Downstairs and Dead

Chapter 13

The Stars and Their Ways

She coughed. It was unbelievable how strong the smell of mint was in the hotel. She was almost worried for Laxus, when he arrived. It wasn't outside of the realm of possibility that it would knock him out! Overpowering was no hyperbole.

She was dizzy.

She was frantic.

Playing with her keys, she kept Plue's in her fist, carefully monitoring his progress around the town through their connection. He knew to vanish the second there was any hint of danger. But so far there was nothing. Just mint and empty streets.

Gemini was caught between her knuckles, and had a wider range of movement. Prepared to find victims.

So far, nothing. But finding nothing didn't mean that nothing existed.

"Come on, Laxus," she muttered, tapping her foot and pacing. Loke's connection to him, the connection she allowed when they started the job, meant there would be no problem getting in touch immediately, but the fact that he hadn't-

BOOM!

"Oh thank the stars," she hissed as she dashed downstairs and out the front door, whizzing by startled guests with hands over their noses, to meet him where he had landed. "Smell it?"

He put a hand on her shoulder but didn't press too hard. Not as hard as he could have. In fact, she might have described the pressure, or lack of it, as gentle. Her hands, she pressed to his stomach. She gave him the second he needed to return to himself and to her.

"How could I not?" He answered her, finally. After a long, hard look at her. Making sure she was safe and whole. It shook her, that look. But he straightened fully and looked around, letting her breathe normally. "Where does it start? Where does it end? Loke said you sent Plue out?"

"I did, and he couldn't tell. Says there's a little bit of it everywhere, but it is very strong in the lobby, here." Lucy took his hand and pulled him through the entryway, but he had barely made it beyond the threshold when he started gagging and pushed back.

"Fucking hell!"

"Yeah, Plue did much the same."

"No way I could track anything under that. Natsu maybe could, but my nose isn't as good as his. Neither is Gajeel's." He considered, "What about the little girl?"

"Wendy?" she bit her lip. "Not that I know. Cobra maybe. But the better their noses are, the stronger the mint would come through, anyway, so it seems pointless. It seems like the whole reason he's using the mint, now, might be as a way to foil you, do you think? If you were right before, and maybe his focus has turned towards me, maybe his methods at concealment have also taken a turn to account for our abilities. Leaving the trace of mint wasn't so much a mistake as a … a false trail? Or a stronger cover? The general forensics might not have caught a scent before, but a dragon slayer might have. But with the mint, you can't get a personal scent under it? Do you think?"

"It's as good an explanation as any."

"I did talk to Hisui while you were gone," she told him, as he started to walk. Choosing to follow the path outside instead of face the prospect of passing out inside the inn. She noticed he was taking a path similar to one she watched Plue walk from the window. Following the trail of mint as it got weaker. "She was finally able to eliminate a few more from the list because of ones who could only go to all of the winter events. They were attending summer events with the Royals or the noble houses, or possibly traveling to business abroad. We're down to twelve."

His steps hesitated. "Was Runnar on that list?"

"Yeah. Yeah he was, when it was thirteen."

"Anyone else I'm familiar with?"

"Brath, Hanrae's brother; Kentis, Ama's uncle; Richard, Magna, and Char; Bendi, Runnar and Char's older brother, who hasn't been going abroad with his father-in-law; Maso, the Lord Wilnlo we're going to see tomorrow; interestingly enough, Usain Trant, Jaxon Trant, the magic supplier's brother, who should be able to secure favor enough to take part in at least the lesser nobles' parties during the summer season; Franklin, Porter, and Valient Gorrn, who are father and twin sons," she shot him a cockeyed smile, "and Brandish Domino, the Domino heir, and Miss Amilia's eldest brother."

Laxus stopped in his tracks, and she stopped with him. "The Domino kid would be pissed about us…"

"About you, you mean. Yeah. I agree."

"But would he be interested in you?"

"Not that I can think of." She tried to remember what she knew of Brandish, who would have been two or three years older than she was before the Tenrou sleep. "Their family was as concerned about appearances as my father, but better at keeping it. He has always been very, very proper."

"In public."

"Correct. In public."

"What about the others?"

"Maso Wilnlo is interesting," Lucy said, as he started walking again. "Because he just took over the business this year. We talk about changes, that's a major one. He went from being not-quite-footloose-and-fancy to holy-shit-responsible in a moment. One terrible crash. Took out his parents and his younger sister. Tragic."

"Or was it…" he suggested.

"Yeah. Or was it, indeed."

"Brath… Hanrae is annoying as shit, but the kid seems stable enough…"

"I'd say the same about Brath," Lucy agreed.

He pulled up at an alley and looked inside before continuing on. "The triad?"

"Eh? Oh, the boys… I don't see why they'd have the compulsion. Not enough apparent depth, there. Richard, maybe. Seems rather introspective, spends more time away from the others, and gets run down more than the other two, but Magna and Char … I'm not ruling anyone out completely, but I don't see it. Same with the Gorrn men. They're just … boring. So they've never been invited to anything else anywhere ever. That's the only reason they're still on the list. The work to do this, the effort? No. I don't see it."

"Trant? With his brother's magic stuff…"

"Yeah. That one stood out to me, too. Jaxon sought me out that first dance in Mason. It was odd. He didn't fit the sort of man who should dance with me. And he offered me a job, should I choose. He was … friendly, in a way that no one else in Mason house had been. Looking at that interaction with the name Trant on Hisu.." she coughed, "on the list makes the interaction seem even stranger. The magical element here absolutely cannot be overlooked, and of the whole list, Trant's the only one who has a direct connection to magic."

"It's not Jaxon, though."

"No. No, it's not. And," she looked around at the empty road and houses, closed tight with curtains all drawn closed, which they were passing, "our contact couldn't speak to the relationship between the brothers. She only deals with Jaxon."

"Not as helpful as it could be, but still…He have anything like Wilnlo that makes him a good candidate for changing this year? Or any connection with you?"

"None that I'm aware of, but the change could be personal, and the connection," she swallowed hard, "could just be physical. Usain Trant was, if I remember correctly, on my father's list of people he considered marrying me off to, back in the day."

Laxus did not seem pleased with that revelation. "He know he was on the short list?"

"I don't know. Surely not. And I can't imagine father actually going through with it. Usain? Never. Everyone knew he was second fiddle to Jaxon. And Jaxon married well, so as far as the family went, really he was kind of third fiddle, after Maybel, Jaxon's wife. As soon as they had children, he would be fourth or fifth fiddle… Why would he marry me to Usain Trant of all people? A virtual nobody to the daughter of the king of railway transport. Absurdly lopsided, unless my father thought him capable of running the business better than I could, which he couldn't, or he was old-blood nobility and could raise our standing from business elite to noble, which he's not. But I guess everything I just said might have something to do with a build up of resentment towards me and my father, now that I think about that…"

"Yeah, no shit."

"Papa and the Trants already had something of a natural partnership due to the fact that it was entirely impractical for Jaxon to move his goods cross-country by any other means but by rail. He needed father, in that way. But in another way, Jaxon's product is a guaranteed seller. It might not be a staple, like grain, but it is a necessity in its own right: magic. People pay lots of money for it in every corner of Fiore and beyond, and Jaxon is the largest supplier. If Jaxon decided to take his business to carriage caravans or something, it would cut into my father's profits. So, I suppose, creating a more solid blood connection might have had some merit to them… Ew, though, seriously."

Laxus stopped, finally, grabbing her forearm. "This is where the mint either starts or ends, I can't tell. There doesn't seem to be any age to it. It just is and then isn't." He pointed from the main street to the alleyway.

"Go back?" she asked. "Or do we search the rest of the town?"

"Who do you have out right now?"

"Plue and Loke and Gemini as Wendy," was her quick answer. "Anyone else would freak people out, and if someone's injured, Wendy's healing is draining on me. We're not very good at it in the first place. Just … just small things and patching up a little, but it drains me fast, so any more than two gold and a silver risks my stores."

The grip on her forearm loosened and he let his hand slip down her arm to interweave his fingers with hers. It felt... nice. It felt very nice. She blushed.

"Don't worry about that. If you've got people looking out here then we'll go back to the inn. If I can manage not to puke, I'll check it."

She nodded.

0000

She didn't want him to treat her like glass, but at the same time, she respected the fact that he had a deep need to protect others. And at the moment, specifically her. So when he tugged at her hand to get her behind his back as they approached the inn, she didn't complain. She could say something about it later, if she felt the need, but it was better to let him do what he was doing.

Laxus entered the inn cautiously, gagging again, but slightly less. Most of the mint had dissipated, to Lucy's nose. She could hardly smell anything at all anymore, and it was possible that most of what she smell was just what lingered on in her own hair and clothes and skin.

Through the lobby, he walked one foot forward, next foot forward. Slow. Measured. Judging every molecule of space. She tried to keep her breathing calm and quiet so as not to disrupt him. There was, she thought, a slight tingle in the air, but she couldn't identify it. It wasn't magic. It wasn't power. Uncomfortable and wrong, like eyes on the interior of her heart. And a warm, sticky fluid, like rotten honey – sweet, but hiding danger – coating the inside of her skin.

It might have been something like foreboding.

She kept it to herself, since this could be a trap was a completely unnecessary statement, and not in the least bit helpful. And would only serve to distract his focus.

It took almost an hour to check the entire (very small) building before they made it back into their room going at that pace, but they found nothing. Half-way up, Lucy heard back from her spirits that there were no wounded in town that they could find. She was relieved, but didn't let that relief take away her purpose. She kept straight behind Laxus as they continued on their way. In their room, where Lucy had been when the mint had descended on the town, there was still nothing out of the ordinary.

And no mint at all, to Lucy's nose.

Laxus let out a gust of air and seemed to lose six inches in height in his relief. Or what appeared to her as relief. He nearly crushed her hand. For a moment, a brief moment, he was completely and utterly still. And then he turned around and stared at her.

In his eyes she saw fear. And regret. And such a depth of uncertainty that she almost cried out in empathetic pain for him. But he was completely silent.

He picked her up. He tightened his grip on her. His face was in her hair. He was breathing her in, and she thought if he wasn't so intent on getting to the scent of her under under the scent of mint, he would be sobbing.

Laxus was scared. Laxus was shaking.

That was fair. So was she.

"This is about you, now," he hissed. Finally speaking again.

"Yes." There was no way to argue it. There were no Wilnlo female servants in their inn. Only her. Only her.

"We can't stay here," he was serious. He bore down on her. He almost hurt her. "Not at this inn."

She nodded, agreeing completely. "We can present ourselves to the Wilnlos."

He pulled back, and she was so grateful to see that some of the overwhelming emotion in his eyes had drawn back to be replaced with thought.

"We could go to my place. We can come back and forth as needed," he offered as an alternative, which he clearly preferred.

"There's no way to protect people from wherever it is you're living. We can't watch those here if we're half a country away," she countered. She understood where he was coming from. She understood his concern, his fear. But their job was far from over.

So they wouldn't stay at the inn. Not for another week. Not when the killer knew. They would patrol, because they had no choice but to patrol. Because if he was there, every person was technically at risk. Though she suspected Laxus thought the murder had now narrowed his focus to her, and her alone.

And, if she were honest, she didn't exactly disagree with that. Why else their inn? Their inn when Laxus was gone? They were being watched. She was being watched.

She trembled in his grip, and he held her tighter.

"Okay. Okay," he said. "We stay here. We request a place at Wilnlo?"

"Yes. Fine."

"But now we go back to Blue Pegasus. I left in a rush after Loke showed up-"

"And your team, the whole guild, is probably freaking the hell out. With no clue where exactly you went."

"Yeah."

"Yeah." She sagged in his arms and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. She sighed. "All right. Let's check out and go."

0000

The crying that occurred when Laxus walked through the Blue Pegasus guild doors was, frankly, adorable. Were Lucy not so tired, stressed, and freaked, she would have appreciated it way more. Even as she was, she appreciated it quite a lot when they jumped him with such force that they landed him on his ass in a giant pile of wailing.

She just stood over them, watching, with a faint smirk on her face.

She looked up at Master Bob, who stood watch as well from behind his bar, and bowed to him. "Hello, sir. Thank you so much for taking good care of my family."

"Welcome to Blue Pegasus, Lucy. Have a seat while they sort themselves out. They might take awhile."

She giggled, and sat at the bar. It had a nostalgic feeling that made pain shoot up her spine. Squeezed at her heart. She rubbed her sternum as if the pain were physical, and then ignored it.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"Do you have anything in strawberries?"

"Alcohol or no alcohol?"

She cocked her head to the side. "Normally, I'm not one for alcohol, but I've had a very, very hard day, after a very long week, after a very long month. I'm thinking alcohol."

"Mmm, sounds rough."

She watched his hands make the drink, strawberries and soda water were the only two things she caught him using. He looked nothing like Mira, of course, but she hadn't been in a guild hall since Fairy Tail ended, and this all just hurt so much.

The drink slammed down in front of her. "Strawberry rose gin fizz. Good flavor; pretty calming. Should do you right. Take it to that booth over there," he pointed. That's where they'll be when they're done blubbering."

Master Bob had such a sly gleam in his eye that said he probably teased them as much as she did. Maybe even more.

"Thanks."

She kicked Laxus' boot as she passed, sat, and waited. Master Bob was right. It didn't take long. Another minute, and they were sitting around her. Laxus on the bench with her, and Bix, Ever, and Freed across from them.

Like a trio of super eager puppies. Grinning and eager. With smiles that made her want to weep.

No. No.

She took a drink, and returned their grins. Noticing the wariness in their eyes. The watchfulness. The way they studied her, and Laxus. Waiting for orders. But still unable to set the puppyishness aside. Still panting and giddy with the return of their beloved master.

She could feel her mood getting better by the second. Maybe it was the drink? Her lips started to curl up, she-

"Don't," Laxus rumbled. "I swear, if your life wasn't in danger, I wouldn't let you within twenty miles of each other. Got a goddamn headache already."

She laughed. "I was fine. Wasn't I fine? I just needed to be able to move. And anyway, stop being such a baby, Laxus. It's really quite embarrassing." She grinned at the Raijinshuu. "Hi! Sorry I didn't say hello sooner, but you were obviously preoccupied. Anyway, sorry I've had to take him from you for so long, but I promise he's been very useful to me."

She caught the perverted twist of Bixlow's lips and wanted to cackle.

"Unfortunately, what we've been hired to stop, seems to have escalated. Or rather, seems to have … adjusted and crystallized its target."

"Explain," Freed commanded. Very seriously. Very, in Lucy's opinion, jealously. But maybe she was seeing what she wanted to see. Lucy supposed it didn't matter as long as it gave her a tiny bit of happiness. She grinned. Oh, she n eeded this.

Laxus spoke when she probably would have played a little longer, "We're trying to catch a serial killer, who's probably a rich guy, killing during social parties. Been doing it for four years. Lucy showed up, lookin' to stop it. Suddenly guy wants Lucy."

Ever snorted. "Big surprise."

Laxus laughed. The sound was rough and slightly manic, but it was a laugh.

"It's not my fault!" she waved her hands in front of her. "I swear it's not!"

"Course it's not, Cheerleader, but no questioning the fact that you've got shit luck."

Shit luck. Shit luck. Shit luck. Bixlow's totems agreed.

She sighed in defeat. "Well, I guess..."

"How can we aid you," Freed asked. All business.

"Still want the link," Laxus said. "With enough power, Lucy's got a small army at her call. Backup-"

"Wilnlos might let them in if we can get them guard uniforms," she told him, having already guessed he'd want his team along, "but if this guy, whoever he is recognizes them as Fairy Tail mages..."

He grunted. "Point."

"I know... we had this conversation already, Laxus. You can't tie me up here. Can't lock me away, alright? We need to bring him out into the open, not scare him into hiding. He wants me? Fine. Good, in fact. That is how we get him."

"Or that is how he kills you."

She met his eyes squarely. He would see she was afraid, she wouldn't try to conceal that fear. She wasn't a liar. But the fear wouldn't stop what had to be done, now.

"Yes. Though it would be nice if that weren't the first place you went every time we had this conversation, as if the very idea of my success were completely impossible." She clenched her fists. "I'm a – I'm a mage too, remember. And this job is one I agreed to take on. I saw that girl on the kitchen floor, and Maggie was for me. I don't forget any of those things, and I won't be turned away from them. I won't be taken away from this fight."

"Goddamn it." He put his hands over his face, and she heard him mumble, "What do you want?"

"The link." She looked at Freed, "I think the link at this point is necessary to guard the next house, and probably town. Having you all on-call from here would be appreciated, as well. Or from wherever you happen to be?"

"They can't get to us in an instant," Laxus countered.

"But you can get to them and back in two instants, so..."

"And if I'm incapacitated?"

"Have a little faith in yourself, Laxus," she smiled. "I know it seems like you don't have to bother sometimes, since we all have so much for you. We do that work. But you have to have some in yourself. Pull out a bit of that ego. They're on-call. We need them, you'll get them. Okay?"

His eyes burned. She watched as they burned, and it was so much better than the torrent of unhappiness that she had seen in Winelow. She watched maybe a fraction of a second longer than necessary, and noticed that Ever, at least, had caught the deeper emotional connection in the exchange.

The woman cocked an eyebrow at her, and Lucy lifted a shoulder slightly in return. Neither confirming, nor denying.

"Fair," Ever said. "But we'll talk later."

"Fair," Lucy agreed, and turned to Freed, who looked confused. "Can we do the link, now, please." She held out her left hand to him.

The rune mage took it in his own. "It's usually done on the dominant hand."

"I saw how I wrote without a right hand," Lucy explained. "If something goes wrong, I want to make sure I'm not losing my writing hand. Can it be done on my left?"

"Yeah..." Freed began to, very carefully prep her hand for the magic he would use. Since it wasn't like Meredy's, true Living Link magic, the rune which connected her and Laxus' internal powers would need to be delicately placed.

"When did you see..." Laxus looked so confused that she chuckled.

"During the Dragon Festival at the Games last year. A version of me from the Future came through with Future Rogue, our attacker. She had, in her time, lost her right hand, and had to write with her left. I read her journal. Terrible handwriting. Almost unreadable."

Lucy smiled, like she did whenever she thought of that other girl named Lucy, whose life was exactly the same as hers... until it wasn't. It was a sad smile. Had to be one. Impossible to think of that other Lucy, and not be sad.

"What happened to her? I don't remember anyone saying anything about her before," Evergreen was a slightly more indignant version of confused.

"She died," Lucy explained. "Na...Natsu and Happy, they won't..." she swallowed and tapped her sternum with her right hand. "They can't talk about her at all. And I don't particularly like to, but I try to remember her often. She deserves to be remembered. She warned us of what was coming. And she saved my life, you know. That's how she died. " A giant wave of sadness washed over her. She began to have problems breathing. The sticky, putrid, uncomfortable foreboding filled her.

Eyes on the inside of her heart. Knowing. Knowing.

"You're right," she told Bixlow. "I have terrible luck. Even when that me isn't me. I mean, she was, of course... Stepped in front of a blast that would have killed me. Me or not-me me, always bad luck. Odd watching yourself die."

She was crying, and the four former Fairy Tail members were staring at her, each looking more flustered and less sure of how to react than the other. But she couldn't stop. Not crying. Not talking. It was pulled out of her.

"Watching someone with your face just in so much pain, and then die. And your friends in agony because she is you, and she is dying... I understood my father better because of that," she hiccuped. "Because I have my mother's face, and she died, and father found it so difficult to look at me and to love me after, only coming to love me again when he could no longer see me, when he had years to forget, and oh god, get it out of me! Get it out of me!"

She threw herself from the booth bench and started retching, grabbing for the keys at her side. When she managed to grab a breath she called, "Open the Gate of the Goat: Capricorn!"

Her spirit, her mother's spirit, her trainer, appeared and knelt beside her.

"It's not me," she sobbed. "It's not me. It's not me!"

"I know, Master Lucy. Shield your mind. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Imagine a wall."

"All I can see is her face!" she screamed.

"You have to let go of it, Lucy. Let go."

"It's a spirit."

She could almost see it now, a hook in her heart, split into seven, glowing, burning, and yanking at her. It hurt. It hurt so much. Every heartbreak she'd ever felt. Every small sorrow. Every loss. Piled one on top of the other, and magnified. Blistered and bleeding.

"God, oh god!" she sobbed.

"I know, Master Lucy. I can feel it, too."

She ripped out another key. "Open the Gate of the Canis Minor: Nicola!" Plue ran to her and she clutched at him. A life line. She curled around the trembling creature, who made soothing sounds at her, as she herself shuddered and choked. There were hands on her, Laxus', Capricorn's, probably some of the others. Maybe some of them were Blue Pegasus mages.

Her power seized around her. Jerking and raging. She felt her friends burst into being and then felt their doors slam in their faces. She didn't mean to. Didn't mean to call them or to force them away, but she couldn't get control over herself.

Hands, more hands. She could feel them, but they didn't penetrate the piercing blanket of grief that enveloped her. It felt as if nothing would. Nothing could. Nothing should. She deserved what she felt. She deserved to d-

"No!" she shrieked, slapping a hand on the floor. Pulling out another key. "Open the Gate of the Southern Cross: Crux. Open the Gate of the-

0000

When she started crying, he was shocked. A second before, she had just been talking. Sure, the topic wasn't exactly peppy, it wasn't a happy story. He hadn't known she'd watched some version of herself die, but to start sobbing to the point of becoming sick? No. It made no sense.

"Lucy? Lucy!" He slid out of the bench behind her, on his knees beside the tall goat spirit, who was trying to coach her in some breathing exercise while she babbled about not having anything to do with what was going on.

He put a hand on the small of her back and coiled the other in her hair. He didn't think she was actually going to be sick, but better to be prepared if she was. "Get a bucket!" Someone, he wasn't entirely sure who, slid one under her.

Ever appeared next to him with an elastic hair band, taking her long hair away from him and fixing it up so that it wouldn't cause any difficulty. That allowed him to move both hands to her back and waist. Holding her steady. Attempting to give what comfort he could. Which was basically fuck-all. Since she didn't respond to anything around her.

"She's being controlled," Bixlow said, unnecessarily at that point, having also come out of their booth.

"No shit. Can you tell by what?"

The seith mage shook his head. "Not soul magic. Not something I recognize. But it is pulling at her soul, even though that's not where the magic is rooted. It's part of what is being manipulated."

Spirits began popping in and out around her. Laxus recognized some of them from his time with her, but a few of them were new. None of them, except the goat and Plue stayed for long. And then the Cross, Crux came out, quickly followed by the clock, who swallowed her up. Taking her away from him.

His hands clenched, missing her. But he knew the purpose of the spirit. To guard her. To make her safe.

"That work?" Laxus quickly asked the goat. "That work, like in Holen?"

He nodded, and Laxus grunted in relief.

"It's okay, she says," the clock turned so that he could clearly see her crouched inside of the spirit through the glass. "It's okay. I'm okay, she says."

"What the fuck just happened?"

"A spirit," Capricorn's voice was grim.

The cross's eyes went wide, "Yes. One we haven't come across in ages. A century."

"Dao Luk Kai. Mama used to tell me stories, she says." The clock moved closer to the group, seemly encouraging them to sit down. Behind the glass, Lucy was wiping her face with her sleeves and sniffling soundlessly. "The Seven Chicks. I didn't know that they were real. I thought they were just a story. That the white-gold keys were myths, since none of you talked about them, she says."

Capricorn nodded, "The story isn't commonly known or told, and for very good reasons."

"They're manipulators, she says."

Freed, who had done as the clock's body language was demanding and sat, leaned forward on the table. "Manipulators how?"

"Luk Kai, the Seven Chicks, is a spirit of emotional manipulation. The gold and silver keys are, for the most part, physical. They use wool or play music. They can protect by fighting, or are very strong. Some offer wisdom, some are simply companions. A celestial mage with a white-gold key like Luk Kai can use it against you so that you dothings. In this case feel things. Luk Kai won't attack you directly. Not like Loke or Taurus or Virgo or even Aries would or could, they would control you until you couldn't fight back, she says."

Laxus saw her come out of her tight position and lean up against the glass. Her eyes were sharp, and she met his concerned stare with epiphany.

"In Mason; before the ball. I felt it. The hedge maze. With my mother. The same pull, the same deep sorrow... sure, it was an unhappiness that was in me and rooted in fact, but another thing had hooked in. Luk Kai. It was Luk Kai, in Mason, she says."

"So..." Laxus considered how easy it would be to break the glass on the clock. To get in. To touch her. Her wild hair. Her tear stained and swollen cheeks and eyes. "Our serial killer is … a celestial spirit mage?"

"Impossible, she says."

"But-"

"If there were a single spirit mage in any of those houses, I would have felt it. If there were a single key in any of those houses, in that town, I would have felt it, she says." Her expression was passionate, but the way her words were relayed were so neutral that it was odd to hear.

"Then how exactly does what happened make any sense, Lucy?"

Her shoulders drooped. "I don't know, she says."

He wanted her out of the clock. He needed her out of the clock. He couldn't smell her. Needed to touch her. To verify that she was safe by more than simple sight.

"What if you were right, in the beginning," Laxus suggested, looking to her in her clock and then to the cross. "Could it be a woman? Spirit mages are usually women. Not always, but usually."

"It's not possible, Laxus. I know those people. None of them are celestial spirit mages, she says."

"That was eight years ago, Lucy."

"And there's no rumors of any of them practicing magic. Or hints of magic in any of them. None of them are mages, she says."

"Then how did that just happen?" Laxus demanded.

Freed waved a hand in thought, or maybe to get the attention of the group. "Could it just be the spirit reaching out for you? No human magic involved?"

"I can't imagine a spirit attempting to drive me to suicide, even Luk Kai, she says."

Ever dropped her fan, "To what?!"

Laxus couldn't even speak. His heart had stopped in his chest.

"No," Capricorn shook his large head, "I would disagree. The sorrow of mourning a mother is a connection you and Luk Kai would share. And the desire to follow the mother is part of Luk Kai's emotional self. It isn't impossible that it is a key reaching out for you, Master Lucy."

"Crux, what do you think, she says."

"I think there must be a hand behind it, if for no other reason than because of distance. And Master Laxus is right; statistically, most celestial spirit mages are female. I will consult my books, Miss Lucy, but we are not always given to telling who has what keys."

"I know, Crux. Do what you can, she says."

The cross faded from the room.

"Freed," Laxus turned to his friend. "She needs some type of protection. If this … whoever the fuck this is, has a hook in her, she needs to be protected from it. Can you create a barrier for her?"

"Yes. Yes, of course. Can you stay in... in there until I'm ready, Lucy-sama?"

"I can, and just call me Lucy, she says."

Laxus turned back to her. "Say I go along with you, and it's not a celestial mage, which makes no fucking sense, but I'm pretending I'm buying it in theory. Who could it be?"

She bit her lip and leaned back against the clock's back wall. After a few long minutes she came back to press against the glass. "Trant, she says."

"Trant," he repeated. "Trant. He could get his hands on a key, yeah. But use it?"

She leaned back, "Maybe he doesn't have to so much. Maybe the situation is somewhere in the middle of Capricorn and Crux's thoughts. Trant encourages it in someway, but Luk Kai reaches for me because I'm actually a celestial spirit mage, she says."

"Talkin' Jaxon Trant," Bixlow cut into the conversation. "The magic-material man?"

"No," Laxus also leaned back, getting more comfortable with the idea that Lucy was currently safe, even if he wasn't exactly happy with her placement. "This would be his brother. Usain."

"No way to know without going back to Wilnlo and checking, she says."

"Ugh."

"You know I'm right, Laxus, she says."

"I don't know that. I don't know that."

"You do. You're just a bit overprotective at the moment. It's cute. And it'll be cute for about another … day. Then it will not be cute, she says."

He saw something then, recognized something that he had been missing behind the glass, puffy eyes, and a surprisingly good mask. Hiding it, not from him, but from this place that – for her – wasn't home. And from his team, who she probably thought didn't deserve what she was so desperate to tuck away. Who wouldn't really understand what they'd been through over the past month.

Terror. Pure, unadulterated terror. Not just residual sadness from the attack. Not the usual fear or concern that had haunted her – them – since the beginning of the job. This was terror, and it was powerful.

Blood rushed to his ears and the muscles in his back ached. His shoulders. His arms. His hands. He burned with a need to rip the wood of her clock to pieces, to shatter that glass, to get to her somehow. Because fuck he couldn't do a goddamn thing for her. Not like they were.

He closed his eyes and took a long drawn-out breath. "Yes. Yes, fuck yes, I'm being overprotective. And I couldn't give a flying shit if it's cute or not."

"I have a meeting with Vew, tomorrow, she says."

Laxus swallowed, "Since we didn't make the party tonight?"

"Since that, yeah, she says."

He turned to Freed, who was writing fast, and caught his attention. "The wards at my place. You think they're good enough to protect her?"

Freed looked from him, to Lucy, and back. "I don't know how this spirit works, so I can't make promises-"

"Expert opinion, Freed."

"Yes. Especially if you wait and let me give her this personal one."

"And the link, she says."

"The link can wait," Laxus disagreed.

"Not if we're relocating to Wilnlo tomorrow. I'll need to be able to work like I did in Holen, and I can't afford to be that drained, she says."

His jaw clinched. He wanted to yell at her. Wanted to curse and rave and scream and blast the entire area with lightning. But he didn't. He didn't do any of those things. He managed to keep control over himself.

"The link, too, if you can," he said, though he knew his team would hear how little he wanted it done. "We'll go to Wilnlo tomorrow. Tonight, we'll stay at my place. I need at least one good night's sleep."

He watched her very exaggerated eye roll. "You've had plenty of good nights. Last night, for example, you slept very well. Don't act like you haven't slept for days or something, she says."

"Fucking feels like it."

"The more you talk, the less you sound like you enjoy my company, she says."

He snorted, "I thought your team's problems were all Natsu related. I'm beginning to see, now, that I might have given Natsu too much credit, or too much blame."

"Hey. I am not responsible for any of this, she says."

"Sure, you're not, but you certainly haven't made it any easier."

"Well. If you'd let me be bait, I would, she says."

And with that, he decided to not talk to her. Talking to her was only making it worse. Just sit and wait for Freed to finish his work. Bixlow and Ever, seemingly having sensed the mood better than they usually did, were equally silent.

A little over an hour later, Freed finished both the protection ward, and the link. He directed Lucy to get out of her clock spirit, and applied the protection ward to her stomach. He would have applied it to her back, but she said she had a dress that she might wear that would show off her back, and it would look weird to have a rune there.

Laxus nearly broke his mug when she talked about her hypothetical ballgown because he'd rather not ever set foot in another ballroom ever again.

And a dress with an exposed back gave him flashbacks that he didn't want to have.

Freed applied the link magic to her left hand, and Laxus' right. With a slight amount of focus, Laxus pushed power through the rune and she sucked in a breath.

"That feels nice. I didn't realize how much that display with all the gates opening and closing drained me!" Her voice was scratchy and thick, even though it had been over an hour since the attack.

Of course, it was an hour trapped in a clock. Silent and curled in a tight ball. Probably not comfortable in the least.

"Do you want something to drink?" He wasn't exactly inclined to be gracious to a person who seemed determined to throw their fucking life away, but he couldn't seem to help himself. Especially when she looked so damn pitiful.

"Yeah. Yeah, and eat. I don't imagine there's anything worth eating at your place being gone a month as you've been. I-" Her eyes were wide and she pressed a hand to her chest. "I feel it. I feel it reaching for me again." She looked to Freed. Took several steps until she was beside him, and then bent so she could hug him. "Thank you. This will hold, I think. And now, if I can feel it. I can... maybe I can follow it."

She touched her hand to her chest again, pressing hard, before looking up, up, up at him. "Dinner?"

"Yeah." He clinched his teeth, looking at that hand, processing what she said. He'd ignore it. For an hour. Maybe the night. He'd ignore it. For rest. "Not shit at my place. Might as well eat here. Bix, can you order something?" he asked the seith mage, keeping his eyes on Lucy. Worried what could happen to her if he let her out of his sight for the slightest second.

"Will do." The man jumped up and headed for the bar.

Laxus noticed Ever and Freed also kept a close watch on Lucy, who kept a hand over her heart. Almost absently, she returned to the seat she had abandoned, and Laxus followed suit. For another stretch of time, their table was quiet, which made the general quiet of the guild stand out. Lucy had obviously freaked the place out.

Big fucking surprise.

Laxus followed Bixlow's reassuring conversation at the bar, explaining what was going on to Bob and some of the help there. Hopefully smoothing any waves. Within very little time, he brought the five of them curry noodles, and Master Bob himself followed with drinks specific to each of them. He didn't say anything in particular, but he did place a hand over Lucy's for a brief moment, which seemed to unknot a muscle or two.

Laxus appreciated it.

She dove into her food with no small amount of hunger, and seemed to enjoy her drink, which smelled strongly of strawberries, a scent that was a pleasant replacement to so much freaking mint.

Not long after a young Blue Pegasus guildmate brought Laxus a second bowl of noodles, he begin to sense agitation in his partner.

"Hmmm... hummm, mm, humm, hum," she was muttering or humming while tapping her foot

"Lucy?" Evergreen asked.

"Mmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Fine."

Laxus studied her face from the corner of his eye as he continued to eat. "Have an idea about something?"

"Maybe. Why leave the mint like that, but not do anything about it? I said maybe he was hiding his scent, but why hide it when he didn't actually do anything there? He could have done this from anywhere."

"Mint?" Bixlow was confused, but neither he nor Lucy bothered to explain.

"A warning," was Laxus' quick explanation. It seemed obvious to him. "Like Maggie. Like Runnar."

"How is a smell a warning when only you could have caught the smell at that crime scene?" she countered.

Laxus considered, "You said you could smell it in Runnar's room."

"Yeah, but without you having smelled it at the murder earlier that night, I wouldn't know to connect it. It could have been anything. I can't track like you can, and besides that, no one knew I found the body-"

"Except Lord and Lady Holen," Laxus interrupted her, leaning into her side, putting his chopsticks down. No longer interested in the food.

"And Char Holen," she added. "Who could have learned you smelled mint from the servants. It's his house, after all."

Laxus sat back in the booth. His blood cooler by any number of degrees. Considering this accusation. This suspect. "I kind of liked him. At least I didn't despise him like I did so many of the others."

"Char would have, could have, told Magna and Richard about me. It doesn't have to be him."

"Yeah. Yeah. So let's say it could be any of the three. How did they do it, Lucy? They aren't wizards either."

"Like we thought Usain Trant could: Magical objects. Usain's still on the list, maybe. But thinking about it more, he can't know about either of us knowing about the mint to use it as a threat or a cover the way he did in Wilnlo. Not unless someone told him. And who would tell him?"

"Is he close to the Holens? And they wouldn't have Trant's magic access."

"Money is access," she said. "And no, not close."

He wanted to growl. He knew she was right. "What about the key? How would he command the spirit that controlled you?"

"Good question." Laxus watched her unhook a key and call out her cross once more. "Crux. How would a man without his own magic use and control a celestial key?"

"Make a slave of someone who can," was the simple answer. The simple, terrible answer.

Lucy covered her mouth.

"Yes. You're right. I'm sorry. I forgot."

"I understand. You're in trying times, Miss Lucy. I have an answer on your other question; though, it is not a helpful one. Dao Luk Kai is not currently under contract with a celestial spirit mage."

Lucy removed her hands. "It actually is very helpful. If it is being used, but no celestial mage is contracted to use it, that means it has to be activated by some means other than normal. Or it is acting on its own. What do you think, Crux? Is Luk Kai calling for me of its own volition, or is it being manipulated by someone not used to handling spirits?"

Silence overtook their table as the cross appeared to slumber. Lucy watched him with patience, and Laxus, having had enough experience with the spirit by this point, did the same. Which was the only thing keeping his team from asking questions. He could see Bix and Ever begin to fidget at the end of the fourth minute. Luckily it was only five minutes before the cross came alive again with a shout.

"While Capricorn is not wrong that the base of Dao Luk Kai rests on the death of the mother and the mourning suicide following that death, a spirit seeking a master would not encourage that potential contract to sorrow of that depth. It is absolutely illogical. On the other hand, you are a threat for the criminal you hunt, and their only hope now is to get you out of the way. Being a killer, the easiest way to do that is to kill you, and from a distance, if possible. The answer I would give, though it seems impossible, is that someone without any skill of spirit magic at all is controlling one of the alternate zodiac keys."

Lucy bit her lip, and Laxus clenched his teeth.

"Thank you, Crux. Thank you for all of your help."

"Of course, Miss Lucy."

"Close the Gate of the Southern Cross."

Lucy looked at him, "It's Char. I know it is. He fits as well as Runnar did, and more than that, he's the only one of the list who could gather the cause to kill his brother."

"Why?"

"He's now the Holen heir."

"And you? Why you?"

"I don't know."

But Laxus did. Laxus remembered the way they looked at her in that first hotel. The remembered the way they dove for her when they came out of the carriage at the front door in Holen. He remembered the unhappiness when Runnar took her away from them. He remembered Richard coming to him to see if she was available for the taking. He had assumed Magna, based on Magna's general behavior. But thinking about the way he was with his dinner partners, he flirted with Lucy no more than anyone else. Char had a preference.

Char had a preference.

Laxus knew.

"Char invited you to the party, but Runnar was the one who spent the most time with you," he mentioned. The only part of his long thought.

Laxus remembered the prostitutes and the way they'd treated them. Laxus remembered Runnar and the way he'd treated Lucy. Laxus remembered how Runnar had propositioned Lucy. Gone to her room. And died for it.

"Runnar shouldn't have been there," Lucy explained. "He was too old, and had already been married. Those parties were for the younger kids, the single ones. Rebelling against their parents, maybe the last time before they were forced to toe the line..."

"And Char invited you..."

"And Char invited me, yes."

"Will he come to Wilnlo? He'd have to be out of his goddamn mind, Lucy. His brother just died..."

"If he is what we think he is, it goes without saying that he's out of his mind. Out of his mind and in year four of a compulsion to do this. He has to do this. He feels it as a burning need, and at the same time, he feels threatened that he won't be able to. Cornered, desperate. Suffering from withdrawals from something that might as well be an addiction." She put a hand on his shoulder, "If we don't get to him before the Wilnlo event begins, yes. He'll be there."

Laxus looked at her, at the woman he'd been charged at the beginning of the season to protect, and had done such a lousy job of doing so. At his old guild mate. At a friend. At a person he'd, in such a short time, come to love. And in loving, come to fear.

All he could see was failure.

And death.

Women on cold floors. Broken. Starved of air.

His fault. His failure.

If he lost her...

"Then we'll go to Wilnlo," he said. Though it was the last place on Earthland he ever wanted to go again.

0000X0000

Author's Note

Happy Holidays!

Okay, so... my first really big add to the series, the "white gold" keys. I live in Thailand. Dao Luk Kai (or Look Kai, but I chose the "luk" spelling to make it less confusing) is a Thai star story. It is basically this:

A really really really poor couple was super poor and hungry. Eventually they were able to trade a TINY amount of rice for a chicken. The chicken did okay, and eventually managed to lay 7 eggs, having 7 chicks. THEN a monk came from the woods. It is custom for people to offer something of value to a monk to make merit. So, the couple, though they are still poor and hungry, decide to cook the chicken. They still have the 7 chicks, so they'll be okay. The hen, hearing this, tells her chicks to take care of themselves. The hen is killed and cooked. In their great sorrow for the loss of their mother, the 7 chicks throw themselves in the fire, killing themselves in mourning. This was super meaningful and impressive and stuff, so the 7 chicks were immortalized in the stars … they are known to people in the west as the Pleiades cluster of stars.

Super freaking depressing, right? I think so, at least.

Anyhow. Did they learn anything meaningful here? WHO KNOWS?! Me, you say? Do I? WHO KNOWS?!

Yeah, anyway, thanks everyone for reading. Right now I'm looking at about two more chapters, MAYBE three. I make no promises on update speed (especially since I started Family while doing this, which was silly, but whatever), but I'll do the best I can!

Hugs and loves and all that jazz. Please review.

(Thanks to the Guest Reviewer: Moon for everything, since I can't PM. I appreciate so much the support, and I'm happy you've enjoyed everything so far!)