Chapter 10: A living nightmare

Natsu lunged at Larkleeon, his fist engulfed in flames. He threw a straight punch at his enemy's face but he dodged out of the way an into an Natsu's opening.

"Shit!" Natsu said. Larkleeon threw a punch and hit Natsu directly in the side. The force of the punch sent him towards the wall. Natsu positioned himself in mid-air so that he'd hit feet first and jump towards Larkleeon again.

This time Larkleeon spun around, his cloak extending all around the room, extinguishing all of the torches, and his form disappearing into black dust. Natsu's fist landed where Larkleeon would of been.

"What the hell? Come out and fight me, coward!" Natsu shouted.

Once again, Lucy was in the dark and horrified. She wanted to summon a spirit, but what good would they do in the pitch black.

"I know all about the both of you." Larkleeon said, his voice coming from all around the room. "I know your greatest fears."

"You don't know shit!" Natsu shouted.

"I know, Natsu, that your greatest fear is that you'll never see Igneel again."

Natsu winced slightly.

"I also know you fear that one day you'll let your friends down."

"Shut your mouth, dirt bag! Like I said, you don't know shit!"

"Your fear isn't very strong surprisingly, that bores me. But her... Lucy. Oh your fear is just oozing out of you. Mmmmmm I can smell it."

Lucy's eyes widened. She was horrified. She wanted to cry out for Natsu to come to her but she was to scared to move, let alone speak.

"For instance, Lucy, you fear that one day, you'll be alone. That you'll have no one."

"You leave her alone you bastard!" Natsu shouted.

"You fear that all your friends will leave you, you fear that they'll hate you. You fear that they'll die like your mother and father."

As Larkleeon was talking, Lucy could see images in her head. Images of her friends shouting and yelling hateful things at her. Images of her crying in front of her friends corpses. Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"It's me you want! Come on!" Natsu yelled, trying to get the soul reaper to focus on him instead of Lucy.

"You fear that you can't protect the ones you care about. You fear that you'll never have a family ever again. You fear that no one will ever want you."

"YOU SHUT UP ALREADY!" Natsu yelled.

"You fear no one will ever love you for as long as you live."

Lucy fell to her knees. Tears were streaming down her face. "What horrible magic is this?" she thought. Her mind was filled with images of her being alone ,of her friends hating, of Natsu hating her. Even an image of her ending her own life.

"I ALREADY LOVE HER DAMN IT!" Natsu shouted

The images suddenly left her mind and her head shot up after hearing Natsu's words.

Natsu then spewed flames out of his mouth and around the whole room, igniting the torches once more.

"I'd never hate Lucy. No of her friends would. She'll always have a family."

Natsu looked at Lucy and smiled. "I'll always be here with her."

Larkleeon then rose from a shadow in the ground.

"Then I guess I'll just have to take you away from her." Larkleeon said.

Then a whip cracked across Larkleeons face, spraying his blood on the wall and floor. He looked towards Lucy who was standing whip in hand.

"I won't let you. He stays here with me, got it? You try and take him from me, and I'll kill you."

Larkleeon growled. "Fine. Guess you're first!" He shouted as he started to run towards Lucy, with elongated claws of shadow.

"Open, gate of the goat, Capricorn!" Lucy shouted as she shot her spirit key into the air.

Then her spirit Capricorn came out of the smoke that formed and kicked Larkleeon away from Lucy.

"You called, Lucy-sama?" her spirit said.

"Yeah, help me and Natsu take down that demon guy."

"As you wish." Capricorn said as he jumped towards Larkleeon.

"Alright, goat man!" Natsu shouted as he also jumped towards Larkleeon.

"Tch, fools." Larkleeon said as he put his hands to the ground and black pillars of shadows shot towards Natsu and the spirit.

Both dodged the black pillars and landed close of the demon.

Natsu threw a fire punch but Larkleeon dodged it, but was hit by Capricorn's attack. This continued for a bit, Natsu not being able to land a hit while Larkleeon took all of Capricorns blows.

"What the hell goat man? Save some for me!" Natsu said

"Sorry, but it seems he's more focused on dodging your attacks than mine." Capricorn replied.

"Hm... lets try this then." Natsu said.

He lunged towards the demon who readied himself to dodge, then Natsu suddenly jumped into the air, and while Larkleeon was distracted by Natsu Capricorn swept his leg, causing him to fall.

"Roar of the fire dragon!"

Larkleeon let out of cry of pain as he was enveloped in fire.

As the fire dispersed he stood up. Some of the flesh on his body was seared off, revealing only bone.

"So fire is your weakness huh?" Natsu said

Larkleeon just glared at the dragon slayer.

"Haha! You're toast then!" Natsu exclaimed

Suddenly Larkleeon disappeared into shadows and reappeared behind Capricorn, shoving a shadowy spiked arm through his torso.

"Capricorn!" Lucy shouted.

"I'm sorry... Lucy-sama.." Capricorn said as he poofed back into the spirit world.

"You bastard!" Lucy shouted at Larkleeon.

"Shame he doesn't have a human soul... I could really use one..." the demon said.

"Now that we know his weakness Lucy, we can beat him!" Natsu said

"Right. I focus on distracting him, and you attack him." Lucy said.

"Roger, partner!"

The battle had raged on for about half an hour. Lucy and Natsu we exhausted and covered in small wounds and injuries. Lucy had summoned Loki, Taurus, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. All were bested by Larkleeon, so Lucy was absolutely drained of her magical power. Natsu was tired but he still had some fight in him. Their strategy had been a success for a while. Because of Lucy's spirits, Natsu was able to deal a good amount of damage to Larkleeon. There was only a little bit of flesh left on his body.

"You... brats... how can... mere humans... do this? I... am a... Zeref demon... I can't lose..." Larkleeon panted

"You were destined to fail." Lucy said

Larkleeon shot a evil glare at Lucy.

Natsu ran towards Larkleeon but was stopped when the demon sent a shadow spike through his arm, pinning him against the wall.

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted.

She went to run towards Natsu to help but was stopped when another shadow spike shot through her thigh, pinning her to the ground.

Lucy let out a cry of pain.

"Lucy!" Natsu shouted.

Larkleeon slowly stood up.

"I... won't be... looked down upon... by some... girl..." he said.

Lucy struggled to pull out the spike from her leg, but it was no use. All her actions did was spurt blood from her thigh and cut open her hands from how sharp the spike was.

Larkleeon then lifted his arm and pointed it towards Lucy.

"No! Lucy!" Natsu yelled

Lucy cringed, and braced for her near death.

"DIE!" Larkleen shouted as he shot a big spike pillar out of his hand towards Lucy's head.

She closed her eyes and awaited her death.

"I'm sorry... Natsu..." she said

But her death didn't come. Instead she saw a flash of light and Natsu standing in front of her. He ran to shield her. As he stood between her and Larkleeon he let out one last fire dragons roar.

Larkleeon screamed in pain. His whole body was coved in flames.

"AAAAARRRGGGGHHH! NOOO I CAN'T BE DEFEATED BY SOME HUMAN! IMPOSSIBLLEEEEEE!" Larkleeon screamed

Larkleeon staggered back and forth while screaming, before he fell to the ground, and turned to ash.

Lucy let out a sigh of relief. Then she felt liquid running down her forehead. She wiped the unknown substance off her forehead to examine it.

"Blood?" she said

Then she watched as Natsu feel to his knees, and then collapse onto the ground.

Her eyes widened when she realized who's blood it was.

"No..." she said silently.

She crawled towards Natsu and carefully flipped him over onto her lap.

There was a giant gaping wound that went through his stomach and out the side of his back. It was bleeding really bad.

"No no no no. Natsu! Can you hear me? Speak to me!" Lucy said

Natsu coughed and then looked up at Lucy. "We... we beat 'em Luce..."

"Natsu you're hurt bad... w-we need to get you to a doctor!" Lucy said, her voice starting to tremble.

Lucy examined his wound and tried to position him so that she could lift him but he let out cries of pain. There was no moving him from where he was.

"S-shit. I can't move you, you're hurt too bad."

Natsu was back on her lap, breathing very faintly.

Tears were now running down Lucy's face and she was starting to talk hysterically.

"I... I... I have to g-go get you a doctor. You need medical attention. Shit! It's bleeding too much."

Lucy took off her cardigan, and tried to put pressure on his wound.

"Shit this isn't working. I... I... I..."

Lucy was bawling now. Tears were streaming down Lucy's face.

"I don't know what to do Natsu. I-I have to save you. I have to but I don't know what to do."

"Lucy..." Natsu said quitely

Lucy looked down at Natsu.

"It's okay... this was my job... remember? I'm your... guardian angel. I told you... that I'd keep you safe..."

"If you're my guardian angel then you're always supposed to protect me. You have to keep me safe forever. How can you do that if you're dead, huh? How?! How can you leave me alone Natsu... why... why..." Lucy weeped.

She pressed into Natsu's chest and continued to cry. Natsu was covered in blood and Lucy's clothes were covered in Natsu's blood.

Natsu lifted Lucy's head by her chin with his hand. Lucy cupped Natsu's face with her hands.

"I love you Natsu." Lucy said

"Heh... Happy was right..." Natsu said

Lucy laughed slightly. Then she slowly leaned down towards Natsu, where their lips met for a kiss.

As Lucy raised her head back up, she looked down and smiled at Natsu and he smiled back.

"I should of... taken everyone's advice... your lips are soft..." Natsu said as after their lips were apart. Lucy and Natsu laughed slightly but Natsu then cringed in pain and began to cough up blood.

"If I'm fast enough... I can make it into town..." Lucy said

"You're leg..." Natsu pointed out.

"I'll be fine. If I can summon Gemini then maybe-" Lucy said as she began to get up but she froze.

Her vision started to blur and she felt a sharp pain come from her side. She looked down at her side and noticed it was bleeding quite bad. The spike Larkleeon sent out managed to go through Natsu and then through Lucy's side. Then she fell over next to Natsu.

"I... I got hit too." Lucy said

"Looks like... neither of us... are leaving." Natsu said.

"Yeah."

"At least we... got the job done..."

"Yeah. Even though... we died doing it."

Natsu turned his head towards Lucy, and then she turned hers towards his.

"I'm glad that... I get to be... with my best friend until the end." Natsu said

"Me... too... Natsu." Lucy replied.

Lucy reached down to hold Natsu's hand and they both held each others hand as tight as they could.

Natsu's eyes then began to close as he fell unconscious and she felt his grip on her hand loosen as hers still remained tight.

Lucy's vision was still blurring in and out. Then she turned her head towards the tunnel they came from where she could hear foot steps approaching. She could only make out the silhouette of a person before she too fell unconscious.