A/N: Yo minna! Genki-genki desu ka!? Y'all see the new episode? Seriously, Mavis v.s. Zeref, somebody should make a meme like 'Shit just got real!' or something like that...

But anyway, it's been a few weeks since the Golden Grasslands episode, and to this day of the 9000+ times that I have watched it, it still makes me cry. STILL! So I had to get this out, or else...idk, something would happen...like universe shit or something...yah...oh gawd, the FEELS...

Disclaimer: I think I would notice if I had a dick all of a sudden, because currently I quite believe that I don't. So I don't own Fairy Tail, no matter how many times I cosplay as Mashima-sensei.

10/06/2014 EDIT: Sorry! just realized somethings weren't quite right, and also missing!

Future Past

Darkness...

It was all that filled her vision now.

She does remember the last sight before the light and color left her eyes. Her past self and Happy holding her tight, Wendy and Charle with their hands to their face in shock and horror, Pantherlily clenching his eyes and fists tightly, and Loke looking as if he himself had died instead, tears streaking down all of their cheeks. Tears for her.

And then there was Natsu. Not her Natsu, but still, Natsu nonetheless, tremors wracking his body where he stood.

She faded shortly after her piece had been said, reassuring as much as possible that she didn't close the portal, which when she thought about it, couldn't possibly be a weapon, it was only a portal. She realized something after that, and with any luck, they'd find her journal, and make an attempt to try one of the theories that she had made in desperation. She hoped it worked for them. Hoped that they could somehow destroy the Eclipse Gate, and that it would do what she thought it would. Just a glimmer of hope, as the rest of her being floats in the great dark void of death. Was this how it was for everyone else from her time?

As she fades, bits and pieces of memory are starting to resurface, forcing her to go through things she never wanted to see ever again-

All of Crocus, all of Fiore even, is invaded by the dragons, and everything is in absolute ruin, all rubble and dust, and fire, and everything is burning red, red, RED. The feeling of her right arm is dull now, the arm and hand with her guild mark, and she's all but given up, because even with all her brain power, she can't see any way out of this, she's even lost her keys, not a single damn thing to do.

Everybody has already passed on, and others have simply gone missing, like Levy. Erza and Jellal are holding each other in a ring of bright running scarlet...Gray is barely breathing anymore, and Juvia is nearly trying to draw him into her body, not daring to let go or he might be lost to the void. Gajeel went down a while ago, probably while trying to get Levy somewhere safe. The Strauss sibling are holding hands as they lay among the debris, not wanting to separate ever again, even in death; Laxus and the Raijinshu are holding onto them as well. Anybody else is simply M.I.A. ...everybody else has already passed on.

She can never remember any other time when she has felt so utterly alone. So she silently cries and wait for the inevitable...Absolute destruction...the end...

But somehow Natsu is still here with her, still trying to fight, still trying to protect what he can with all that he is. Still trying to protect her.

Even though she's already given up; and it just makes her cry harder.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Lucy," is his greeting as he keeps her from being consumed by incoming flames, turning his attention to the dragon that fired it,"Bastard...," and she swears he's shining, glowing almost.

He bravely takes his stance, telling them all his might as a Fairy Tail mage, as well as a Dragon Slayer, making promises to them that she know he fully intends to keep, even though he won't be able to. Her tears are still going strong, as he lands attack after attack, and while it does knock a few out from the sky and into the ground, it doesn't take too long for the dragons to take flight again.

She cries out, her voice almost as nothing, begging, pleading for him to stop,"Natsu...It's too late...," it really is the weakest voice she's ever heard, and she nearly hates herself for it,"We can't stop them!"

Of course, he madly protests this to her, fully intent on fighting with everything he's got,"That ain't true! I'm not done yet!" So he keeps going, her heart lurching all the while, falling with him as he is finally, inevitably knocked down to the earth. She screams his name hoping with everything that he's okay, because he is the one person she cannot stand to see fallen.

Because he is in fact okay, he stands again, despite obvious injuries,"I ain't...givin' up...," while she hears his strength in his voice, there is also a rough exhaustion,"...Ain't gonna run away...," his fist ignites once more-for the last time, she remembers-as does the rest of him as he charges one of the dragons closing in on him,"AIN'T GONNA BACKTRACK! IT'S NOT OVER!"

Her heart is forgetting to function as she calls out to him in a mixture of panic desperation and absolute fear,"NATSU!"

Because just like that...he's gone-like a flame blown out from a candle-and that's when everything, her heart, her mind, everything shatters, like pieces of glass.

She even remembers crawling to his body, unmoving. It's not supposed to be like that. He's not supposed to be like that! She definitely remembers that he is supposed to be alive and energetic and pumped up for their next mission, not limp like he is now, not so frozen and just not moving. She's desperately hoping that he's just sleeping, that he's unconscious, her left hand fluttering about his face and his chest to rouse him, trying to ignore the voice way back in her head that he's gone.

Broken sobs and high-pitched wails spill out from her lips along with the mantra of 'No' and "Natsu' as more tears fall from her onto his face. The face that has sharp onyx eyes that are supposed to bright like a flame and making promises of fun and adventure; the same eyes that are now very much dull, the flame put out, and full of broken and unfulfilled promises, eyes that are dead. Dead...dead...DEAD, the word repeats itself, and the tears are burning now.

-She remembers all of it, the rest of her consciousness trembling with the sorrow of the number one most precious person to her, and she's so glad that she was able to travel through the paths of time to give some aid to the past, so that her other self won't lose her Natsu.

She's somewhat content as she prepares to fully fade into the void. And yet...

There's a slight tugging at her soul. It pulls at her again and again, each little tug stronger than the next, pulling her along somewhere. What was it?

She can feel it leading her through the dark, til she sees the slightest shimmer in the distance. At first it's just a tiny little pinprick, nothing she feels particularly worried about. But then it expands, growing and enveloping her completely, and she's surrounded by the warmest feeling, a lovely calm that she hasn't had in a while.

It isn't long before she feels, physically feels, the wind blow across her nose, to which she opens her eyes to stare at a surprising image of the peaceful azure sky with a freckling of white wispy clouds crossing to whatever destination they have in mind. 'What...happened?'

Feeling the slightest bit confused, she sits up to take in her surroundings, which appears to be a an endless field of golden grass, the wind running through the tall blades in waves, like a golden ocean almost. Was this heaven? Or the afterlife, even?

"Where am I...?"

As she wonders aloud, testing her voice, she jolts with the strange yet natural movement of a limb which she has sorely missed. The joints of muscle and tendon that make up her right arm and hand flex, awestruck that the once lost appendage is back, along with her proud pink guild mark, in all its Fairy Tail glory. She rubs her thumb over the emblem, making sure that it really is there, clutching it to her chest in relief.

She really must be in heaven, then. As she stands, the wind coming and going, she takes the sight in, searching to see if anybody else is here in this 'heaven' with her.

Then she hears something which has her completely frozen.

"OI! Lucy!"

She stands there, almost afraid to turn around in case it turns out to be some kind of hallucination that she makes. She does anyway just to make sure. Everything else seems to have frozen, too.

Standing on the hill just above and behind her are two of the most important people in her life, people that she thought she lost forever, as well as others whose she's just as glad and shocked to see standing there, alive. Her awed and wide-eyed gaze returns to the two figures, the boy with the unruly, spiky pink hair and white-scaled scarf fluttering about in the breeze, as well as his much smaller blue winged companion.

The boy is smiling a smile that she thought she would never see again,"Get over here already!" He's been waiting for her, it seems.

"We're all here, together!" The blue flying cat calls out to her as well, a cheshire grin as bright as his namesake; they were all there, waiting for her.

Once again, tears had begun to fall, as she was filled so much to the brim with such joy that she hadn't felt in a long time. So much of it that it was leaking out as her tears. They're all there, the people that she's missed for so long...Her guild, her nakama, her home...her family. They were all here and alive.

The boy runs down the hill, towards her, his trademark grin as infectious as ever, holding out his hand as he reaches her, his onyx eyes very much alive and burning with waiting promises,"Come on!" His expression tells her of the fun and adventure that's waiting for them now,"The adventure continues!"

She can only stare with tear-filled eyes, because she's missed him, all of them, so much. Especially him-her Natsu-for so long, and now he's right there with her.

Her tears dry as a warm smile appears,"Okay," her own hand sliding into his, interlocking with his strong fingers perfectly, as if it's always supposed to be like that, his natural warmth spreading into her, something that she's also missed. They're holding hands, just like that first time in Hargeon.

He's pulling her uphill now, back to where the rest of her family stands, his head turning back to glance at her, as she is no longer crying, but laughing with absolute mirth and joy, both of them flushed with excitement of things yet to come. Both of them together, laughing like they hadn't in a long time.

And as she is reunited with all of her important people, him included, they finally begin the long-awaited trek back home, surprised by her pink-haired friend pulling her into a bone-crushing side hug, of which she doesn't mind, his familiar scent of burning sandalwood makes her feel right at home, as her bed usually smells of him, and he says what everybody else is thinking," Thank you, Lucy."

So she wasn't in heaven after all.

Lucy watches in awe at the bursts of light fill the sky, returning those who had been transported back to their lost time. She feels the journal of her future self fade as well.

As it disappears, a image of fleeting sorrow, soon replaced by something beyond happiness fills her head, and she knows that the other her got her Natsu back. Somehow, her face feels wet.

"Tears...?" Large streaks are running down her cheeks as a hand crept up to feel that there were indeed tears falling from her eyes.

'They're hers," she silently realizes; the tears of her future self, and they feel strangely happy and bring the smell of burning sandalwood to mind.

Speaking of which, her eyes searched until they landed on a certain pink-haired Dragon Slayer, who had been standing in the same spot after all who were not supposed to be here disappeared.

She was so taken over by her own feelings of relief and joy, that she ran up to his still turned back and, on impulse, embraced him from behind while burying her nose into the back of his precious scarf.

He was a bit startled at the contact, but left her wrapped around him, with Lucy's natural scent of stardust washing him over with a sort of calmness. The scent of her tears were also found, and he could feel the slight vibration of her breathing, trying not to out-rightly cry.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" Her name comes out with a tenderness that's not heard in the question. She merely shakes her head into him,"Nothing...Just..." and her hold on him tightens the slightest bit,"Thank you..."

They both stay just like that, him standing upright to support her while she leans into him with her face snuggling into his back, her grip never slackening, up until a certain blue feline says a certain phrase with a roll of his tongue that has Lucy chasing him, albeit with a smile, around the ruins of Crocus, threatening to yank out his whiskers, and things were finally moving back into place.

A/N: YAY! I swear, that whole arc was very nearly Nalu dedicated! If not all of it! I cannot wait for next week's...

10/06/2014 EDIT: I swear, the Nalu is so canon that if they end up not being canon, I will curse Mashima-sensei...curse him so hard...like with real black magic stuff...cuz I can...

Please R&R, it is like crack...numm...