Chapter Text
“Mama, what do stars taste like?”
“Haha, I don’t know sweetheart. What do you think they taste like?”
“I think they taste like cotton candy! No! Like sparkly cotton candy!”
“Maybe they do, if you ever find out you can tell me.”
“Okay Mama!”
They didn’t. The stars didn’t taste like cotton candy, or edible glitter, or strawberry cake, or anything that she’d have liked to devour.
They tasted like fire. Like molten metal searing the back of her throat. They stole the air from her lungs and forced poison between her teeth. Light and shadow created dizzying patterns, imagined threats clawing at her exposed skin. Lightning that raked across her nerves in endless agony.
Humans were barely meant to wield the stars, to attempt and consume their burning grace was to break a Sacrament Law. And still she continued, digging teeth and claws deep into the rivers of the stars. She swallowed what should never have been touched and allowed it to fill the hollows of her chest.
There was blood on her hands.
Mortal iron that dried into streaks across her skin. Blood crusted under her nails and into the creases of her knuckles. It dripped from her nose, cold against the heat of the stars. It puddled in the line of her lashes before seeping down her face. Blood filled her ears but did little to block the sounds of her own screams.
And still she feasted.
~~~
Lucky Lucy Heartfilia.
Once there was a good few years of her life where she despised the name and would do anything to conceal her family history. Those days were long past, wretched guilt filling the void her father left behind in his passing. It was almost funny how being the last of her name changed how she approached things. No longer was she Jude and Layla’s precious only daughter, now she was the surviving Heiress. And that was long before she learned what being a Heartfilia meant. The family legacy that wrote her name into the very heavens.
She was Lucy Heartfilia, and nothing would stand in her way. Her whole family's bloodline was made to defeat Acknologia. And when the time came…
She was too weak.
Ten of the Zodiac within her grasp, nearly a half dozen silver keys, Holy Spells that most Celestial Wizards could only dream of, the ability and willingness to summon the Celestial Spirit King. And that was just Lucy . When you started adding in the rest of team Nalu, the whole of Fairy Tail, Sabertooth, Blue Pegasus, the Magic Council, literally every Witch and Wizard that they could bring together, the Seven Dragon Slayers created specifically to defeat Acnologia.
And they were too weak.
They were exhausted from the battle of Tartaros and dealing with the Faces. Acnologia demolished what remained of their forces like grass before a scythe. The Beast was able to devour all of their attacks and just grow stronger. Her Spirits never stood a chance, many of them were just snacks to a creature that ate magic. And in the end, when there was no hope left to be found and even Fairy Tail’s great well of belief was run dry, they failed. It was nothing against them, even Zeref refused to fight Acnologia. In the end the result was the same.
Acnologia victorious.
~~~
Lucy sat straight up in bed, mouth open in a soundless scream. No sound escaped her heaving chest. Though her eyes were open, staring at the plain wall of whatever room she found herself in, all she was seeing was Gajeels bare back, split in twain by the end of Acnologia’s tail. After what felt like a small slice of eternity her mind finally caught up to what was in front of her. Or more accurately what wasn’t in front of her. No sign of the battle that they were just in.
She glanced around the room quickly, hand automatically falling to her empty hip. It was a small room, plain but clean, very clearly a mid tier hotel. Her keys sat on the small bedside table on their belt waiting for her. Lucy scooped them up and swung them around her waist over her night pants. With their familiar weight (lighter- her belt was so much lighter than it should be and she knew it) in place she had the courage to get out of the bed. The touch of her hair against her shoulders made her twitch, twisting around to see if Natsu had slipped under the covers behind her once more. But there was no pink hair peeking out over the pillows.
There was a part of her that knew that before she looked, but it still hurt something deep down in her chest. Lucy stepped into the small attached bathroom, eyes darting for anyone else to be there. She was only greeted by the still and silent appliances. She huffed lightly at her own paranoia, but it was long since honed into her. Lucy turned to the mirror, and sucked in a startled breath. One hand slapped the nearby light on while she leaned closer to the glass.
Now Lucy had never looked the 26 that she was meant to be. Of course they didn’t age during their seven years asleep on Tenrou Island. But she knew for a fact that she didn’t still look seventeen. She patted her face rapidly, feeling out the lingering baby fat on her cheeks and the way her jaw hadn’t fully sharpened yet. The dark circles under her eyes were barely visible, the scar through her eyebrow was noticeably missing.
“What?” she muttered.
She looked down at her body and squeaked. If her face showed her age then her body was shouting it. No scars, no muscles, no tan, no sign of the life that she’d been living for years. Her gaze was inevitably drawn to her hands. To her left where the wound from breaking Aquarius’ key should have marred her palm, to her right where the empty skin missing her Guild mark glared at her. Lucy stumbled back and sat against the edge of the bath with her head in her hands. There was a part of her that desperately wanted to pretend that everything that happened was just the worst dream of her life. But…
“The Eclipse Gate,”
She whispered the words, goosebumps raising across her skin. Just thinking of the way that the Gate latched onto her magic made her nauseous. The end of that final battle was fading from her mind like it truly was a dream but she still remembered seeing the Gate carved into the side of a mountain. Remade somehow? Or never truly destroyed? She did not know, but in the end when there was nothing but failure it didn’t matter. The ability to go back, even if it was just her, and begin trying to find a way to defeat Acnologia, was a desperate hope.
Lucy shoved to her feet, suddenly feeling trapped in the small room. She slipped back into the main room but even then the still air pressed against her. It was almost distressingly easy to change into day clothes and tie her hair into pigtails. Her bad knee never threatened to buckle and she had endless energy even if her mind was spinning in restless circles. No one stared at her as she stepped out of the small hotel and into the city surrounding it, no whispers of ’that Celestial Wizard from Fairy Tail,’ nothing. And no overly-warm body pressed against hers.
She shivered and scrubbed at her arms. It wasn’t cold out, it was just anxiety. Actually, the fair summer wind brought with it the sea-salt smell of the ocean. And the quaint cobbled streets tickled at the back of her mind. It wasn’t until she came around the corner and saw the worn edge of a sign proclaiming that the shop below was the town's best- and only- magic shop that it clicked.
“Hargion!”
Lucy kicked into a jog to get the rest of the way down the street. Her heart started pounding the second she stepped inside the shop. Something called her name, pulling every thread of her attention to the two small boxes set to the side of the counter.
“Young miss!”
She nodded to the shop-keep, stare unwavering. He seemed to clock it too, a nervous chuckle escaping him. Lucy moved closer, her own magic shifting and rolling within her. When she reached out to brace her hand against the counter little golden sparks drifted from her hand. Lucy normally would have frowned at the very visible sign of magical instability, but those boxes.
“Ahha~ I see that you’ve noticed one of our delightful specialty items! You know it's rare to see someone interested in Celestial Magic in these parts, I’ve never found someone who was interested enough to buy them.”
She didn’t even blink as he spoke, opening the two small boxes. The first was Plu’s, and the sight of the little dog's key nearly made her dizzy with longing. But it was the second key that actually did make her dizzy. The key was solid black, as if crafted from obsidian. The Teeth formed an upside down star, the Body was seemingly crafted to look like a thorned vine, and the Head… The Head was deceptively simple. It was shaped like a hawthorn leaf, like the bushes they’d grown all over the Heartfilia estates, and in the center was a simple crest of a stylized H made of teeny little eye-searinly white stars.
The lid was snapped shut when she reached for the key. Lucy’s eyes darted up to the shop keep. She blinked rapidly at the badly concealed fear on his face and straightened out. Her magic roiled angrily. Something in the back of her mind whispered that she could have just snatched the Keys. It isn’t like he can use them anyway. The Key is yours, just take it. Use it. Use me. She flinched and dug her nails into her palms.
“How much for the Nikola Key?”
“Twenty thousand bells!”
The corner of her mouth twitched. She remembered him saying the same thing all of those years ago, and how she tried to flirt the price down. It didn’t work then, and she was honestly too unsettled to try again. But just taking him at face value would be bad sport. She just raised a single brow and leaned a little closer, trying to channel Erza.
“What was that price?”
“I uh- oh I meant seventeen thousand miss! It recently went on sale, yes it did!”
Her smirk was a small thing as she reached out and plucked Plu’s key from the box. The metal was frigid in her sweaty hand, the distant feeling of snowflakes melting against the tip of her nose. Her magic bucked like a living thing, almost knocking her off balance. Lucy frowned and shoved it down. She hadn’t had magical outbursts like that since she was a child.
“And the… the other?” the shop-keep asked, pushing the second box closer to her with a single finger.
Use me. Use me. Use me. usemeusemeusemeUSEMEUSEMEUSEME!
She physically leaned away, fist tightening around Plu’s key. The Key’s incessant demands rang louder and louder in the back of her mind. There was a part of her that Lucy didn’t think was actually herself screaming for her to grab it.
“I don’t want it,”
The shop kept studying her before, “twenty thousand bells for both. Take it. You are a Celestial Wizard, you’ll know what to do with it. And better someone who doesn’t want it than someone who does girl,”
Lucy glared but he no longer seemed bothered. If he was ever bothered to begin with, and not just humoring her. He pushed the box closer. Sweat beaded and dripped down the length of her spine from how hard it was to fight its call. Of all of the people she’d fought with soul magic that forced one of them into doing something they never would have, nothing had ever felt like this. Like if she just reached out for that key she would be reclaiming a piece of herself.
“The Black Keys are forbidden for a reason,” she warned, either herself or the Shop Keep Lucy didn’t know.
“Spirits that rebelled against the God-King of the Stars and were punished, cast to hell to be punished and warped by the demonic energy,” He said.
She nodded. How the man knew that… Well, some questions were better left to the stars. As a magical shop owner there was no telling how many dark or cursed items had come through his shop over the years. All that she knew was that this had never happened in her first life. And no matter what was going differently this time around, that Key…
Lucy slammed the three thousand bells onto the counter and scooped up the box with the black key, “I’m taking the box too, I don’t want to touch it,”
She spun on her heel and walked out of the store, casually waving a goodbye over her shoulder. It was so easy to hook Plu’s key onto the ring at her hip, even if she was ignoring how light the pouch felt. Her magic was still twisting uneasily in her chest. And the box clutched tightly in her hand whispered sweet nothings in the back of her mind, begging her to just use me. Not even the gaggle of girls squealing over that slimey false-Salamander was enough to drown it out. She stopped for a long moment, wondering if she should go after him.
Natsu would be down there.
Soon he would be stomping through the streets, Happy at his side. They would hear about the false-Salamander and be raring to go after him. She could still remember how bemused their first meeting made her. How the second he grabbed her hand it was like her very soul woke up and started blooming like springtime roses. That desperate longing in her chest rose to full force. She could go home. Yes, Fairy Tail, but also… Natsu. Natsu was her safety, team Nalu her home.
“Key first,” Lucy muttered to herself, “and tonight I will find Natsu.”
Turning away felt like fighting through one of Aquarius’ currents but she still managed. Walking back to the small hotel she stayed in gave her a little time to settle her breathing. The Key still sang to her, but it was easier to ignore after she got used to it. And that was enough that she was able to set the two newly purchased keys on the table by the bed and walk away from them. She’d sweat through the back of her shirt in that short time. Fighting to keep her magic contained was harder than it should have been. And while normally she would just dump energy into the Spirit world for her Spirits she didn’t want to risk that if she needed to fight again.
Being seventeen again came with the lower magical energy levels that she’d only just started to train. But then again… Lucy scrubbed the heel of her palm against her sternum. It didn’t feel like her magic was diminished. It actually felt a lot like after Tenrou Island when they’d had their magic levels artificially raised. They’d all struggled for days to right the disconnect between their minds and power. Lucy tapped her fingers against her chest and finished changing. The best way to test what her magic level was at was going to be summoning wasn’t it?
She settled cross legged on the bed and stared at the pouch of keys sitting innocently on the side table. Three Golden, three Silvers, and the Black that she was still ignoring. Seven total. Out of her Keys it was Taurus that she reached for first. The Golden Bull was energetic and bombastic, but he was her most eager of the Zodiac that she had at the moment. And she was admittedly terrified of trying to summon Aquarius.
“Fuck!”
She whipped her stinging fingers away from the keys, staring in wide eyed shock. Her keys should have been inert, nothing more than holy metal when not in use. But now light shifted across their surfaces, almost angry in the way that it moved.
“What… what?”
Her keys had never hurt her. Theoretically it should have been impossible for them to even try. The Spirits could barely bring themselves to raise a hand to her when not being controlled by outside sources. Lucy took a deep breath and reached out again. Even though she expected it this time the sting still made her yelp and pull her hand away. Taurus’ key seemed to be laughing at her, the razor's edge of the ax-head glinting with a bead of blood. Her lips pulled back from her teeth, a move that felt purely draconic.
“You are mine, what are you doing Taurus?”
There was no response. But Lucy could feel eyes on the back of her neck. At this point in time her Spirits couldn’t open gates on their own. Or maybe they could? Her magic felt like it was at the level she had become accustomed to, not the barely awakened beast of her past. But if her Golden Keys were acting strangely… Lucy stared at her Silver Keys. Technically the weaker Spirits yes, but a Spirit was a Spirit. And like she learned with Angel using the Chisel, Silver Keys were just as capable of harm as Golden. But she did have a new key didn’t she? When Lucy shoved off of the bed and snatched Plu’s key it didn’t react to her touch.
Slashing the Key through the air to cut the veil between Mortal and Spirit felt more natural than breathing. Words of power pounded with her heartbeat. And her magic leapt to the task like nothing else.
“Open! Gate of the little dog, Nikola!”
Plu poofed into existence like he’d done every other time she had called him. She shuddered at the hollow feeling of his summoning though. No contract bound their souls together yet, it was just her raw power pulling him onto this plane of existence. And yet, in that brief moment where the gate was open, Lucy could feel the spirit worlds. Even though she couldn’t truly see them she knew that her spirits were watching her. She sighed and gently sank to her knees in front of Plu. he looked just the same as any other time she had seen him, but Lucy thought his shaking might have been worse than normal. Anxious about a new summoner or anxious because it was her?
“Hello,” she said gently, “I’m Lucy Heartfilia. Would you like to make a contract with me?”
When Plu nodded rapidly she offered her hand. He wrapped two of her fingers in both of his tiny hands and shook rapidly. Tears burned at the back of her eyes. Unlike the Zodiac, Silver Keys could have multiple masters at the same time and be summoned in multitudes. It meant that there was little reason for the more highly structured contracts that were used for the Zodiac. Plu’s contracts filled that emptiness deep in her chest and steadied the shaking in her bones.
“My contracts…”
The heel of her hand ground against her sternum. Now that she was looking she could feel the ragged edges of her heart where her contracts were meant to be. And as a Celestial Wizard… Lucy lunged back across the room for her Keys. she ignored Plu squeaking in shock and tugging at the back of her night pants. Taurus’ key burned against her hand but she was best friends with Natsu Dragneel, this was nothing.
“OPEN! GATE OF THE GOLDEN BULL, TAURUS!”
Opening the gate was easily on par with the other big spells she’d cast. Urano Metria, Fairy Sphere, though blessedly nothing like summoning the King. She could feel Taurus resisting the summons. It likely would have worked if she was truly just seventeen and freshly on her magical journey. But she was Lucy Heartfilia and nothing would stand in her way. Lucy ripped open the gate with raw might and power, golden light arcing away from her and filling the small hotel room with the heavy weight of celestial energy.
“OPEN!”
The ding-dong silvered bells of summoning filled her head like a death knell. Sweat gathered and dripped across her skin but still she stayed strong. Forcing more and more energy into the summons. The open Celestial Gate devoured it all. Pouring that much magic into the Celestial Realm was never a good idea but she did it anyway. She was Lucy Heartfilia, and nothing would stand in her way. The iron tang of blood filled her mouth.
“I SAID OPEN!”
The order was roared. There was no room for disobedience. Taurus slammed into being with the customary flare of light. Spirit and Master stared at each other for a single heartbeat. Then the Labrys ax was swinging for her head. Lucy yelped and dropped to her knees, one hand raising to block the blow. Labrys was just barely deflected by the key still in her hand. The awful screech of metal on metal and the shower of sparks that stung against her legs didn’t matter. Lucy stared at Taurus, mouth open in shock. Her friend huffed and blew steam like a true bull, one hoof pawing the ground.
Lucy didn’t have the time to react before there was a large white form between them. Even fearless Taurus stumbled back with a startled moo. Plu’s ears were flipped to lay flat back against his head, hackles raised between his tense shoulders, tail held straight out behind him. But most importantly was the fact that it wasn’t Plu . Or at least, not the Plu Lucy was used to seeing. Not the cute little snowman that became something like an emotional support pet, but a chest tall wolf with flesh rending teeth. The contract between them lit up brilliantly, yanking her magic hard enough to make her dizzy.
“Stand down Nikola!” Taurus ordered.
Lucy could feel the way Plu fought against the order. Taurus was one of the stronger Zodiacs and could easily command the Silver Spirits. But for as long as Lucy was dumping power into their contract Plu could resist. The problem was her power. Lucy swayed on her knees, breath rasping out of her chest.
“Taurus,”
The Bull glowered at her, Labrys raised threateningly, “who are you?! How dare you steal my Masters Keys!”
“Taurus it is me,” she pleaded, “please, I can prove it, just listen to me,”
He did not look like he believed her at all but Taurus sheathed Labrys into place down his spine. Plu slowly relaxed a little, lowering to his belly. He stayed in the new form though, and she was going to have to look into that at some point. Lucy had no idea that he was able to do something like that, and it could be useful considering their future. She took a deep breath and used the Ax-head of Taurus’ key to split open the skin of her palm. The blood that dripped and welled carried her magical signature. She reached for Taurus and only grimaced a little when the hand that wrapped around her own was bordering on painfully tight.
“Feel my magic, I am Lucy Heartfilia, I’m me, Taurus.”
“You have the same magic, the same face, but…”
“I’ve come back nine-”
Lucy gagged on the words. It was as if they turned into a wad of gum and blocked the back of her throat. Taurus flinched and pulled away. Lucy didn’t think she was imagining things when he frantically looked her over. It warmed something deep down in her chest. And as if he could sense it too, Plu sat up. He turned to nudge his frosty little nose- still orange like a carrot even in this form- against her throat before closing his own gate. The sudden stop of the drain on her magic made her slump.
“Lucy?” Taurus mooed.
She laughed a little wetly and wiped the blood dripping down her chin, “It would seem like something does not want me to tell you what happened,”
“What is out there that is powerful enough to stop you?”
She just stared at him. Taurus was one of her silliest Spirits, more brawn than brain. She was used to him cracking jokes about her figure and goofing off. But he was coming at this conversation more seriously than she’d ever seen. Lucy… didn’t hate the change. In her younger years the bombastic aspects of the Spirits were a welcome distraction but the older she got the more dangerous things were and the more often they had to take everything seriously.
“Nothing that you can face,” she answered him after a long moment, “Acno-”
Lucy trailed off with another gag, her gaze pulled westward. To where Acnologia had shown for the first time on Tenrou island. Later they learned that Grimoire Hearts had supposedly summoned Him with their wicked thoughts. Would mentioning the beast draw His attention? She couldn't take that risk.
“The… threat that changed me… I don’t think I can talk about it. Something is blocking me, I’m sorry Taurus.”
“Something happened, something hurt you, I can see that. Lucy… you’ve been my master for a while but you have to know that sounds impossible. If you went into a fight that was to much for you to handle then you should have called us and you didn’t ,”
“Taurus I…”
The corner of her mouth kicked up. She wasn’t the most egotistical of their team and so rarely got to talk about her accomplishments. And beyond that, most people didn’t truly understand Celestial magic with how rare it was. But Taurus, and by extension the other Spirits she could sense watching, would understand what she was about to say.
“Taurus I am the holder of ten Zodiac keys, I have held court with the Celestial King, I know Holy Spells, I am one of the strongest Celestial Wizards alive,”
She was surprised that she could say that much. It seemed like so long as she wasn’t speaking about the Eclipse Gate she could tell Taurus things. It would take some testing in the future to figure out what she could and couldn’t talk about but she would deal with that then. With every word Taurus’ eyes grew larger. And that was with her intentionally keeping some things under wraps. She would not tell him that she summoned the Celestial King, or that one of those Holy Spells was Urano Metria, or about that strange dark Key that sang her name. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
“Ten keys… no. You only have six, we would know if you had more. But you’re not lying are you?” Taurus breathed, “who?”
“Everyone but Libra and Pisces,”
Taurus sank to his knees, eyes locked on her and only her, “you- even- everyone but Libra and Pisces means…”
Her heart gave a painful lurch in her chest. Not because of her still draining magic, but because of the naked desperation on her friend's face. Taurus was one of her earliest Spirits, with her through everything. And he didn’t keep himself separated with anger like Aquarius, or closed off by his ‘cool demeanor’ like Cancer. Lucy caught one of his massive hands in her own and brought it to her chest to press against her racing heart.
“Leo. I will bring the Lion home Taurus, please believe me when I tell you that. Even though I can’t tell you how or when, I promise you I will have Leo,” she paused to snort and roll her eyes, “even if we have to play hide and seek for a little while. And Capricorn. I will find the Wizard who is trapping him and handle it. ”
Taurus lost whatever composure he’d managed to have for their conversation and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Lucy wheezed and tried to pull away but he was the strongest of her Spirits. Great sobs shook the bulls shoulders and tears rolled down her neck from where he buried his face. Lucy hummed and lightly scratched the base of his horns until the tears slowed. When he pulled away to stare at her there was something like reverence in the Bulls eyes.
“Make your contract with me,” the Bull demanded, “I have no constraints, allow me to be your tool Lucy Heartfilia.”
“Taurus no!” she cupped either side of his head, “you’re my friend not a tool!”
His big calf eyes blinked slowly but he just repeated, “make your contract,”
She just sighed and pressed their foreheads together. The golden threads of a Zodiac contract filled the hollow in her chest. She could pinpoint exactly where Taurus’s claim burrowed into her magic. It immediately began stabilizing what was raw and tattered from the breaking of her previous contracts. Her shoulders slumped inwards, drain of magic slowed to a trickle.
“Up you get Lucy, you need rest,” Taurus said softly.
Well softly for him, it was still loud by other people's standards. She didn’t bother complaining when Taurus picked her up and carried her the small distance to the bed. Lucy shot him a tired smile when he even tucked her in and pushed her hair out of her face.
“Sleep Lucy. I will tell the others what you say happened so that they’re more prepared than I was. You should recontract everyone you can quickly, it's not safe for a powerful Celestial Wizard to have so few bonds.”
“I will, thank you Taurus,”
“Anything for you Lucy Heartfilia,”
And then he was gone. Lucy fell into sleep comforted by the feeling of her two newly forged contracts warming her from the inside out.