Chapter Eighteen

I felt Wendy's enchantment take hold and the strength in my arms and legs felt like it tripled. This group was already full of the most powerful people in Fiore, with Wendy's enchantment our collective power increased tenfold.

"Open! Gate of the Bull and Gate of the Twins! Taurus and Gemini!" My spirits burst out of their gates and readied themselves to fight alongside me, on my right I saw Yukino do the same, summoning Pieces.

"Helloooo Lucy! You're like mmooo-re sexy than usual!" Taurus leered at me. I didn't have time to indulge his grossness.

"Thanks Taurus, I need you to buy me sometime. Gemini! Get chanting!"

"Okay, Lucy!" The little twins squealed and then I found myself staring at myself. In a towel. Ughhh not again. Sting wasn't helping matters. This was a battle. We were supposed to be serious and instead he was too busy ogling my naked body-er, spirit.

"Hey lightbright," Gray shouted at him. "You wanna fucking pay attention?" He shot an ice geyser in the direction of our attacker. It slowed him momentarily but the ice wall he had created started to crack after only a moment. I'd need to join the fight too, give Gemini enough time to finish chanting the spell. It was my most powerful attack but it took a long time to set it up.

"Star dress! Leo form!" I felt my body surge with Loke's light, Regulus being placed under my control, its intense power pulsing beneath my skin. I know this darkness creep absorbs light but if I could keep him busy there was no way he could defend against Urano Metria. The bastard broke through Gray's ice wall, its shards flying towards us only to be met by the sword of Titania Erza, breaking up into harmless flecks of ice. Our enemy barely slowed.

On some unseen signal we all attacked at once, shooting out our most powerful attacks, Erza closed the distance to him, slashing her katana in a brutal attack, he stepped back, lifting his cloak with one arm. Her sword sheered through the material and when she pulled it back to her side it was coated in a black tar like substance. She released the sword, screaming in pain, tendrils of darkness threaded her palm.

"Erza!" Jellal rushed to her side and caught the sword woman as she stumbled to her knees. Our opponent stood there with not a mark on him. Not even his cloak showed any signs of damage. It clearly wasn't made from normal fabric, rather he cloaked himself in his own dark power. This was ridiculous. All his lackeys were down. It was just him against the ten of us. And we couldn't touch him.

"Lucy!" Gemini called out in my own voice, they were ready.

"Right!" I turned and joined them, our palms pressed together.

"I am the ruler of the stars…

Aspect become complete…

Open thy malevolent gate.

Oh 88 stars of the heaven…

Shine! Urano Metria!"

I released the spell. The sky darkened and the constellations took form above us. The energy was in a powerful burst of light, aimed directly at our enemy.

"Nice one, Lucy!" Sting shouted. But as the residual magic from my attack cleared my face fell. The enemy wizard was standing there almost completely unharmed, his swirling black cloak reforming around his body. A few red burn marks marred his face and hands but otherwise, nothing.

"Fools!" He shouted. "I am living darkness, inheritor of the will of Erebus! Oblivion is my destiny and you can not stop me!"

"Yeah," Sting said, shrugging. "Pretty sure we already did, buddy." He yawned.

"It matters not, I will find a way. You can not stop the darkness. I am Khavary and my will shall be done!"

"Gods, dude," Sting was shaking his head at the guy, Khavary I guess. "Did you get that monologue from chapter two?"

Khavary screamed in frustration and the darkness around him just exploded. Tendrils of black nothingness snaked out from his cloak. One latched on to Taurus' leg, another to his arm. He swung down with his axe to sever the hold but his weapon just passed through it.

"I'm sorry Miss Lucy," he shouted. "I can't mooo-ve!" The blackness was spreading out across him, sneaking across his skin.

"Taurus!" I screamed, his light was fading, his muscles locked in agony. "Close! Gate of the bull, close!" Please, please close. I had closed his gate a hundred times, forced it closed against his own will. I had closed the gate of Leo, leader of the zodiac, without a gate key and in defiance of the Celestial King himself.

But Taurus' gate wouldn't close. The darkness was covering most of his body now, he couldn't move, couldn't make a sound.

"No," a whisper, disbelief. Then louder, "No!" I was not going to lose another spirit. I was not going to lose another friend. I would not let the darkness beat me. I grasped his key in my hand, held it in front of me, poured all my magic power into it and screamed. "GATE OF THE BULL, CLOSE!"

Khavary, or whatever his name was, was really starting to piss me the fuck off. We could barely get a hit on him, Lucy's spell marked him but did hardly any damage. Then those creepy black things were reaching everywhere. Luckily most of us had been able to avoid them, dodging here and there, but Lucy's spirit hadn't been so lucky. Gods the pain in her voice as she forced his gate closed was almost unbearable.

Once he was gone, she and Yukino quickly closed the gates of their other spirits, not wanting to risk losing them to the darkness. This greatly limited the role Yukino could have in the battle. She was pretty decent at hand to hand, stronger and quicker than most people would think, but with those tendrils flying around she couldn't risk it, she'd get sucked up too.

"Light's not going to damage him enough," Jellal said, holding Erza against him. She looked like she was in a lot of pain, little black veins were spreading from her hand, to her wrist, up her elbow…Jellal looked pissed and also maybe a little afraid. I couldn't blame him. "We need blunt force, long range or melee attacks." It was good advice, I just wasn't sure if we had enough magic energy reserves to finish him off. It might come down to endurance. The kind of outcome I particularly hated in a fight.

"Rogue!" I snapped at my twin. We'd fought together so many times I didn't need to say more than that. He took his post to my side and we readied our strongest attack. I could feel the scales covering my skin, my body heating up with the intensity of my light, the dragon force swirling around me like a miniature cyclone. I knew without looking Rogue had done the same. I threw my hand behind me, gathering energy, I built it up as much as I could, held it there until I thought the energy would explode. Then I thrust my hand in front of me.

"Holy Shadow Dragon's Flash Fang!" We shouted, releasing the spell and praying that it worked.

The magic clashed down around Khavary, tearing his cloak to shreds, my holy light wrapped around his naked limbs and where it touched I could see his skin smoking and blistering. Rogue's shadow had held the protective darkness at bay long enough for me to get a decent hit in.

"Yeah!" Gray shouted. "Let's go Juvia!"

"Of course, my love. I'm ready." And they launched their own unison raid before that creepy cloak could regrow. The water launched by the rain woman wrapped around Khavary's body and Gray's ice sliced into his flesh. We could do this. I looked around at my teammates and I could see our success so far had encouraged them. Wendy launched her own dragon's roar further tearing the cloak to pieces. We hit him, over and over. Blowing away or restraining the darkness and taking turns to attack his physical body. But we couldn't keep this momentum up forever.

"Enough!" Khavary screamed. "Darkness devour!" He spread his arms, fingers splayed and darkness shot out from their tips. I tried to leap out of the way again but I could feel it threading around my throat, choking the life out of me. I could feel my magic power draining out of me, sucked out by the magic that had an iron grip around my neck. Worse, I could feel the hope drain out of me as well. My body felt cold, my heart felt heavy. Despair just washed through me. Nothing mattered, nothing ever could matter. I might as well just give up. It was over. How stupid was I to think we'd succeed? That I could save the world? That I could ever not be alone? That I could ever find love. Lucy.

A sob was torn from my throat. Tears were prickling my eyes. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move. I couldn't even see. I just laid there while the darkness consumed me.

Gods how could this be happening? We were doing so well but now….I looked around at my scattered comrades. Little Wendy had one dark tendril wrapped around her ankle, while Carla in full battle form struggled in vain to pull her loose. Rogue was lying on his back, the tendrils writhing up his torso, twisting around his chest, squeezing. Frosch was trying to reach him but Lector held the little frog loving exceed in the sky, keeping them both out of reach. Erza was hacking away fruitlessly at the smoky black substance crawling up Jellal's legs while he begged her to save herself. Gray and Juvia were trapped in an ice-make hut, trying to protect themselves from the darkness that was creeping up their shelter's walls. Minerva looked like she was unconscious, Yukino trying to pull her out of the path of darkness. And Sting….

Sting was lying on the ground, still, the only movement coming from the steady flow of tears trickling down his face, falling in his beautiful blonde hair as the tendrils strangled the life out of him. I didn't know what to do, what could I do? I felt helpless, weak, totally alone.

"Lucy," Loke's soft voice reached my ears. But I couldn't take my eyes off Sting. I wanted to reach out to him, hold his hand, tell him everything would be ok. If he was going to die the least I could do was make sure he didn't die alone.

"Lucy," he said more urgently. "Look at me."

"Lok…what are you doing here? It's dangerous…."

"I know Princess, it'll be alright. I need to tell you something." He crouched down next to me so our faces were even, he gently turned my head, one finger guiding my chin. "It's time," he said. "It's the only way." What? It took a moment for his words to reach me. For my brain to assign them any meaning…he couldn't mean….

"No!" I yelled, frantic. "No way! You saw what I went through to get her back. You think I'd risk you too?" How could this idiot think I'd break his key? After all the pain, shame, heartache I went through with Aquarius. He knew how I felt, how much I regretted it. I couldn't do it again. Not even to save….

"Gods, Lucy," he sighed. "I wouldn't even suggest that! Not after…" he shook his head, disappointed in me I think.

"Then…what?" I asked, afraid of his answer.

"Crux." He said, simply. My eyes flew open in understanding.

"Grandpa Crux really thinks I'm ready?"

"No choice," he shrugged. "You're ready or you're not, there's only one way to find out."

I nodded. I could do this, I think. But…

"You'll need the glow stick for this one." Sting…I'd need him to give the attack enough focus.

Ever since that day on the swings, when he told me how he replenishes his power. When he joked about eating my Regulus Burst. A thought circled round and round my head. What would happen if he ate my Celestial light? Would it be like when Natsu consumed the fire of Atlas Flames? A one shot power up, indefensible attack? Or was I too weak? Would it matter? I'd probably never need to find out.

I asked Grandpa Crux about a powerful magic that I could pair with Sting. A sort of unison raid by proxy. My magic, consumed by him, increased tenfold by the power of the holy white dragon slayer. Crux told me about a spell, to harness the power of a quasar, the light that brings new life and creates new galaxies. Powered by the infinite darkness of a black hole. Grandpa Crux thought that it would be strong enough to use our enemies own darkness against him. But I had been afraid to mention it. The spell was incredibly difficult to perform and I didn't think I could handle it.

"You can do this," Loke whispered in my ear. "We're running out of time, he's running out of time." Sting…."Remember…you are Lucy Heartfilia, daughter of Layla, master of the stars…."

"And I will get through this day," I finished. It was silly but my little mantra gave me power. It was a reminder that I could do anything. I could do it alone until I didn't have to.

I stood up, my confidence returning. I dismissed my star dress, I wouldn't need it for this. I just needed to be me. I took my stance, one hand palm flat held above my head, the other in front of my chest.

In words of power, this spell I cast

Quasar essence, reveal the secrets amassed.

My power was building, crackling under my skin. I'd use my entire reservoir for this but it didn't matter. Not if I could save my friends, save him. Please, let this work.

Weaving Celestial threads to unravel the unknown,

Let the energies flow from the deepest rung.

My skin was glowing now and I briefly wondered what I looked like. I could see my light shining all around me, illuminating the ground, burning back those shadowy tendrils creeping towards me, flickering off the ice of Gray and Juvia's protective barrier.

Illuminate the darkness with radiant flares,

Let quasars brilliance breakthrough veils and snares.

Quasar of brilliance shining so bright, grant us your power in this mystical rite.

"That won't work!" Came Khavary's snarling voice. "That spell has no control, you can't defeat me!" I ignored him, I didn't care what he said or what he did, I couldn't stop. My friends were counting on me. Little Wendy, Erza and Gray who finally found their partners, Rogue who just needed a little courage to tell Yukino how he felt, Minerva, who worked so hard to turn over a new leaf. Sting….I spread my arms wide, feeling the power come to a crescendo.

Ignite the stars and open our minds,

I summon the power of the quasar's core

To banish this darkness forevermore!

And I released the spell, channeling the full power of a quasar…Right at Sting Eucliffe.

A/N I needed Lucy to show off her power a little here. I always thought Lucy held more strength and magic power than most people in story would think.