Chapter 9:
Everything was hazy when Lucy slowly opened her eyes; an odd warm substance covered her hands. There was feeling in her gut that something was wrong, terribly wrong. Finally her vision focused onto the floating cloud above her. She turned her head to see one of the NightBlade members from earlier was on the ground whimpering and clutching onto another body, which she pressumed as the other member. However, far off on the field there was an odd shape of something blue. HAPPY! Wait… Where's Natsu…? The thought spun inside of her mind several times before she had the energy to sit up but something was on top of her body that won't allow her too. She swallowed in fear as she slowly looked down to see the top of her partner's pink fluffy hair. Apart from that, there were many different weapons that stuck out from various angles that were embedded into his back.
"N-Natsu…" Lucy slowly lifted one of her hands but it was dripping with blood -beginning to shake feverishly- she pulled herself from under Natsu's body. Then rushed to his side to examine his wounds, Lucy cringed at the looks of the depths of the wounds. But without Wendy here, they didn't really have anyone to heal any of them right now. She whipped her head around to face the NightBlade members.
"Were you the ones that hurt Natsu?!" she shouted in a loud voice, scaring him more now.
"I-I'm… S-s-sorry. I f-forgot about the k-knives… I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Apologizing over and over again at Lucy, but she didn't want to hear him out anymore. She was busy frantically trying to see if the Dragon Slayer was still alive. Lucy scanned the place and the only other people that she could call for help were Levy and the Tri-Men. Her eyes brighten up a little when she noticed the bandages that were carefully wrapped around certain wound areas.
"LEVY-CHAN!" however they were too far for them to hear her. Pulling out Virgo's key, the Celestial mage used the last bit of magic to call her out. Whipping it out, she called out the purple haired Celestial Spirit; a puff of white smoke disappeared as well as the magic circle.
"Princess, what will be my punishment?" Virgo asked as she twirled around to face her master. But Lucy shook her head.
"Virgo, can you get Levy-chan here? Natsu needs help…" Lucy ordered in a quiet and trembling voice, she placed Natsu carefully on her lap and not daring to even try to flip him over. Virgo nodded and a hole was suddenly created into the ground, far off where Levy was. Lucy could spot Virgo jump out and pull Levy down with her after giving a brief explanation of the situation that she was in.
"Lu-chan!" Levy said in a panicky voice as she was let down from Virgo's arms.
"Natsu… What do we do?!" tears were fighting to fall out of Lucy's eyes; Levy looked just as worried as well.
"Don't worry Lu-chan, I'll handle this." The blue haired mage said in a confident voice, she stood away from the group and moved her arms in a certain way. Lucy could see what you were writing and suddenly a large amount of different first-aid supplies dropped onto the floor. Levy started working on the knives and once they were pulled out, Lucy could see that they were slowly healing. Considering that he's a Dragon Slayer and that he has been injured countless times. Natsu did build quite a tolerance towards pain and wounds.
Lucy helped Levy with the bandaging after a couple blades were pulled out and Lucy felt Natsu flinch a little on her lap.
"Natsu?" Lucy stopped wrapping and looked down at Natsu's face, his eyelids moved a little but then relaxed. To Lucy, it seemed like he was asleep. Lucy went back to bandaging that battered up Natsu. Once they were finished Lucy thanked Levy and Virgo took her back to the rest of the group to help them with other things.
Natsu was breathing slowly on Lucy's lap, his chest rising up and down slowly, "Happy…" Lucy heard him mumble the blue cat's name and her head snapped up as she had forgotten about Happy. She fumbled with her keys and called out Virgo again, "Virgo, can you get Happy back here?"
"Yes princess." And she spun another hole into the ground and popped back with Happy safely in her arms. The small blue Exceed seemed to be tired out and was snoring quietly in her arms. Virgo carefully handed Happy to Lucy and bowed, returning back to the Celestical World. Lucy caressed Happy's fur gently and felt tired herself but she couldn't let down her guard. Natsu and Happy were resting and Lucy was determined to keep them safe. She let out a sigh and watched over the pair.
Everything was hazy and blurry as well as his own senses, irritated by it. Natsu glanced around the place, empty and foggy; swamp-like. It had a peaceful feeling to it but he didn't really feel it. The vast white empty place made Natsu suspicious. What happened? How in the world did he even get here? He remembered something about knives and Lucy…
"Lucy!" He shouted her name as he pivoted around, seeing if he could be able to spot the familiar blonde girl but nothing came in response. "Where am I?" though there was no one to hear him other than himself. Then a beacon of light shot out right in front of him. Natsu used his arms to cover his eyes from the blinding light but even with them closed, it still stung his eyes. Suddenly, it stopped and a mystical sound came humming out from it. Cautiously, Natsu opened his eyes slowly and saw a large figure hovering in front of him, just a bit taller than he was.
"Natsu, beware of the future…" the being paused for a considerable second and Natsu stared at the floating person, "your friends may be different in a way you've never imagined." Then it disappeared back into the ground and the beam of light followed, leaving nothing but a spot of light. The pink-haired mage stared at the ground in confusion but took the words into thought.
"My friends…" his body tensed at a possibility but pushed the thought away. All of a sudden, his body felt heavy and his mind was blank at any thought. His legs gave way and Natsu crumbled onto the floor and blacked out.
Lucy sat calmly on her knees as she felt the Flame Dragon Slayer's head shake back and forth on her lap. He mumbled about something incomprehensible and her eyebrows furrowed together.
"Natsu?" with a panicky voice, she started to gently shake him awake and his eyelids suddenly shot open. They were filled with fear and his senses were sharp. But when Natsu saw Lucy's anxious face, his body relaxed and slowly to sat up in a painful way. "Are you alright? You were mumbling about something in your sleep…" she trailed off as Natsu looked a bit off. Lucy called Natsu's name several times until she got a confused Natsu with a grunt.
"What? Where's everybody?" Natsu began to bombard Lucy with all sorts of questions regarding about everyone else.
"Most of them are getting treated by Levy right now. I think only Erza and Tsuki are still going at it." Natsu's eyes scanned the area and saw that most of the members were bandaged and resting. The other NightBlade members' bodies littered the grounds, some blown far off from the place where they only appeared as a small speck. Then his eyes rested by the area where the scarlet-haired girl had switched to another different set of armour.
"Happy's still sleeping…" Lucy said, hoping to get Natsu's attention again and he turned to look at the peaceful looking blue Exceed resting safely in Lucy's arms.
"Guess MaxSpeed took most of his energy," he ruffled Happy's head in a father-like way, "Thanks Happy." Lucy smiled at the cute scene, then stood up and helped Natsu up as well.
"Let's get to the others." Lucy suggested and handed Happy to Natsu as she pulled out Virgo's key. In a flash, the familiar pink-haired maid popped out and bowed at Lucy. "Can you get us over to the others over there?" pointing in the direction where Levy was, Virgo nodded and held Lucy in her arms. Using a new hole, Lucy surprised the others when she magically jumped out of the ground. Then Virgo returned to get Natsu and Happy over to the rest.
"That'll be all, thanks Virgo." With one last bow, the maid disappeared yet again.
"Natsu, you look… Uh. Good?" Gray raised his brow at him then looked back at Lucy. "What happened?"
"Nothing, I'm fine." Natsu brushed off Gray, "Is everyone done getting treated?" Levy nodded at him.
"Just finished." As she slipped a pin through the cloth bandaging on Rouge's arm.
"Then let's get going. We're going to be late for the meeting about the mission." Sting retorted and shrugged on his jacket. Natsu nodded in agreement and quickly everyone rushed over to Erza's side, that wasn't too far off from where they were resting.
"ERZA!" Gray and Natsu called out in unison as they were nearing the place now. When a sudden scream echoed out and everyone paused, Erza.
Sorry for the long wait!
