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December 20th, X778

The Vhalis's attack was unexpected and entirely frustrating.

Natsu couldn't imagine for the life of him how they'd forgotten to put runes up to keep the Vhalis out of the house in the middle of many others when they'd broken into it the night before. As the sun had slipped over the horizon with weak rays of sunlight, he'd heard the shattering of a window below and had instinctively gone to investigate. He'd left Levy with Wendy to ensure she stayed safe, not wanting to wake Wendy if it could be avoided.

He wondered, as the Vhalis barreled up the stairs at him with a scream, what Lucy would have said.

She'd probably have called him an idiot.

The Vhalis hit him at full speed, teeth ripping. Golden ichor splattered when he threw an arm up to prevent it from tearing his throat out. It was an old Vhalis, one step closer to a demon than it was to a human. It was stronger because of it.

"Levy!" barked Natsu, struggling to snag the key in his pocket. He ignored the vicious pain that shot up his arm when he willed it into a knife. Scorpio seared at him in protest as he tried to lodge the poisoned blade into the Vhalis. A yelp escaped him when the Vhalis, apparently one of the clever ones, slammed his arm down so hard he thought he heard a crack. "Levy!"

Levy wasn't as strong as she'd been while under Erigor's thumb, but she could at least help with a Vhalis. She appeared in the doorway of the room they'd all stayed in. Her feet were bare, her hazel eyes flashing. A familiar pocket knife – one Natsu hated with all he was, for he remembered exactly what it had looked like pressed against Lucy's throat – was clasped in her hand. She lunged for the Vhalis, hurtling her slim body atop of it. The Vhalis screamed, rearing back as she braced the knife against its back and carved something there. When it finally grasped her by the ankle, it flung her so hard she disappeared through a closed door. Wood splintered and flew.

Black blood burned where it dripped, but Natsu managed to free himself as the Vhalis reeled away, screaming and scrabbling at the mark she'd carved into it. Natsu reached out and snagged the knife he'd dropped, hastily driving it into the Vhalis's chest. The Vhalis cried out, grappling at Scorpio's hilt before collapsing, toppling down the stairs.

When it stopped twitching, Natsu thundered down the steps and, ignoring the burn of Scorpio's hilt, he ripped it free of the Vhalis's body and wiped the blood from it on his pants. When he'd tucked the key back into his pocket, he went back upstairs, eyeing the nasty gauges left in his arm.

Levy had appeared in the hallway, eyes round, by the time he reached the top. Golden blood seeped from her own scratches. "Alright?" he checked, and she bobbed her head in a quick, shaken nod.

"Is it safe?" called Wendy, voice shaking.

"Yeah. It's safe, Wendy." Natsu scowled.

She joined them, arms wrapped around herself. Charle and Happy clustered close to her ankles, eyeing the situation warily. Her lips parted when she saw the blood sticking to Natsu's clothes. "You're hurt," she began, but Natsu waved her off.

"I didn't realize you had the keys with you," Levy said breathlessly. "That would have been nice to know."

Natsu clenched his jaw. "I don't. I buried the rest of them with Lucy. C'mon, Wendy," he said, nudging his young friend "We need to get packed up. You know the rules."

"Where there's one, there's more," chimed Wendy, echoing what Lucy had always said. She snagged some clothes she'd found in the next room over the night before and disappeared into the bathroom attached into the room they'd stayed in. Levy followed them in, impatiently wiping a trickle of gold from her cheek as Natsu began cramming some of Wendy's things into his bag. They needed to head out as soon as Wendy was done getting ready.

He could feel Levy's sharp gaze on him, and he told her without looking away from what he was working on, "Whatever it is you want to say, I'm not listening. I'm not discussing anything that has to do with Lucy with you, Levy."

Levy winced. "I'm not asking you to. But those keys–"

Ash flew as Natsu's temper flared. He was already irritable upon realizing he'd made a mistake that could have gotten Wendy hurt. Not wanting Wendy to hear, he hissed at her, "Those keys did as much for us as Mavis did. They don't care. Mavis doesn't care. Whether she's hiding in Valhalla or gone, it doesn't matter." He threw her a dark look over his shoulder at her, coughing the ash from his lungs. "If you're going to talk about stuff that's going to upset Wendy, you can go. I don't want her hearing it."

"Natsu," Levy said sharply, eyes flashing, "those keys could have helped keep her safe. Think what you want of me, but ignoring that fact isn't going to do any of you any good. We needed them today, and they're buried somewhere in the ground."

Natsu stilled, halfway through cramming a blanket into a bag. For a moment, fury overwhelmed him, and the smell of charred flesh filled the air. He studied his hand, cracked with heat and festering beneath. It didn't hurt – not like it had when it had looked like that the first time, before he'd ascended at Mavis's whim.

He'd not left those keys simply "buried in the ground."

Natsu hadn't been able to bear the idea of leaving Lucy undefended, dead or not.

He took a shaken breath before letting it out. He released the anger with it, until the ash simply stuck to his mouth, remnants of what had been. Finally, he muttered tiredly, "What we need is Lucy, and she's dead because we thought we needed her help with something she had nothing to do with, Levy. So, Wendy and I are going to stay away from what we think we need. I'm taking her to Hyacinth. We'll get supplies, find Gray, figure out what happened, make sure Lucy's soul is content, and then I'm going to find a place for Wendy to live out the rest of her days. Preferably near Grandeeney." Wherever that was. He shouldered the bag, calling for Wendy. She uttered a muffled response, promising she'd be ready momentarily.

"And then," Natsu finished, "after Wendy's gone and buried in a hundred years, I'll go back to Igneel, because why the hell should I care what happens to a world as empty as this one?"

Something tugged Lucy's attention north again. She found the feeling lingered, and she considered what to do about it. She knew she was supposed to wait for someone to track her down, whether it be Loke or Gray or perhaps even Erza, but she considered, for just a heartbeat, going out on her own – following that feeling until she found the source.

Grumbling, Lucy put her things together, grateful she'd gotten everything decently dry. When Gray came, she wanted to be ready to go.

She was in the midst of lacing her boots when she felt the strange shift in the air. She sat upright, focusing. It was something she'd felt before. In fact, she'd felt it only a day prior, when Gray had come around. She immediately proceeded to call out, "Hello? Is someone there?" Lucy scolded herself, of course. That was what people said when they got themselves killed.

"Tracking you down is like trying to find north in the actual north." Gray came stomping into view, ducking around a tree that helped hide the little cluster of rocks and shrubbery that hid her safe spot from view. Despite his sharp words, Gray's eyes were dull and his dark hair stuck up all over his head, as if he'd yanked at it. The clothes Gray wore had a few tears splotched with gold, signaling that he'd been hurt at some point, though he hardly seemed to notice.

Lucy thought she might have been more pleased to see him than after the avalanche that had dragged her down a mountainside. "Did you find Loke?" she asked hopefully. Though trust had been hard to come by, she was worried about him and the three he'd been with.

To her disappointment, Gray shook his head. "No," he admitted. "Erza mentioned she briefly crossed paths with him at the docks. He was getting those friends of yours into one of the boats there. I can't feel him now though. He either wiped out his power or went back to Valhalla." The look on his face…Lucy was sure there was a third option, one that included Erza, that he didn't say aloud.

Lucy hoped that if those were Loke's options, he'd gone back to Valhalla. It seemed the safest one. She told Gray, "Loke…he and the other gods like him are the ones who closed Valhalla off, Gray. I bet he went back." He'd have known Gray would have come searching for Lucy. At least, Lucy hoped he'd not just ditched her without knowing that.

Whereas the likes of Juvia and Makarov had seemed unsurprised that Loke was capable of kicking everyone out of Valhalla, Gray looked shocked. He straightened, eyes round. "I didn't know he could do that."

She forgot that Gray was still relatively new to being a god in the grand scheme of it all. Even when considering that, he didn't seem to work as closely with the rest; he seemed much closer with Jellal and Erza. Lucy shifted her weight uneasily as she said, "Loke said something about tying it to me. How it would help it stabilize or something."

Gray stared at her. "Is that all he said, Lucy? What about the rest of it?"

"The rest of it?" Lucy echoed.

Gray threw his head back and laughed, though there was nothing funny about what he said next. "Loke didn't tell you? Lucy, you have to be alive to become a vessel for Valhalla like that. You were dead. Besides, vessels don't have diales, nor does Jellal, and he's a false god. He has something like it, but it doesn't work the same way." He pointed at the keys that still jingled at her wrist, where she'd kept them in case she needed them. "Only gods have diales, Lucy. Whatever Loke did…it was a little more than making you into a vessel. He gave you power. Some of Natsu's is my best guess. He'll be lucky if Natsu lets him even think about making it to the day Mavis shows back up."

Betrayal, it turned out, was worse than losing trust in someone. Loke had omitted such information, skirting around it all. There had been some hints at something along those lines, however.

"You just happened to catch us off guard and stole a little bit more than I anticipated," Loke had said when he'd arrived at Makarov's beach home. He'd outright lied moments later, apparently, when he'd said, "If it helps…you're not truly a god. You're more of a vessel – more like Jellal, a fallen god." There'd been the comments from Juvia, too, as she'd accused Lucy of having something to do with her failing control over her waters and Loke of having created something new.

"Loke said I stole something–"

"You can't steal something like that without it being given to you." Gray was almost kind in his answer. "Not from a god. Not like that. Not that Natsu even probably noticed. He's been running on empty for a long time now."

Lucy thought it over, then threw her hands up. "I don't get it. I have a diale," she jingled the keys pointedly, "but Gray…I'm cold. Like, freezing cold. And I get hungry, and I need to sleep like before. Loke said I'm something like Jellal, a fallen god or whatever."

Gray furrowed his brow. "Not really. Besides, from what I've heard, Jellal's less of a fallen god and more of a false one, like I said. A lot of the others like to mix the two up though. You're something new then," he added with a heavy sigh. "Wouldn't surprise me. Only Mavis has tried to create gods before. It's not like we can go back on it regardless. We'll have to talk to Loke to fully understand what he did, I guess. Or one of the others. That's really unlikely right now, and I have more important things to worry about though – like what I'm going to do with you."

Lucy spluttered. "'Do with me?' What is that supposed to mean?!"

"I promised to make sure your soul got to Jellal," Gray reminded her. "Clearly, I can't do that. Which means I'll have to do the next best thing, just like I said: take you back to Natsu. You were his Favored. You have some of his power. Unless you'd rather keep running around trying to survive on your own."

"No, no, I want to find Natsu," Lucy said hastily, not all that eager to think about continuing on her own. "Loke said we needed to find Scorpio's key, too. Something about Valhalla not being at one hundred percent secure without it."

"They're linked." Gray nodded, as if what she'd said made perfect sense. Good for him. Lucy didn't think anything made sense anymore. "And good news: Natsu has it. I know he does. He specifically chose to keep it in order to help Wendy. I doubt he's been able to do much. If it's really a piece of your diale, he can't touch it anymore." A smile crept onto his face, smug and satisfied. "I'd like to watch him try though."

"Gray," chided Lucy, exasperated.

Focusing back on the matter at hand, Gray rocked back. He snorted softly. Ice sprinkled the air around him as it always seemed to do. Once, it'd have startled her; now, she thought it normal. "So you two were already looking for Natsu then?"

Lucy nodded, glancing north before she could help it. "Loke thought he could track Scorpio's key since it has more to go off of then Natsu. He was hoping that once we got close enough, Grandeeney might nudge them in our direction. Gajeel – we ran into him the other day – suggested finding Levy, too." Lucy's voice trembled at the prospect. She still didn't know how to feel about Levy, especially given the aftermath of what had happened with Erigor. "He said she'd been working on something that might tell her we were looking for her."

Gray nodded slowly, eyes narrowed. "Levy can scry with bones and things like that," he said. "She reads messages in them. Or something. I've never seen her do it, but Erza's mentioned it before. No one knows how. Actually, I'm surprised she's not turned up yet, all things considered. The runes on your arms–"

"I might have come back from the dead, but I'm still not going to talk about that." Lucy pursed her lips, throwing him a warning glare. Especially when the same scenario that had created those scars had been what essentially killed her.

"I'm not asking about them, I'm just saying. Natsu mentioned a connection between the two of you because of those runes. She might know something's up already. It just means we've got a couple of things already going for us, Lucy, that's all. I haven't met up with Erza yet, but she might know a thing or two that'll get us to where we need to go. Maybe. She's been busy."

Lucy wasn't all that excited about seeing Erza again. "How long do you think it'll take us?" she asked hesitantly. "To find them, I mean."

Gray shrugged. "Might find them tomorrow, could be in a few months. It really depends on where they've gone since they left the mountains. They might come this way though. Wendy was getting pretty low on supplies she needed when I left. There's no way they found anything of use when they stopped by Igneel's volcano. Your friend in Hyacinth had a lot, didn't she?"

In other words… "You think they'll come here," Lucy realized. "So…what, our best bet is to just stick around? Hang around Hyacinth until they hopefully show up when we don't know if they're even going to?" She'd much rather be on the move then sit there like a roasting duck for Vhalis to track down and munch down on.

Gray rubbed the back of his head, grimacing at the horrified look Lucy gave him. "Look. What would you do if you were in their position, Lucy?"

Sticking around Hyacinth's remains for an unknown length of time…it was the very last thing she wanted to do, but at the same time, Lucy had been in Wendy's position. She'd not possessed a single thing she'd truly needed when she'd left Makarov's temporary home with Loke. The first idea she'd had was to head straight to Hyacinth.

"I'd come here," she grumbled, hating that she was saying it aloud. "There's not enough supplies in the area to last me though. Even if we go back to Hyacinth, I'm pretty sure a good chunk of it will have been burnt in the fires, Gray."

"So we'll follow the coast and see what we can find in the remnants here," replied Gray. "I can keep working on finding lost souls in the area, and you can stay safe on the Borealis in the meantime. If we come across anyone, we can see what they know." Gray searched her gaze. "Lucy…I know you want to find them immediately. If this were a few years ago, I could have, but now…"

Lucy sputtered out an irritated laugh. "I know that!" she snapped. She knew that better than he likely expected. How could she not? She remembered a safer world, too. She was annoyed he seemed to think she was arguing with him, too, because she definitely wasn't. Staying here, near what little remained of a town that had once thrived, was likely their best course of action, just as Gray had suggested. "But what if they don't come here? What then?"

"We go and find them," was his simple response, which Lucy thought entirely unhelpful. "Now, come on." Gray spun away, gesturing for her to follow him. "I left my ship a day's walk to the west. The last thing I need is a bunch of living humans thinking it's a good idea to get on board. They'd be really surprised when it disappeared right out from under them, don't you think?"

A semi-chill chapter with some angry Natsu! I'm so excited for what comes next chapter~

On another note, I am once again having some big things happening in my everyday life, so I'll do my best to stay on schedule, but no promises.

Thanks to reviewers (DREAMCHASING, InWonderl4nd, Lyra121, galactiaconstella, Star-Queen Lucy, hopelesskar, Sanspree, Infinite Miste, & nerdalertwarning!) as well as those who favorited and followed!