All Rights to Hiro Mashima

To keep as much as I could cannon compliant – even though this is a divergent story between GMG and Tartaros – Erigor the Reaper did not escape with the Neo Oracion Seis this time around. After Wendy healed his mind with the help of Bickslow, in this story, Erigor gave himself up and was convicted guilty of the murders he committed while he was the Ace of Eisenwald. Essentially, he is in solitary without a chance of parole for the rest of his life. Imitation/Michelle is still compliant and so is Ultear in the battle of Dragons/GMG arc.

Other than that, please enjoy the next chapter and have a happy and healthy New Year! :3

Stay crazy my precious cupcakes.

SEVEN

Laxus growled as soon as he got down the stairs to the cellar.

He knew that scent. He's smelt it before, during the battle with Future Rogue. Caustic and sweet.

Poison.

"—Cobra!? What the fucking hell—" He was so agitated that he had started to spark erratically. How had one of the Seis managed to sneak down here without anyone noticing other than his Gramps?

The small amount of magic he was giving off unconsciously was just enough light for him to see that there wasn't just one but seven mystery mages in their basement.

Goddamn, that old man.

Of course, these were the guests that they had in their damn basement.

Jellal lowered his hood quietly. "I apologize for this intrusion, but we were summoned by Master Makarov. I assumed it was urgent so we came as soon as we were able."

Laxus pointed at the Seis with a question in his eyes as Cobra's lip curled into a sneer. Jellal tilted his head in understanding. "They're with Crime Sorciere now. I will explain everything to the Master when we see him."

"Tch, Fine. We were supposed to meet an hour ago, but my team and I are the only ones back."

Cobra's eyes shot to his as he listened to Laxus' soul. "Is it only Slayers? Or does the spell work on other mages too?"

"That would be a question for Freed. I never thought to ask." Because if they were after only Slayers, then Peanut was in trouble as well. Wendy was as vicious as they came, but she was still a hatchling by Dragon standards. She was the only Queen they knew of too, so she had to be doubly careful.

Everyone looked a little lost in their stilted conversation, so Laxus shook off his apprehension and beckoned them forward until they were out of the cellar and directed to wait in their expansive library. "Stay here until the Master comes down."

Jellal nodded and they all sat quietly and conversed in hushed tones.

Laxus backtracked for a moment and stuck his head through the open doorway. "How the hell did you get down here?"

The largest man held up his hand, looking a tad bit sheepish. "I can manipulate the earth and it wasn't much for Cobra to melt the bedrock with his poison. Oh yeah!"

"You might or might not have a large hole in one of your storerooms...possibly."

The Thunder God shook his head and left to have a strongly worded conversation with his grandfather about the meaning of the word guests and about how the entire guild hall should be covered in Freed's runes to prevent this exact thing from happening again.

-ooo-

Natsu kicked in the doors of the guild hall, brows pushed down in a thunderous scowl. Everyone stopped and stared, but he didn't give them a second glance as he sped over to Makarov with Lucy still secure in his arms, her head lolling limply to the side.

Makarov choked on his tea – which he was only drinking now because Mira had refused to give him more ale on the basis that he needed a clear head for the meeting later – and wheezed. "Natsu my boy, what—"

"We were ambushed last night. I thought she would wake up by now but she hasn't. We need that small blue headed girl…" Natsu gritted out between clenched teeth. He hated this feeling of complete helplessness, and everything that he had learned – names, dates, important events – were bleeding from his worried mind like water through a sieve.

"Be calm Natsu, you're starting to smoke again. Wendy is downstairs with everyone else, in the library."

Without a backward glance, Natsu took off towards the basement, leaving behind the scent of fresh pine ash. Lucy needed help and she needed it now.

Makarov scowled and downed a shot of something much stronger than tea Lisanna handed him behind her sister's back, but almost choked on that too when Erza and Gray – along with a panting, irate Mest Gryder – materialized in the middle of his beer hall. Mest was off again without a second glance and the Master just motioned them downstairs and followed behind.

They were the last ones to arrive – barring Gajeel – but he couldn't wait any longer, especially with Lucy unconscious and a group of recently escaped fugitives in his basement.

-ooo-

"Freed, the runes if you could." Master gestured at the open doorway, murmuring to the Rune Mage to make an exception for Gajeel. "And remember eavesdroppers Freed."

Meanwhile, Natsu had Lucy's prone form laid out on a long table for Wendy to do a quick examination and possible healing.

Wendy's glowing hands slowly made their way through the air over Lucy's abdomen as she scrunched her nose adorably in concentration.

"She's only magically exhausted Natsu, she used up more of her energy that she usually does, Lucy only needs rest and she'll be just fine." Natsu hovered over the working Wendy and gnawed on his lip in worry. "When did she fall unconscious?"

"Before the sun rose, but it was after midnight. I didn't really look at the clock." He fished the ticket stubs out of his pants pocket and mentally calculated how much time had actually passed. "Around four this morning, I think?"

Wendy clapped her hands together with a bright smile. "Then she'll probably come to any moment now. Her containers are almost filled again. It was just a shock to her system. Usually, magic is drained continuously, especially hers when she keeps multiple gates open, but if what you said is true and it was one spell…that just isn't usual for her."

Laxus sidled over then and nudged Natsu out of the way to peer at the girl who had become as close as any sibling would be to him. "What the hell happened?"

"I would like to know as well, Natsu. I assumed that the both of you could handle whatever was thrown at you but now I'm not so sure." Erza's imperious voice cut through the thick silence as they waited for Wendy's diagnosis.

Natsu's fists lit up with flames but his eyes only stared guiltily down at his best friend. "I tried…but without my Dragon…I just wasn't strong enough." The fire petered out sadly until only a hint of smoke was left in the air.

A murmured "So it's true…" from the back corner was the only thing heard and even then, only a few were privy to it.

"Erza, give the guy a break. She's not harmed and Wendy said she'll be fine." It was Gray who spoke up on his rival's behalf, which surprised no one. When the shit hit the fan, Natsu and Gray were the perfect team, even if their elements counteracted each other. They were only rivals out of boredom really.

Titania relented with a skeptical look at her icy partner, who only shrugged. He wasn't overly enthused that his sister was unconscious, but it wasn't like Natsu had actually hit her over the head or anything. At the moment, he was being unusually careful when it came to her. Lucy could take care of herself, and it seemed like she had done something drastic, but necessary to get them both out of whatever situation they were in.

"Maybe we should explain from the beginning so that everything makes sense to our guests."

"Okay, gramps, I don't think you know what that word actually means."

Makarov waved Laxus off and stuffed his pipe into his mouth, letting the wood click against his teeth. "Freed, Levy, if you could please fill them in?"

The duo tag-teamed for a while, others interjecting here and there until they had Crime Sorciere caught up to the end of their other meeting just days prior. Jellal was as suspicious as they were that someone knew how he came and went from Fairy Tail, as well as the inner workings of the sleep spell Mystogan used to use.

Makarov thought that it couldn't be anyone other than Ivan, and everyone either violently or silently agreed.

Natsu didn't say a word as he gathered his sleeping friend into his arms again and sat in an overstuffed armchair to wait until she woke up. Keeping her as close as possible so that she could soak up his body heat. He didn't truly care about rehashing how he lost his memories and magic, it was already blatantly obvious that they needed to find that damn lacrima and get it back in him come hell or high water. He needed to be able to protect all these people around him, just as Lucy had done for him.

The one named Jellal looked as guilty as he did, like everything that had happened to them was his fault – even though it wasn't (which Erza whispered in his ear) – and the rest of the ones in cloaks shifted uneasily. They had had many battles with Fairy Tail over the years and lots of time to stew in their prison cells to think about who they were as people and as mages.

They weren't saints, and they may never redeem themselves. But the Seis knew they would give it a try. A second chance was possible and they knew that Fairy Tail would be the one to give it to them. It would take time though; blind trust wouldn't be possible.

"The only notable thing that happened with the Thunder Legion was we put a very drunk Bluenote Stinger back in prison." Laxus pointed over at Lucy when everything was all said and done. "So, I'll say it again, what the hell happened?"

Natsu sighed and pushed a piece of golden hair behind Lucy's ear, his eyes fond and proud. "We tracked Bora through Hargeon by talking to the locals and finally found him coming out of a brothel down by the docks. He's a bastard and a coward, but we didn't have to do anything to him and he was almost happy to go back to the Rune Knights once he heard that Ivan was out. We were sleeping—" His voice cracked in anger and he gritted his teeth until they heard his jaw crack. "Something woke me up; I don't know…maybe a feeling? Or something like that. But all I can remember is a shadow hanging over Luce and I just reacted. We brawled and woke her up. Then that lion spirit came out of nowhere and chucked the dumbass out the window. We followed to a park across the street. He was a water mage, and he was strong. Stronger than I am right now, I could feel his magic and it was suffocating. He was stronger than me in a straight brawl, and I think Lucy knew that. Suddenly Lucy was chanting and the lion guy disappeared and then she shouted this Urano…thingy."

Angel squawked from her corner and everyone turned towards her in question. As it turned out, she – out of anyone in that room – had been the only one to see that particular spell in action. "She used that spell? By herself?"

Natsu shot her a look but kept speaking. "I blacked out for a minute from the amount of pressure or a memory came back or whatever, when I woke up, Lucy was on the ground and so was the water guy. But there was another mage." He breathed harshly through his nose.

"So, I picked her up and ran." He whispered the last part and glanced down at Lucy to see a slight smile on her lips and her deep amber eyes looking at him so fondly. A weight lifted off his shoulders to see that she didn't see him as the coward as he did.

Lucy patted his cheek sloppily as if to say it's okay to run away once in a while.

A groan from Natsu's lap pulled their attention away from the flustered white-haired woman who was reliving the feeling of the sky falling down. "It's called Urano Metria Natsu, and I've been practicing with Capricorn to expand my magic reserves. I must have put a little too much punch into this one though. It was the only thing I could think of."

"Is this the spell you attempted at the GMG before Ivan cheated?"

Lucy nodded and shifted towards Natsu's warmth curling up into a tight little ball on his lap, head under his chin, nose stuffed into the skin on his collarbone.

So very warm.

So sue her, her best friend was a natural heater and she was chilly. Or whatever.

Freed squinted at her from behind wind reader glasses. "I have never heard of this spell before Ms. Lucy."

She smiled smugly back at him. "Hibiki basically uploaded it to my brain when we faced the Seis the first time during that whole Nirvana thing. It's a lost spell, and only those with the right amount of magic reserves can pull it off. Usually, I have to ask Gemini for help, but I've been training to gather more magical energy so that I can keep their gates open longer."

Natsu pushed his hands through her hair, silky strands slipping through like water and smirked down at her. "You destroyed that bastard and ripped all the trees out of the ground with that spell, whatever it was…"

Makarov quickly calculated the number of Jewels he would need to shell out to replant close to a hundred trees. Or perhaps he would bill the council. "What exactly is this spell?"

"Oh. I just called eighty-eight stars down from the sky to protect me."

Angel shivered. "They aren't very forgiving."

Lucy's head shot up and over the back of the chair, practically crawling over the Natsu to get a look at the person with that familiar voice. She kneeled, straddling Natsu – who seemed inordinately pleased with the position of her chest in his face if a little flustered – to stare dumbfounded at Crime Sorciere.

Until her face cracked into a smirk.

"So, I guess you found the Seis eh? Hey guys. Angel, Cobra, Midnight, nice to see you again now that I'm not being sucked into a giant clock."

By their stupefied faces, they weren't quite sure what was going on, only that Lucy wasn't yelling and screaming at them. Fairy Tail and all its mages were certainly strange.

All Lucy really wanted to know was if they knew that the clock would turn into a giant fish. Cause that was a weird little quirk of the Real Nightmare Spell that she wanted to know about.

Cobra started to snicker. "No, Starshine. We didn't know about the fish."

Lucy nodded with a contemplative look on her face. "Good to know." She had to stop forgetting that Cobra could hear souls.

Although…it could be handy in times where silence was paramount. Perhaps during stealth missions? Maybe if Natsu and she teamed up with Crime Sorciere sometime in the future…it would be useful for infiltration.

She arched an eyebrow at him, another question on her mind. Starshine?

He smirked back, delighted that she was exceptionally bright and extremely quick-witted. Apparently, sassy as well. He leaned forward enough that his hood fell off. "For your magic."

She smiled brightly. "You know…that's one of the better ones. Thunder Thighs over there calls me Blondie, Bicks calls me Cosplayer…the worst is Gaj…"

The door slammed open again and rattled the walls. "You know you earned that nickname fair and square, Bunny."

Lucy pouted at the hulking Slayer as he stomped into the room, taking one look at the Seis and rolling his eyes, resigned. "No wonder I couldn't find them…"

Gajeel sat at the large round table Levy had commandeered for research purposes and plopped down in a chair that groaned ominously with his weight. His bones were made of iron after all.

He absentmindedly pulled Levy off the table – she had been sitting cross-legged on it up until then – and dragged her into his lap. "I have news."

"I think we all do Pincushion, and Natsu was just finishing up his story," Gajeel grunted and shot Lucy a look that she interpreted as nice position you're sitting in to which she shot back one that said you're one to talk Tin Can.

Natsu peered around Lucy's torso and tried to fold her up in a seated position so that he could see again. She only huffed in amusement and curled up again so that she was surrounded by warmth again. She would have been purring like a cat in a sunbeam if she could. The damn basement was so chilly. Natsu draped his scarf around her neck to keep her shivers away. She only blinked up at him once with a dazed look.

Cute.

He cleared his throat hastily and disregarded his thoughts for another time; perhaps he could revisit them in the shower?

"Nope. I was finished. Bora's locked up again and Lucy and I were ambushed in our hotel room in the dead of night. Luce split the sky open and then asked a bunch of stars to crash down the Earthland. Then we came here. That's it."

Gajeel opened his mouth. But Lucy cut him off beforehand. "Don't even you walking tackle box. I can take care of myself and you know it. You too Sparky."

The two Slayers looked properly chagrined. Although they had a hint of defiance left in their eyes, they were surly guys of course, but Lucy was kin. She was special. She was a bit more of their family than everyone else to them. They would always worry like overprotective parents.

It was nice really, for Lucy at least, even if she was exasperated.

Her father hadn't truly cared for her unless she could make her money, so she wasn't used to people looking out for her. Although, she kicked ass now, so they could take it down a notch.

Please.

"You know that's not gonna happen Bunny. But whatever, I have shit I wanna say so listen up."

Levy closed her book and if that wasn't a sign that he had everyone's attention than he didn't know what was. "Lily and I found a couple of Ivan's lackey's in a bar outside of Crocus, but they were so far down the line that they knew next to nothing about anything. But, they were looking for a fence to get rid of a rare magical item. Three guesses about what that is."

"Natsu's magic."

Gajeel smirked down at Levy from where he towered over her. "You got it Shrimp."

Levy pouted and tried to smack his head from where she sat, but to her ever-growing annoyance, she was too short.

"Wait, how do you know it was the lacrima? I thought Ivan needed it for something?"

"According to those two pricks, the guy that was sent after the magic in the first place messed up. Like an idiot, he heard pink and took it from the most obvious source."

Lucy tugged on one of Natsu's flyaway bangs. "Pink hair…"

"But it was supposed to come from—"

"Me. Pink guild mark, not pink hair."

Gray pinched his nose with two fingers and groaned. "Not again. Why is it always you?"

Lucy grimaced and shrugged before she was suddenly clambering over Natsu again, batting his grabby hands away from her waist as he tried to make her sit down and stay still dammit. "Angel, do you practice Celestial magic at all anymore?"

"No, my contracts were void when you beat me, even if I tried now…I abused the promises I made."

The blonde hummed in understanding. "I see. Master," She turned so that she was now facing forward with a hard look on her face. "I might be a rare breed now thanks to those idiots—" she jerked her thumb over her shoulder then who looked properly scolded, "—but I'm not the only Celestial mage left in Earthland."

Makarov nodded. "I assume you want to talk to Yukino and Hisui?"

"Very much so."

"I'll contact Sabertooth and Mercurius after we're finished up."

"Thank you, Master." It was a bit of a weight of her mind if she knew that both her Celestial Mage friends were taken care of."

"Where were we…Bora and Bluenote Stinger in custody again…ah yes. Gajeel. Please go on with what you found."

Gajeel thrust his hands into his pockets trying to search for something while he continued to speak, his voice low like shifting boulders. "One of them had a key to a room in a nearby Inn, so I checked it out after the Rune Knights had taken them into custody. If they were looking for the fence, they would have kept the magical item on hand, right?"

He finally pulled a deep purple velvet bag out of a hidden pocket of his travel cloak.

Levy and Freed practically leapt at the man who handed the item over with only a slight grumble. "It was hidden in a vent in their room. It would have fooled a lesser mage, but I could smell it the moment I opened the door. Something ancient and old and concentrated as fuck."

Levy smoothed the bag out on the table and inch by inch removed a round ball hardly larger than a marble. "So, Shrimp?"

The colour was deep red, swirled with golden sparks and shots of lightning.

"We need to run some tests…but…"

Lucy interjected with a raised hand. "It's his magic. Without a doubt. Can't you all feel it?" She could. It was only a small amount, but she knew that magical signature like the back of her hand.

Erza looked down at the small ball. "What are the chances that we would just happen to find it?"

Lucky Lucy indeed.