There was, truly, only so much Kip could do against the rising tide of a fellow Dragon Slayer and member of the Spriggan Twelve. Brandish promptly shrank each cavern he opened, and Axel barreled through all the walls Kip tried to create to block his way. Lucy felt useless in the fight, but none of her spirits were going to be any good other than provide a decent distraction for Axel. Plus, Maron could've lurked anywhere.

They'd made it to the second level of the tower, with two to go until the ground floor, where Kip would have complete control of their environment. The stone tower was already providing a ton of support for his efforts, though. Lucy stayed close while Kip opened up another gap in the wall and they sprinted through it.

Sweat poured down her face but her muscles didn't ache as much as they may once have. All of her training was coming through. Kip glanced over his shoulder and slammed his foot down. Lucy stole a look, too, right before the wall came up and obscured Brandish from their line of sight.

Lucy stopped and flourished one of her keys. "Hold on. There might be something I can do."

"We need to run!"

"We need Brandish off our tail if there's any chance we can get out of here. Kip. Do any of these rooms have sewage, a bathroom, anything?"

Kip swiveled his foot. Axel burst out another wall, landing among the falling dust and debris. Kip pointed to a nearby corridor, practically hidden from the rest of them.

"Destroy it!"

Axel lurched. Lucy swung about toward Axel.

Enough!

"Star Dress: Taurus!"

Kip closed his fist and the room Lucy had asked about collapsed. The pipes within the room burst, and water sprayed everywhere. Axel continued his attack, lurching toward them. Lucy made a similar move, charging in with a hard clenched fist before dodging around him, as he'd thought to plow across her.

She swung up, delivering a punch straight into his solar plexus that knocked the wind from him, and felt more satisfying than anything Lucy had experienced before in her life. Charged by the power of the Bull Spirit, Lucy flung Axel back through one of the walls Kip created.

Brandish stepped through, her steps cold, calculated. Lucy flurried the Aquarius key in front of her.

"Open, Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!"

From the water constantly pooling out, a magic circle formed, and out from it sprang the enraged figure of a merwoman poised to punch Lucy in the head.

"You summon me out of a toilet?" Aquarius roared.

Brandish stopped, her jaw slacked and eyes wide. Lucy let out a small sigh of relief. So far so good.

The rubble where Axel landed shook and blew apart as he got back on his feet. Kip faced their opponents, heaving air from his chest. So much magical usage, on top of running up and down the tower, couldn't have been easy on him.

Behind them, the voices of guards began to grow louder. They hadn't been all that stealthy in the first place.

"What are you doing, Lucy?" Brandish and Aquarius asked at the same time.

Aquarius was forced to look at Brandish, and a soft expression blossomed across her face, too.

"Oh. Brandy. I—it's you. I haven't seen you since you were a little girl."

"You're rubbing it in my face, you little twerp," Brandish said. She pointed to Lucy. "I'll kill you for this."

"Aquarius, I'm begging you, tell Brandish the truth!" Lucy exclaimed.

"The…truth?"

"Of Grammi! Of what happened to—!"

But she didn't have time to finish her sentence. Kip swung his feet out and the ground around them collapsed. Lucy hadn't been paying attention, but Axel was moving in quickly, his arm already in a forward-swinging motion to punch Lucy right in the temple.

Obviously, the Diamond Dragon Slayer swung and missed, but the two landed amidst a whole heap of guards trying to get to them.

Lucy sprung to her feet but had to dive back as Axel landed right between her and Kip. Kip snarled over his shoulder, prepared to fight Axel, while the guards leveled their weapons.

"You deal with the guards, Kip," she said and faced her forced fiancé. "Let me handle Axel. Aquarius has Brandish."

"Lucy we need to escape, we can't stand around and fight," Kip said.

Lucy glanced at Lullaby still in her hand, then slid it into her belt. She felt for the whip at her side she'd been practicing with, one that piqued Axel's gross curiosity.

"Sorry, Kip, but I don't think we have a choice right now. We can win."

"If we work together."

"Yeah. But I think there's a whole room of people who'd say otherwise first, wouldn't you? Come on, don't tell me you don't wanna knock some Imperial heads around."

"Take another step and I'll eviscerate you myself, traitor," Axel muttered to Kip.

But Kip only smiled. "Sure thing, bud. How 'bout you deal with your relationship problems?" His power surged. "Cavern Dragon Earth Collapse!"

Lucy leaped, remembering what the spell could do. Axel did the same, having no doubt trained against it as well. The guards had no idea, and most were wiped out in that single hit, but another wave was coming, one that had Kip's attention.

Lucy pushed back from a broken piece of the stone floor to gain distance as Axel pursued, and the two landed in an antechamber, all by themselves. Lucy slid to a halt, falling into her practiced fighting stance, while a diamond coating slowly slithered up Axel's skin.

"You can't be serious, Lucy," Axel said. "Even if you are an experienced Celestial Spirit Wizard, you don't stand a chance at breaking through my diamonds. Natsu could barely do it.""

"Natsu kicked your butt."

"He caught me off-guard. You won't. I'm having a hard time overestimating you. What, you'll punch me a bit? Shoot me with some arrows? I know what Star Dresses you have available to you, Lucy, and none of them are going to help you."

In a way she agreed. Two of her three mastered Star Dresses were offensive, while the third was going to be good in a support capacity. The Aries Star Dress might serve as a better distraction than an actual weapon in the fight. Taurus would be her key to victory, though Sagittarius provided more versatility.

However, Axel's tunnel vision was rearing its ugly head. Having a Star Dress was very useful for the wizard using the power, but it didn't limit them to only using a Star Dress. She still had access to all of her spirits, excluding Aquarius.

Lucy's training built her for this moment. Adrenaline coursed through her. If Kip was successful at holding off the guards—and whatever else came—Lucy could defeat Axel and get away with him. Then they'd finally reunite with Fairy Tail.

Of course, first, she had to beat Axel.

Lucy unclipped two more of her keys. Opening two gates at once had seemed impossible, and doing so under the duress of the Star Dress wasn't going to be easy. But it was her only path forward.

Axel slammed his hands on the ground. "I'll be taking those, and Lullaby, back! Diamond Dragon Fortress Collapse!"

Lucy leaped into the air toward Axel, to his own shock. Two magic circles appeared before her two outstretched arms.

"Open, Gate of the Ram and Gate of the Lion! Aries and Leo!"

She kicked at Axel, who blocked it, but wasn't strong enough to hold off the already in-motion Regulus Impact Leo crushed him with. Aries landed in place next to Lucy.

"Finally breaking up with this jerk, Lucy?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, and I'm real torn up about it," Lucy said.

Axel stopped his slide and swung out his arms. "Diamond Dragon Roar!"

The three scattered.

"How can I help, Lucy?" Aries asked.

"We need to keep his defenses down," Lucy said. "His diamond coating is tough but the body beneath can get whittled down. Think you can help?"

"Definitely," Aries said. Lucy had never seen her so determined, but, then again, each of the spirits seemed to be tense since Lucy "joined" the Twilight Empire.

It was as if her own fiery spirit, that of Fairy Tail, was finally coming out of them now that they had permission to fight back.

As Leo was pushed back by Axel's assault, Aries took to the air and swung her arms down. "Wool Bomb!"

Lucy moved as the spell hit Axel. She watched his shoulders slump. She swung her whip out.

"Earth Wave!"

The floor burst in front of Axel as he was pushed into the air, his body still docile, and he took a Regulus Impact right to the face, crashing him into the nearby wall.

"Don't let up!" Lucy hollered to Aries, as she and Loke moved in with their assault.

Axel tried to emerge from the soft, pink wool but found he was surrounded. His rage kept him upright in the onslaught but Lucy and Loke were able to emerge from it constantly with sneak attacks. He had no idea where or how to anticipate them and try as he might to get to Aries, Loke was simply not going to let that happen. This gave Lucy constant windows of opportunity.

The problem she was ignoring was the drain on her magic. She landed blow after blow, spell after spell, but they couldn't break through Axel's armor. They couldn't knock him down entirely.

"You need to slow down," Loke said. "Switch out of your Star Dress. It'll be better if you can just open another gate than fight yourself. We can cover you to run!"

"I can do this!" Lucy exclaimed.

It had to be her. She had to defeat him and put him in his place. And they were close, oh so close. Maybe with another spirit, that was all they'd need…

At once, though, the wool stopped. Lucy spun to where Aries was, but the gate had closed. Lucy realized the strain on her muscles, and also, her costly mistake. She already had another gate open. Aquarius.

Axel lurched. Loke shoved Lucy out of the way and took the full brunt of his attack, sending him spiraling. Lucy dove back.

"Star Dress: Sagittarius!"

Lucy dove for cover and summoned her bow as Axel doggedly chased Loke.

"Star Shot!"

She winced as she cast her spell that slammed into Axel and knocked him off course. Loke attempted another attack that Axel managed to parry. He was catching onto the Lion Spirit's rhythm and fighting style.

Lucy continued her arrow barrage, with the power of Sagittarius imbuing her with nigh-perfect accuracy, but she was firing arrows against diamond. She needed more power. She needed more time, more magic more—

She gasped as she fell to her knees, feeling the magic strain hit her hard. She glowered up at the fight between Axel and Loke, watching as Loke momentarily faltered. He knew it as well as she did.

Her magic was about to run out, and she had a choice to make: reserve some for herself by getting rid of him, or make a run for it and let him keep up the assault. He couldn't be killed, but if Lucy relied on him as a last line of defense, she was doomed if Axel chased after her.

Lucy stood up. She would just be subjecting him to undue, unfair torture. Loke wouldn't see it like that. His duty was to protect Lucy.

But her duty was to protect him, too.

She opened her hand, summoning a magic circle, then shut it. The gate closed. Loke hollered her name that echoed about the grand, broken antechamber, and left only herself and Axel. She stayed in her Sagittarius Star Dress.

Axel glowered her way. Some of the diamond had chipped, or been bruised. There were weak spots in his seemingly impenetrable armor, but he wasn't down. He was simply a madman looking for his ultimate victory. It wouldn't come in killing Lucy, but he was going to try and incapacitate her. A good shot to the head would do it.

"Finally, back to just the two of us," Axel said through haggard breathing.

Lucy had no idea how the battle with Kip was going. It was quiet in the other part of the tower. Axel summoned a magic circle to his side. Magic bubbled around it.

"Let's finish this, my love."

"Don't you ever call me that again," Lucy said.

She drew back and fired arrows as Axel shot diamonds at her. All of the projectiles collided and exploded. Axel crossed the boundary between them. Lucy blocked two of his direct blows with her bow and skirted back. She fired quick shots at his feet to get him back but he ignored them and leaped after her.

"Diamond Dragon Jaw!"

He swung his legs around and managed to at last land a hit on her, sending her to crash into some fine pottery work that stood along the wall. She hit the ground and received a knee to the gut as a recompense. Lucy dove out of the way of his next attack but was unable to completely dodge it as a piece of his diamond knuckle scraped her temple. Blood dripped down the side of her face.

He wasn't stopping, relentlessly chasing her across the room as she tried to gain ground. He didn't give her any time to get into another Star Dress, or to even escape. He was worn down, barely able to stand, but driven by the singleminded purpose of getting her back, of winning her.

Lucy ducked and dove under another few strikes, repelling him at last with a heavy impact Star Shot that held so much power it even knocked the bow out of her hand, sending it skidding aside. Lucy slid back, shoulders sagging. Axel landed with a thud but got back up. His human flesh was exposed on part of his bleeding arm.

She was at her limit, but that didn't mean anything as a wizard of Fairy Tail. Lucy got up, preparing to summon her bow back as Axel also moved to his feet when a massive pillar of water slammed into him, sending him spiraling into the wall and pinning him there.

"What the hell are you still doing here?"

The voice came from the room above, where the water rained down. Aquarius, hands on her hips, glowered at Lucy.

"I—I'm…"

"You have to get out of here! You wanna kick this guy's ass? Do it on your own time, not your friend's!"

"And Brandish?"

"Run, you stupid girl!"

Lucy glanced at Axel, who was resisting the spell. Aquarius held strong, focusing her attention on him, as Axel unleashed a Diamond Dragon Roar that broke the water up.

Aquarius's words echoed in Lucy. She sprinted away. Axel hollered her name, ripping his vocal cords apart as he did so. Lucy hurried into the other room, where scores of guards lay defeated, including more than a few wizards. She managed to follow the trail to a lone man sitting in front of a gaping hole in the ground a floor below, blood streaming down his body, one eye closed from the severity of an injury.

"Finally," Kip said, his voice soft.

"I'm so sorry, Kip," Lucy said. "I—I got caught up in defeating Axel."

"You're here," Kip said with a smile. "That's what matters."

"So let's go!"

She helped Kip stand. They both turned, and Axel was charging through the bodies of the defeated. Axel sighed.

"Yeah. Sure thing, Lucy."

Axel let out a guttural shout. Kip whispered something—an apology—before he shoved Lucy down, sending her plummeting through the next level and down into the long, long cavern. She shouted his name, watching, unable to do anything, as Axel arrived and rammed a diamond blade through Kip's gut.

She slammed onto the ground, stars blasting across her vision and sending her head spinning as she rolled down through the darkness that felt eternal. Had Kip built out so long a cavern even while fending off all those guards, those wizards?

Finally, she came to a halt. She checked for her keys. All of them were with her.

But something was missing. She stood, getting up to sprint, but Lullaby was gone. It'd fallen before her, getting loose as she hit the ground and skittering away. Damn it, she needed a light!

Lucy dropped her Star Dress and reached to her side for her Fleuve d'étoiles, but even it was missing. She was still in her dinner clothes. All she had were her keys and, well, she'd once had Lullaby. But it was around somewhere.

She checked around, listening toward where she fell from for any sound that another person joined her in the tunnel. Axel wasn't subtle, he'd come diving into the cave screaming for her.

She rested her hand on the wall.

Kip was stabbed.

Kip was dead.

But she had to go forward. For him.

Her search was taking too long, so long that she did begin to worry Axel could catch up to her. Even Brandish could catch up to her if she kept up at the pace she was moving. But she was out of magic. Maybe she could summon a Silver Key spirit, but—

At once, light filled the entire area. Had she reached the end? No.

Someone was there.

"Lu?"

Lucy stood up taller. The light dwindled, allowing a small woman to step forward, one that filled Lucy's heart with an undeniable warmth.

"Oh, Levy," Lucy said. "Thank goodness you found…me."

Levy did not have the light with her. She had no magic about her at all. The light came from behind Levy, moving backward to give them the ability to see but not be blinded.

The one who'd hoisted the light that spelled Lucy's demise was behind Levy, resting a calm hand on her small shoulder.

"Go on, Levy," August said, gesturing at Lucy. "Don't worry. The curse will not harm me, nor you."

"Levy?" Lucy asked, feeling her entire world begin to crumble.

In the small woman's trembling hands was Lullaby. A weapon that would, instantly, kill whomever heard its tone.

"It's time," August said. "The game is over. Kill her now, or wait to do it later. Our plans must progress one way or another, Levy, and this way you can simply get it over with."

Levy was…with them?

"What's going on?" Lucy asked.

"It's simple, dear," August said. "It's her life, the life of your dear friend Mirajane, for yours. I must admit I'm surprised Hisui discovered Lullaby's continued existence, but, I applaud the effort you all put into this. However, your ruse has now caused a disruption I cannot allow. Levy? Go on."

"Levy don't."

"You don't understand, Lu," Levy said. Tears slid down her face. "I have to. I—I love you."

"Levy, you can't, please!"

Levy raised the flute to her lips. Lucy wanted to move but knew if she acted in any way against August's wishes, he'd simply do the deed for Levy, and she'd be punished anyway. Maybe killed.

All Lucy had left to die was die.

An agonizing moment passed. Then another. Levy squeezed her hands around the flute.

Levy, who was once the leader of Team Shadow Gear, who was the smartest, most well-read wizard in Fairy Tail. Everyone's friend, a shining beacon of hope in a guild whose embers still burned.

She was the one who the Empire plucked out to use as an example, the one to show that wizards didn't have to be Broken, they simply had to be pressured.

Lucy wanted to reach out and take the flute to play it herself, to relieve Levy of the need to do it. Instead, as she began to raise her hand, Levy caught a glimpse of Lucy's hand, and the Fairy Tail symbol there. Levy's teary eyes hardened.

"I'm sorry," she said, and, hands still on the flute, showed Lucy the Fairy Tail salute. "Goodbye."

She did not play a note from Lullaby. She turned to August and flung the flute to the ground, force coming from her hand out of magic she cast. August took a step back, shocked, as the flute shattered, and purple mist rose from it, only to evaporate in the air.

"Run, Lucy!" Levy exclaimed, but, not a second later, she was gone.

As if she'd never existed.

Lucy let out a scream that was, in reality, a battle cry, swinging her arm down for a key. Any key. Any weapon that she could use to get Levy back, to get her killer to feel the pain racing through her. August, the monster wizard who'd hurt so many of her friends, was right there. She would die, but she would go down swinging, and maybe, she could do something, anything!

"You'll pay!" Lucy roared and pulled out…nothing.

No, wait, but the key was there, in her hand, but it was tiny. She couldn't get a good enough grip on it.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked.

August raised his head, his eyes locked just behind Lucy. His entire body, somehow, was frozen.

Lucy spun, and saw, standing mere feet behind her, was Brandish, both of her arms outstretched.

"Listen, August, it's a bit of a pain to do this but I owe this girl," Brandish said.

"She's going to escape."

"So what? She's weak."

"But you owe her a debt?"

"She…she helped me see things. Understand something important about my life. I do owe her a debt. Let me repay it right here, right now, so I can take her out later."

August broke through the binding spell—showing he was more than capable of ignoring Brandish's hold—to nod.

"Hear that, blondie?" Brandish asked. "Scoot. Get outta here."

August glowered at Lucy but made no moves at all. Her key returned to normal size, but, still without the magic to open a Golden Gate, Lucy had no choice beyond simply running by.

Fear and abject dread filled her while he ran by August, but nothing happened. Nor did anything happen as she emerged from Kip's tunnel, and out into Crocus's quiet night. Midnight had passed and the castle was awake with the sound of ringing alarm bells. The Dragon Tower guards were on the move to support Axel.

Nothing happened even as she cleared the city gates, recognized, still, as a member of the Twilight Empire, as Axel's fiancee.

All that happened, as she finally breathed the free air of the world beyond Crocus, as she stood in a tiny grove beyond the city walls and protected, at last, from its gaze, was the onslaught of tears. Lucy collapsed against a tree, trying to claw her way forward.

No spirits came to comfort her. No friends. No family. They were, for the moment, all cut off, all gone.

Lucy was alone with her memories, watching over and over as Kip and Levy's lives were, at once, extinguished, all for the sake of Lucy escaping. Watching as her father was backstabbed by Kip.

The night was dark, heavier than it'd been in the city, as there were no lights to look upon any further. There were only the stars that'd become so distant Lucy forgot they were there at times. There was only the cold.

Only the emptiness that came, at times, with freedom.