"She hijacked Happy!" Natsu huffed as he brought himself back to his feet. The scuff on his forehead from Chelia's boot was red and throbbing. Lyon just sighed, releasing the clasp on his cape.

"Are you two coming? We ought to catch up to them."

"Yeah," Lucy said, unclipping three keys from her belt. As soon as she brought them up, one of them glowed brilliantly, preempting her summons. When the light dissipated, Loke stood, a frown on his face.

"It's about damn time, Lucy."

"Loke! Long time, no see, man!" Natsu cheered, walking forward to greet the lion spirit. He paused mid-stride as Loke's head turned and leveled him with a searing glare. As the spirit opened his mouth to say something to the fire mage, Lucy cut him off.

"Please don't do this now, Loke. We've got other problems going on," she tugged on his blazer's sleeve as she moved to follow Lyon. Loke turned back to his contractor.

"Fine, but we're talking about all of this later. No excuses." The lion's voice left no room for argument and Lucy's muted nod left Natsu confused. He had never heard Loke speak like that to Lucy before and he'd never been on the receiving end of Loke's glare before.

Just what was going on?

He took off after the pair, but broke off to follow Lyon after Lucy ran up a fire escape to get a higher vantage point. He could hear her call out Sagittarius and Aries. Natsu could smell the hordes of monsters barreling their way to Lamia's hometown. He'd have to figure out what was going on with Lucy and Loke later.


Lucy reached the top of the building, now able to see the throngs of creatures descending upon the town. The sheer volume of them was frightening, but Lucy hoped her plan could take out a number of them before they'd have to engage directly with the enemy.

"Moshi, moshi!"

"Hello, Lucy-san, I'm sorry!"

Lucy nodded in greeting.

"Here's the plan, guys. Aries, you'll slow down the front lines with your wool and protect the town from any who get past our allies. Loke, you'll imbue Sagittarius' arrows with your light magic and all you have to do is hit your marks, Sagittarius." She looked out at the field before spotting two flying dots. "Just be careful of Chelia, Wendy, and the exceeds. Lyon and Natsu should make it to the battle soon, too."

Her spirits set to work while Lucy began scanning the area closer to their perch. She didn't want to get snuck up on by some mage or monster. Sagittarius let fly his first volley of arrows and, shining with the light of Regulus, they fell like a meteor shower on the horde. The Stellar Spirit mage could hear the low rumbling of the creatures and dark mages falling. She concentrated and pushed a bit more magic into the three keys threaded in her fingers.


Natsu reached the battle just a step behind Lyon, fists already alight. Wendy and Chelia were hitting the forward ranks of the encroaching Orochi forces with combined wind attacks with great success. Lyon jumped towards the left, going to catch a few that had slipped by the girls, so Natsu turned to the right. He jumped straight into the fray, razing the earth and all that stood in his way. The townsfolk were evacuated from this area and the closest allies were in the air, so he started to let loose.

A moving light caught his eye and he looked up, seeing a large group of silvery streaks race across the night sky. The silver bullets arched gracefully down into the masses that hadn't reached his position yet. As the starlights hit their marks, a whole section of monsters and mages fell. The gap left by those that had fallen was quickly filled with pink wool, impeding the process of those behind.

Crap, Lucy had taken out more than him so far.

With renewed vigor, he pushed forward, taking out creatures left, right and center, feeling a swell of pride with every volley of light-cloaked arrows that fell on the Orochi he hadn't reached yet. Maybe he should have taken Lucy up on her offer to spar.


"Lucy."

"Yeah, I sense him," she called back to Loke. "I can handle it; you keep helping Sagittarius."

"Lucy—"

"No, Loke. You stay here in case someone else is close by. I'll call Capricorn if I need help."

Loke caught sight of a few beads of sweat on the back of her neck before she was gone. He gritted his teeth as Aries cast a worried look his way. Sagittarius just dutifully strung up more glowing arrows as he held his glowing fist to the horse-man's quiver. He could tell Lucy was pushing herself again, that extra boost of magic thrumming through his veins was very familiar, but definitely not his. It was Lucy's.

Things just hadn't been the same since that time and there was nothing he could do about it right now.

Lucy scrambled down the fire escape, but jumped off the last ledge to come face to face with the mage they'd sensed.

"Oh ho? A little lady is the one sharpshooting my acquaintances?" The man said, the sickly spots across his nose scrunched in an unsightly way as he grinned.

"Why are you attacking this town? What's your goal?" Lucy stood firm, hand holding the yet to be ignited River of Stars.

"Talk is cheap, miss mage, so let's just skip it," he hissed out. A forked tongue slipped past his lips. Lucy narrowed her eyes. Lucy cracked her whip and sliced through a volley of snakes that shot from beneath his wide sleeves. He took in her slightly disgusted face as the chopped snake pieces sizzled and melted away into some black gooey substance on the ground between them. "Any head you cut off this snake will only grow back as two."

As the mage charged her, Lucy couldn't help but mutter, "That's a hydra, you idiot."

Her celestial magic spiraled around her whip, igniting it, and wrapped around her advancing foe, throwing him headfirst into the metal dumpster behind him. The steel caved to his body just a bit, and he shook himself before sizing her up again.

More snakes sprung from the recesses of his clothing and her whip whistled through the air.


Dammit, one had gotten by him! He spewed flames back towards the throng, catching Aries' wool on fire with a type of flame that would last a while and burned hot and slow. Racing after the scent of the bastard he'd missed, he could hear the sound of battle coming from an alleyway. The two mages that hung out with Lyon were taking on a mage that must have been inside the city before the attack occurred. He could feel the magic negating barrier on the fringe of his senses. Natsu pressed on.

His quarry took several more turns and Natsu began to recognize the area as where Lucy had headed. He heard a yelp and immediately pushed harder. He skidded around the corner and saw Lucy get thrown to the side, her glowing whip pulling a different mage along for the ride. As his anger was taking hold, he saw a flash of gold and Capricorn burst from his gate, ramming into the equip mage he'd been chasing.

Lucy picked herself up, cracking her whip and wrapping it around the torso of the serpentine mage she'd been fighting prior to Natsu's arrival. Her face was red and sweaty from exertion. The mage she'd snagged launched some snakes at her from beneath his sleeves.

"Luce!" He saw her flinch at his call, but pulled hard on her whip, sending the snake faced mage flying right at him. His flaming fist met face and the owner of that face was set flying back, through the wall of the already dented garbage dumpster. Natsu spewed a flame through the hole and the entire crate flared brilliantly, a garbled yell and some hissing came from inside. The half open lid slammed shut with a loud crash.

He turned to see Lucy trip up the mage he'd followed and Capricorn delivered a punishing kick to the man's head. Natsu heard a whistling sound and looked up in time to see a barrage of white streaks cross over the alleyway.

"Aries, go home!" Lucy panted.

There was a poof as Natsu heard a "Sorry!" before he moved to help Capricorn beat down on the mage who was using axe re-equip magic. The enemy had seen Lucy's small moment of weakness and advanced on her before Natsu could reach. The blade of the mage's halberd caught Lucy in the arm as she dodged and she hissed.

"Sagittarius, Loke, time's up!"

"Lucy-dono, most of the enemy forces have been subdued. Until next time." The archer was gone in a twinkle of star light.

Natsu thrust forward in a high kick, back to back with Lucy's master martial artist spirit. A blinding light descended into the alleyway as the axe mage flew up in an arc from the force of the double kick.

"Now that I'm out, you can't make me go back!"

The lion smacked both of his blinding fists down into the mage, knocking him out cold. Lucy was panting, clutching her heavily bleeding arm and leaning back against the alley wall.

"Go home, Loke."

"No." The lion locked gazes with the woman and flash-stepped to right in front of Natsu, sucker punching him under his jaw.

"Loke! Stop!"

"Gah, what the hell, Loke?" Natsu staggered back. Loke stood before him, strong and defiant. Natsu could feel something menacing rolling off the spirit and the look in Loke's eyes told him that whatever was causing this was serious.

"Miss Lucy, I will continue assisting the others and check on their status, if that pleases you. Will you be alright with Leo?"

"Yes, thank you, Capricorn," she sighed, exhausted. "This has been a long time coming. If everyone is alright, you may go home."

"Please excuse meh."

The goat briskly walked out of the alley, ignoring Loke and Natsu completely.

"You bastard, you utter bastard," Loke growled. "You have no idea what's been going on while you've been gone."

"Of course I know what's going on! Fairy Tail disbanded and everyone split up!" Natsu swiped under his chin again. "What's that got to do with you punching me like that?"

Loke gave a low, dark laugh. Lucy called out his name quietly, pleadingly.

"Don't even get me started on you, Princess. You haven't let me open my gate on my own since the night this asshole left. Now that you've opened it yourself, I'm not going back until he understands just what happened here."

"What do you mean, you haven't been able to open your gate?" Natsu took a step forward. "You've always been able to come and go as you please."

"Of course that's what you'd hone in on…" Lucy whispered, staring at the ground.

"Lucy blocked me from opening my gate even though I wanted to get out—"

"You wouldn't have gone back if you were able to get to Earthland!" she shouted.

"Of course, I wouldn't have gone back to the Spirit Realm!" he shouted back. "You needed someone to help you since that guy wasn't here and ran off on his own!" He pointed at Natsu, who was feeling more and more lost as the contractor and contracted yelled back and forth.

"You needed to rest after what happened in Tartarus and if you stayed here, you would have gotten hurt!"

"So what? I've been here for three years on my own power before. Even if I was still injured from fighting Jackal, I'd have been okay to simply sit with you!"

"I wouldn't have been okay, Loke!" Tears were falling quickly from Lucy's eyes and Natsu was a little shocked. Her voice broke. "I can't do it! I just can't do it again! If I never saw you… I…"

Loke's defiant eyes melted as her words passed his ears. He walked forward and crouched before the Stellar Spirit mage.

"If I couldn't see any of you anymore…" her voice was soft but rough around the edges from her constricting throat. Loke took her hand and Natsu could see he was shaking a little.

"I know… you did a brave thing and it cost you horribly," he murmured against her knuckles. "I wasn't what you needed and that hurt, but you need to remember something, Lucy."

The pair made eye contact.

"Even if you can't see us anymore, we'll still be together. You've never been and will never be alone again."

Lucy broke into a new wave of tears, silently crying into her free hand, smudging blood from her arm uncaringly on her face. Loke looked up at Natsu.

"She needed you and you weren't there. Lucy puts on a brave face, but she lost as much as anyone who fought against Tartarus." Natsu felt a little indignation rise in his stomach. Igneel had—

Loke's ring lit up before he could completed his thought and a grainy projection of a battered Lucy, unconscious in the arms of her bleeding siren spirit appeared. The water bearer looked furious. The scene flashed and Lucy was sobbing, holding a broken Zodiac key. Another flash and Lucy was using caster magic, eyes glowing brightly and the mark of Aquarius bold across her clavicles.

As he watched Lucy fall, the mark sizzling off her skin, Natsu felt that little ball of resentment contract and sit like a stone deep in his core, heavy with regret. Lucy had been dealing with that and hadn't even told anyone. There were only a few days between the end of their conflict with Tartarus and the day he left on his journey. He hadn't seen her more than once and she had seemed okay, if not a little subdued.

Fairy Tail had disbanded just after he left and everyone had parted ways. She'd had no one to turn to. He'd had Happy and then Gildarts to help him talk it through.

"Luce…" Natsu could feel the blood draining from his face as his eyes locked on her. Her tears had subsided, but her shoulders still shook. After one last chaste pressing of his lips to Lucy's knuckles, Loke stood and came shoulder to shoulder with the dragon slayer.

"Just… don't leave again… please, for her."

Natsu murmured as Loke faded into star dust, "I wasn't planning on it."

He stepped over and crouched down by Lucy. He'd just reached out to remove her hand from her face when footsteps came from around the corner.

"Natsu-san! Lucy-san!" Without even asking, Wendy, who looked quite a bit scuffed up herself ran over and ran her glowing hand over the still-weeping gash on Lucy's arm. "Lucy-san?"

The woman didn't look up or acknowledge the sky mage. Natsu put a hand on the girl's shoulder, knowing she could smell the salt of Lucy's tears just as well as he did by the look on her face. Happy and Charle hovered nearby. "Natsu…" the blue exceed whispered.

"I've got it, Wendy. Lucy's mostly just tired," he said. Once Wendy had stood back, he scooped up the Spirit mage. "She used a lot of magic calling four spirits at the same time."

He started walking out of the alley, Happy hovering behind him, unsure.

"Happy, why don't you stay the night with Wendy and Charle? I need to talk to Lucy about something," he muttered. No doubt Wendy heard him, too, but she didn't say anything. Happy just looked at him with big eyes then lingered with a glance at Lucy who had curled up and pressed her face into his shoulder. "We'll come get you in the morning." The exceed flew slowly over to the former Fairies and Natsu turned around.


Thankfully, their hotel had been on the other side of town from where the majority of the attacks took place. When he got into the room, he set Lucy on the couch and got started, pulling off her boots. Once her boots were off, he shooed her into the bathroom and heard the water turn on. He wiped himself down with a rag from the small kitchenette and changed out of his shirt. Lucy emerged in a plain t-shirt and some shorts that he and Happy had thought might be pajamas when they'd packed for her.

Natsu corralled her over to the softer of the two beds in the room and the woman curled up, leaning against the wall, fingers grazing the area around her collar bone. He'd seen her do it several times since they'd been reunited, but he now knew it was where Aquarius' mark had been. He leaned against the wall next to her and waited.

After several long minutes, she began to talk.

She told him what happened right after they'd been separated in the Plutogrim and how Loke and Virgo had been defeated. She told him about the brutality of the demons and how she'd summoned Aquarius out of desperation. The story tumbled out of her mouth as though she couldn't wait to get it over with. She'd been so close to losing it all and her oldest friend had put herself on the line to protect her contractor.

When Lucy started talking about the sacrificial summoning she'd done, Natsu slipped his hand along her palm to thread their fingers together. He continued to say nothing. What was there to say? He'd experienced terrible loss when Igneel had died, but Natsu himself hadn't made the choice to never be able to see Igneel again. His death was out of his control.

Lucy had chosen to sacrifice her bond with Aquarius in order to save the guild.

Natsu inhaled sharply. Lucy finished her story, a vacant and haunted look in her eyes.

Lucy had chosen to save the guild and not even a few days later, that guild had broken apart. And he, the one who'd brought her to Fairy Tail in the first place, had left even before that, none the wiser to her emotional state.

"Natsu, your hand…"

Her soft voice broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down to their conjoined hands and saw that his knuckles were white and her fingertips were turning purple. Instantly, he relaxed his grip, rubbing her palm to try and start recirculating blood. He heard her sigh and he muttered an apology.

"It's alright."

"No… no, it isn't, Luce." He turned to face her and the sadness and understanding he saw in those whiskey eyes left him cold. "I shouldn't have left… I should have realized."

She leaned her head on his shoulder. He stared up at the ceiling.

"Loke's right, I am a bastard."

"Maybe so, but I'm a bit too selfish. You had to go. I get it. Everyone had to deal with things in their own way."

"You're too good, Luce." Natsu untangled their fingers and tucked his arm around her shoulders. She slipped her own behind his back.

"You came back, Natsu… no one's come back yet," her voice slightly smaller and more fragile that he liked to hear.

Natsu swallowed hard, squeezing her shoulder and letting his head fall on hers. He knew she was referring to her lost family, not just Aquarius now. They sat there for a while in silence until Lucy was on the brink of sleep. He moved to settle her on the mattress and pillows, but she gently snagged his bandaged wrist as he stepped onto the floor.

"Stay… please?"

Natsu lifted the duvet and slid next to her.

"Always."

Lucy just tucked herself against his chest and fell asleep. Natsu stayed up much later, mulling over everything he'd heard tonight. He felt an itch beneath the bandages on his right arm, but ignored it, pulling the sleeping mage a little closer before he finally succumbed to his dreams.


A/N: I'm back on the angst/hurt/comfort train... But again, something I wanted to get out before the next chapter. I don't think it will take as quickly as I wrote to take care of this threat to Lamia Scale, but... that's not what I wanted to write about so you end up with this.

I really think that Loke is going to be pissed when he finally makes an appearance. Anyone else find it odd he hasn't shown up yet, even though Natsu is back and he can open his own gate? I do. I think based on his personality, that when he finally shows up, shit is going to hit the fan and Natsu+everyone will find out about Aquarius.

Anyway, let me know what you think and such. I haven't gotten much further in writing for my spy story I've been teasing with, but there is some art from it I posted on my tumblr account, username there is happyisahabit.

Love, zabeth

PS. I might write a sequel to this, so I'm leaving it as incomplete. I would like to address the fact that Natsu has some bandages that we haven't seen come off his arm... makes me suspicious!