Welcome to the last chapter~ And may I warn you ahead of time, this may cause a feeling called sadness… I know it made me feel sad.

The Sun Always Sets, Even in Paradise

Chapter 12: Is It the End of the Road for Us?

Third Person

"Finally!" Natsu yells with utter glee as he scrambles off the boat as if his life depended on it.

"Oi! Didn't I tell you to suck it up ash for brains?" Gray says, stepping off the boat.

"You don't tell me what to do stripper!" Natsu shoots back.

"Here we go again." Carla groans as the two boys start arguing. Then, some stones caught her eye. "Hey, I think I found something."

However, the knight was paying attention to something else. Erza grabbed both of them by their shirts. "No arguing. We need to get into the cave, find Lucy and Levy, and have Freed perform the cleansing spell."

"The cleansing spell? So it like, reverses their wish?"

Erza would have face palmed if her hands weren't occupied so she sighs. "No, Natsu. If they feel a pain in their soul, it means that it's slowly turning black and when it turns completely black, they will turn into witches. So, Freed's cleansing spell will destroy the black magic that's building within their soul." She quickly explains before walking over to Carla. "You said you found something?"

"Yes. It seems to be a trail. What if Lucy and Levy left it there?" Carla asks pointing at the rocks that lead to the cave in a single file.

"I can't smell their scent on their rocks but I can smell it beside it." Wendy concludes. "So someone else must have placed the stones and the two followed the trail."

"Well, let's just follow them by their scent since they've obviously been here recently." Gajeel said, not wanting to waste time by studying a map. "By the way, I know this probably might not be important but I can smell the little girl from before and there's one more that is completely unfamiliar."

Erza nods, understanding what it could mean. "We'll just have to be cautious then. But then again, we might not need to because they're probably occupying Lucy and Levy."

"Well, we don't want to take any chances." Pantherlily says from above.

"Aye! For all we know, she could have a really bad temper or be just as scary as Lucy." Happy adds.

So, they set off, following the girl's scents with the dragon slayers in front.

-=~Meanwhile~=-

"Go ahead Ji." Lucy encourages the girl. "Just take the sword. Nothing is going to happen to you."

'But something is going to happen to us.' She frowns as she thinks that but she shakes the thought out of her head and replaces the frown with an encouraging smile.

The little girl is excited but is also cautious about something for once.

"Why can't you take it?" Ji asks.

"Only ones that have a completely pure soul can take the sword. That's why taught you the magic you know now." Levy answers. "Not only is it powerful magic, but it allows you to also retrieve and use the Blessed Sword."

"Hmmm…" Is her only response as she reaches for the sword. Her skin turned a pale silvery color when it was exposed to the beam of light. She grabs a hold of the sword. The grip felt smooth and she could feel a cold feeling creeping on her fingertips to her palm as she pulls the sword from the beam. Seeing that she's completely fine, she holds the sword up in victory like she's always wanted to do.

'I'm one step closer to being a hero!' She screams in her mind.

While Ji is basking in her glory, Lucy and Levy gives a quick look to Starlight. At first the tiger feels concerned and suspicious but nods anyway and slips out, using her exceed form this time, and walks to the main entrance of the cave.

-=~Meanwhile~=-

The group just made it to the main entrance. It was a hard hike, climbing over boulders and balancing on thin trails. The exceeds, however, had no problem getting up the mountain.

When Team Natsu, Gajeel, and Freed got to the entrance, they see a particular cat wearing a black shirt that had long sleeves, a black and white skirt, small black, leather boots, and a small black hat with a small pom-pom to top it off.

"Who are you?" Erza said, abruptly picking up the cat while everyone (especially the exceeds) sweat dropped.

The kitty was unnerved and keeps her stoic look. "You must be Erza Scarlet. A mage from Fairy Tail, yes?" She asks before turning to everyone else. "I assume you are all from Fairy Tail?"

"Yes. How did you know?" And still, who are you?" Erza has a feeling that cat knew Levy and Lucy. How else was she supposed to know about them.

"Well, my name is Starlight Winters. I know because, I guess you can say I am good friends with your friends Levy and Lucy."

"Wait! Do you know where they are?" Natsu asks.

"Of course she does pyro! She obviously came here with Lucy and Levy so of course she knows which cave they went into."

"Here. Follow me." She wriggled out of

-=~Meanwhile~=-

Levy and Lucy can both hear Fairy Tail closing in. They have to act quickly.

"Ji." Levy says slowly but seriously.

The little girl looks back at her mentors. "Yeah Levy-sensei." The little girl can feel that both Lucy and Levy's magic energy has depleted extremely.

The two mentors trembled a little, mostly Levy so Lucy spoke for her. "We need you to use that sword on us." She said but to Ji, it sounded like a whisper. The little girl couldn't understand.

"B-but this sword has a lot of magic power and your magic energy was somehow drained… Won't it… kill you?" She whispered the last part, hoping that she won't get the answer she didn't want to hear.

"Yes. That's why we need you to use it on us." Levy said, regaining her composure.

"Don't tell me that's your way of getting revenge?!" Ji cried out. No! There's no way she'd allow Levy and Lucy, the two that she considered her care givers, her parents to be killed. By her much less. Sure she had Starlight but, she wanted everyone. She hadn't felt the feeling of family ever since her parents died in the fire and her brother left her. Now, she had to kill her new 'parents.' Tears were threatening to fall as she was cruelly reminded of that disastrous fire. The one that destroyed her family and the love that went with it.

"No. It's not. This has to happen for a more important reason." Lucy says calmly. "If you don't, we will become witches. We won't be the same as we are now and we'll plunge the world into chaos. Please Ji. You said you wanted to be the hero." Lucy didn't want to say the last part, knowing she using Ji's dream against her. "Sometimes heroes have to make sacrifices so hundreds of thousands of thousands of people can live." Ji's tears started to flow.

It was true and Ji knew it. She tried to take a deep breath but the hiccups was making it extremely difficult. She accepted it. Their fate, her sorrow, the outcome. After accepting this, her eyes seemed to have changed. Now, when she focused her attention on Lucy and Levy, she can see their souls. Levy's was royal blue and Lucy's was gold. As beautiful as it was, a mucky brownish black color swallowed up half their soul. Then, like instinct, she raised the sword. It started to glow a strange orange color and she pointed straight at the two. More tears wouldn't have fallen if she didn't see Lucy and Levy nodding and giving her one last smile. Deep breath and close your eyes. The poor girl almost fell over by the sheer power of the sword as a beam shot out. She couldn't tell if she hit them. It was completely silent. No screams or cries of pain but Ji refused to open her eyes. The silence already told her enough. With her eyes still closed, she fell onto her knees. Despite her closed eyes, tears still managed to slip through.

"Lucy… Levy…"

Author's Note:

I'm sorry guys! This is the end of the story… I felt really bad when I was typing this, almost like I was going to cry. Do you guys want some kind of sequel because I kinda wanted this to end in a happy way but when I planned for the story, I already chose some kind of sad ending. So, tell me in the reviews whether I should make a sequel or leave it as it is because I don't mind either way.

Review, favorite, follow

Sparrow-senpai out~