Breaking the Seal - Killing the Soul

Okay... I got a review from J_Luc_Pitard (thank you very, very much) and when I read the story again, I was ashamed at how right he was with his critique... Somehow I felt that this story deserved more attention so I reworked it and it ended up being almost completely rewritten... -.-
Oh well, now I'm happy with my story and as an apology I'd like to give you guys also the soundtracks that inspired me while writing it. They're organized in "playlists" at the end of the story... if you'd like to read my story while listening to it, scroll down, look on YT or so and enjoy :)
(I'm not making any advertisement!!! None of these songs are mine nor do I get any money from listing them here!!!). a * and a number will tell you when to change playlist in the story :)

Now... enough babbling... here goes:


*1

Breaking the Seal, Killing the Soul


The battle raged around Lucy. Her magical resources had dried up long ago and only Loki was left of her stellar spirits, protecting her with his own rapidly disappearing magic. Around them the members of Fairy Tail fought with all their might against the overly powerful members of the illegal dark guild and in the middle of this desperate situation was Igneel, the fire dragon and Natsu’s foster parent.

After all the pain Natsu and his friends had gone through, the whole guild helping them out, to find Igneel after they had gotten a hint on his whereabouts, they had discovered with horror that the mighty beast had been sealed up and was used as a mere reserve of magic for an illegal dark guild. Just as the members of Fairy Tail had started to have a look at the seal they had been discovered and attacked on the spot. There had been no time to analyse the seal and so they fought around the dragon who could only gaze sadly through his eyes to his son who battled with his life on the line.

Natsu was fighting a mage who could transform anything he touched into boiling hot magma and to the dragon slayer’s horror he had had to experience that mere flames didn’t compare to the molten stone. At least his training protected him a bit as he launched grander and grander, yet completely useless attacks at the madly laughing man while his friend Erza Scarlet, the Titania of Fairy Tail, was chipping one blade after the other against a vicious woman who could turn into anything she wanted and did this with a certain preference for diamonds. Gray and Lluvia were together against a group – or was it just a single man? – who could turn themselves into poisonous dust at will, spreading slow and a painful promise of sure death under the mages of Fairy Tail, colouring their skin in unhealthy shades of violet and blue. Makarov was desperately attempting to block his precious children from being hit with the rain of meteorites summoned by the leader of the dark guild.

They had long ago given up the honourable one-on-one battles and hit on whatever and wherever they could, as long as they felt that the lives of their friends and their lives could be prolonged for a few minutes longer. Several of them tried to protect the wounded ones that could not move anymore and the few that knew about healing magic tried to stop bleedings, mend life-threatening ruptures or fight against poison, sometimes even with the most drastic measures the guild had ever seen. Elfman was covered from waist to neck with a giant burn scar made by his own friend Natsu in order to save him from dying of blood loss while Emily had directed Gray to freeze an arm stump and the severed arm in an ice block, stubbornly holding onto the hope to be able to reattach the arm after the battle. The only relief those improvised medics had was that so far they hadn’t had had no deaths. Almost grimly they could rejoice about the fact that Fairy Tail mages were even more enduring than weed. But this endurance was inexorably growing thinner and thinner.

Lucy felt as if her shoulder was being dislocated as Loki grabbed it almost brutally and jumped several meters away from a medusa-like sorceress who had just launched an attack at the blonde girl. Said seemingly defenceless girl gritted her teeth and despite the many bruises and scratches covering her naked arms, she cracked her whip and managed to catch most of the serpent-like hair in a suffocating grip.

“Loki!”

Her voice was already hoarse and crying sent little jolts of pain through her throat but she ignored it as her stellar spirit helped her to twirl the woman around and send it flying against the diamond woman. Both of them screeched as they were sent flying against the rocky wall and Erza, probably very glad for the very short breather, shot a short glance with unfamiliar gratitude towards the master-servant duo and hurried off to help somewhere else as the diamond woman had shattered under the impact since diamonds were hard but not immune to great shock and impacts and in this case, unforeseen ones. Lucy was just keeping watch for any other attacks while Loki warded off a few lost arrows when she heard the hisses of furious snakes and turned her head towards the medusa slithering over the ground towards her. The stellar mage cracked her whip again but was interrupted by a high-pitched scream. Emily was the last one standing before the injured ones and was being attacked by three mages at once.

“Loki! Help her! I’ll finish this bitch alone!”

The blonde girl didn’t pause to see if her summon obeyed her and stormed towards the reptilian woman and slashed an ugly wound on her face. Screeching and screaming, the snakes grew and attacked the stellar mage who was once more very thankful for the nimbleness she had had to train to be at the same level as her friends. Her flexible body elegantly flipped backwards as she escaped the gaping poisonous fangs by only a hair’s breadth and the nails, once so perfectly manicured and now chipped and dirty, dug themselves into the ground for hold. She was no longer the little lady and rich girl, she had earned her respect as a Fairy Tail mage long ago. Without giving the serpent sorceress a break, she ripped off two or three serpent heads with her whip and charged forward as the reptilian woman clutched her head in pain. Lucy could feel the cold bodies trail over her fingers as she harshly gripped her shoulders. Narrow and cold eyes glanced down on her with the sickening colour of poisonous gold and she hissed:

“Fool… now you’re in my reach…”

Lucy smirked a little and replied:

“So? You too…”

Then she kneed her with all her might. Most woman never had this very unpleasant feeling of getting their sensitive flesh between their legs hit with a knee at full speed so the serpent sorceress was completely unguarded. She gasped while folding her body and her snakes, feeling the same pain as her, cringed around and forgot all about biting Lucy like planned. The stellar mage threw her weight into a heavy punch to her stomach, sending the woman to her knees, even vomiting a bit, but Lucy wasn’t quite through with her plan. Now that she had the head of the serpent sorceress at the right height, she spun around and planted a hearty high kick against her nest of snakes, feeling with a certain disgust the round and cold bodies of the snakes being smashed by her leg. The kick didn’t send the woman flying over the whole place as it would have with Natsu or any of those “monster” around her but it sent her into oblivion for sure. Lucy felt no joy but a little triumphant twinge insinuated her lips as she finished nailing the woman onto the ground with her weight. With the rashness of something absolutely necessary despite its gross feeling she grabbed into the weakly moving heap of bodies on the head of the defeated. She recognised after some rummaging the feel of gold underneath her fingers and tore out the tiny golden head of the master snake.

Panting a bit, she stood over her adversary and held the corpse of the golden snake in her hand. Fairy Tail mages never killed and Lucy was no exception to this even though she just had robbed that woman of any possibility of ever controlling her snakes again, a fate probably worse than death in a dark guild like hers. Lucy tried not to think about it and looked at where Loki and few other mages who had come to Emily’s help managed to fend off the mages and build a protective barrier around the injured ones. Just as she wanted to run over and help them out, maybe looking after the injured ones as she was really no great help on the field and only effective against the weakest mooks of the dark guild, a heaven-breaking yell made her stop and gaze at the sky. A swarm of meteorites had managed to slip past Makarov’s giant, crater-covered arms and flew right in her direction. Lucy didn’t know how she evaded the impacts by only mere inches and was thrown and projected all over the place while she could only feel her heart cringe at the sight of her secret love fight against the magma mage in the middle of the sky.

Natsu didn’t have a brilliant intellect and wasn’t a great thinker but even he sometimes had genius ideas as he had decided to take his fight aerial as there was nothing for his enemy to turn into lava but that had been without taking the meteorites of the guild leader getting into the way. Some of them even stayed floating up there in the sky, building a unique arena for the fight between fire and molten stone and the magma mage transformed a big one into a miniature planet right after the first few seconds of its life. Lucy screamed in horror as she saw Natsu still being right in the middle of the air, with no possibility to change his trajectory as he saw all of his friends in mortal danger if he didn’t take the attack for them. Without any regard for her own safety she made her whip fly in the desperate attempt to reach him, to pull him away but even though Natsu saw her and stretched out his arm in the direction of the rope, she could read in his sad smile that only mere inches separated them. Tears already trickled down her face when she felt the rope lose its farthest reach and tension to fall down like one of those now useless snakes and she screamed his name as he closed his eyes, his face illuminated by the attack of his adversary, when all of the sudden, a mighty yet desperate roar overrode her voice so feeble like a dying person’s whisper in comparison to that primal and feral sound.

Golden red flames enveloped the dragon slayer, created by his foster parent in the last vain attempt to protect what was dearest to him. Even though the sealing barriers cut into his limbs and restricted him painfully and the amount of strength he needed to only get onto his feet was so tremendous that everybody could see the muscles under his thick and scaly skin shiver furiously, the dragon gave with a majestic roar the best of his flames, the golden flames of the mythical dragon emperor, a flame that dragons usually guarded like their own life. Those flames, glowing with the pride, power, gentleness and eternity of gold, enveloped Natsu in a cocoon of purest energy right before he was swallowed by the ball of lava, accompanied by the mad laugh of his enemy. Lucy stared with open mouth at the red globe in suspension and in her shock didn’t even find the strength to stand and fell to her knees. Not even aware of the tears streaming down from her big and expressive eyes, only the name of her beloved escaped incessantly her lips and haunted her empty mind like a ghost before the ball of lava exploded.

Like a rain of tiny stars the shell of magma was torn apart, leaving behind a ball of golden flames under the eyes of the dumbfounded magma mage. The flames pulsated softly like a heartbeat before being sucked into the middle of that cocoon, unveiling a Natsu who wasn’t the same anymore. As if the mighty flames had embellished him, his skin shimmered slightly golden where thin and elegant scales covered his human skin in almost decorative patches while his ears, now pointy like a dragon’s, were almost covered by his slightly longer hair that had the vibrant and interchanging colours of dragon fire, alternating gold, carmine, yellow, orange and a whole panoply of colours that could only be described as pure and the most universal fire. His wounds were gone and he appeared strengthened and full of energy again as his eyes, which slowly opened onto the world as if they discovered it anew, once again held their unwavering gaze, renewed in their strength and purified of any doubt. The magma mage stood no chance at all against the much more powerful dragon roar and was buried into the ground with an earth-splitting force. Natsu was still airborne and didn’t see the meteorite launched in a vengeful attack against him but Lucy did.

This time her yell as well the rope reached him and as his hand grabbed the offered lifeline, she stemmed her feet into the ground and began to pull with all her might. Her arms, her joints and bones protested but the teeth-gritting grin on her face was an honest answer to the equally large smile on Natsu’s face. This was her Natsu, always optimistic even in the direst situation and even if right now her efforts were probably just vain, she didn’t want to give up and save that beloved smile from disappearing forever. Suddenly two strong arms enclosed her and pulled her back with a strength that hurt her, stopped her breath and made the pull on her hands and arms even greater but she didn’t let go, trusting her stellar spirit to be strong enough to pull both of them away. The rope cut into her skin and she felt two or three joints in her fingers dislocate but her eyes were fixed on the fast moving shadow behind Natsu. Gazelle displayed immense precision as he cleanly cut the hot and flying boulder apart with his kick and dispersed the remains over the edge of the deep crater they were in. Natsu caught his extended hand in the last second and they landed together on the mutilated ground while Loki and Lucy came to rest, the girl now suddenly lying almost limply in his arms.

“Lucy!”

Natsu and Gazelle came running while Lucy finally gave into her own body and held her left hand with the two dislocated fingers, unable to hold back the tiny whimper escaping her lips. But then, a nearby cry of pain made her come back to senses and she braced herself as she took a deep breath and enclosed her fingers with her right hand. She screamed at the two dragon slayers:

“Go help others! I’m fine!”

Then, with a screech of determination, she put the joints in one go back into their places, sinking to her knees, overwhelmed by the pain and completely counting on Loki to protect her. Through the veil of tears she could see their feet stopping hesitantly before they turned around and her body was carried off by the lion. Lucy returned to her senses sharpened greatly by the clear pain as Loki landed as softly as possible, his eyes and ears open to any potentially attacking enemy. She tentatively flexed her left hand and found it to be hurting worse than hell but still being functional if the direst need was to present itself.

“Here.”

Loki held her whip and Lucy took it with a smile, if that pained grimace in the middle of a battle could be called a smile, and looked at its desolate state. The rope had almost torn in several places and would only hold on or two cracks more before it would be in pieces. Its owner just wanted to roll it in and definitively retreat for the defence of the wounded ones when her name was called loudly from across the battle field. Lucy looked up just in time to see one end of a chain axe bury itself into the ground while its twin twirled at a perfect height and speed for her to grab it out of the air and as she plucked its counterpart from the earth she smiled at her friend Erza who had been an excellent teacher for this unusual weapon in times of boredom and tranquillity. The Titania smiled back before parrying perfectly the sword slash of her adversary without even looking. Lucy turned towards Loki and also directly saw into the army of small goblin-like demons summoned by an enemy mage.

“Come on, Loki, we can’t let the others be bothered by the small fry, right?”

The lion laughed and replied almost jokingly as he stormed off:

“Yes, mistress, your wish is my command!”

With a grim expression Lucy began to swing one side of the axe in a deadly wheel while she kept its counterpart close for her own defence. Soon Loki was fighting against the summoning mage himself while she went berserk on the weak little devils, covering the ground with their disgustingly green blood and corpses. Her breath was rasping against her hurting throat and her heart beat as if it wanted to jump right of out her chest and she only stopped spinning and slashing when no ear-splitting screeches reached her anymore. Shaking her bloodied hair out the way she looked at Loki who had just knocked out the mage and broke his staff over his knee, depriving their enemy of one more capable mage. Just like the well-matched team they were, they immediately surveyed the surroundings in each other’s blind spot as they came closer, resting on each other’s back in a prefect defence, and tried to catch their breath for a few precious seconds. Lucy asked almost breathlessly:

“How much longer, Loki?”

The lion closed his eyes before answering with a grim expression:

“Twenty minutes without using any magic and only ten with magic.”

“I’m sorry I can’t give you any magic supply anymore… nor summon any of the others…”

“It’s alright… You know we’d all gladly give you our lives …”

“Never.say.that.again. or I’ll force you to go back! I don’t want any of you to die for whatever sake.”

“Yes, mistress…”

“Lucy… I don’t want you to call me Mistress or whatever…”

“Sorry, old habit in battle…”

“Speaking of battle… any preference right now?”

“We should go protect the wounded ones… I can last longer if I just have to defend…”

“Alright… the let’s cross this hell safely…”

On these words they ran, zigzagging in order to avoid attacks, blind magic shots or fragments of meteorites that managed to pass Makarov’s gigantic frame. Just as they came closer to the center of the field they looked up and saw the golden flash of Natsu’s attack against the guild leader, which was followed immediately by rain of meteorites and magic shots, far too many to be shielded by Makarov. In the last second Loki pushed her away, making her stumble across the ground and evade certain death by being crushed to death but separated them. Lucy searched for him but the more she had to evade the aerial attacks, the more it became impossible to join up with Loki who despite his attempts to reach her, very busy with surviving himself. A blow of a nearby explosive impact tumbled Lucy a few meters away and threw her onto the ground, right next to the seal boundary, a ring of floating symbols. As Lucy sat up she touched the seal by mistake.

And she stopped right in her tracks.

Touching a seal shouldn’t have any effect on her, a mage not concerned by seals except those for the summoning keys. And yet she stopped and after a few seconds she touched it again, this time with both hands, just to be sure.

There it was, this feeling she knew so well – the feeling of concentrated star magic on her skin, warm, pulsating and alive.

A foreboding thought came to her mind and she called Loki to her while jumping to the side to avoid a blind magic shot.

“Loki, are the Pleiades in the stellar world?”

“What?”

“Just answer me.”

“No...”

Loki looked quite puzzled by her question.

“... I haven’t seen them in years. They’ve been missing since... many years or so? Why do you want to know right now?”

Just as Lucy opened her mouth to answer the personified constellation of the lion had to pull her away violently, saving both of their lives only by a hair’s breadth as the mighty magical lighting hit ground with roaring thunder right where they had been a second ago. Lying flat on the ground, panting and their hearts beating fast, they just stared at each other in their amazement of having survived. Then reality came back and Lucy, at a loss of words and too scared to speak what she feared, just pulled his hands and made him touch the seal.

At first astonishment blinked on his face only to convert into horror. He pulled his hand away while looking at her in disbelief.

“This can’t be! This just can’t be a Pleiades’ seal!”

Lucy grabbed his shoulders.

“Think about it! This is a stellar seal. The Pleiades’ seal is strong enough to seal a God so a dragon would be no problem at all!”

“But...”

“There are seven Pleiades, each with its own element. How many dragons are left?”

Loki’s expression was filled with horror as he whispered:

“Seven... one for each element.”

Lucy let go of him and scrabbled towards where the dragon’s head was as she could see with her now activated stellar sight that the seal had been fixed there, but Loki grabbed her wrist and shouted:

“Don’t you know the price for breaking the Pleiades’ seal?!?!”

Firm and unwavering she looked directly into his face.

“I know.”

“Lucy… I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for something like that!”

“But it’s the only way to break that seal!”

“We don’t have to unseal Igneel to win! We can do that later on!”

“There will be no later on if we all die here!”

Loki didn’t answer that and just tore her away, jumping away from the boiling centre of the battle to save her life. After a few jumps her deposed the struggling and protesting girl next to the wounded and the improvised medics and defenders. His gaze had a furious fire as he almost yelled at her:

“Fairy Tail WILL NEVER LOSE!!!”

Lucy looked at him with certain surprise on her open lips before she gave in with a sigh.

“Alright… but you won’t protest if I unseal Igneel later on.”

“Only if the conditions are right and if you get the help from us all… we won’t let you go the same path as all the other stellar mages… Now let’s get to defend those poor devils out here…”

*2

Loki returned to the defending front just in time to save Evergreen from an attack from a blind spot in her defence while Lucy began to use all the knowledge on first aid she had accumulated over the years of accompanying the rashest and wildest members of Fairy Tail on the weirdest and wildest quests. Emily smiled tiredly at her as she took the makeshift bandage out of her shivering hands and finished tying the knot to prevent the wounded one from bleeding to death. Lucy was amazed at the mental strength of the little girl to keep a clear head in this chaotic and scaring situation of suddenly having the flickering lives of friends in her small hands and the stellar mage leaned down to hush a gentle kiss on her forehead before whispering:

“You’re doing great Emily… thank you.”

Despite all the fear, exhaustion and stress the tiny raven was under, she straightened her back and smiled at her before beginning to blow her healing magic over the man. Lucy felt as if someone had called her and glanced over her shoulder to become aware of the lifeless form a bit farther away. Without thinking she jumped up and ran, evading blind attacks and jumping over the rests of a golem Gazelle just had finished off. With a scream she diverted the attention of the dark mage who was about to finish off her friend and with her chain axe cleanly knocked out the sword of their enemy’s hands. The other fumbled for his sword but that was his downfall as the, albeit slightly clumsily shot, blunt edge of the chain axe send him off into oblivion in a clean hit against his temple. After one last jump she reached the bloodied form of her friend.

“Lorenzo! You hear me?!?”

The dark haired man whimpered weakly and Lucy knew that he was still alive. However, he wouldn’t stay like that for much longer if she didn’t stop the bleeding of the wound on his head and on his chest. She tore apart his shirt and pressed it in a bundle against the gaping flesh to stop the bleeding. Interminable minutes went by as she felt the red life soak the fabric before it finally, finally became weaker without his heart stopping and with a sigh she remembered to breathe. Still pressing the makeshift bandage against his wound, she inspected his head and had to swallow her nausea at the sight of white bone shimmering under the red flesh, as if a giant dog had tried to chew of his face. His left eye was done for and he would be horribly scarred for life but somehow she knew that he would live. Without any regard for the shame cursing through her body, she took off her own shirt and tried to gently bandage his head and felt his pain as it was her own. Under her hands he seemed to come back to life and even managed a weak smile at her lacy bra.

“The gods must be … merciful… to show me… such a grand sight… before death…”

“Shshshsh, don’t speak… and don’t you want to tell your son of this ‘grand sight’? So shut up and live, Lorenzo! We’ll get alive out of this!”

Lucy was now preoccupied with the bandage on his chest. She absolutely had to bring him to Emily but if she moved him without this bandage, he would reach heaven faster than Gray could get naked. Suddenly she felt as if her keys had called her and she became aware of the whip on her hip. Although she almost shook her head at the absurdity of her idea, she hesitated no second and secured his bandage with her whip. Somehow she managed to lift him on her side, with one of her axes at her hip and the other hanging around her neck and they began to make their way to the camp of the wounded with a tortuous slowness along the rocky and straight walls of the crater. Sweat ran down Lucy’s light frame as the weight of the grown man threatened to crush her but her legs refused to give in and followed her desperate will to the only goal she could see. Suddenly a shadow was over them and Lucy’s eyes widened in horror as she saw the mud hand of another golem rush towards them. She knew in a split second that she had no way to evade that monster nor could she stop that immense strength even if she had been ready with her weapon in her hands.

She shut her eyes, not wanting to see the last impact in her life when it suddenly didn’t happen at all. Surprised at the absence of pain she looked to her right and saw Gazelle who had managed to stop the punch right in time.

“Gazelle!”

“Get the fuck away! I can’t hold him much longer!”

Lucy tore Lorenzo out of the way just in the last second before Gazelle had to give up his blocking. Right behind them the mud fist split the rock walls. The girl saw Gazelle wanting to attack the mud giant to lure him away and suddenly had an idea.

“Gazelle!!! Take him to Emily! I’ll stay and find the controlling mage!!!”

The iron dragon slayer looked at her incredulously but seemed to take her seriously as he could clearly see that the slow duo wouldn’t get very far like that.

“Sure you’ll be okay waltzing with those mud bastards? They keep on getting back into one piece, no matter how many times I fuck them up…”

“I’m sure I know more about waltzing than you do! Evading is my speciality…”

“Hm.”

Without any more ado the dragon slayer took Lorenzo in his arms and ran over to the camp of the wounded while Lucy rapidly took her axes in her hands. There were three golems and on the first look there was no one controlling them and she was busy evading their powerful punches. So busy that it would have almost escaped her attention had the pain in her hand not still all of her senses on the maximum level, that there was the suspicious shadow in a crack in the walls. Jumping over a mud arm, she threw her axe with a determinate scream and almost wanted to laugh in joy as she saw the shadow falter just as much as the golems when the axe buried itself in the wall right next to the controlling mage. But faltering them was not the same as eliminating them and she had to ‘waltz’ an insane dance of escape until she stumbled over a rock and fell to her knees and right on her left hand. Hissing at the pain jolting through her fingers, she was unable to react in time and could only stare once again at a punch she had no chance to evade in time. Her eyes were wide in shock and fear when the fist was covered in ice only mere inches from her face. On top of the frozen golems was Gray and he grinned at her before his stand crumbled under the angry fist of the iron dragon slayer.

“Didn’t you say you were good at evading?!?”

“Hmpf, how would you heroes want to work without any damsel to save? He’s in the crack!!!”

Although Lucy somehow had the insane urge to stay and lead a silly discussion with them, she speeded off, knowing that they were fine without her and ran for the makeshift camp where Emily was already treating Lorenzo. Out of breath but filled with adrenaline she stopped next to them and helped the girl move him in a more comfortable position.

“That’s was very brave, Lucy…”

Her voice had an almost admiring undertone but before Lucy could answer her, the very angry sounding voice of her stellar spirit interrupted her:

“That was fucking stupid, Lucy!!! You could have died!”

“Lorenzo would be dead by now if she hadn’t gone!”

Emily immediately took her defence and the lips of the lion became very thin in a disapproving grimace.

“Call me at least, next time!”

*3

With these words he turned around and went to help the others. Despite the situation Emily and Lucy found the strength to smile at least a bit. They finished treating Lorenzo and Emily wanted to comfort her friend just like she had done before and started:

“He was just worried about since you’re so kin-…”

Before her horrified eyes a tin magical beam pierced the little girl’s chest and stopped her movements as if the strings of a puppet had been cut. Time slowed down for Lucy as she desperately caught the limp body of the girl, her hands soiled by the warm and so precious blood flowing out of the wound. Emily’s name resonated from the walls as Lucy yelled out in despair. Immediately Mirajane, another of the improvised medics, was at her side and they desperately did all they could to save her. All too soon their possibilities were used up and the little girl’s fate was now in the hands of the gods. Crying bitter tears Lucy pressed the weak body against her almost naked chest and with a bone chilling certitude she knew that the battle had to end now, no matter what the cost was.

“Lucy… I’m scared…”

Emily was still awake and fought against unconsciousness with all her might, as if she knew that she might never awake from it. Ice cold fury burned in the stellar mage’s heart but with all the gentleness that had distinguished her from all of the other stellar mages, she placed a soft kiss on the forehead of the girl in a silent farewell and whispered into her ear:

“Don’t worry… everything will go well… I’ll protect you so rest my darling…”

The fluttering eyelids closed themselves over the suddenly very pale face of the girl that was way too small for such a dreadful battle and Lucy handed the unconscious girl over to Mirajane who looked at her with a mixture of surprise and dreading premonition. In Lucy’s face determination was the only emotion except from cold fury glittering in the deepest corner of her eyes. Loki had seen everything and when he saw his master’s face, he knew what she wanted to do and got into her way, his arms wide open to prevent her from advancing.

“Loki, get out of my way.”

“No.”

She didn’t reply immediately but just looked into his eyes with an expression he had never seen on her.

“Let.Me.Go.”

“I can’t! Please, Lucy, there must be some other way!”

“How many more of my friends do have to get hurt like that?!?!?!?”

Loki didn’t know what to reply and his arms began to falter.

“But…”

“NO! This battle has to end NOW!”

“Lucy…”

His voice had the pained sound of someone who desperately tried to stop something he couldn’t change. Still, he didn’t go away and just shook his head.

“Loki… don’t force me to subjugate you… Please…”

Loki only held his face towards the ground and tried to hold back his tears.

“How… how can I just let you sacrifice yourself?!?”

“Loki… please don’t let me face this all on my own…”

The vibrant sound of her voice summoned something in his soul. A wish to obey her, to follow her until the very bitter end was born inside of him for the first time in his life as a stellar spirit after having served various masters with so different feelings towards them. Like a knight he sank onto his knee.

“Yes, my lady. I’ll follow you wherever you wish to go.”

He could hear her almost chuckle.

“You’re weird, Loki.”

“Sorry.”

Like the knight he wanted to be to his princess, he carried her over to the dragon in the middle of the battle. With great bitterness he noticed how light she was and familiar the connection to her had become and he wanted nothing more but run away from all this and bring her somewhere safe but when he gazed into her eyes, so unwavering in their gaze, his will faltered and he slipped easily into the submission of a servant. Like a queen he deposed her next to the dragon’s head and watched their surroundings as she examined the seal once more while mumbling to herself.

“Well then... let’s break the Pleiades’ seal. Igneel is a fire dragon so the sealing Pleiade would be...Aquamarine, the water Pleiade... How much longer can you exist in this world?”

“Hmmm... if I don’t fight... maybe ten minutes?”

“Good, this should work... I want you to run to... who do trust the most in this guild?”

“I trust all of them but for this... I’d hand myself over to Mirajane.”

“Okay. You will bring the keys to Mirajane and then open the gate on my signal.”

“What about Aquamarine’s key?”

“... I’m sure there will be somebody who protects my body.”

“...”

Both of them said nothing when Loki took Lucy in his arms. His hands shivered at the thought of what would happen next. She noticed it and patted his back. A bitter tang of sadness was mixed in her voice as she whispered:

“Choose someone nice as your next master.”

Like a child he shook his head.

“Do me the favour and stay with Fairy Tail, ‘kay?”

Lucy extracted herself from his arms and took her ring of keys. She kissed them as one and whispered:

“From now on you’re free... Fare well.”

Despite her iron will her hands shook slightly as she deposed the key ring in his hands before closing his fingers around them. The act of giving stellar keys to a stellar spirit was the same as ending all contracts at once and Lucy felt the magical bonds between her and the stellar spirits vanish like the warmth of the sun disappears at the end of summer.

Loki looked one last time into her eyes, his soul’s pain painted in his eyes, before he got onto his feet and ran back in hectic zigzags to Mirajane. Lucy gritted her teeth to vanquish her fear and turned her attention to Igneel. His eyes, shortly leaving his son, who still fighting with the powerful leader, for a second, asked her a silent question, somewhat ordering and pleading at the same time. The girl smiled and said:

“Look at Natsu, you’ll soon be free.”

*4

Then she closed her eyes and touched the seal with her hands and her forehead. Feeling the pulsating force of the Pleiade invading her body she whispered:

“Soul, dive!”

Then everything became black.

Lucy needed a second to get her senses back as she came into existence in the abyss between all souls. Her astral body was naked but she didn’t mind and began floating downwards where she felt the presence of the Pleiade. It was hidden far downwards in the sea of consciousness that connects every soul, dead or alive for eternity, and as she sank deeper and deeper she began to feel the side effects of soul diving at such an uncommon depth. The extremities of her astral body started to fall apart, piece by piece, and only tremendous efforts in keeping her inner balance prevented her from disintegrating completely.

The sleeping Pleiade was floating just beneath her, her ethereal beauty surpassing that of any person she had ever seen before. She was almost gigantic compared to Lucy and colored in all kinds of blue shades, the otherworldly clothes moving in the current of the sea of consciousness. Lucy wanted to stay where she was, not sharing the fate of all the stellar mages who had attempted a high summoning ritual before. But then the scared whisper of her little friend resonated in her ears and her resolve to save them all once more stood firmly and proudly.

With no single hint of hesitation left she extended her astral arm and touched the shining blue core of the diadem of the water Pleiade lightly. Aquamarine stirred lightly as the young stellar mage infiltrated her century old soul. An astronomical amount of memories assaulted Lucy’s mind but she was searching for the original one, the memory of the Pleiade’s creation to give her the Pleiade’s true name. Just when Lucy felt her spirit stagger on the verge of insanity she saw the glow of the original memory. It filled her up and finally let her cut off the connection to Aquamarine. Numb and without orientation she floated in the sea of consciousness before pulling herself back together.

“Pleiade of the water, heed my call.”

Aquamarine stirred lightly.

“Rise for I know thy true name, guardian of the water’s stars.”

The glow from the Pleiade’s soul pulsated faster and faster as she was close to break the slavery she was under. Lucy once more stretched out her astral arm but this time she tore away the controlling diadem on the Pleiade’s head.

“.........”

Aquamarine’s true name was so powerful and filled with the most ancient magic that it made her throat sore but it had the desired effect. Eyes bluer than a billion of sapphires and deeper that the primal sea flew open while the gush of raw magic shaking through the abyss threw Lucy back out into the real world.

The seal lit up like a blue sun, throwing everybody out of their battle rhythm. All stared, either wondering or horrified at the centre of the battlefield. The sealing rings around Igneel were splitting up, building a multitude of vibrating and moving seals. The moment Lucy opened her eyes, a gush of blood filled her mouth and she vomited her own life flowing through her veins.

A side glance told her, while she still coughed and spat out some more blood, that Loki was looking at her and even though she could only move her lips soundlessly she bid him farewell as his expression darkened just before he raised his arms. Sparkles of raw star magic sprang forth from his fingers as he opened the great stellar door above all. A sky more starry than could be seen anywhere on earth opened in the previously ash grey sky filled with ominous storm clouds and Loki disappeared in a shower of stardust, his magical resources exhausted for good.

A murmur went through the now immobile crowd as Lucy’s body lit up. Her few remaining clothes disintegrated because of the magic seeping through her body from the stellar world, concentrating in her heart. It’s strength pulled her up in the air, leaving her in suspension with her glowing body, her hair grew and grew before changing to an ethereal white, moving elegantly with the magical wind in long strands. Although nothing covered her, the light emitting from her body was so blinding that her contours disappeared and gave her a chaste and pure appearance.

Almost as if time had been slowed down she reached out with her hands and the moment she touched the vibrant seal, hell broke loose around her. With a united howl of desperation, hate, anger and determination the mages of the illegal guild stormed towards the floating girl whose body was now starting to get surrounded by similar sealing rings. In a marvellous reaction the mages of Fairy Tail fought them to protect their comrade, sensing that she was their only hope to unseal Igneel and to get out alive from the battle. Even Igneel tried to stand up on his legs although weakened by the sealing magic, tearing at the dreadful seal that had subjugated him for so long.

The seal unwounded, each ring dissolving and joining those around Lucy. At the same time cracks began to form on her skin where her body started to wither and become dust falling to the ground in a glowing heap. Some of her comrades stopped and stared open-mouthed at their disappearing friend but the cries of rage of their brothers and sisters in arms brought them back to their task of protecting Lucy.

Natsu had stopped fighting the guild leader and was running towards Lucy, screaming her name on top of his lungs but Gray and Gazelle, who themselves had to fight the insane urge to stop her and save her, held him back as they needed him desperately to protect her from the dark guild. Lucy’s eyes followed him as he threw one last gaze at her that said more than anything she had dreamed to hear from him before he attacked with a mighty roar that even surprised his companions. The girl smiled, feeling how she slowly fell apart and concentrated once more on the seal. Her eyes met the golden orbs of the dragon and they lit up in a sorrowful understanding. Her sad and somehow helpless smile moved the fire dragon and like a king, he bowed in majestic humbleness before the floating girl, giving her his thanks and at the same time pleading forgiveness for her sacrifice.


Then again, after a small eternity of struggle, an eerie silence came over the battlefield. Igneel was now on his feet, towering majestically over everybody in his full height and only the arms and Lucy’s head and throat were left from her floating body. A single, weak ring floated around Igneel who could easily break such a feeble seal on his own but he just looked at his saviour with his golden eyes, filled with century-old wisdom and very aware of what was going to happen in a mere instant. His muscular neck moved with regained ease towards her and met her extended hand in a gentle greeting, thank and blessing. No one could say who blessed whom or if both of them wished each other the best in a peaceful silence but Igneel had the sad smile offered in farewells on his lips when he drew back, her arm starting to crumble away after their touch.

Lucy turned her head in the direction of Natsu the dragon slayer. She no longer had any lungs for air nor could she bring out her voice, but her eyes, full of quiet sorrow, bid him farewell as her lips moved to the three words her heart had longed to say but had never found the courage nor the time to do so. A single tear pearled down from her round, gentle eyes before the last sealing ring left Igneel in a shower of light, closing in on her soul and completely merge with her own seals. She crumbled away, falling down to the rest of her dust while the sky returned to its previous state.

*5

A roar so strong that everybody unprepared was thrown to the ground came from Igneel. He protected the glowing heap between his front feet, throwing fire at his opponents who left as fast as they could, pursued by the mages of Fairy Tail. Only Natsu stayed behind looking at his foster father and then to the dust that seemed to move. Igneel looked at him and whispered as good as a dragon could whisper:

“Natsu.”

“Igneel.”

The dragon didn’t answer and just bowed his head down to the glowing heap, winking Natsu to come closer. With legs like made of lead the called one staggered over and fell on his knees. Under his desperate eyes the dust reassembled again to Lucy’s body, naked and defenceless on the bare, stony ground.

“Take her, Natsu. We all owe her so much, you can’t imagine it.”

Natsu covered her with his scarf and his jacket before he took her in his lap, pressing her cold body against his hot skin.

“She is not breathing, Igneel.”

Tears flowed already in the tone of his voice while he just held her, head bowed down to her. Igneel could feel the pain of the one he called his son but the terrible truth could not be avoided. Natsu laid a finger on her neck, and then listened on her ribcage while the first tears began to flow down. He didn’t notice the other members of the guild coming closer, his world now revolved around Lucy in his arms and Igneel in front of him.

“Igneel... she... her heart... she...”

The words failed to leave his lips, telling the dreadful truth. The dragon sighed and said with his low and powerful voice that still held a gentle sound:

“She is dead, Natsu.”

Natsu just looked at him then at the corpse in his arms before a howl of despair escaped his throat into the sky. Tears flowed down his face, his pain reflected in the face of all the mages around him. They cried silently or lamented loudly with friends or just howled at the sky, powerless and helpless before the tragic destiny of their friend.

It was Makarov who took on the heartless task of stopping them after a whispered information from Mirajane:

“Listen, my children!”

The mages looked up to their master, either puzzled or angry at the interruption of their mourning.

“It isn’t over yet. Lucy has left us the chance to free all the dragons. Let us show her the respect she has merited and let us never rest until every last bit of this quest has been completed!”

“How could she leave us a quest?!? She’s DEAD!!!”, came an angry voice from the crowd.

A murmur went through the assembly. Most of them hadn’t really understood what had happened and now, after the first shock had passed, came the time of questions. Again it was Makarov who broke the sea of murmurs:

“Loki will explain but for that I need a voluntary to form a momentary contract with him, else he won’t be able to come back to this world.”

After a few minutes of deliberating Erza was chosen as Loki’s new owner since Lucy herself had once taught her how to form stellar bonds in order to play a prank on the guild and a few trials of activating the stellar key later, Loki stood before the assembled mages, his face pale and turned to the ground in shame. Silence broke over the usually loud guild when Loki began to speak:

“Listen guys... Lucy... Lucy discovered during the battle that Igneel’s seal was actually a very special kind of stellar spirit. In fact, Igneel was sealed by a Pleiade, one of the highest stellar spirits after our king. The seven Pleiades, each standing for an element, were created to seal even Gods. To seal and to unseal such a Pleiades’ seal, a so-called “High ceremony” or “High summoning” is needed and only very, very seldom have stellar mages actually survived this if they did it on their own. Lucy was at the end of her magical reserves, there was no way that she could have survived it and yet she chose to complete it anyway, knowing very well that it meant death for her. Now there are seven Pleiades, just as there are seven high dragons. Igneel, the high fire dragon was sealed by Aquamarine, the water Pleiade, and all the other dragons are sealed away by the Pleiade of their enemy element as water extinguishes fire, fire melts metal, metal cuts plants, plants colonise earth, earth swallows lightning, lightning out-speeds air while air whirls up water. The Pleiades can only be used as seals when their sealing abilities are activated at once. So now the seal is weakened because Aquamarine is missing. If we proceed carefully and with plan, we will be able to free all the dragons if we use Aquamarine as a weapon against the fire Pleiade Ruby.”

“How can we use her? I don’t see any key!”, said someone.

Loki had an immensely sad expression when he turned around towards Natsu.

“Natsu... thank you for looking after her body but I need her corpse now.”

Natsu pressed the lifeless body of his beloved friend against his chest before he stood up with almost wobbling legs and walked those few steps to Loki who also came towards him as if each step was as tiring as a day’s march. Delicately the dragon slayer deposed her in the stellar spirit’s arms and caressed her cheek one last time before stepping back. Loki kneeled down, supporting the upper body of his previous master with one arm while he deposed her graceful legs on the ground.

“Forgive me, Lucy, for what I am going to do.”

His whispered magic chant suddenly elongated his nails, transforming them into claws and just as something dreadful dawned on some of his comrades, he fulfilled his dirty job before they could react. Fast like the wind his hand flew down and tore a hole in his kind master’s chest, right above her heart. A cry of anger went through Fairy Tail but before Natsu could tear Loki’s arm away from Lucy’s body, Igneel’s powerful roar stopped them all.

“STOP IT!!!”

Makarov too came forward to the two immobilised mages and laid his hand on Natsu’s arm ready to hit Loki with all his might.

“Stop it, Natsu. Don’t you see that it’s painful for him as well?”

Natsu looked with big eyes at the tears flowing down Loki’s face as his fingers searched deeper and deeper inside of Lucy’s ribcage. Suddenly he pulled something out. In his soiled hand lay Lucy’s heart, a now useless pump of muscles. Most of the mages had to swallow and for some it was too much and they had to look away. Loki glanced at Natsu and said dragon slayer understood without a word as he took the body of his beloved friend in his arms while Loki cut up the heart with his claws and took out a delicate key of glass, translucent and shining in the pale light of the sun almost hidden by mourning veils of grey clouds. With endless tenderness the stellar spirit laid back the heart of his master, crying bitter tears. Then he stood up again to say loudly while holding up his hand with the key:

“This is what Lucy died for. Now it’s up to us, the mages of Fairy Tail, to end what she began!”

After these words he gave the key to their master and vanished, leaving a bereaved and yet grimly determined guild behind.

*6

The tales of how the mages of Fairy Tail freed each of the dragons in fantastic battles or adventures soon became a precious heritage to mankind’s past. The core of Fairy Tail, namely the three dragon slayers who had finally been reunited with their dragons, as well as their closest friends soon became some of the most powerful and famous mages. Lucy’s existence, however, was soon forgotten by the rest of the world, only mentioned sometimes as some mage who gave up her life to unbind the first seal. But Natsu the salamander, who was called the strongest mage existing at his prime age of 25, spent his turbulent life in celibacy, travelling around and every time he came back to his beloved guild, he would bring flowers or souvenirs from the places he had been to a simple grave in the ruined house of a once wealthy merchants’ family, as if he went to see his lover.

One day a procession of the whole guild clad in mourning black as well as Igneel came to the ruins and stood around the simple grave. For a little while they said nothing and just contemplated the elegantly simple coffin of slightly aged marble, coloured by the light filtering through the broken mosaic windows of what once had been a grand villa. Then, Gray stepped forward while holding a small box of red stone and some of the guild members could already not hold back their tears anymore. He didn’t need to speak loud for the guild, usually so known for its loud behaviour, was completely silent.

“Lucy… We’re sorry… Natsu sacrificed himself for Fairy Tail, just like you did. This is what we could find from him and now… if you will allow it, we would like to unite you two at least in death. Please, forgive us for being so weak that we couldn’t protect ourselves more…”

He nodded shortly at Gazelle and Elfman, who silently and with great care lifted of the stony cover of her sarcophagi. On one hand Gray was very glad that they had buried Lucy with a dress fitting a princess and veiled her face, for the sight of a friend having turned into mere bones was dreadful enough through the fabric, but he gently deposed the little box next to her head, as if he deposed his friend next to her on a sumptuous bed. As if to celebrate a black marriage, he decorated her with small flowers of eternal ice. They glittered like precious gems in the coloured light just before the marble cover imprisoned them in endless darkness. Gazelle, Gray and Elfman stepped back respectfully and just as they joined the ranks of their friends, a voice of a boy called out:

“Lucy! Natsu! I will become a stellar mage just as great as you, I swear!”

Lorenzo’s son held Lucy’s keys against his chest as they had been given to him in some kind of legacy. Seeing his earnest wish and the openly flowing tears was enough for the rest of the guild to loudly call out their goals and what they wished to do in the future, as if they wanted to reassure the finally reunited lovers that their sacrifice would be honoured and that the guild would grow strong enough for their story to be never repeated again. After their calls had quieted down, Igneel bowed his head down and blew gently his flames over the stone, covering it with a substance called dragon glass to protect his son and his love from any disturbance to their final peace. Just as the guild and the dragon wanted to leave quietly and celebrate a grand fest in their honour, Emily looked back one last time and froze in surprise. Her call made the whole guild stop and look back as well.

Two glowing spheres of light floated over the grave and under their surprised eyes the translucent images of their two beloved friends began to form. They could see Lucy cry tears of happiness as an equally overjoyed Natsu held her up like the trophy of his life. The two didn’t seem to notice their friends and as if Lucy had seen something, she pointed towards the sky. In the most graceful movement they had ever the two souls began a weightless ascension and turned into a shower of stardust, just like stellar spirits would. The dust began to twirl around itself and its glow became stronger until Loki, who had come especially for this occasion into the real world, smiled almost as if Natsu and Lucy were alive and in front of him as he stretched out his hand to the glowing dust. It gently rained down on his hand and as he opened his fist again towards his still astonished guild mates, he showed them a key, made of two tails and one combined head, proof of it being a twin key combining two stellar spirits in one.

“Looks like Lucy and Natsu won’t abandon us like that.”


______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please review... it feeds my hungry soul... and spurs my will to write
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Playlists:

*1: Audiomachine: 11 Days in Hell; Akkadian Empire; Knight's Crusade; Lachrimae
Auracle Music: Epic Legend
Greatest Battle Music of All Times: Justice
Posthaste Music: Above the City
Skanda Music: Mahati
Two Steps from Hell: Heart of Courage; Love & Loss, Sons of War, Tyrianis

*2: Audiomachine: City of Hope; Images of War

*3: City of the Fallen: Light from Darkness
Two Steps from Hell: White Witch

*4: Audiomachine: An Unfinished Life, Breath and Life; I create; Lady of the Lake; Last Plane Out

*5: Audiomachine: Ashes to Ashes; Fallen Soldiers; Triumph and Loss

*6: Audiomachine: Prelude of Dreams; Visions of Utopia
Future World Music: Eternal Love