All Rights to Hiro Mashima

I AM SORRY FOR ALL THE WEIRDNESS WITH FANFICTION AND THE UPLOADING AND POSTING! AHHHH! IT WAS STUPID! But it's all good now. (Plus I was in the USA for a friend's wedding down in Cali for two weeks and let me tell you…I'm super tired now. Still recovering from all that food, and fun, and drinks. Shout out to my US followers!)

This chapter was written for quite-a-riot in celebration of her fic 'Passive Aggressive Post-it Notes' absolutely fucking me up and jonesing for more. If you haven't followed it yet…then you have been living under a rock and I politely request that you go and peruse said fic. Pip-pip.

(PSST! I've been working on a separate omake chapter for this story and will post it when we hit 550 reviews. It's complete PWP and its ENDLu. It's massive and sexy and Lucy may or may not wear a maids costume and call END master at one point (lies…IT TOTALLY HAPPENS). slothkat and I were chit-chatting and she requested sexy-fun times and I declared it my next project and promptly threw my smut hat on – similar to a thinking cap, but way better – and dove vagina first into the delicious world of roleplaying. So my precious cupcakes…if you wanna see pure ENDLu smut, don't forget to review!)

Take a quick peeky-poo at my newest short story 'Lightbulb' – it's a Lalu if you like that type of thing.

BEWARE! THE FIGHTS! THE DISTRACTING BLONDE! THE LUSTY DEMON! THE RAVENOUS DRAGON!

Chapter 31: Carnelian

From the Latin word 'flesh' this stone is coloured red-orange and a member of the quartz family; used by the ancient Egyptians to show their rank of Master builder and architect; the first stone in the breastplate of the High Priest, it signified the blood of martyrs and would prevent illness and the plague; named by the Egyptians 'the setting sun' and signified the fertile menstrual blood of the mother Goddess Isis.

The training grounds were a jubilant place that afternoon.

All manner of knights and the rest of Domus Army, as well as some of the castle staff came out to watch the fight between magic users. Cana and Bacchus did a roaring trade, both with the selling of their hidden stocks of booze for those who were watching to imbibe on, and the flurry of betting that commenced within the first few minutes of the teams being chosen.

Cobra's entire team was an unknown entity, and had never fought together in earnest. Their teamwork was a mystery, as were most of their magical abilities. Sting they knew as a Slayer, END was the Demon Lord, and little Wendy was a competent healer, but all had hidden talents and everyone salivated at the proverbial bit to find out more.

Nova's team had trained and fought and practically grown up together, so the bets, even though both sides were probably more evenly matched than anything – were slightly skewed in their favour. The Thunder God, Nova, Titania, and a Lieutenant that many finally recognised as Abaddon were going to be hard to overcome.

The person who had upset the betting pool the most and caused more than a couple of arguments between friends had been the little blue-haired Dragon Slayer, the Sky Maiden, Wendy. She stood meekly at the back behind all of her team mates, either creating a strategy or terrified out of her mind.

But no one could truly tell.

No one knew what her powers were offensively, and the Slayers weren't giving up their secret even when prodded. Ryos waited stoically to see if Sting would be able to cohesively work with anyone else in a fight other than him, and Gajeel pouted beside Levy at the fact that he hadn't been chosen for this brawl and was delegated to watching from the sidelines. His countenance was akin to that of a grouchy bear; none deemed it safe enough to approach and ask what mysterious things Wendy had hidden up her tiny sleeves.

They would just have to wait.

One by one, the eight mages paired off against each other, so that each could fight against a single person, to keep the brawl relatively ordered of course. But everyone knew that it would inevitably dissolve into chaos, it was just a matter of time.

Wendy bowed lowly at Freed, her chosen opponent and the one who would most likely fight fairly. He was a gentleman at heart, so he bowed back, matching the bend of her waist with one just as deep.

Laxus smirked and sent off a jolt of electricity, a small spark really, at END. They had something to settle between them both. Instead of intimidation…it seemed to rile the Demon up and END cackled, ready to test himself against the almighty Thunder God. It seemed that END couldn't let Laxus get away with the bread throwing incident at their midday meal. A small part of END – who could be classified as his inner Natsu – was hoping to impress Lucy's brother and show him that END could be there for and have Nova's back for the rest of his life…death…timespan of however long he was to be in Earthland.

Titania re-quipped into her speed armour, single sword at the ready. Which she pointed at her chosen enemy, the tip glinting in the low sun-light. "Cobra, I challenge you for this dual. We will try our hardest, but only one will be victorious." It was accepted with a lazy smirk, which fell with her next words. "I still have to pay you back for that pesky poisoning issue a couple years back…"

So that left Sting against Nova, an unlikely pairing and one that Sting (as a Slayer and member of END's haphazard nest) felt a little uneasy about. But, his beast recognised this wasn't a true fight and curled up inside him to watch the proceedings without a second thought. Sting was delighted that he would go up against a user or magic that seemed similar to his own, his element being light. He wondered if he could eat that sword of hers…

The Slayer bounced on the balls of his feet and grinned widely. He was about to show off his moves for his Queen, and hopefully, she would be impressed enough to make him her Right Hand. While END was a Drake, and subsequently the leader, the Queen was always what the nest centred around. She was the middle, and as such would have a Slayer other than the Drake to look to when in need of protection, comradery, or possible training. He had heard of the relationship between Nova and the Thunder God and witnessed it first hand at the midday meal. Perhaps Lucy would come to call him brother as well, their hair was practically the same colour anyways…

His musings were cut short as his opponent for the time being launched herself at him with a surprising amount of speed and he was forced to dodge the attack or get his head chopped off.

It was time to fight.

-ooo-

While Cobra was cursing himself silently for poisoning Titania all those years ago – he had heard she almost lost her arm, but was saved by their resident healer – the Queen of the Fairies herself was suddenly infinitely thankful that she had the forethought to re-quip her speed armour.

Something strange was happening to her opponent, and as she looked around quickly, she realised it wasn't just Cobra, but everyone on the opposing team. He was glowing a vibrant blue-green and his attacks were coming faster than ever before. As Erza dogged yet another swipe of those clawed hands that dripped with green poison – narrowly avoided – she finally realised where the 'power-up' of sorts was coming from.

Wendy.

The little Slayer dodged and weaved around Freed in graceful arcs and bounds, looking as if she had wings strapped to her feet, all while chanting a spell Erza had never heard before but recognised as support magic.

She smiled, her eyes full of pride. That girl was truly a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps with a more intensive training regime, Wendy could become her successor, the next Titania.

Erza's musings were cut short when half her chosen weapon melted onto the ground, poison still sizzling and popping, giving off acrid fumes. She grimaced and threw the now useless sword at Cobra's head, who only chuckled and dodged expertly.

"I can hear everything Titania. Every move you make and every move you are going to make. I can hear it all."

She almost slapped herself in the face. How could she forget Cobra's signature style? His most feared ability? Soul-listening was very rare and a very helpful magic, but it would be her downfall now if she let herself become distracted.

"I apologise Cobra. I will endeavour to take our confrontation more seriously. Forgive me."

It was time to get down to business and stop fantasising over training schedules for Wendy. Erza re-quipped back into her standard everyday armour before pulling a massive metal hammer out of her person pocket of space. It was given to her by travelling archaeologists as a gift. They said it that it was a special weapon that would be able to beat back evil if used correctly. Being as she was the only one that could lift the damn thing, they decided to leave the hammer with her rather than lug it all the way back home.

And even though Cobra wasn't necessarily 'evil' per se…that smirk he was wearing was unbefitting of a mage in the middle of battle. She would show him that overconfidence would be your doom.

It would be painful…but the lesson he would learn would be invaluable. Erza sniffed derisively. She would have made the best teacher in another life.

Cobra listened to Erza's soul as it dwindled down to a single point. It wasn't a sound, but an image of a victorious Titania standing over his unconscious body lying face down in a crater. He blanched as she came at him with new vigour, the hammer she wielded flying through the air as if she was merely swinging around a tree branch instead of a hefty piece of carved metal.

He couldn't hear anything from her except the will to win for her comrades who were counting on her and he was so intent on listening for anything to tip him off to what was running through her mind, he failed to realise that the Holy Hammer (he would hear the name of it later) was on a direct path towards him.

Barely dodging it, he heard a sharp crack and then felt pain in his elbow, his right arm going completely numb from the pain.

He looked down to see the bone of his arm piercing his skin. No one had ever landed a hit like that on him, except Jellal who didn't count because Cobra couldn't hear his soul, and he doubted that anyone else but Titania would be able to do it again.

He looked up to see an avenging angel hell bent on winning coming for him from above.

Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to give away that he could hear her soul…

-ooo-

Two minutes into the fight, Lucy realised that she had made a grave mistake in not choosing her own opponent sooner before she had been forced to clash with Sting.

For one, he was suddenly infinitely faster than before, his strikes coming in at an incredible speed that she had come to recognise as only something that Laxus could do while in his lightning form, or from Racer.

The second and more important part – because she was a fast fighter naturally and could just barely keep up with Sting – was that the bastard's magic was too close to her own.

Her armour no longer was giving her an advantage as it recognised the Light Dragon Slayer's power as close enough that it wouldn't protect her from attacks, which made enough sense to her as the maker of the gold plating that covered her body wouldn't think to put up protection from herself.

Perhaps she would have to go back to Warrod sometime to see if he would be able to fix that little flaw. The master smith had vowed never to make another war instrument, but he never promised not to tweak the ones he had already made.

"Holy Ray!"

She barely dodged the beam of light that hurtled through the dusty air on a direct path towards her head. Lucy grits her teeth and sneered at Sting, who only laughed happily and grinned. "Dammit Sting! You could've decapitated me with that attack!"

"But you're alright aren't you?"

While it was the truth, it didn't make her feel any better. Mentally thanking the Gods above and below that she had never met Sting on the battlefield before she had freed him from his mental prison, she decided to hell with defensive manoeuvres and flung herself headlong into the fray.

Her bright sword clashed with Sting's claws as he deftly caught it out of the air with his bare hands.

And then he did something that stunned her so completely that she was sure that she stopped breathing.

He had taken a hefty bite of her sword and moaned.

"Holy fuck Nova. Your magic tastes like raspberries." And that comment stopped her heart in her chest. She had had her magic described to her before…such as the sight of it or the feeling it created in someone it was used on, but no one had ever told her how it tasted.

That was just so far from normal that she didn't even know how to retort.

As her mind finally ground back into working order, she watched the Slayer slurp up the rest of her sword with a slack jaw. "What the fuck just happened."

"I use light as a weapon. So do you. Just like any Slayer, I consume my element. I eat light in any form to power back up."

Well, wasn't that just dandy. Most of her offensive magic would be useless on top of the fact that her armour was doing jack shit besides weighing her down.

Quickly formulating a plan that she thought would work, Lucy started to strip off her golden armour, leaving it in the ground as it dropped off her form. She would need to summon a Celestial Spirit or two, not Leo though, she couldn't take a chance as the lion primarily used the light of Regulus and Sting could probably eat that as well.

Dammit, he would probably just ingest her arrows as well, as well as her whip. It wasn't named the river of stars for shits and giggles. The damn thing was infused with starlight.

So that left a single weapon at her disposal. One that she was more than happy to wield as the maker now stood battling her brother somewhere to her left. (She could hear those idiots trading barbed words like younglings.)

She swiped her fingers over her keys as she nimbly danced around a fist covered in blinding white. "Aries! Virgo!"

As Lucy's chest plate dropped away, and then her pauldrons, the maid spirit, as well as the shy ram, shimmered out from the Celestial plane to aid her, while three separate things happened simultaneously.

One; Lucy remembered that she was clad only in a corset and plated leggings that showed off her marked shoulders nicely while her breasts spilt out of the tight top, while she heard a deep resounding growl sound beside her somewhere. The sound tugging at her baser instincts while arousal flooded her veins.

Two; a gigantic resounding boom was heard before an unconscious Cobra hurtled through the air at breakneck speeds until he was stopped in his path by a large oak tree. He seemed to be unconscious with his arm bent at an awkward angle.

Three; Nova pulled her last resort, Natsu's short sword he had made her all those years ago, and pushed her own magic through it to let the Dragon fire dance merrily along the blade.

It looked like Titania had won her bout with Cobra, and rightly so. Erza definitely had enough conviction to win. Although perhaps Cobra hadn't gone as hard as possible this time around, maybe he thought that he owed the red-head for his transgressions against her last year.

Swiping and dodging with the flaming blade in her hands, Lucy made it abundantly clear to Sting just who she was and why she was the youngest General in all of Domus' army. To his credit, the Slayer she was battling with took it in stride and laughed once again, his eyes dancing with exuberance.

To say he was happy was like saying that the sun was mildly warm in the afternoon.

Sting pushed against her, stepping up his game and trying to land a hand on her to place a stigma to render her immobile. But Nova was fast and incredibly agile. He was proud to have her as his Queen, she was the perfect match for Natsu, whether he was in his Demon form, or covered in scales, and the fact that she seemed to be able to keep END in check as well was just a bonus.

But he wanted to impress her even more, he wanted to be her right hand. So he willed his limbs to move faster, his brain to make smarter decisions, and his magic to shine just a little brighter. He watched as her face paled slightly as the flaming short sword came down and nicked his right shoulder.

Damn, those flames definitely stung.

"Dammit! Laxus…we need to switch, my magic isn't doing shit here!"

Suddenly his fight with Lucy became a mass of limbs and sparking lightning. Nova and the Thunder God worked in tandem well together, their closeness as siblings shining through.

Unfortunately for him and END, their magic worked against each other, but not the same way as him and Rogue. The Shadow Slayer was the yin to Sting's yang, but the fact that he used Holy Light really didn't work in their team's favour. Natsu was fighting with the power of END, the Demon Lord, and that was just about as unholy as one could get.

Also, Nova was practically spilling out of her corset as she bobbed and weaved and that was doing absolute shit for END's concentration. Couple that with her mating marks on display and the Demon was about as helpful as a kitten drenched in water.

They were also throwing around sexual innuendos that fooled no one into thinking that they weren't flirting while also fighting.

Insane amounts of electricity jolted up Sting's spine and left his fingers slightly smoking. Laxus smirked and wiggled his own fingers in a teasing manner. "Shouldn't look away from your opponent…you might be shocked by the outcome."

Sting pulled a face at the pun and groaned when the blonde before him actually laughed at his poorly executed joke. "Shut up Thunder Thighs…"

Even before the last syllables left his mouth, Sting knew – from the apprehension and dread that prickled his scalp – that he might have slightly miscalculated at that point.

Laxus' eyebrows furrowed into a line and his glower looked like thunder. The next second Sting found himself lying face down on the muddy ground listening to Laxus as the man bent over his prone form and growled so low that he was sure no one could hear them. "Watch your fucking mouth. Only my baby sister can call me that, stupid idiot."

Dammit.

Hopefully, Lucy didn't see his utter destruction at the hands of her brother. Sting also wondered how Laxus had become so goddamn powerful and if he was willing to teach him a thing or two.

But for now, at least, Sting was happy to just lay twitching on the ground until his limbs started to properly work again and possibly just float in the blackness that seemed to be swallowing him up.

A nap did sound wonderful at the moment.

-ooo-

"What the hell is going on here!?"

A shrill voice cut through the revelry on the training grounds mere minutes after Sting had succumbed to unconsciousness. Lucy felt a bit of empathy for the poor Slayer. She knew what it was like to be filled with Laxus' lightning on more than one occasion and hoped that Sting was prepared for the random bouts of incontinence that the Thunder God's power seemed to bring after a fully-fledged attack.

Probably not, but one could hope for the best.

Every person fighting – or in END's case, just staring at his mate dodging attacks because dammit she looked incredible and he was getting so insanely rigid in his loose pants it wasn't funny – and every person on the sidelines, including King Makarov, froze, as the chilling voice rose past annoyed and went straight for fury.

"You stupid idiots! What the hell are you doing? Now I have to waste my time healing your wounds. Gods! This is why I hate humans."

A disapproving "tch" came from somewhere down by Porlyusica's knee – because obviously, it was the taciturn healer who had cut through their fun like a knife and making them feel guilty for blowing off some steam.

They all looked down to see a small white cat in a pink jumper and white skirt shake her head with a disgusted look.

Any confusion they were feeling was dropped when Wendy came streaking out from among those still on the battlefield and scooped up the cat, or Exceed, into her arms yelling the name Charles for all to hear.

Three other Exceeds strolled out and looked around with curious eyes. One, with red fur and a smart blue vest on, made a b-line for the unconscious Sting.

Instead of waiting, Ryos barrelled through the masses and collapsed in front of the green kitten looking as if he wanted to cry with joy while the last and most mature looking one that sported a scar over one eye crossed his arms and locked gazes with Gajeel as they eyed each other up.

Lucy smiled as END wrapped his arms around her middle, nuzzling the marks on her shoulder. The fight was forgotten in an instant as everyone watched the formally asleep Exceeds reunite with their friends.

The blue ball of fur plopped down onto END's silver curls and gripped his horns in his tiny hands, bending over the top of the Demon's head to get a better look at Lucy's face. "Lushi! Did you see that white Exceed! Her name's Charles! She's just so pretty! Do you think she'll like fish?"

Lucy pet the top of Happy's head. It seemed that the little Exceed had gotten over his fear of Natsu's new form very quickly. For that, she was relieved, but not surprised. Happy wasn't one to pass judgement over someone who their looks.

The party moved inside to exchange stories with each other over dinner, the bet was all but forgotten save for Cana who moped beside the Thunder Legion about the amount of jewel going to waste.

Erza told all who could hear about how Wendy had bested Abaddon in battle, becoming one with the wind she conjured. This earned a stern lecture from Charles about the proper comportment for a lady of her age but was brushed off by Wendy when she was asked if she would like to begin training with both Lucy and Erza immediately.

The little Slayer glowed with happiness and accepted almost immediately.

Cobra caught Nova's eye during dessert and nodded once to let her know that their talk wasn't forgotten. Against her better judgement, she was looking forward to it, to know just what made the Seis tick, and why they had participated in the Purge. It wasn't something that she particularly wanted to hear, but it was necessary for her curious heart.

Long after most had dropped off into sleep, Natsu placed Happy down onto a padded cushion near Charles and Wendy – he was sure they would take good care of him if he woke – and led Lucy by the hand up to her chambers.

They had only been mated for little over a day, and his blood and bones hummed to feel her skin against his. He needed this, as did she.

With the inevitable last clash on the horizon, they were both sure that time alone would be in short supply in the coming weeks.