Lucy stood amidst the rubble and the carnage of the earth, long golden hair whipped around by a relentless gust. Blood trickled down into her eye from the gash she had received from cracking her head on some cement blocks. That concussion and the tingling, lingering pain from her other assorted injuries left her floating on a sea of endorphins and adrenaline, so very high off the ground she shakily stood on.

She could hear a voice in her head, singing a lullaby from her childhood. The dulcet tones swept through her mind as she swayed on the spot.

"Mama, is that you? …are you there?"

The feminine cradlesong faded away as the words passed Lucy's cracked lips. Her head was reeling and she was starting to feel nauseous just from continuing to stand.

"Mama, I need you, mama. It… it hurts!"

She was greeted by no heavenly voice, but only the rush of the wind around her and the muddled sounds of a far off battle.

Oh yes, the battle.

Lucy gripped her head, trying to clear it and remember why she was out here alone. Her feet started stumbling towards the ferocious sounds in the distance.

She had been with someone… a cat? A bird? No, that wasn't right… it was… Happy. She had been with Happy and they'd been flying towards the fight. The fight, it was swelteringly cold. Her nakama… was it Gray? Gray made the ice, black ice that cast the surrounding area with permafrost that didn't melt even under his intense heat.

Lucy tripped and caught herself before she fell. Memories started playing back faster.

Yes, Gray had been fighting E.N.D. but E.N.D had been… no that couldn't be right. E.N.D. had been… Natsu? When they'd gotten close enough to make out the profile of the fire dragon slayer, Happy had burst into tears and dropped her. She landed harshly just as Gray was sent flying to her right. The ice alchemist looked to have been fighting for a long time and when his body crashed to the earth, he didn't get up. Happy was still floating in mid-air, shell-shocked.

Lucy had yelled for him to get Gray out of here and while he was reluctant to leave and still crying uncontrollably, he did as he was told. She watched as Happy flew away, his sobs fading with distance. A scuffle of rock behind her brought her to face the Master of Tartarus.

"I've got a job to do. Are you going to get in my way, too?" The rough voice contained only undertones of the man she knew. A chunk of rubble broke off where his foot was propped up, bouncing down the small hill until it landed next to what looked like a human arm. Lucy shuddered.

"Natsu, is that a civilian? What are you doing? What's going on?" As soon as the words began to leave her mouth, he shot forward, gripping her around the neck. His onyx eyes were flat and devoid of emotion.

"Doesn't matter, they're dead now," he tightened his grip and she felt like claws were digging into her wind pipe. "You'll be dead, too, if you continue to get in my way."

With that, he threw her as easily as a crumpled letter into the waste bin, her head cracking against a fallen piece of a building and her body scraping along some exposed rebar. E.N.D. stood over her, looking down impassively. He reached for her keys and pocketed them.

"I've got to return to Zeref now so stay there and die of blood loss, you silly little girl."

As he turned away, she grabbed his boot weakly.

"Natsu… d-don't…"

He kicked off her crested hand and slammed his boot back down on her rib cage. After that, she remembered nothing but darkness.

Now Lucy limped, clutching her ribs, her head, back towards the one who had caused this pain. She knew demons were created by Zeref to kill Zeref, but what happened if they failed? What happened if they succeeded?

As she neared ground zero, she could feel the oppressing dark magic hanging latent in the air. It seemed to shudder around her. She wondered if this is what it might feel like to live in the Great World of Magic that Hades had once described. A world full of powerful but malevolent magic.

"No, that isn't what the Magic of One does. Mama, isn't that right?" Lucy scrubbed some oozing red life out of her eye. "The Magic of One is love, Mama you said so, so why would the Great World of Magic be a world full of killing, a world full of blood spilling everywhere?"

Lucy reached the edge of a crater that E.N.D. had melted right into the ground. She could feel the heat from the still cooling rock melting the bottom of her boots. A burst of deadly intent washed over her as the two beings in the deepest crevice of the crater matched blows. She was a little woozy, tipping slightly to the right before she caught herself.

"I had hoped it would be Natsu and not E.N.D that would come to me," the dark mage yelled out to his opponent. "Mavis promised me salvation, but I can't get it from the likes of you."

"I returned as you created me to, so I don't see what the problem is," E.N.D. spit out some blood. "You desire death and I will provide, Master."

"Unfortunately, I am in complete control; I do not see the value of life," Zeref grunted, taking a punch to the gut. "So I shall continue to live until I destroy this world that rejects me."

As E.N.D lunged forward, body aflame, Zeref caught his arm and flung him with resounding strength into the crater walls. The quake that occurred as a result of his impact caused the still anemic Lucy to topple over the edge, tumbling down towards the fray.

"When you were still Natsu, I promised if you survived that desperate situation, I would give you more and more despair." As E.N.D. struggled to pull himself out of the rock face, Zeref approached the Stellar Spirit mage who was struggling to her feet again. "Well, you didn't technically survive, Natsu, but perhaps I can show you the lack of value life has."

Now standing toe to toe with the darkest mage of the past four centuries, Lucy raised her head in defiance.

"Certainly, if Natsu were still here, snuffing out this little fairy light would bring him deep despair."

Lucy couldn't think of anything to say or do, but her feelings were starting to surge. She was hurt and confused. She could feel her golden energy bubbling up from the well deep in her core and she locked eyes with the dark haired man.

"Enjoy the afterlife, little light. You may even find Natsu there waiting for you."

As he reached out and caressed her swollen and bruised face, her magic exploded. Lucy's hair whipped around her as the golden hue of spirit energy rose from her skin. The force of it shocked Zeref into taking a step back and the physical manifestation of her magic expanded violently.

"He… is not… dead!"

"Yes, he is!" E.N.D. swung in from her left, hands lit with dense fire. As soon as he got within range, he was blasted back, his flames extinguished.

"Enough, Natsu!" She didn't even look over at him as the whirlpooling barrier of water receded and the mark of Aquarius was glowing white on her skin. As he rose to his feet again, he watched as various other zodiac signs started to light up in various places along her body until there were ten signs in total. He thought he could see the astral projections of her most faithful spirits, but when he blinked, they were gone.

Zeref sent a wave of dark magic at the girl, but it was lost to the sheer brilliance of the mark of Leo inlaid on her guild crest. He took a step back. How was she doing that?

"You think a life is valueless? That a world devoid of life is worthy of anything at all?" She continued advancing on the death mage, E.N.D. just watching, waiting for an opening to attack either the girl or Zeref. "You've been around for such a long time and yet that world never came to be."

A step.

"Life is a gift of love."

Another step. Another flare of gold magic.

"This world isn't ending."

The marks on her body pulsed. She was once again even with him.

"Look what love gave us."

The great Black Mage Zeref did nothing but stare blankly ahead as the glowing star maiden wrapped her arms around him.

She whispered in his ear, "Look what the One Magic gave us: life."

The gold burned white and so bright was the energy surrounding the pair that E.N.D. had to turn away. The light reached him just as he shut his eyes. Every part of him that it touched tingled. He heard a small tinkling laughter before an elegant voice spoke.

"My lucky little light, always remember to love and be kind, for that is the Key to magic."

The tiny voice responded, "What magic is it, Mama? I want to be a keeper of the keys like you!"

"This Key unlocks the true magic; the One Magic from which all other magicks arise is unlocked by love, my dear Lucy. All you have to do is share it."

Billions of images flashed before E.N.D.'s eyes, memories of his host body's life. They appeared in no particular order, but the more that they played, the higher the frequency of appearances the blonde mage and his team made.

The tingling had seeped into his skin and through his bones and muscles, settling around his magic core. The flickering images of the blonde became more nonsensical and he felt like he was losing consciousness. Her hair swinging from one long ponytail. The pink mark on her hand. An exposed stretch of her neck.

Everything for E.N.D. became white.

As the light around Lucy died down, she fell to her knees, still holding onto Zeref. He fell with her, arms having gripped onto her back, head notched into the nape of her neck.

"You've reminded me… thank… you…" The mage fell limply from her grip. "My sal… vation… Mavis."

Lucy gently let him down to the ground, watching blearily as his body began to age. Once he was old and gray, she felt tears running down her face. His body decayed and felt to dust before her as he should have done before being cursed.

She looked over at the body of her friend, her partner. No more damage seemed to have come to him from the light. She crawled her way over, wincing with every move now that her endorphins and channeled spirit magic were depleted. Feeling his pulse, she collapsed on his chest, finally too exhausted and injured to do anything but succumb to the void. Her keys glowed softly from his pocket.

He awoke to see the sun setting the sky on fire, the oranges, reds, and pinks streaked and blended across the sky from one side of the crater to the other. He looked down to the weight on his chest and saw a dark gold head of hair and a pink crested hand. He pulled a hand wearily up and laid it on the girl's neck. At the feel of the slow pulse, Natsu sighed in relief.

He kept his hand there even as he looked back up to the now blood red sky, a few stars starting to shine through. Everything in the past couple of days had been a blur.

"I'm not really sure what's been going on, Luce, but I get the feeling that you really saved my ass."

A/N: So this was sort of inspired by Hero by Chad Kroeger because it randomly came on my iPod while driving. Hope you enjoyed it! I am a little disappointed in myself with the dialogue in this because I wanted END to speak, but I wanted him to be dispassionate and unfeeling while only really being cruel in his actions... I also wrote this in multiple sittings, which is unusual when I do oneshots, so I'm going to blame that for any inconsistencies... .

The whole Zeref curse-lifting was inspired by Layla's idea of the One Magic being love and the fact that Zeref was cursed and he loses control of his power when he values (read: loves) life. Mavis also says that Fairy Tail will be Zeref's salvation from his sins, but Zeref seems to take that to mean Natsu, when it doesn't necessarily mean that.

You can take the Natsu/END&Lucy interaction as you will. I won't mark it as a couple, but you can certainly read it that way.

Please review if you have any thoughts or comments and go to my profile to answer my poll on what I should focus on. Preview of the spy story (now 6k+ words) mentioned is below (sorry if you've already read this part!)

Much love!

zabeth

Natsu took a sip of my drink and immediately his whole face screwed up. He put the glass down hard on the bar top.

"How do you even drink that stuff? So sour…" I opened my mouth to respond, but my jaw clicked shut when I felt a clammy hand on my thigh, inching inward and up my short skirt.

"Hey, why don't you drop that stiff and come with me, doll-face? I'll take extra shpecial care of you…." The gravelly voice came from my right and my hair practically whipped the offender in the face when I spun around to address him and his unwanted appendage. "Dressed like that and just waltzing right into this part of town… Bet ya think you're hot shit wi' that devil boy toy…"

(Then later...)

"These aren't good people, Lucy."

I finally turned away to look at my boots.

"I know that." I knew what my orders were and that this mission was the first we'd been separated on since the Phantom Lord debacle. Speaking of… "Don't you trust me?"

Natsu suddenly shifted, jolted by my question. "Of course, I -What kinda question is that?"

"Like jump out of a building window because you think you heard my voice, trust me?"

His stiffened posture suddenly relaxed, the serious tension in his face slackened to mild amusement as I tugged on the front of his jacket. "Oh jeez, c'mon, Luce…"

"Just trust me. Like I trust you."