Chapter One: The Surprise Onslaught

It was the day before the final battle; the battle between Ishgar (Fiore) and Alvarez Empire. Lucy, the blonde Celestial Spirit Mage, Lucy Heartfilia, was just sitting in her room, writing her book, whilst Natsu and Happy were prepping up for the battle. Lucy, being herself, was tremendously nervous. Fairy Tail, let alone the rest of Fiore, had never faced such an enemy. Not even Tartarus would be this strong. Any thoughts of happiness would have been dismissed that night as they prepared for the next day's combat. A battle to the death. And this time, Fairy Tail wasn't guaranteed to win.

Lucy bore a tank top that one day as her eyes fell upon the likes of her best friend, partner, and team mate, Natsu. Even amongst the utter chaos, whenever Lucy looked at Natsu, she'd smile. The blonde found herself admiring his tooth grin he made. Natsu was always the one who had been able to cheer Lucy up the most. Lucy, despite her own beliefs, had grown attached to Natsu.

Natsu had always been there for Lucy, comforting her when she needed it. She loved that aspect of Natsu dearly. In fact, she loved all of Natsu. The Celestial Spirit Mage still could remember when the two first met back in Hargeon and he broke the love spell that Bora guy had set on her. She was grateful till this day that he had done that. Lucy may never have joined Fairy Tail and met all these nice people if Natsu hadn't been there that day. Though, the blonde doubted Natsu's ability to remember that far back.

Ever since the two met, Natsu had saved her life on numerous occasions. More times than the blonde could count and it made her feel endlessly guilty, knowing she rarely saved his. When that thought came to mind, Lucy quickly glanced back to her paper, tears attempting to escape her eye. As they did, Lucy gripped her fists out of disappointment.

The blonde grunted to herself under her breath, "I need to protect him this time… If either of the two of us is going down, it'll be me…" Her tear-stricken eyes glanced over to Natsu again, the seriousness of her voice growing tenfold, "I promise, Natsu…" And once her sentence was complete, she went back to writing her story – possibly for the last time…

The pinkette glanced at his best friend, seeing her eyes watery. He raised an eyebrow at the female, worry eating him. What was wrong? She usually worried a lot, but he didn't think that was the case this time. He rose to his feet, pacing towards her being. In this case, he was unsure of which person was more concerned, Lucy or Natsu?

"Is something the matter, Lucy?" He questioned, trying to hide the worry laced in his words. She probably was afraid for the upcoming battle. "If this is about the war, don't worry so much!" He said, faking a smirk, in a futile attempt to cheer her up. Although he was fully aware that nothing would cheer her up, Natsu made an attempt, anyway.

Lucy looked back at Natsu, worry about him clouding her thoughts, whilst her tears shrouded her vision. She made a slight attempt at smiling back, but her tears defeated the smile.

"Natsu…" she whimpered as she glanced at him, her best friend. She couldn't keep herself from hugging him tightly. Feelings had, as always, completely overwhelmed her when it came to Natsu. Lucy's eyes continued to bear tears. Tears that signified she cared deeply for Natsu. Lucy's arms were around Natsu's muscular waist, whilst she buried her face in Natsu's bare chest. "Natsu… I don't want you to fight…" she whinged into him. Thoughts of his potential death drove the female crazy. The special technique… That could only be used once… Since it could only be used once… It could kill him. "You always save me… I don't want you to go… It won't be fair…" she pleaded in a waterfall of utter tears.

"What are you talking about?" Natsu said, pulling her into a hug, trying to comfort her. "I won't die! I promise you that!" He breathed into her hair, stroking her back softly, something he did when she would need comforting. It had become natural for him to bring her into an embrace when she was in such a torn state.

He smirked at his thought, and loosened his grip on her. Glancing down, he noticed she was on the verge of tears. He used the pad of his thumb to quickly clean her beautiful doe-brown eyes. "And besides, when we win this battle, I have some things to take care of!" He said as his trademark smirk was evident. Only he knew what he had planned to do after the war. Not even Gray, Happy, Gildarts or Mavis knew what would be up the pinkette's sleeve once the war had ceased.

"Natsu…" she cried as more tears escaped her eye. Her weeps and sobs were wracking at her entire being against Natsu. He always took such good care of her; it made the guilt 500% worse than what it already would be. "What is it…? That you have to take care of…?" she managed between horrid sobs. Thoughts and possibilities of what it could be clouded her mind, but no particular coherent thought could be made in that particular moment.

Does this even matter? she asked herself in her own mind. Does it have to do with someone else...?

Why did this bug Lucy so much, knowing he had things to take care of after the war that she was uninformed about? Maybe it didn't even have to do with her. Rather, maybe it just had to do with Natsu himself? He could be going through his midlife crisis, for all she knew. Or not, she thought to herself. Natsu is too young and immature to be going through his midlife crisis. He could possibly just want to fill up his bucket list, right?

As he slid the pad of his thumb to clean her eyes, there was little resistance against a small smile that crept upon her lips. She may have been in a very depressed state, but his way of taking care of her made her smile, no matter what it is. Lucy's eyes fell closed as he continued to do so, feeling slightly more at ease than she was prior. Which was weird, because Lucy was in a very foul mood.

Natsu's smile remained evident, despite the fact that Lucy was basically crying her eyes out, just stroking the tears away. He just stood there for a long moment, wiping her tears away. Like it was a mandatory thing for that specific moment in time. It wasn't or wouldn't be to anyone else, but to Natsu, cheering Lucy up was his top priority. It always was and always has. He always cared for Lucy, even if her hair was drenched in tears.

"Shhh… It's no matter to concern yourself with yet, Luce," Natsu reassured her. What Natsu did next would make any girl's heart warm, but especially Lucy. What he ended up doing was hugging her tightly, bringing her deep into his bare chest. "If anyone should be concerned, it should be me. I mean what about you? What's going to happen to you, Lucy?"

Lucy couldn't stop herself from slightly frowning a bit. "I can protect myself, and you shouldn't worry about me," Lucy declared, in a fairly convincing manner. She still had her arms around Natsu's waist. After she had said what she had, Lucy quickly slipped out of Natsu's arms and adjusted her shirt, which had somehow been moved up during the encounter.

For moments, Lucy and Natsu just stared at each other, glaring into each other's eyes. A small smile crept onto both of their faces. It was obvious that Lucy didn't want this moment to end. However. "What you lookin' at, Luce?" Natsu had asked, tilting his head.

Lucy growled, looking away, "Nothing…" That moment, Lucy just paced back to her bed and grabbed the book right beside her bed and landed on her bed, slightly irritated, but didn't let o, no matter how much she wanted to, in fact, let on. She knew that they shouldn't even fight that night, even if it's small. It could have possibly been the last night they'd ever see each other, or spend together.

The next thing that happened was a complete and utter blur. Screaming arose from the people outside. Lucy's eyes widened and she quickly sprinted to the window of her apartment, looking out where a bunch of people gathered around, bearing horrid expressions of utter fear. There was a child who was crying horrifically. But, it seemed they were all looking up at the sky. Outside, Lucy saw Elfman also looking up at the sky.

"Natsu, we need to get down there!" Lucy declared as she flung on her laid out attire for the next day. She dashed down the stairs, Natsu being dragged by her palm. There was sweat pouring down her face.

"What is it?!" Natsu burst, unexpectedly being dragged down the stairs of Lucy's apartment at a very fast pace. Happy, who followed behind him, was confused about the whole commotion. His head was tilted toward Lucy as he was attempting to keep up with the sprinting female. "Lucy!" he continued to shriek as his fingers tightened around hers.

As Lucy finally dragged Natsu out of the door, she immediately found Elfman. "Elfman, what's going on?!" she chirped with a high voice. She was slightly panting as she looked up into the sky. "WHAT IS THAT!?" the Celestial Spirit Mage trembled as she glanced as such an object in the sky. Her hand had fallen from Natsu's and now laid by her hip as shivers of terror flowed through her blood stream.

In the sky, there were multiple airships porting from Alvarez, and that was obvious. A lot more than thirty, maybe fifty airships crowded the sky. It was night, and it was certain that they weren't waiting for the fairies, or else they wouldn't be there. From one of the many airships that populated the skies above Magnolia, a male, the one they met during their escape from Alvarez, boomed horrifically, "OHHH YEAH! TIME FOR YOU TO RETURN TO ASHES, FAIRY TAIL! IT'S PARTY TIME!"

"It's about fifty air ships from Alvarez," Elfman justified, trying to keep a calm composure, even though, on the inside, he was probably losing his shit like everyone else around him. He then looked at Lucy, with the same composure as before; glares of fear bloomed within his eye sockets. "They aren't doing the manly thing, they are attacking NOW."