AN: As you already know from my Loke/Kral fight, I'm not particularly proficient at writing fight scenes. I tried using other fights as reference and I just don't seem to have much talent for it, I apologize. Hopefully the upcoming scene does a somewhat better job than my previous attempts. We'll have to see, though.

Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 5:

Lucy didn't know how long she'd been in this lacrima, how long it had been stealing her magic, draining her strength and even pulling the very life from her. The Darkness Magic wizard, Kral, had come back to gloat and watch her in pain four times already and she did not know how long it had been since the last time. She knew, with as slowly as this lacrima was absorbing her, that she had some time left before it was too late. She fought the drain with everything she had, holding onto her magic with as much will as she could muster, trying to delay the completion of the spell. She tried to maintain her faith, but she also knew that she couldn't let her friends, the Spirits, fall under Kral's control.

She had made a plan. If it looked as though she would not be rescued in time, she would bite her tongue deeply enough to end it. It wasn't the best way to go, but she had to protect her friends. She didn't know any destruction magic to cast upon herself as Jellal had tried to do back during the Nirvana incident, so this was all she could think of. She didn't know if that would stop the spell that was absorbing her powers, but it would certainly end the contracts she had with her Spirits. And she did not believe new contracts could be forced upon them using only this lacrima. Death prior to the finalization of the spell should prevent that.

The decision made, she rode out the waves of painful draining magic. Between the waves she rested, nearly passing out. It was with intense relief that she was woken from one of these periods, not by her captor but by Levy.

Levy, Wendy, Carla, Gajeel and Lily! They came for me! Oh, thank Heavens! "Levy? Oh, thank Mavis!" Tears sprung to her eyes and rand down her cheeks. Levy spoke softly and reassured her that it would be alright. Levy told her that their other friends were there as well, and Lucy felt more hope. She was vaguely aware of Levy and Wendy in a discussion, trying to decide a combination of magic that could slow the magic draining spell down to buy the others time. Levy cursed not being able to have her books, but soon they'd decided to try and combine some of Wendy's cleansing magic and rune magic, even though runes were not Levy's specialty.

Before they could begin, however, the next wave of magic came and Lucy was screaming again. Through the pain Lucy swore she heard a faint call that came in Natsu's voice, "Lucy! We're on our way!"

When it was over she kept herself from slipping into sleep so that she could pay attention to what Levy and Wendy were doing.

Gajeel and Lily were keeping guard while Wendy and Levy worked. Levy wrote runes on the lacrima that were infused with Wendy's cleansing magic. They were designed to inhibit magic within their bounds enough to cause the lacrima's draining effects to slow down. Levy couldn't figure a way in which to completely stop it, but she hoped this would help. The idea of combining the magic types was to also try and reduce the pain it put Lucy through as well.

When the next wave of absorption magic hit her, though I still hurt and made Lucy cry out, she could tell that it took somewhat less magic from her, and had not hurt as badly. She smiled reassuringly afterwards to let them know it had apparently worked, but she was still too exhausted to speak for a couple of minutes.

It seemed as well that the runes extended the duration in which she had to recover, thankfully. It allowed her to have a brief conversation after she'd caught her breath. She took the opportunity to appraise Levy of her wishes should she somehow fail to be saved.

"Levy?"

"Yeah, Lulu?"

"I know that you are all trying your hardest to get me out, and I have faith that you will. I have faith that Natsu, Erza and Gray can beat this guy. But…" and here she hesitated, "just in case the worse does happen, in case I can't be saved, I want you to make sure you destroy this lacrima and, if my keys can be found, take them to Yukino. I know she would take very good care of my friends."

"Lulu, that isn't going to happen. But if it will help you to feel better, then I will promise."

"Thank you, Levy." Lucy smiled and tried to stay calm and relax until the drain of magic again came. Natsu would save her, she was sure. But at least her friends would be safe if something went wrong.

The army of shadow shades was beginning to lessen, but was in no way done, and Natsu was becoming impatient. He knocked a particularly large shade into a wall and noticed an odd shudder to the wall that should not have been. Suddenly he knew part of what was going on and growled low in his throat.

"Gray, Erza, down!" he yelled and let loose with a Crimson Lotus Exploding Flame attack. The spell vaporized the remaining shades and dispelled the illusion that was on the hallway, hiding the entrance to the wizard's sanctuary.

"An illusion?" Gray asked from behind his nearly broken Ice Shield.

"It would appear," stated Erza dryly, her own shield scorched but fine. "Good work, Natsu."

"Let's go kick this guy's ass!" Natsu exclaimed and stalked toward the wizard's door, fists blazing.

He was incapable at this point of reining himself in from his anger and ended up punching in the door in his usual dramatic fashion.

The wizard stood prepared, waiting for them. His dark eyes were fierce with a crazed quality to them. In either hand he held a cantaloupe sized lacrima, each glowing with power, one a silvery color, the other a dark and sickly green. On a table behind him stood several more lacrima. One was a sullen purple that only weakly glowed, as if it had been drained.

Natsu, in one of his moments of remarkable clarity, understood what these were. All those lacrima, glowing with power, were other wizards that this monster had used in the same way he was using Lucy! The one that looked dull and drained was likely the magic of an illusion wizard. The evil of this wizard had to be stopped.

Without any of his usual threats, questions or warnings, Natsu attacked. The wizard winked out of sight and reappeared behind Gray, ready to attack. Erza was faster, though, and swung at him with her sword. It would have connected, too, if he hadn't winked out of sight again. So one of those lacrima was for teleportation magic. The fight appeared to be a bit trickier than they had anticipated. Natsu attacked next with a blast of his fire and yet again Kral teleported out of the way. He reappeared too close to Gray, however, who let out with a hard kick. It caught the wizard in the stomach and he doubled over, disappearing again. When he appeared next he cast upon them a cloud of the sickly green magic which turned out to be a poison cloud.

They tried not to breathe much of it in, but it was difficult not to get in some, and things became slightly fuzzy, to them. Luckily they all had hearty constitutions and this one cloud of poison magic was not enough to fell them….yet. But it was powerful and they couldn't let him get more of that magic out. He appeared close to Erza again and she thrust her sword with such lightning speed that he couldn't completely dodge it.

Kral's eyes were full of shock as she contacted, not with his body, but with the lacrima in his hand! Erza had determined that he would not fell them with this cowardly poison. The sickly green orb shattered and the wizard cried out, clutching his head and disappearing, to appear behind the desk again.

Natsu's eyes narrowed, and comprehension dawned in the eyes of both Gray and Erza. Erza had merely been trying to disable his use of that particular magic, but it appeared that even after the lacrima were finished draining the magic of their victims, they never fully lost their connection to the blood magic user. This was one reason that blood magic was forbidden, the consequences to the caster could also be very high.

The three exchanged looks and nodded, an unspoken plan in place. Yes, they would still fight him, but destroying the lacrima would be another means of taking him down. And perhaps it might release whatever remained of the poor souls that had been so terribly captured in them.

Kral saw what they knew in their eyes and knew he had to protect the lacrima. He fought with more urgency, picking up another lacrima and throwing lightning and water spells at them. Gray froze the water, Erza used her Lightning Empress Armor to deflect the lightning, and Natsu attacked again. He went for the wizard with a flaming fist, but also took the opportunity to destroy another of the lacrima. This time he clutched his heart and grabbed as many of the lacrima as he could to protect them. He winked out and reappeared next to the door. Only two remained on the desk, and he tried to escape out the door. Apparently he could only teleport to locations he could physically see. Gray put an ice barrier across the door and Natsu smashed another of the lacrima on the desk while Erza attacked him again.

Kral managed to dodge Erza's sword but only barely, and cried out in pain once more from the loss of the next lacrima. Erza slashed again and caught him across the side. He dropped two more lacrima on the ground. They were not damaged, but Gray gathered them up quickly. The wizard still had three in his possession but he was panting and having difficulty even standing. Natsu came in for an attack and the wizard let out with the magic of the first lacrima at hand. Unfortunately for Kral, it happened to be a fire wizard's magic. The blast hit but Natsu simply ate the fire. Kral's eyes went wide, understanding his error, and he cowered from the unbelievable sight of a man devouring fire. Natsu looked incredibly fearsome as he wound up for a large wing attack. Erza and Gray prepared themselves to duck if need be, and Kral had nowhere to hide when the flames hit him. The remaining lacrima in his arms were also destroyed at that point, as well as the three that he did not hold, simply from the extent of the fire blast.

Kral was left in a quivering, writhing mess after the attack. The backlash of the blood magic was strong, indeed. The three comrades gathered and stared down at him. "I'd say that counts as defeating him," said Erza.

Natsu nodded grimly in agreement. "Now we just have to drag is ass down to wherever he's got Lucy and use his blood to cancel the spell holding her."

Gray thought for a moment. "Let's check the desk, quickly, just to make sure there aren't any more lacrima left."

"Screw that, Stripper! I'm not waiting around a second longer than I have to. I'm getting Lucy out!" shouted Natsu. He grabbed the back of Kral's clothes and started dragging him out back towards the foyer where he meant to catch Lucy's scent.

Erza looked between Natsu and Gray. Gray shrugged and she told him to make a brief pass through the room, and catch up quickly, then followed Natsu out.

Natsu finally arrived at the cell holding Lucy in the middle of another wave of draining magic. He rushed in and upon seeing her screaming and writhing in pain within the sphere he dropped Kral and rushed to the lacrima. He shouted her name and pressed his fists against the lacrima, wanting nothing so much as to break it open. He realized, however, that would be a terrible idea and stayed as close to her as he could while she rode out the drain of her magic.

When it was over and she looked at him, panting and weak but with such heartbreaking relief in her eyes he almost lost it. "We're here, Luce. We're getting you out of there." She smiled a tired and weak smile, but nodded. "Erza, can you bring that asshole over here so we can get Lucy out?"

Erza brought him over, and even though Kral was already bleeding from his side she preferred to reopen the cut he'd made when he activated the spell in the first place. Then she forced his hand against the side of the sphere. The lacrima glowed an angry red briefly, a spell circle appeared on the outside for about ten seconds then it went back to looking like a simple empty lacrima sphere, except Lucy was still inside.

"The spell was stopped," Levy said. "That's what that magic circle was about. But it looks like we'll still have to break her out of the lacrima."

"Luce, cover your face," Natsu said and brought back a flaming fist to break the lacrima apart.

When it shattered, Lucy was sprawled on the broken shards of the lacrima and Kral groaned again as if in pain. Apparently he was still linked to the magic, even after it was deactivated. Natsu rushed forward and picked Lucy up off of the shards to bring her over to the edge of the room where he could sit her down for Wendy to look at her.

There were tears in Lucy's eyes and one hand stayed clutched onto Natsu's sleeve, not letting him go. "I knew you'd come," she whispered, then passed out, finally able to rest after her ordeal. Natsu stayed holding Lucy as Wendy worked to heal her hurts and see what lasting damage might have been done. Erza had Levy contact Cana to report in with what had happened and to request the rune nights to come pick up Kral and conduct whatever investigation they felt necessary. Erza also remembered a bounty on a wizard that seemed to match with Kral and she wanted to make sure they gave him over directly to the rune knights to make sure they collected on it. It may not have been their intent, but this wizard had been wanted for 8 years and Erza was practical enough to make sure they benefited from this horrible situation.

Gray found them and smiled in relief to see Lucy was alright. Levy was leaving instructions with Cana on where she'd meet the rune knights to lead them to the manor, then asked if Lily would go with her to meet them. Gajeel started to say he'd go with her, but Erza said she wanted him and Gray to stay with her so that there was no way the dark wizard would be able to escape. Lily should be enough protection for Levy, she argued, and Levy agreed. Gajeel grumbled but ended up agreeing.

Wendy declared that Lucy would be alright, eventually. She was suffering from severe magical deficiency from the draining of her magic. True, the lacrima had not been able to steal all of her magic and still had at least another hour or two to go before it had managed that, but the severity with which it was pulled from Lucy's body had caused damage to her, and it would not be wise for her to use magic for several days. Physically Wendy had healed the bruises, the cuts, and done what she could for the aches and pains as well, however the stress of the ordeal would have left Lucy exhausted, probably for a couple of days after this. She would need a lot of rest to fully recover. But she stated that it was fine to move her, and that it would be a good idea to get her home. The rune knights could very well come to her for any questioning they wished to do.

Erza, Gray and Gajeel agreed that they would be fine by themselves with the dark wizard and urged Natsu to take good care of Lucy.

Happy flew at Natsu's shoulder the whole way back, worried and near tears for their friend, letting the worry that Natsu felt, but tried to keep in, have a way to be shown. As they returned to Magnolia the little Exceed held Lucy's keys, that Gray had found and recovered, tightly to his chest as if he were hugging Lucy herself.