Chapter FOUR

Lucy was sitting on an infirmary bed as Wendy quickly healed her of small cuts and bruises. Natsu was lying down in a bed beside her, still out cold.

The moment the battle had ended, Lucy had been overwhelmed by her guild mates who were complimenting her on her victory over Natsu, as well as showering her with questions. Darque looked like she was going to blast everyone away with lightning or something, so Lucy had quickly closed her gate.

Wendy's medical side had taken over and she had shooed everyone away with such ferocity that everyone had left without arguing.

Lucy tried to collect her thoughts. The images and words she had seen before she activated Darque's battle mode. She was pretty sure they were Darque's memories, and most didn't seem very pleasant. She made a mental note to herself to ask her spirit about it later, as she was sure they were related to the reason Darque had appeared out of no where. Though the spirit hadn't elaborated anything, Lucy suspected her sudden appearance had something to do with the 'really evil dude', Lite di Angelo.

Lucy was wrenched out of her thoughts when Natsu let out a groan. Wendy came flying to his bed and placed her hand onto his forehead. "He'll be fine." She announced. "He should be waking up soon."

Lucy sighed. Wendy checked over her injures again. "You'll be fine. Just rest." She decided. "And replenish your magic."

"Thanks Wendy!" Lucy grinned. Wendy shyly smiled back.

After a few minutes of arguing, Wendy finally allowed Lucy to go out and meet the guild. The moment she had stepped out of the infirmary and caught sight of the bar, she was already surrounded by her guild mates.

Lucy finally managed to sit at the bar and Mira quickly chased everyone away with a threat. Lucy wondered how she could say such words with a smile.

Levy, Gajeel, Erza and Gray joined her at the bar.

Gray and Gajeel demanded that she fight them at once. Lucy quickly declined the challenge, stating that she was very tired. Levy was looking at her with admiration clear in her eyes and even Erza looked impressed.

"Lu-chan, I have a question." Levy spoke up. Lucy nodded at her to go on. "When you were fighting, you kept making these movement with your fingers. What was that about?"

Lucy paused. She couldn't see the strings? Though they were pretty thin, they were so bright.

'Those strings are made of your magic and are only visible to you. Once you learn how, you can harden them and use them like wire.' Darque said.

Lucy jumped. She had forgotten about her spirit's ability to talk to her through her mind. She then repeated Darque's explanation out loud.

"I'm not exactly sure what they are though." Lucy finished. She said goodbye after a while and made her way home.

'Hey Lucy!'

"What?" Lucy asked.

'Something came up, so don't summon me until I tell you, okay?'

Lucy was surprised, but agreed nonetheless. "Sure. Just tell me when you're back, okay?"

'Yeah'

Lucy nodded. "Then it's fine."

'Before I go, I have something very important to tell you. In a day or so, some people are going to come see you.'

Lucy waited for her spirit to continue.

'The real reason I'm here is because I need your help. The problem is, this may force you to work with people you were previously enemies with. But you're my only hope, and-'

"Hang on, why do you need my help?" Lucy asked.

"I'll start from the beginning. The keys of Afterlife are dropped into the human world once every five hundred years or so. The two keys must then find two owners. Since I'm a Darque key, I must find an owner who is a Darque type. Lite must form a contract with a Lite type mage. However, there is a type of mage that lingers between the two, called the Shade. That's what you are.'

'When one key of Afterlife kills the other, they gain their powers, granting them and their key owners absolute power and magic.'

'When the two Afterlife keys meet, our first instinct is to kill each other. After all, we are opposites. When one of us comes out victorious, the victor gains the power of the other. According to a source, Lite's owner is also someone who's after power. You may be in danger.'

'This is an cycle that has been going on for longer than even I can remember. Long ago, this battle used to be just between the two keys and their owners. However, over the time, Lite began bringing more and more people into this. In order to counter this, I have asked my other owner to find other Darque type mages. When Darque, Lite and Shade type mages go full out onto one another, those who aren't considered on of the three types will be in grave danger.'

"So me being in Fairy tail will endanger everyone." Lucy breathed.

There was a swirl of mist and Darque appeared before her. "I'm so sorry!" She cried, lowering her head. "For the past few times this cycle had gone around, I made sure I made a contract with solo-mages. But when I fell right to you the other day, I thought it was some of sign that you were supposed to be my contractor and I-"

Lucy gently placed her hand onto the girls head. "It's fine." She smiled. "All we have to do is beat us this Lite dude and his followers, right?"

Darque bit her lip. "But your guild mates..."

"Well, maybe I'll need to take a rest from the guild. It'll be a good experience." Lucy smiled sadly. "Don't you have somewhere to go?"

Darque looked down and slowly nodded. "Yeah, sorry. I'll answer any questions when I get back." She disappeared into a puff of black smoke and mist.

Lucy checked her key pouch and sure enough, Darque's key was gone.

Jellal glared between the two paths. Rogue was sniffing the air while Cobra and Midnight were still rubbing their wrists where the magic repressing cuffs had left red marks. Though they were free of their cuffs, they were still drained of magic. If they were ambushed, they wouldn't be much help on the magic side.

Jellal growled in annoyance. This prison was like a maze! It was not his fault the guards had began looking for them and they had to look for another way out.

Jellal turned to Rogue. "Which way?" He asked.

Rogue shrug, then pointed left. "That way seems used more often." He said.

Jellal nodded. "Right it is." He led the way down the right path. From there, there were no more split paths, just one straight, very long corridor.

Rogue looked up sharply. "Wait." He said, making everyone stop. "I can hear lots of voices coming from there." He pointed in the direction they were moving in.

Behind him, Cobra sighed. "Are we going to backtrack?"

Jellal opened his mouth when Rogue shook his head. "I can also hear someone coming from the we came. It's faint, but they're there."

"I say we go forwards. If we're lucky, there'll be an open area where we can fight." Rogue stated.

Jellal groaned. "After all this, luck owes us."

The good news was, the corridor gave way to a huge open are with a door leading to the exit on the other side. The bad news was, there were countess amounts of guards standing around, all armed. Seemed like they were a group of guards just about to be deployed.

Cobra cracked his knuckles. "Are we just going to charge?" He whispered.

Jellal nodded. "Though I think those guards don't use magic, there may be others who can." He took a deep breath, hoping his idea would work.

"Darque." He muttered. "I gathered the other three, but we're sorta surrounded. We can use some help."

Rogue and Cobra heard him easily with their dragon hearing. "What?" Cobra asked.

Jellal shook his head. He held up his finger, asking them to keep quiet. "Darque."

A sudden static sound filled his head.

'I can hear you, jeez.'

Jellal sighed. "So, are you going to help us? It's all your fault we're in this mess in the first place."

'Hang on. I need to tell my other owner not to summon me. We just beat up Natsu.'

A sudden extra weight around his neck made his look down. A black key had mysteriously appeared around his neck, attached to a chain necklace. Jellal sighed again, before holding up the key. He turned to the other three and saw them all staring at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Who were you talking to?" Midnight asked before yawning.

Jellal shrug. "It's a surprise." Cobra opened his mouth but Jellal interrupted him. "Are you guys ready?"

"Never knew you were a Celectial mage." Rogue muttered.

Jellal ignored him. Instead, he raised the key. ""I, Jellal Fernandez, call upon the gate of the Underworld to summon the afterlife. Open, the Gate of Hell, Darque di Daemon!"

New chapter :) Make sure you read and review.

The votes for pairings are still ongoing. Vote at the poll on my profile, PM me, or just post as a review.

Pairings so far:

Jellal x Lucy: 16

Cobra x Lucy: 9

Midnight x Lucy: 10

Sting x Lucy: 5

Rogue x Lucy: 5

Laxus x Lucy: 7

Gajeel x Lucy: 1

Natsu x Lucy: 2

Ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Don't forget to review!