Chapter Thirty-Four:

Lucy packed the last shirt in her bag, carefully covering the box with her novel. Even in a three room building, it was amazing how her stuff seemed to have spread out over a little over eleven months. Picking it up, she headed out her door, pausing to look back. The little room seemed so bare now, without her small collection of possessions.

"You know, we can come back whenever we want to."

Turning, Lucy saw Laxus closing his own door, his bag thrown over his shoulder. With a smile, she stood on her tip-toes to kiss him briefly. "I know," she admitted cheerfully. "But we've been through so much this year…it's become home."

"I feel it too," he said, looking out over the balcony railing. "It seems as if we've always been here. But we have other responsibilities. We Faeries have slept long enough."

With a kiss on her cheek, he moved past her to the stairs. Casting one last look towards the closed door in front of her, Lucy followed him.

Virgo stood in the center of the first floor, boxes and barrels around her, Aries, and Loke. Placing their bags on top of the pile, Lucy and Laxus checked the small building for any last minute items.

"Did you have to purchase so many supplies?" Lucy complained as she fished a lone box out from under the counter. "It's as if you were planning to live here for good."

"I wasn't sure how long we were going to be here," he answered, coming in with a towel that had been forgotten on the clothesline. "And if I hadn't left for that six week span, it would be less."

"You dragon slayers and your appetites," Lucy teased. "Nothing else we've forgotten?"

"Outside's all clear," Laxus said, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Do you need me to make sure you didn't miss anything?"

"It's all there," Lucy said, waving her arm at the supplies surrounding her celestial spirits. "Thanks Virgo, Loke, Aries. We really appreciate you guys volunteering to take this stuff until we have the guild hall rebuilt."

"Our pleasure, Princess," Virgo replied. "Do you have anything else you need done before we leave?"

"No, that will be all. I'll see you when we reach Magnolia!" Her spirits smiled and the room began to fill with a warm golden light. Lucy and Laxus had to close their eyes against the light, and when it receded, the only thing left was the large table Laxus had built.

"Are you two about to leave?" The blonde couple turned to see a smiling Mavis in the doorway. "I wanted to say goodbye before you left, even though I'll come along to Magnolia."

"First," Laxus moved from standing next to Lucy to kneel before the tiny figure. "I know that you've had plenty of opportunities to tell me no over these months, but I want to ask once and for all. May I take up the mantle of guild master?"

The first master of Fairy Tail smiled down on the large figure kneeling before her as a knight kneels before his king. "You have inherited my will, Laxus Dreyar. With Lucy Heartfilia as my witness, I name you the seventh master of the Fairy Tail guild. You now bear the lives of your nakama on your shoulders."

Rising, Laxus said: "I will give them everything I have and protect them with all my strength."

"Good," Mavis said firmly, and turned to Lucy. "You are the heart of Fairy Tail Lucy Heartfilia. Laxus's strength will protect the guild, but your heart will guide it as it guides him. Take care of him, will you?"

"Always, Master Mavis." Lucy reached for Laxus's hand. "He is my most important person."

"Are you ready to return?" Mavis asked Laxus.

"I am," he said softly, lightning beginning to crackle around him. Lucy could feel it running up and down his arms as he pulled her close.

"Then I will meet you in Magnolia," she said, beginning to glow as the feeling of lightning intensified around Lucy. Looking up, Lucy saw a grin on Laxus's face, and they were swept off their feet in a flash of lightning.

They stopped in Hargeon briefly, scaring several swimmers with their abrupt entrance and departure, and then Lucy found herself standing in front of an empty hole in the middle of Magnolia.

"The town must have cleared the debris away," Laxus commented. "I guess that makes things easier for us then."

"Look, they put up a sign." Pointing to the wooden sign driven into the ground where one of the pillars used to stand, Lucy moved to read it.

The mage guild Fairy Tail once stood here.

Until the day when they return, this land will remain empty in honor of the mages who never backed down from a fight.

Even after seven years, they still came home.

We have faith that they will come home again.

"Looks like we weren't forgotten," Laxus murmured, his arms wrapping around her waist.

"Are you ready?" Mavis appeared next to the sign, eyes sparkling.

"Let's bring the Faeries home," Lucy said, tears in her eyes.

"Just like we talked about," Mavis commanded, standing in the center of where the gates used to stand.

Taking their places on either side of the ghost, Laxus and Lucy linked hands with Mavis. As he grinned at her over the top of Mavis's head, Lucy felt her magic slowly being pulled from her and combined with Laxus's and something that had to be Mavis's own. Light rose around them, obscuring her sight, but she didn't need her eyes to see what was being created. The image was there in her mind: Fairy Tail in its original splendor.

When the light faded, there the building stood, as if it had never been destroyed. Surprisingly, Lucy felt as if her magic hadn't been drained at all. Laxus was looking at the guild building, a smile on his face.

Something on Lucy's arm caught her eye, and she saw a black tattoo fading on her right forearm. Staring wide eyed at Mavis, she said: "Did I just get…?"

"Yes Lucy, I just gave you the ability to use Fairy Glitter." Mavis smiled at the shell shocked look on the girl's face. "However, you will only be able to access it in a time of great need when your nakama need protecting. You using Fairy Glitter will be like Laxus using Fairy Law. I know that you will be able to use it correctly."

A tear fell from Lucy's eye as she knelt and hugged Mavis. "Thank you," she whispered brokenly. "Thank you for everything."

"Thank you Lucy," Mavis said gently. "Fairy Tail is all the brighter because of you." Turning to Laxus, who was watching with a stunned look on his face, she said: "I took the liberty of restoring all formerly issued guild marks to their original owners. You'll have to confirm them of course, but I figured that you would like a nice easy way to get the word out."

"I can't thank you enough First," Laxus said softly. "I'll do my best for this guild of ours."

"That's all any of us can do," Mavis said. "You may not see me, but I'll keep an eye on things quietly. You'll have enough to do without my interference. And remember, you'll always have a home on Tenrou." She disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Lucy and Laxus alone in front of the guild.

Reaching out to help Lucy up, Laxus kissed her briefly. "Ready to get started?" he asked gently.

"Let's begin," she whispered, tugging him towards the waiting doors. "I'm all fired up."

***Well friends, this is it. I know a lot of you will want to know what happens next, but for right now, I'm setting that aside in favor of working on a few other stories. There are a few ideas for chapters that would take place after this, detailing the return of Fairy Tail, but it would probably be a short story or series of one shots. I may or may not ever write them.

In other news, as I promised, I'm going to let you know what's up next! On April 27th, the first chapter of Still Standing will be published! Here's the initial summary (subject to revision):

After Makarov disbanded the guild, the former Fairy Tail members slowly left Magnolia, leaving only Lucy behind. Bound by her promise to Natsu, she enters into a contract that becomes more dangerous than she could have ever imagined. When Laxus discovers how far she has gone to protect the guild, he struggles with his own involvement in the matter. Set after/includes spoilers from 416.

Not my best summary, but it will do for now. Finding a balance between getting you guys interested and not giving away the entire story is tricky, and I haven't had time to hash the summary out with my beta yet.

A couple of notes on Still Standing:

1. It is NOT part of the Strength of Spirit Universe. I had several ideas for post-416 stories, and I'm trying to get them down as quickly as possible.

2. It will be tagged as Angst/Romance most likely, however, if you thought the romance was slow in this fic...it's extremely slow in Still Standing. My rationale for both fics is that Tartarus left a lot of pain behind. Everyone's got to deal with that before they can let themselves think about love, but it is intended to be another Laxus/Lucy romance. Just a suuuuuper slow one.

3. ANGST. No seriously, there's a lot of angst in this story. When my beta and I were discussing titles, ANGST was almost seriously considered. There's been a few funny conversations about that too. Still Standing is a MUCH darker storyline than Strength of Spirit. If you're not up for that, I understand. Come find me when it's over and I have the next one. If you are...it will probably be rated T, although if people recommend that I bump it up to M based on the content, I will.

4. It's not done yet. And it's a monster in terms of length. Right now it's at 30 chapters, and I still have several things I want to address. The chapters are also longer than Strength of Spirit too, so even if it comes out around 34 chapters, there's a lot more going on. Because Strength of Spirit was nearly done when I started posting, and has been done for a while, I could post multiple chapters a week and space them as I thought necessary. Still Standing will likely release the first 2-3 chapters in the first week, depending on how much my beta and I have to work on, and then update weekly until further notice.

That's it for that topic. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask me. I'll answer as many as I can without spoiling too much!

Now, I just want to thank each and every one of you who made it this far with me. Seeing all of your reviews and kind words has meant a lot to me, and I really appreciate it. When I started Strength of Spirit, I was mainly writing for my sister, who became my beta, until I decided to start posting on here to see what you guys thought. It's the first time I've let people read anything I've written, and I'm blown away by the response. You all are the best, and I hope to stick around and keep writing on here for a long time. So thank you again for everything, and I hope you'll stick with me for the next story!***