Disclaimer: I don't own fairy tail.
It's done! I cried when I wrote this.
Please don't hate me!
Read/review!
Erza lay on the ground, shaking. The battle had left her exhausted. The demon was dead, reduced to a heap of rubble, and the village had withstood minimal damage.
"Erza?" Lucy's weak voice called.
Erza looked up, suddenly remembering her friend's injuries. She stood up slowly, and made her way across the clearing.
Crouching down beside Lucy, Erza ripped off a strip of Lucy's shirt. "Hold still. This is going to hurt."
Two of Lucy's ribs were sticking up out of her abdomen. Erza hissed when she saw the bone. "That bastard. Where'd he run off to?"
Lucy tried to take a deep breath. "As soon as you killed Goliath, he dissapeared. Probably back to his guild hall."
Erza nodded, wrapping the makeshift bandage around the ribs. "I'll buy you a new shirt. I promise."
"Lucy! Erza!" A familiar voice called. Natsu came running out of the forest, Gray close behind. "We thought you'd need help, but it looks like the two of you managed just fine!"
Erza scowled. "Where have you two been?"
"I got held up." Gray explained.
Natsu grinned. "More like held down. He somehow got stuck in quicksand, and then I had to come rescue him. And then, there was the problem of getting pants for the stripper-Ow!"
Gray punched him in the shoulder, his face red.
Lucy coughed. "You-you lost your pants? For goodness sake, when are you ever gonna learn-(cough)- to keep your clothes on, G-gray?"
Natsu's grin dissapeared, noticing the blood for the first time. "Lucy! What happened to you?"
"It's nothing." She wheezed as her boyfriend crouched down next to her. "I was just being stupid."
His eyebrows came together in a worried expression. Natsu brushed the hair out of her face. "It's not nothing. You're hurt."
She smiled weakly. "I'll be fine."
Erza ripped another strip of fabric off of the bottom of Lucy's shirt.
Natsu scowled. "What are you doing that for?"
Erza rolled the fabric into a ball. "Here, Lucy. Bite down on this."
Lucy's face paled. The dragon-slayer's eyes widened, and he reached for her hand.
"Ready?" Erza said firmly. Lucy gripped Natsu's hand tight, nodding. "One, Two, Three!"
On three, Erza tightened the bandages, and Lucy screamed into the fabric in her mouth. Tears streamed down her face.
With a loud pop, her ribs slipped back into place.
Erza frowned. "That should be enough until we can get you proper medical attention."
Lucy shut her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm herself.
"You okay?" Natsu said quietly.
Lucy shook her head. "It hurts."
"I know. I get beat up enough by Erza, don't I?" He said, forcing a laugh.
She chuckled softly, but it soon turned into coughing. She and Natsu had only started dating two month ago, and in all that time, Natsu had always tried his hardest to make her laugh, no matter what,
Suddenly, the body of the demon began to glow. The ground around it started to crackle with magic energy,
"What the hell is that?" Gray shouted.
Erza glanced at the demon, preoccupied with cleaning up lucy's wound.
"I don't know."
The glow started to increase, emanating from a very large lacrima buried in the demon's chest. It got to the point where the demon itself began to dissolve away.
Natsu and Erza exchanged a fearful glance. "It can't be..."
"There's too much magic energy contained in the Lacrima." Erza said, remembering the incident at the Tower of Heaven. "If there's nothing to absorb the magic power..."
"Everything within a fifteen-mile radius explodes." Natsu finished.
Lucy heard Gray curse in the background. Erza's hands shook.
"Not again." The re-quip mage whispered.
Lucy closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Natsu help me up."
"What? Lucy..."
"Just do it. Help me stand, or I'll do it without your help." She said, her voice trembling.
Natsu sighed, then slid his arm under her waist, wincing every time she hissed in pain. Slowly, he helped her get to her feet. She clung to him for a moment, panting, her fists gripping the fabric of his vest.
"Lucy...?"He said uncertainly, his voice worried. "You should lie down."
"No." She said fiercely. "No. You said something had to absorb all of that magic energy?"
Natsu gaped at her for a moment. "Lucy! Are you crazy? I can't let you do that."
Lucy shook her head, burying her face in his chest. "Someone has to do it."
Natsu held her close, not daring to let her go. "Just not you, Luce. Not you. Please."
With tears on her cheeks, she looked up into his green eyes. "I love you, Natsu."
Natsu shook his head, afraid that speaking would show how scared he was.
Lucy tilted her head up, pressing her lips against his.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, pulling away.
"No! Lucy, you can't! I'm not letting you go anywhere!" He shouted, gripping her wrist so tightly that her hand turned white.
"Natsu..." Her voice cracked. "You have to let me go."
"No..." He choked. By now, tears were streaming down his face, and the Lacrima kept getting more powerful.
Erza and Gray came up to stand beside Lucy.
"Quit the drama. No one is going to die. We'll find another way." Gray said, even though they all knew there was no other way.
"If you think you're gonna just waltz over there and kill yourself without killing us first, you're wrong." Erza added.
"Lucy..." Natsu croaked meeting her eyes. He loved her eyes. Deep pools of brown that always seemed to shine like water on a lake.
Suddenly, a loud boom rang out from the Lacrima. The earth shook, knocking everyone off of their feet. Before her friends could react, Lucy was up on her feet and running towards the over-loading Lacrima.
"LUCY!" Natsu roared.
Lucy's heart tore into a million pieces when she heard the desperation in his voice, but she kept running, despite the broken ribs. When she reached the Lacrima, she placed her palms on it, immediately letting out a scream as unimaginable pain coursed through her muscles.
Her body began to glow with blue light. Her friends rushed forward to try and help her, but a wall of magic energy pushed them back. Lucy was alone, in pain, at the center of her own personal vortex.
"Lucy! Stop it!" Erza cried out.
The celestial mage heard, but kept going, unable to contain her own screams. I'm sorry. This is the only way.
As the power reached its max, the light was so bright that Natsu couldn't see her anymore. "LUCY!"
He kept screaming her name even when his voice was hoarse, crouched on the ground with his head in his hands. Gray stood by, shocked, unable to do anything.
Gradually, the magic energy subsided. When it was finally over, Lucy stood alone in a circle of charred earth.
Natsu looked up. "L-Luce?"
Without hesitating, he rushed forward, wrapping his strong arms around her.
"Natsu..." She whispered weakly. After second, she crumpled to the ground.
She closed her eyes. Her whole body felt like it had been set on fire.
The dragon-slayer was holding her tight against his chest, staring at her with tears flowing freely down his face. "Why? Why, Lucy? There had to be another way."
She shook her head slightly. "It needed to be done. I saved all of you, and that's what matters most." Lucy was trembling. Her breaths were shaky. "I...I'm glad I met you. All of you. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way."
Natsu's shoulders shook as he sobbed, his tears falling on to her face. "Stop talking like this. You're not going to die. If we can get you back to Porlyusica..."
He was stopped by Erza's hand on his shoulder. When he looked back, he saw that her face was soaked in tears. Her eyes told him everything.
When Erza had almost been killed at the Tower of Heaven, she thought that she was doing it for her friends. But being on the other end...having to watch your comrade die...was ten times as painful.
"Natsu." Lucy whispered.
Natsu shook his head silently, unable to speak.
"I love you."
Instead of replying, Natsu leaned his forehead against hers, trying hard to savor their last moments together. When he finally met her gaze, he memorized the deep brown of her eyes, the way her eyelashes feathered out, the gentle curve of her lips.
"I'll see you again, Natsu. Someday."
Somehow, he found the words to speak. "Promise?"
She ran a hand through his rose-pink hair. "Always."
He nodded. "Don't leave me, Luce."
"I'm sorry. I wish we had more time." She whispered.
"I love you." His voice cracked. He clutched her body even tighter to him.
The light in her eyes began to dim, and as she breathed her last, she spoke once more: "I love you, Natsu."
As soon as her head fell against his chest, Natsu's world fell apart.
He was vaguely aware of someone sobbing behind him. Erza. Somehow, the earth was on fire around his fists.
What Natsu didn't register was the fact that a certain ice-wizard had dissapeared off into the forest to avoid hurting anyone. He never felt the rain pour down on them from the black skies above. His arms were cut and badly bleeding, but he couldn't feel the pain. All he saw was Lucy's dead body.
Lucy.
His Lucy.
Dead.
Gone.
For once in his life he couldn't bear to look at Lucy. To see her usually warm face, devoid of all life, was slowly shredding his heart.
The roar of a dragon shook the earth that day. Those people living in nearby cities looked up from their work in fear, sensing, deep down, that something terrible had happened.
