Disclaimer:I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the characters
Chapter 13: I'm Alive (part 1 of 2)
Though they will not understand
I won't make the greatest sacrifice
You can't predict where the outcome lies
You'll never take me alive
"Herule." Natsu snarled.
The man grinned and bowed in front of the two livid mages, "The one and only."
Erza stepped forward, placing herself directly into the path of the dragon slayer, feeling the pure hatred rolling off of him and not wanting him to do anything incredibly stupid at the moment.
Gathering up what was left of her own self-control, she swallowed the urge to charge the man in front of her. "Where is Loke? And what have you done to Lucy's body?"
The man looked down with a small smile and shifted subtly, but not so keenly for Natus's eyes to not pick up on. The pink haired man's eyes narrowed slightly.
What's he up to?
"Lucy was an… unexpected experiment, to say the least. When I shot her, I figured that would be the last I saw of her. I had had my eye on her for a long time-she was the perfect specimen. But since I couldn't have her, I decided no one else could."
Natsu stiffened at the man's offhand way of speaking about Lucy. His Lucy.
Herule scowled, "But it seems she has reacted to the chemical quite differently than I expected, due to her bought with death and her spirits."
"What chemical?" Natsu barked, his temper already past its breaking point. The man was right in front of him. The man who ruined the happiness of the person who meant the most to him in this world. He was so close, Natsu could almost reach out and grab him by his scrawny neck.
Herule opened his mouth, but the words never came out.
The room went black.
The mages stood there stunned for the length of a few heartbeats until Natsu came to his senses just in time for him to dodge the sound of an arrow whizzing by him.
His dragon senses gave him the ability to sharpen how he heard, smelled and saw. Something he was now grateful for as he danced around arrow after arrow.
The dragon slayer lobbed a ball of fire back at Herule, tossing the man into the hallway behind him. The fire lit the room for a split second, giving Natsu enough time to find Ezra crouched on the ground beside him. "Ezra, go find Lucy!"
The red headed woman stood and shook her head, brandishing her sword as she did so. "No, I will stay and fight. This man will answer to the both of us."
Natsu's face hardened but thought better than arguing with the warrior beside him. Wherever Lucy was, she was far away from Herule and that would just have to be enough for now. Glancing at Ezra one more time, the pair nodded to each other and followed into the hallway after Herule.
XxX
Lucy stayed rooted to where she was as seconds ticked by before finally sighing and throwing her head back in exasperation. Glancing around her once again in the pitch black, the blonde narrowed her eyes and called out Virgo's name quietly, in hopes that the spirit was still there.
The celestial wizard could swear that her eyes almost popped out of her head in shock when a hand came out of the dark and suddenly grabbed her arm. Following the hand up to the arm and finally the face, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief and tried to slow her heart rate down.
"I did as you asked, Princess." Virgo declared lightly, her melodic voice sounding deafening in the eerily silent ship.
Lucy fought the urge to scowl at her spirit and instead bit her lip and looked around, mentally trying to find a way out of the basement they were in.
Whatever signal she should have been waiting for was tossed out the window now. Signal or no signal, the power was out and someone would undoubtedly be coming down there soon to see what the problem was.
Grabbing the lantern Lucy had dropped on the floor in her haste at trying to prevent her spirit from pulling out the wires, Virgo relit the tiny fire lantern and placed it in her master's hand.
The celestial wizard and her spirit stomped around the large basement like a two person parade for what felt like hours before Lucy stumbled across the tiniest wooden staircase she'd ever seen. Two people couldn't even stand side by side on it.
The blonde went first, testing each rickety step before putting her entire weight on it until she finally reached the top of the stairs. Grabbing the doorknob, the celestial wizard was pleased to find that it rotated easily in her hand.
Lucy glanced back at Virgo and pushed the door open, cringing when it protested loudly against being opened. Strange, it seemed as if no one had opened that door for weeks. Months, even. Shaking off the odd feeling that had settled over her, Lucy led the way as she and Virgo scouted out the area. She had no idea where any of her friends were and the eerie silence stretched on far too long.
When she was in the basement the silence didn't seem so out of place, but being in the room she was in now, it was deafening. Lucy looked around the room she was currently placed in.
There was a fine layer of dust coating everything and, like the basement, didn't seem to have been touched in months. Everything was neatly placed and put away and there were clothes in the drawers and books on the shelf. This looked like a well lived-in room, so where was the person it belonged to and why hadn't they touched it in so long?
Suddenly, Lucy heard the sound of footsteps steadily approaching the door to the room she was in. Her eyes widened as she whipped around towards the door and held her breath to listen again to make sure she wasn't hearing things. When the footsteps became quicker in rhythm and heavier with each step, she was sure she wasn't imagining things.
With her heart in her throat, she swiftly blew out the lantern and grabbed Virgo by the wrist. The blonde's eyes darted around the room in the limited light she had from the windows to try and find a space for them to hide and spy. Her eyes landed on a closet opposite the entryway to the room and pushed Virgo into it in front of her. Lucy barely had time to slide in before the door to the room swung open.
Grateful for the small crack she had left in the door, the blonde took a deep breath. Her back was currently against the door to the closet with a tiny stream of light on her right coming from the room she had narrowly escaped. Whoever this was, she wanted to get a good look at him.
The dusty clothes in front of her made her crinkle her nose, both at the smell and in an attempt not to sneeze. The blonde held her breath and counted to ten, refusing to let a sneeze give away her hiding spot. Lucy glanced at Virgo, who was for once not bowing and calling her princess, but standing next to her with her lips set in a grim straight line and looking straight ahead at the closet door.
The footsteps stopped once he opened the door and Lucy heard him shuffle around a bit as if he were looking around the room from his vantage point. The celestial wizard could feel her heart in her throat and it seemed like her breathing just kept getting louder and faster in her panic and suspense.
Finally, the blonde gathered up her courage and closed her eyes for a split second before gently placing one foot in front of the other and stepping quietly to peer through the crack she had left in the closet door.
All the color drained from her face.
There, standing in the doorway and staring right at her as though there was no door to hide her, was Loke.
XxX
There was a throbbing sensation sitting on the back of his neck and he fought the urge to groan out loud. Cracking open his eyes slightly, Gray tried to peer around his surroundings and get a feel of what had happened. Had he overslept? Drank too much? Were his clothes still on?
The sight of an unfamiliar place snapped him to his senses quickly.
Right, rescuing Loke and helping Lucy in this God awful airship.
The floor beneath him and the air around him was freezing, but being an ice mage, he didn't mind much. The loose pants and shirt he wore helped protect him slightly from it all. Daring to open his eyes a tiny bit more, Gray's heart stopped at the sight he beheld.
He lay on his chest with his cheek pressed against the floor and from this vantage point, he could see many other bodies lying in the same position or sitting all around him. Whether they were dead, alive, or in some kind of stasis of being frozen, he didn't know.
Regaining some of his other senses, he could smell in the room the rancid smell of slowly decaying bodies. The human freezer they seemed to be placed in slowed the effects of death, but he could smell it in the air, nonetheless.
So why was he put here? Was whoever brought him here watching?
Deciding that doing something dangerous was better than lying here and waiting for something to happen, Gray dared to move his arm slightly. Listening intently and hearing nothing like a gasp of surprise or a cry to shoot him, he slowly gathered his arms under him and pushed himself into an upright position.
The air he breathed puffed out into tiny clouds in front of him as he stood and wobbled around on his feet. As far as he could tell, everyone else was dead in the small round chamber-like room.
There were mostly men in the room with him and as far as he could tell, they were perfectly fine. No one was missing any appendages or sat in a bloody pool, or even looked afraid. All of the frozen bodies looked to be asleep, as though waiting for their turn to be thawed.
With a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold travelling down his spine, Gray placed his hands on his hips and looked up to see if he was being watched. There was nothing but the light blue color of ice crystals on the ceiling of the dome-shaped roof. Bringing his attention back to the room in front of him, he spotted a door and headed towards it, knowing before he got to it that it would be locked.
Though looking closer at it, he could tell that it wasn't for keeping people in or out of the room. It was made of wood and didn't look all too sturdy. His idea that this was some type of twisted storage spot didn't seem so crazy now. But if it was, why would they put him there when he was so clearly alive?
Confused beyond all reason, Gray grit his teeth in thought. His friends were out there and he didn't know what was going on.
There was no one in the ship, though a place like this rarely sees a second of down time and silence, and their entry was way too easy. No one had even seen them on their way in. Also, the ship was landed out in the middle of nowhere in the desert with no one being the wiser.
His head hurt from all the unanswered questions, and letting curiosity and frustration win out over sensibility and reason, the ice mage turned to the door and prepared to blast it from the hinges.
XxX
He was playing some kind of sick version of hide and seek and frankly, Natsu had had enough. If not for the fact that Lucy was somewhere in the ship, his temper may have won out a long time ago and the whole place would purposely be set on fire.
The pink haired dragon slayer had been separated from his fiery haired companion a long time ago, but he hadn't had a second to think about that. The lights were out on an airship he had never set foot in, he was dodging arrows that seemed to never end, and he was worried beyond all reason about Lucy.
Why had she cut the wires before waiting for Gray to give her the signal and meet her down there? Had something happened to her to force her to make the ship go dark?
An arrow whizzed by and he was a second too late to dodge it. The arrow lodge itself deeply into his upper arm, but Natsu didn't have time to focus on the pain. Ignoring his profusely bleeding shoulder, he decided it was time to get on the offensive.
Flipping back to press his feet to the side of the wall, the dragon slayer pushed off and slid on his feet behind the bald headed man, tearing the quiver of never ending arrows off his back in the process. Natsu straightened and saw the reflection of the fire in the other man's eyes as he turned wide eyed at the dragon slayer. With a smile that he was sure was slightly sadistic, Natsu set the arrows on fire and tossed them aside, childish glee building in his stomach at the distraught look on Herule's face.
The pile of arrows and quiver set an eerie glow to the silent ship, casting dark shadows on the wall as both men stood silently facing each other.
Tired of the stillness, Natsu dashed towards the man in front of him, all of his pent up anger and frustration rolling off of him all at once. The dragon slayer's face was riddled with scales and his teeth had come to points. His body was practically on fire, his arm bled out in steady waves and he didn't care. This man had ruined so much, destroyed so many people's lives and hearts. He deserved whatever he got.
Natsu was sure he had gotten Herule, but all he grabbed was air. Whipping his head to the side, he saw the man standing next to him, seeming to not have moved at all. The pink haired man lashed out with his left arm, his claws eager to bury themselves into the flesh of his opponent.
Herule grabbed the arm making its way towards him and used the force as leverage to toss the young dragon slayer away from him, crumbling the metal behind him.
Undeterred, Natsu climbed out of the badly dented wall of the ship and ran at the man in front of him, flaming fist reared back. As Herule reached out to grab Natsu by the arm once again, the dragon slayer dropped and crouched under his arm, sweeping his leg under the man.
Without leaving a second to think, Natsu grabbed the man by the front of his collar and threw him into the side of the ship, quickly following after with a swift punch to the ribs that left Herule gasping for air. The older man lashed out with his leg, hoping to connect it with Natsu's knee, but the dragon slayer grabbed it and twisted harshly, finally eliciting a cry of pain from the man as he dislocated his knee.
Herule fell to his hands in front of him and Natsu took this opportunity to knee him in the face, the man falling to the ground on his back and whimpering pathetically.
The dragon slayer once again grabbed the man by the front of his now bloody shirt and shoved him against the wall.
"I would kill you now," he snarled, the words barely getting out around his sharpened teeth, "but you're going to answer some questions for me first."
Herule laughed, his hands grabbing onto the arm that pinned him against the wall. The dragon slayer removed his fist from the shirt and moved it instead to the man's neck, fulfilling his daydream from earlier.
"I won't tell you anything, and you'll have to watch your precious Lucy die in front of you as she burns alive from the inside out." Herule smiled, his mouth full of blood that dribbled over his chin.
Natsu snarled, pulling the man towards him and shoving him against the ship once, twice…he lost count how many times and all the man did was laugh and choke on his own blood.
The pink haired man cried out in frustration and pulled his other clawed hand behind him, readying to grab this man's heart from his chest and end his miserable life and find the answers himself.
"It's too bad," the man choked, eyeing the claw that was ready to rip his life away from him, "When I was looking at Lucy, I should have been watching your power. But then again, the power building inside Lucy is more than what either one of us has ever seen." He sighed, the blood gurgling in his throat.
"If only I had known the spirits were the key the whole time. How could I have been so stupid? Of course, they have infantile magic and power…"
The man drifted off, seeming to talk to himself and only angering Natsu further. "What do you mean the spirits are the key?" He shook Herule, "The key to what?"
An explosion shook the ship, ripping Natsu's attention way for a split second and causing the pink haired man to glance towards the direction of the sound. Herule took this chance to bite into the hand holding him and kick the dragon slayer in the stomach. Natsu spun to see the man seemingly melt into the wall and disappear.
"No!" He shouted, running o where the man had previously been and slamming both fists against the wall. "No, no, no! Damnit!"
Gritting his teeth together, Natsu snarled and turned towards where the sound had come from. He hoped there'd be people to hit, because he wasn't in the mood for talking.
XxX
Lucy seemed to have frozen in time. Her hands didn't want to move from the spot they were seemingly glued to on the closet door. Her blue eyes widened as she held eye contact with her final lost spirit and couldn't help the trembling that shook her legs.
Loke was impeccably dressed as usual, but the cocky smirk that graced his features was gone and replaced by an almost painful look of despair. His eyes looked haunted and dull, something Lucy never thought she would never see in her lion spirit.
The intense urge to step out of the closet and reach out to him became too much to bear and Lucy found her foot beginning to move seemingly out of its own volition.
She couldn't just stand there and look at her spirit clearly suffering! She had to help him, hadf to reach out to him and be the friend she always was to her spirits. The Celestial Spirit Mage had promised herself with her first key that she would work with them, not enslave them—not treat them awfully. They were her friends and she needed to protect them—
A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, just as Lucy was reaching up to push the closet door out of her way. The blonde gasped and turned her head to see Virgo, her eyes solemn next to her.
"This is not the Loke you remember, Princess. You must not think that it is." The spirit whispered to her, never letting go of Lucy's shoulder.
The blonde's mouth narrowed into a flat line as she let her eyes wander to Loke, who seemed content to stand there until she made her move. "I can't just let him go back to that man!" Lucy whisper-screamed, "I'll never forgive myself."
"You must send him back to the spirit world to regain his memories, like you did with the rest of us—"
Lucy screamed and covered her eyes with her arms as she was blown into the corner of the closet. Her head struck the corner of the wall and she bit down to stifle her cry of pain. Coughing the dust out of her throat, the celestial mage peered through what remained of the cabinet in front of her.
"Virgo!" She gasped, choking on the air that surrounded her.
Loke had completely blown the entire front of the closet off, leaving nothing but a gaping hole with ash and fire surrounding it. Virgo lay collapsed with her back to Lucy in the rubble, obviously haven taken most of the hit for her master.
Lucy stumbled over to the head of pink hair and dropped to her knees, turning the spirit to speak to her. Her dress was charred and her entire body was riddles with cuts. Blue eyes landed on the piece of wood sticking out of the front of her spirit's side and she grit her teeth in anger and frustration.
She could not treat this like Loke was her spirit anymore. She could not hesitate any longer.
Lucy opened her mouth and reached for her keys to send the maid back to the spirit world when a hand covered her own.
Virgo's voice reached her ears as the spirit's eyes cracked open and she paused.
"I will fight."
Lucy shook her head, the tears building as she tried to push her spirit down. The blonde ignoring the footsteps nearing them. "You can't. You can't fight Virgo, you're hurt—"
The pink haired spirit mustered the rest of her strength and shoved her master behind her, rising to her feet as she did so. "I will protect you."
Loke appeared as the dust settled and Lucy looked to him with determination and anger. She could not—would not leave without her spirits.
The blonde rose to her feet behind her maiden and drew out her whip, pulling it taunt in front of her.
All of them.
XxX
"You made me let Herule go, you stupid icicle!" Natsu snarled, retracting his arm and reading to hit his so-called companion square in the jaw.
Gray ducked, causing Natsu's fist to slam into the wall behind him instead. Scowling, he rose to his full height, "Shut up. It's not my fault you let him go."
The ice mage walked past a fuming Natsu and put his ahnds on his hips, assessing the place they were at the moment.
He had barely made it out of the meat locker he was locked in when he ran straight into a livid dragon slayer who then proceeded to call him every name in the book and threaten his life. All because he heard a loud noise and got distracted, which sounded like a whole lot of not his problem.
"Okay," Gray sighed, ignoring the way Natsu mocked him behind his back, "So you lost Erza and Herule and we have no idea where Lucy could be."
The dragon slayer snarled and marched in front of the ice mage, "Well while you stand there and ponder what to do with your hands on your hips, I'm going to find Lucy."
"How do you suppose we do that?" Gray asked, jogging to catch up to the marching dragon slayer. Natsu glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and shrugged.
"I figure we start at the basement and work our way up from there—"
A scream tore through the air at that exact moment following an explosion that rocked the entire ship.
Natsu knew that scream. He knew that voice.
He spared Gray a fleeting panicked look and took off in the direction of the sound.
Gray followed, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. Natsu's face was pale, his eyes panicked and his breath quick, showing Gray a side of him he'd never seen before. The ice mage shook his head and tried to erase the image of the dragon slayers terrified face from his mind.
He only hoped Lucy was okay when they got there, because if not…
Gray's mouth flattened.
He didn't want to see what the enemy would look like after Natsu was done with them.
XxX
Erza turned yet another corner and huffed in her irritation. She had gotten separated from Natsu a long time ago and for the life of her, the weapons mistress couldn't find her way back. With virtually no window to speak of in the ship, the light she used was dim at best.
She halted, her back pressed to the wall behind her as she peered around the corner. She could have sworn she heard something or someone moving in the passageway she stared at. All she could see was darkness and no matter how hard she strained her eyes to see further, there was nothing there.
With her lips pressed together in a tight line, Erza drew her sword and spun into the mysterious hallway. Silence and darkness met her stare as she continued to hold a defensive stance. The stillness dragged on for minutes and the red head began to doubt herself as she slowly lowered her weapon.
"Erza!" a voice she recognized all too well called out to her in the darkness surrounding her.
She spun frantically in a circle, her sword outstretched in front of her. The echo in the tall halls made the voice bounce off the walls and seem to come from everywhere around her.
"Erza! Run!"
Finally getting a clear mark from where the voice was coming from, red hair swung to her right as she saw a figure slide into view from around a corner in the distance. The man scrambled to his feet and glanced over his shoulder as his feet continued to run straight for her.
The silhouette came closer and Erza blinked rapidly to make sure she wasn't hallucinating or falling under some kind of spell.
"Jellal?" She asked, rooted to the spot and stupefied. What was he doing here?
He came upon her, grabbing her upper arm as he continued to run and dragging her along with him. "No time to explain. Short explanation: I found Herule's other experiments."
Erza glanced behind them as her feet finally caught up with her brain and her eyes widened, her mouth opening to an involuntary gasp.
Figures moved towards them, their movements choppy and inhuman as they rushed to try and catch up to the two wizards. Their bodies seemed to glow slightly in the darkness, showing the way their hair fell out in steady clumps and their unseeing eyes.
"They're glowing!" Erza exclaimed, looking to Jellal, whose face was grim. "What is it?" she asked.
"From what I can tell," he began, pulling her to turn another corner as their breaths came out in hard puffs, "that glow is raw magical energy, pushing to get out of their skin. It creates heat, practically burning the person carrying it and the pressure builds up…"
"What happens to them?" She asked softly, the pit of her stomach dropping as she already knew the answer. Lucy's face flashed through her mind's eye.
Jellal shook his head and gripped her arm tighter.
"They explode."
XxX
The mage dragged herself to her feet once again, refusing to allow herself to look down at the scattered bodies of her spirits around her. Her magic was drained, her body bruised and cut and bloody, but she would not allow herself to quit. She couldn't quit now, she had to protect her spirits. It was her turn to help them for once.
"Loke please listen to me," she pleaded, even as she pulled her whip into coils around her arm to strike again, "I know you're in there somewhere."
She had tried everything. She had summoned all of her spirits in the hopes that one of them would trigger his memory, make him remember something about his previous self. Her former spirit had not said a word the entire time.
It wouldn't have mattered if he remembered for a split second anyway, she had no key for him and no way to send him back to the spirit world.
Loke began to step around the spirits that lay exhausted on the ground before them and make his way toward Lucy. The blonde gritted her teeth against the pain wracking her body from the hits she'd taken thus far and lashed out with her whip.
It sliced through the flesh of his upper arm, the spirit not even trying to block or evade the hit. Lucy backed up, pulling her whip to her again as she lashed out a second time. Loke didn't even flinch as the whip made a loud crack across his face.
The blonde's back bumped into the wall behind her, indicating that she had no more room to evade her spirit. Lucy ducked under the blow that was aimed for the side of her head and scrambled to her feet just as her spirit turned to her. With inhuman speed, Loke was right in front of her and grabbed her by the front of her shirt.
Lucy screamed as the lion spirit hoisted her over his shoulder, beating her fists against his back as hard as she could. "What are you doing?" she exclaimed as he began walking towards the door.
Unsurprisingly, the spirit didn't answer and continued on his path. Lucy kicked and screamed and just as her spirit was dragging her through the door, a spot of pink hair in the distance caught her eye.
"Natsu!" She called as relief washed through her body. She would be safe, Natsu would surely protect her—
This was the last thought she had before the spirit carrying her had whipped around to face her so-called savior. The motion caused Lucy's head to snap against the door frame, making the world turn fuzzy, grey, until finally darkness settled over her.
XxX
Erza heard the cries of battle long before she saw them and couldn't help but be relieved that her two idiots were still together and alive.
She and Jellal skidded to a halt behind the two Fairy Tail wizards and immediately filled them in on the information they had found out as they dodged Loke's attacks. Both Natsu and Gray wore worried expressions as she explained her theory on what would happen to Lucy.
Erza chanced a quick glance behind her to see if those…things were still far away from them. As far as she could tell, there was no one in this part of the ship but them.
"But—" Natsu began, shutting his mouth in favor of spinning low to the ground and sending a fireball towards his enemy, "Luce isn't losing her hair or anything."
"Exactly, which is why it's all so strange…" Erza began, her eyes dragging themselves away from the darkness behind them. She pulled out her sword and began watching Lokes' movements. All she needed was a small window of opportunity to grab Lucy and make her close his gate.
"It's not strange at all," Jellal began, "Lucy was his perfect—if not accidental—experiment. She took the chemicals and magic to a whole new level. Instead of her body rejecting it, her body enveloped it; morphed it to benefit herself instead of letting it destroy her."
"That's why he let her live," Gray continued, slamming his fists into the ground and sending an icy path towards the lion spirit. The blue haired man glanced at Lucy's body that lay crumpled on the ground in front of them. "That's the only reason she's still alive; because Herule wants to experiment on her more and harness her energy."
Natsu snarled and three pairs of eyes landed on him. With a surge of magic none of them knew he possessed, the dragon slayer belted out the most intense fire dragon roar any of them had ever seen. Loke flew back and crashed into the back of the ship, blowing through several walls on the way.
"No one's touching Lucy." Natsu growled as he picked the blonde up in his arms, her blonde hair matted with dried blood. "We're going to make Herule reverse what he's done and then we're getting her out of here."
Another explosion rocked the ship, making Erza glance at Jellal in alarm.
"If we're going to do this, it needs to be done fast or Lucy will end up like the other experiments gone wrong." Jellal said, marching his way in front of the mages. "Herule's lab shouldn't be far from here and we need to get Lucy up and around so she can close Loke's gate."
The three remaining mages glanced at each other quickly before following in his footsteps. They had to do this.
They owed Lucy that much.
X
X
X
End of part one