His lips were soft and giving, more generous than Lucy thought possible. She warred with herself, wondering simultaneously why she hadn't ever bothered to do this before and why she was letting it continue. She wondered if Zeref was going to be furious, if he'd come after Loke again, or maybe her. Then she decided that if he did, she wasn't scared. Besides, he'd only expressly forbidden Natsu, right?

Loke's hand tucked under her skirt and pressed into her backside, hesitant at first when he realized there was nothing between his fingers and her skin. Then he let out a choked, excited growl, a sound that made fire drop through Lucy's middle. She smiled against his mouth, hands moving on their own accord, pushing past his shirt and laying against his bare stomach. He jumped as if electrocuted. Purring, she pulled him closer, hungry for more. That ever-present magic roared through her and she did as she had longed to do by forcing threads of power into him. This was the way to make him hers; everything else, kissing him, pawing him was pure, greedy pleasure.

Under her hand, Loke's whole body jolted, his heart stuttered then picked up speed. He panted and winced.

"Lucy—"

Her name gasped out while his mouth was pressed to hers stoked the fire in her heart. Lucy squeezed his ribs and felt that dark band of skin stretch higher, reaching towards his shoulder blades. "Yes?" she moaned.

"It hurts," he told her, but didn't pull away.

"I'm sorry," she replied. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She couldn't stop. She didn't ever want to.

Still groping her behind, he cupped her breast with his free hand, brushing his thumb over the tip. In response, Lucy sobbed, skin far too sensitive. Amazingly so. Wrenching him close so she could feel his erection jab into her leg, she kissed him furiously, tearing at his clothes and not slowing until his shirt was off his shoulders and his belt was undone. Then she slung her fingers in the waistband of his pants teasingly.

"You're mine, Loke."

"Yes."

"Tell me."

He barely had breath to say, "I'm yours."

"And you want to be that way." She grabbed his erection through his pants and Loke's breath hiccupped.

"Yes."

"I... I can change you. I can make you just like me." She didn't know for sure. She thought... Maybe... It would either work, or it would damage him beyond repair. She was feeling lunatic enough to try.

"...Please," Loke begged.

Zeref was on her periphery. At first, knowing what she did, he was angry. A millisecond later, anger bled into reluctant acceptance. Then… then Lucy felt a change. He was no longer so furious he couldn't think. He was interested. Not only that, he was egging her on, telling her what to do: touch here, tickle there, grab and kiss and bite and hurt.

She obeyed, nipping Loke's shoulder until she tasted copper. Loke hissed. Zeref praised her.

Coming up on tiptoe she propped herself up on Loke's table and wrapped her legs around his waist so they were body-to-body. He pressed against her, warm.

"If I do this, afterwards, you won't be the same," she told him. She just didn't know how he'd be different. "Okay?"

"But I'll still be yours."

"Yes. More than ever." Or he'd be ruined. Who could say?

"Then..." He hesitated. "Then I don't care, Lucy."

She didn't remind him of his rock hard morals of days before. 'I won't play spirit for a dark mage' seemed like it came from someone else. "You've always been such a good spirit, Loke." Clenching her legs tighter brought him brushing against her. Then she found his mouth and used it as a vector for Zeref's magic. It bled from her body into his, more and more, until she felt that he physically just couldn't take anymore, and then…

He moaned. He sobbed. He dug his fingers into her hips so hard that it hurt. He twitched. Lucy kept her eyes open so she could watch the colour run from his skin, dark veins taking over. Then the magic began the process of greedily stripping him down, down, down. His screams then would have been loud, if she let him scramble away like he wanted. She held him tight, arms wrapped around his throat. This should have been Natsu. Maybe… maybe it still could be…

It'll kill him.

She forced herself to be satiated with Loke.

There was a moment where the magic got so intense, the lion spirit was nothing more than a shade, absorbed by blackness. His scream dropped into a low moan. The magic between them stitched them tightly together; the only person she'd ever felt closer to was Zeref. Tighter and tighter, until she didn't know where Loke ended and she began. Under her mouth she felt Loke get cold; too cold to keep touching. Finally, she was forced to break the kiss, allowing his muffled scream to turn into a real thing. He staggered, then stumbled back, falling to the floor. His skin started roving again, monochromaticness falling away so he wasn't just a shadow anymore, he was gaining real substance. Like you broke him down and put him back together again. All of the pieces were in different order now, though.

Lucy reached for Zeref. Is he dying?

I don't know. Watch, Zeref whispered in her mind. Lucy shivered, his voice like velvet over her skin.

Loke stopped screaming so he could tilt his mostly-ivory face back and look at her; the black had receded from his face but still stretched down his neck. "Lucy—" he reached for her. "Lucy, help me—"

She stayed where she was.

"Lucy, please—it—it hurts."

She knew all too well what that pain felt like, the terrible itch of Zeref's magic, the need for it to stop, the need for it to continue. "I know."

"Lu—" He started to fade away then, not in a wash of light like he normally would, but a violent snap of shadow.

"Loke?" Lucy whispered. He was gone. From this world? Yes, he was no longer in the celestial realm. But was he completely gone? She was just probing to see when a sharp voice sliced neatly through the air and dragged her back to reality.

"What the hell did you just do?"

Turning her gaze from where Loke had been, she laid eyes upon the blue-haired water bearer. She hadn't even noticed Aquarius arrive.

Aquarius' face was twisted to the side disparagingly, as it usually was, but Lucy could see how she shook. She's afraid.

"Hello? What did you just do to Leo?" Even her voice trembled.

"I made him better," Lucy said simply. "Maybe."

"You—"

Lucy studied the volatile spirit with calm, dead eyes. "Get out."

Aquarius startled back. Lucy had never spoken to her quite in that way before, with barely contained rage lacing her voice. She swallowed nervously but refused to be cowed by Little Lucy Heartfilia. Except, she wasn't so little any more, was she? That much was obvious now with shades bleeding out of her skin and her clothes askew from desperate pawing. The blonde was so utterly unashamed that Aquarius felt obligated to feel shame for her. "Obviously you need someone to show you how lost you are, you filthy brat," the spirit ground out with much more conviction than she felt. Lucy made her skin crawl with unease. She was powerful now in a way she hadn't been before. She was a stranger.

"Are you jealous? You want to join us too?" Lucy asked brazenly, already knowing the answer but wanting to make the mermaid squirm. She wasn't disappointed.

Aquarius's expression darkened. "I hardly think so. Unlike Leo, I have standards."

Aquarius' words washed over Lucy. "Then leave me alone."

Aquarius pursed her lips. "You need help, Lucy. You're—you're contaminated. Just being near you—you make me sick." Her words were harsh but she didn't know how else to communicate.

Lucy's good humor vanished. "I make you sick? I saved the world, Aquarius, and that's all you have to say to me?"

Aquarius looked away. There was real shame there. "This is my fault. Shadow Father never should have been your burden. Let me try to help you."

Lucy's mouth went dry. "It was you that convinced her to be cowardly, is that what you're saying, Aquarius? It's okay, Layla, let your not-as-good-as-you daughter take the fall?"

"That wasn't how it went. Your mother thought the seal would hold."

"Then she was a fool," Lucy returned, remembering Shadow Father's words. "As long as there was fear and suffering, he'd live on, he'd get stronger."

"She wasn't a fool. She knew it was a possibility he'd break free. She just had faith that if the task fell upon your shoulders, you'd be strong enough to overcome his evil. This," she waved her hand frantically in Lucy's direction. "This was never supposed to happen. After he gave you that magic, that jackass was supposed to stay away from you, he promised her," she said, meaning Zeref. "Obviously that hasn't worked out, you're a disgusting mess."

"I always knew you hated me, Aquarius, but that's just mean." Lucy hopped off the table and released a blast of power that sent the mermaid careening back through Loke's home.

Aquarius hit the wall hard, the material buckling and crumbling under her weight. She floated there for a stunned moment. When she was able, she righted herself and called a whirling stream of water into her hands.

Lucy's eyes dropped to the magic and she let out a lunatic laugh. "What are you going to do with that?"

Aquarius ground her teeth together. "I'm going to remind you who you are."

Lucy pushed her hair back from her face and gathered shadows to her again. "Sure. This will be good pay back for all the times you tried to drown me."

Feeling the rise in power, Aquarius's eyes went wide. Still, she was stubborn enough that she couldn't back down.

Lucy knew just what Aquarius was thinking, she'd taken her out plenty of times before, so why should this time be any different? Except Lucy wasn't the same creature now.

Lucy didn't wait for Aquarius to move first. When she attacked it was with a snapping vine of brutal, merciless power. It wrapped around the mermaid like a cold, damp towel and bit into her skin. She cried out, unprepared for the pain that followed. When the shadows disappeared, there was bright blood in their place. Aquarius' shoulder was bleeding, and heavily at that.

Lucy watched her water spirit with a clear, calm expression, as if it mattered to her not at all that she had hurt her.

"Brat."

"You deserve worse."

"Do you not feel any remorse?" Aquarius asked. Her blood made her hand slippery. She slid her fingers over each other, still struggling to grasp her situation. Lucy had cut her open. Lucy had attacked her. Lucy. She had been so sweet. Not anymore.

Lucy grinned widely. "Now you know what it's like to have someone you trust turn on you. All those times I depended on you and you were so careless." The floor exploded around Aquarius, dusting the mermaid with particles so fine they were like powder.

Aquarius winced and covered her eyes. When the air was clear enough, she looked back at Lucy and said, "I never attacked you to hurt you." But that was only partially true. Lucy was always so spoiled, and too kind, too. The world was going to chew her up and demolish her if she didn't get thicker skin. "I just wanted to make you stronger." That was as genuine as the haughty mermaid got. She couldn't bring herself to say anything else, to plead with the celestial mage-gone-wrong.

"Shut up," Lucy hissed. Suddenly she was irrationally angry. Without thought, a blanketing wave of darkness came into being and whirled at the spirit. It was suffocating and thick and full of all the rage and hatred she felt towards the water bearer for all the times she had hindered and humiliated her.

Aquarius's hands shook, her heart halted as powerful magic raced towards her. Don't just stand there, she thought, do something.

But what was there to do? She was about to be swallowed in darkness; there was no place to escape. What would happen to her when that rolling cloud engulfed her?

The air changed, grew sour and heavy, the spirit choked, her vision clouding with black.

Lucy looked on eagerly. She was about to find out what happened to a celestial spirit when they were hit with enough killing magic to level a large city. She licked her lips excitedly, drowning out the horror she felt. Aquarius deserves this, she thought bitterly, though somewhere deep, deep inside she knew it wasn't true.

The room tilted. Suddenly Lucy wasn't standing on solid ground any longer. Aquarius wasn't ahead of her, and her magic was being eaten by a hole in the world. She was torn roughly from the spirit realm by a powerful force and thrown back into Earthland with little explanation. She hit the floor of her bedroom with such a jarring force that the desiccated and damaged wood cracked under her body. She saw stars.

"You and the lion Leo are banned from the celestial realm until further notice," rumbled a deep and familiar voice. Lucy tried to find the spirit king but he was nowhere to be seen. She strained to stand, her body so suddenly exhausted and used, but darkness stretched across her eyes and she fell back to the floor, unconscious.

She dreamed of Zeref. Standing over top of her, feet planted on either side of her body, he looked so real she had to ask, "Am I dreaming?"

Zeref considered her. "Not entirely," he admitted.

"But… sort of?"

"This is real enough." Zeref knelt, knees digging into her ribs, and pressed his fingers into her shoulders, pinning her to the ground. "So now your lion is truly yours."

"He's alive?"

"Yes."

She felt a small tinge of relief.

"What will you do with him?"

"Anything I want," she said.

Her indifference drove him crazy. He wanted to be riotously angry with her, but her nonchalance was strangely alluring. Usually others were too frightened of him to even consider crossing his path, but Lucy… she pushed him at every corner. His hands tingled where they touched her. "Will you replace me with him?" He hadn't meant to ask what had been on his mind since she went to the celestial realm on this mission.

Lucy touched his cheek and dragged him close enough his breath broke across her lips. "Never."

Hearing her say that was pure relief. He closed his eyes, catching his breath. Being near Lucy made him stupid in a way he hadn't ever been before. Focus. "That's not really why I'm here."

Lucy flicked her tongue against his slightly parted lips. "Then why?"

Dream-Zeref shook himself. "There is a place, Lucy, a town called Piper's Hold."

"Piper's Hold?"

"Yes."

"What's there?"

"Reprieve."

"What do you mean?"

He couldn't say. "Just go and you'll find your answers. If it's meant to be, you'll know where to go and what to do."

"If what is meant to be?"

"Don't ask."

"Zeref—"

He clapped his hand over her mouth, silencing her. He would not betray his real purpose. If Lucy Heartfilia was to be his, she would walk the path to hell all on her own. "I said not to ask."

She liked the way he spoke, his voice gentle and dangerous.

"If you're curious, find the town."

"Mmhmm…" She wasn't really listening anymore, easily distracted when she slipped up under his shirt and touched his back, his stomach. He felt real enough to her, not just a specter in a dream. He shivered when her hands dropped and found the waistband of his pants.

He took his hand away from her mouth; immediately Lucy leaned up and kissed him.

He moved his lips against hers for a long moment, until he remembered his purpose there and dragged her away by the hair. He panted more than he liked to admit, his body doing traitorous things as he straddled and pinned her to the floor.

"What's wrong?" she teased. "Still insecure?"

He entertained the idea of killing her again. Yet, this brazenness was why he enjoyed her so much. Remember Piper's Hold.

Her fingers wrapped around his hard body through his pants and played over the sensitive skin, scattering his thoughts again. "I can prove I'm thinking of you..."

He smothered a groan and caught her wrist. He wanted more than anything to let her do just that, but he didn't much like the power she held over him. Or me over her. "We can't be with each other until you've been to Piper's Hold."

Lucy sobered. "What?"

He swallowed and shook his head. It was going to be hard to stay away, but she couldn't be influenced.

"You don't mean that." Lucy reached with her other hand. Zeref caught that one too and pinned her back against the floor with jarring force. "I do."

Lucy writhed, a slice of fear working through her. "Zeref-"

"When you come back." When she came back he would have her. When she came back he would see her and kiss her and fall into her as he wanted to now. Just wait. But the longer he told himself to wait the more diluted his reasoning became. So what if she was all but a slave? So what if he didn't think what she felt was real? What did that really matter?

It matters, he told himself. It would hurt that much worse when she either died or realized exactly who she was and dragged herself out of this dark pit. If that were to happen, would she regret the things she did? Likely. That was surprisingly painful, that realization.

Sensing he was in turmoil, Lucy asked, "Are you sure you want to wait that long?"

No. Zeref could only watch as she wriggled against his hold, breasts heaving, skin looking smooth and perfect. Her mouth was parted just enough that he could see a flash of her neat white teeth. He wanted her to bite him, as she did her lion. "Why do you have to tempt me?"

She smiled sweetly. "Why do you torment yourself?"

"Because it's what I deserve," he replied depreciatively. This was what befell men that didn't want to obey the laws of nature, they lived in misery.

"Maybe," she didn't deny. "But why does it have to come at my expense?"

He shifted, his hardness pressing against her breasts. "Lucy…"

Lucy got a wicked glint to her eye, sensing his hesitation. "Let go."

He released her hands, wondering exactly who was a slave to whom. Before he could say or do anything, Lucy was slipping the neckline of her halter top over her head. In seconds she had it bullied down below her full breasts. They were as perfect as he remembered, full and creamy and when he touched them, pliable and soft, large but not grossly so. Lucy crooned, as if she'd been waiting for his touch, as if they hadn't just been together.

"I wish this wasn't a dream."

"I wish I wasn't doing this at all," he told her.

"You like it, Zeref. You even like me being with other men. I don't know why you make it so hard—"

"Shut up." She wouldn't understand. She didn't know what it was like to have complete control all of the time while starving for a lack of it. She didn't know what it was like to have everything just… obey. She didn't know what it was like to steal absolutely everything from his brother, even when he was trying to be gracious. Even Lucy…

She was something he was having a hard time giving back. Piper's Hold might fix that.

Or it might ruin everything entirely.

"Does it make you angry when I don't do exactly what you want?" she challenged.

Zeref didn't know how to tell her it made him relieved. It was those words that convinced him to go against his better judgement. Opening the front of his pants, he worked them down low enough that he was able to pull himself out. Lucy eyed him hungrily. He didn't have to wonder if she was thinking about her lion in that moment.

Gathering her breasts, Lucy held them together while Zeref slipped between them and left them both something to think about in the days to come.