Never Too Late (Chapter 2)
Natsu scrambled backwards as Loke's spell engulfed the area in golden light. The magic spread outward, pushing against the edges of the ice wall and causing pressure cracks to seep through. Slowly the light dimmed and retreated, and the ice shattered and crumbled down to reveal a bare field. Erza helped pull Natsu to his feet and the three of them walked cautiously into the field.
"Where'd they go?" Lucy asked, her eyes welling up again with tears.
"I-I don't know." Natsu whispered. As they stared at the empty space in shock they heard footsteps coming from behind. They turned and saw Makarov leading the rest of the guild towards them.
Natsu shot forward and stared down at Makarov, "What happened?" He shouted, "What did you let him do?" Makarov looked down, defeated, and said nothing.
"The demon," Mirajane said quietly, "it's just gone."
Makarov turned to face those behind him, "The demon was vanquished to the spirit world." He said as he addressed the guild.
"Yeah," Natsu snapped, "and Gray and Loke with it." A series of shocked and disbelieving whispers swept through the group as they turned back and forth to see for themselves that the two men were gone.
"Are you sure they are gone?" Makarov asked pointedly.
"Well they aren't here!" Natsu shouted, motioning around wildly. He felt tears prickling in the back of his eyes but he willed himself not to let them fall. Erza put a gentle hand on his shoulder but Natsu shrugged her off forcefully and turned away, his hands curling into fists by his side.
"They could still come back." Lucy said, though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anybody else. Suddenly an idea dawned on her and her eyes widened.
"What is it, Lucy?" Erza asked.
Lucy's hand flew to her side where she kept her keys, "I can summon him!" she cried, "If he grabs onto Gray I can pull them both back through!" She got into her summoning stance and pulled out Loke's key. "Gate of the Lion, I open thee! Leo".She cried. Dust swirled around her but there was no sign of the celestial or Grey. Lucy took a shaky breath and shook her head before taking her stance again. "Gate of the Lion, I open thee! Leo" She yelled again, amplifying her voice. Again, nothing happened and the echo of her voice slowly faded, leaving the area silent. Lucy held her head down and her shoulders began to shake with silent sobs. Suddenly her knees buckled and Erza lept forward to catch her, letting Lucy lay her head against her shoulder and cry. "I'm so sorry." Lucy whispered, "I can't bring them back." Natsu whipped back around, his eyes burning with anger and pain.
"So that's just it?" He screamed, "We just leave them there?"
Mirajane stepped forward and pulled Natsu into her arms, "Please Natsu," She said quietly, "this is hard enough." She was already crying but it took her a moment to realize that the shaking was coming from Natsu as he cried, and not just from her. As Natsu lifted his eyes he could see the rest of the guild, most of them were shedding tears. Natsu closed his eyes and finally let his injuries and exhaustion get the best of him. He went limp, and his weight dragged Mirajane down with his. The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness was Mirajane shouting his name.
Natsu slowly pried his eyes open despite the fact that they felt like they had been glued shut. The first thing he noticed was that Happy was curled up on the bed near his feet, and the second thing he noticed was that Lucy was asleep in a chair next to him and she had her head laying on the bed near his hand. Natsu blinked heavily and shook his head slightly in an effort to clear it. His entire body ached and confusion clouded his mind. "Lucy?" He said quietly in a hoarse whisper. She stirred slightly but didn't wake so Natsu cleared his throat and tried again. "Lucy?" He asked, louder this time. She groaned softly and shifted before picking her head up to look at him.
"Natsu!" She cried, a wide grin spread across her face and she threw her arms around him. She hugged him tightly, and though the action hurt him he didn't mention it. After a few seconds Natsu felt a wetness on his shoulder and he realized she was crying.
"Lucy, what…" He trailed off, not sure what to say. She pulled away and wiped at her face, smiling sadly.
"I'm sorry, Natsu." She said quietly, "I was just so scared that I lost you too."
"Wha-" Natsu cut himself off as the realization of everything that happened came crashing down on him. The pit in his stomach opened up and it felt as if an icy fist was closing around his heart. "How, how long was I out?" He asked.
"A few hours." Lucy replied, "We brought you back to the guild hall after...after everything."
"Gray?" Natsu asked, dreading the answer, "And Loke?"
Lucy looked down for a moment as she blinked back tears. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
Natsu let out a shaky breath and leaned back, closing his eyes. "Natsu?" Lucy asked tentatively, placing a light hand on his arm.
Natsu shook his head dismissively, "I'm fine. I just need some alone time."
Lucy smiled sadly as if to say, 'I know you're not, but I'm not either and I'm going to let you deal with this your own way.' Out loud she said, "Ok, I'll be just outside, and when you want to talk again there's a whole bunch of other people who want to see you too. Erza nearly beat me up when I suggested she leave you to go get herself checked out."
Natsu chuckled, "Yeah, that's Erza for you."
Lucy laughed softly and nodded, 'I'll let you get some rest." She said. She picked up Happy who was just beginning to open his eyes.
"Natsu!" Happy cried happily.
Natsu grinned, "Hey there Happy."
Happy tried to unwind himself from Lucy's arms but she held onto him tighter. "Come on Happy," she said, "let's let Natsu get some rest."
"But he was just sleeping!" Happy protested.
Lucy sighed, "Come on Happy, you can came visit Erza with me."
"But Erza scares me!" Happy said.
Lucy nodded, "Exactly, so you don't want to make her angry, do you?"
Happy sighed and shook his head, "Fine."
"Good." Lucy grinned. She walked to the door but paused with her hand on the handle and turned back to look at Natsu. "I'm still trying." She said solemnly, "I won't stop trying to summon them."
Natsu didn't trust himself to speak so he just nodded. Lucy shot him a sad smile and exited the room, leaving Natsu alone with his thoughts.
'Why'd you do it, Gray?' Natsu asked mentally, 'You knew the risks so why did you do it? And why'd you drag Loke into it?' He sighed and leaned back against the headboard, "Why'd you do it?" He whispered out loud, his voice broken. The question continued playing over in his head until exhaustion claimed him once again.
It took Natsu about a week to be back to full power, and it was another few days until he finally began talking and acting a bit like his former self. There was talk in the guild about holding funeral services for Gray and Loke but Natsu, Erza, and Lucy crushed all talk of it whenever the conversation arose. However it was reaching the point where it was a moot point, and even Lucy was attempting to summon them less frequently. In fact, she was barely summoning any of her spirits. She had attempted to summon Virgo in an effort to gain information on Loke and Gray but nothing happened. Lucy suspected it was because the action of bringing a demon into the spirit world caused disorder and transportation may have been temporarily closed as a result.
Team Natsu was eating in the guild hall in silence. The other wizards made attempts to make everything seem like normal but the banter was halfhearted and the chatter was nearly non existent. The fact that they had no idea what had happened to their two guild mates made everything worse. It would almost be better if they just knew that they were dead, at least then they would have closure. This pressure from the unknown occasionally caused lapses of silence, and it was during one of these when an unwelcome visitor quite literally popped in.
The guild hall was mostly silent, save for the sounds of eating. Midway through their meal however there was a flash of light and a young girl appeared in the center of the room.
The wizards in the hall lept to their feet, poised to attack, but Lucy cried out, "Stop!" She pushed her way through the others and stood in front of the girl. "You're a celestial, aren't you?"
The girl nodded and said softly, "My name is Ara."
"Ara?" Lucy asked, and after the girl nodded Lucy said, "My name's Lucy, I'm a celestial wizard."
Ara nodded timidly, "I know ma'am."
"You're the first spirit I've seen in awhile." Lucy commented, "Do you know why no one else is coming through?"
Ara nodded, "There was a disruption and all transport has been closed for a few hours to allow for everything to reset and go back to normal."
Lucy nodded, "I see. How were you able to come through then?" she asked.
"I was sent by the King to deliver you a few things." Ara said softly, "It was discovered that Leo was the one that brought the demon through, and it was agreed upon in your contract that if he was to die, he wanted you to have his belongings."
Lucy felt a stab of pain shoot through her heart and she gasped softly. She had assumed the worst just like everyone else but she had still been holding out hope that Grey and Loke would waltz through the door, good as new. "He's dead?" She asked in a whisper.
Ara nodded, "I'm sorry ma'am." she said sympathetically, "I didn't know you were that close. We scoured the area but there was no evidence of anything alive."
"But you didn't find any bodies?" Natsu asked, the words came out sharper than he intended.
Ara shook her head, "All due respect sir, but you didn't see it. Anything that had been near the point of entrance would have been killed on impact. The place they came in has nothing but valleys a mile deep, and there were no bodies found on the solid ground. We did however find some belongings scattered around the area." She reached into her satchel and pulled out a pair of glasses. "I'm sorry we couldn't find anything else." She said kindly as she handed them to Lucy. Lucy turned them over in her hands, one of the lenses was broken and the wire was bent but they were definitely Loke's. Tears prickled at the back of her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
She handed them back to Natsu, "They're his." She whispered. She turned back to Ara, "Is that all you found?"
Ara shook her head and reached back into her bag, "No there was this as well." She held out her hand and allowed the item to fall into Lucy's outstretched hand.
Lucy gasped softly as the cool metal touched her skin. She looked down at Grey's necklace and swallowed to push back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. Natsu peered over her shoulder and let out a sharp exhale. 'They're dead.' he thought, 'They're dead and they're not coming back.' Suddenly his legs felt weak and he leaned back against the table behind him.
"I truly am sorry for your loss." Ara said gently, "I'll contact you if we recover anything else."
'Like their bodies.' Natsu supplied mentally.
"Thank you." Erza said thickly, not trusting Natsu or Lucy to speak. Ara nodded and stepped back and there was another flash of light before she disappeared. Lucy closed her fist around Gray's necklace, not caring that the sharp metal was cutting into her hand, and pressed it to her chest. Then she hung her head down and cried. The other members of the guild hung their heads in sorrow, before Gildarts raised his hand high, forming the symbol of Fairy Tail, and within moments the others had followed in suit.
-Three Weeks Later-
Both Loke and Gray had been given memorials on the grounds of the Fairy Tail Guild, and funeral services had been held for both of them. After that, things seemed to be going back to normal. People were taking jobs again and the chatter in the hall was nearly the way it was before the deaths of the two members. Both Natsu and Lucy had began training with Erza, not wanting to take any jobs for the time being but wanting to keep their strength up. Natsu had taken to wearing Gray's necklace, and Loke's glasses had a permanent spot on Lucy's nightstand. Though Lucy was now able to summon her spirits again, she didn't make an attempt to use Loke's key, it resided on her nightstand alongside his glasses; her own little memorial to the celestial. Though the wizards' absence was felt everyday, few physical changes occurred, with exception of the memorials and the training sword Erza gifted Lucy in their second week of training. She wore it strapped to her hip, claiming that she wanted to be able to defend herself better. The 'and others' was unspoken but widely recognized as truth. Team Natsu was getting back to its usual chatter and they seemed to be, not quite moving past it, but getting by. They had just finished another round of training and were now taking a break to relax in the hall as they ate their lunch.
"You should watch your opponent's hips." Erza stated, addressing Lucy's technique between bites of food. "A person can fake many things but where they plan to move will always be betrayed by the direction their hips are facing."
"Hips don't lie." Lucy said with a soft chuckle.
"Why is that amusing?" Erza asked.
Lucy just shook her head, "No reason."
Natsu sighed and crossed his arms behind his head as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the table, "I'm just glad we're learning some more skills." He said lightly, "We can take more jobs now."
Lucy groaned and shoved his legs off the table, "That's gross, Natsu!" She snapped, "We eat off this!"
Happy, who was floating lazily over their heads said, "I don't see what's so wrong with it."
Lucy rolled her eyes, "Yeah, you also eat raw fish."
"Hey!" Happy cried indignantly, "What's so wrong with raw fish?"
"Nothing if you're a cat!" Lucy retorted.
Happy opened his mouth to say something in reply but Erza cut him off, "Stop fighting, you two." She snapped, "You're acting like children."
"Yes ma'am." Lucy and Happy said meekly.
Natsu chuckled at their antics before poking at Lucy's wooden training sword, "So when are you going to get a real sword?" He asked.
"When she earns it." Erza replied for her.
Lucy grinned and said, "And hopefully that will be soon."
"Maybe." Erza said, smiling softly, "If you can get your stance right."
Lucy smiled back and raised another bite of food to her lips, maybe things weren't like they were before, and maybe they never would be, but they were getting better.
A/N: To anyone reading this, thank you so much for reading this far- only one more chapter to go! Please review, it would make my day!
