The bonds of the soul

Chapter 20: Eclipse gate

Third person's POV

Once Rogue pointed out the two places that Lucy could be Gray, Natsu, Sting and Rogue got ready to leave the Inn while leaving Orga, Rufus and Dobongal stayed behind since the first two were still recovering and the last one wanted to make sure that they would have someone with them if Sabertooth members were to turn up here. The exceeds also decided to stay at the Inn in case Lucy came back before the others were back.
"Do you guys know which Inn that Sabertooth would be staying in?" Natsu asked, looking at the two former Sabertooth members.
"Yeah they will be in the Inn that they always stay in so just follow me" Sting said as he took the lead and started to lead the others in a different direction. It didn't take them long to get to the Sabertooth Inn but when they got there they were slightly surprised to see guards all around where the Inn used to stand along with medic mage's and the members of Sabertooth.
"What happened here?" Natsu asked one of the guards that just so happened to be Dorenbolt.
"I probably shouldn't tell you but it's not like it's classified, the ground underneath the building became unstable and collapsed, the guild master Jiemma was still inside and he is in critical condition. Luckily no one else was there since the owner had slipped out to get more ingredients for the food and the Sabertooth members were out making the most of their day off" Dorenbolt told them.
"I see, can you pass on our hopes that he will make a swift recovery? I don't think that it would sound right coming from someone that is their rival at the moment" Gray said as they all held back their smirks of pleasure.
"Of course" Dorenbolt nodded as they turned and left with a wave.
"Seems like Lucy got to him before making it look like an accident, since we haven't seen Frosch, Happy or Lector, Lucy hasn't gone back to the guild so we should check the palace" Rogue said smirking now that they were away from the collapsed Inn.

When they arrived at the palace they were of course allowed in but when they approached the throne room which the Princess was sure to be in they were met with some guards.
"Halt civilians are not allowed passed this point" one of the guards said which just made Natsu click his tongue.
"We need to go any further if you would kindly tell us where Lucy Heartfielia is, if you can't answer that then I am afraid that I will be going further" Gray said trying not to pick a fight.
"I do not know who this Lucy Heartfielia is nor where she is" said the guard in an obvious lie since he wouldn't meet their eyes and he was moving from foot to foot.
"Why are you lying to us? You will either take us to Lucy or you won't like what happens" Sting growled wanting nothing more than to lash out in anger.
"I don't-" The guard started only to be hit in the face by Natsu, luckily he didn't use any magic on his fist.
"Where the hell is Lucy?! If she is not in front of me within two minutes I will bring this palace down around our ears" Natsu snarled,  having run out of patience. Since Natsu had attacked a guard they were soon surrounded by more guards with weapons but that didn't stop them as they attacked the guards beating every single one of them. That was when the guards that used magic appeared but again the boys didn't falter as they fought against the guards making a lot of noise but they didn't care. There was even an explosion at one point but again they continued to fight their way to the throne room door. 

When they finally got to the doors they threw them open with vicious gleam in their eyes until they spotted Lucy who was being held by some guards. The guards didn't last long as Gray knocked them away so that they would survive seeing as Natsu looked ready to kill them.
"Luce" Natsu said before rushing over to her side and hugging her tightly before pulling her back to arms length and seemed to be studying her for any injuries.
"They didn't do anything stupid to you did they?" Gray asked glaring at who he guessed was the princess.
"No I am fine and I am not hurt either so you can calm down and stop worrying" Lucy replied as she gently ruffled Natsu's hair and he finally started to calm down.
"What could you possibly want Lucy for? Enough to kidnap her I mean, especially since she has to compete in the finals tomorrow?" Sting sneered, even though they had already figured out what was going on they weren't going to get that away yet.
"You do realise that breaking into the palace and attacking the guards as well as threatening the Princess is a crime punishable by execution?" the head guard asked with a glare, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Only if you want a full out war on your hands seeing as we have some friends in a different kingdom that would wipe Fiore off the map if something was to happen to us" Natsu shot back thinking of the kingdom that Zeref ruled over.
"Now, now I am sure that we can handle this peacefully, Princess Hisui only had a request for me that I have politely refused so we should be on our way back to the Inn, it's nearly time for dinner" Lucy said trying to calm down the furious male's down.
"Please you do not understand the danger that all of Fiore will be in if we don't open the Eclipse gate" Hisui once more tried to convince Lucy.
"Let me ask you something Princess, what exactly do you think the Eclipse gate is? Do you think that it is some sort of weapon or perhaps something that can help you defeat any type of enemy?" Rogue questioned.
"I have it on good authority that the gate can indeed be used as a weapon to stop a hoard of dragons that are set to attack the kingdom after the Grand Magic Games come to an end" said Hisui so sure of herself. Lucy could help but start to laugh when she heard what the Princess had said and it took her a few minutes until she calmed down enough to stop laughing.
"If that is the case then you should choose who you trust more carefully, whoever told you that lied straight to your face" Lucy bluntly told her.
"That can't be true, the person that I spoke to was from the future they came through the gate to warn us on what was going to happen and instruct us on what to do" Hisui protested.
"So you decided to just trust this mystery person? Since you are a celestial mage you should know the repercussions for opening the gate do you not?" Lucy asked, the boys had decided to stay silent and let the blonde mage deal with the conversation.
"What do you mean repercussion?" Hisui asked confused, making Lucy sigh and rub the bridge of her nose.
"Listen closely because I will only tell you this once, the eclipse gate is not a weapon it is nothing but a gate through time that is it. There is no second trigger to make it a weapon, it is a gate to the past. That means that if you opened it you wouldn't be saving us from a hoard of Dragons, you would be unleashing a hoard of Dragon's upon us with no way to fight them and that is not even mentioning what you would be doing to the celestial world" Lucy explained. Hisui looked shocked and she had paled when she heard what Lucy was saying seeing as she had truly believed what the time traveller had told her and she had almost doomed her people.
"What do you mean? What would happen to the celestial world?" Hisui asked.
"Every golden zodiac spirit has three different forms, the first is the form that they appear as for everyone, the second version is that of an animal that matches them and the final form is what is known as their Eclipse form. Of course this means that the celestial king also has three different forms but his Eclipse form is different. If he is forced into his Eclipse form then a large monster will appear in the celestial world and will begin devouring the world while the true celestial king is put into a deep slumber and will eventually be devoured by the monster making the celestial world collapse in on itself. The normal world can't survive without the celestial world therefore this world would also begin to collapse in on itself. That is why the Eclipse gate can not be opened without permission from all twelve zodiac keys and the celestial king, unless of course you wish to destroy the world in which you are fighting to protect" Lucy finished explaining. Once she had finished Hisui's legs gave out on her and she sat on the ground looking horrified for what she could have done on the whim of a person that she had trusted.
"If you don't believe me then summon any celestial spirit that can speak and they will tell you about it since the gate was made by the celestial king, the dragons and a mage, right now we should be going back to our Inn to rest for tomorrow. I hope we see each other again but in different circumstances" Lucy said with a slight bow of her head before Dragon's Heart turned and left the Princess to her horror filled thoughts. None of the guards tried to stop them since most of them were still on the ground groaning in pain while the others were watching to make sure that the Princess was okay.
"Well that was fun but let's get back, the others are probably worried by now" said Sting with a grin that the others all returned.

Just like they thought when they got back to the Inn they were swarmed three exceeds and the three mages as well. At first Lucy was confused about why Dobongal was there but when Sting explained what happened a sadistic and happy smirk appeared on Lucy's face making them all flinch back. After she snapped out of her memories of what she had done to Jiemma she told the three of them that they were welcome to stay in their Inn until they came to a decision, she then headed upstairs to take a bath.
"What does Lucy mean about making a decision?" Rufus asked, confused, especially when he was met with four smirks.
"The decision if you are going to be a free-lance mage or if you are going to join Dragon's Heart since all three of you have passed the test to join our guild" Sting said.
"What? But we haven't even done anything" Orga said.
"She has only just met me" Dobangol said.
"The reason why you were so injured was because you were taking the blows for both of you weren't you Rufus?" Rogue asked, already knowing the answer seeing as Sting used to do the same thing for him.
"And then you came strinting to us, not caring about your own injuries but you beg us to help Rufus, isn't that right Orga?" Gray questioned making the lightning god slayer blush slightly.
"And Dobangol, even though you had no idea if we were protecting Rufus and Orga you still ran to me begging for help to protect your friends even though you could have been killed for it didn't you?" Sting asked, making the ninja-like male hunch his shoulders trying to hide himself but he also had a gleam in his eyes that showed that he would repeat his actions over and over again if the situation called for it.
"That is what makes you qualified to enter Dragon's Heart, you put your life on the line for your friends and in turn those that you see as family and from the looks in your eyes you would do it again in a heart-beat without hesitation and that is the type of members that we are after" Natsu finally said.
"I'll show you to the rooms that you can use, you don't have to answer us right away, take some time to think it over and when you are confident with your answer then you can tell us" said Rogue and the three of them nodded heading up since they had already had dinner. All three of them had a lot to discuss as well as to think about after all it wasn't every day that they got invited to a guild that cherished each member like family.

The next day dawned brightly for the Dragon's Heart guild and their guests but none of them had any complains as they got up and dressed for the day.
"Are you guys ready for today?" Rufus asked, they would be up on the balcony with Natsu and the exceeds, of course they would be disguised so that Minerva wouldn't know who they were.
"Don't worry we are going to win this one like all the others" Sting boasted with a grin.
"We are going to make Fairy tail ever regret hurting Lucy" Loke growled as he moved closer to Lucy waiting to see what kind of day she was having. When she reached out and held his hand he beamed at her with a smile that would put the stars in his constellation to shame.
"We'll make sure that everyone in the arena knows what it takes to be a true guild" Gray said with a nod to the others since they had been affected by a bad guild as well.
"Nothing will stop me for making Minerva sorry for what she has put us through" Rogue snarled and everyone looked at him not expecting him to say that.
"We are going to win the Grand Magic Games and then we are going to go home, hopefully with some new family members to have a lot of adventures with" Lucy smiled and everyone including the exceeds returned the smile. Nothing would stand in their way of victory but what they didn't know was that they would be facing more than just the final challenge of the Grand Magic Games.