Chapter 32: Fight Back, Despite The Odds 1/2

Coursework and a tone of it. Good thing I have this buffer zone, but it is getting used rapidly. I need to do some mass writing soon. I've got only 3 chapters left in reserve, and the next only has 1000 words done. Anyway, here you go. Straight back to the action.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Bleach. Shame, it would be great if I did

Protector Of The Fairies

Fight Back, Despite The Odds

Lucy jumped backwards, Sherry following after on an earth golem. They didn't get much of a reprieve as a torrent of sand blasted right past them. The two girls kept running, looking for a better place to fight.

Sherry glanced forward at Lucy, a smirk appearing on her face. She had underestimated the resolve and skill of the Celestial Spirit Mage. Lucy could have summoned a Spirit by now, yet was making do by running until they reached better ground. She was saving her magic, while at the same time forcing Angel to use some of hers on attacks that weren't even hitting. It was smart, especially since Angel was the superior Celestial Spirit Mage.

Lucy had also said something about finding a good source of water. It had to be that water Spirit of hers. Aquarius or something. She remembered that Spirit. It was powerful, but it was limited to needed a water source to be able to be summoned. And that water source would also determine the Spirit's power to an extent. A puddle was never going to give the same effect as a pool, but Aquarius was strong either way. She just hoped that the Spirit wouldn't wash them all away like the last time she had seen the Spirit, as it had washed away both her and Lucy. Not the friendliest of Spirits, that was for sure.

However that had been against her. And the way she saw Aquarius was that she didn't want to get Lucy killed. After all, why did Lucy herself not get harmed like her opponent when she was caught up in the same stream of water? Spirits didn't always show their affection and loyalty in normal ways.

She glanced backwards, stopping Angel as the woman skipped after her. Angel didn't look to be in any big hurry, and why would she need to be? She had found them too easily before, which meant that this was a hunt. A hunt for Lucy. Angel had a lot of arrogance though if she was willing to not even try and pick their arena. It was foolish, and it was that kind of arrogance that could make you lose.

Glancing back at Lucy, she could see that the girl was started to get tired. They had been running for a while now, and she knew she couldn't let Lucy get in any worse condition. Lucy would still need to be able to handle the stress of summoning after all.

With a quick mental command, the golem rolled as it dodged the latest sand attack and grabbed Lucy, holding her safely in one of its hands.

"HEY!"

"You'll thank me later on," said Sherry, glancing back once more. "Save your strength for now."

"What about you?"

Sherry waved a hand. "Oh don't worry about me. My love for Lyon gives me plenty of extra power to spare. But you wouldn't know that joy now would you."

Lucy scowled. "I'm already got one friend bragging about her love life. I don't need another one."

A blast of sand rocketed right past them, part of the golem collapsing from where the sand collided with. Sherry waved a hand as rocks shot from the ground to repair the wound before it was too late. "Good grief, what the hell is that sand?"

"It's Sand Magic remember. Scorpio was what Angel said when she summoned him. He's a Celestial Spirit. And the sand is going to be deadly when it's being fired from a giant cannon."

Sherry turned her head and spotted the Spirit, commanding her golem to duck under the incoming sand. "Ah. I see the tail now. Not sure how I missed it."

"I doubt we could observe many details while being chased. Wait… I see something!"

Lucy stained her neck before a wide smile appeared on her face. "We're almost there. Water!"

The golem made a final rush for the goal, Sherry putting some more Magic into the construct to make it run faster. They were almost there when a massive blast of sand shot towards them, ripping a hole through the golem from which it couldn't recover from.

Sherry started falling, using the remaining strength of her current golem to push Lucy as close as she could towards the water source. She didn't want Lucy caught away from it after pushing themselves so far to get there.

Angel seemed to realise what she was doing when she shouted out to Scorpio. "STOP HER! DON'T LET HER REACH THE WATER!"

Scorpio replied with action, bringing up its tail as a condensed ball of Sand Magic formed in front of the tail. And then the beam exploded outwards, the sand rushing towards Lucy with intent to send her flying away over the water. Sherry waved her hands and forced a hastily constructed golem to form from the trees around them. The golem shot forward and jumped into the path of the blast, knowing there was no way to deflect the attack in time.

The golem cracked and bent, but it didn't break until the attack finally let up. By that time, Lucy had already managed to make it to the water, a golden Key in her hands and dipped in the water. With one swift action, she turned the Key.

"Come forth, Aquarius!"

A bright flash of light shot out of the water before revealing a blue haired mermaid with a large urn in her hands. Aquarius glared at her summoner in annoyance. "What is it? I'm waiting for my boyfriend to get back. My boyfriend!"

"I got it the first time," mumbled Lucy as she watched as Angel approached. "I really need your help here though. I don't care if you wash me away with her, just so long as she won't be able to fight too."

A look of surprise crossed Aquarius's face for a moment before returning to her usual calm image. "I see. Don't worry about someone of her level. This will barely take a moment."

Aquarius slowly raised the urn as large volumes of water gathered to it in streams. Her expression changed and no longer showed an inch of calmness in it. It was now pure anger and fury.

"TAKE THIS YOU-"

"This Magic… Aquarius baby? Is that you?"

And the water suddenly dropped, Aquarius's expression doing a one eighty. Instead of fury, she now looked more like a love sick teenager.

"SCORPIO!"

Aquarius lunged for Scorpio, attempting to hug the life out of her boyfriend. "I haven't seen you in so long. Where have you been?"

"I've been busy, yeah! Sorry about that baby."

Lucy stared at the two Spirits, her mouth opened wide. "You're…"

"We are! I'm Scorpio, Celestial Spirit of Angel and this mermaid's boyfriend, yeah!"

Sherry sighed from the sidelines. "Well there goes that plan."

"Hey Angel," called Scorpio as he and Aquarius started walking away. "Mind if I go? There's this great restaurant I want to show Aquarius here."

"Sure think," replied Angel as she waved goodbye. "Take all the time in the world."

The two vanished in a flash of light, Lucy and Sherry watching the two Spirits vanish with a bit of annoyance.

"Well that was bad for us."

"Look on the bright side. At least we don't need to deal with any more sand attacks."

"Their love annoyed me though. It was like they were trying to tell me it was greater than my own for Lyon."

"HOW IS THIS RELEVANT RIGHT NOW?"

Sherry shrugged before turning back to Angel, the woman waiting for them with an amused smirk. "Well then, what do you plan to do next?"

Sherry threw her arms upwards and forced the sand around them to bend to her will. It was hard. The sand was originally from the Celestial Spirit, and controlling something that already had a source of Magic it was linked too was much harder than something like the rocks beneath her feet or the trees by her side. There was an advantage to it though. The golems were a lot tougher.

Sand warped and twisted, arms forming with legs as the body slowly came together. Finally the head of the golem appeared, her feet resting on one of the golem's shoulders. Angel was still waiting for her, that arrogant smirk stuck to the Mage's face. She wanted to wipe it off. She'd show Angel the mistake of letting the enemy have time to act.

Lucy seemed to be of a similar mind, a new Key in her hands. "Come forth, Sagittarius!"

A man appeared in a flash of light, dressed in what looked to be a horse's costume with the head of the horse being over his own. His own face was poking out just below the head and a quiver of arrows rested on his back. A bow rested in the archer's left hand. "I am here to serve, moshi moshi!"

Angel's smile widened. "More? I knew you had at least two Gold Keys of the Zodiac, but you still have more? How many do you have?" Lucy refused to answer, instead ordering Sagittarius to ready an arrow. "I see. I'll just take them from you afterwards then."

Angel reached into a pocket inside her dress and swiftly pulled out two Keys, one of them silver while the other was gold. "I better get a bit of extra help, what with all that sand you're using too. Gemini! Caelum!"

The two blue creatures appeared on command along with the silver orb that was Caelum alongside them. The ring above Caelum's head briefly flashed before that light spread to the rest of the Spirit's small body and forced it to morph. In place of the orb Spirit was now a small cannon.

Lucy's eyes widened as she glanced at both Spirits. "Multiple summons?"

"Of course. I'm sure you've heard of Celestial Spirits being able to summon more than one Spirit. I will admit it is a bit harder when both Spirits are from the Zodiac but a combination like this one is equally as deadly."

Green energy suddenly began gathering around the Caelum before the cannon fired, the blast rocketing straight towards the sand golem. The blast passed straight through the golem with little resistance, a large hold being left in the sand golem's chest. To Angel's surprise though, the golem remained standing, the sand that had been blasted out quickly being sucked back into the golem's body.

"Please," muttered Sherry. "Don't take my Doll Attack Magic so lightly."

"I wasn't." Caelum flashed again before morphing into the shape of a large chisel. "I now know exactly what I need to do against you two."

Gemini exploded into smoke before appearing as Jura again, even the typical staff that Jura had in its hands. Gemini quickly looked at the staff before it vanished, the Spirit discarding it from its disguise for whatever reason. In the place of the staff, Gemini grabbed Caelum and rested the large chisel on its shoulders.

"Well then." The voice was so much like Jura's that they saw why the Spirit had fooled them so easily before. It really was the perfect disguise. "Shall we begin?"

The Spirit didn't wait for an answer before charging in. Sherry scoffed at the action as she commanded her golem to move forward. "You think that will work. You're not very good at being Jura are you?"

Gemini ducked under the golem's sand fist as it came down at the Spirit. "I think you're the one that doesn't understand here."

As Gemini swung its fist, spears of rock shot from the ground, piercing the golem in multiple places. Sherry winced, already feeling the strain on her Magic from having to repair the wounds just suffered by the golem.

That move then though. It was safe to assume that this Spirit got the memories of Jura. Why else could it pull of such an excellent copy of the man, one good enough to fool even his fellow guild members like herself. So why fight in a way that Jura didn't know how to? That move then wasn't improvised, that much she was sure of, because it had seemed to fluid and instinctual to have been made up on the stop.

That meant only one thing. Jura had a style of combat only he knew of, and unfortunately that meant the Spirit knew it all. The only think saving them here from the full force of Jura's strength was that the Spirit obviously couldn't use Jura's full strength as they had seen before. They would have had no chance otherwise.

There was something she could do, but she didn't dare yet. The last time she had used that move, it had been used against her. And Lucy had been a novice at the time. This was an experienced Celestial Spirit Mage. She would only get one chance to attempt what she wanted to do, and now wasn't the best time to do it. There was too much that Gemini would accidently block her Spell with Caelum, and what good would that do when Gemini was the big threat.

Luckily for their side, Gemini found itself assaulted by a barrage of arrows, courtesy of Sagittarius. Gemini forced itself to jump back from the sand golem, giving Sherry plenty of time to fix her construct. The golem got back to its feet and charged, a fist colliding with Gemini and Caelum. The chisel blade struggled against the fist of sand, but it held true to Sherry's dismay. Gemini swiped a hand to the side and rock spikes once more shot from the ground.

Before the spears could even connect with the sand golem, they found themselves shattered by arrows. Sagittarius quickly prepared another set of arrows before changing targets, his new objective being at Angel herself.

Angel swiftly realised the danger she was in as Gemini rushed to her side, a wall of earth rising between the arrows and the Spirit. The wall shattered with a simply command and the rocks themselves flew towards Sagittarius.

Sherry rushed to intercept the attack, a sand hand blocking the path of the majority of the projectiles. A few got through before they could be stopped however and Gemini made sure to use them to their full advantage.

The rocks morphed as they flew at Sagittarius, becoming sharp daggers. Arrows flew through the air at an alarming pace but there were simply too many projectiles coming at the archer too quickly and an unfortunate piece of rock slipped past him and sliced the Spirit in the side. That single action caused his next shot to miss which led to the remaining few rocks slicing into his flesh. The Spirit winced in pain and felt himself vanishing in golden light, the wounds too bad for him to try and continue fighting. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help, moshi moshi."

"SAGITTARIUS!"

Angel smirked. "That's two of your little weapons disabled. Who will you summon next?"

Lucy let a hand drop down to her side and reached for a Key. She didn't need to look to know which one she had grabbed. She recognised them all, but this one more than any other.

"Come forth, Loke!"

A blast of light appeared and quickly faded, Loke appearing beside Lucy with a look of concern on his face. "Are you okay Lucy? Aquarius filled me in as she passed. She said you might have been in trouble."

Lucy hid her shock that Aquarius had actually said something like that. She had assumed that she would have forgotten about anything else except for Scorpio due to how she had been acting.

"Never mind that right now, we need to beat her. She's a Celestial Spirit Mage like I am."

Loke frowned as he looked at Angel. His eyes then wondered over to Gemini before they widened in recognition. "Gemi? Mini?"

Gemini waved towards Loke. "How you been? Heard you got let back in."

Loke smiled at the Spirit. "It's thanks to Lucy here. We'll need to catch up later when we get back to the Spirit World." Light gathered around Loke's fists as he took a step towards Gemini. "But for now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to fight you."

Gemini nodded happily. "Let's fight them. We've got Jura here so we won't go down easily. We've got our pride after all."

"So have I." Loke looked up towards Sherry on her sand golem. "Follow my lead. We'll take them down together."

The sand golem took a step forward to stand by Loke. "Just give me an opening, and I'll end this for us."

"What are you lot going on about," demanded Angel impatiently. "Oh, never mind. Gemini, kill them already."

Gemini raised its arms and swiped them down, earth spears lunging out of the ground along a path towards them. Loke brought one hand back before punching forward, a blast of light stretching out from his hand and destroying the spears that had been threatening them.

"Come on Gemini. That really all you have got to show me?"

Gemini lunged forward, its feet landing on the spears and bouncing off them, small chunks of earth being used to launch itself at them faster. Gemini raised Caelum above its head before swiping down, Loke dodging to the side. As Gemini pulled the sword from the ground, Sherry's sand golem raised a hand and lunged down at the two Spirits.

With a green flash of light, Caelum morphed, turning into a cannon. Energy rapidly gathered round the barrel of the cannon before it was released at the last second, the hastily constructed attack managing to slow down the speed of the sand golem. It was enough to allow Gemini to escape before the sand hand crashed down on where the Spirit had been, Caelum disappearing from everyone's sight. When the hand came back up, Caelum was gone, the last of its energy depleted.

Angel snarled. How dare one of her tools lose to such people. Caelum should have charged up Magic faster and destroyed the hand outright. She'd have to teach her Spirit a lesson the next time she summoned it.

This provided an opportunity though. She knew who Loke was. The lion Spirit. The Leader of the Zodiac. It was just her luck that she had one of his weaknesses right on her.

"Oh Aries!"

Loke's head spun round so fast that he should have gotten whiplash from it. His eyes latched onto the Key in Angel's hands and watched the light appear before revealing a figure he knew all too well. The pink hair, the twisted horns, the fluffy wool clothes, he recognised it all. This was the friend he had willingly stood up for against his previous owner, and the one he had been lost when Karen had died.

And if Aries was in the hands of this person, then it only could mean one thing. This Mage was the one who had killed Karen all those years ago. Angel was the murderer.

Angel smirked at his reaction, happy that her choice to summon Aries was already working. She had gotten that little ram to tell her about the other Spirits, and having her was a great advantage. There was no way Aries would win against Loke alone. She simply wasn't capable of winning.

For all Spirits, a balance was maintained. There existed an even level of abilities in each Spirit, and then some abilities were enhanced at the cost of others. If Loke was the greatest combat Spirit, then Aries was the greatest defensive Spirit. That was the nature of Aries's wool attacks. They wouldn't do much, but she had Gemini as Jura to help with damage.

"Did… Did you need me Master?"

Angel nodded. "He's your enemy."

Aries's eyes widened as she saw Loke. "Him… But-"

"Do as you're told. Now fight."

"But I-"

Angel snarled. "Did you not hear what I said? Fight him already. Don't you have any pride as a Spirit?"

"Enough," said Loke furiously. "Don't you dare."

"No," muttered Aries, taking a step forward and placing herself in between Angel and the others. "She's right. I need to fight. I'm… I'm sorry Loke. I owe you so much. You kept me safe all those years ago, but I can't repay that debt right now. I am a Spirit of Angel of Oración Seis, and I must be willing to fight all her enemies, no matter who they may be. That is my pride as a Spirit."

Loke's shoulders dropped in resignation. "I see then. No choice here. I'm sorry about what I am going to have to do. I am so sorry."

Loke shot forward, light gathering around his fists before she smashed them towards Aries. Purple wool sprouted from Aries's hands before she flung it in front of her, creating a wall between Loke and her. Fists connected with it but the wall held up against the light, not budging from the blows.

Gemini rushed round behind Loke, attempting to attack him in his blind spot. Before the Spirit got a chance to do so however, a fist of sand came crashing down on it, Gemini having to resort to quickly force the earth around it to rise and form a shield. The fist connected with the rocks but it didn't budge them.

Loke kicked at the wall and pushed off, using the wall as a platform to rush at Gemini from. Gemini swiped hurriedly, rocks shooting out of the ground and accelerating towards Loke.

"Regulus Impact!"

A large lion's head formed of light shot from Loke's fist, smashing against the rocks and diverting them away from Loke as it carried along its path. Gemini brought up its arms and crossed them, building a quick block and bracing as the attack hit it. It quickly jumped away as the blast happened, using it to cover its movements. And then it stopped, looking at Loke funnily before glancing back at Angel.

Purple wool suddenly wrapped around Loke, his eyes widening as Aries pulled him towards her. His attempts at struggling did little to stop her, especially as he could already feel the Magic of the wool forcing him to relax under it. It was sapping his strength, making sure he could be restrained more easily.

Gemini rushed at Loke and he felt a punch connect, Gemini grabbing him before throwing him at Angel's feet.

"LOKE!"

Angel smirked as she placed a foot down on the Spirit. "Look at the mighty lion, down on the ground like a tamed cat."

Loke snarled and tried to stand but he couldn't. Aries's wool was draining too much of his energy. Gemini appeared above him, a strange look on its face. Loke couldn't recognise what the Spirit was trying to convey. It was almost like it was confused, not sure of what it was doing.

"Good job you two," said Angel before turning her attention to Lucy and Sherry. She could see that Lucy was showing a lot of fatigue, as to be expected after summoning three strong Spirits and after running for so long too. As for Sherry, the girl looked to be drained, the sand golem she was standing on slowly falling apart. It was smaller now too, trying to compensate for the loss of Magic by packing the sand together into a smaller form. Even that would fail soon enough.

"Well then Gemini. Finish them."

Gemini nodded, raising a hand before slicing down. Angel watched it all in sick fascination, and then a burst of pain went through her body. Her eyes glanced down in fear as a spear of earth continued out through her chest, blood covering the end of it.

Slowly, her head turned towards Gemini, her eyes wide in shock. "What…"