When Natsu fell, the whole world went with him.
It had been years since then, and it felt like a hundred lifetimes ago.
Where there were once proud, strong cities, there were fields of rubble that had long ceased their smoldering and rotting, residents entombed beneath the ruins of the houses where they once lived, the schools their children used to attend, and the churches where they gathered to pray during that first horrifying year.
Tired eyes scanned the area cautiously and some memories flashed quickly.
When he was a child, he came here often. He could remember sitting on the train with his grandfather, excitedly staring out the window at the pristine countryside. After that, he was sitting on his grandfather's shoulders walking through the city with eyes bright for a future he now knew did not exist.
Laxus closed his eyes, and he could see Clover again. He could make out the shapes of buildings on the horizon, the smells of life: of food, of people, of the city. He could hear a bustling crowd around the train station, where everyone was in a hurry to get to wherever they were going.
He opened them again, and there were only ruins. It was quiet.
There was a piece of gnarled railroad track to one side, a broken sign, a sunbleached, skeletal hand near his foot. The rotting smell was nearly completely gone, but a hint still lingered from bodies still far under the mess who were taking their time to return to the dust.
"I used to come here with the geezer," he said as he turned.
He didn't expect an answer, and he didn't get one.
Wendy watched him from the shadows in silence, as she had since that day. She'd sustained a serious throat injury during the rumble between Fairy Tail, Zeref, and Acnologia now referred to as the Black Dawn, but even after she recovered, she remained mute and hadn't made so much as a squeak since that day.
She become such a ferocious fighter, and she followed him often, but she only listened and shook or nodded her head. Sometimes, she seemed unspeakably afraid and he didn't know why; all the worst things had already happened.
Their happy little Fairy Tail world had been devoured and replaced by a grim, gruesome future. On one day, almost all of their members died, most of them in the most disgusting, gut-turning ways imaginable. Ripped apart, eaten, decapitated, crushed...there was no moral high ground, no object lesson when the good guys won.
In this era, the world was being transformed by the ongoing war between Zeref and Acnologia.
And in this era, Laxus Dreyar was the hope of the whole world.
All his life, he wanted to lead the guild, but in the end, he ended up holding up all of humanity on his shoulders as one of the last two dragonslayers. Whatever resistance humanity had left, they threw behind him and his tired, scarred body.
Wendy helped him live through horrific injuries, because without her he was sure he would have died at least twenty or so deaths.
A twig snapped and he turned to see Orga Nanagear, one of the most powerful wizards left in the Resistance.
Laxus gave him a glare of distinct disapproval. "You're not the person I expected."
"What do you want Yukino for?" he answered.
The dragonslayer replied, "We have a strategy. It requires a celestial wizard."
"Where is yours?"
Laxus narrowed his eyes. "Don't fuck with me. As far as I know, she died during the Black Dawn. The last time I saw her, she was trying to hold Natsu's insides in his body on floor of the guild. Besides," he pulled a ring with ten keys from his pocket, "this is pretty compelling evidence Lucy's been dead for a while."
In olden times, such a brazen reference to gore would have made everyone present cringe. In this era, it was normal. They were all acquainted with the sights and smells of death.
Orga held up a ring with three golden keys. "Yukino has been gone for two years, you stupid shit."
"Whose left from Sabertooth?"
"I'm the last one. How about you?"
Laxus said, "Almost nobody is left. I assume you've heard about Mira."
Orga cringed and nodded. "We saw it in the mountains. What about Gildarts?"
"Gone."
"Whose left from the saints?"
"Nobody."
Orga said, "What now?"
"We need a summoner."
At first, there had been a fairly stiff resistance to the Dark War, but the magic world didn't draw its strength from countless people with a small amount of magic. Most of the power in the magic world was concentrated into less than a hundred extraordinary people and when they started to fall, so did the strength of the Resistance.
They'd stopped trying to win and focused on surviving for quite a while, with surviving wizards and new wizards working in groups to protect small groups of humans. The world was reverting to a nearly prehistoric state, rife with magic monsters and steeped in the spirit of death.
They'd run out of time.
They'd run out of options.
They'd run out of power.
The only thing they had left was hope, and that was enough to last through one more terrible night.
Jellal devised a magic strategy that might allow them to win, but they were one celestial spirit summoner short of being able to do it. They had all the keys, but no wizard, and despite his searches, the few summoners he found were barely capable of using silver keys.
It took years to become strong enough to use a golden key and they didn't have years. The search was further complicated by the fact Zeref kept killing summoners.
Orga gave him Yukino's keys and said, "The Dark Army is close to our stronghold. Our number is up, Laxus. Maybe you can make it work."
The resignation on his face was apparent, and Laxus almost envied him. He'd watched so many people come to the point where they just gave in and it gave them some semblance of peace before death. Laxus couldn't give up, and he refused to die.
They separated and Laxus and Wendy continued on their journey northward in search of a summoner hiding in the wilderness. When they caught Acnologia's scent less than halfway there, he separated from Wendy and sent her to their stronghold so they wouldn't both get caught by the black dragon.
Acnologia wasn't moving in either his direction nor hers; he was circling over an area in the wooded void between ragged mountains.
There were humans who lived in very small isolated groups in this area, but for the most part, because this pocket offered nothing to Acnologia or Zeref, it had previously been ignored.
He picked up Zeref's scent and knew this generally quiet area was about to become a massive, endless field of destruction. He also knew the Acnologia wouldn't pick a fight with him if Zeref was around because due to Natsu choosing to leave his flames to Laxus, the dragonslayer could give Acnologia a fight that was almost fair. Laxus believed he and Zeref might have been able to defeat Acnologia together, but it was an unacceptable idea because as long as Zeref and Acnologia both lived, they primarily fought each other. The survivor would decimate what was left of humanity.
Quickly, he used lightning form to zip under the canopy of trees, where he found a cluster of huts.
He woke everyone up and told them to run into the mountains and scatter if possible, because when the battle was over, Acnologia was going to be hungry and Zeref was going to be looking for souls to convert to magic power. Either way, they would be devoured if they were easy to catch.
Laxus sensed a strange magic coming from deeper in the woods, and he followed a path to a tiny clearing where one Lucy Heartfilia was standing in front of a small hut, staring fearfully at the sky.
Lucy felt a huge source of magic right in front of her and her head snapped quickly to where Laxus had entered her field of vision.
They stared at one another in disbelief, and the first thing he felt was near-crippling rage. His reflexes were conditioned to violence and little else, and had she not reminded him of his gentler days, he might have hit her.
"L-Laxus?"
He wasn't even sure what to say to her. "What the in the fuck are you doing here? Did you run away and not even tell anyone?"
"I…"
She was instantly terrified of him, because he'd become immensely powerful and he was obviously just very pissed off at her. "Laxus…"
"Everyone is fucking dead, Lucy, and you're out here in the woods doing what?!"
She swallowed hard and said, "I…"
"You WHAT?" he indignantly asked.
The door flew open and a little boy came running out and grabbed on her legs, offering the stranger a haunting, fanged grin. He had slanted green eyes that were a little too familiar, and blond hair like his mother.
"Shit…you had a baby..."
"Yeah…"
"My name's Natsu!" the boy said.
Laxus sank down to the boy's level and felt his heart race at all the sudden emotions. Natsu death profoundly impacted everyone. It not only hurtful to those who knew him, but it signalled the beginning of the end. Watching him die, and inheriting his fire, Laxus knew they were going to lose and that the world was about to change.
A burst of death magic started to swell from the forest and Lucy said, "Inside!"
Inside of her tiny hut, she actually had a basement protected by strange runes. There was a library, with books everywhere, and a bed for herself and her son.
The runes kept them completely isolated from the outside world, both from the sights and sounds of the battle going on inside. It was strangely peaceful, as Laxus couldn't even feel the magic as they raged on. He didn't have any interest in fighting and no good would have come of him getting involved. For the people hiding, it was better for them to stay that way and he wasn't an exception to that rule.
The dragonslayer sat on the floor and watched as she coaxed her son into going to sleep. He seemed a little annoyed there was a stranger in their space, but he was his father's son-warm and kind. And then, much like the father he would never know, little Natsu quickly fell asleep with his mouth open and snored loudly.
Once he was taken care of, Lucy took a deep breath and sat on the other bed, looking down at Laxus. "Do you think I'm a coward?"
"I haven't seen a child who was still alive in weeks. How long do you think you can keep him that way?"
There was going to be a day Acnologia sensed his recognizably dragon-like scent and on that day, he was just going to be another dead kid.
Acnologia was close enough that this might be that night.
Lucy said, "I want to send him to Edolas. My magic isn't quite there. Celestial spirit summoning is essentially a magic that enables me to open a portal between two worlds. I already had that power. I can't get it right."
He held up her keys. "You need these, don't you?"
"Not for what I'm trying to do. I decided I wouldn't fight anymore, so I left the keys for someone else."
Laxus answered, "Jellal has a strategy that might enable us to win but we need someone who can use these keys."
Lucy stared at the keys and then said, "Those aren't just my keys."
"It's a full set."
"Yukino…"
"She's apparently been gone for a while."
"Angel could use them."
"She's dead. We can play this game for a while or you can just realize whatever name you come up with, the answer is probably 'dead.' There are no saint wizards, and most of the large guilds were wiped out during the first year."
Lucy asked, "Who is left from our guild?"
"Gray is the strongest one left next to me. Demonslayer magic is frankly nifty as fuck in a world suddenly overrun by demons. He's missing an arm. Juvia is alive, but she's lost her mind a little. I don't think she can mentally hold up much longer. Wendy is alive, but she's been mute since Black Dawn - no one knows if it's due to an injury in her body or in her mind. Cana and Lisanna are both alive, but they're not dogs of war. Jellal is with us now since the rest of Crim Sociere is gone. Mirajane is still technically alive, but she tried to devour one of Zeref's demons and it took her over. I always tell myself I'm going to kill that thing the next time I see it, but I never do."
The blonde stared in disbelief, even though she knew this was probably the case all along. "What about our powerful wizards? Gajeel, and the Raijinshuu, and…what about Titania?!"
"Everyone died, Lucy. There might be some weaker ones that fled after and during Black Dawn, but the strong ones are gone."
"What about powerful wizards in other guilds? Like Sting and Minerva, and Jura?"
"All dead. Lucy, we have one chance to win, and we can't do it without you. We don't have any other options and we don't have any more time. I thought earlier tonight it was over, but this is it for us. I can understand why you ran the fuck off and if you hadn't, you'd be dead by now and we'd really be screwed then, but right now everyone in the world needs you to get the fuck over it."
Lucy stared at her keys for a while, feeling the inescapable pang of grief over her celestial spirits she had missed so dearly. She always believed Yukino would pick them up and the good guys would band together and win and she'd raise her child somewhere in the country.
None of those things happened. The morning now referred to as Black Dawn cost the world some of its most powerful wizards, and once the dust settled, humanity didn't have enough spine to fight back.
Initially, there had been infighting about who was in charge of the Resistance, but Laxus if nothing else knew how to demonstrate dominance and authority. He took control and he organized them, and had it not been for him, she knew it would have been over long ago.
Even her hidden place in the mountains had been marked by him as a place that was momentarily safe for people to live.
At the moment, Laxus was the most powerful human in the entire world. For him to tell her they didn't have any options mean that humanity as a species didn't have any way to survive.
"This is a farce, Lucy. That kid stinks of dragon. Acnologia is going to kill your son. We both know that."
"Shut up! Don't even say things like that to me like I don't know. I'm trying to create this magic that doesn't exist so maybe, just maybe he'll have a chance to live. Since before he was born I've been working to get to a point where I can give him away to another world just so he might have a chance to grow up. I still feel like it might take a year. We don't have a year, Laxus," she cried.
Laxus held the keys up. "Then help us win and you can raise your son yourself."
When she raised her hands to cover her face, he noticed her fingers were bony. He looked past them and found she was lacking her trademark curves as well. When he looked for it, it could smell the acidic scent of ketosis on her, which was the scent a person's body emitted when their internal systems were in starvation mode.
Laxus frowned and asked, "When was the last time you ate?"
"About a week ago."
"When we the last time he ate?"
"Yesterday. I grew a bunch of potatoes in the yard because it's about to be winter. That's how we were going to be okay. Someone stole most of them and I don't even know what we're going to do. In three weeks animals are going to be hibernating and in hiding and it's going to be cold. I got nothing, Laxus. I told him we would eat tomorrow. The sad thing is that this happens often enough, he doesn't really know how bad it is," she quietly answered.
Most people living in hiding had to deal with hunger and food supply issues. People who had food or medicine often controlled those who did not. The idea that Natsu's child ever had to go to bed with an empty stomach was very upsetting to him.
Laxus dumped his bag out on the floor and Lucy's eyes widened. He had jerky, canned meat, a few fresh fruits, some little cakes, and some bread.
"I can feed Natsu?"
"You both need to eat. He'll be fine, but you need to go slow. I can smell the starvation on you and if you eat too fast, it'll make you sick."
"If we just ate a little, then we could make it last for-"
"Lucy. Just eat the fucking food and feed your kid."
Lucy woke up the boy, who gazed at the food with starry eyes but was very cautious.
Laxus heard his stomach growl at the sight of it. "C'mere, kid."
"We can have some?"
"You and your mom can eat all of it."
"What will you eat?"
Laxus gave him a pat on the head. "It's easy for me to find food."
"Thanks Big Mister!"
"My name is Laxus. Surely your mother has told you about me."
"Never heard of you!"
The sad thing is that even with her keys, she'd probably still be hungry. The task of living without the conveniences of civilization was surprisingly difficult. Humans grew more than enough food to survive, but there was no way to move it safely so one area might have a surplus while another starved. It was a cruel reality of the new era.
He leaned his head against the wall while Lucy and her son quickly went for the food. The boy ate until he was full for the first time in a long time, and Lucy ate until she felt a wave of nausea from putting food in her stomach for the first time in a while.
"The world really has gone to hell," he mumbled.
Little Natsu flashed that trademark Natsu Dragneel grin and Laxus wondered how Lucy could possibly deal with the constant reminders of his father. They had the same face, the same slanted, exotic eyes...only his hair was different.
The child went back to sleep soon after he was full, and Lucy nibbled cautiously, not wanting to regurgitate anything.
The dragonslayer asked, "I don't mean to be an asshole, but I have to ask. How in the hell did Natsu of all people get it in?"
"Get what in?" she dumbly asked, until she realized what he was referring to. "Oh. That. Well...that was really my fault. The night before Black Dawn, I told him I didn't want to die before I really got to live."
He was ridiculously amused by this. "The old 'I don't want to die a virgin' kind of thing?'"
"That's about it. Natsu and I were so in love in this weird kind of way. I feel like if we'd won, Natsu and I would be married with a little family now. Anyway, don't tell me you didn't think about that night too."
"I had a sex life before Black Dawn."
Lucy said, "This is a strange topic for us to have in our first conversation in five years."
Laxus scratched his head and Lucy noticed he was missing the fourth finger on his left hand. He caught her stare and said, "Are you checking to see if I have a ring?"
"Laxus, you don't even have a finger to put one on. It's distracting. Besides, war or peace, pretty sure no one would want to put up with you anyway. How'd you lose it?"
He held it up. "Lisanna, actually. It got a cut in it and I didn't take care of it. It became gangrenous and I didn't want to lose it. She argued with me, and then Cana hit me upside the head with a hammer and Lisanna cut it off while I was unconscious. When I woke up they told me I was too stupid for my own good and we never spoke of it again."
"You're very nonchalant about missing your finger," she said.
"You're very nonchalant about the fact you were starving," he answered.
Lucy said, "You know when Natsu had gotten that injury, I knew he wasn't going to make it. I was holding him close and he told me somehow he could feel the spark of life in me even though his was going out. Then he died, and I just...couldn't. Couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't imagine that he was really gone. I put my keys down on the ground, and I just ran and I think I was really far away when I realized what he'd really told me."
Laxus remembered this; Natsu laid on the ground with half his insides protruding from a mortal wound. He whispered something in her ear, and she was crying hysterically. But the battle went on and he left, and when it was over, he assumed she'd died.
She left out the ugly parts, where her pregnancy had been unspeakably difficult and how the onset of the Dark War kept her on the run almost constantly. She rarely had enough to eat, was injured several times, and relied on the feeling of Natsu's little kicks to keep hope that he was going to live long enough to be born.
Natsu was born breech, after four days of labor alone in a cave that almost left her dead from exhaustion, thirst, and blood loss. And in that weak, desperate haze, she realized giving birth was just the first step. In order for her baby to stay alive, she had to live too.
Everything had been so difficult…
Laxus asked, "So how about it? The remnants of Fairy Tail protect a group of people in our stronghold. It's the safest place in the world right now."
"Where?"
"Tenrou Island. Maybe a hundred people live there now. Mostly wizards and people learning magic to support the rebuilding. There are actual buildings. There's plenty of food. They have livestock and some little crops and gardens, and there's excellent fishing there. For some reason the concentration of ethernano around the tree makes people who can't use magic sick which means its useless for ordinary people. Jellal has been using it to gather and train new wizards to help with the rebuilding we'll need to do."
"It's safe?"
Laxus nodded. "Lisanna would take good care of him while you fight with me on the mainland."
"Lisanna? You don't think she'd mind?"
"She used to love someone who looked a lot like your son."
Lucy was so close to her keys, so close to her past, and somehow, she knew she was close to her future as a fighter. While he slept with his head against the wall, she mentally prepared herself for the choice she knew she had to make."
By the time morning came, Lucy dropped the runes that effectively cocooned them in magic from the celestial spirit realm through the night.
Outside, there was nothing.
Less than nothing, even.
The air stunk of ash and dust, and some blood where the mountain most of the humans had run was collapsed into a pile of rubble. The hut was gone, so the basement door opened up to a world of destruction and not the pristine wooded area that had offered Lucy and her son protection for the past few months.
Lucy knew Laxus was right. It was impossible for them to stay there, and the chill in the air suggested the first freeze was coming.
Natsu came out with his prized heirloom wrapped around his neck. The scarf still carried the scent of his father, and that was the only way he knew of him. He pulled it closer to his nose and sniffed it as he looked around. "We have to go on another adventure?" he asked in disappointment.
"Yeah…" his mother answered.
Lucy was so frustrated the only reason she didn't just crumble to the ground and scream and cry was because of her son. It was so normal to him to 'save his hungry for tomorrow' or to have to move. They hadn't really had a true home, or been really safe or secure for even one minute. Natsu had never seen a playground, and he hadn't ever had a friend. There was no preschool for him to go to. They survived, and he was fine with that because he didn't know about the world as it used to be.
Tenrou Island seemed like a dream at that point, but it was about to be cold and she'd settle for warm and fed at that point.
Besides, under everything, she wasn't just a mother.
She was Lucy Heartfilia.
She was powerful, even moreso now than ever. There was a day when she abandoned her destiny and ran for her life, but there was no cheating fate.
"I'll fight with you," she said.
When he handed her the keys, she clutched them close to her heart. She whispered an apology to her spirits, and prepared for another relocation.
Laxus offered to help her pack, but she had the art of nomadic life down to an art.
Lucy's books, her son's toys, their bed...all packed in a magic space not entirely unlike requip. When something went into the space, he smelled something like the runes.
"Is that requip?"
"No," she said, hurling a bag through a swirling vortex, "Unfortunately, I am terrible at all magic except celestial magic. The runes open a portal and ethernano from the celestial spirit realm fills a barrier. Now, sending our stuff there. I've learned how to weaponize it in other ways, since I left my keys like a big idiot."
The dragonslayer watched as the signs they had ever lived there disappeared, and wondered how much magic she'd learned just trying to keep her young son alive in their crazy world. She packed one bag with the things they needed to travel, which wasn't much since they didn't have any food.
They were getting ready to go when Lucy sensed the abrupt and quick approach of an enormous source of magic.
"Don't move…" Laxus said.
Acnologia flew overhead, and then continued onward.
Lucy's heart was pounding so hard in her chest that when the dragon flew on, she realized she was so tired of being afraid.
"I want this to be over," she whispered.
"The only person who can stop it is you. No one in this world has the power to save themselves, but you, and you have the power to save everyone."
"Then let's do this."
Please Review!
AN: So I've had this story inside of me for a while. I was going to wait until after I finished Star Crossed Sarcasm, but I was like nah, I'll work on them both.
What are the pairings, you ask? Well, now that you mention it! Lalu, hints of past Nalu and Miraxus, Gruvia, and the crackiest of crackships, JellalxLisanna.