The bonds of the soul

Chapter 17: Midnight visit

Since they were in the lead of the Grand Magic Games and there was only a small chance of them losing Dragon's Heart decided to celebrate by going around to different restaurants around Crocus and getting sample packs before going to the park to see up a picnic.
"That looks delicious, mind if we join you?" A voice asked and they looked up to see Lyon, Chelia, Sherry, Ren, Eve, Hibiki and Ultear standing there though Ultear was standing a bit away from the others looking more serious.
"Of course the more the merrier we have plenty, I'll be back in a moment" Lucy smiled as she stood up and gestured her head for Ultear to follow her.
"Thank you, I wasn't sure how I was going to stay around Lyon and Gray at the same time after what I have done" Ultear sighed, her eyebrows scrunched up from stress.
"It's fine though I am sure you would find that both Gray and Lyon would treat you like the sister they never had" Lucy said.
"Once I have started to make up for my mistakes I might be ready to face them but at the moment I just can't face them" She weakly replied.
"That's fine, take your time, they will still be here when you are ready. Since you are here I guess you, Jellal and Meredy have come across more information about the weird magic that we have been sensing" Lucy guessed and got a nod in return.
"We do have some information but not about the magic that we have been sensing, we managed to find some information about those bandits that attack you and why they were hired to attack you" Ultear said and Lucy straightened up and waited for her to continue.
"They were hired by Arcadios, one of Princess Hisui's soldiers. When we found out that the Princess of Fiore was involved we snooped around a little more and found out that they were trying to trap you for your gate keys. Apparently they need all twelve golden zodiac keys for something big but they only have two of them, the two that you don't because their...." Ultear said trailing off when she wasn't exactly sure how to refer to a relationship between a mage and a celestial spirit without being offensive.
"Summoner" Lucy offered and Ultear nodded.
"Yes their summoner is already part of the royal guard Yukino, she used to be part of Sabertooth guild before she was kicked out just before Rogue and Sting were" Ultear finished.
"Thank you for the information, you don't have to worry about them anymore even if they manage to capture me, which I highly doubt is going to happen with the over protective guard dogs I have, they won't get their hands on my keys" Lucy said placing her hands on her chest.
"May I ask why?" Ultear asked and Lucy could tell that she was more worried then she was letting on after all it was the Princess of the Kingdom.
"After my.....accident I had a short meeting with the Celestial King who was enraged over what happened and so he gave me permission to do something that no one had ever done before" Lucy said as she undone the shawl she had over her summer dress and exposed her collar bone to Ultear who's eyes widened. There, glittering golden in the sun were the signs of the ten golden zodiac signs that Lucy had summoned and became friends with.
"The keys are stored within those tattoos and I am the only one that is able to remove them from the tattoos therefore no one is ever taking them from me again" Lucy said with a hard look in her eyes and Ultear smiled.
"I am glad that you will be protected by your friends but Jellal still asked me to pass this along to you just in case" Ultear said as she passed over a tube like object.
"What exactly is this?" Lucy asked with a small frown.
"If you put your magic power in the lacrima at the end it will shoot fireworks into the sky so that it will signal so that we can be there if something happens" Ultear explained and Lucy nodded.
"Unless it is an emergency I won't send up the flare but just know that if we do and you guys get caught we will make sure that you don't get locked up even if we have to take on the council" Lucy smiled and Ultear nodded before she left to report back to Jellal and Meredy.
"Oh did Ultear leave? She seemed like a nice woman" Lyon said as Lucy rejoined the others.
"You don't know about her do you?" Gray asked, surprised and slightly shocked.
"Gray he wasn't on the island when we found out nor has he ever met her before," Natsu pointed out with a chuckle as Gray blushed in embarrassment.
"What do you mean found out? Found out what?" Lyon asked, making both boys freeze. Rogue and Sting took this time to distract the others since they didn't want the others to interfere in what they saw as an important conversation and Loke had headed back to the celestial world for the day.
"Since those two seem to be frozen I guess it's up to me to tell you who she is, Ultear is Ul' daughter" Lucy said and this time it was Lyon who froze.
"W-W-W-What do you mean? Ul told us that her daughter was dead" Lyon nearly shrieked making Gray grab him to try and calm him down.
"That's what we thought as well but if you just calm down I'll explain what I found out" Gray said and Lyon took a few deep breaths before nodding. Gray then told Lyon about how Ul had thought her daughter dead and what actually happened to Ultear including what she had done.
"All this time" Lyon said, not sure what else to do or say as he thought about what Ultear had gone through.
"Perhaps you should head back to your Inn, let everything sink in" Natsu suggested and he nodded as he stood up making the others stand up deciding that they would call it a night as well.
"Lyon" Lucy called just before he left, making him turn to her.
"Give her time, Ultear isn't ready to face you and Gray properly until she is sure that she is making things better" Lucy advised and he nodded as they all left saying their goodbyes though Hibiki did try to linger before Eve pulled him along.
"Well that's not how I thought that tonight would go" said Sting as he stretched before grabbing some of the food that was still left over.
"We should probably follow their lead and head back to the hotel seeing as we still have the finally day of the Grand Magic Games tomorrow and I am sure that Lucy has information to share with us" Rogue said and they all agreed packing up the food and the exceeds lead the way back to the inn on their wings. While the others had been talking the three exceeds had taken that time to play on the playground at the park together. Arriving at the inn they took turns showering before retiring to their rooms for the night and it wasn't long before all of them were sleeping soundly.