On the third day of Christmas, my evil author gave to me...

"That was a fucking disaster," Lucy groaned as they walked away from the dark guild they'd been hired to destroy.

It had started off smoothly enough until they realized that they'd been trapped in a series of illusions. Lucy was the first to realize that they couldn't create a plan without the mage realizing what they were doing. She'd managed to relay that to Gray and Erza but Natsu… Natsu was so dense that nothing short of spelling it out would work. That resulted in his go-to: blast everything.

"I thought it was fun. He wasn't super easy like the others."

Lucy muttered a few expletives under her breath.

"Sorry," he said, going to drape his arm over her shoulders before freezing when she shot him a glare. To her other side, Gray made a whiplash sound.

"Knock it off," Lucy said before they could start fighting.

"Yes, Ma'am," both men said.

"See, you're just as bad as I am. At least I'm-"

"Finish that sentence. I dare you," Lucy said, shifting into her 'Scary Lucy' mode. She was tired and wishing that it wasn't Horologium's day off so that she could get an hour off her feet. The train station was at least another two hours' walk.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We should come up with a code in case we're in a situation like that again."

"That's stupid," Natsu muttered.

"I think it's a wonderful idea. Don't you?" Erza said with a pointed look at the two men.

"Aye, Sir!"

"How about we start with something simple? Green for go and red for stop."

"Red is the color of fire! It should obviously be go," Natsu argued.

"Fine. Red for go and-" Lucy glanced at the blue guild mark on Gray's chest- "and blue for freeze or stop. And Gray, your shirt."

"Shit," he cursed, turning around to retrieve it.

"What color should be caution or unknown danger?" Lucy asked.

"Pink," Happy said.

"Why?" Lucy asked.

"Because you don't look powerful, but you're actually really scary."

"I can't decide if that's an insult or not," Lucy muttered.

"I think it's perfect. It's a shame my mark is blue too."

.~*~.

Lucy was pushed back into the room. Like she had been, Natsu was standing in the corner. She almost laughed at the way that he was pretending that his gaze wasn't drifting down to her breasts then bouncing back up to her face.

"Don't do this," he said when she was standing in front of him.

"I'm pregnant, Natsu. She threatened my baby."

"Luce…"

She pressed against him and made a move like she was going for his ear again. "Door. Red."

There was a flicker of confusion before he spun around.

"Fire dragon roar!" "Etamin!"

The blast from their combined attacks created a large hole. Lucy pitched forward only for Natsu to catch her.

"I'm low on magic. Minerva's dimension hold drains it."

"We've gotta get outta here. Where are your keys?"

"Draco, my keys." Her voice was sleepy, but she caught her keys when they appeared in a golden shower like her spirits. She leaned heavily against him.

"Come on," he said. "What's the plan?"

"Kaleb and the others just got here. If they're not ours, knock 'em down. I don't care how hard. Sydelle's mine."

"You sure you got the strength for that?"

"I will."

She pitched forward again and gave Natsu a grateful look when he caught her. He then squatted down in front of her. "Get on."

"But-"

"You can barely walk. Get on."

She made a whining noise but let herself be picked up. "I'm glad out of everyone it was you in there."

"No one else would've understood," he said.

"I'm glad you remembered."

His better hearing allowed him to follow the sounds of the fighting farther upstairs.

"Wait. We need to find Zen."

"They can handle it," he said.

"Natsu!" she said, trying to shove herself off him.

"Look, you're my Queen. Protecting you is my priority until I have a mate. Speaking of which, who is my mate?"

"That is a very good question that I don't have an answer to. Cristoff I could sense. But everyone else was pretty much mated by the time I became Queen."

"You're sounding better."

"Must be night." Her nose twitched. "Wait."

Natsu whined but stopped and backed up to the door they'd just passed at her urging. When the door was locked, she gestured for him to force it open. It was a trophy room of sorts, but she ignored that in favor of the small meteor in a glass box.

"Careful, please," she said as he broke the box open.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yup. Thank the stars that she's a celestial mage too. Otherwise, she might not have kept it."

It only took Lucy a few seconds to devour the entire stone.

"Good?"

She summoned Leo's stardress. "No, but better. Good enough to split up."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Zen is in here somewhere and if I was Sydelle, he's where I'd go." The two mages high fived outside the room then ran off in opposite directions.

Emery smirked when she saw the airship hovering above the castle. She'd been sneaking around, knowing that she'd have limited success and probably get someone killed if she tried to pull Zen or Lucy out before they arrived.

It had taken her awhile to find the armory. Once again, her coloring worked in her favor. As long as she looked like she belonged, no one looked too hard at her. She stuck a knife with a lacrima in the pommel into her boot and picked up a short sword.

It was a familiar weight in her hand though one she hadn't felt in a while. Her dad, between quests, had shown her how to use it. She never got good enough to not see the look of disappointment in his face, but she knew she could hold her own. For a year and a half, after her father had left on his final quest with a boy a little older than her, she dedicated herself to proving her father wrong. The boy came home. Her father didn't.

Looking at it, it made her wonder what happened to hers. She remembered surprising Acnologia in a sparring match and then it disappeared. There'd never been a reason to question it at the time.

She slipped away from the public façade of the castle and down into the underbelly. It was where she could sense Zen as well as Lucy. The dragon kept warning her that the fact that Lucy's pull was weakening was dangerous.

As the sounds of the castle responding to the hovering airship escalated, she had to hide more. Especially as she moved further down. More people there would know that she didn't belong.

"You know, if the goal is to minimize damage, showing up like this probably isn't a good idea," Vander commented as the pilot set the airship down. They were in the cargo bay, knowing that they'd need to go in prepared to fight.

"Sydelle won't run if she thinks she has leverage over me," Kaleb said.

"She does," Rhiannon commented drily.

"Not helping," Vander muttered.

"What's the plan?" Cristoff asked.

"Mates stick together. I don't want anyone getting distracted. Gajeel, stick with Wendy and Chelia. Presca, you're with Vander. Xally, you're running things from up here."

Xally wanted to argue but she knew that her brother was thinking about the last time they'd been in a situation like this. He'd nearly lost Lucy that time and he wasn't willing to risk not only Lucy but their child.

"Come back safe," Xally said, kissing Presca before giving the rest of them a nod.

Before splitting up, Bickslow grabbed Cristoff. "Make sure Kaleb doesn't get himself kidnapped. We both know he's barely restraining himself. But I'm almost more scared of what Lucy will do."

Cristoff nodded. Even as weakened as their mating bond was, she could tap into his strength.

Rhiannon kissed Vander. "Have fun storming the castle," she said as she went to follow Xally back into the main section of the airship.

Vander grabbed the back of her shirt. "Where are you going? You're coming with us."

"Excuse me? I'm not a combat mage."

"No, but archival magic is built off rune magic. You're the best one for dealing with any rune seals."

"But I- I'm not a combat mage."

"C'mon."

Cristoff and Meredy went with Kaleb in one direction. Laxus and Emzadi went high with Bickslow and Erik following. Gajeel, Wendy, and Chelia went the opposite direction.

"Where are we going?" Rhiannon asked as she and the two men went straight.

"Information. We know they're siding with Zeref and Alvarez," Vander said.

"Chaos is the-"

The group was stopped by a mixture of soldiers and pleasure slaves from both sides. Presca and Vander immediately shifted into defensive positions with Rhiannon between them.

"How many-" Presca said.

"Too many." Vander turned to Rhiannon. "We could use a path, Rhia."

"And you want me to do what about that?" she asked.

"Roar, damnit," Presca said as a soldier nicked him. "Preferably before we're all killed."

Rhiannon's gaze bounced between them. Trying to protect her and themselves was forcing them to make sloppy mistakes. She shoved Vander out of the way and closed her eyes. "Earth dragon roar!"

Her ears were ringing as she felt Vander jostle her a second later by throwing her over his shoulder.

"Did I do that?" she asked staring at the bodies on the ground. "I did that. How did I do that?"

"You're a dragon slayer."

"Yeah, but that's the first time that I did that," she said, gawking at the destruction. Besides the bodies, there was damage done to the walls as well, so they were having to navigate bricks.

"I think you've shot the structural integrity of the building," Presca added.

"Uh…oops? Are you gonna put me down?"

"Nope. It's easier with you up there."

"What the fuck was that?" Emzadi said as an explosion on a lower floor rocked the castle.

"I'd have said Natsu, but I don't sense him," Laxus said.

"No, I think it was Rhiannon's first roar," Erik said.

"Well, damn."

Emzadi stopped and looked down the top floor hallway. While her brother and his mate immediately went to run one direction, Laxus noticed that she hadn't moved.

"What is it?"

"The sun's setting so it's not as strong, but I can feel it. They wouldn't have kept Lucy up here. It's probably why we haven't seen anyone yet."

"Where then?"

"Basement?" Emzadi said. "Do you think you could find your way down? Or hear your way down, I guess."

"Yeah. Probably."

Gajeel was impressed with how well Wendy and Chelia worked together. He'd seen it briefly while training with them. Many of Chelia's attacks required more physicality from her.

Even before mating, the two women had spent a lot of time training with one another. So much so, they could read each other's attacks in how they moved. Twice, Wendy stopped him from moving into an attack.

Wendy still had an emphasis on support magic but had learned some combative magic as well. They were mainly staying on the defensive and keeping any Joyan soldiers from taking the ship.

He loved Levy, but he couldn't help but wonder if this was how mates were supposed to fight when side-by-side.

"What is it?" Wendy asked, looking up at the fellow dragon slayer.

"Just wondering when the pipsqueak became a badass."

"Psh," she snorted. "I was already a badass, thank you very much."

"Ghihihi. Sure, Shorty," he said, ruffling her hair.

In the relatively tight quarters of the hallways, Cristoff and Kaleb were relying on their swords. Kaleb's eyes were lit up as he caught every soldier in his magic to see who knew where Lucy or Zen were.

"Damnit," Kaleb kept muttering. He was barely keeping from turning many of them into vegetables.

"Calm down," Cristoff warned.

"These are just pawns. None of them know anything," Kaleb raged when he stopped.

"I know that but-"

"You're asking the wrong question," Meredy said as she directed one of her blades into a guard.

"Then what?" he asked.

"If these guards are all over the first floor, how do they not know anything?"

"Basements," Cristoff and Kaleb both breathed.

"That would be my guess," Meredy said. "Now find someone who knows how to get down."

"Have I mentioned that you're brilliant?" Cristoff asked before kissing her.

"Yup. C'mon."

Emery was both surprised and grateful that she didn't find Sydelle with Zen. She glanced at the sword in her hand with blood on its blade. In her head, Dalviama was mocking her for her squeamishness with how much blood was metaphorically on her hands.

She shoved the blade into the scabbard at her hip and pulled out the smaller blade that she'd stuck in her boot. Through the knife, she channeled her magic into the seals that were locking the room.

After the first guard found her as she worked, she kept the sword at her side as well.

"Fucking hell. I used to be good at this," she muttered.

Try a 6x7 code.

How the fuck? Emery asked when it worked.

It was the original code. All magic is built off it. Think of it like the code at the center of the universe.

"Zen? If you could wake up, that would be really helpful right now." The runes keeping Zen on the board were easily undone. She was scared to touch him. Instead, she grabbed a pair of gloves that were left in the room. "Seriously, Zen. I'm not sure I can hold you up."

"Don't worry," he said, gruffly.

The first hand that she'd cut loose shot out and wrapped around her neck. As soon as his skin touched hers, she felt her celestial magic pressing down Dalviama's presence. It was rather peaceful. Until she realized that might be lack of blood flow to her brain.

"Zen," she squeaked.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been trapped in that room. He'd felt the magic and chemicals they pumped into him. Had felt each of the woman's attempts at claiming him mid-sex.

The other constant was Andromeda and Cassiopeia. Lucy had placed a seal on the necklace that no one could remove it against his will with an additional precaution that Andromeda had to also be willing to let it be removed. The two spirits were reinforcing the enchantment from the celestial realm.

His eyes cracked open and the first thing that he saw were brown eyes staring up at him fearfully.

"L- Emery?" he said, letting her go.

"Yeah." She rubbed her neck.

"I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"I know. I need to finish getting you free."

"Why are you here?" he asked while watching her work.

"Freeing you. I warned you that I was the lesser of two evils. Can you walk?"

He stood but had to hold onto the X-frame to stay upright. That didn't surprise Emery. They would need him hungry and barely lucid, so they'd have given barest minimum to survive. From what she understood about archangels, it would take a lot to kill him.

"Okay. C'mon."

She shivered at his touch when she held him up. The urge to claim him thrummed under her skin. As was a more unfamiliar feeling of wanting to find somewhere to curl up with him. The fact that there was nothing to cover him with wasn't helping.

"You can't fight and carry me," he said.

"I'll figure that out on the way."

Lucy rounded a corner and found Kaleb. Their mating bond was so tenuous that she'd almost been scared to use it to find him. Cristoff's bond was much stronger. Probably because beyond them being Queen and Knight, they were almost like step-siblings through their dragons.

"Kaleb," she breathed before running to him.

"Lucy." He dropped his sword before catching her.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she cried between quick kisses.

"Tower. I'm serious this time."

"Your dad will be pissed to be denied easy access to his grandbaby."

"He'll deal."

"As sweet as this is, we still need to find Zen, Natsu, and Beck," Meredy said.

"Natsu and I split up. He was heading up to find you and I was looking for Zen since I'd be able to sense him. Beck's here?"

Kaleb nodded while still holding Lucy. "We think he's how they learned to unmate us."

He knew she was reigning in the impulse to say leave him there as she nuzzled his neck. They were both reigning in the impulse to have sex. Renew their bond. He didn't try very hard to pull her off.

"He's probably been moved to be reprogrammed. There might not be much left of him. I think it's gotta be on this floor."

"What makes you so sure?" Cristoff asked as he approached to check her out.

Lucy shifted so that he could reach her abdomen. "I didn't smell sex downstairs. It was more, I don't know, chemical. Like a hospital."

"Fair point. The baby's still healthy. Not quite a month along, so you're right. Conception was probably during your mating."

She smiled at Kaleb. "We're having a baby."

There's something else. I'm not sure what it is but there's something in her blood that's resisting my magic, Cristoff said.

Is it bad? Kaleb asked.

I don't know.

Meredy, can you put a sensory link on Lucy without her noticing?

Um…yeah? Are you sure that's a good idea? Meredy answered Kaleb.

Probably not, but without knowing if something further is wrong, I'd like to try to keep her from being able to hurt herself or others.

"That's amazing," Meredy said, reaching for her hand but grabbing her wrist first on accident then sliding her hand down to squeeze it. "Maybe it'll keep Arman off the rest of our backs for a while."

"You haven't told him yet, right? I wanted to tell him," Lucy said as the group started moving.

"No."

I've got Lucy. We're still looking for Zen, Natsu, and Beck. Lucy thinks they'll be on the first floor or in the basements.

We just got Natsu, Gajeel said. Followed his nose to us. Knocked him out and put him on the ship. Must've been out of magic to go down that easily.

I've got a trail on the reprogramming, Erik said. Sounds like someone is resisting the reprogramming.

I think we found Sydelle's office, Vander said.

She has her generals in jars. That's new, Rhiannon commented.

We're going to go after Zen. Emi, Laxus, stay with Erik and Bix in case you need to jump quickly. Go for Beck. Van, don't push too far. Find whatever you can on Alvarez's plan and get out.

And Sydelle? Vander asked.

She's mine, Lucy growled.

They were silent except for Lucy's directions. Emzadi alerted them when they'd found Beck. Zen was on the move but slowly. Beyond that, they were struggling to find another set of stairs down. Between trying to reign in his impulses and keeping the active connection with his siblings, he suspected that Lucy was right about Zen being somewhere more isolated downstairs because he couldn't reach out to him.

Instead, they found Sydelle waiting for them. The hallway had widened out to an antechamber of sorts. It was empty except for the warqueen. She had swords in each hand.

Lucy dropped from Kaleb and shifted into Cancer's stardress. Kaleb stopped Cristoff from intervening.

"You hurt me. You hurt my mate. You threatened my baby," Lucy said lowly as she prowled towards Sydelle.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star," Sydelle sang.

Lucy froze then turned back to Kaleb. Her face was slack and there was nothing of her soul in her eyes.

"I suppose I probably have you to thank for forcing your way into her mind while she was in Minerva's dimensional bubble. The thing about it is that after a day or so, it'll drive a person insane. She was practically comatose. Made her very malleable. Then, of course, had another mind mage that works with rebuilding our pleasure slaves return her sanity. Needed her to take Spriggan's little brother after all." Sydelle smiled. "So, Kaleb. Trade yourself for your pregnant mate."

Sydelle propped her head on Lucy's head and placed a hand onto her stomach. Kaleb swallowed but trusted his brother and walked forward.

"Don't forget: without a direct order from her, you can't hurt me."

"I know."

It took only a few seconds for Cristoff to put Meredy asleep and set her down. At the same time, Kaleb caught Lucy as she collapsed in Sydelle's lax grip. Cristoff jumped and appeared behind Sydelle with his sword to her throat.

"He can't touch you, but I can," Cristoff growled.

"How do we undo your mind control?" Kaleb demanded and nodded slightly for Cristoff to press harder. "How?"

When Sydelle continued just to sneer, Kaleb tried his luck at pressing into her mind. He couldn't kill her because Lucy wanted to do that, but he hunted through her mind with every intention of not bothering to care if she ended up brain dead.

She fought against him. Then, surprising both men, she stabbed herself with the sword. It was obvious that she'd been hoping it would go through her and get Cristoff as well, but she didn't have the strength to do it. Kaleb had to pull himself out of her mind before he was trapped as well. Cristoff dropped her in surprise and watched as a pool of blood formed.

"Well?"

"It has to be re-administered. She wasn't sure when her last dose had been or how long it would last."

"We're shooting blind without her and we don't know what we'll find if we wake her now."

"I know. Jump them to the Saberfox. We'll-"

Suddenly, a loud siren went through the castle and it began to shake.

"What's going on?" Kaleb asked as the question was echoed through his link with his siblings. His link with Meredy was still strong and he heard her question what was happening from her suppressed conscious mind and answered.

It's the Culling. It's primarily used for population control within the castle.

Now, you tell us, Erik snarked.

Before now, it was just a rumor. Sydelle's never used it during her tenure as High Warqueen. It's also called the Queen's Revenge because it automatically activates if the queen is killed in the castle, Meredy informed them.

We need tae get outta here, Rhiannon said.

We haven't found Zen, Kaleb said.

There's gotta be safe places for those meant to survive the Culling. The best we can hope for is that they find one of those places,

"Damn it," Kaleb cursed, but let Cristoff jump the two women and then him out to the Saberfox.

"Maybe Emery has him," Rhiannon said. "She said she'd be here, right?"

"Yeah. Maybe."

None of them sounded confident. It was hard with the background noise of screaming. The walls of the castle seemed to be shifting in random patterns.

"It reminds me of the Gildarts Shift in Magnolia," Wendy said.

"You're right," Laxus said. "With the structural damage that we caused, there could be worse damage or less."

"There," Kaleb said finally.

"What?"

"I think I found Zen. He's really weak, but I found him."

There were multiple sighs of relief. Now, they just had to wait and hope he stayed safe.

When the castle started shaking, a room revealed itself and Emery shoved Zen into it. It wasn't much bigger than a closet, so she found herself in his lap. As rocks and the walls seemed to collapse around them, he opened his wings to shield them.

"Sorry," he said. His voice was so soft that if she hadn't been pressed into him, she wouldn't have heard it. His fingers traced absentminded patterns on her skin that sent shivers down her spine.

"I should have warned you better. I knew that if I didn't secure you, they'd get the Joyans."

"Why didn't you let them in the first place?"

"Because no one should be a slave. I think it's stopped shaking."

"Yeah." When she stood, he muttered, "I guess some things really are genetic."

"Door's gone," she said. "Looks like there's a small hole so at least we'll hear your family call for you." She slowly moved along the limited perimeter. "There's a space here."

"But?"

"But I don't think it's large enough for you," she said, her face flushing as she surveyed his naked form.

"Go."

"How do you know I'll get help?"

"Because you will."

They both quieted when they heard the sounds of his brothers' loud voices.

"Guess I won't need to," she said before yelling for them.

As they approached, a strawberry-blond head poked through the opening.

"Found you," the man said.

"Serena."

"It's God Serena," he corrected.

"Not calling you that."

"C'mon. Before they get here."

"Yeah. I'll come out in a sec." God Serena arched an eyebrow before shrugging and disappearing back down the path he'd made.

"Don't go."

"I-"

"You're not alone. Four hundred years ago, Anna Heartfilia had a younger brother who died in a dragon attack. His widow took their daughter and left. The only thing she took with her was his keys that would be handed down through multiple generations."

"What are you saying?"

"You know exactly what I'm saying. Andy was asking around in the Celestial Realm. I was going to tell you when we next saw each other. Please stay."

She gave him a sad smile. "It changes nothing. I have too much blood on my hands to stay."

"Emery. We need to go," God Serena said, sticking his head back into the room.

"Goodbye." Throwing caution into the wind, Emery leaned over and kissed Zen. The need to claim him intensified and part of her knew that she was going to take a part of him with her.

"Should I tell Acnologia about that?" God Serena mocked.

"You have enough dragon lacrima shoved up your ass, I'm pretty sure that I could kill you if you did," she said.

The path he created led all the way out of the town and into the hills that flanked the town. Once above ground, he passed Emery a teleportation lacrima.

"I'm not going," she said, dropping it to the ground.

"What?"

"We both know that they're going to kill me. I'm not going."

"I can-"

God Serena moved to grab her, but she grabbed his head instead and pulled him down into a kiss. Unlike with Acnologia, she didn't stop herself from killing him. He tasted a soup with too many conflicting flavors.

"I told you," she said softly as she dropped the body. She turned back to the city and watched as the airship took off.

Where are you going to go? Dalviama asked.

I don't know yet. Got any suggestions?