Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)

Chapter 27: Lucy's Fierceness, Thorn's Flames

The following morning, Lucy and Sting knew they had to get back into their daily routine of training and doing jobs since they were both mages. Just because Sabertooth had won the trophy in the Grand Magic Games of X792, that did not exactly mean that anyone could just slack off. After all, the people of Fiore still needed some assistance in whatever had to be done. Things like robberies and treasure hunts could not just be passed up, you know. Some of the jobs also offered up lots of reward money in them, too.

While Lucy was ambitious and ready to take on jobs with Sting today, she surprisingly had a little bit of a thorny issue with her spell book. The black spells of Thorn's dark magic were not working, no matter how many times Lucy had recited them with strong emotions, and the blonde mage looked very puzzled as to why these spells were not working. It was true that the shadowy perfume that had activated these darker spells could have dried up by this time, since a liquid like perfume could easily dry up in two days, but why wasn't its effect still in the book?

Lucy really did not have a clue about why the black spells were not working, and all that she could really do was focus on the other seven types of magic. After all, these were the seven types of magic that Lucy had really been getting used to, and she had very strong bonds with all the lighter types of magic. Her Darkness Magic was actually starting to listen to her, by simply having Darcy do what Lucy would probably do in a tough situation, and most of the spells in the strange book had reached their evolved forms.

She had not thought about which type of magic would be used by her today, and Lucy also wondered if anything exciting would happen on her next job with Sting. Something interesting probably would happen, since almost every job that they did always had someone causing trouble or something being really mysterious. Either way, the excitement on every job was always making Lucy smile with confidence. She had always wanted to get the jobs done quickly, wanting to keep on impressing Sting, and her boyfriend had been impressing her as well.

Sting and Lucy were currently standing in front of the request board right now, looking for a good job that they could do today, but nothing seemed to look very appealing to either of them. Even though the flyers had been coming into the Sabertooth guild like several swarms of bees, most of the good jobs had been sneakily taken earlier at dawn when Sting was still asleep. He seemed pretty miffed about the fact that the people in his own guild were not patient enough to wait for him, even though he impatiently ran to Striaton City once with Lucy to try out some food at the cafe there.

"This seriously sucks. Just because the jobs get pinned to the board so early, people, don't take so much of the good stuff before me and Lucy get here. I can understand that some people might be really impatient for money, but still. They don't have to be so hasty to not even take us on missions with them, you know." The white dragon slayer told Lucy in a somewhat displeased manner while seeing that some of the jobs covering the others only had rewards of up to 1,000 jewels, which was hardly any money at all.

Lucy replied with an encouraging smile on her face, trying her best to cheer Sting up, "Don't worry about it, Sting. We can just take an easy job today while waiting for a better one to arrive tomorrow, so that would make up for our boredom today. Besides, I'm sure that some of the people just looked at the reward money on the jobs without actually paying any mind to the descriptions of the requests. It's going to end up being their own fault when they get mauled by a bear or something, so you just have to look at the upside of this whole thing."

The white dragon slayer smiled a bit while he was looking at Lucy, very happy that she was trying to lift him up when he was feeling down, and he knew that giving up was certainly not an option here. If the jobs in the front of the board were really seeming mediocre, then why not simply look past them to find something much better? Things would be hidden sometimes, not always being in plain sight like a blue bird in a flock of seagulls, and all that Sting had to really do was just look past all the easy jobs.

His blue eyes caught sight of a red flyer sticking out from behind one of the brown flyers, and Sting moved that brown flyer aside with his left hand to see the interestingly-colored piece of paper. There had never been any red flyers before, never really seen by Sting or Lucy, and they both had to wonder what this job request was all about. It had surprisingly been addressed to Lucy Heartfilia, the client requesting her presence for something, and the blonde mage curiously wondered why someone would make a request specifically for her.

While Lucy's eyes widened in shock from the fact that this person was offering up one million jewels for simply capturing a criminal, Sting reminded her that this could be a trap of some kind set up by Natsu. After all, he had been pretty upset with the fact that Sabertooth won the Grand Magic Games. At least they were playing fair while not attempting throw any challenges or be complete jerks, unlike that dense fire dragon slayer. If Lucy had known about what measures Lisanna had resorted to for Natsu to become his old self again, the two girls might've actually become friends.

Whether it was a trap or not, Lucy was definitely going to show Natsu that she was no weakling. She hoped that there would not be anyone intervening or interfering in this fight, not wanting any dark powers or sword barriers to get in the way, and Lucy's resolve to actually be the one to defeat him was certainly becoming strong. She had actually beaten him once, but he still refused to learn his lesson. Some people only realized their mistakes when they would feel the pain that they caused, and this possibility of defeating Natsu had made Lucy run out of the guild with Sting running by her side.

As Lucy was running, however, she did not notice that the purple spell book had turned red to now shift to Fire Magic. The spell book also began to glow brightly, having cherry red beams of light shining from within, and little did Lucy know that the unreadable spells of her Fire Magic were now going to become ready for her to use them. The book had now thought that she was ready to try out these new moves, but what would end up coming from them? Would they make the red section of the book become complete?

Meanwhile, at Fairy Tail...

Natsu had been telling everyone about how he tried to crash Sabertooth's party last night, hoping to get some recognition and have everybody in the guild cheer for his efforts, but all that he had been getting was the cold shoulder from people. They really did not want to care for him anymore at this point, and all that they could hear from his mouth was just a bunch of feces. After all, if he had certainly tried to crash such a big party, wouldn't he have made big headlines or something on Magnolia's news station?

The fire dragon slayer sat at a table all by himself, nobody even paying any mind to him or what he had said, and Natsu felt really down in the dumps about what he had done. He probably did not know it, but this was part of his ultimate karma for everything that he had done to Lucy. His conflicts with the other members of Fairy Tail had really reached their climax points, leaving no one to even feel any remorse if something ended up happening to Natsu at some point in his life, and people also had better things to do than listen to him.

He really was wishing that Lisanna still stood by his side, and Natsu also began to regret how he had treated the white-haired mage. He had really hurt her feelings by using her as a tool to make Lucy jealous, and he could not exactly have a relationship with a girl if he only cared about himself. He had put his pride of maintaining his power over his love for a beautiful girl like Lisanna, and that was certainly not okay. He really had wrecked his own relationship, and Lisanna had probably been thinking about moving on to another guy.

Lisanna had already gone out on a job with Mira and Elfman, making it currently impossible for Natsu to try and apologize. The last time he tried to say he was sorry, he ended up saying the wrong thing and made his former team members hate him even more. He really needed some help with something like this, since everything that he had tried to do on his own would always end up blowing up in his face. He just needed an ally to help him apologize properly to Lisanna, but who in the world would help him?

Suddenly, Natsu gasped a bit from seeing Cana take the seat across from him at the table. She had three mugs of beer with her as well, placing them all on the table, and the brown-haired woman was obviously planning to drink them all. She had a stern look in her purple eyes, making the fire dragon slayer wonder if he had done something to make her seem upset with him. Natsu and Cana had never really talked much, and he had to wonder why she would be sitting down at a table with the most hated guy in Fairy Tail.

The purple-eyed woman told Natsu in a stern manner, but not directing any anger at him, "I can agree with everyone that your actions in the Grand Magic Games were very immature, and you are a pretty selfish jerk for what you did to Lisanna. That was really hurtful of you to not just obey her, even if you are scared of Erza. Anyway, that's not why I came to talk with you. Natsu, I hope that you remember Team Sweet Melancholy from the Grand Magic Games. You know, that group of girls who seemed a bit shady?"

The fire dragon slayer replied calmly, looking curious as to why Cana would bring them up, "Yeah, I remember those girls. They all had those odd powers, and that woman named Karen seemed like their leader. She's pretty hot, but her way of being someone down was by throwing them out of the arena so quickly. Really, Cana, even I probably couldn't have seen that coming. She pretty much hurled you from the arena so fast, and I was rooting for you and Mira to win. Losses sure do suck, you know."

Despite looking a bit miffed at Natsu bringing up her loss to Karen, Cana had just wanted him to know that everyone was now keeping a constant watch for that woman with silvery-blue hair. She had told him how Lisanna had been with her when they found those four girls from Karen's team unconscious in an alleyway, and they had told Cana how they were attacked by shadows. Since Karen was the one on that team who had been using shadows, it was pretty obvious that she was the culprit and she had somehow made replicas of those girls appear to be her teammates.

Karen's actions had made Natsu become really puzzled, wondering why someone would do that to their own team, but Cana also looked serious while telling him that Erza just got back from the guild known as Sweet Melancholy. That guild was once known as a dark guild, but it had become a legal light guild for women only like Mermaid Heel. The guild master had confirmed with Erza that there were no files of anyone named Karen Melancholia in her guild, and pretending to be an official mage was considered to be illegal.

As Natsu continued listening to Cana explain how Karen's versatility with shadows made her a pretty fierce enemy, neither of them noticed that the shadow of the table made a thinner shadow emerge from it. This shadow detached itself from the table's shadow, and it slithered out of the Fairy Tail guild quickly for no one to notice it. It was actually Thorn Heartfilia being freed from the book, now that the seals had been broken, and she could now travel through the shadows while changing between her teenage form and her adult form. She had sensed that the book gave its new wielder some more power, and Thorn was going to meet up with Karen to see what would happen.

In Magma City...

Lucy and Sting arrived in a place known as Magma City, a place that could only be accessed by taking the S.S. Aqua to this city that was built on a nearby tropical island, and Magma City looked more like a resort with its white sandy beach and coconut trees. There were many malls and large skyscrapers here, and there were also some little stores here as well. Some bananas, oranges, pears, lemons, and limes could also been seen on various trees in different parts of this tropical town as well, and Lucy smiled a bit while wishing that they could be here on vacation.

Still, she was smart enough to keep her guard up in a situation like this. Even though the city looked pretty nice, somebody was obviously causing trouble somewhere. Magma City had its own set of bathhouses, too, meaning that there were definitely some hot springs on this island. Sting had been here once before on vacation with Yukino and the others last year, and they all knew that the hot springs were straight ahead from the beach. They weren't very far away, so running would not be a really big issue.

As Sting was about to start running towards the hot springs to guide Lucy to them, both mages suddenly found themselves having to dodge a beam of fire that headed straight for them from across the beach. The beam hit the sand, creating a miniature explosion, and Lucy looked a bit frustrated while seeing the hole in the sand. Attacks like that would normally not be aimed accidentally, and Lucy thought that the attack came from the infamous Natsu Dragneel. Would he really be stalking her all the way to this island?

The blonde mage looked straight ahead to see that her fiery attacker was surprisingly not Natsu, and it was a woman. She had wavy red hair, and this woman also had fair skin as well. he wore a sleeveless, ankle-length red dress with a pleated black skirt. The chest was adorned by a large, orange bow, and similarly colored trimmings framing the rather ample neckline, acting as straps, and they circled around the waist. This woman also wore some red high heels, making her look even more fashionable.

Lucy asked her in a stern tone, narrowing her cocoa brown eyes at this woman, "Who are you, and why did you just attack us like that? Are you the criminal that we have to apprehend?"

The woman responded while smirking evilly, giggling a bit with arrogance in her blue eyes, "My name is Bureizu Rubyfire, and you must be the mages who are here to defeat me. I simply enjoy causing trouble for a living. It's quite fun."

Upon hearing her words, Lucy tightly clenched her fists. It was very wrong to hurt mages and innocent people, so this arrogant villain was going to get a taste of Lucy's new powers. The blonde mage looked back at the small hole in the sand, seeing Bureizu's level of attack power to be pretty simplistic, and Lucy quickly proceeded to open the red spell book. She was planning to end this battle in one shot with one of her newly evolved spells, but then Lucy noticed that the cherry red text for the ninth spell began to glow.

This spell was known as Flame Ball, and it caused a ring of flames to surround Bureizu's feet. The ring of flames quickly turned into a sphere of fire, and it exploded in a massive blast of fire! Lucy quickly inhaled all of the flames, not wanting to cause problems for any innocent bystanders on the beach, and she looked at the slowly parting black clouds of smoke. Lucy was impressed by the power of this new spell, but what would happen next would certainly not impress her in a happy manner. Bureizu hadn't survived that attack, had she?

When all of the smoke cleared up, Lucy and Sting both looked shocked to see that their opponent had survived that massive attack. On top of that, she only had minor injuries from taking Lucy's ninth spell directly. Clearly, Bureizu was not to be taken lightly. She had orange wave matter surrounding her hands, and Bureizu looked pretty arrogant while explaining that her fire attacks were infused with Bomb Magic. She could simply shield herself from blasts by creating explosive defenses, and those explosions could also be used offensively.

She was merely giving Sting and Lucy a little threat by making that small hole earlier, and they had thought that simple attack was the overall strength of her power. They were wrong to underestimate her, and Bureizu informed them that her Bomb Magic and fire attacks were the deadliest combination that anyone had ever created. She generated a larger amount of wave matter in her hands, firing it at Sting this time, but he simply canceled it out with Holy Ray. His attack had not broken through hers at all, since it exploded so quickly.

Ignoring that explosion, since it hadn't hurt Sting, Lucy tried out one of her spells that she knew better. The blonde mage used the Magma Liquid spell, causing her to unleash six blobs of red goop from her mouth, and they all headed straight for Bureizu. However, the criminal simply laughed while making her orange wave matter for her Bomb Magic take the form of six rectangular shields in midair. Lucy's spell collided with the shields, and six more explosions transpired once again. This battle was locked in a stalemate, was it not?

Sting shouted in a fierce tone while looking somewhat irritated by the fact that this battle was not getting anywhere, "Man, this chick is really giving us a challenge! Lucy, you know, those spells evolved and changed like when your emotions rise to a point where the normal power of the spells can't contain your massive surge of feelings! Don't forget this important piece of advice, okay? The book does not wield you, but you wield it. You're the master of that book, so you tell it to stop messing around and give us an opening!"

She replied calmly while panting a bit, "Even if I make a new spell of Fire Magic, Bureizu's Bomb Magic would just cancel it out with an explosion. If only that fire could just absorb the explosion, then everything would be-"

At that moment, Lucy widened her cocoa brown eyes in shock at her own words. What she had just said was exactly what she needed from the tenth spell, and Lucy had to make it with the combination of her mental energy and her emotional energy. If she could visualize the attack in her mind while strengthening it with her emotions, then there would be nothing to really worry about. After all, the book was infused with Molding Magic for its wielder to make whatever they currently had in mind.

The blonde mage calmed herself while exhaling some air, and she began to focus on the power of the flames. Fire represented pure fierceness, and Lucy called upon her fiery drive to win this battle. A red aura began to surround her body, allowing her to feel more power than ever before, and Lucy imagined exactly what this finishing move would be like. She glared straight at Bureizu, and Lucy held the red book in her left hand. The next two lines of words began to glow cherry red, radiating brightly with fierceness, and the tenth spell had been written.

This move was known as Flaming Fierceness, and it caused Lucy to shoot out ten large fireballs from her mouth. The fireballs matched the size of Natsu's attack that was known as Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, and Lucy instructed all of her fireballs to attack Bureizu right now. They headed directly for the villain, intent on striking her down, but she made her orange wave matter surround each fireball. Bureizu laughed in a cocky manner while thinking that her Bomb Magic was completely unstoppable, but what happened next would definitely shut her up.

Lucy's fireballs absorbed the bomb waves, doubling in size while taking in the high amount of power that would have been in Bureizu's explosions, and the red-haired woman gasped in shock from seeing that her explosives had now been used against her. Flaming Fierceness could absorb any explosive or blast-making move, and it could make its fireballs grow in power. It was more like the older sibling to Fiery Embers, only not being as nice. Bureizu now tried to run away, looking pretty shocked, but all of the fireballs struck her simultaneously.

A tremendous explosion of fire occurred, the noise rattling several buildings on the island, and many people covered their ears while screaming in pain from the sound of the fiery explosion affecting their eardrums. Many bystanders on the beach ran away quickly, not wanting to get burned, and Lucy inhaled the entire inferno of flames. The attack would have ended in a pretty huge blast, but the explosive properties of Bureizu's Bomb Magic had certainly altered the result. Quite interesting to use the enemy's moves for a wicked combo, right?

Sting told Lucy in an excited manner, having never seen her Fire Magic be so thrilling like that while the smoke cleared up to reveal that Bureizu was unconscious and charred, "Man, that was awesome! Lucy, that was one of the best combos ever! Seriously, they should really change that old saying. If you can't stand the heat, don't mess with my girlfriend named Lucy Heartfilia."

The blonde mage responded happily while blushing, as she quickly looked down at her red T-shirt and blue jeans to make sure that no fire had gotten on her clothing, "I'm sure you'll be the only one who uses that saying, Sting. You really should be thanking yourself, not me. I was only able to make that spell because of your helpful advice. Not only are you a good boyfriend, but you're also a great teacher. I love you so much, Sting."

Lucy wrapped her arms around Sting's neck while she looked into his charming blue eyes, and she gave him a warm kiss on the lips to thank him for helping her out with such great flames. It was also her way of making up for what happened at the party, since she had put cake in his mouth instead of kissing him, and her lips certainly felt really warm to Sting. He knew that she loved him enough to kiss him with so much bliss, but the Fire Magic certainly warmed it up enough to feel really hot like how Lucy looked. With their business done here, Lucy and Sting quickly boarded the S.S. Aqua to sail all the way back to Castelia Town.

Meanwhile, in a hot spring in Magma City...

Karen relaxed in the hot water of a hot spring in Magma City, and she was currently alone while not wearing any clothes. She had been washing herself with some soap, scrubbing her body in a very gentle manner, and the woman with silvery-blue hair enjoyed how the hot water was kissing her skin. She looked really content right now, blushing while the shadows assisted her in washing her private areas, and Karen also began to have a pretty evil smile on her face when she was sensing something.

Bureizu's magical power had faded away, meaning that she was now dead, and the arrogant woman was sinking into the shadows. Karen had actually broken her out of prison, wanting her to test Lucy's new abilities, but Bureizu was clearly only good enough to handle two fusion spells. However, that did not really matter to Karen. A weak pawn was nothing more than a piece that needed to be sacrificed when the master of the game saw no more use for it, and Lucy could make other fusion spells of Fire Magic on her own time.

The woman of shadows had also let Thorn know that she was now free from the book, free to try and recreate the plan that occurred several centuries earlier, but they had a few obstacles in their path. After all, the mages in this time were not as unaware of who Thorn Heartfilia was. Mostly everyone had heard of her, including Zeref, but Thorn was only seen as a mere legend nowadays. She had indirectly been resurrected by Natsu's bullying of Lucy, and the emotional rage inside of the blonde mage had actually caused Thorn to come out.

As Karen began to think about what her next move should be with Lucy, she looked directly across from her to see a black shadow taking the form of a puddle in the water. Thorn rose up from it in her adult form, not wearing any clothes because she was now in a hot spring, and she smirked viciously while letting her left hand gently touch some of her hairs that had been highlighted red. She walked through the water, before sitting down next to her best friend Karen, and Thorn looked like she was in the mood for some sadistic fun.

"Well, you seem to be excited about something. I've never seen you look so thrilled, Thorn." Karen told her in a calm manner while smiling, her silvery-blue eyes having a relaxed look in them.

Thorn responded in a sadistic tone, her blood red eyes being filled with thoughts of malice, "You're the one who should be enjoying the thrill of the chase, Karen. It seems like you can't sneakily work in the shadows forever, since the fairies found out about your little trick in the tournament. Now they'll all be after you, but I would never let them get to you or try to tell Lucy that I truly exist. However, that boy named Natsu is going through a rough time. I think that playing with a heart as conflicted as his for a while in my teenage form should let me know everything I can about him and the current mages of Fairy Tail."

The evil woman with black hair had not actually told Karen all of her true intentions, but she could feel that Lucy had now unlocked the level of the most powerful flames that Thorn once had. If she could unlock all seven, as well as having them pushed to her full potential, Lucy would probably be almost invincible. However, the fusion spells of Thorn's shadows could get her whatever she wanted. She was going to let Lucy help her by getting that book completed, and she would also help herself by making sure to keep Fairy Tail in check if they ever tried to go against her...

How was the 27th chapter? Did you like it? Lucy now has an advanced level of spells, but don't worry. She will only get four of them for every type of magic, since Thorn can also use them and add them to the book whenever she pleases. The StiCy will continue to improve, and the NaLi fans will finally get to see how Lisanna can have major determination as well. Someone gets dropped from this story as well, so standby for the update!