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Something is Changing	By : moxiflox Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 5257 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I make no money/profit from it.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
After Happy returned and recounted their surroundings, Oliver was able to estimate where they were. They headed off in the direction Oliver indicated, going on faith that he was right. Gray was fairly certain that Oliver knew what was in store for him if he wasn't. Natsu's hot head was out in full force, which was a dangerous thing. It was a few hours before Natsu caught some familiar scents. Deviating from their course to follow, they ran into the group they had been expecting.
Gray examined the mages with relief. Laxus, Gajeel, Juvia, Levy, and Cana. It was less than he had hoped, but some of the strongest members were here. He knew that Erza, Wendy, Elfman, and Lisanna would still be gone. The others must be out on jobs.
Lord Rannelly quickly rushed over to Daniella and picked her up as Oliver said nothing and got into the carriage. Gray figured the porcelain prince was pretty checked out of adventure for a lifetime. Rannelly gently lifted Daniella into the carriage behind Oliver before turning back to the group.
"Thank you, thank you again. I'm sorry that this turned out to be such trouble. And I'm sorry about your friend. Keep the lacrima. If there is anything I can do for you, just get in touch. I will send the reward to the guild for you. I truly hope you get your friend back." The noble bowed his head in respect. It reminded Gray why they were in this situation. For a little girl who had done nothing wrong. A little girl who would likely be dead right now, if it wasn't for Lucy.
Gray nodded as the fat man joined his family.
They all said very little as Natsu explained what happened while they ran. Shortly, the manor came into view. Or at least what was left of it. The roof had collapsed in, turning what was once the manor into a pile of rubble. The message was clear.
They're gone.
She's gone.
Gray stood rigid as Natsu lost control and blew up the nearest tree. He could hear them talking around him, but he didn't register what they were saying. He was too late.
He also missed the two new dragon slayers eyeing him curiously. They could both sense something was different when they had arrived, but it wasn't until they caught his scent while they were standing there that they understood. They shared a glance. Poor fucker, thought Gajeel, as he stole a glance toward Levy. He noticed Juvia as she started to approach Gray, as overly enthusiastic as ever. Laxus shot him a warning look and he stepped forward to intercept. Juvia looked at him confused, but complied and stepped back. The guy didn't need Juvia hassling him right now. That was going to be a messy thing to fix later. He was glad he wouldn't be a part of it.
Gray was vaguely aware that Cana was strategizing when Laxus' voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "Something's coming," he said gruffly to Gajeel. Natsu stopped his destruction to listen, having been too worked up to hear it himself. Abruptly, he spun in its direction with his fists lit up. Gajeel's Iron Grip shot out, grabbing Natsu's wrist. Gray knew Natsu's fire could burn through his steel, but the iron slayer didn't let go.
Gray waited, hearing or seeing nothing yet, straining his eyes in the direction Natsu was facing. Finally, he saw it. White wings beat above the trees. A.. bird?
"It's Lucy's!" Natsu shouted as he extinguished his flames. Lucy's? "It's her new silver key, that swan."
Levy gasped as Natsu flashed his toothy grin and fisted the air, "That's our Lucy!"
Gajeel released him as the swan landed in front of them. There was a silver shimmer as he transformed into a man and approached them. "You are the mages from Fairy Tail?"
"Yes," Gray and Natsu said at the same time.
"Did you come from Lucy? Do you know where she is?" the fire mage demanded.
The man nodded. "Lucy sent me to bring you to her. Leo will be joining us soon as well, with his own magic."
"Look, not that I don't believe you, but how did she summon you? That place had enchantments against you guys before," Gray asked cautiously.
"It's true, none of her contracted spirits could enter the house of their own volition or be summoned by Lucy. However, we have made no contract yet, as I recently came into her possession." Gray worked the timeline out in his head. Once they had gotten back from town, they went to the pool. Then there was that.. incident.. with Oliver. Then.. his mind flashed to Lucy underneath him, breathless, her hair pooling on the pillow. He shook his head to clear it as he listened to the spirit. "I expect we will, once you free her. She may not be my owner, but everyone in the Celestial Realm knows of Lucy Heartfilia. Her call for aid will never be ignored," he said with a slight bow of his head.
Natsu's chest swelled with pride as Gray thought back to the welcome back party her spirits had thrown her. It was so clear that they truly loved her. Her magic may not be as directly offensive as the others', but it was special. People thought she was weak, but he judged that she had the strongest connection to her magic out of all of them. Laxus gave a snort of approval from behind him.
"I trust that if I fly, you can follow me?" The three dragon slayers nodded. "Good, we need to move quickly, I fear you will need all the time you can get. They had just begun the process as I left."
Levy let out a short cry of distress. Gajeel moved toward the little bluenette, staying an arm's length away, speaking to her without looking. "Lucy will be fine, Shorty. She's got as much attitude as you do. It will take more than this to knock the spirit out of her," I would know, he thought grimly as he looked sideways at the script mage.
Laxus listened to Gajeel comforting Levy, eyes wandering to where Cana stood by a tree. She noticed his gaze and looked over.
"What?" she demanded saucily.
Laxus choked on a laugh, "Not a thing, let's get moving." Women.

Taurus initially had been unmanageably upset, trashing the King's chamber, but he now stood quietly aside, staring beyond the orb to the wall. It had been hours, painful hours, but none of them would leave.
Aquarius stood with Scorpio, mumbling profanities. "If she wasn't so weak she wouldn't get into these situations," she sniffed as she looked away, but her voice had less venom than normal.
They were all there and none of them would leave her.

I finally woke again to a feeling of numbness. Was it over?
"She's awake," I heard a new voice say from the far side of the room.
I tried to speak, but I couldn't. Even opening my eyes was a challenge. Looking up, I saw it was Lysander. Tarquin was standing a few feet away, a handful of dark guild mages littering the room. I struggled to prop myself back up, to stand in defiance as I had before, but my legs wouldn't work.
"Don't waste that energy, my dear, we're not done. I just needed to give you a break so I wouldn't kill you before I was able to collect all of your magic. You were drifting a little too close to death for comfort, I'm afraid. See, there's just too much power and you're just getting too weak to stand the process. It's quite tedious work. You should be thankful I'm relieving you of such a burden, really. So much power in someone like you would have been a waste. A noble like you, hidden away in some rag tag guild," Tarquin chuckled.
Anger flared in me at the mention of Fairy Tail. I may have been a noble once, but I had never been so sure of who I was until I was a part of Fairy Tail. The luxuries, the extravagance, they were nothing compared to my rag tag guild. They were my family. They had accepted me so quickly and their allegiance had never faltered. You didn't get to choose your real family. They could abandon you, hurt you, disregard your feelings, but not a guild. Not Fairy Tail. For the first time, I had truly belonged.
"While we wait, let's see what my new magic can do, shall we?" he turned to one of the Sanctum members littered about, "Hand me one of those keys, will you? A golden one."
I froze as I understood what he was going to do. My keys. I panicked. He couldn't actually use my magic, could he?
He must have seen my alarm. "I have enough of your power running through me, so your spirits should respond to it. Or so Lysander tells me. Enchantment mages and their books, you know. Until I kill you and absorb your power into my own completely, your magic retains its original form."
Lysander sat lazily off to the side again, still appearing indifferent to what was going on around him. He looked positively bored. Did he even want to be here? Maybe he didn't agree with his brother. Would he be an ally? Not that he was ever in the room alone. I was running out of time to start playing brother against brother now.
I looked down as the approaching mage took a key from my belt. Aquarius. Oh, Mavis.
"Now, tell me precisely how I summon one of these.. spirits," he said in my direction as he studied the key.
I said nothing.
Looking up at my silence, he took two swift steps forward and hit me across the face. I looked back up at him, saying nothing again. After the last few hours, he was going to have to do better than that to get me to betray my spirits.
"Quin," Lysander's voice broke the hostility in the room. "It's in here," he said as he stood and produced a book, which he gave to him. Tarquin flipped through the pages until he rested on one.
"I see, this seems quite simple after all," he mused, a smile creeping across his face. "Why don't we give this a try? Open the Gate of the Water Bearer. Aquarius!"
I smiled to myself as I realized he must have stopped reading before he got to the part about Aquarius not coming without water. "Doesn't look like you're cut out to be a celestial mage, mm?" I taunted.
He flashed a look of hatred my way before spinning back to the Sanctum mage. "Hand me another," he said gruffly as he handed back the key.
I looked again. Caprico.
"Open the Gate of the Goat. Caprico!"
My heart sank as he appeared, standing tall, arms crossed.
A large smile splayed across Tarquin's face. "Aha, yes! A beast! Tell me, what are your powers? What can you do? Show me your strength!" he demanded, delighted.
But Caprico stood silent, unmoving. His eyes never leaving me.
"Hey, you there, are you listening? I am your master!" he yelled at the goat.
Nothing.
I heard a curse of frustration as he shut the gate on Caprico. "Are all your spirits this worthless? No wonder your friends let you give yourself up."
"Another," he held out his hand.
Shit. Loke. I didn't know if I could handle seeing him. Normally he brought me such strength, but to see me like this, my keys being abused.. I was an awful owner.
With a flash, he was here. Arms crossed like Caprico, knuckles white, back to Tarquin. His face was as fierce as a lion. I saw a second of surveying my condition before turning hard again.
"You again. The lion, huh? Show me. Show me the power that bested a dark mage," Tarquin smirked eagerly.
Loke looked back toward the mage, raising an unamused eyebrow before turning back toward me.
"Hey! It was me who summoned you, not her. She is soon to be irrelevant! I am sick of this dissension, you will obey!" he shouted in fury as he waved the key at Loke.
Oh jesus, I shivered, bracing for Loke's reaction to being spoken to like that. But slowly, he just raised his head slightly.
"I am Leo the Lion. Leader of the Zodiac. I speak for every spirit when I say that Lucy Heartfilia is my master. You may control our keys, and her power, but no cretin such as you will ever wield ours. My contract is with her. You will get no more from any of us than the opening of our gate." Contempt dripped from every word. Tears fell from my eyes. My loyal lion. I was beaten, my keys taken from me, powerless to prevent it, and he was still here.
"If you're so indebted to this girl, then you can enjoy watching me kill her. Maybe then you will change your mind about who your master is," he quipped as he fired in my direction.
A familiar pain shot through my body once more as the shadows hit me. Loke stiffened.
Go Loke, please. I begged him, helplessly. I would not put him through another owner's death. Close your damn gate.
"I may not be able to harm you right now, but I will promise that I will make you regret this with every fiber of your being. I will live a long time. You will never be safe, not even when you're old, gray, and comfortable in your luscious lifestyle." Loke threatened menacingly, his control over his composure waning as a snarl ripped from his chest.
But he held my gaze, lending me as much support as he could from outside my barrier. "I'm here, Lucy," he whispered. "Not one minute of your pain, remember? I'm not going anywhere."
I tried to keep his eyes, those soft hazel eyes hidden behind his glasses, as my body shook, but the pain was overwhelming. He crouched down. "Look at me Lucy, just look at me. Nowhere else, okay?" he murmured as I was relentlessly attacked by the shadow.
"How sweet," crooned Tarquin, "Is it painful, for you? Seeing your worthless owner so helpless? What kind of protective spirits are you that you can do nothing but sit and watch."
His eyes tightened and I saw a moment of the pain he was keeping hidden before he willed it away again. He placed his hand on the barrier as he tried to give more of himself to me, but we both knew we were fighting a losing battle. The shadows were too numerous this time, the pain was destroying my body.
"Lucy, you need to breathe," urged Loke uneasily. I hadn't even realized I was holding my breath against the pain. It hit me that these were possibly the last moments I would get with my devoted companion. I needed to be strong, for him. If he lost another owner..
I tried to smile at him, my lion, "Thank you, Loke, for earlier." His jaw flexed as I saw him struggle against showing his emotions. "I'm sorry.." I breathed out as tears came. "She was just so little. I couldn't watch that. I never meant.." I sniffed at the words, "to put you guys at risk. I haven't made any.. plans.. " I struggled to get the words through my teeth in the pain, "for your keys. I'm a disgrace as your owner. I-"
"Sshh," Loke hushed me. "We aren't mad, Lucy. You wouldn't be you if you hadn't of done that. Don't you remember what you did for me? Could you possibly have forgotten? I love you because of that same willingness to give up everything for someone else, even when it isn't me. You are selfless, and it is a thing as beautiful as you are."
I lost myself in my tears. My lion, my spirits, Gray, Natsu, the guild. I was leaving them all.
Just as it became too hard to keep my eyes open, there was a rumble of storm clouds and a crash of lightning. Loke smiled. Storm clouds? Lightning? A dangerous feeling of hope swelled within me. Had Deneb made it? The shouts of the guards broke my thoughts as I saw a column of fire streak past the window.
Natsu.
Juvia.
Laxus.
They were here.
Chaos erupted. Lysander fled the room to ensure the enchantments were holding. With a wink, Loke was gone, likely joining the assault outside.
"What?" Tarquin stammered at his disappearance, "Where did he go? What are you up to?"
He cursed himself as he threw the key to the floor. "Clearly, I don't have time to wait for you to heal. I'm afraid this is the end for you," he said as he stalked forward angrily. I was too weak to move. I felt the last bits of my strength leaving me as the shadows intensified. The panic of my spirits registered in the back of my head, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. They weren't in time after all. So close.
My thoughts drifted. Back to meeting Natsu. Getting my guild mark. My night with Gray.
I smiled.
I had a good life.

The last thing I saw before losing consciousness a final time was a fist smashing into Tarquin's face. Then the world went black.
- 8
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Something is Changing