Wednesday is here :D Also I just spent half an hour realising I got Lucy's age wrong. Even from my own calculations! Really, if she should have been 17 when she left Fairy Tail (a year in Earthland time before they all got frozen) then she would have been 21 in Earthland time not 24! Sorry if this confuses anyone but just remember that Lucy is 21 not 24 sorry XD.

~Chapter 23~

Standing before her was an out of breath Sting, hunched over with his hands on his knees. "Sting? What's wrong?" Lucy opened the door wider, stepping out towards the boy. "Nothing." He placed his hand out in front of him, creating a barrier between himself and Lucy. "Are you sure? It looks like you ran here." She crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at Sting.

Sting finally pulled himself together and stood up straight. "Everything's fine." He grinned, washing away her worries. "Okay, well was there something you needed?" Lucy asked, curious why he would be in such a hurry to reach her. He shrugged. "Uhm... I just wanted to tell you that I like having you as a tutor." Lucy relaxed, happy at the unexpected words. "Oh. Thank you Sting, I'm glad you feel that way." She grinned at him, pleased at the progress she was making with the dragon slayer. He returned her grin, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well I should get back to my room to shower..." He spoke in a nervous tone, shuffling his feet in the direction he came from. "Goodnight Sting." Lucy smiled, waving the blonde off as he walked away. She closed the door and locked it behind her. She decided not to think anything of what just happened, just happy that Sting was comfortable around her now. Everything is fine, I'm just paranoid. She convinced herself, heading into the bathroom now that Yukino had finished showering and changing.

Unknown to Lucy, the fifteen year old boy was far from fine. Lucy had pinned it down to teenage hormones but what troubled the boy was a strange and new feeling he had never experienced before. It was a strong urge to be as close to Lucy as he could and he couldn't figure out why. Sure she was nice to him and his partners but he had known her for a matter of days. He was just so confused why he was feeling that way. It wasn't as if he could ignore it either, it was as though something deep inside of him was trying to claw its way out and take over.

Weisslogia had taught him all about the nature of dragons and their instincts but he never thought he would experience it so early in his life. Part of him knew this had something to do with his inner dragon but he couldn't pinpoint what caused it exactly. He knew that dragons were extremely possessive so perhaps that had a role in what he was feeling. All he knew was that whenever he would see Yukino so close to Lucy and spending alone time with Lucy, it angered him deep inside. He had a growing hatred aimed towards the silver haired girl for stealing Lucy's attention away from him.

Whenever Lucy came close to him or even placed her hand on him, he felt all of his tension go away and he would relax. He didn't know why but he really wanted to because it was all just so confusing for him. Lucy should have been at least 21 so she was too old for him to having feelings for Lucy. Right? He couldn't think on the matter any longer, Lector had jumped into his arms to go to sleep. Sting looked down at the Exceed in his arms and sighed, hoping he would be able to get a grip on his own emotions and fast.

The three weeks passed by quickly, the days seeming shorter since they were distracted with all of their training. Lucy had made sure they were able to successfully complete stronger defense spells by the end of the second week. Sting and Rogue had worked more on their Dragon Roars, since it was the only one that could act as both offense and defense. Lucy had taught Yukino a Celestial defense spell called Galaxy's Shield. It was a spell tied to the mage's Celestial Spirits and their constellations. She would need to use a key and swipe it in the shape of their constellation to form a powerful shield around the mage. It took Yukino longer to learn her spell since Sting and Rogue already knew how to perform theirs.

In the seemingly short time, the teens had loosened up around Lucy, feeling more confident to engage conversation with her. Lucy was glad that they didn't have to sit in silence anymore. Recently, they spent the last couple of days out by the outskirts of the town, waiting upon the arrival of the dark mages. Their appearance was estimated for today but nobody could know for certain. Everything had been going so well for the mission and for the team but Lucy had noticed that Sting's behaviour often changed.

Some days he would be fine and back to the original boy that Lucy had first met but then he would suddenly shift into a silent and brooding mess. He wouldn't put as much focus into his training nor would he engage in conversation. Thankfully, Lucy had figured out a pattern to his mood swings. She noticed that he felt better on the days she would spend more time praising him and working with him alone. She thought it was perhaps an attention deficit, that Sting required a lot of praise and attention to be at his peak performance. Despite the observation, she didn't give more attention to the blonde, not wanting to feed into such a trait.

Currently, Lucy had told all her teammates to split up into pairs. She partnered Lector and Frosch together, Sting and Rogue together and herself with Yukino. Lector and Frosch would be able to cover more ground together if they could both fly around the edge of the town. Sting and Rogue were stationed further in the forest around the town and Lucy and Yukino were on the other side of the forest.

The mayor had informed them that there was a total of four dark mages. Now that they had found out that the dark mages possessed Illusion Magic, they could be prepared for their attacks. It was already midday and they had spent just over four hours walking around the forest with no sign of the intruders. Lucy gave each team a Lacrima radio should they need any backup. Frosch and Lector would be scouts from above to help pinpoint all four of the dark mages, incase one team was ambushed.

It had already been a few hours of circling around the forest with no signs of the dark mages. After a couple of days of tedious scouting, Lucy knew her teammates, or more specifically Sting, would be growing irritated at the standstill of their progress. Of course all they could do was wait until the mages decided to show their faces. After their small training, she came to understand that Sting had the same flame inside as Natsu in regards to fighting. However, she was thankful that Sting gave more thought to his fights, rather than rushing in without a plan. Her only worry was that Sting would potentially take on more than he could chew, always trying to impress.

"Do you think they'll show up today Lucy?" Yukino's soft voice broke Lucy out of her thoughts. "Perhaps, but we can't know for certain." Lucy answered, matching her slow footsteps with Yukino's. "I hope they do." Lucy shifted her gaze to the shorter girl, looking at the side of Yukino's face. It was an odd confession from Yukino, she hadn't thought she would be one itching to fight. She was about to ask her why when her ears picked up the sound of faint footsteps. Lucy placed a hand against Yukino's shoulder, gluing the girl in place, and placed a finger to her lips.

'Move behind the tree.' Lucy mouthed to Yukino, gently pushing the silver haired girl away from her. Yukino tiptoed towards the large tree, easily concealed behind it's wide trunk. Lucy snuck behind an equally large tree, listening to the footsteps growing louder. She figured out the owner of the footsteps would head directly in between the two girls. Lucy listened carefully and came to conclusion that there were two patterns of footsteps. She held up two fingers to Yukino, who nodded in response.

Yukino waited patiently for Lucy's signal to launch a surprise attack on the mages. Her eyes locked onto Lucy's right hand. As soon as Lucy's fingers moved in sequence, Yukino leapt into action. She jumped out of her hiding spot, Libra's key already in hand. Lucy hadn't, but she took that as her opportunity to show her own strength. "Open Gate of the Heavenly Scales; Libra!" The spirit appeared in a flash. In front of Yukino and Libra were two males. One of them had shoulder-length sandy blonde hair and a tanned complexion. His emerald green eyes were dimmed behind tinted sunglasses. He had a small scar across his right cheek, next to the singular cross earring on his right ear. His lips were pulled into a smirk, tightened around an unlit cigarette. He wore a loose dark grey tank top, brown jacket, black baggy jeans and black boots. There was a silver chain looped around his jeans. The other wore a dark red shirt and tighter black jeans with brown boots, a long dark blue cloak flowing behind him. His skin was pale, contrasting against his bright red eyes. He had deep brown hair tied back into a short ponytail and rectangular glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.

"Increase their gravity Libra." Yukino ordered, eyes narrowed at the intruders. Libra did as instructed, swinging around the scales attached to her hands to perform her gravity attack on the males. Much to Yukio's surprise, the two men vanished and within a second, her body was tied up with magical ropes that had been fired at her from seemingly nowhere. As though it was deja vu, the same men walked out from behind some bushes, smirks plastered on their faces. "Those were illusions!" Yukino yelled out, feeling foolish for not realising. They chuckled between themselves, looking at each other before turning their heads towards Yukino.

Because of their surprise attack, Yukino had lost focus and Libra had returned to the Celestial Spirit Realm, leaving Yukino defenceless. Of course, she wasn't alone at all, Lucy was still in her hiding spot, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack the mages. Yukino had momentarily forgotten about the older girl, so used to completing missions alone. "She looks so cute all tied up and squirming." The tanned one drooled, edging forward to get closer to Yukino. "Get away from me! I'm a mage of Sabertooth!" The pair of them snickered at her warning.

"Not a very good one." The paler commented, moving forward. Yukino felt a sting from his words. "What should we do with you?" The blonde moved even closer, inching his hand closer to Yukino's chest. Lucy finally got her perfect shot and shifted into a fighting stance. "Celestial Dragon's Roar!" She had jumped out from behind the tree to send the men flying towards a boulder. The two fell unconscious upon impact. Their bodies fell to the floor and went limp. Yukino sighed in relief. It was a strange feeling to be rescued. In Sabertooth it was 'every man for himself' with no exceptions. Being saved meant you were weak and saving someone meant you were foolish. "Tch, they couldn't even stay conscious from one attack." Yukino said, belittling the men to gain back her own confidence.

Lucy made quick work of untying Yukino from her restraints and wrapping the same enchanted rope around the two dark mages. "Are you alright?" Lucy asked the girl that was staring at her feet, an arm around the other. Yukino nodded gently, hiding away her feelings of shame. "Hey, don't listen to them. You're a great mage and an even better Celestial mage." Lucy had squatted down to look Yukino in the eye. "With practise, you'll be a force to be reckoned with." Her words brought confidence back to Yukino as well as her smile. "Thank you Lucy."

"You call Frosch and Lector on the Lacrima radio to tell them we've beaten two of them, I'll contact the local authorities to come and collect them." Lucy ordered. Once Lucy had done as she said, Yukino had told her that Frosch and Lector weren't answering their radio. "Do you think they're in trouble?" Yukino asked but there was no sign of worry on her face. Lucy hummed in thought. "I've already told the authorities where these two are, we can start scouting for the other two now." She advised. "Come on, they'll be on the other side of the forest."

The two ran off in the direction of their teammates, assuming the remaining two dark mages had encountered Sting and Rogue.

"This is boring." Sting huffed for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning. His arms were bent behind his head, fingers intertwined against his blonde hair. Rogue gave a short hum in agreement. Sting frowned, eyes glaring at a nearby tree, hoping it would be an illusion and a mage would replace it. He was itching for a fight. He had so much emotion pent up inside him that he needed to release it in the only way he knew how. A groan of frustration broke the silence that had begun to return between the boys.

Rogue glanced at his partner but didn't say anything. He had no interest in other people's thoughts, even the boy he had spent most of his life with. He was quite content with his own thoughts spiralling away to focus on anyone else's. "We haven't heard from Lector and Frosch in a while, should we call them?" To Rogue it sounded like he was concerned for their Exceeds but to Sting, he was just looking for a distraction from their tedious scouting. "Ok." Rogue turned to face Sting fully, watching as the blonde took out their radio and pressed a few buttons.

"Lector? Are you there?" Sting spoke into the radio only to receive static back. "Lector?" Sting asked again and got a reply that time. "Yes! I'm here Sting! Have you found the dark mages?" Lector asked, hoping he wouldn't have to keep flying for much longer. "No, we were hoping you had spotted anything." Rogue took his turn to speak, eyes staring down at the radio's speaker. "I'm sorry Rogue, Fro hasn't found anything!" Frosch's voice indicted the Exceed was sniffling, disappointed in his lack of foundings. "It's fine Frosch." Rogue comforted his partner through the radio.

Sting took a second to think before chiming in. "Have you heard from Lucy yet?" He tilted his head to turn his ear closer to the radio, awaiting their response eagerly. "We haven't heard from them and we can't see them either." Lector informed the dragon slayers. "What if they're in trouble!?" Frosch whined, concerned for the woman who gave him pets and treats so often. Sting's hand gripped the radio tighter at Frosch's words. He didn't want to think about Lucy being in trouble. "I'm sure Lucy and Yukino will be fine." Rogue assured his crying Exceed.

"You can't be sure though." Frosch's voice broke, crying over Lucy's hypothetical danger. "Why don't you two come down and meet with us for a break from flying all the time?" Rogue suggested, concerned for his crying friend. Frosch and Lector agreed, the radio turning silent as they searched the sky to pinpoint Sting and Rogue's location. Both males turned their faces to the sky and soon spotted the two Exceeds hovering many feet above them. Lector pointed down, nudging Frosch to show his friend where they would need to land.

The cats landed gracefully in front of their dragon slayers. Lector had a smug smirk on his face, proud of his perfect landing whereas Frosch's face could only express his worry for his teammate. "Fro can't stop worrying about Lushy." He whined, his head hung back as tears flowed down his face. Rogue crouched down and wiped away Frosch's tears. "Calm down Frosch." His soft voice and small smile calmed down the upset cat. "Besides, you're insulting Lucy with your lack of faith in her power. You don't want to insult her, do you?" Frosch frowned. "No... Fro didn't mean to insult Lushy." Rogue stood back up now that he had stopped Frosch crying. "Good. Lucy is very powerful, so you should trust that she will be alright." Frosch nodded in agreement.

"So you haven't seen or heard from Lucy at all?" Sting asked the pair, his thoughts clouded with the older brunette. Lector and Frosch shook their heads in unison. Rogue shifted a glance to his partner, noticing he only asked about Lucy instead of Yukino. Of course, neither of them had much interest in getting to know Yukino, she had nothing they could gain from her friendship. Their lack of interest in her was also fuelled by the fact that Yukino spent most of her time following Minerva around like a servant. The girl had no pride in their eyes and they sometimes questioned how she was even let into Sabertooth.

There was a brief silence before a rustling made all four snap their heads in the sound's direction. It came from behind a nearby tree which was big enough to conceal what caused the noise. "Who's there?" Sting lowered his voice with the intention to intimidate whoever had stumbled across them. The group sighed in relief upon seeing Lucy stepping out from behind the tree. "Lushy!" Frosch was the first to make a move towards the brunette but Sting had beaten him by reaching Lucy first. "We hadn't heard from you in a while, I- they were worried about you." Sting scrunched up his face in a scolding manner to conceal his true feelings of relief.

Lucy said nothing, just smiling and shrugged at them. "Well you're here now. Where's Yukino?" Lector asked, stepping towards Lucy, looking around for the silver haired girl. Rogue stared at Lucy, thinking to himself. "Yeah where's Yukino? And why are you here? Shouldn't you be at the other side of the forest?" Sting asked. Lucy said nothing again but raised a hand and gently placed it on Sting's shoulder. Rogue picked up on the strange movement of his teamamte and his eyes grew wider with realisation. "Sting, get away from her." His words made Sting turn his head to face Rogue, confusion written on his face.

Before he could ask why, he felt a strong punch hit his stomach. The blonde doubled over in pain, retching up his breakfast from the sheer force of the blow. Sting strained his neck to look up at the fake Lucy, whose grin was dark and thirsty for violence. Her fists were clenched, twitching with the desire to inflict more pain on the poor boy. Before they knew it, each of them were tied up on the ground with magical restriction ropes that they were unable to escape from and tape around their mouths. All pairs of eyes were locked onto the fake Lucy, awaiting her next move that never came. A woman stepped out from behind the same tree the fake Lucy had.

She was slightly smaller than the fake Lucy and wore a loose faded pink jacket that was baggy on her thin stature, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She wore tight blue jeans and a baggy brown shirt. A dark blue collar was wrapped tightly around her neck. She had shoulder length spiky black hair that was slightly flattened by a thin red headband. Her skin was pale and her eyes blended into the fairness of her skin with their light purple colour. Her lips were pulled up into a smirk of triumph. The woman crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at the struggling males.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" She grinned at her victims. She quickly joined by an older black male who exited from behind the same tree she had. Standing next to the woman, he towered over her with his long limbs. He had slicked back black hair that tickled the backs of his ears. His eyes were as black as his hair and showed no emotion, along with the rest of his facial features. His eyebrows had two slits in each and he had a scar going across his left eye. He had two earrings in his left ear and a goatee. He wore a black joggers, a black turtleneck and a khaki vest with a satchel slung over his right shoulder.

"Make this quick." His voice was deep and his tone was demanding. The woman scoffed at her companion. "You never let me have any fun." The man didn't say anything to respond, his eyes landing on the two lacrima radios their victims had in procession. He stepped forward and grabbed the devices away from the Exceeds and dragon slayers. He made no hesitation to stomp his foot on both of the radios, preventing either of them to call for help should they somehow manage to escape. He walked back over to his partner and gave her a look of disappointment. "You're getting sloppy." The woman pouted at his words. "I trapped them didn't I?!" He sighed at her outburst and remained calm.

"Finish this up quickly, I'll contact James and David." He spoke quickly before walking away and out of view. The woman began to chuckle at the trapped and squirming victims before her. "I'm going to have fun with this." The fake Lucy suddenly began to move, as though the woman's words were a signal. Horror struck into each of the woman's victims as the fake Lucy begun to morph and split into four versions of herself. The grotesque view of Lucy ripping apart and forming another version of herself was enough to strike fear into each of them. "I can see inside each of your tiny brains and use my Illusions to break down all of your spirits until you beg me to stop." The woman declared, proud to overturn the powerful mages she had caught.

"A lot of people underestimate Illusion Magic but it truly is the best form of torture." Her face morphed into a disturbed grin, her eyes wide with anticipation. As she spoke, the fake Lucy approached each Sabertooth mage and began a different form of emotional despair on each male. The woman possessed a form of telepathy to look into a person's mind to unlock all of their worst fears along with her own form of Illusion Magic to pair with it, forming her own method of torture.

For Lector and Frosch, the fake Lucys before them had crouched down to the ground, their faces inches away from the Exceeds'. The two could only watch in fear as Lucy's face began to change into their own dragon slayer's. In different circumstances, it would have been funny to see the males' heads on a woman's body but in the moment, it could only be described as disturbing. The fake Sting and Rogue began distributing insults and doubt into the small and innocent minds underneath them. Not only did their words hurt the poor Exceeds, but they felt suffocated by the body only inches away from them.

As much as Sting and Rogue wanted to help their helpless partners, they had their own demon in front of them to deal with. For Rogue, the fake Lucy swiftly changed into a ghostly figure covered all in black with blank white eyes and an inhumanely large grin. Despite wanting nothing more than to look away from the creature above him, he had no control to pull his eyes away from the demonic face drooling over him. The creature had more teeth that it seemed could fit inside its already large mouth but still managed to allow strings of drool to escape its lips. "Why do you look so afraid boy? You know me already. I'm inside you." Rogue couldn't deny the creature's words with his voice so he shook his head.

"You can't deny me. No matter where you go, I'll always be there. Forever." The corners of its mouth stretched even wider across its thin face, tearing its skin. Tears gathered in Rogue's red eyes. Even though he knew it was all an illusion, it felt so real and so familiar. It felt as though the creature was speaking the truth, no matter how much Rogue wanted to deny it. "I'm a bigger part of you than you want to admit. You need me so much that one day, I'll be running the show and it'll be your turn to sit back and watch from the shadows." The tears finally fell down his cheeks. It was a foreign feeling to the black haired boy, never one to expression much emotion, even when he was alone. He hated how the creature knew how to make him collapse from the inside. It was the first time in his life that he had felt so afraid and so powerless.

The fake Lucy that had approached Sting had stayed the same, unlike the others. The majority of his brain was focussed on the brunette, so the woman decided to use a different emotion other than fear against the blonde. The fake Lucy stood towering over Sting, her feet either side of Sting's chest. The fake Lucy was wearing a dress, so out of respect for his superior, he averted his gaze and turned his head away. "Why aren't you looking? You're just a pervert at heart so you should be glad to see me standing over you!" Sting gritted his teeth in anger. The fake model didn't even sound like Lucy, it had the same voice sure, but he had gotten to know Lucy now and he knew she wouldn't say something like that.

"I know you want to look. It's not like you try to hide your obvious feelings for me. Everybody knows." Sting listened to the words but tried his hardest not to take anything to heart. "I hope you know that I hate you. Everybody does. You're weak." Those were the words that made Sting snap his head back to glare at the imposter above him. Thankfully, the fake Lucy had bent over and his eyes could only see her face inches away from his own. If this was the real woman, he would have easily gotten flustered by her features so close to him, but it was nothing more than a vulgar clone.

He couldn't say anything to defend himself against the accusations dished out by the fake Lucy. "You try so hard to look strong but you're just so weak. You can't even save yourself from simple restraints." Each word felt like a nail being stomped into his heart by her foot. He tried to remind himself that it was all a trick but even he wasn't immune to the pain caused by such harsh words. "Look at you! You're so pathetic beneath me. It's a shock that anybody even-"

"SHUT UP!" Sting's whole body stiffened as he witnessed a large sword slice through the body above him. The fake Lucy was pulled back by the weapon impaling it. His blue eyes narrowed in on the sight of the real Lucy holding the handle of the weapon. He couldn't put her expression into words, nor could he properly process what he had just witnessed. Even in his state of shock, he could see tears pooling in her eyes that were fixated on the body she had just impaled.

Lucy pulled out the blade from the body that lay below her feet. The illusion had feasted off of Sting's emotions to gain matter and became a solid body, but didn't have the ability to bleed. Lucy had heard it's voice from a few feet away, thanks to her dragon senses, and heard every insult. The words were directed towards Sting but all she could think of was that fateful day she left Fairy Tail. That thing made her relive the past with just its words. Something inside her broke loose and her anger was desperate to take over from her rational thinking.

Just as she was finally healing, this woman had placed her back at square one. She had summoned her Erskine sword and plunged it forward into the body. Even though the body was a clone of herself, she could only picture the faces of her old teammates. Once Lucy had pulled out the blade from the body and saw the pain flash across its eyes, she dropped her sword. She kept her eyes locked onto those of the dying clone, the pair of cold orbs making her come to a realisation. She was so zoned in onto the clone that she hadn't realised Yukino had already defeated the remaining dark mages.

Yukino had decided to take advantage of Lucy's sudden leap into action and defeat the female dark mage with a surprise attack with Pisces, who also scouted out the older dark mage and trapped them in their scaly bodies. Lucy hadn't been able to tear her eyes away from the body lying below her to help out the boys from their restraints, so Yukino was left to help them alone. Since the mage who had unleashed the illusions had been defeated, the boys were brought out of their torment.

Frosch was already crying, Lector not too far behind from joining him. The frog-dressed Exceed leapt into Rogue's arms once Yukino had untied him from the magical ropes. Sting's mind still hadn't returned to reality when Lector returned to his side for comfort. The blonde boy couldn't stop his brain from rewinding the horrifying scene of watching Lucy being impaled and pulled back, seeing the life leave her.

He had developed an small obsession over Lucy, relishing in her welcoming and friendly personality. It felt so nice to be around her and he hated to leave her side and be forced to return to the harshness of the world. Seeing the person who had made such an effect on him die before him shook him to his core. Thankfully, it was just a clone and not the real woman. He lay on the ground for a few minutes, coming to the conclusion that from that moment on, he would do everything in his power to protect Lucy.

He hated to admit anyone was stronger then he, but it was undeniable that Lucy had more power than him. Be that as it may, he would do all that he could to get stronger and protect Lucy. But nobody else needed to know that. "Are you listening Sting?" Lector waved his paws in Sting's face to gain the blonde's attention. Sting blinked, coming to his senses. "Huh? Yeah." He acted cool, sitting up to take in the surroundings again. He immediately began ignoring Lector's rant the moment his eyes found Lucy staring down at the clone she had pulled off him.

He could see there was something bothering her. He wasn't one for all the sappy emotional stuff but he still felt the need to get up and comfort her. It was like her mood affected his own. He didn't like feeling like this but what could he do? It was all new to him so he had no answers and he certainly wasn't going to ask anyone about it either.

Lucy felt a pair of eyes burning into her and glanced around to find the culprit. He hadn't realised she had caught him red handed, so she just left it and assumed it was out of innocence. She finally had the strength to move herself and walk over to Yukino, who was hovering in the middle of everyone. "You did great today." Lucy praised the girl, receiving a smile at her comment. "Thank you." Yukino turned her head up, letting the simple praise go straight to her ego. Lucy shook her head internally at the action.

"Why don't you and the others head back to the hotel? I'll sort everything out with the mayor." Yukino nodded, swiftly moving to inform the plan to the other teenagers. Lucy turned around to look at the other two tied up mages. She pursed her lips in thought. Do I risk it and leave them here while I inform the authorities where they are, or do I just drag them with me? She pondered for a moment before deciding to be on the safe side and drag the pair with her into town.

She grabbed a few pieces of rope before proceeding to drag the two unconscious mages into town.