Day One: Aquarius
It was a dark stormy night, not unusual for the time, the high trees rustling and the leaves chattering as animals dared not to make a sound from their hiding places. The land was bright, in flashes, as cloudless spots passed under the gibbous moon that seemed as though it was turning away from the land in disgust. Peerlessly the stars blinked down at the unwavering gaze of the blonde of Fairy Tail, her wide eyes reflecting that which the moon gave with such sorrow. The lake that sat before Lucy was as deep as the infinite sky, the moon reflecting on its rippling waters morbidly. As the wind danced around Lucy, a taunting chant in her ears, she worked her fingers over a small dish of milky-blue liquid until sparks and glitter seemed to materialise upon its surface. With a whoosh of breath leaving her, Lucy slumped forward, one leg under her rear and the other hanging over the steps into the water. In that courtyard all was still, bar for the movement that escaping breezes gave, thought the same was not said for the inside of the old temple in the mountains; many of the Mages gathered there had a heavy taste for battle in their souls, some favouring to praise the sturdiness of the building from an era long forgotten, praying that their will would carry them as far past their adversaries.
"It's getting late," A deep voice rumbled from behind Lucy, one of the doors sliding with a rickety creak as Laxus moved through with a deep chuckle at how Lucy turned in surprise. "And cold," With a raised brow, and curling lips, Laxus watched Lucy for a moment, and saw how she moved to hide something between her knees; knees that were bare despite the chilling air and ice that crept along the surface of the rocking water. Silence passed between them for the longest of times; Lucy's mind blank as she watched the thin plant on the far side of the lake, and Laxus watching his lover's back with amazement at how surreal she looked by the side of the lake. "Why don't you come inside?"
Laxus waited, patiently for the woman to reply with a heaving sigh, "I think I'd like to stay outside for a little while longer," Lucy turned, a hand on her temple as she pulled strings of hair behind her ear. A bright smile lit her face, the only think allowing Laxus to see it in the darkening world the strength of his Dragon eyes. "It's quiet," She said with a wish on her lips, tongue moving to wet them as her eyes caught on the broken statues that adorned the highest rooftop of the temple.
"If you say so," Laxus laughed at the girl, the whispery sound turning to a gag once he breathed in, "Mavis, what's that Gods-awful smell?" This was said as he moved forward, coat pulled tight around him as he ventured into the night.
Lucy waited until the man had settled reluctantly on the mossy planks beside the water before lifting the bowl from between her knees, the Magic still rolling over its surface as she committed to smelling the pungent odour. "A Celestial device for reading the stars," Lucy's knuckles cracked as she poured the liquid into the lake, the liquid running pink in the dull light before it cleared as a fish swam past, Lucy's heart giving a shudder, "It's just divination." Pulling her leg from the water Lucy shuffled closer to Laxus, pressing her cold feet against his thigh as he shuddered at the feeling, "I wanted to check something."
"Did you find what you wanted?" Laxus cupped his large hands over her toes, sending sparks through them to help heat them.
Lucy looked up to Laxus, pressing her pale hands into the backs of her knees to keep them warm. "In its own way." Her voice was sad and wavered as she spoke though it could have been the cold.
"What's wrong?" Laxus asked after a long time of staring at his fiancée, watching how her eye flickered with hope each time the sky cleared over the lake.
"What isn't?" Lucy said with a bright laugh, and for a moment Laxus was happy that the girl was so cheerful about something for a change, so unlike how she had been in the time they had spent in their mountain hideaway, "The Age of Aquarius is ending, Laxus." Lucy was serious only like this with him, and for a moment Laxus could smile at how she looked when peering at him from under her lashes but the words caught an interest with him, something in his soul rising to listen to the words as though a drunkard denied liquor, "Pisces will rule from now until the end." Lucy gave a long suffered sigh as she turned on the wood to lean against Laxus, the two not looking at one another as they shared in the transient peace, "And I, well," Lucy looked up to Laxus, watched how he stubbornly refused to look at her and observed his profile; strong cheekbones and jaw, soft feathering lashes, and a fading tan. Handsome, in his own ethereal way, "There's a history of Celestial Magic here and I care not to explain it," Before settling into his side once more Lucy leant her head into his neck to smell the comforting musk there, the spray she had bought for him on their last anniversary. "It means my time has ended; my bloodline." The words were hushed against the cheers inside the temple, and perhaps they had not meant to be heard.
"Mine is coming to an end too," Laxus looked down upon the head of the other, "Isn't it?" Behind his eyes, flashing in the dark, he remembered the day they had agreed not to have children of their own, too afraid that they would be like their fathers in their attempts to be loving. "I do not feel your pain."
"I would not expect you too," Lucy smiled up at the other, the same memory playing in her own head though the reason was different. The smile fell when Lucy could no longer hold it, shoulders slumping against the harsh fabric of Laxus' coat and eyes losing their shine as a thought hit her. Lucy lifted a golden Key from her belt, holding it into the air so she could see its shine by moonlight as it ought to have been. Lucy's voice broke as she spoke, the words halting with tears. "I just got her back, and now I'll have to lose her."
A shuddering laugh passes Laxus' lips as the hilarity of the words passed him. The man bumped his shoulder against the woman, a beaming, carefree and jovially childish smile on his lips, "You're not going to lose her, Lucy, you look after your Keys," Although he tried his best to ignore the falling look on her face it was hard for Laxus to ignore such a look on his "You have a very long time until that, don't you?"
"Nay," Lucy tried to share his laugh, honest she did, but found nothing in her heart but grim contempt, "Perhaps I was a little neglecting in my explanation." Though she knew she was, as it was the standard, dreary answer any of her kind were to give when confronted with secrets, "My bloodline," The look Lucy gave to the open door behind them left Laxus with the impression that she was about the break a centuries-old tradition, one of breaking words with an outsider, "Is that of all Celestial Mages." Laxus' mind saw the times Solano and Yukino were with Lucy, and it seemed no less true that even in times of war the three were familiar with one another in a way Fairy Tail strived to be. Even when it came to Brandish μ the two had recovered from their slights with an ease that many dreamed of, forgotten and forgiven in ways only deep connections can wield, "We are of one blood, one ancestor." The word had seemed like a curse to Laxus, and to Lucy who had looked at him with glazed eyes it had been the epitome of darkness itself, the person that had started it all. "And the end of the Age of Aquarius decrees the end of our kind." Laxus breathed in harshly, recognition in the words as Lucy had spoken of it often with Loke in a happy way. "Just as the end of the Age of Pisces signs the end of all Slayers – Dragon and God and Demon alike." Even Lucy seemed surprised that she had said such word, though she in no way tried to take the words back from the breathy wind that claimed them in a howl, "That is what Anna Heartphilia decreed when we joined the league with Zeref and other Dark Mages, when we signed our contracts to them," Lucy draped her arm over her knee, fingers playing with the gold in her hands, "It is our divine punishment for involvement; we broke the rules of mortality." There was nothing more that honesty in her answer, a desperate laugh in the words.
Laxus absorbed the words with a thoughtful nod of his head, lips pinched until he spoke with hesitant words, not wanting to ask who Anna was, "Why would Pisces sign the end of all Slayers?"
"Because," Lucy gave a tittering laugh, placing the Key back in the holster as a roar sounded within the wooden walls behind her, "Hmph," Lucy locked eyes with the other, mouth parted as she watched the ticks in his face, "You killed Gods and Dragons and Demons," Lucy's eyes wandered to the end of the scar above his eye, watching how the tip creased and seemed to leak Magic, her voice was full of pitiless humour, morbid in its entirety, "All things that should not be killed." Lucy's brows rose for a moment and then fell as she looked to the studded topaz gem on her finger, thumb spinning it as frost rolled in waves from the water, "You are, each of your kind, perverse in what you have done." Laxus seemed to find great humour in this sentence, in the way that males often did when she spoke in such a manner, "You destroyed pieces of history itself; just as Celestial Mages destroyed time and life."
Laxus knew some history from what Lucy had let slip over the years, the snippets from small talk become more real as she spoke with such surety, "So what do we do?"
"I don't suppose there's anything we can do," Lucy admitted, running her fingers around the rim of the old pottery piece sitting by her side, its bottom full of murky crystals.
"Have you looked?"
"Nah." Lucy gave a weak smile, the crusting water appearing more solid to Laxus' eye, "I ain't going to shy away from punishment," That thought was true in its entirety, everything he had known about the woman pointing towards such a thought, "There's no time to start now, really." Lucy wrapped her hand in his, spare fingers tracing the callouses and the palm lines.
"There's always time." Laxus lifted her hand to his lips, eyes watching the ring on her other finger as he kissed her Guild Mark.
Lucy's words came rushed as she became breathless in the cold, the lightning from his touch making it all unbearable, "The Age of Aquarius ends the day Zeref and E.N.D. are killed," Laxus knew of the plans the Guilds had, how short time they would have to celebrate before rushing off, "And we have all read the cyphers, every possible one," Lucy pulled her hand from Laxus, bunching herself together in the thin clothes she had chosen to wear that morning until she seemed as still as the carvings on the temple wall, "That day is to come soon." With rage, and spite, Lucy threw her ringed hand onto the bowl, lips curling with defiance, "On that day, all Celestial Mages, and those of the latent bloodlines," Lucy laughed, deep and manic, with the thought of impending doom, "Are going to die."
"You," A shaking laugh snuck its way from his lips in fear, "Are far too serious for the eve of your wedding." Laxus loosened his coat, pulling Lucy close to his side despite her chills, "Isn't Aquarius coming to it?" Laxus' lips grazed the crown of her head as he spoke, eyes spying the broken wreck of the thing that had caused her spiral that night, "Then there you go, she'll have seen all of the most important times of your life." He smiled, the Key on her hip dancing with what seemed annoyance despite its stoic appearance, "When you were born; your first steps, first words; when you plucked up the courage to take fate into your own hands; defied death; and when you fell in love." Laxus lifted his head, looking down into the eyes of his soon-to-be-wife, smiling happily for the thought that tomorrow they would be wed, "She'll even have seen you through 'til death."
"I suppose you're right," Lucy said with a sleepy nod, head bobbing as she tried to stay awake.
"You know I am." Laxus said with a puff of his chest, smirk showing his sharp teeth, "Besides, she's a Celestial Being," Laxus rose a brow, thoughts plaguing him although the words left his lips in a rush, "Won't you see her in Heaven?"
"Oh I ain't going to Heaven," Lucy said, brows high in surprise as a hand settled on her fiancé's knee, in what seemed like pity, "And their pure kind isn't allowed where we'll be sent." Lucy gave a laugh as she stood, arms stretching above her head as she closed her eyes to the horror on Laxus' image, "Oh you're coming with me," Lucy looked down upon the other's stormy eyes in the darkness, something sinister leaking into the air from the shadows as a party raged behind them, "I'd say they have a special place in Hell just for Slayers and Celestial Mages," Lucy turned her back, wanting to walk away but compelled to look back and add: "And for those of us bold enough to marry?" With this Lucy spun and lay her lips on his, a grin splitting her face as she moved away. "My oh my, you and me will have a whole ring to ourselves." Lucy bit her lip, the flesh bubbling beneath her teeth as she laughed happily and hands upon her blue-hue hips, "Thank you, Laxus, I'm feeling much better. But no matter, you are right once more," Laxus mustered a smile, Lucy's hand flowing to the side as she thought nothing of the pain she felt through the bond of her Keys, "Aquarius loves me, and I know that." Lucy gasped, a wide smile filling the gap the look left her fingers joined behind her back, "Perhaps we'll find a way to make this Age a little longer." With a wink Lucy left Laxus on the wood bank, wandering into the temple to join her family and friends in the wonders of a celebration.
Her fiancé left as though something had disappeared in front of him, and perhaps it had because for the longest of times that the Age of Aquarius lasted until Lucy died in his arms with a wicked laugh accompanying the knife in her chest, he had never been able to think of her as the sweet woman he had fallen in love with.