Erza, Lucy, and Kagura spread out around Athena, each of them remaining on high alert.
Seeing the faint frowns on their faces, Athena tilted her head in genuine confusion.
"What exactly is this emotion? Irritation? I don't possess emotions myself, so I don't know the answer."
"You don't have emotions?" The three women paused at that.
Athena smiled as though she had just solved the mystery herself. "Then this must be what irritation feels like, I suppose?"
The moment she finished speaking, twin laser beams fired from her eyes again.
Erza and Kagura reacted immediately and slipped out of the way, while Lucy was a fraction slower, though she still managed to avoid the center of the explosion.
"Lucy, stay alert," Erza warned.
"Right! Star Dress Mix: Leo and Virgo Form!"
Lucy dropped to one knee as glowing golden symbols of the Leo and Virgo Zodiac keys appeared across the back of her left hand.
Golden light enveloped her, and when it faded, she stood in a dress that blended an elegant formal outfit with a maid uniform, a long skirt flowing behind her and three pairs of wings spreading from her back.
Clenching both fists, Lucy looked toward the others. "Let's go!"
Kagura was the first to move. She slammed her right foot into the ground and shot forward with Archenemy gripped in both hands.
"Archenemy: Severing Form!"
She brought the sword down toward Athena's head with tremendous force while simultaneously unleashing Gravity Magic at full power, crushing Athena down against the ground and preventing her from moving freely.
Lucy crossed both hands before her chest. "The light of Leo Alpha and the radiance of Virgo Alpha... Lion Maiden!"
A pillar of golden Magic Power erupted skyward around Athena, shattering the earth throughout the surrounding area.
Thick smoke billowed from the center of the impact, temporarily hiding Athena from view.
Lucy stared closely into the smoke. "Did we get her?"
"No." Kagura's eyes narrowed as she spotted a silhouette slowly walking out through the flames and dust.
Athena emerged completely unharmed, the metallic shell covering her body without so much as a scratch.
"I thought you were merely a few troublesome girls, but it seems I underestimated you."
She paused, then seemed to reconsider her own actions.
"No... My mission was never supposed to be making you 'suffer.' I should have used Whiteout on all of you from the beginning."
"Kill them."
Her expression abruptly turned vicious, but almost immediately afterward she placed a hand against her chest and lowered her head in thought.
"What is this emotion...? Excitement?"
Erza and Kagura could barely follow what was happening anymore, while Lucy had been visibly startled by the sudden murderous edge in Athena's voice.
Athena seemed to be speaking more to herself than to them.
"My alchemy allows me to transmute emotions. It is precisely because I have no emotions of my own that I require this power."
She thrust a hand toward the three women.
"I transmute fear and pain!"
Flames suddenly erupted from beneath the ground.
"What is this?!" Lucy cried.
Pain twisted the faces of Lucy, Erza, and Kagura as the raging fire surrounded them.
Athena's expression grew almost ferocious. "Scream and weep within the flames of hell!"
"Requip: Sea Empress Armor!"
Erza forced herself through the pain and repeatedly swung the Sea Empress Sword, sending torrents of water through the flames, yet the fire refused to go out.
Then Lucy suddenly noticed something strange.
"Wait... there's no steam!"
Even if this were some unnatural fire that water could not extinguish, that much water should still have produced steam.
Determined to test her suspicion, Lucy reached down and touched the ground.
Just as she expected, it was not hot at all.
In fact, the earth was still wet from the water Erza had unleashed.
Lucy immediately shouted toward Erza and Kagura, "This isn't like Natsu's fire! These flames aren't real! Pull yourselves together—it's an illusion! There's no heat, and our clothes aren't even burning!"
Erza immediately closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the flames had vanished completely.
Kagura pushed herself back to her feet and drew Archenemy from its sheath.
The terrifying force surrounding the blade surged outward, sweeping away the false flames around her.
Lucy raised one finger toward Athena and struck a triumphant detective-like pose.
"It works on the same principle as Charm or Hypnosis Magic. Its weakness is perception! Once you realize it isn't real, the illusion falls apart!"
Erza gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "As expected of Lucy!"
Still crouched slightly with one hand braced against the ground, Lucy looked directly at Athena.
"You were created as a weapon to defeat the Five Dragon Gods, yet you keep saying you don't have emotions. But ever since this fight started, you've been angry, surprised, anxious... Those are all emotions. You already have them. You just don't understand what they are."
That was the truth.
Athena did possess emotions.
She simply had never learned to recognize them.
Athena stared at Lucy in silence for a moment.
"...I have emotions?"
Lucy placed one hand on her hip, raised the index finger of the other, and gave Athena a playful wink.
"I have a proposal. And I think it's a pretty good one for you too."
Erza blinked in complete confusion. "Huh? We're negotiating now?"
"A proposal?" There was unmistakable interest in Athena's voice.
Lucy smiled and nodded.
"That's right. How about... we become friends?"
A large question mark might as well have appeared above Athena's head.
"..."
Natsu and Happy, both still lying helplessly on the ground, could only stare in silence.
"Eeeeeeeeeh?! You can do that?" Kagura and Erza exchanged astonished looks, both caught completely off guard by Lucy's sudden change of direction.
"Friends...?" Athena repeated.
Lucy raised one finger as she began laying out her reasoning.
"If we actually stop and sort out what both sides want, there's no reason for us to be fighting in the first place."
"Our goal is to seal the Five Dragon Gods. At this point, only Viernes, the Gold Dragon God, and Ignia, the Fire Dragon God, remain. That's why we wanted to find Athena and see whether we could borrow your power. But after talking to you, I realized there's no real reason for us to be enemies."
"There is..." Natsu muttered weakly from the ground. "They attacked Fairy Tail... kidnapped you and Happy..."
Lucy ignored him and continued speaking to Athena.
"Your reason for abducting people is Magic Power. When we were caught off guard earlier, you could easily have taken the Magic Power from all of us, but you only stole Natsu's. That makes it pretty obvious that what Gold Owl actually wants is dragon Magic Power."
"..."
Lucy had guessed everything correctly.
For a rare moment, Athena was left completely speechless, unable to come up with any rebuttal.
"Gold Owl probably wants to use that power to bring out your full potential, while you want to absorb it because you believe it will help you obtain emotions."
Athena nodded slowly. "That is... essentially correct."
Erza stared at Lucy with open admiration. "Amazing! How did you figure all of that out?"
Lucy proudly planted her hands on her hips. "Imagination. I'm a writer, remember? I'm good at coming up with stories that make logical sense."
"But..." Athena began.
Lucy cut her off before she could continue.
"I don't know whether absorbing that power really would awaken anything inside you, but the truth is that you already possess the emotions you've been searching for."
"I... already have emotions?"
Athena lowered her head, disbelief clearly audible in her voice.
Lucy pressed her advantage while Athena was still thinking.
"So stop doing this, okay? There's no reason the two of us can't shake hands and make peace."