Lucy – several hours earlier

The sun had not long set when she heard footsteps approaching her prison, no plan in mind but she felt determined – she was a Fairy Tail mage after all and against the logic of the situation she felt calm. She'd fight in anyway that she could and hope that her friends would come to save her.

Hope was the wrong word – she knew he'd come, there was no doubt in her mind, she just had to survive long enough for him and his sensitive nose to sniff her out.

"Why Lucy, it's time for you to come out of there now. There's a lovely stone just waiting for your blood my dear. Ahhhh but before I let you out I'll be taking those keys from you now!"

"I'll never let you take away my keys, they're my precious friends and I won't let you hurt them!"

"Well that's a lovely sentiment my dear but you don't really have much of a choice I'm afraid. You see I have the upper hand here – this cell only restricts your magic not my own"

And with that he opened the door to her cell, paper figures came shooting from him and Lucy was soon pinned against the walls of the cell, the masked man strode in after them and swiftly unhooked her keys and whip from her belt hooking them on to his own.

"Now then, this way please if you don't mind dear"

"Give them back now! I don't care what you do to me but leave my friends alone"

"I suppose I could fill you in on my plan now that we're so close, but first I'd like to stop these incessant interruptions of yours", with another flick of his hand more paper dolls came to wrap around Lucy's mouth cutting off her ability to speak any further, and those wrapped around her lifted her from the wall moving her to follow after their master.

"See what I need is the blood of a celestial spirit mage and that dear is where you come in. Granted there are a few of you out there but you possess the most zodiac keys making you the strongest of the bunch. Your blood alongside the power of the moon links the solar system to me and will grant me power unimaginable to normal earthly mages, I shall be on the level of the stars themselves. As an added bonus I got to use my so..ahem…that dimwit lightning dragon in your guild and exact some revenge on him, see dear he's been terribly unkind towards me and I wanted to give him a flavour of how it feels to be hated by his family, ungrateful little so and so.."

If there's one thing a villain loves to do is monologue and Lucy couldn't help but think this masked one was no different, the benefit was he no longer paid her any mind as he guided her through the twisting hallways unfortunately, she hadn't spotted any other routes branching off and try as she might to wriggle against her paper bindings she couldn't break through.

"…so brilliantly planned if not for that fiery knucklehead getting in the way. Though…it was harder getting you here than it would have been if Laxus had just been able to lead you here, this way does have the added bonus that the fire pest will go insane soon."

Of course, she couldn't die here there was too much at risk. For one frankly she didn't want to be a sacrifice for him, then there were all of her spirits she'd vowed to protect and then there was no way she could let Natsu fall to insanity. He'd risked so much for her and she wasn't about to let it all be in vain and also send him to crazy town.

"and here we are dear, your final stop! And I suppose it would be no fun not to hear your screams of delight", a flourish of his hand had her slammed into a stone table and the bindings round her mouth poof into non-existence. Above her was a large opening to outside she could see the moon coming over illuminating the room they were in – she could see around half of it currently, from what he'd been spouting on about she was guessing he needed the whole moon but that still didn't give her long. Craning her neck around she tried desperately to see something that could help – there were several tunnels off from this room but that would only help her if she could escape then the question was how could she do that.

He was gibbering on again about his plan and how clever he was or some nonsense, she closed her eyes to try drowning him out so she could think. To think of a way to get out, she didn't have any keys or her whip – her magic style left her rendered mostly useless at this point, if only she thought if she had magic like Natsu's. To have fire power coursing through your very being would be very helpful to her, never in her life had she ever wanted to be more like her boisterous and reckless best friend…boyfriend?...lover? well – hopefully they'd get a chance to decide that!

As she lay there thinking of Natsu and his fire power she felt the prickling again in her neck of her little dragon – he gave her comfort yes, but she could sense he waws restless almost urging her on to stop being so stupid and do something.

"and these little trinkets of yours – they'll be burned down nicely to become my new crown, I think that to be quite fitting. If only you had them all – no matter, I'm sure I can melt those in later when I take control and everyone bows to me, they'll be handing their keys over on their knees"

He dropped them, her whole set of keys – she heard them jangle around a pot and the striking of a match. Though it never made it to the fire beneath the pot, instead his taunts had sparked the fire within Lucy.

She was filled uncontrollably with the desire to protect her keys, her friends. And with that desire came fire coursing through her entire body and then it broke through and she was on fire – those paper dolls burnt to ash in an instant, she sat up slowly raising her left hand and turning it over curiously watching golden flames lick around her skin but without burning her.

No matter the reason for why these flames did not burn her, she hastened to utilise them to her advantage swinging off the table and straight for her masked captor.

"I won't let you hurt my friends!"

He flung streams of dolls towards her but not one made it close to impact all burning on entering close to her atmosphere.

In a last ditch attempt he grabbed a chair nearby and threw it towards her – she jumped to get out of the way and never fell back down. She found herself floating several feet up in the air, she glanced over her shoulder to see some golden fiery wings seemed to have sprouted.

"I don't know what happened to you but I am out of here! I'll find another celestial mage!"

"Oh no you won't!", she dove back down towards him and dealt out a very fiery 'Lucy kick' before he could escape – he flew across the room and was out cold, his mask falling askew on landing.

"Yeah buddy! That was for Laxus! And just you wait till Natsu and the others get here, they'll really teach you a lesson!"

Hearing some noise from the other side of the room she turned to look and found her friends there.

"Natsu! Everyone, you guys came for...". The wings crackled out, the last thing she saw was Natsu running towards her. She could feel happiness and pride emanating from her dragon – not knowing whose feelings these were originally didn't matter: at this point she was sure that their feelings were intertwined.

"Course we did Luce"

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you enjoy this one - hopefully more explanation from the last chapter on what went on. :)

Coppereign12 - thank you for your review, it really motivates me to see how you enjoy the story and it's progression!