Fairytale of Doom
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Sixteen – The Highest Room of the Tallest Tower
In the highest room of the tallest tower there dwelled a captive princess.
It wasn't the captivity that bothered Lucy, per se. She'd spent enough of her Fairy Tail career being kidnapped; it didn't scare her any more. There was no small irony to the fact that she'd made it through eighteen years as a wealthy heiress just fine, and then the moment she ran away from high society to begin her new life as a penniless guild mage, surrounded by equally broke friends whose desire to pay any ransom for her safe return far outstripped their ability to do so, she suddenly became the villains' most wanted.
It wasn't the tallness of the tower that bothered her, either. This appeared to be some sort of illegal crossbreed between Sleeping Beauty's Castle and her own guildhall: a little bit disturbing, but familiar enough to be reassuring and fantastical enough to be novel. Then again, fact that the highest room had no exits other than the window Maleficent had thrown her in through was a little unnerving. It was as though the room had been built solely for the purpose of housing a captive princess – a role she had now been forced into.
It wasn't even the thorny vines binding her limbs securely to the bed that bothered her. Okay, they did bother her, but she was reluctantly accepting a measure of responsibility for that part of her predicament. "Well, joke's on you, I actually know the difference between a spindle and a spinning wheel, and can therefore happily spin myself some yarn without falling under your spell," probably hadn't been the smartest thing to say to her fairytale kidnapper.
Maleficent had simply smiled the reaper's smile, and informed Lucy that she was done with curses, too many fiddly conditions to fulfil; enchantments were what magical villainy was all about these days. A tap of her staff against the flagstones had generated the thorns that now bound her. Only when Lucy was thoroughly trussed up did the evil sorceress smirk again and retreat back out of the window, transforming into a dragon as she did so… and leaving Lucy to stew in her captivity.
All in all, it wasn't one of Lucy's better days.
Still, it wasn't the captivity that was really getting to her.
It was the inevitable rescue.
Because everyone knew that the princess was rescued from the highest room of the tallest tower by her true love, who broke the villain's spell with the power of true love's first kiss.
How, how, had she ended up in this situation? She had walked right out of Cinderella! Stuck two fingers up at that antiquated story and bravely set out on her own!
And now she'd gone and stumbled into quite possibly the only fairytale that was worse.
Sleeping Beauty. The only good thing about it was its villain, and Maleficent had lost a lot of her charm when she had stopped being fictional. Aurora was the epitome of helpless princesses, doomed to eternal slumber while Prince Phillip got all the cool action scenes, until she was finally awoken by an unsolicited kiss from a bloke she'd met once in the forest. And that was it, 'true love', her future decided for her without even a conscious I do.
Now, without warning or explanation, Lucy had been shoved into that role.
And she had literally been standing next to the real Sleeping Beauty when Maleficent had kidnapped her! There was no denying it: this fairytale world had it out for her. All she wanted was for her story to not be defined by her romantic relationships; was that really too much to ask?
Well, apparently it was, and there was nothing she could do but wait with equal dread for Maleficent's return and/or her prince's kiss of true love. She'd tried her best to get out of the bindings, but she could barely twitch her limbs, let alone reach her magicless celestial keys, and there was no furniture in the room other than the mockingly fancy four-poster bed to which she was tied.
Her heart kick-started at a sound from outside the window. Was that a dragon's claws scratching the stone? Or was it some dude who thought he was entitled to the princess just because the fairies had given him a magic sword? At this point, she wasn't sure which she wanted to see the least.
No, that silhouette was definitely human – and as it dropped in through the window and straightened, Lucy felt both surprise and relief. Surprise, because she hadn't been expecting to meet Jellal Fernandes in this world; surely it was only Fairy Tail that got dragged into these shenanigans. And relief, because not even this messed-up universe could get things this wrong.
"Oh, thank goodness," Lucy sighed, collapsing back onto the pillows. "You can't be my prince. You're already taken."
This, apparently, had not been the reaction Jellal had been expecting upon climbing through the window of the highest room of the tallest tower, and he blinked at her uselessly for a moment. "…I am?"
"Absolutely." There was no force on earth that could make Lucy come between Erza and her not-so-secret crush. This fairytale world could drop her into all the outdated romantic clichés it wanted; she did not have a death wish, thank you very much.
Then again, she had thought Gray was already taken too, hadn't she? And by the only person who could actually be scarier than Erza when Gray was involved. That hadn't stopped Gray from doing the thing that absolutely had not happened on the boat and she was not thinking about it no no no…
Maybe Jellal had noticed some of the relief sliding off her face, because he volunteered, "If it helps, I have been reliably informed that I am not a prince at all, but a beast."
"Oh- you're in Beauty and the Beast? Which makes Erza… a beauty but a funny girl, huh?" She snorted, and then suddenly paled. "Please don't tell her I said that."
A tiny smile touched Jellal's lips. "I won't breathe a word."
"Phew."
"Still," he continued, stepping forward, "it may not be my story, but I am here to rescue you."
"Oh!" The thing she was not thinking about flashed through her mind again, and Aurora's fate, and breaking Maleficent's spell – and if Lucy could have shuffled further back into the pillows, she would have done. "Well, it's good of you to come all this way, but I, uh… I don't need rescuing."
There was a pause.
"You… don't need rescuing?" Jellal doubted.
"Nuh-uh. All good here. Thanks."
"Are you sure?" So baffled did he look that it was difficult to believe, in that moment, that he was the same ex-Wizard Saint who ran rings around the Magic Council and the dark guilds alike. "Those thorns look rather painful, and the dragon could come back at any moment…"
"Yes, well, I can deal with them. I'm a strong, independent woman; I don't need a prince."
"…Right." He stared at her some more. She tried to look nice and relaxed on her bed of thorns.
It didn't work. "Lucy, there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it. Even in my guild, we understand that there are things we cannot handle alone. As much as we would love to be entirely independent, we would not be able to get by without our friends in the legal guilds putting their necks on the line for us every once in a while. Being kidnapped by a dragon in a world without magic is categorically one of those times when there is no shame in asking for help."
He had entirely missed the point, Lucy thought. It wasn't the asking-for-help bit she was struggling with; it was what it meant for her future in this accursed world where everything had too much romantic meaning.
And when he took a determined step forward, she panicked and blurted out, "If the alternative is being kissed by a man I hardly know, maybe I'd rather stay under Maleficent's spell!"
For the third time in less than a minute, the supremely powerful ex-Wizard Saint was struck dumb. His mouth moved uselessly, not even trying to form coherent words.
A sudden rush of understanding hit Lucy, followed by an equal rush of embarrassment as her cheeks had a good go at melting through the thorns. "You… weren't planning to kiss me, were you?"
He blinked. "I mean, please don't take this the wrong way, Lucy, you're a very beautiful woman, but- well, no, no I wasn't."
"Right. I mean, it's just that in the fairytale, a kiss is what breaks Maleficent's magic, so I just assumed…"
With a self-conscious rustling of fabric, Jellal drew a dagger out of a hidden sheath. "I was actually planning on cutting through the vines with this."
"…Oh."
Cautiously, he volunteered, "Maybe I could try the dagger first, and keep your plan as a last resort?"
"Uh, yeah, sure."
Lucy wasn't quite sure how he got close enough to cut through the restraints, given that her cheeks were radiating enough heat to vaporize an iceberg. It took a bit of sawing, but the first of the ensnaring vines soon snapped, and then the second, and then the third, and each one seemed to take a little bit more of Lucy's dignity with it, until she found herself wishing that Maleficent had just presented her with a goddamn spindle after all and she could have been blissfully unconscious throughout this whole ordeal.
When the last restraint fell away, and she was able to sit up again, all she could manage to mumble was a quiet, "Thanks."
"You're welcome," came the uncertain response.
"You know," she tried, "maybe the rules of Maleficent's spells are different for me, because I'm not technically Sleeping Beauty? Walking out of the story didn't stop me from being Cinderella – it just meant I was in the wrong plot. So maybe none of the story elements are working quite right."
"Sounds plausible," Jellal said with perfect neutrality.
There followed the most awkward silence of her life, until finally, abandoning all of her self-esteem, she looked him dead in the eye and said, "Do you think there's any chance we could just, you know, pretend all that never happened and not mention it again for the rest of our lives?"
A relieved sigh. "Works for me."
"Great." Lucy stood up and offered him her hand to shake. "Hi, I'm Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail. I know we've met a few times in passing, but it's good to actually team up with you. And, before the embargo on talking about it kicks in, I will mention once and once only that I am extremely grateful that you came here to rescue me. So… thank you."
"Well, if it helps with the embargo, it isn't really me you should be thanking, but Levy."
"Levy?" Lucy frowned. "Why? She's not even here."
"True, but she is also the reason why Maleficent isn't here."
Lucy felt a dawning, horrified comprehension, that on the plus side did kick her embarrassment right out of her mind. "You left Levy to fight a dragon on her own?"
"Yes." To Lucy's astonishment, the accusation did not faze him. Considering how bemused he'd been at her talk of princes, he seemed entirely unflappable when it came to this act of lunacy. "She is distracting the dragon while I rescue you. It was her plan, and a sensible one." Then his gaze sharpened upon her, appraising rings of gold, and he asked, curiously, "Do you not believe she is capable of it?"
"I- well- hang on, don't twist my words!" Lucy spluttered. "I never said she wasn't capable! It's just that, if there was a relatively safe rescue mission and a stupidly dangerous battle against a dragon, and you and Levy were the options, who in their right mind would let Levy go alone against the dragon?"
Neutrally, Jellal responded, "I would have thought the self-professed strong independent woman who would rather live under a curse than be rescued by a prince would be all over that option."
Lucy opened her mouth and closed it again.
Ouch. That devastating shrewdness.
The awkwardness of the rescue had been unintentional, embarrassing to both of them, but that had been deliberate: a strike to win, even to hurt. No, she did not see the appeal. Erza could keep her prince, thank you very much.
But he had already glanced away. "I wonder," he mused, more to himself than to her, "did people also believe Mulan was not capable?"
Lucy blinked at the non-sequitur. "Well, it's not really the same. They didn't at first, but that's because she was a rubbish soldier, and she and her comrades all improved over the course of the story. She wasn't kicked out of the army because they thought she was incapable; she was kicked out because she broke the law by masquerading as a man."
"Hmm. Perhaps that is not the explanation either, then."
"…Look, can this wait until later? Say, a time when my friend isn't fighting a dragon on her own?"
"Good point," he conceded, guilt flashing through his eyes. "Let us go and help."
At that moment, her pride as a female mage notwithstanding, Levy McGarden would have wholeheartedly agreed with Lucy's assessment of the situation.
What had she been thinking?
She had seen a chance to prove herself, and jumped. A chance that normally, her well-meaning friends like Lucy and Erza would have tried to dissuade her from taking, all for her own good of course. A chance that Gajeel would have shot down immediately.
A chance that Jellal, despite being an almost-stranger to her, had respected her enough to let her take.
Or maybe, Levy reflected, as she stared up at the dragon curled around the top of this fantasy version of her guildhall, mouth dry and palms clammy, Jellal had let her jump because he hardly knew her, and therefore didn't care what happened to her.
The diseased emeralds of Maleficent's eyes glittered down at her, and she clenched both her fists.
"Maleficent!" she shouted. "My name is Levy, and I am here to rescue the princess you kidnapped!"
After a moment, the dragon gave a great, rumbling laugh. "You?"
And this, Levy thought, was why she had taken that chance. To show that she could do more than just back up Gajeel while he fought the important battles. To prove that she was worthy of the S-Class nomination she'd only received because the Master had wanted to get Gajeel onto Tenrou Island without nominating him directly.
She recalled the last words Jellal had said to her before they'd parted ways: that she was as brave as Belle, the heroine she had always looked up to. Levy didn't think she was, not quite, not yet, but she was damn well going to be the best Mulan she could be.
"Yes," she told Maleficent proudly. "Me. Just try and stop me – if you can."
And she ran full pelt towards the entrance of this world's palatial version of the guildhall.
"Oh, you foolish child," Maleficent sneered. "Facing me, with neither a sword nor magic to your name."
In a blast of wind, she took to the sky, shaking the building within its prison of knotted thorns. Levy kept running towards the bramble-snared guildhall, just a little further, just a little-
Maleficent's laugh became a roar: "Burn!"
Levy threw herself forward – and into the tangle of vines that spilled onto the road. Emerald-yellow flashed in the corner of her eye. Heat curled upon her skin. Then it cut off abruptly in a frustrated howl, hellfire fading, the last traces of it flickering from Levy's grim smile as she forced her way deeper into the thicket.
It had been a gamble, but Maleficent had kidnapped Lucy, not killed her; she clearly wanted her alive for some nefarious purpose. Her own curse of thorns had wrapped the guildhall in kindling. If she didn't want to burn down the castle and her captive – and clearly she did not – Maleficent had to go easy on the dragonfire while Levy was within the thicket. That was the thought that kept her pressing onwards, despite the thorns scraping her skin, tugging at her hair, drawing blood with lifelike hunger.
The dragon's tail slashed through the undergrowth barely a metre ahead of her. Levy's legs froze; her heart went into overdrive to absorb the momentum. How could she have forgotten this was a dragon she was facing, with no shortage of natural weapons to turn to when her signature emerald flames had been ruled out?
A talon raked through the razor-sharp thicket to her right, combing through the brambles to find her. Levy forced herself to keep moving. The thorns concealed her, but they didn't protect her; not against limbs shielded by invulnerable scales. Caution warred with haste, Maleficent's grasping claws warred with the concealment she had accidentally provided to a mage willing to suffer the tearing of the thorns, and Levy pressed on through the pain, edging closer and closer to the guildhall.
At last she broke free and dived through those familiar-unfamiliar doors. Silence fell over her – a reminder that this wasn't really her home, because silence would only fall upon the real guildhall the moment after the world had ended. She was almost grateful for the sound of Maleficent thrashing through the thorns outside. She scurried to the window, watching the villain hunt for the little mouse that had escaped her, and Levy felt a momentary twinge of relief.
But only for a moment.
Because surviving Maleficent was only half the job.
Outside, Maleficent's wings unfurled again, and as she rose into the air, Levy's heart sank like a counterweight. If the dragon flew over the guildhall, she would spot Jellal climbing up to the highest room of the tallest tower.
There was no such thing as safety, in or out of the guildhall. Levy had to keep Maleficent's attention on her.
With hands still bleeding from a hundred crisscrossed scratches, Levy threw open the window. "Hey, Maleficent! Guess who's in your castle, about to steal your princess back?"
The answering roar shook the building to its foundations.
And then Levy was running again, hurtling up the staircase that would keep her to the front of the guildhall-turned-castle and away from the back where the rescue mission was underway. She passed a table still covered with the remnants of some feast – the closest thing to an armoury she was going to get – and snatched up a serving-tray as she went.
The staircase up to the second floor wasn't a spiral in her own guildhall, but this world had its own ideas. As she sprinted upwards, window after window offered her stop-motion snapshots of a dragon lifting and launching and lunging towards her, closer and closer and-
Jaws snapped shut right in front of her. Maleficent had reached the next window a split-second too quick to bite her in two. So close was she that Levy stumbled into the side of her snout. Her mind whited out in panic, but her body still moved, and she brought the silver serving-tray crashing down on Maleficent's snout.
The dragon snorted and jerked back – but Levy's relief was short-lived, for a jet of haunted flames was pouring in through the window. She hightailed it back down the stairs, barely staying ahead of the imps of flame nipping at her heels. The heat crusted over the still-bleeding lacerations, cracked them, tore them.
Even the sound of a wall being blown in above her didn't make her stop. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that Maleficent had smashed her way into the tower and was slithering down the staircase after her, a rapacious shadow, consuming all the light in her path until only those mean yellow eyes remained to glint out of the darkness at her.
Strange. Maleficent had never seemed so terrifying in the classic film.
It was a fairytale, Levy supposed, and it was a defining characteristic of fairytales that good must defeat evil. That close to the end credits, any genuine fear for Prince Phillip's safety and Princess Aurora's future was replaced by the thrill of the orchestration and the malicious elegance of Maleficent's animation.
There had been no rule of morality guaranteeing their safety when Acnologia had attacked Tenrou Island, only luck and the First Master's magic.
There had been no happily ever after when they triumphed over the demons of Tartaros, only the loss of their guild, their home.
There was no ethical obligation for her to survive this clash with the villain. Only her own strength.
And as she stumbled out of the stairwell and into the main hall, Maleficent raising herself up to her full and terrifying height behind her, her strength seemed hardly sufficient.
There she stood, in a castle-like version of Fairy Tail's grand hall, weaponless, magicless, while sickly flames dripped from Maleficent's jaws and hissed like acid against the stone.
She took one step backwards, and then another, unable to look away from her fate.
"Have you finished trying to play the hero, little girl?" the dragon gloated.
Levy trembled, and then stopped trembling.
Because there was one thing she had forgotten, and Maleficent had just reminded her.
"I am a hero," she said quietly. "Whether I defeat you or not doesn't matter. As long as Jellal and Lucy make it out okay, as long as it gets them one step closer to going back to our guild and our friends, then I have won, and you have lost."
The echo of the dragon's laugh made the empty guildhall seem even more desolate. "Fool."
But as Levy stepped back again, her foot hit something solid. There, protruding from a pile of debris, was the same blue and white shield that – unbeknownst to her – had saved Laxus during his fight in this very same guildhall.
Unlike Laxus, however, Levy recognized the shield at once. It was Prince Phillip's Shield of Virtue, granted to him by the Good Fairies on his quest to save Sleeping Beauty… and the only thing that could deflect Maleficent's hellfire.
Perhaps the hero's moral protection did have her back, after all.
Throwing caution to the wind, she turned around and lifted her new weapon – or tried to.
The enchanted shield would not budge. No matter how hard she tugged, no matter how much rubble she frantically tried to excavate from around it with her foot, it remained utterly immovable.
Fate had provided a magical shield, but not, it seemed, for her.
She wasn't supposed to be the hero after all.
Maleficent was laughing again, in full force now, empowered by Levy's shock and horror. "Not even you, little hero? Then you are worthless to me! It is time for your story to end!"
She opened her mouth to unleash burning death – and a thrown goblet smacked into the side of her jaw.
Maleficent hissed in annoyance, smoke billowing from her nostrils. Both she and Levy turned to see Lucy standing at the foot of the other staircase. She could not have looked less like a prince, dressed in the same rags with which she had fled Cinderella and holding not a sword but a solid gold goblet in each hand, pilfered from the demolished feast table – but at the same time, she could not have looked more righteous.
"There you are, you scaly villain!" Lucy declared. "How dare you try to turn me into a damsel in distress? You're about to learn that you picked the wrong ex-princess to kidnap!"
She flung a second goblet. It spun once, lazily, hypnotically, the spell only breaking at the very last minute as the dragon jerked her head out of the way.
Maleficent spat out a laugh. "Do you think you can defeat me, the Mistress of Evil, with crockery?"
"No," came a quiet, cool response. "But we can distract you."
Levy started. She hadn't seen Jellal, and apparently neither had Maleficent, but there he was in her shadow, both hands wrapped around the hilt of a dagger. With matter-of-fact grace, he twisted with his whole body and slashed the join between her wing and her flank.
He must have found a tendon, or something unprotected by those scales, because never had they heard a dragon shriek like Maleficent shrieked. She raged and thrashed, her body a roiling mass of pain and motion. One of her legs struck Jellal a solid blow. The dagger slipped from his fingers as he was flung backwards, then he hit the wall and did not appear to move again.
Flames frothed at the dragon's mouth. Lucy took a step backwards, possibly realizing that, for all her indignation, she did not want to be in the line of fire right now. But there she was, in Maleficent's pain-crazed sights, with nowhere to run.
Levy moved on pure instinct. As she ran forwards, she pulled from her belt not a weapon or an impossible shield, but the only magical artefact she had: the silver hand-mirror she had taken from the Beast's Castle.
"Show me Maleficent," she whispered. As she did so, she envisioned in her mind not the dragon as a whole, but her open jaw and the green flames surging within. It had to respond to thoughts as well as the verbal command; how else would it know which of the many people in the world with the same name to show?
As lightning crackled around the edge of the mirror, she leapt and thrust the device in front of one reptilian eye.
Confronted by the sight of hellish green flames apparently launching towards her, Maleficent's draconic instincts took over. She jerked backwards and lashed out at her enemy in the same instant. Levy was sent flying; though she rolled back to her feet, the mirror wasn't so lucky, and it flew from her grip and smashed against the far wall. Meanwhile, Maleficent's torrent of emerald flames soared straight over Lucy's head and hit the ceiling.
They were lucky, Levy thought, distantly, that Sleeping Beauty's castle had merged with the Fairy Tail guildhall of all things. After the third time Natsu had burned the place down, the Master had ensured that all future iterations were built with the finest fireproofing the guild's limited budget could afford. Some of that protection must have been absorbed into this hybrid building, and that was the only reason why they weren't currently amidst a hellish inferno.
Still, cracks were racing through the ceiling, and Levy suspected that after one more hit like that, the fire would be the least of their worries.
Maleficent drew herself up to her full height. "Foolish little heroes," she hissed. "You are nothing before the true power of evil!"
Levy glanced around frantically. Where were the Good Fairies when they needed them? Maleficent represented pure darkness, evil for evil's sake; wasn't this the opportune moment for the plucky young heroes to discover the power inside themselves or be saved by a manifestation of good karma? But here they were, no weapons, no magic, the guildhall-turned-castle trembling around them, Jellal struggling to his feet in the corner, and Lucy…
Lucy was running for the half-buried Shield of Virtue with a wild spark in her eyes.
"Lucy, no!" Levy shrieked. Lucy must have recognized it from the story, oblivious to the fact that it couldn't be lifted, and had thrown away her one chance to escape for its false promise of sanctuary. "It's a trap, it can't be used, it-"
But her warning was drowned by the crackle of burning air as Maleficent unleashed her breath attack directly towards Lucy.
Lucy reached for the useless shield – and lifted it as though it were weightless.
Flames smashed against it and could go no further. Prince Phillip's shield was far more than a physical item; neither heat nor force could touch her now, no matter how Maleficent raged.
And rage the dragon did, when the flames winked out to reveal a slightly stunned Lucy still grasping the shield with both hands, and a very stunned Levy still unable to process how she could lift it so easily.
Maleficent's fury was a terrifying thing, cruelly blind, claws overturning tables and wings toppling pillars. Flames were roiling once again in her jaws. Levy didn't know how they could get out of this. They may have had Prince Phillip's enchanted shield, but they did not have his sword, and a shield could not slay a dragon.
Unless…
Lucy had taken a gamble to grasp the shield, and now it was Levy's turn. She seized Jellal's arm and dragged him away from the doors; dragged him towards Lucy and the target of Maleficent's fury. They huddled behind her friend, who bravely raised the shield again.
Levy whispered, "Use the ceiling!"
Lucy nodded once. Braver than any fairytale prince, she stood tall in the light of her radiant shield. As Maleficent blasted them again, she struck back with all her faith and a carefully calculated angle.
The surge of green flames was redirected straight into the ceiling above Maleficent. Which, between the thorns, the geysers from hell, and the rampaging dragon, finally decided it had had enough.
The guildhall and all its extra princess-imprisoning towers collapsed on top of the dragon.
By the time the rubble had stopped falling, there was no sign of the dragon. With any luck, the force would have undone her draconic transformation and put an end to her, but Levy doubted the Mistress of Evil would be defeated so easily. She'd be back, and more dangerous than ever.
But thanks to Lucy, they had won a small reprieve. By the time Maleficent could dig herself out, they would be long gone.
It was only after they had travelled for some time without a glimpse of a vengeful black dragon flying after them that they began to relax. Lucy was the first to speak up, albeit begrudgingly: "I suppose I should say thanks for the rescue. I'm very glad it was you two, and not someone I'm now expected to marry."
Levy choked.
To her astonishment, Jellal seemed to take it in his stride, and Levy couldn't help wonder what strange and wonderful conversation they must have had at the top of the tower. "You did do most of the rescue work yourself," he pointed out. It was the perfect thing to say to calm a still irate Lucy, Levy noticed, with faint amusement. "That is a powerful artefact you bore against the dragon. May I see it?"
"Oh, this? Sure. It was just lying on the ground in the guildhall. It's from Sleeping B- careful!"
The shield had slipped through Jellal's fingers and clattered to the ground.
"Ah, my apologies," said he. "I thought I… that's odd." He had stooped to pick it up, and found that he couldn't. The shield was once again inexplicably attached to the floor.
"You can't lift it?" Lucy blinked.
"No. It won't budge." He straightened, with an intrigued expression upon his face and a faint light in his eyes – not baffled, Levy thought, but turning through hypotheses like another man would inhale and exhale, trying to determine the most likely solution. "It came from this world's variant of your guildhall, so perhaps it can only be used by those with the Fairy Tail mark."
"I can't lift it either," Levy countered. "I tried before you two arrived on the battlefield." She reached over to demonstrate. The shield wasn't merely heavy; it was as if the concept of motion simply didn't apply to it. There was no lever, no force, no pressure in the world that she could possibly use to shift it.
"Weird." Lucy slid the shield onto her arm as easily as if it were a jewelled bracelet. "Maybe this is a sign that I'm more than just a kidnapped princess in this world. Maybe I'm supposed to be a classic superhero instead, striking down evil with the Shield of Virtue!"
Something about hearing it said out loud made it click in Levy's mind. She stopped in her tracks.
"…What?" Lucy pouted, turning to look at her. "Look, I know it was an embarrassing thing to say, but I really don't want to be trapped in a stupid true love's first kiss ending."
"No, not that, I just wondered…"
"What?" Lucy prompted again, as she tailed off.
"Well… it's called the Shield of Virtue, right?" Levy explained hesitantly. "And in fairytales… well, in a lot of old-fashioned literature, really… 'virtue' is another word for, well…"
Lucy froze.
Against Maleficent, she had been fearless, and now all the blood was draining from her face.
"Seriously?" she demanded.
"Sorry," Levy mumbled.
Lucy glanced at Jellal, who gave her an apologetic smile.
"You have got to be kidding me," Lucy said flatly. "I finally get a superpower in this fairytale… and it's a physical manifestation of the fact that for the last two years, the guy I liked didn't see me as any more than a friend?" Her voice rose to a shriek. "Why is everything in this goddamn world about romance?!"
Levy patted her reassuringly on the shoulder. "Focus on the important thing, Lucy. You just saved all our lives and neutralized a dragon!"
"Yes, with the power of my virginity!" she exclaimed, disgusted.
"You don't have to tell people that bit," Levy reassured her. "We won't breathe a word, will we?"
She gave Jellal a pointed look, who echoed hastily, "Not a word."
Lucy gave a half-hearted grunt. "Let's just keep going. And if we happen to run into the First Master on our journey, I'm going to murder her with my bare hands."
A/N: You know, I think Lucy was actually enjoying not being in this story for a few weeks. ~CS
