Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all associated characters, locations, ect. are owned by Hiro Mashima.
This is an alternate take on the events that happened in Chapter 361 - Two Bombs. A "what-if" of what might have happened if Wendy had needed longer to heal Natsu and Lucy was forced into playing Jackal's cruel game. I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
What happened before: After Natsu was knocked unconscious by Jackal, Lucy and Wendy tried to attack the Demon, but their attacks (Sky Dragon's Roar and Scorpio's Sand Buster) were neutralized by Jackal's explosions. Then Jackal counterattacked with yet another explosion, which knocked the two girls away and he chased after former council member Michello. Lucy told Wendy to take care of Natsu and chased after the Demon, but ended up on a trap cast by him - a landmine curse that would explode the moment Lucy moved away from the magic circle below her feet.
Each part is written with the focus on one character and the italic texts are the thoughts of that character.
Decisions of Life and Death
Focus on Lucy
Before Lucy, Michello and a random, female bystander were floating two meters above the ground, suspended in red spheres.
With an evil grin on his face Jackal started to explain: "They're ticking bombs. See? I'm about to show you how truly ugly all Humans are on the inside... I'll only detonate one."
"You get to choose who lives."
Lucy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Eh?" was all that she could get out at that moment. Why would he do something like that? How could he do something like that?
"Please save me! I'm pregnant!" the woman was crying.
"You came to protect me, right? SAVE ME!" Michello yelled.
"P- Please stop! What could you possibly hope to gain by doing something like this?!" Lucy pleaded.
"Gain? Nothin'. Humans are simply playthings for me, that's all." the Demon replied offhandedly.
"Fight me fair and sq-" Lucy began to yell, but Jackal fell into her words. "You have ten seconds left, the clock's ticking..."
"No way..." How can I decide who's going to live and die? I don't know anything about them... and only ten seconds...
"Ugh... this is terrible..." the woman sobbed while Michello continued with his tantrum, claiming that his own life was more important than some random woman off the streets.
To her surprise Jackal jumped off the roof and landed right in front of Lucy, with his back to her. This is my chance! I can summon Spirits without moving off this mark! Will the spheres dissipate if I knock him out? If it does it'll save both of them, but if not they'll both die... I can't choose who's to live and who's to die... I have to risk attacking him.
She tensed up in preparation for the attack and began to reach for her keys, but before she could grasp them, Jackal turned his head and looked back at her over his shoulder. "Whoa... If you move you're the one that goes Kaboom. If that happens, they'll both be joining the fireworks show..."
No! If he faces this way he can blow them up faster than I can summon a spirit to attack him.
"It'll be okay... it'll be okay... Mama will protect you..." the woman cooed to her unborn child, tears streaming down her face.
Lucy squeezed her eyes shut. I can't do this... how can I decide over the life and death of complete strangers! Natsu you always saved me... please help me!
"Now... which life will you choose, Fairy Tail?!" Jackal shouted in obvious delight.
Lucy forced herself to open her eyes again. The woman's mind seemed to be gone in a world of her own as she alternated between sobbing and whispering comforting words to her unborn child, while Michello was staring at Lucy with narrowed eyes, mouth open and trembling. She looked back and forth between the two as her thoughts raced through her mind at incredible speeds.
Michello might be an asshole who only cares for himself, but he obviously knows something about that thing Jackal was looking for. His information might save many lives, but that woman still has her entire life before her and is with child...
Her eyes locked with Michello's.
I'm sorry... I'm so sorry was running through her mind over and over again, as she slowly lifted her hand to point at the cat-eared little man before her, tears running from her eyes.
Despite already having made the decision, she just couldn't bring herself to tell the Demon to kill someone, so instead she stammered: "Please... s-s-s-save the woman..."
Michello's eyes widened in shock for a moment, before he went completely calm, looking almost... peaceful? Seeing the energetic man give up on life broke Lucy's heart.
He gave a look as if he was forgiving her... it made Lucy's guilt surge up even more and made her cry even harder. She wanted to avert her eyes in shame, but she just couldn't. Couldn't turn away from her responsibility.
"Oh? You really decided! You have more backbone than I expected. Well done my little Fairy. Now then to end mister 'My life is more valuable than anyone else's'... Or maybe..." there was an explosion around Michello and he cried out in pain.
"I just used a very small explosion. It surely hurt like hell, but it didn't kill the geezer. It wouldn't be much fun to just end our little game so quickly after all. So my little Fairy! Who's going to take the next blow?"
"What?" Lucy cried out in horror.
"Oh? Isn't it obvious what's going on here? Each round I will blow up one of them, unless you fail to decide, then I'll blow up both. I'll gradually increase the power of the explosion until one of them is dead.
No wait... that by itself wouldn't be all that interesting either... hmm... what to do?
He's totally crazy! How can any being be so cruel?
"Oh I got it! Let's play ten rounds. If one of them dies before then, I'll let you and the other hostage go.
If you manage to keep both of them alive until round 10, I'll let both of them go, but you will have to take their place... and since you'll have robbed me of the joy of the kill, that'll mean a slow death for you. Fail to make a decision within 20 seconds and all three of you die.
Isn't it fun! I'm in such a great mood right now that I'll even count this first blow-up as round one!"
After his delighted explanation, his face settled back into a cruel sneer and his voice became a threatening growl "Now who will explode next?"
I have to buy some time. Maybe he'll show me an opening, or Natsu or Wendy might come to help.
"How can I trust your word? You already lied to me o~" she started to argue, but Jackal wouldn't have it.
"Ah ah ah... no arguing, no begging, just choosing." he softly reprimanded her, while shaking a finger at her, as if she was a little child who was caught gossiping during class. "Another such breach of the rules and I'll have to blow up all of you. Surely that's not what you want, right? So choose!"
No choice then, but how can I do this? If I choose the same person all the time, it'll just end up with him or her dying... I'll have to spread the damage between them. My life will be forfeit, but at least I can save them... but how can I make sure they both survive. Michello must be a mage to have been allowed to become a councillor, so he should be able to survive more damage than a regular woman, but he's already old and hunched over... did his body already become frail? But I have to think of the child too...
"Time's almost up" Jackal whispered in a sing-song voice.
Lucy pointed at Michello a second time.
The calm that had settled over Michello before was gone. Instead of forgiveness, now his eyes were glaring at her, full of hatred and contempt, but Lucy just couldn't look away from those eyes... until they vanished behind the second explosion's flames. In a way Lucy was even glad about those hateful looks. They matched the self-loathing that was building up inside of her with every second she was unable to escape this disgusting game of life and death.
"You really don't like that little man do you? Not that I can blame you... if this game here wasn't far more interesting, I'd have exploded his limbs one after the other already and left him to bleed out. Anyway... next round! Who will you choose?"
Hesitantly Lucy pointed at the female hostage. For a moment Lucy felt relief that the woman didn't look her way... didn't even seem to notice what was going on around her and thus wouldn't agonize over what was coming. A piercing scream escaped from the woman's lips as the explosion enveloped her in flames.
"Finally starting to spread out the damage. A wise decision. But can that frail woman take it? Will she lose her brat in the process? Let's find out! Ah this is so much fun!"
The woman continued to weep and Michello continued to hatefully glare at her. That's right... hate me, loath me... I deserve it for all of this. If only I'd be stronger I could save you, but I am not...
As more and more tear streamed down from Lucy's eyes, she started to shiver all over. Her stomach started to lurch and she had trouble keeping on her feet as the world around her began to spin. I can't take this! I can't take this anymore!
Slowly she lifted her left foot and moved it forward to step off the circle that marked the cursed area.
Afterwords: For those who remember me from my last (and first) story "The Last Fairy", Hi again. I kinda wanted to write a more light-hearted story next, but it seems I can only get inspired and motivated by the darker aspects of the manga... oh well, better than no inspiration at all ;)
That current chapter (361 - Two Bombs) started out real nice, had a great build-up of tension and created a really dramatic and gripping situation for Lucy. It really had me so excited and I wanted to know how Lucy would react and then *bam*... Natsu just punches all the tension and drama out the window. Hmpf... I like Hiro Mashima's stories a lot (well... Fairy Tail and Rave Master at least, since those are the only two I've read so far *blush*), but sometimes I really don't get what's going on in his head. So here I am, writing my own version of events and how I think it would have been better.
27.08.2017: Grammer, spelling and typo correction again.