The next morning, Lucy heard a loud knock on her bedroom door. Silently, she prayed it was anyone but Azuma.

She was in luck. When she opened the door, there was only a folded pile of clothes, a pair of brown boots and a tray with breakfast on it.

She ate and dressed quickly, making sure that the carving knife was concealed within the length of her boot. The clothes Zeref had picked out for her consisted of a linen peasants blouse and a pair of pants so ugly, the term britches came to mind. The one good thing about them was that they had deep pockets with a button so she could keep her keys there. She also found some thick string which she used to secure Eclipse around her neck. It would be the only key she used for this mission so she wanted to have it ready. She checked herself briefly in the mirror and then made her way to the courtyard.

Zeref was already standing there when she arrived.

"Where are all your servants?" she asked as she looked around. Aside from the time immediately following Levy's escape, there had always been a couple guards patrolling the courtyard.

"I've asked them to vacate the premises and not return until nightfall. I prefer privacy for this matter." He wrung his hands together. It may have been Lucy's imagination, but he seemed nervous. "Are you ready?" he asked.

"I think so." Lucy pulled out her bejeweled key and looked at if for a moment, gathering her nerve. She glanced at Zeref and wished Natsu were standing next to her instead. A friendly smile would have gone a long way in calming her anxiety.

She took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay, I'm ready."

He nodded and stepped back.

She stretched her arm up towards the sky. "Open, Gate of Eclipse!"

A rectangle of light formed and an instant later, a wooden door was standing in front of her.

She relaxed a little. Libra had been right—it had felt just like summoning a Spirit. She turned towards Zeref. "Can you please tell me the time, date and location of today's destination?"

He face was stone serious. "2pm on July 2nd of the year X391, the South end of the battlefield in Crocus, Fiore."

Lucy repeated the time, date and location. There was no visible signal that the command had worked but Lucy felt a deep draw on her magical power when she repeated the words.

"Okay, let's see if this door works," she said nervously.

She put the key in the lock and turned it. There was a small click and then the door swung open, revealing ancient Crocus. She and Zeref tilted their head's and peered through the doorway.

There was a large field covered with muddy footprints and debris. As her eyes adjusted, Lucy could make out about a dozen bodies lying on the ground. It was a disturbing sight, but not as many as she had expected. Past the field, there was a hill and Lucy could see the silhouette of a dragon's lifeless body against the gray sky.

"I'll be damned," Zeref whispered. "It worked."

He looked at her and cleared his throat. "The majority of the injured are on the other side of that hill. That is where my brother and I are right now." He pointed towards the side of their view. "Over there—that is the grist mill I was talking about."

Lucy looked through the doorway and saw the mill. It was a two story cobblestone building that looked like it may fall over at any moment. She estimated it to be a 10 minute hike from where they currently stood.

"Give me your hand." Zeref said.

Lucy searched his face. There was nothing there to indicate deceit or villainy.

She pushed back her fear and took his hand. As they stepped through the doorway,there was a surreal moment as one of her feet left the dusty ground of the courtyard and her other touched the thick grass of the Crocus battlefield.

"Woah."

The transition was dizzying. She looked over at Zeref who was still holding her hand. His clothes were the same, but he now had brown hair and a beard. The cloaking spell had taken effect.

"Your appearance—" started Zeref.

"Is different," she finished. "Yeah, I know—yours is too."

He let go of her hand. "Interesting—it seems that Eclipse has an automatic cloaking feature." He ran a hand through his beard, testing its texture.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said as she looked away.

He pointed to the mill. "Let's get going, shall we?"

They made their way across the field. As they walked, Lucy's eyes scanned the scenery. She was thankful for the hill that was temporarily blocking her view from the main battlefield—whatever lay one the other side was attracting vultures.

They entered the mill and found that it was mostly empty except for the mill's machinery, a stairway leading to the second floor, and the mill's water wheel. The water from the wheel splashed into a small channel.

Something red had tinted the water, creating pink foam.

It took Lucy a moment to realize that blood was mixing in with the water somewhere upstream.

Zeref went to one of the mill's windows and peered outside. He motioned to Lucy. "Come to this end. We have a view of the battlefield from here and can watch for Ancologia."

She went to an adjacent window and looked out towards the hill.

The minutes passed by and they stood without speaking. There was a woman in a skirt jogging across the field who stopped to kneel at each of the bodies that lay there. At first, Lucy thought she may have been checking for signs of life, but by the time the woman had reached the third body, she realized that the woman was mostly interested in what was in the contents of their pockets.

"Scoundrel," Lucy muttered.

"Would you feel differently if you knew that she hadn't eaten in three days and had children to feed at home?" asked Zeref.

She was about to answer when she was interrupted by loud shouts in the distance.

"I think this is it," said Zeref. "Prepare yourself."

There was a roar so loud that Lucy could feel the ground vibrating. She clasped her ears and looked out the window. There was still no sign of Acnologia. She looked over at Zeref and was surprised to see him kneeling on the ground, clutching his ears in obvious pain.

The roar stopped and Lucy turned her attention back to the hilltop.

A serpent-like head appeared, and then there were wings—wings so vast, it was as if a black blanket were being unfurled across the sky.

"Acnologia," whispered Lucy.

The beast moved his arms and the grass near the mill was instantly pushed flat. He flapped again and the window in front of Lucy shattered. She tried her best to shield herself from the broken glass but one of the shards hit her in the cheek just below the eye.

She crouched to the ground and could hear Acnologia beat his wings again. Wind was rushing overhead and dust fell from the walls. She wished they had picked a more secure location.

Zeref said this building was still standing after the battle. It will hold.

She looked up at Zeref. He was standing directly in front of the window staring at his bloody hand. He looked completely dumbstruck.

"Get down!" she screamed over the sound of Acnologia's beating wings.

Zeref turned towards her, blinked a couple times, and then turned back to his hand.

"Idiot, you're going to get yourself killed. Get down!" she screamed again.

If he heard her, it wasn't registering. Zeref continued to gape at his wound.

Keeping low, Lucy ran across the room and tackled him, forcing him to the ground. She was just in time, as the rest of the window Zeref had been standing next to blew in, sending another wave of broken glass through the room.

She stayed on top of him, burying her face into his shirt so that it was protected from the debris flying around the room.

There were a few more gusts of wind and then it was over. Slowly, she sat up and looked around. Through the window, she could see Acnologia flying away. His speed was incredible. She turned her attention back to the mill. There were shards of glass and leaves everywhere. She began picking some of the debris out of her hair.

Something hard slammed into her ribcage and forced her to the ground. She looked up and saw Zeref sitting on top of her. His hands were around her neck.

"You stupid bitch!" he screamed. "What have you done? My magic—you've taken away my magic!"

She tried to pry his hands off her neck but they were clasped tight. Her vision was already beginning to darken. She bent her knee and reached inside her boot, pulling the knife free.

In an instant she had the knife against Zeref's neck. His rage was so far gone, that he didn't react to the new threat and continued his assault on her throat. Lucy tilted the knife and slashed his cheek.

That got his attention.

He released his hold on her neck and pressed a hand to the wound.

She made sure to keep the knife pointed at him. They sat there for a moment, catching their breaths and eyeing each other up.

"Back up," she growled.

Slowly, Zeref stood up and backed away from her. Lucy stood also, following him with the knife. She had felt solid muscle beneath his clothes. Zeref had lost his magic but he wasn't defenseless. As a former dragon slayer, he would have been trained in hand-to-hand combat.

"There's no way you're powerful enough to cast this sort of spell. It must have been Eclipse," he said.

"If you must know, yes, you lost your magic when you passed through Eclipse."

Zeref stepped to the side, looking for an angle of attack.

"But I'm not trying to kill you," she added.

"Then why did you bring that knife? You knew I would lose my magic, didn't you? Didn't you think I would find that piece of information useful?"

She took another step to the side. "I thought you might change your mind about coming if knew you would lose your magic. And to be honest, there was a moment where I considered my options."

Zeref knelt down and picked up a large piece of broken glass.

She spoke quickly. "But I was telling the truth, I don't want to kill you. If I wanted you dead, wouldn't I have done it as soon as we passed through Eclipse and your defenses were down?"

He lowered the glass shard a few inches. "Perhaps you weren't sure that Eclipse had truly removed my powers and you wanted confirm it before you attempted to assassinate me."

"I knew you were mortal when your hand was bleeding. Newsflash— I didn't kill you and I had the perfect opportunity to. You were totally out of it."

Zeref's eyes flashed with anger. "I haven't felt physical pain in almost 400 years. I'm sorry if it caught me a little off guard."

She lowered her knife, drawing a look of suspicion from Zeref. "Look, you said we only have an hour to get this necklace, right? We can stand around arguing or we can do what we came here to do."

She paused and then started walking towards the door.

"Wait—"

Lucy looked back.

"Do you still have your magic?" he asked.

"No," she admitted.

"And you're just going to walk out there?"

"Yes."

Zeref stared at her.

"Are you coming?" she asked.

"You don't know what it's like out there. I almost died on this battlefield once and I had the use of my dragon slayer's magic." His fist was continuously clenching and unclenching. "I'm not ready to die yet. I thought I was—but I'm not."

"Look I'm scared too, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to go out there and try my best."

He didn't move. The time was ticking down.

"You can stay here but I'm going." With that, she walked out of the mill.

Lucy stood outside the mill for a moment, waiting to see if Zeref would come out. Even if he was a jerk and a wimp, she would have preferred to have an extra body with her on the battlefield. If nothing else, Zeref at least had some idea of where to look for the damn necklace. She wasn't sure that looking in the area where she had seen Ancologia take flight from would narrow down her search enough. It now occurred to her that that area could cover a city block.

She looked back at the door. No luck—Zeref was apparently content to play it safe. She sighed and began jogging up the hill.