Hi. ;)

Am I the only one who is dead-tired because of the time-thing where you set your clock and hour back. xP

Anyway...

Chapter 16.

Ares might be dead...

Lucy walked restlessly around her apartment for hours while thoughts circled around her mind, but there was no sign of Loki yet. He had just disappeared without a word and hadn't come back.

In need for something better to do, Lucy sat down in front of her desk and pulled out a blank piece of paper. She took a pen and started writing with her cursive handwriting.

The words almost wrote themselves and she just had to guide her fingers back and forth the paper. For just that moment her mind was completely sucked into the world of her story and she forgot about everything around her. Hours now felt like minuets and the world kept floating until-

"Lucy…" a voice said weakly behind her. She spun around in her chair, the pen sliding out of her hand.

"Loki," she said shocked when she saw the spirit. He was barely standing and flickered like a projection. She jumped out of her chair and grabbed around his shoulders, "what happened?" she said with a small voice.

"We killed Mania," Loki said with a grin and lost balance for a second. Lucy made a small gasp and helped him back up.

"Here, sit down," she commanded and helped him to the bed. He let her guide him to it and let himself fall back on it and gasped for breath.

"I-it's pretty hard to stay here, I'm kind of…" he stopped to inhale, "out of breath." Then he laughed tiredly and closed his eyes to concentrate about gathering powers, but he just flickered even more. Lucy knew she was suppose to say ´get back to the spirit word and relax´ or ´you can tell me everything tomorrow´, but she just had too many questions, so instead she was extremely selfish and asked:

"Please tell me what happened," with a small voice.

His smile disappeared and he opened his eyes slowly. For the first time Lucy realized his hand was clenching around something. He raised his closed fist slowly and held it toward her, his breaths was still irregular, but he got a few words out.

"Baldur's key…" he murmured and let it drop into her outstretched hands. She felt the cold metal against her skin and a familiar feeling of protection when she closed her fingers around it.

"Baldur… so he is okay?" Lucy asked and choke the question that was eager to slip.

"Yeah, he's fine…" Loki murmured, "I mean, he's a mess, but he's alive."

"And Ares?" Lucy said quietly.

"It's kind of hard to explain," Loki said and scratched his cheek, "but I actually don't know."

"What?" Lucy said surprised and looked at him in surprise. He didn't know?

"Let me explain," Loki said and sat down on her bed. He coughed professionally and Lucy rolled her eyes, "I arrived to Mania's house – what was left of it anyway – and found Baldur and Mania fighting..."

A rain of rocks and dust filled the air as Baldur punched his way through a (before solid) wall. Mania laughed amused and jumped out of his range once again.

"Baldur!" Loki yelled when the thick cloud of dust faded slowly. The spirit turned, and Loki took a step back in surprise when he was met by Baldur's furious glare.

"Get Ares somewhere safe," he said shortly and turned back to his fight. Loki made a small nod and started looking around. Big pieces of wall and furniture's were shattered all over and Ares could lie crushed under several of them.

"Damn it," Loki mumbled under his breath and ran over to a huge piece of wall and with effort he got it lifted away, but only found empty air and dust underneath. He ran to another place where a couple of chair had been crushed to a pile of wood on the floor, and spread it out to see if Ares had been hid beneath, but that was not the case.

Before Loki could check somewhere else a huge explosion echoed around him and the next moment Baldurs body was crushed into him and he exhaled in pain when he was punched to the ground with Baldur on top.

"Get the hell off me!" he rasped under Baldur. The muscular spirit hurried away and yanked Loki up by the shoulder.

"Did you find him?" he asked and wiped some blood off his cheek.

"No," Loki responded and rubbed his neck.

"Look harder," Baldur demanded.

"Yeah yeah…" Loki said and sighed exhausted, "why don't you look for him and I'll fight?"

"I wouldn't feel as satisfied," Baldur said with a scowl and tensed when Mania came into eyesight with her huge grin on. She was bleeding from her mouth and forehead, but she still laughed crazily.

"Already done?" she mocked cheerfully. Baldur gritted his teeth and stormed forward.

"Did you find him?" Lucy interrupted the story.

"Well… Baldur fought for a long time and got some heavy bruises, but in the end he got her down," Loki murmured and grinned, "we looked for Ares for hours, but he was all gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" Lucy said surprised.

"I mean what I said," Loki said and rolled his eyes, "that's what took me so long – we even went to check the spirit town."

"He can't just be gone," Lucy mumbled frustrated.

"I'll check again," Loki promised, "meanwhile, you can get some sleep, 'kay?"

Lucy laughed humorless, how could she sleep when one of her friends was in missing - or dead? Loki put a hand on her shoulder and forced her to look into his eyes.

"I wish I could stay and comfort you, but I'm basically… worn out," as he said it his body flickered again. Lucy nodded and looked down. "Hey! Cheer up," Loki said and lifted her chin with a finger. She looked into his eyes and saw the warmth and calmness, which Loki always seemed to have when he needed to.

"Loki," she murmured, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he laughed and kissed her forehead, "don't apologize for anything."

"But I just want to-"

"No!" he interrupted and closed his eyes with a smile, "just get some sleep, whatever you want to say, it's okay."

He kissed her forehead with a smile and Lucy closed her eyes. She let herself breathe in the familiar smell of his body and the warmth of his presence. And when she opened her eyes again he was already gone, and somehow he had left her in a very sleepy state. She let herself fall down on the pillow and sighed deeply before she fell into a dreamless sleep.

"Lucy!" a voice said and shook her lightly, "Wake up!"

Lucy rubbed her eyes tiredly and looked into two pair of eyes. She shrieked surprised and sat up in her bed. She still had her clothes from yesterday on. Natsu and Gray were standing over her bed (and had basically broken into her apartment).

"What? What is it," she said flustered.

"It's so good to see you," Natsu said with a huge smile painted on his face.

"Why are you two in my apartment!" Lucy said - almost out of habit.

"We know where your annoying friend is," Gray said looked at her for a reaction.

"My annoying friend?" Lucy said. Suddenly all the past days events clicked into her head again and she looked down. This scene where Gray and Natsu stormed into her apartment had been so familiar that she had forgotten everything that had happened for a second.

"Yeah, that Ares person," Natsu said happily.

"B-but how did you two know?" Lucy asked surprised and stared at their brightened faces.

"Loki told us yesterday," Natsu answered, "now come." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of bed. Lucy let him and smiled to herself. Of course Loki would involve everyone.

next chapter is being written. Please review. ^_^ and hope you liked.