AN: This story is being written for MikuRikaChan who gave me the idea. xoxo, I hope you like it :)
Lucy stared at her best friend's lifeless body in dismay. Wendy hovered over him as Lucy held him close, oblivious to the rain that fell around her, plastering her hair to her face.
"There's nothing I can do," Tears filled the blunette's eyes. "He's gone."
Lucy stared at her in disbelief. Natsu. Natsu couldn't die - not yet. They had so many adventures to go on still. Lucy lowered her gaze, staring hard at her first real friend.
"Natsu!" The scream burst forth as her tears mingled with the rain.
Lucy bowed her head over his body, her shoulder shaking from repressed grief.
"You can't be dead," She whispered. "I won't allow it."
"Lucy," Gray put a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing you can do. He's gone."
Lucy shot him an angry look.
"Lucy. Ow, Luce, that hurts," Natsu's voice drifted up from her arms.
Lucy screamed, dropping her friend in a puddle in surprise. Gray and Wendy stared at the pinkette with wide eyes.
"Hey!" Natsu protested, sitting up only for Lucy to knock him back as she flung her arms around him.
"Wendy," Gray said in a low voice. "I thought you said he was dead."
Wendy nodded, her mouth hanging partially open, "He was, Gray, there was no life force in him at all."
"Then how?"
"Lucy. She glowed for a moment and then Natsu was talking."
Gray looked at his friends in concern.
"I think we need to inform Gramps of this right away," Gray said, his eyes never leaving the two people that were causing so much concern.
Wendy nodded and handed him the communication Lacrima that Mira had given them when they set off, telling them to call if they needed anything, this being their first S- Class Mission. Gray headed into the only tent they'd set up, asking Wendy to let him know if the two start heading his way. She nodded, still watching them in surprise and a little fear.
"I don't understand," Mira said, crowding around the lacrima with their Master and Gildarts a few minutes later. "Natsu is dead but isn't dead?"
Gray sighed, knowing his explanation made no sense, "I don't understand it myself. Natsu was dead. He wasn't breathing and Wendy insists that he had no pulse at all, not even a weak one. Then Lucy screamed, glowed, and now he's up and about as if nothing had ever happened. It really doesn't make sense to me."
Gildarts and Makarov exchanged worried looks that Gray didn't miss.
"Come back right away. We'll have to do some research on this, but if this is what I think it is, Lucy isn't going to be safe for very long," Their Master informed them, cutting off the connection with a creased brow.
Gray stepped out of the tent and watched his team in concern. What had Lucy done? And why was it a bad thing? Gray only hoped that whatever it was it could be controlled and that Lucy would not be hurt from it.
"How are they?" He asked Wendy, approaching the pair.
"Fine," Wendy answered. "They don't seem to be questioning what just happened. Natsu seems to think that I was just imagining he had no pulse and healed him subconsciously and Lucy seems to agree with that theory."
She turned toward the ice make mage, "Gray, what is really going on? Does the Master know?"
Gray shook his head, "He said he had an idea, but he didn't let me in on it. He wants us back at the guild right away."
Wendy nodded and went to inform the others, leaving Gray to watch Lucy in thoughtful consideration.
Lucy, what have you done?
They arrived back at the guild in record time and Lucy was surprised to be greeted at the door by Gildarts and their Master. Mavis hovered behind him, eyeing her with obvious concern.
"Lucy, could you come with us, please?" Makarov asked, kindly taking the girl and leading her into a part of the guild that she had never been in before. "We need to ask you some questions."
When they were finally settled into a small room that was out of the way of the main hall Makarov turned and spoke once more.
"Lucy, do you recall what happened with Natsu?"
She nodded, gravely, "He was killed. We were fighting and he was taking down the last guy and when we got to him it was too late. Wendy insists that he had no life force in his body."
"Yet he stands and walks and talks just like he did before?"
She nodded.
"Do you care to explain that?"
Lucy shifted, she really wasn't sure what had happened out there but she hadn't missed the looks that her other two team mates had been giving her since then.
"I don't know," She whispered softly.
Makarov and Mavis exchanged looks that worried Lucy.
"Gildarts?" Makarov asked, turning to toward the Destruction Wizard.
"Right," He answered.
Lucy looked between the three in confusion as he brought in a potted, dead plant, setting it down in front of the girl.
"Heal it," Mavis whispered to her.
"It's dead," Lucy said in annoyance.
"Precisely. Heal it."
She glared at them, "I can't."
"Recall how you felt holding Natsu's lifeless body in your arms. The plant is Natsu."
Lucy closed her eyes, tears leaking from behind her lids as she remembered her best friend lying in her arms, his face slack and void of all emotion. Never again did she want to see that face. Rain pattered around her and suddenly, it was like she was there, pain lacing through her heart, tearing the scream from her throat once more.
When she opened her eyes, the plant was blooming once more while the three strongest people in Fairy Tail looked at her in awe, concern, and a little fear.
"Mavis, you must be right," Makarov whispered.
Mavis nodded, sadly, "We'll have to take her."
"What will we tell the others?"
"You'll think of something."
Lucy looked at them in concern.
"What's wrong?"
"Young lady," Gildarts sat beside her, taking her hands in his own. "You possess an very rare, very powerful type of magic One that could reshape life as we know it. You have the power to create life. It's Life Magic - a lost magic in which the user has no idea they possess it usually until someone close to them dies and the magic explodes from them, bringing that person back. The more you believe they should live the more likely they will. In fact, of all of history there's only ever been one other person like you. Only, his magic was the exact opposite of yours. He created death in his wake."
Lucy looked at him calmly, "Who?"
"Zeref."