Note: Fairy Tail and all it's characters do NOT belong to me. I make no profit from this work and it is written purely for my own pleasure!

Chapter One:

Sighing, Lucy set down her bag of groceries before she opened the door. As it swung open, she looked hopefully towards her couch, but was not completely surprised when she found it empty yet again. After setting her groceries on the counter, she checked her apartment completely, but she was all alone. Returning to her groceries, she began to put them away, trying not to feel disappointed, but she couldn't help it. Even though it had been two weeks since the master had announced that the guild was disbanded, she still expected Team Natsu to be in her apartment when she returned, making a mess and eating all of her food.

She found herself studying the place where her guild mark had been. For whatever reason, it had disappeared when Master disbanded the guild. Every time she saw it, she remembered the guild. At least she had stopped tearing up every time. Those first few days had been a nightmare. When she had run to the guild hall, or what was left of it, she had found only a few members there. Master had made the announcement earlier, while she had been heading back to her apartment and finding the letter from Natsu. By the time she reached the debris of the guild hall, only a few people remained. Between the loss of the guild and Natsu's departure, it had been days before she had energy to do anything but cry.

Lucy sat on the couch, not knowing what she was going to do. Grey had disappeared a few days before the guild had been disbanded. Nobody had said anything to him, seeing the haunted look in his eyes, even worse than it had been when Lyon had tried to revive Deliora. Juvia had disappeared not long after, the same look in her eyes. It was assumed that she had gone to find Grey. What had happened during the battle with Tartarus that had affected the two of them to such an extent was a mystery, but given the toll that the battle had exacted, everybody had too much grief of their own.

Her fingers brushed across the keys that hung on her belt, and they instinctively found the broken key. Biting her lip, Lucy felt her fingers tremble slightly. For the first few days, she had tried leaving it off her ring, putting it carefully in a small box, but it hurt too much to feel the empty space. So she put it back on the ring and the ache lessened a little bit.

In the aftermath, she hadn't told anyone about what had happened, what she had to do in order to summon the Spirit King. It was too painful to talk about. The only people who would understand her grief were the slayers, and they already had their own losses to grieve. So she stayed quiet and fingered Aquarius's broken key, and held back the tears when she remembered that one of her friends would never return to her.

A small smile flickered across her lips. Her prickliest spirit would appreciate not being summoned in the middle of dates, although Lucy wondered if she would manage to extend her wrath if Lucy summoned Scorpio away from her. But she remembered the tears in Aquarius's eyes even as the spirit professed to hating her, and she knew that they would miss each other.

With another sigh, Lucy stood up again. She needed to figure out what to do now that Fairy Tail was disbanded. Most of the other mages had already left, either to train, or to find another guild. None of them could really afford to be out of work for a long time, especially her. The end of the month would come quickly enough, and she wouldn't have enough money to pay her rent. But without a guild, she couldn't do anything. Any missions available outside of a guild were unsavory at best.

Tapping her finger against her chin, Lucy considered her options. She could follow Wendy's example and join another guild. Charle had bullied her into joining another guild so she wouldn't have to fend for herself. The young sky dragon slayer had sent Lucy a note once she had reached Lamia Scale to let her know that she was settling in well. Lucy wondered how the other girl felt, losing two guilds in her lifetime.

A knock on her door startled her out of her reverie, and she rushed to open it. Eagerly, she looked out into the hallway in the hopes that it was her returning teammates, but her face fell when she saw Yukino. "Oh…hi," she murmured, her hand falling to caress her keys as she bit her lip to hold back the tears that sprang to her eyes.

The other celestial mage frowned. "Lucy, is everything all right?" she asked worriedly.

"Everything's fine, I just thought you were someone else." Lucy said, keeping her voice calm. "Please, come in. Would you like some tea?" She should have known it wasn't her teammates. They would have come in through the window if they had returned.

Yukino answered cheerily as she stepped through the doorway. "If it wouldn't be too much bother, tea would be nice. I would have gone to the guildhall, but you guys haven't started rebuilding yet. Someone saw me and told me where you live. When are you guys going to start building again?"

Lucy was grateful for the teapot in her hands. "We're not going to build again," she said, focusing on keeping her hands and voice steady. "Master disbanded the guild."

"No!" Yukino gasped behind her. "Where's everyone going to go?"

"Wendy went to Lamia Scale to train with Chelia, and Grey and Juvia are off on their own. Mira and her siblings went in search of Master, who left after he made the announcement, to see if she could find out why. Most of the others either joined other guilds or left on training trips for a while."

"What happened to Erza?" Yukino asked quietly.

"She went with Doranbolt to work on rebuilding the magic council," Lucy said. She knew that the older girl would have rather followed Jellal and worked with Crime Sorcerie, but by the time she knew the guild was disbanded, they had disappeared into thin air. So she had gone with Doranbolt, knowing that she would likely be able to find traces of him once the council was functioning again.

"Why did the Master disband the guild? Was it a matter of him wanting to retire?" Yukino asked. "You guys could have found another master, like his grandson."

"I don't know," Lucy murmured, pouring hot water from the kettle into the teapot she had prepared. "We found out Laxus was gone after the announcement was made. Everyone's gone now."

"Even Natsu?" Yukino asked, her tone worried.

"Natsu was the first to leave." Lucy said softly, her hands trembling. "He left me a letter saying that he was going to go on a training trip before we knew about the guild disbanding."

"You poor thing," Yukino said as Lucy turned towards the couch with the tray of tea things. "At least you have your spirits."

A tinkling of crashing china was heard, and Lucy collapsed in a heap on the floor, tears flooding down her cheeks as she clutched her key ring. It was just too much to bear. She had been trying so hard to hold herself together and be strong, but she had reached her limit.

For a moment, Yukino sat in stunned silence on the couch, looking at the blonde sitting in the midst of broken china and tea, but she soon jumped up to help Lucy up before she could get scalded by the tea. However, before she could reach her, the girl was caught up in a glow that suddenly appeared, and Lucy found herself being carried in Leo's arms. Seeing him, dressed as Fairy Tail's Loke, only made her cry harder, and she clutched his jacket as she buried her face in his chest, sobbing brokenly.

Oblivious to how Yukino gaped at him, he called out softly, so as not to disturb the crying girl in his arms. "Virgo?"

Another flash, and then the spirit appeared. "Yes, brother?"

"If you could? I don't think she'll be able to clean that up before it stains." Leo nodded towards the broken china and tea on the floor of Lucy's apartment as he stepped out of the mess.

The spirit nodded, seemingly unconcerned to have been summoned for such a trivial matter. Leo turned his full attention to Lucy, holding her against his chest and softly kissing her hair, murmuring quietly to her. Once Virgo was done with the china, she dismissed herself, and Leo was left with Lucy, whose sobs were starting to subside slightly, and the two bewildered Sabertooth mages.

"Leo?" Yukino ventured softly. "Could you explain to me what happened? If not, I understand…"

"Lucy?" the lion spirit asked. As she nodded, still crying, he turned to face Yukino. "In the fight against Tartarus, she summoned the Spirit King."

"The Spirit King?" Yukino said, looking confused. "I didn't know Lucy had his key. Actually, I didn't know that he had a key."

"He doesn't," Leo said softly. "The only way to summon the Spirit King is to break one of the zodiac keys, preventing the spirit from ever being summoned again. This can only be done when the relationship between spirit and master is very strong and they trust each other explicitly."

"Oh no," Yukino breathed. Almost as if she was afraid to ask, she whispered: "Who?"

"Aquarius," Lucy sobbed, one hand grasping the broken key while the other clutched Leo's coat.

"Oh Lucy," Yukino said helplessly, her hand drifting down to touch her own keys in hopes of reassurance. She knew that Aquarius had been Lucy's first stellar spirit, and the other girl had confided in her how she thought of the spirit as one of her best friends, even though they appeared to be constantly bickering. "Is there any way to repair the key?"

Leo shook his head gently, calming Lucy as she broke out into renewed tears. "No, once a key is broken, it cannot be remade. This is the first time that anyone has ever summoned the Spirit King. I do not think there has ever been a mage that could call on him before now. Not only does it require a close bond with your spirits, but it also requires an immense amount of power. Very few mages are capable of holding three Zodiac gates open during a battle."

"She opened three of the gates?" Yukino said, gasping in awe, reassessing the blonde crying in Leo's arms. "Oh Lucy," she said again, at a loss for words.

"Please do not think me impertinent Miss Yukino," Leo said, still cradling Lucy in his arms. "But I think my master is too upset right now to talk with anyone. I think she needs some time to grieve."

"Of course," Yukino said. "We only wanted to see how Fairy Tail was doing. Sting and Rogue were interested in how Gajeel, Wendy, and Natsu were faring after…" her voice trailed off.

"I will be sure the pass the message along." Leo said, turning towards Lucy's bed. "I'm sure she appreciates your sentiments."

"Please," Yukino said, biting her lip as she looked at the sobbing girl in Leo's arms. "Please…tell her if she needs a place to go, she can come find me at Sabertooth."

The Sabertooth girl showed herself out, leaving Lucy alone with her spirit.