"LUCY!" Natsu was screaming as people tried to hold him down in his bed. Lucy's heart monitor had started to beep monotonously, stating she had no heartbeat again.
Porylusica and Wendy were bent over her, and slowly the rhythmic beeping started up again. Erza barked, "You can't move Natsu. You're wounds won't heal if you keep thrashing around."
Natsu lashed out at her, "I don't give a shit about my wounds! Lucy is dying! Get off me!"
Elfman secured him to the bed, making sure he couldn't use magic or brute force to break loose. "There's nothing you can do Natsu. None of us can do anything. We just have to wait and see if she pulls through." The big burly man had tears running down his face, like most people in the infirmary.
Porylusica walked over to him. "If you don't behave I will put you out again. I'm doing everything I can for Lucy. Your job is to rest and heal. You were dead when we found you, your body needs to recuperate." Natsu was sobbing against his pillow, repeating Lucy's name, ignoring everyone else. Porylusica took pity and knocked him out with medicine. The guild was quite except for beeping of machines and the soft sobbing of everyone.
Lucy felt aware again. It was odd, she was in a state of in between. She was awake, but she couldn't move. She knew she wasn't dead, but she felt like she might as well be. She would be soon, she was sure.
Her body was broken, but what was worse was that her spirit was broken as well. She had no will to live. Natsu was dead. He was lifeless in front of her, not breathing, not moving. And the knife had struck her chest, why was she still alive?
Let me die, let me die, I want to just die.
She wanted Natsu. And Natsu was not here.
Lucy's monitor once again showed her erratic heartbeat slow into nothing, and Porylusica managed to revive her again. The infirmary was empty now in the middle of the night, and Natsu was still knocked out from drugs. Porylusica had been restarting Lucy's heart every few hours, who knows how much longer her body can hold up.
Porylusica hadn't slept in days ever since the two mages had been brought back to Fairy Tail after their teammates finally tracked them down. Wendy had used her nose to sniff them out, and when they found them, they thought they were too late. They had recounted the image to Porylusica, explaining how they had found them.
Lucy had been strung up in some kind of torture confinement, a knife was plunged into her chest, but that wasn't even the worst of it. She was barely recognizable. Her skin had been peeled off in places, she was covered in her own blood, her skin was enveloped in bruises and cuts and other nasty openings from some sort of torturing device. In some places you could see bones or organs popping out. Blood had ran down from her body onto the floor. So much blood. She was barely breathing when they found her.
Natsu they discovered was already dead.
His heart had long stopped beating, and his body was turning cold and stiff. He was about as bad as Lucy, looking as if he had undergone hours of pitiless torture. His body wasn't as physically destroyed as hers, his torture must have been more emotional, watching her being tortured.
They had been brought back to Porylusica, and it was only her advanced magic that brought Natsu back to the world. Wendy's assistance in the physical healing was very beneficial in closing their deepest wounds so they wouldn't bleed to death. Already, they had lost too much blood. And that rowdy dragon boy kept pushing his body to the limit every time he woke up. Lucy's heart kept stopping. Porylusica suspected that whenever Lucy became semi conscious her thoughts of the traumatic incident would cause her heart to fail.
Markarov opened the door and locked it behind him. "How are they?"
Porylusica snorted, "Dying. Still. I can't heal them like this. I can only keep them alive, just barely."
Markarov nodded sadly. He walked over and took Lucy's hand. "Why does her heart keep stopping?"
Porylusica answered, "Perhaps every time she wakes up her trauma catches up with her. Her body isn't completely on the brink of death anymore. It is her soul trying to pull away from the body. She is doing this to herself. Only she can save herself now, I will soon be too powerless to keep her here."
Markarov nodded again. "Do you mind, Porylusica? I just want a moment to talk- especially if it may be the last time."
She nodded and left the room.
Master sighed. "Lucy. I hope you can hear me now. I beg you to listen to me. Natsu is alive. I imagine you think he's dead, and that's why you're trying to kick the bucket too. But he is alive and here. He is waiting for you.
Natsu is worried about you. He can't heal himself because of his worry. I beg you to wake up. Please stay with us. There's more to life, you know, you've only just started.
Come back to us. Come back to Natsu. He needs you. You can't leave him too, you know that. You and I and probably everyone in the guild know that this is his nightmare coming true. Lucy... you are his only weakness. And as strange as it is, you are also his strength. You know that if you let yourself die he will follow you without another thought.
Here you both are, barely alive in these beds, completely dependent on each other. If one leaves so does the other. But you can both stay. You are both alive and you can pull through this. We can all pull through this tragedy Lucy. It doesn't have to be a tragedy... We will avenge you both.
Lucy, only you can make this a happy ending. So try Lucy. Try for him, for Natsu. Fate is in your hands now."
Lucy's mind stirred once again. Images flooded her mind. Natsu, dead. Blood dripping to the pool underneath her. A knife hilt protruding from her chest. The smile of a dark man.
But despite the overwhelming pain... Lucy heard something... no. Someone. Someone was talking to her. She wondered who it was. Should she bother straining herself to listen? She tried to catch the words. It was a deep mumbling voice, sweet and strong and wise. And familiar. Her ears finally started to capture the words formed from the voice.
"Please stay with us..." It faded out.
"needs you. You can't leave..." she strained her ears. Who needs her? Natsu needed her, but he was dead. And nobody else mattered. Her family was dead.
"probably everyone in the guild knows that.." Knows what?
"you are his only weakness." Referring to Natsu? I was the weak one. Yes I was his weakness...and I killed him.
"let yourself die he will follow you." Wait. What? Who will follow her?
"these beds, completely dependent on" Oh, was she only alive because of a machine? Perhaps she was in a coma and that's why she couldn't respond to anything.
"both alive and you can pull through this" Both? Both? Was Natsu... no. She couldn't dare to hope. She saw his lifeless eyes staring at her.
"tragedy... We will avenge you both. Lucy..." There. You only avenge people when they're dead right?
"Try for him, for Natsu." His name spread pain through her heart.
Try to live for him? When he wasn't there? What was the point of that?
Master stared at Lucy. Her heart rate had speed up, but at least she hadn't crashed this time. He noticed a tear trickle down her cheek. Was she awake? Could she hear him?
"Lucy? Lucy can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?" No response. He wondered if she had heard his speech. If she knew Natsu was alive, would she continue to try dying?
He sighed, and tried once more. "Lucy. Your family is here, waiting for you. Natsu is waiting for you. Wake up please." Still getting no response he left her there, more heartbroken than before.
Lucy barely heard a few more wisps of the old calm voice.
"hear me? Can you open your eyes?" Lucy tried to oblige, but where were her eyes again? How does she open them?
"your family is here, waiting" No. My family is dead. My mother. My father. Natsu. Dead.
"Wake up please." Lucy couldn't if she tried. There was no reason to try that hard anyways.
Thanks for reading! Here's an update! Sorry to have kept you waiting on a cliffhanger last chapter- but Natsu is still alive! Will Lucy discover he's still alive before she accepts the darkness trying to suck her life away?
