*A/N- Please forgive me for this sin.
I do not own Fairy Tail.
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For the safety of the guild, and the life of your friends, it has to be you.
Alright. I'll do it.
A blinding pain seized Lucy momentarily, and the voice of the first Master Mavis filled her head.
It's alright, it passes quickly.
She was right. The pain faded as quickly as it had come, and Lucy was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace and love.
You are becoming the very embodiment of the One Magic, Love. Only you can stop E.N.D. while still saving the life of your friend. But it comes at a price-
I know. I'm willing to pay any price to avoid losing him, any of them.
Although she couldn't see the first Master's face, Lucy sensed her to be smiling as she said the next words.
I know, that's why it has to be you.
Will I be aware?
You don't have to be at first, I can take your consciousness away while your friends adjust, if that's what you want.
No, that's not what I want.
Are you sure? It will be hard, they will mourn you.
I know, but I can't leave them alone. If they try to talk to me, I want to hear them.
You won't be able to take a ghostly form like mine for a while, but I can give them a message if you would like.
Thank you.
Lucy opened her eyes and sat up, and the group of her friends who had circled around her to see if she was alright leaned back quickly. She glanced around at all of their worried faces and bit back the tears that stung her eyes. She was aware this would probably be the last time she ever spoke to them all.
"Lucy are you alright?" Erza asked.
"Lucy, what happened?" Wendy inquired.
"Lucy, you had us all worried!" Gray exclaimed.
"I'm sorry that I worried you, but I'm fine now."
"Like hell you are! You just randomly collapsed!" Gray said. Lucy shook her head smiling.
"Where is he?" They didn't need to ask who she meant. Wordlessly, Erza pointed. Lucy followed the direction of her finger and gasped in shock. She had known that it would be bad, but she was still shocked by the state that he was in.
Horns were sprouting from Natsu's head, and his new wings beat the air menacingly as he raged, attacking the Black Mage Zeref with all of his might. She started to get to her feet to stop him, but Mavis spoke inside her head.
No, allow him to accomplish his mission. The Black Mage must be slain by the demon, or the misery will never end. You must wait.
But they'll destroy everything in this battle! No one near here will survive!
You are Fairy Heart now, you can protect them.
Lucy nodded her assent. Wendy's gasp drew her attention away from the fight and back to their group. Erza, Gray, and Wendy were all staring at her in shock as her skin began to glow, incandescent, a soft and comforting yellow. Light condensed around her to form a beautiful yet simple flowing dress that billowed about her as she got to her feet. Light emanated from her, illuminating the awed expressions of her friends.
Lucy clasped her hands together in front of her as if she were in prayer as the glowing magical power stirred the air around her. To those looking upon her, she resembled a benevolent angel descending from the heavens to protect them. They weren't entirely wrong.
Lucy released her clasped hands and extended them out fully to either side, palms facing the sky. Her guild mates began glowing with the same light that she did, and they were overcome with a sense of love and peace that reminded them distinctly of home.
"Lucy…" Erza murmured.
"I should have known you would choose her, Mavis," Makarov said, his eyes filling with tears as he looked over the girl he had known so briefly compared to the rest. He let them spill out over his cheeks as he thought about how far she had come. She truly was everything that Mavis hoped that a wizard of Fairy Tail would be.
"Lucy, what's going on?" Gray asked.
"Don't worry," Lucy said, her voice distorted by the magic so that it sounded heavenly, "I'll protect you. You're safe."
"Yea, but how?" Lucy did not answer, her eyes were locked onto the dueling pair in front of her, and all of her focus was on protecting her friends. She poured all of her love and all of her strength into the task, willing them to feel it, for she knew it would be her final goodbye.
E.N.D. struck the final blow, and Zeref fell to the ground, smiling.
"Thank you," she heard him say. Lucy knew what she had to do next. She took a step forwards toward her fate, and then another.
"Lucy what are you doing?" Erza cried, "He'll kill you!"
Lucy didn't reply again. She took another step forward, then another. She was headed not for Natsu, her love, her best friend, her partner in crime, but his older brother, who lay on the ground, taking his final, labored breaths. She knelt at his side and placed a gentle hand on his cheek.
"Mavis has a message for you," she said.
"Let's hear it," he wheezed, "I don't have much time left."
"She says she forgives you, and thank you." A tear slid down his bloodied cheek, and he smiled sadly. "Also, she asks that you wait on her, she has a few things to attend to before she joins you."
"I'll wait, it's only right, after all of the trouble I've given her," he said. His eyes falling shut for the final time. Lucy brushed the black hair out of his face, smiling sadly. He looked so peaceful, like he was asleep.
Lucy got to her feet and faced Natsu, who had turned his attention away from his dead brother, now attacking the members of Fairy Tail. Her protection spell was still in place, however, and his attacks were sliding off of them harmlessly.
"It's alright, Natsu," Lucy said comfortingly. "It's all going to be okay now. You can come back. Come back to me." She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. He tried to tear it from her grasp, but he couldn't. Her grip, though soft, was unbreakable.
As he turned around to face her fully, lifting his arm to slay her, she pulled him into a tight embrace. She felt him stiffen as she began to purify him. E.N.D. cried out in pain, but Lucy ignored that, focusing instead on the real Natsu. She could feel him, deep inside his heart, fighting to get to her.
"Come back to me," she whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks. She knew that he was coming back to the world only to face the pain of losing his best friend, and she was sorry for that, but there was no other choice.
She reached out within him, helping him free himself from the prison that he had been locked inside of. She reached out with her soul and latched onto his, pulling him back to the surface. She could feel his wings crumbling, and a shard from one of his horns hit her head.
"L-Lucy?" She heard him whisper. Smiling, she looked up at him, feeling tears pour down her face.
"I'm sorry Natsu," she said, "this is goodbye."
"W-what do you mean?" He asked, his arms winding themselves around her waist protectively. "You can't leave!"
"I don't have a choice. It was the price of saving you, but I would pay that price a thousand times over if it meant you get to live."
"What are you talking about, Lucy? What price?"
She could feel it starting to take it's hold already, and knew that she was running out of time.
"Makarov can explain it to you, I don't have much time, just know that I love you, Natsu. More than anything. And please tell the others I love them all as well." She could feel that her feet were already being encased. The lacrima was starting to creep up her shins.
Lucy wrapped her hands around Natsu neck and pulled his head down closer to hers, planting a long, mournful kiss on his lips. She pulled back as the Lacrima began encasing her waist and lower abdomen. Natsu stared at her in shock for a full ten seconds before he looked down, and gasped in horror.
"Lucy! No!" He grabbed her hands and tried to pull her out of the crystal, yanking her arms so hard she thought that he would dislocate her shoulders. "What's happening? No!"
"Natsu, it's alright!" Lucy said, trying to soothe him, but she was barely able to speak through her own tears. "This is the price. I'll be looking out for you eternally now, don't worry."
"No!" He cried, seizing her around the middle and pulling. After a few hard yanks he seemed to decide he couldn't save her that way, and he switched tactics.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He cried, slamming his hand into the crystal as hard as he could, but it had absolutely no effect. Lucy couldn't stop the sob that escaped from her body as she watched the desperation on Natsu's face mount.
"No!" He screamed, "You can't leave me!" Another sob wracked Lucy's frame, and she turned her pleading gaze to her friends. Erza and Gray understood at once, and sprang forward, tackling Natsu to the ground so he wouldn't hurt himself trying to save her. They turned their own tear stained faces to her.
"Lucy…" Gray said.
"Thank you," Erza finished. Lucy smiled sadly at them.
"No, thank you, for everything. It's been a blast. Really, I wouldn't change a thing." They all shared one final, sad laugh, before Lucy turned her face towards the sky, smiling, and was completely encased in the Lacrima. Erza knelt on the ground next to Gray, staring up at one of her best friends, Fairy Heart.
A scream erupted from below her, a scream agonized enough to cause even the coldest of hearts to clench painfully. Erza's attention snapped back down to Natsu, who was sobbing unrestrainedly, staring up at Lucy, Fairy Heart, with an expression of disbelief and grief on his face.
"Lucy!" He screamed, letting loose an explosion of magical power so strong it sent Erza and Gray flying in opposite directions. He launched himself, still screaming, at Fairy Heart, still trying to save his best friend.
The rest of the guild looked on, tears streaming down their faces, as the scene played out. Some of them cried silently, too shocked to make a sound, but Levy had been reduced to hysterics, and was sobbing uncontrollably in Gajeel's arms. Cana fell to her knees, disbelieving, and Wendy was sobbing into Carla's fur. Not a single Fairy wasn't crying. They felt the loss as one, the memory of Lucy's love and caring encasing them and protecting them from harm.
"Don't worry Lucy, I'll save you!" Natsu cried, throwing himself at the Lacrima yet again. Blood spilled down his head as his skin split where he'd rammed his head against Fairy Heart, the lacrima still unscathed.
"There's no use, Natsu," Makarov said, "she made her decision. She decided to give up her natural life, just like Mavis did, to protect the rest of us."
"But why?" Natsu croaked, "why would she do that?"
"Because it's in her nature to do so. She was the embodiment of everything Fairy Tail was always meant to be. Lucy loved so strongly and passionately, even those she didn't know. She was the only choice, the only one of us here today truly capable of becoming the fourth and strongest Fairy Magic, Fairy Heart."
Natsu leaned his head onto the crystal, looking down into Lucy's serene face, and a sob shook his frame.
"No," he said, "no. You can't go, Lucy. I need you." He fell to his knees, beating his fist futilely against the surface of the Lacrima.
"No."
x
Three Months Later
"Have you seen Natsu, Master?" Erza asked. Master shook his head. "He's been missing for a few hours now.
"Has he?" Gajeel said, coming up behind Erza, "because I can't find Levy either. I'm starting to get worried." They made eye contact and nodded, both heading for the door that headed downstairs, to the secret basement that Fairy Tail had. There was only one place that the two of them could be, if they had both disappeared at the same time.
Their suspicions were confirmed when they opened the door to the chamber where Fairy Heart was stored, and saw Levy sitting with her back leaning against the surface of the crystal, asleep, and Natsu gorging himself on some sort of snack talking animatedly to the lacrima that held his best friend. Neither Gajeel nor Erza were surprised, this had become a ritual for the two of them, ever since Mavis had appeared a week after the battle with a message from Lucy.
"I'm working hard to try and gain a ghostly form like Mavis, so I can talk with you all again. Please don't be sad, I can hear everything that you say to me, and know that I love you all, from the bottom of my Fairy Heart, and I'll be back before you know it, only a little different this time."
Ever since then they had both been making regular trips down to see Lucy. Gajeel and Erza knew it was how they coped, so they never said anything about it. They knew that they both needed this time with her in order to stay sane.
Originally Master had wanted to wipe everyone's memories of Fairy Heart, not Lucy, just Fairy Heart, in order to protect the guild's biggest secret. Natsu's reaction, explosive, violent, and destructive, had surprised no one. What had surprised them was Levy's violent reaction.
"The hell you will!" She had all but screeched, leaping to her feet. "My best friend is a hero who saved everyone's lives, and I'll sooner go to my grave than forget what she did for us." A chorus of shouted agreement had accompanied her words, so Master settled for a spell that made them all unable to speak of Lucy's fate to anyone outside of the guild.
"Natsu!" Erza barked, causing Natsu to nearly jump out of his skin before turning to look at her guiltily. "What have I told you about making a mess down here! The last thing Lucy needs is rats!"
"Sorry," he said guiltily, "but I was really hungry, and I haven't gotten to see her since before I left on my last job." Erza's face softened as she walked further into the room. Gajeel sat down next to Levy and wrapped his arm around her to keep her warm. Erza knelt beside Natsu and smiled at him.
"Were you telling her about how you destroyed half a city this time, all by yourself?"
"I did not!" Erza raised an eyebrow at him, "It was more like a fourth." Erza knew that Lucy would have laughed, had she been able to at that time. She could hear it clearly in her mind. So clearly in fact, that it was almost like Lucy was right next to her. Erza blinked, and turned her head slowly in that direction, and her jaw dropped. There was Lucy, her image flickering in and out of existence, sitting on the floor across from Natsu.
Gajeel heard it too and shook Levy awake, pointing to the spot where Lucy was flickering in and out of existence.
"Lu-chan!" Levy squealed.
"L-Lucy?" Natsu said, his voice filled with disbelief. He blinked, and several tears splashed onto his cheeks.
"Wait," Lucy said, looking around, wide eyed at them. "You can see me?" They all nodded slowly.
"You're flickering, Lu-chan," Levy said, her eyes filled with tears as well, "but we can see you."
Lucy grinned, big, bright, and beautifully. Erza found that she was crying as well. She had forgotten how much she had missed that grin, how badly she longed to hear that laugh again. And now there was hope, Lucy was sitting there, so pretty soon she'd be able to hang out upstairs with the rest of them again. Her best friend would be back soon. She was still the same person, even if now she was just a spirit.
"Lucy," Natsu said, his shoulder's shaking, "I missed you so much!"
"Well I didn't miss you at all! You've been down here harassing me non-stop! I never get any peace!" She teased, but her voice was gentle.
"Sorry," Natsu said, chuckling wetly.
"It's alright." Her form was nearly transparent, and still flickering badly, and it was getting worse. Erza could tell she was about to fade back out again. "I don't know if I can hold this form too much longer."
"I need to tell you something!" Natsu exclaimed suddenly, rocketing up onto his hands and knees so his face was inches from Lucy's flickering face.
"W-what?" Lucy asked.
Do ghosts blush? I think Lucy might be blushing right now.
"I love you," Natsu said simply, "From the bottom of my Fairy Heart!" Tears spilled out of Lucy's eyes as she reached a flickering hand out to brush it against his cheek.
"I love you too, Natsu, from the bottom of my Fairy Heart."