full summary: at the height of the war, an unconscious and dying Natsu is unknowingly thrust into a celestial portal by his friends in a last-ditch effort to save him.
he lives a normal life in this new world, no knowledge of the mage he once was, until one day unearthing a strange box that holds nothing but an old lighter and the remains of a rusted key.
what he finds shortly after is a world unlike his own, known as Fiore. He soon learns that something terrible has happened in this once calm land, and it's up to him to see that everything is made right again. The first step is believing, and the second step requires figuring out just what he's done to piss off a blonde girl he's never even met before. Or has he?
Prologue I
She had to keep her eyes on the path ahead, or she would never make it.
"Lay down cover! Hold them off for as long as you can!"
She swallowed hard and braced herself, holding out a hand to stop the sound of beating footsteps against the stone path as they ran through the heart of town, heading towards the little house at the edge of East Forest. She waited long enough to tune out the sounds of her friends' pants as the air crackled with the magic they were keeping at their fingertips.
She closed her eyes and listened for the sounds of the beasts hunting them.
They were coming for her, for her friends… they were coming for him. They wanted him, the figure lying on the hastily-made steel stretcher that was padded down with an old winter jacket. His body was wrapped from head to toe in an attempt to hide that infamous shade of hair that the beasts could spot easily overhead. He was motionless; no longer did his chest rise and fall beneath the cocoon of wool and thread. She tore her eyes away when the coat began to resemble a body bag.
They were running out of time.
"We have to keep moving!" she shouted, taking command as the first shriek rang out. Shadowy figures began to seep upwards from the cracks in the earth. They consisted of large, billowing plumes of soot and dust and the crackling of something sinister; the Black Fog.
Lucy heard the person flanking her right scoff, and could sense the irritation in Erza's voice growing as she said, "We can't outrun it. They're catching up!"
They had to hurry. From what they had gathered over the months since Earth Land first showed signs of dying, the fog meant the Erlking were zeroing in on their prey. Lucy cracked her whip in an attempt to disperse the cloud that was circling her feet while her friends argued amongst themselves.
"We need Laxus' lightning!"
"You weren't there! The light does nothing to it! Laxus is better off where he is now, looking after the guild."
Or what's left of it, Lucy found herself guiltily thinking. She bit her lip and gripped the handle of her whip hard enough to turn her knuckles white as she cast one last glance at the body of Fairy Tail's Salamander.
Being the shortest, Wendy began to cough as the Black Fog reached her nostrils first. Lucy turned her head in time to see Gajeel scoop her up and onto his back, where the girl wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and hid her face there.
Lucy's eyes met Happy's swimming ones as he and Carla coasted above the group at a safe distance from the dark, swirling mist.
"Happy! Carla!" she called. "Take the stretcher on up ahead! We're right behind you!"
The Exceeds nodded their salutes, and as they swooped in just long enough to grab hold of either end of the stretcher, Lucy found herself having to hold her tongue from murmuring a last goodbye to the boy on it.
Her heart clenched painfully, constricting and calling out for him as the Exceeds disappeared over the top of the treeline bordering the edge of town.
Natsu, I'm coming. Hold on.
Taking a quick look at their dwindled numbers, a plan quickly began to formulate. The last few months have had to make them all quick on their feet.
"Gray! Erza! Can you hold off the Erlking on your own?"
The Erlking; creatures with bodies slick with light that hurled themselves through the air with thick, leathery wings that had been bonded to their bodies with a magic darker than the pits of their eyes.
Erza's jaw set with new determination as her eyes searched the sky. "Long enough for you to gain some distance."
Gray nodded in agreement, shouting for them to go on ahead when a burst of light very briefly dispersed a small section of the shadows as a result of Erza's requip.
"Run," Erza said, smiling gently at Lucy's lingering figure even after getting unwavering confirmation from both her and Gray. "We've already said our goodbye's to him, Lucy. We'll meet up with you all later." Inhaling a stuttering breath that laid heavily inside her, Erza bid her friends goodbye. "Now go, and make sure he's safe."
With tears in her eyes Lucy nodded, turning away from the pair to race after Gajeel who had already sprinted through the remaining alleyways separating them from the treeline when given the greenlight to get Wendy the hell away from the Black Fog. Together the trio fled from the cobblestone pathway of town with the sounds of "Ice-Make-" and "Requip!" as their send off.
Until Next Time...