Buildings were crumbling, hundreds of facilities were on fire, the sky was filled with spoke, and the ground was layered in ash. It had all happened in one night, the one night the Grand Magic Games placed a sleeping spell on all mages in Crocus because it was a part of the fifth day. A spell that wouldn't break until dawn, leaving END free to annihilate Crocus and thousands of innocent people. 

The moment the sun arose, all mages within Crocus were in pure, terrified shock, there was no other way to describe how they felt. 

"Jura!" Lyon yelled, shaking him to wake him up, the guilds deepest sleeper needed more than a spell to put him to sleep and wake him up. Gritting his teeth, Lyon smacked Jura as hard as he could and pointed out the window of their suite. Sherria was crouched down, looking at the shattered stones. 

"It's too late, Gray and Lucy, they didn't make it." Sherria spoke with tears in her eyes. A realization hit them all in the gut and in the chest, if Natsu was END and the destruction had already begun, Lucy and Gray failed, and considering they weren't back, that left only one outcome.

"Th-they died didn't they?" Sherry asked, only for Lyon to punch a hole in the wall.

"No, they didn't die! There's no damn way they're dead, so don't even think about it! Right now, the only thing we need to focus on is stopping END and bringing Natsu back!" Lyon yelled, and they all knew he was right, but they were still unsure about the state of Gray and Lucy.

Before they could leave their hotel, it began crashing down.

"Everyone, hold on!" Jura yelled, Sherria, Sherry, and Lyon grabbing onto Jura as he began bringing stones up so they wouldn't fall down with the building. Looking down, they saw it was on fire and that people were trapped.

"I've got this!" Lyon let go of Jura's shoulder and made an ice trail beneath his feet and created hundreds, thousands of miniature ice dragons that roared out frost, ice, and snow to put the flames out. Sherria, Jura, and Sherry were now with Lyon, helping him get people out from under the crumbled building.

"Wait, where's Happy?" Sherria asked. When Lyon picked up a burned green backpack, the group of mages went tense. 

"Right now, we need to focus on saving the people, I'm sure all the other guilds are too, once we get the people out, we need to focus on Natsu." Jura spoke, and the mages nodded in agreement as they stuck together while pulling people out and telling them to get as far away as possible, Lyon using his magic to put out flames.

Lucy's body was covered with her monstrous marks, one slit eye while the other was normal. Gray's body was completely transformed, but his mind was still intact. "Once we get in there, we need to give it everything we've got, I'm not sure what we'll do about the guild master, whoever it may be, but we'll deal with them when we get there. You ready for this Luce?" Gray asked, his voice slightly strained. Lucy nodded and the two grabbed each other's hands and placed their foreheads together.

"Let's go shove that destiny shit up their ass." Lucy spoke and Gray chuckled. "Ya know, I think I can get used to you swearing like this." Gray spoke, the two mages foreheads no longer in contact as Lucy gently smacked the back of his head. Stumbling across the drawbridge, not caring to realize they made it through the magical barrier with no problems at all.

"Hello Devil Slayer, Gatekeeper. We were wondering when you would get here." The two mages froze as the two large doors to the guild hall opened, mages lining the sides of the doorway.

"Welcome to Fatum Est, my name is Michael, one of Fatum Est's Archangels." The mage, now known as Michael spoke. A mage appeared behind them, shutting the doors and putting magic-proof handcuffs on them.

"Now, here's how this will work, please, sit down." Michael spoke, a table a few feet in front of the two. Seeing as they had no other choice, the ice and celestial mage walked towards the table and sat down, handcuffed. Every mage in Fatum Est was standing around Michael, Lucy, Gray, and Raphael, the Archangel who handcuffed them.

"You can either try and fight us all while fighting your other half, or you can join our guild and proceed with this war that is meant to happen. Be warned, you will die if you choose the first option. However, if you choose the second, you'll win this war and we will lift the spell off of Fairy Tail." Michael spoke, and Lucy and Gray looked at each other.

"Can we talk about this in private?" Gray questioned, and with the snap of Michael's fingers, every mage in there except them, were gone.

"We have a better chance joining their guild. It would free Fairy Tail, and we can end the war quickly. All we'll have to do is warn Natsu and get him to supress END. They didn't say anything about having to stay in their guild. So once this is all over, we can go back to, to Lamia Scale." Lucy spoke, Gray catching onto her pause with which guild they'd be going back to, and he understood why.

"Then that's what we'll do. Like Gabriel, or Uriel, I don't care, but one of them said that you could either choose a side or stop us both. As long as you stop Natsu and I from destroying each other, then the war will have been neutralized, but still occured. So, Fatum Est wins, and we win." Gray spoke and Lucy nodded.

"We're done!" Lucy yelled, every mage and the two Archangels back in the guild hall.

"What's your decision?" Michael asked, his face showing curiosity.

"We'll join your guild, we'll fight this war, but you have to release Fairy Tail from their spell first." Gray spoke firmly. "Very well." Raphael spoke, now standing aside Michael. With a simple hand movement, he had done just as they requested. 

"Now go." Michael snapped his fingers and the two were gone.

"I wish they'd give us better landings." Lucy complained, beginning to stand up, only for Gray to grab her and then crash onto ashes a few feet away. Lucy's eyes widened as she saw a building completely demolished that would've crsuhed her body if Gray hadn't got her in time. The two then stood up and looked around.

The sky was black with smoke, ashes were everyone, the ground was litered with dead bodies, flames were spreading quickly, and they could see other mages barely able to defend themselves. 

"We're too late." Gray spoke, clenching his fist. Lucy looked at his chest, seeing the Fatum Est guild insignia rather than the Lamia Scale one, and looked at her hand.

"We have to fight, this war started and we weren't here to knock any sense into Natsu!" As Gray's anger grew, Lucy could feel his aura changing. It was happening, the war was happening. 

"Luce, slap me!" Gray then yelled in panic. The blonde looked at him confused. "Just do it!" He screamed, Lucy immediately slapping him as hard as possible.

"I'm so sorry." His voice was faint as his eyes closed, when they opened, she knew Gray was gone, and that the person standing across from her was the Ice Devil Slayer, the one who's goal was to kill END.

"Run." That was the last thing she heard in Gray's voice, and she knew what she had to do. Lucy ran as fast as possible, knowing that END and the Ice Devil Slayer would soon meet. As she ran, she saw all the destruction END had managed to cause on his own. She stopped in her tracks as she saw Happy's tail sticking up from a pile of ashes.

"Happy!" Lucy fell to her knees and lifted him out from under the pile of ashes that she was now in. She began to shake him, tears in her eyes.

"Lu-Lushee, is that you?" Happy asked weakly, Lucy immediately hugged him.

"I couldn't stop him Lushee, Natsu is, Natsu is gone." Happy choked on his tears. "The war is here, isn't it?" Happy asked, still choking on tears, his voice fearful.

"Yes, it has Happy. I couldn't stop Gray, just seconds after he saved me from a falling building, he became the Ice Devil Slayer." Lucy told Happy, who wiped his tears. 

"Ah, Lucy, there you are." Lucy turned around, holding Happy protectively against her chest, slowly standing up. She was now face to face with Gabriel.

"You know what you must do, right?" He asked and Lucy simply nodded. Before she had the chance to really speak, Gabriel placed two fingers to her forehead. Against her will, she began to transform, her aura neither good or bad.

"I don't understand, why am I still in control of my own thoughts?" She asked, still holding Happy to her chest.

"The first time you transformed, you were in control. It's because of who you are. I would've explained all this if you hadn't banished me away. You really hurt my fee-" Gabriel was cut off by Lucy's glare. "Straight to the point I see." He paused.

"Like stated, you can either choose a side or neutralize both sides. You're the only humane one in this war. The Ice Devil Slayer wants END dead, and vise versa. Now go, keep people alive and end this war." Gabriel spoke as he began to fade.

"Wait!" Lucy yelled.

"What is it?" Gabriel asked, stopping his teleportation process.

"Why are you helping me?" She asked.

 He shook his head and vanished, giving the celestial mage no answer whatsoever. Lucy looked down at Happy who had a determined facial expression. 

"Let's go find Lamia Scale." Happy spoke as he grabbed onto the back of Lucy's shirt and flew away with her, the two scanning the ash covered ground.

"Hello Gatekeeper, Happy." A dark voice spoke, the two then looking up at a man with two scarred up dragon wings, scales on his arms and parts of his face, two jagged horns, and a demonic smirk. "Miss me?"