Chapter 11: Natsu and Lucy
Present
"You're not going to go anywhere until you tell us what happened to you." Laxus demanded.
"Gildarts, to answer your question, am I a threat to Fairy-Tail? Yes." Natsu grinned.
Natsu looked around at the insurmountable odds and chuckled to himself as he remembered how he came to this point.
"You think this is funny." Gildarts questioned.
"Actually I do. I think it's funny that you're all here to save Gray. Everybody did always like him better than me." Natsu sighed.
"There was never any favouritism between Gray and you." Erza shouted. "I don't know what happened three years ago Natsu that caused you to leave but this new person you've become is unacceptable. As your friend I can't stand to see what you've become."
"You know what I hated most about you, Erza? Your condescending, holier-than-thou attitude. I see it hasn't changed over the last three years, you're still as pretentious as ever." Natsu scoffed.
"Sticks and stones Natsu, if you think that you can shake me with a few words you are wrong." Erza responded.
"Let's try, let me ask you something, if you had to kill me to save Gray, would you do it?" Natsu asked.
"What kind of sick question is that?" Erza responded.
"You could ask Lucy to help you out with the question but she'd probably sleep with Gray before giving you an answer." Natsu scoffed.
"Now you're going too far Natsu!" Cana shouted.
"Natsu, I know you hate me but please don't take out your anger on Fairy-Tail." Lucy pleaded.
"I'm done with this stupid town. Get out of my way and I'll leave here for good." Natsu spoke.
"I'm sorry Natsu, we can't do that." Laxus replied.
"Why? Do you still have some hope that I'll come back to Fairy-Tail?" Natsu questioned.
"That's not what's happening here Natsu. We're taking you back to Fairy-Tail, even if we have to do it by force." Gildarts explained.
"Are you sure? A battle would only end up destroying Magnolia." Natsu warned.
"That's why we're all here. We're here to end this as quickly as possible." Erza explained.
"I don't know what delusional fantasy world you're living in, if you think returning me to the guild would change anything." Natsu sneered.
"We're not doing this for you or for us. As much as we miss the old Natsu, we're doing this for one person." Erza explained.
"I guess I'm more loved than I thought." Natsu chuckled.
"Natsu, you were always loved by us, you still are. No one hates you." Lucy spoke up.
"Natsu let me give you your options. We can do this the hard way, or the harder way." Gildarts offered.
"How about none of the above?" Natsu refused.
"It's not going to be that easy; we're not letting you leave. We can't let you leave." Laxus shouted.
"I get it now. Gray was with all of you. He jumped the gun and came after me on his own." Natsu laughed.
"Gray has always been wound up when it's come to you over the last three years." Erza added.
"Natsu, I didn't know what happened three years ago. If I had known, nothing would have happened." Gray said as Juvia helped him stand.
"Juvia knows that everyone in Fairy-Tail missed you Natsu. Gray searched for you after you left; he wanted you to be the godfather to his son." Juvia revealed.
"That's touching but I would have refused anyway, I was too busy cleaning up." Natsu responded.
"I can see how burning down dark guilds across Fiore would be time consuming." Gildarts said.
"Natsu Dragneel will always be a member of Fairy-Tail but the crimson reaper is just a criminal." Laxus declared.
"I've mentioned this to you already; I've never actually called myself that. That's just a name that originated in Begonia." Natsu scoffed.
"Natsu, please, there's not much time. Just come back to the guild with us." Lucy shouted.
"You guys are going to have to drag me back barely alive because I'm not moving." Natsu stated.
"My grandfather is dying." Laxus finally admitted.
"He wanted to see you again. He has regarded being unable to stop you from leaving as a failure in his life." Gildarts explained.
"Master Makarov will never explicitly say it but we all know what's in his heart. He wants to see you enter the guild with that same cocky smile you always had." Erza said softly.
"Then I guess the old fool is going to die without seeing it." Natsu scoffed.
"That's it Natsu. You've pushed things too far; I'm going to beat the respect back into you." Laxus threatened.
"If you think you can, then you're welcome to try." Natsu dared.
"No Laxus, he's pushing us. We can't play into his hands." Erza held back the lightning dragon slayer.
"I'll handle this." Lucy shouted as he pulled out two more keys.
"Lucy, what are you talking about?" Cana asked.
"I need to do this. This has been a long time coming. I can't stand to see Natsu like this." Lucy explained. "Open the Gate of the Maiden! Virgo! Open the Gate of the Goat! Capricorn!"
"Wow, three celestial spirits at the same time." Natsu laughed.
"In the time that you've been gone, I've gotten a lot stronger. I'm an S-class wizard now." Lucy replied.
"I guess you would have to have gotten stronger, I wasn't around to be constantly saving you." Natsu jeered.
"Laxus, let me handle this. I'm begging you. Please go and allow me to take care of this." Lucy pleaded.
"Laxus, we should back off and allow Lucy to have this time. She might be the only one who can get through to him." Erza agreed.
Heeding Erza's advice, Laxus reluctantly agreed and had everyone pull back to allow Lucy the opportunity to handle this on her own.
"Princess, you finally found him. Now what?" Virgo asked.
"My lady, the salamander has finally come back." Capricorn noted.
"I'm sure you've all been told about the new Natsu." Loke gritted his teeth.
"Lucy, are you sure you want to do this?" Natsu asked.
"Why?" Lucy responded.
"There's still time to turn tail and run away like a coward." Natsu explained.
"No, running away is something you're good at but this time I'm not going to let you leave." Lucy retorted.
"Ouch, if I'm not careful you might break my heart twice in a lifetime." Natsu laughed.
"I'm going to just say it." Lucy readied herself.
"Not here, we should go somewhere more private." Natsu smirked as he took off running.
Lucy and her spirits then gave chase.
XXXXX
Gran Doma, the chairman of the Magic Council sat in his office meditating peacefully. He slowly inhaled and held the breath before exhaling. He was imagining a serene and undisturbed lake. The lake suddenly erupted in his mind's eye as the door to his office flung open.
Lahar, the bespectacled Head Captain of the Custody Enforcement Unit burst into the room out of breath.
"You better have a damn good reason for interrupting my meditation." Gran cursed.
"Our spy in Crocus just sent in an S-class emergency message." Lahar explained.
"That bastard hasn't sent us so much as a word the last few months and now he sends us an S-class emergency message." Gran muttered.
"I have no way of verifying if his information is correct." Lahar admitted in a defeated tone.
"Stop wasting my time and tell me what he said." Gran became annoyed.
"According to the letter he sent, Jellal is in Crocus." Lahar revealed.
"Jellal in Crocus, that's impossible. Crocus is crawling with Rune Knights. They would have found Jellal if he was there." Gran shouted.
"I thought the same thing but our spy says that Jellal is currently staying outside the city limits but is making trips into the city." Lahar continued.
"What could Jellal possibly want in Crocus?" Gran questioned. "Is there a dark guild in Crocus?"
"That's a possibility but I think he is trying to make contact with a particular guild and using Crocus as means to send his message. Crocus is the centre of Fiore and hundreds of requests flow through Crocus from smaller towns and are sent to different guilds. It is not impossible to send message in the form of requests given the nature of requests." Lahar gave his opinion.
"Fairy-Tail…" Gran cursed.
"Exactly, I think he might be trying to contact them. We know that Jellal and some of the Fairy-Tail wizards formed a bond during the Nirvana incident." Lahar said.
"It's always them. Lahar, I want you to take a regiment of our top Rune Knights to Crocus and find Jellal." Gran ordered.
"If I may request, I would like the First, Second and Third Custody Enforcement Units placed under my command and sent to Crocus." Lahar asked.
"So be it, you have command over those units. I will begin the paper work." Gran sighed.
"Thank you sir." Lahar left the room with a smile.
XXXXX
Natsu came to a stop in front of Lucy's apartment. The irony wasn't lost on Lucy who was surprisingly much faster than Natsu remembered.
"You came all the way to my house." Lucy chuckled.
"It's been three years since I've seen this place; I wonder how many men have passed through here in that time." Natsu mocked.
"Okay, fine, get it out of your system. Insult me all you want but you're going to have to listen to what I have to say." Lucy shouted.
"Lucy, I won't stand here and let him talk to you like that." Loke yelled.
"No Loke; this is the only way. You should have seen him the other day, he was filled with hate but now he's different. I feel I can get through to him now." Lucy explained.
"No Luc, do not misunderstand the situation. I still hate you and feel betrayed every time I see you but I've realized that ignoring you isn't as hurtful as this is." Natsu spoke up.
"Princess, I can make him disappear forever. Bury him beneath Magnolia." Virgo offered.
"No Virgo, I'll handle this for now." Lucy declined.
The blonde walked up to the dragon slayer leaving her spirits behind.
"Natsu, I'm sorry." Lucy said.
"It's three years too late for that." Natsu scoffed.
"Natsu, you brought me to Fairy-Tail. I will always be grateful for that. You were my best friend and I loved you but…" Lucy spoke unsure and uncertain.
"You still can't even say it." Natsu muttered. "If I never met you on that day in Hargeon; you'd probably be visiting some mayor in some pathetic port town somewhere."
Lucy was unsure how to respond to that but continued with the speech she had in her mind.
"I didn't feel that way about you. When I thought about you I couldn't picture us in that way. I was scared, I thought if we tried it would end badly and I'd lose you as a friend." Lucy admitted.
"So you got scared and ran into bed with Gray." Natsu scoffed.
"I don't have any excuses for that. I don't know what I was thinking. I was getting so scared as time winded down and I had to reject you. One thing led to another and I ended up with Gray." Lucy confessed.
"I would have been fine if you had just told me that you didn't love me the day I confessed. Heck, I would have been fine even if you said you hated me." Natsu cursed. "What killed me was that you knew you weren't going to say yes but made me wait and then you slept with my best friend."
"I was selfish and wanted to hold on to our friendship. I was secretly hoping you would come to me and say I should forget everything you said." Lucy said. "I'm sorry that because of me you became this."
Natsu then burst out laughing. He laughed and clutched his ribs as he laughed.
"How important do you think you are? I despise you but you are not the sole reason I changed. My heart getting broken was simply the catalyst that sent me down this path. You really need you to get over yourself." Natsu scoffed.
"Natsu, tell me what happened to you over the last three years. I can help you." Lucy reached out her hand.
"I wouldn't take help from you even if I was dying." Natsu swatted away her hand.
"I won't give up on you Natsu. I'm going to bring you home!" Lucy shouted.
"That Natsu that you're trying so hard to find is dead. He died in that godforsaken cell and I'm what crawled out after everything was said and done." Natsu roared back.
"Natsu…" Lucy mumbled. "I'm sorry."
"You can keep apologizing but I'm never going to forgive you. That would be too easy." Natsu scoffed.
"I'm not apologizing for what happened three years ago. I'm apologizing for what's going to happen now." Lucy said.
Capricorn was the first to attack, the goat jumped into the air and descended down upon Natsu. The two began exchanging attacks in close range hand to hand combat. Capricorn's expertise was able to make up for the difference in physical strength between the two.
Capricorn then back stepped just slightly and was devoured by the ground; Virgo had used her diver magic to retrieve the goat.
With Capricorn gone Loke came into view. Loke called on Regulus for power while moving his arms in a circular motion, summoning forth a Magic Seal in front of him. He then fired a large magical blast of light at Natsu.
Natsu stood his ground and using both hands pushed the attack skywards. With his hands above his head, Virgo appeared from underground behind him and unleashed the chains on her hands. The chains snaked around Natsu tying him up and constricting him like a python.
Capricorn then emerged from the same hole as Virgo and let loose a violent barrage of kicks and punches across Natsu's body before finishing off with a stiff uppercut to Natsu's jaw.
With Natsu shaken Virgo recalled her chains as she and Capricorn dashed away, opening the path for Loke. Loke charged his ring, gathering light in his open right palm and then clenched his fist. When his punch connected with Natsu's face, a large lion's head materialized from the light and blasted Natsu.
"Was that the best you got?" Natsu asked picking himself up gingerly.
"There's no way you should be able to be standing after that combination." Loke muttered.
"That was the same combo we used to defeat Fried and pass the S-class exams." Capricorn noted.
"Princess, I suggest opening a fourth gate and using a four spirit combination attack." Virgo spoke.
"You're going easy on me Luc, I'm disappointed." Natsu snarled getting up and attacking Virgo.
The dragon slayer grabbed the celestial spirit by her hair and threw her into Capricorn.
Before the fight could continue or escalate Gajeel leapt off the roof and landed between Natsu and the celestial spirits.
"It was right there Salamander, across the street we were waiting. It was there that you threw a 100 000 jewel ring into the river." Gajeel cursed.
"I never did pay you back for that." Natsu laughed.
"You bought a ring that day." Lucy remembered what Levy said.
"It was just a stupid trinket." Natsu scoffed. "What did you come here for Gajeel?"
"I came to get Lucy. Levy needs her now." Gajeel answered.
"We're not done here; she can leave when I smear her spirits across the pavement." Natsu roared.
"I'm not asking." Gajeel growled.
Natsu became engulfed in crimson red flames and sparks of golden lightning. Gajeel's eyes went white as iron scales covered his body and shadows danced around him.
"Gajeel, what happened?" Lucy asked.
"Makarov is dead." Gajeel answered.
The flames and lightning around Natsu died as he turned around and began walking away. Lucy felt torn between two worlds. She wanted to chase after Natsu but she also wanted to be with her guild in this time of mourning. The blonde gritted her teeth and returned with Gajeel.
