, shape, or form.

As for Natsu, he was fighting with everything he possessed to try and crawl his way off the stupid raft that had captured him. He'd only gone a few inches though…not nearly far enough to tip into the water, and nausea seized his gut with more than just the pain that transportation imposed on him. He hated this with every fiber of his being – having to hear and feel Lucy fight while he was forced to sit there and watch was absolute torture. It was worse than anything he could ever imagine, and he retched in disgust and pain.

At the same time though, he was also in awe of his mage. Not everything he was feeling at the moment was negative, there was a good dose of wonder and amazement thrown in there as he listened to her impassioned words and how she fought for the rights of celestial spirits. It yanked at something deep in him and he felt his heart squeeze with something unfamiliar as warm bubbles tickled his insides. That didn't really help his nausea though, and he wished his stomach would stop flip-flopping around like a fish.

Meanwhile, Lucy managed to roll to her feet, though she now had a pronounced limp as her lower limb protested its recent injury. She managed to dodge even with her limp, but the next hit that she took got her in the stomach. Thankfully Chisel was only sharp at the tip, otherwise she would have been filleted like a fish. As it was though, she was still sent flying back and slammed into a large bolder hard enough to make her ears ring and stars to dance around in her vision for a moment.

She heard Natsu choke something that sounded like her name, but she could barely hear it with the ringing in her ears and certainly couldn't respond with her breath gone.

Angel started laughing. "You're pathetic! You won't even summon a spirit to fight! It wouldn't do any good of course, but they could act as a shield at least!"

Lucy groaned as she staggered to her feet but faced off once again with her enemy and wheezed, "I would never use a spirit as my shield. They aren't inanimate objects, they're my friends and comrades! And I fight for them just as they fight for me. I wouldn't summon one into a situation where they couldn't defend themselves!"

Once again, the other Lucy seemed startled and stalled out a little. When her mage ordered her to attack though, she did, but the intensity of her swings were much less – as if Gemini was unsure now about fighting her. Lucy fought back with her whip, but she didn't really want to use it on the celestial spirit.

She didn't have much of a choice though, and so she cracked it across Fake-Lucy's chest to drive her back.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to fight you, but your master isn't giving me much choice…" she grunted, wincing as the spirit fell back with a cry of pain.

Dashing past her doppelganger, she made a beeline for Angel. The other celestial mage fell back in fear at her approach, but she obviously wasn't skilled at hand-to-hand combat because she utterly failed at dodging or blocking when Lucy reached her and punched her square in the face.

She screamed, "Gemini what are you doing?! Get her you idiots!"

That was the only warning Lucy had before the sword was smashing across her back. She fell face-first into the water, and river rocks ground into her palms, knees, and face as she landed hard on her front. Rolling out of the way, she staggered to her feet somehow, only to be knocked back again.

She landed in the shallows on her back this time, getting even more scraped up by rocks and the roots of trees along the shore. Before she could get up again though, the sharp tip of something drove down to press against her chest, pinning her in place. With a sharp gasp, she looked up to see the other Lucy standing over her with Chisel posed to run her through.

Her mind raced. She had to protect her keys at all costs, and if she was about to die they would land in the hands of this sadistic woman. The only thing she could do to save them was send them down the river. Its current was strong enough that it should carry them to safety, and that was the only thought in her head as she reached for the pouch on her waist.

"Aha! And here you said you would never use your spirits as a shield. Yet when your life is threatened, you're ready to pull one out to take the blow for you…ahahah, what a hypocrite! Gemini! Take her out!"

The spirit above her didn't move, and Lucy looked up to see tears streaking its face. "No…she isn't planning to call a spirit. She's planning to throw away her keys to protect them…leaving her defenseless."

Chisel fell away from her chest. "We can hear her thoughts and feel her feelings. She loves us…we can't fight her."

Angel sputtered in impotent fury while Lucy was left numb with surprise at Gemini's actions. The other celestial mage recovered first and called Chisel back to her before having it turn into a gun turret again. Gemini stayed standing in front of her, even as Angel aimed that canon right at Lucy.

Lucy jerked upright and shouted, "Get out of the way Gemini or she'll shoot you too!"

It was strange to be looking into her own face, especially as it twisted with tears, and she had to wonder if her own eyes looked that blue or her nose that red when she cried. She was shouting at them again to move when the gun went off, blasting a destructive orb of light the size of a bowling ball at them. Gemini exploded as the shot went through their imitation body of Lucy.

If Lucy had thought it was weird to watch herself cry, it was even worse to see something shoot a hole through her own chest and rip her apart while hearing her own agonized cry of pain.

The blazing ball of light kept going, aiming right for her head, but suddenly the chiming of a clock sounded. With a wave of immense relief, Lucy recognized the noise and the bright flash of white light as Horologium summoned himself. As she watched, the ball of light slowed to a crawl, giving the clock animatronic spirit enough time to scoop Lucy up in his clockwork arms and step out of the way.

Like her other spirits he was human shaped – but with a few key differences. In his case, his body was obviously made of wooden and metal panels over gears and clockwork. While some of her spirits – like Taurus – possessed the body of a human and the head of something else, Horologium was the complete opposite. His body was purely animatronic, while his head and face seemed completely human, aside from the lamplit eyes and clockface tattooed over his own features. Naturally, the tattoo was also magical and moved just like a real clock – always telling the correct time.

His special ability was to control time to a certain extent. At the moment he had slowed it to an infinitesimal crawl, which gave Grandpa Crux plenty of time to pop into existence as well. Lucy yipped in surprise at his appearance, being extremely shocked to have two spirits coming out at once of their own will.

"I asked Horologium to assist me in this venture. He can give me just enough time to download a celestial spell into your mind using my archive magic. I believe that now is the time to do so."

"I…oh…thank you both…" she murmured, shaking herself back together quickly.

This wasn't entirely unprecedented. Grandpa Crux had shown up once before in this same manner to present her with the spell that allowed her to unlock any lock she wished – and it had also been during a time of great peril for her. She'd been locked in a dungeon that was slowly filling with water when he gave her that spell.

As before, he floated right in front of her and put his wizened hands on either side of her head. Golden trails of magic flooded into her mind, symbols spiraling out around her head like hundreds of haloes as the spell downloaded. A load bar magically appeared in front of her eyes, and she watched it fill through watering eyes as the intense information stuffed her mind so full that she felt like she was going to pop.

Finally, it was done, and both spirits left in a flash of brilliant light, leaving her lightheaded and staggering. All Angel had seen of it was two vivid flashes of light mere seconds apart, and then suddenly Lucy was standing to the side and the ball of light passed by her.

Meanwhile, Natsu was still paralyzed and also positively terrified for Lucy. He couldn't even move his head to see what was going on, but it sounded like a fierce battle was being waged. That last blast from Chisel had especially worried him, and he had felt a sear of terror burn every nerve in his body when he sensed Lucy's fright. The only thing keeping him sane was that he could feel she was still alive and actually uninjured after it went off. He'd been experiencing echoes of her pain throughout the fight, which just made it even more agonizing to be stuck all the way over here – but at least it also let him know when she was okay.

As for Lucy, her head was still spinning, but she was eager to try out her new spell. With it just being downloaded, it was fresh in her mind, and now was the only time she could cast it properly without further training. Besides that, Natsu had taken it upon himself to send some magic her way, probably since he had heard the fight escalate and sensed how low her own reserves were.

So she quickly began the incantation, which was lengthy, but the effects of it startled Angel so much that she staggered back and didn't attack.

"Survey the heavens. Open the heavens. All the stars far and wide, show me thy appearance with such shine."

Lucy began to glow with bright golden light, and the sky darkened, showing all the stars. In fact, it was more than just stars above them … the current sky was more like the glimpse of the celestial realm she had caught when she had come face-to-face with the Celestial King. Heavy planets and swirling galaxies lit up the sky in vivid rainbows of color.

"Wha-what's going on?!" Angel stammered, falling to land on her behind as she stared upwards at the heavens.

The sky grew even heavier and more imposing as a series of large planetary bodies started to descend – answering Lucy's call. The earth was utterly dark, while the sky lit up like fireworks, and Lucy's body radiated so much light that it cast everything around her into shadow. It was an utterly alien landscape, and had Lucy not been the one casting the spell, she would have been beyond terrified.

Her voice took on a weird echo, as if she was speaking into some ancient hall, as she finished the incantation. "Oh Tetrabiblos, I am ruler of the stars. Aspect become complete, open thy malevolent gate. Oh, eighty eight stars of the heaven, shine! Urano Metria!"

At her summons, the heavy planets hanging above them fell down from the sky in a deadly rain of meteors. They were the eighty-eight heavenly bodies that Lucy had just intoned her prayer to, and every one of them aimed at Angel with vicious precision. As they hit, trees began to fall, the water of the river erupted, and rocks sprayed like shrapnel. Angel herself was sent flying more than once as she was hit over and over, ruthlessly beaten by the celestial bodies Lucy had sicked on her.

Once the light faded from around Lucy and the sky slowly returned to normal, she was frankly shocked that her opponent was still in one piece. Angel had been tossed up onto the bank in a bloody heap, and it was clear that multiple bones had been broken at the very least, but she still seemed to be alive.

Lucy's victory was short lived though, because right about then, Natsu's raft got unstuck – thanks to all the commotion – and started floating down the river.

With a gasp of horror, Lucy started after him as fast as she could while wading through the thigh-high water. All he could do was groan and squeeze his eyes shut as a visible shudder wracked his frame.

"I'm coming Natsu! Hang on!"

Once she was in range, she reached out a hand and tried to grab his, which outstretched to meet her. With a stumble though, she faceplanted into the river and lost him. When she came back up, he was even further from her. Giving up on the idea of being dry at all, she was forced to dive into the stream and actually swim towards him to make up the distance. Finally, she reached the raft and grabbed onto his hand…right as the water picked up speed. All she really managed was to get hauled onto the raft with him as the small wooden craft was swept up into a swift current.

The speed soon wasn't the problem. What really turned out to be an issue were the rapids that banged them this way and that, and pile drove them into rocks that jutted from the unpredictable waters. All she could really do was cling to Natsu and do her absolute best to keep them both on the raft.

Soon a dull roar started up, and with dread Lucy raised her head…to see a huge waterfall coming up quick.

"Oh…you have got to be kidding me!"

If only Happy hadn't been knocked out back there…with his help they may have stood a chance. But as it was, they were totally screwed.

The only thing she could think of was to try and close Natsu's gate to send him back. Grappling for her keys with one hand, she managed to snag his and gasped, "Close! Gate of the Dragon!"

With a pop and spark, he disappeared, leaving her to fend for herself. Gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, she waited until she had separated from the raft and was free-falling before yelling, "NATSU! A little help please?!"

There was a horrifying second before – with another spark and whiff of smoke – Natsu was there. His wings snapped out, and he managed to catch Lucy…clumsily, but at least he did it. He was still obviously weak from being so motion sick, and his wings only flapped a couple of times – causing them to drift down pretty quickly – before they popped out of existence entirely. Natsu and Lucy both plummeted the last distance into the river, which was luckily quite deep where they landed.

Her grip on him was torn free as they hit the water. Blinking, she tried to locate him through the murky water, refusing to think about what she was getting in her eyes by doing so. A flash of pink under her had her diving down deeper to snag his scarf. He had apparently passed out, and so it was up to her to drag them both up for some air. With a gasp, she managed to break the surface, though almost instantly ducked back down as his weight dragged her under. The rapids didn't help at all.

Gathering him closer, she got a better grip on him and not his scarf, so she wouldn't strangle him to death. Swimming with one arm, but primarily her legs, she tried to make for the bank, but kept getting smashed into rocks. Somehow she managed to keep hold of him, though he threatened to be ripped from her more than once. When he did wake up, he was going to have some claw marks across his torso from where her nails raked across his skin to keep him to her. That was going to be fun to explain….

As for Lucy, she was definitely also accumulating a nice collection of bruises and scrapes from the rocks she kept ping-ponging off of.

Finally, after spending way too much time spinning around and getting dunked and smacked around, Lucy managed to drag both their sorry butts out of the river.

Her first action, once making it to dry land, was to check on Natsu. How he was still in this world when he'd been knocked unconscious was unknown, since celestial spirits automatically went back to the spirit world when they got hurt badly enough or passed out. Natsu though was different somehow.

He seemed to be doing okay, aside from being soaked through and spitting up some water.

As soon as she was sure he was fine, she collapsed next to him, and essentially passed out as well.

…

When she woke back up, it was to the sound of a masculine groan.

"What the shit happened?"

Her eyes peeled open on a groan of her own as the bruises and scrapes all over her body woke up along with her. All she had to do as say was, "waterfall," and another sharp groan from Natsu told her that he had remembered.

"Right."

There was a long silence as Lucy turned her eyes to him and watched as he curiously glanced down at his chest. There were long bloody gashes crisscrossing his skin, and she knew there would be even more on his back. It looked like he had gotten attacked by a cat…or had indulged in some very rough sex.

That last though made her blush, and she had to look away a moment. Where the heck had that particular notion come from? Maybe Cana and Mirajane were finally getting to her with all their matchmaking and not-so-subtle innuendoes.

She should only feel guilt at causing the damage and relief that they had survived. Her mind certainly shouldn't be dredging stuff up from the gutter at a moment like this.

"Oi…"

Her attention shifted back to him at the sound.

"What're all these?" He gestured at the claw marks, and Lucy did her best to fight down another blush.

"Uh…well those would be from my fingernails. When we fell, I had to swim us both out, and the river kept knocking us around. To keep my grip on you…I sort of clawed you up a bit. I'm sorry."

His eyebrows shot up practically into his hairline and he glanced back down at the marks. "You did this?! Holy shit Luce."

She may have been worried that he would get mad, if it weren't for the slight grin that showed for a brief moment. It was so quick Lucy couldn't be sure what sort of grin it was, but the fleeting impression it left on her made her think his mind might have gone to the same place hers had. That thought only made her flush again, and she looked away once more.

What the heck was wrong with her?! She was mildly horrified by how her brain was currently misbehaving.

And it wasn't the first time either. Lately, her mind would go to places it never used to go automatically, and she was starting to wonder if even considering him shortly as a romantic partner when she was sick had flipped some kind of switch in her brain that said those sorts of thoughts were okay. It was a mildly disturbing idea.

When she turned back to look at him, he was staring at her, but with a totally different expression. He almost looked horrified.

"What?"

"What happened to you?"

"Huh?" Glancing down, she saw what he probably meant. Every exposed bit of skin was covered in bruises, and there were several bloody scrapes that had left a mess on her arms and legs.

"Oh…just the river's doing." She shrugged it off. It wasn't the worst she'd had by any means.

He abruptly looked guilty. "Damn. Sorry Luce, I really dropped the ball on that one."

"What do you mean? It's not your fault. You were motion sick."

"Yeah but still…it's my job to protect you."

"Seriously. Don't worry about it Natsu." she said gently, putting her hand on his shoulder and staring him dead in the eye.

The eye contact grew strangely soft after a moment as the tension eased a little from Natsu's gaze. Still, their eyes stuck to each other, and Lucy could feel her cheeks heat up just a little. It was weirdly intense, and warm fluffiness built up in her stomach cavity, like a mass of heated cotton candy. If she'd had any doubts that she was now harboring a crush on her partner, they were all wiped away in the face of this stare-off, and the realization made it all the more intense.

Finally it grew too much for Lucy and she had to break it, though she had to use a surprising amount of force to do so.

Quick Note: Just so you know, I was picturing someone specific when I re-imagined Horologium. Anyone wanna guess who it is? I'll give you three hints, he's from a pretty popular anime, he's part machine, and he's blond. I'll let you know if you're right at the beginning of the next chapter. ;)

Now...

Sneak Peek

"I think I've got something we can use to destroy this thing you guys…. we just need to-" he was cut off by the sound of an enormous roar – one that hurt their ears even though it was from a distance.

"What the hell was that?!" Gray sputtered when it was done.

"Don't you recognize your sparring buddy?" Lucy snorted, rubbing her sore ears with a slightly sardonic grin.

"That was Natsu?!"

"Yep, no doubt about it. Though that was the loudest I've ever heard him roar like that."

Hibiki just shook his head in amazement and then continued with his previous statement. "Well anyways, as I was saying, I think I've found a way to destroy this thing. My archive magic just finished translating those diagrams that were on the walls, and – lucky us – they described how Nirvana works. The legs are hollow, like straws, and through them it pulls magic power from the earth itself to run. At the end of each leg – where it connects to the body – is a lacrima that absorbs the magic. If we can destroy all six lacrima simultaneously, it will go kaput."