Okay, second update of the night. I am proud. I'm sorry that this is so rushed, but I really wanted to get it out. There are tentatively 2 more chapters of this, but it could get shrunk into one. I could have done the battle scene for this one so much better and in depth, but that would have required a lot of work and I didn't really want to do it. While I don't think I'm terrible with fight scenes I really hate doing them because if I decide to do it I can't bring myself to half-ass it which means it would take a lot of time and effort. It was either battle scene in depth and engaging or post tonight. Sorry.
So, this is chapter 2. Everything really picks up in this part and the story jumps into overdrive so I hope you like it and thank you so much for sticking with me for it. I really like this idea. If you can't tell yet or haven't read my other stuff, I really love Lucy as a character and especially her Celestial Wizardry so this chapter and most other things I write are heavy on some non-canon ideas and headcanons of her magic.
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I am so over this right now.
Chapter 2
Lucy was in the spirit world walking around looking for something, only she didn't know what it was she was looking for. She came across Loke in what seemed to be some sort of bedroom. She told him about her problem and he simply dismissed it, making them both some tea. After some idle chit-chat the need to keep searching pulled her away from her friend. Bidding him goodbye she next ran into Crux. She hoped that he could explain her appearance there and what it could be she was looking for. When he seemed to have no answer to her strange questions she moved on. She came across many of her spirits until there were only two she had yet to see. She didn't know which one she wanted to see less. She couldn't face Aquarius after what she'd done, but Scorpio would be even harder to deal with.
Eventually after some more aimless walking she walked into a room with a large fountain in the center of it. On the edge of the fountain sat Aquarius. Lucy hesitated, but she decided to face the music and walked up behind her. She was going to greet the spirit, but what she saw over Aquarius' shoulder stopped her words in her throat.
There was an image in the fountain, that Aquarius was staring at. It was an image of Lucy; she was just a little girl, excited to meet her first friend, the mermaid. After that, it showed Lucy using Aquarius' power to defeat the demons of Tartarus. Then the image shifted to one of Lucy sitting in her apartment alone, scribbling away at the papers on her desk. The next image was her fight with Max. Lucy realized that this entire time Aquarius had been watching over her. Keeping tabs and making sure she was okay. A sniffle took Lucy's attention from the flashing images to the source of the noise. Aquarius was crying, the tears streamed down her face in rivers.
"Aquarius," Lucy whispered, "I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you." but Aquarius didn't move. Surely Aquarius had heard Lucy. Nonetheless Lucy spoke louder, "I'm going to find a way to bring you back. I promise I will. So, you don't have to worry because a Celestial Spirit Wizard never goes back on a promise." Yet, still Aquarius didn't move or react in any way to Lucy's words. Lucy put her hand on Aquarius' shoulder, but it just passed right through. Lucy gasped and moved in front of Aquarius. She waved her hands in front of Aquarius' face and called her name over and over. Nothing happened. Aquarius just kept crying and the sobs got stronger with each passing image. The last one broke Lucy's heart. The last image she saw was not of her, but of her mother Layla, fighting with Aquarius in battle.
Lucy shouted louder and louder and tried in vain to make contact with Aquarius. Nothing worked, Aquarius couldn't see her. Aquarius didn't know she was there.
Lucy jolted upright in bed, beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. She was breathing heavily and she could feel her heart beating at a mile a minute. This nightmare had been a particularly bad one. The past few weeks since the incident had been hard for Lucy. It wasn't every night, but every so often she would have a nightmare about the events of Tartarus.
Most of the time they were about being alone again. Lucy hated the idea of being left alone to handle a crisis. She really had to hand it to Natsu, she gained a whole new respect for his ability to fight by himself. Lucy couldn't stand the thought that she had lost her only family. More recently, though, the nightmares were about Aquarius. Lucy couldn't help but feel like she had failed her spirits, like she had become one of those owners, one that thought spirits were dispensable. There was only one thing that could calm her down when she got like this.
Lucy removed her covers and wiped the shining layer of sweat from her forehead. She tried to swing her legs over the side of her bed, but they crashed into a big block. It was a bump of snoring Natsu impeding her path.
The lump started groaning and stretching, "Just don't start yelling, okay?" but Lucy wasn't paying attention. She swung her leg over Natsu and quickly jumped onto the floor. Lucy ran over to her dresser and threw open the top drawer. Natsu rubbed his eyes and tried to wake up enough to understand what Lucy was up to. "What are you doing? Aren't you going to yell at me about sleeping in your bed because I have a really good excuse this time. See Happy and I…" he stopped when he noticed Lucy kneeling on the ground with her back facing him. "Luce? Are you alright?"
"Natsu?" Happy groggily called out from the foot of the bed, "Isn't it usually Lucy that wakes me up way too early in the morning by talking too much?"
Happy was also ignored as Natsu threw away the covers and walked over to stand above Lucy and peer over her shoulder. Happy, noticing the odd tension in the room, flew over to the two of them as well.
"Luce? Is that…?" Natsu looked at the item she was kneeling in front of and blinked a few times. "It doesn't even look like one anymore."
Lucy let out a breath, "I command the power of the heavens, 88 stars of Tetrabiblos, recreate the gate." A bright light surrounded Lucy's kneeling form. The power in the air blew her hair into her face and her clothes shifted and swayed.
"Lucy?" Happy put his paw on her arm and felt the power surging outwardly from her, "I don't think that even you can just make a gate out of no where for fish lady to use."
"Yeah Lucy," Natsu crossed his arms, "It doesn't even look like a key anymore. Didn't you say the Spirit King had to come. I don't think he's just gonna give you the key back."
"I mean maybe if you were as scary as Erza you could scare the King into giving you fish lady back, but you're not even as scary as Scary Lucy so you're definitely not as scary as Erza." Happy explained.
"Besides, we should go get some breakfast so you can think better and be stronger!" Natsu suggested, rubbing his achingly empty stomach.
Lucy didn't look in their direction, "I have to try. I have to do anything I can. I made a promise. I'm going to bring Aquarius back." Her hands picked up the broken pieces of Aquarius' key that Lucy had meticulously picked up after the whole Tartarus incident was resolved. "Listen up, Stach Face! I know that there's a price to pay for summoning you, but you've gotta take something else. You can have whatever you want just leave my spirits alone. Please, let Aquarius come home." The more words that spilled from Lucy's mouth, the stronger her resolve became. The pulsating power in the air around her only grew brighter and stronger until she had to close her eyes, "Bring Aquarius back to me! Open, Gate of the Water Bearer! Open the Gate! Open the Gate of the Water Bearer!" The swell of magic energy was starting to shake the entire room, but Lucy's voice only got louder, "Aquarius! Open Aquarius' Gate! Please Aquarius! Come on Spirit King, you gave Loke a second chance, Aquarius deserves the same! I'm not going to give up until you listen to me!" Lucy piled the broken key into her casting hand and held it up to the sky, "Create the Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"
Suddenly the light of the magic energy was sucked towards the key like gravity. Everything was centered in the palm of Lucy's hand. Lucy felt a searing pain and began to scream as the exertion of energy took it's toll, but nothing was going to stop her. She opened her eyes just in time to see the light travel up her arm until it was glowing from her hand up to the middle of her bicep. It dawned on Lucy what that could mean, but the sacrifice meant nothing to her if it meant bringing Aquarius back. "Lucy!" an anguished voice called and she could faintly feel a hand on her wrist. The voice, Lucy could hear, was panting, as though they had been calling her for quite some time now. The pressure on her wrist got greater and more painful until finally it was so painful that Lucy dropped the parts of key in her hand and the spell dissolved around her. She could feel her head getting heavier and the darkness getting stronger. The last thing Lucy saw was her ceiling as she closed her eyes to rest.
The first thing Lucy could feel when she came to was the softness of her bed. It was in stark contrast to what she felt next, the splitting headache. Groaning and groggy, Lucy sat up in bed to try and remember what had happened. Lucy couldn't see anyone in her apartment, which actually sent off warning bells. She got up and walked over to the kitchen. Before she could reach it, her foot was impaled with something that scraped the floor. She looked down to curse the thing that caused her even more pain to find that it was the key. That's when her memories of her previous activities came flooding back to her.
"Natsu," she called out, remembering his part in the incident. He would never leave her if he thought she were unwell so he must be in her apartment somewhere, Lucy reasoned. Natsu walked into the doorway between Lucy's room and the kitchen. Lucy looked up from her spot picking up the pieces of the key and tucking them away in their drawer, "Are you the one that stopped the spell?"
Natsu didn't speak he just looked at Lucy go from the drawer to the bed. He watched her sit down and await his answer. She felt uncomfortable in his scrutinizing silence so she spoke instead, "I made a promise Natsu, so…"
He came into the room and sat cross-legged next to her, "So did I."
Lucy choked on her words because she was so surprised at his response, "What promise did you make?"
"I promised that I would protect your future. I'm going to keep that promise, even if I have to protect it from you." Natsu just placed his palms on his knees and looked out the window.
Lucy couldn't decide how to feel. She saw her reflection in her vanity and walked over to adjust her pigtails so that they were no longer in chaos, "I wasn't in any danger, Natsu."
"I never pegged you as being just as stupid as the ice prick," Natsu announced looking from the window to Lucy with a lopsided smile.
"Excuse me?!" Lucy said indignantly, accidently pulling on a decent sized clump of her hair and yelping in pain, "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"
Natsu rose from the bed and walked over to her, "Did you even know if that spell was going to work?" he said flinging himself lazily into a chair at her table.
Lucy kept her eyes on her hair, "Well, I was hoping…"
"You were going to sacrifice your arm." He definitely didn't beat around the bush, but then again subtlety never was one of Natsu's strong suits, "You didn't even know if this spell would work and you were going to let it chop your arm off."
"Okay so I was a little reckless," Lucy admitted shrugging, "but you've done way stupider stuff. Besides, even if it's on the off chance that it could work, I wanna do it. You can't stop me."
"Don't be stupid Lucy," Natsu said, his voice getting a little rougher, "If you lose your arm then the next step is losing your life. I told you, I'm not going to let you do that. I thought you got it by now anyway. You're a Fairy Tail Wizard, we don't die for our friends. What goods the big fish lady if you die trying to bring her back?"
"Losing my arm doesn't automatically mean that I'm going to die, Natsu!" Lucy would be lying if she said it hadn't crossed her mind, but the loss of Aquarius had blinded her to the possibilities. "I know watching me die wasn't easy, but you don't understand what it's like to have these spirits that depend on you. You don't know what it's like having let one of them down and losing her! I'll do whatever it takes to bring her back!"
"And I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Lucy. Your spirits are just like the people at the guild. What would they say Lucy! Did you think about what would happen if you actually did die?" Natsu let his anger get the better of him and his fist lit in flames. "Why don't you figure out a way to bring her back that doesn't involve you following the same path as Future You?"
Lucy could feel the pain starting up in her head again. She knew that trying to argue with Natsu about friendship protection and caring for loved ones was trying to fight a losing battle. Instead she opted for an easy subject change, "Where's Happy?"
Seeing that the two of them wouldn't agree on anything anytime soon Natsu welcomed the change, "I sent him for some food. You've been out all day and we were starving."
Lucy let out a huff of air, "You know I have food here."
Natsu opened the fridge in a flourish, "The only stuff you've got in here is stuff that you have to mix together and cook for it to taste good! What happened to some good old fashioned meat?"
"Sorry, but it's not my job to feed you!" Lucy complained, running after Natsu, chasing him through her kitchen with a rolled up magazine.
Just then Happy came flying in through the window, "Lucy you should really learn to be more ladylike and less violent. Maybe then you wouldn't get into so much trouble!" Happy exclaimed before ducking out of the way of a very well aimed Lucy Kick.
"Says the cat whose owner is the world renowned pyromaniac of mass destruction!" Lucy tried swatting at Happy, but he had learned from experience to fly just out of range.
"What'd you bring for grub little buddy?" Natsu tried to keep his eyes on the franticly flying Happy, but soon gave up as the nausea threatened to arrive.
"I didn't bring any food because I got distracted at the guild. There's a bandit job that offers 6 million jewel Natsu!" Happy finally decided to land just behind Natsu for protection from Lucy's dying out rage.
Lucy sat in a chair next to Natsu slightly winded from chasing Happy around her apartment, "Sounds like a pretty decent mission. Whattaya say, Natsu?"
"Earthland to Lucy. You okay Lucy? You hate bandit catching jobs 'cause you think they're so dangerous. You sure about this?" Natsu scratched his head at her odd behavior.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I need some rent money bad and the last couple jobs we went on weren't so bad. It's been really quiet around here lately so it wouldn't hurt to go on a higher level mission." Lucy moved over to her dresser, "I've just got to get ready. I can meet you guys by the guild in an hour?"
Natsu, in his excitement, was already halfway out the window followed closely by Happy, "We'll see you then, Lucy!"
Lucy sighed wishing that Natsu would just use the door like a normal person, but her excitement about the mission soon distracted her. She wrapped up the broken key. She tucked it away in her pocket on the off chance that someone in the town they were going to travel to knew something about Celestial Wizardry and might be able to offer some advice.
An hour and a warm bath later Lucy arrived at the guild hall entrance. Pushing open the doors she saw many of her guild mates all gathered around a single table by the bar. Usually that alone wouldn't have set Lucy's nerves on end, but that wasn't the only peculiar thing about today. It was quiet. In Fairy Tail. Her Fairy Tail was silent. Those two observations made Lucy's instincts scream that something was most definitely wrong. She wanted to walk back outside and try entering the guild again, but for some reason Lucy didn't think that would help.
Levy was the first one to notice her, "Oh, Lu," she breathed out with a deep sadness lacing itself in her tone.
"Levy?" Lucy walked over to her friend and saw that it was true, nearly everyone in Fairy Tail was gathered around the table. Makarov and Mirajane were both there, along with Erza and the rest of Team Natsu. Heck even Laxus was there. The only person Lucy could pick out that was missing was Gildarts. "What's going on?"
Makarov gestured for Lucy to take a seat. She found an open spot next to Wendy and sat down. Makarov continued to look out over his gathered children, "There is no use trying to hide this information or the severity of the situation from you my children. Acnologia has been spotted just outside of the Fiore Kingdom."
A resounding sense of dread spread over the group. Gasps came from some who remembered the beast and wide stares from those who had the fortune of never before laying eyes on the monster. Makarov gave the guild a moment to process the devastating news.
The echo of fear whipped through the guild like an unfamiliar wind. Those from Tenrou Island recalled the paralyzing fear they felt right before facing the beast. The rest of the guild recalled the pain of the long seven years spent waiting for their friends to return, wondering if they actually would. Lucy wondered if there was anything they could actually do. She wondered what the Master's plan was or if he even had one at all. She began to shake and mentally berated herself on how pathetic she was acting, letting her fear consume her like a little kid.
Was there a magic that could stop the evil monster? Was there anyone in the guild that would survive a brawl with it? A sinking feeling nestled itself into the depths of Lucy's stomach and weighed her down. She knew there would be four people expected to take the lead here, expected to save the day. This is what they had been raised to do, right? This what their lives have been leading up to all this time. A man of steel, a goddess of the sky, a bolt of lightening and Lucy's closest friend. Those four would be put at the forefront of this battle. The Dragon Slayers.
Lucy's thoughts screamed out that Acnologia was no mere dragon, but some kind of horrifying monster far worse. They screamed that it shouldn't be up to them to defeat this being of evil. It was the rational part that simply whispered to her, told her she knew that they would go with heads held high. She knew that they had already accepted this responsibility even though it wasn't just theirs to carry. So what Makarov said next both relieved and surprised Lucy.
"The entire guild is to evacuate Magnolia immediately. You will all travel as one and make your way as far from here as quickly as possible. I have contacted an old friend of mine who runs a rather large guild hall a few countries over. Remember my children, no matter what happens you look out for each other and uphold the Fairy Tail name." Makarov stood atop the table and had his hands behind his back. His eyes were closed and his head bowed in resignation. Something told them he didn't like this plan very much, but he thought it was their only choice.
"Master," Erza stepped forward from the crowd, her voice as commanding as always, "I request permission to stay and fight to protect Magnolia. This town has endured much on our behalf and I wish to return the favor."
Makarov pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "You never just do what I say, do you Erza?"
"I'm staying, too." Gray piped in, moving to stand next to Erza. Then taking a step to the left when he realized he was invading her personal space a bit. "We're not just gonna run scared and let this town try and defend itself."
"You guys go ahead and go to that cushy guild, but I'm staying to fight 'cause this is what Igneel raised me for." Natsu of course was always ready for a battle, but his confidence wasn't in his ability to win, merely to stand up and fight.
Gajeel, not to be bested, stood as well, "Flame Brain won't be able to pull it off alone so I guess I've gotta go too. I ain't gonna let Metalicanna's good name go bad."
Laxus shrugged from his position leaning against a post, "I've got nothing better to do."
Makarov shook his head, "You damn brats. I ordered you to get out of here. That means none of you stay!"
Wendy put a hand on Makarov's shoulder and smiled brightly up at him, "Of course we're going to fight. It's who we are."
But Carla was not far behind, "I absolutely forbid you, child. You are not walking into a battle you know for a fact will kill you!"
And Happy's support for Natsu rang out, "Aye, I go where Natsu goes and he's gonna fight then so am I!"
Until there were so many shouting voices that Lucy's thoughts got lost in the mess. Some shouted that hiding was best and others said that fighting was manly. Then that same voice said that a man's little sister shouldn't fight because it was too dangerous for a lady. There were some voice that just didn't know what to think. The roar of all the confused emotions of the guild members was silenced by Makarov's exceedingly large fist slamming into the table behind him.
"You ungrateful brats are going to get going now! I am not going to watch my fairies be squashed by this monster! I understand that you all want to stay here and protect Magnolia, but you can't!" Makarov sighed and with the weight of all his children Makarov slumped down onto the table, "The truth is that there was a man spotted riding the dragon." The whisper of the dark wizards name made it's way through the guild, Zeref. "I am certain that this is a targeted attack. Acnologia is coming straight for us. We are his target. Getting out of here now is the only hope."
Lucy heard her voice before she even knew she was speaking, "So, Magnolia won't be destroyed. If we're not here will Acnologia just leave?"
Makarov looked out at the many faces surrounding him. A pained expression took his features making the years of wrinkles look even more pronounced on his face. "I'm afraid Acnologia destroys anything and everything in his path. Whether we're here or not, whether we fight or not, Magnolia will be destroyed. I've told the city officials to have everyone evacuate. I'm not going to pretend like everyone will get out safe, but I'm only worried about my own damn brats right now. The ones that won't leave!"
Mirajane stepped right in front of Makarov and bent down to his eye level, "I'll leave, Master, if you come with us."
Of course it had been Mirajane to realize what the Masters plans were. He heaved another heavy sigh closed his eyes again, "You need even more of a head start now than ever. Someone needs to be here to fight him off long enough to let you brats get away."
Erza shook her head slowly, "I shall stay at your side and fight with you Master. I refuse to leave you here to fight this monstrosity alone."
Another resounding wave of agreements and uncertainties washed over the gathered guildmates and drown the place in sound. Lucy vaguely thought that it was a bit better than the silence. But only a bit. Lucy can see the tension and anxiety building on the Masters face as they waste even more time. She looks at Levy, standing next to her, as she stares at Gajeel. It looks like she's trying to memorize his face, but he's too busy talking strategy with Laxus and Natsu to notice. Both of which are in turn telling Wendy that maybe she should sit this one out. Everyone was trying to convince someone to go or explaining why they have to stay.
For the second time that day, Lucy's body moved without her permission. She sat down next to Makarov on the table and amidst all the craziness and fear she said calmly, "I can't leave, Master. I'm sorry, but I have some stuff I've got to protect even if I'm not very good at protecting it."
Makarov looked back at her with a plea in his eyes. He knew that if he could convince her to leave that it would convince a certain others to leave as well and that she could herself convince a couple more, "We are Fairy Tail Wizards. We live so we can fight another day. You kids have to get out of here so that Fairy Tail can live on. I don't want it to end here."
"Don't be silly Master. We don't live to fight. We fight to live. No matter how unbeatable the odds might seem that's never stopped us before. You know that nobody's going to leave without you either. Didn't you realize that on Tenrou when you tried to pull this stunt the first time?" Lucy popped a hand to her hip, "We're way too stubborn. Besides I'm staying for totally selfish reasons. My old house is still standing and that place has all memories of my mother in it. I promised myself I'd buy it back one day and fix it up. I can't do that if it's bulldozed by some stupid dragon."
The entire guild looked at Lucy in shock. She was abnormally out of character. She acted fearless and down right careless about the looming threat hanging over them. If anyone would do that, it would be Natsu, but instead there sat Lucy. Makarov just looked at her realizing that they all had special attachments to the area. It was were many of them had grown up. "You think that building, this hall, or this town is your home? Fairy Tail is your home. Your friends around you, alive and breathing is your home. What good is defending this place if we all die doing it?" Makarov asked. By this point there conversation had drawn the attention of the guild and by keeping their voices down everybody had to be quiet to hear them.
"What good is running when he'll just come and find us?" Lucy answered, unblinking. "If he's really after us then he's not going to stop just because we run away."
"What's the use of hiding? Prolonging a horrible battle? You can train to be stronger and spend what ever time you can get together." Makarov explained a bit desperately.
"Or we could stupidly and hotheadedly charge into battle today, here, with you." Lucy looked out to her guildmates, "What do you think guys?" A landslide yeah! answered her question. So, protecting her old home wasn't her only reason for staying, but nobody had to know, "We're also strongest together, with you."
Makarov grit his teeth and tried to hold back the tears, but the countless faces nodding their support to him just made the small old man feel like the center of the best family he could have ever asked for.
They didn't stop arguing until the danger was at their doorstep. They argued until they heard the terrifying roar of Acnologia right outside of their guild hall. While Makarov grew to sizes unimaginable he was still shouting obscenities at his children. While they battled and fought their hearts out and many of their comrades were injured Makarov screamed at them all. But not once did he expect them to listen. Because they were his family and he knew with every part of his breaking heart that they would never leave him or their home.
Everyone from Bixslow to Lisanna gave it everything they had. Freed used his strongest runes and Max his impressive amount of sand. Laki, Nab, and even Kinana did as much damage as they could. Raijinshuu worked flawlessly together, just like the Strauss siblings. Reedus even jumped in front of Levy at one point to protect her. Team Natsu gave it absolutely everything they had with three of Lucy's spirits joining the fray.
But here in Magnolia there was no Tenrou tree and Mavis couldn't come to save them. There was no guarantee that everyone would come home. Not with a threat this large. So when more and more comrades fell, four members tried for a team attack. The Dragon Slayers felt like they had to defeat him. That not defeating Acnologia would be betraying their name. It was an attack they tried before and nothing was supposed to go wrong. No one knew what to do when one of the Slayers didn't get back up. He had been swatted from the sky. There was no hard fought battle, the fighting had only just begun for the Slayers. No one thought that being swatted from the sky, despite the force, would do him in. He was stronger than that.
No one stopped to think that he would be gravely injured. Until of course, he didn't get up. That's when she ran over to him. That's when she tried to get him to stand up. No one expected he could be so hurt by something as stupid and mundane as a rock. When Natsu died it was going to be in a show of amazing heroism or even of old age. But not now, not like this. She lifted his back from where it had landed on that stupid rock. She could see the white of his bone, the white of his spine. She could see the whites of his eyes when she looked for the typical signs of life. And couldn't find his pulse. Her fingers fluttered over his body hoping to be seared by his fire. He was warm, but he was not hot, not like he should have been.
Right there, in the middle of battle, with their friends waging war to protect the things they loved, Natsu and Lucy were losing each other. His name passed through her lips, in a whisper, in a desperate scream, in a silent plea for him to stay alive. The more unresponsive he became the more desperately Lucy clung to him. The debri from the battle raging around them landed just inches from his body. Lucy stood in front of his body determined to protect him until she could get him to Porlyusica. He had protected her future and she promised to do the same.
She whipped out her key ring. With tears streaming down her cheeks and not a thought in her head she started screaming, "Bring him back! Give him back to me! You don't get to take him away from me! Acnologia leave my family alone!" the keys in her hand started to shine. Then everything was silent. Everything had disappeared from around them. The fight, the debri, and the monster were all gone. Lucy started to panic, still clinging to Natsu and her keys.
That's when the King appeared, "Old friend," and he looked down at Lucy with tears streaming down her cheeks and frowned, "You are in much pain."
"What am I doing here?! I have to get back. I have to save Natsu and help my friends!" Lucy shouted in a frenzy.
"Calm down, time passes much slower here. It has been only moments." The King looked at the small fragile girl. He didn't want to say what he was going to say next. Oh, how he didn't want to say it. "The boy will not survive."
"Don't say that! You don't know him! He's Natsu Dragneel and he makes it through everything! I believe in him! He'd never leave me!" she sobbed despite herself. His head rested in her lap as she realized she was kneeling. She touched her forehead to his. "He promised."
"The boy will die," The King insisted, "unless you save him."
"Me?" Lucy looked up only just daring to hope. Breathing hard she stated firmly. "I'll do anything."
"That's actually the reason I'm here. When you held up your keys in defense and pushed every ounce of your magic into them the magic started to pour into the person you wanted so desperately to save. You are linking your magic to him. If you continue to do this he will be able to enter the celestial realm and heal much more quickly than any human could ever dream. Even from this grave an injury. I have to oversee this exchange. He will become…"
But the world was lost to Lucy. If she thought there was any way to save Natsu, well she was already on it. Her keys were already out and she was holding tightly to both them and to Natsu. She started to scream with the exertion it took to force all of her magical energy out of her. "Bring him back to me!" But just like it had with her attempt and creating a gate for Aquarius, the power started to concentrate on her casting hand. The brightness radiating from what seemed like the center of her hand and growing outwards was incredible.
"Old friend," The Celestial Spirit King was shaking his head and continued in warning. "You need to understand the consequences of your actions. You need to understand what it is you're doing."
"I don't care about the consequences. I don't care what I'm doing. I will save him. I will bring him back!" Lucy pushed past the unbearable exhaustion and increased her magical output as much as she could. She let her grief drive her farther than it ever had before. That's when she felt something back from her keys. A warmth spread and she did something she hadn't done yet. She asked her spirits to help her. She plead with them in her mind, asking them to please, lend all the strength they could to her.
They appeared. They appeared around her in an almost phantom like form and all placed a hand on one another forming a train with Leo resting his hand on Lucy's shoulder. They pumped every bit they could muster of their own magic into their master and it finally started to work. Natsu was being tied to the celestial realm.
The Celestial King nodded and smiled. "Good idea, old friend. Though it has never been done you will remain unharmed because of the help you have received from your spirits. This is a very rare occurrence. Well done, Lucy Heartfilia, well done."
And everything went black. Lucy opened her eyes seconds later. She was back on the battlefield in Magnolia. Nothing had changed. It was as though she had never really left. Except Natsu was no longer in her arms. She stood, completely drained of her magic and unable to do anything to help. She felt a warmth at her hip, her keys. She took them out to examine them. "What have I done?"
Yes, Lucy, what exactly have you done? Eh, I'm overall just okay with this chapter, but that's what I get for writing it in such a freakin' hurry. Oh well. I really wanna hear what you guys thought about the idea of this and the direction you think this is going. It's pretty much a dead give away with the title, lemme hear you're thoughts on what Lucy just did. Give me your favorite parts, least favorite parts and everything in between. Anything you really wanna see happen I'd be happy to take into consideration for ya.
R&R
-Inkwell