I've been naughty keeping all this story for you and dragging this out for over three years, So i figured I'll let you guys have this extra chapter today until the next chapter, which no doubt, will be the finale of this tragic story.
Throughout Time
Chapter 21: The Man who Remembers
Lucy found herself stood in darkness. This time Natsu wasn't with her and she was all alone.
Was this what happened when her soul was destroyed?
She neither went to heaven nor completely disappeared, lost in a void for all eternity. Never to escape.
Forever lost.
...
Chronos stood on the rich green grass of the present. Time was still, frozen as he stood looking at the old worn wood and golden pillars. "This shrine was where we lived?"
"I think so." Izanagi whispered, appearing at his side.
"How do you remember?" Chronos asked, his hands reaching out to brush the golden numbers etched into the edges.
"I'm the mother of this Universe, Chronos'. I set the rules and I can break them accordingly." Izanagi said, brushing her black hair over her shoulder. She set her hand against the other pillar, the golden archway now tarnished and scratched. "But even so, there are consequences even for me."
Chronos looked towards her. She gave him a gentle smile.
"I could not save her. She was a paradox by fate. She was a fixed place in time that has changed the future, but even so, she cannot exist in time, for she should not exist at all. But by being a fixed point in time, fragments of her still exist in this world. Her paradox became a loop hole in which there was some room to act." Izanagi's voice turned cool, but her eyes were softened with compassion. "She was willing to act in the stead of Gods, I figured there was at least something I could do for her."
"You saved her daughter." Chronos said. His eyes glanced towards her before back at the shrine. "Don't look so surprised, Lucy is practically the spitting image of her -hair colour aside."
"She was both your daughter." Izanagi corrected.
"A daughter I can't remember." Chronos shook his head. There was a paused of silence before her looked to the Goddess. "Was she happy?"
Izanagi smiled softly. "She was lonely for a long time, having no mother or father. But she was raised with care by a stranger, a man with broken heart. And then she went on to marry someone knew and so did her daughter and so forth. Until Lucy was born at last."
Izanagi turned towards him, her eyes falling to the hand he had rested over the flower engraved onto his chest. "That flower was the one she gave you when you met." Izanagi said. "Do you know what it's called?"
Chronos looked down at it with a crest-fallen face. "I can't-" He shook his head.
"It was called the Daughter of Heart flower once upon a time in Latin." Izanagi informed him. "But now I suppose they call it the Heartfilia rose."
Chronos smiled.
"Now, I believe you have something to do." Izanagi said and Chronos looked into the dark depth of the shrine. "But, I think there is one more thing you will need that I can a grant you."
Izanagi reached up and touched her forehead.
Chronos staggered back, his eyes wild as he looked back up to her, a single tear falling down his eye.
Izanagi was gone.
Chronos fought through the ache in his chest, and the sorrow his existence cried with, and part of him wanted to push it down and away to a place he would never find it. But now Chronos knew what he had to do. So he held onto the pain and the suffering inside of him and turned towards the door.
It was time for him to end this.
...
"Lucy," A soft, feminine voice called out from the darkness. "Lucy~"
Lucy startled. She looked around looking for where the voice was coming from.
There was only darkness.
How long had she been here? A few minutes? Eternity? Time didn't pass in here so maybe none had passed at all. Maybe there was no concept of 'How long?' within the void. Maybe she was existing outside of time? She couldn't have been frozen in it since time would have to pass for her to be thinking. Or did it?
"Lucy~" The voice called again.
Maybe she was going crazy?
Lucy got up and started walking. It's not like she got tired in here. If that was even possible?
She walked for what felt like miles and the voice did not call out to her again. But she kept on walking anyway. It was better than thinking. Thinking would only drive her crazy, if she wasn't crazy already.
So she walked and walked and walked.
...
A bell chimed and the old shrine walls shook. The burning white light had all but burned for a second and now, on the ground above the blood stained stone clocks, laid two limp bodies.
Natsu's body laid limp in one, and blonde haired child in the other.
Elsa laid unconscious against a far wall where the blast had thrown her. The men who had been fighting the mages were strewn about by the force. Amongst them laid the remainder of team Natsu, their bodies limp.
For a moment silence reined down upon the hall as the people roused and looked towards the hall. Something felt off...
"Natsu!" Gray grumbled, dragging his body up to his feet and staggering towards the oink-haired dragon slayer. The team awoke and stumbled after him, knocking out a few of the more resilient soldiers that had resisted the force of the boom.
"Natsu!" Gray snapped, jostling him out of his doze. "You okay?"
"I think so." Natsu groaned. "Help me up."
Grey and Ezra helped lift the pink-haired boy to sit, his eyes dazed and drowsy. He looked exhausted, and disorientated.
"You stupid boy!" Ezra snapped first. Natsu looked startled as he faced her. "Were you trying to get yourself killed? Jumping not the middle of that light without thought. Anything could have happened!"
"I had to save-"
"Save who, Natsu?" Gray growled. "Because there was no one there when you jumped in like an idiot."
"I-" Natsu shook his head. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking?" Is everyone okay?"
Natsu looked across each one of them. 1, 2...5...6- Only 6? "Are we missing anybody?"
"Nope," Wendy answered. "All six of us are here."
"I could have sworn there was-"
"You insolent fool!" The shout roared throughout the chamber as the boy in the cloak staggered to his feet. His hair covered his face, his blue eyes wild with raw fury as he looked down at himself and the hall. "You just destroyed my only chance!"
The air began to pulse. With red hot rage and an immense power Natsu had never sensed the likes radiated from his small body. The wizards scrambled to their feet to move but-
"Stop!" He roared and Natsu's body was frozen. He was bound to his spot and despite how much he struggle the absolute authority would not let him escape.
He cast out his arm and his friends went flying across the room, smashing against the furthest wall to where they fell into broken piles on the floor.
Anger burned through Natsu at the sight of his friends but it was crushed by the force of the boy's power as he was forced to face him. "Kneel!" The boy commanded and Natsu feel to his knees.
"Do you know what you have done!" He screamed. "She is gone! Gone for all eternity just like she was! Her soul destroyed!"
Natsu felt confusion race through him. Who was he talking about?
"I was going to save her! I could have fixed my mistakes! Fixed my regrets!" He roared. He stood above Natsu by a head, but his power exaggerated his size and it took all of Natsu's will not to cower before him. He wanted to plead and beg for mercy his power was that intense but he resisted.
"But now you have taken that from me." The boy's voice growled.
Natsu resisted with all his will just to stay upright. So when that fist rose up into the air, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"So now I will take your life!" His fist came thundering down and Natsu could only hope it would end instantly.
...
"NO!"
The boy's hand slammed down and the power shook the earth.
His eyes went wide as he looked down, his gaze followed his arm down to his fist and into the palm the now held it. Then he followed it until he was looking down on the dragon slayer. "How did you-"
Natsu's mouth opened, but out of it came a deep, powerful voice. "You have become lost, my friend."
The boy's eyes went wide, his face pale. He tore his hand out of Natsu's and staggered back. "No." The boy breathed. "No! It can't be you! You can't be here!"
Natsu stood, his face gentle as he looked up. "It's been a while, Jac."
"Chronos." Jacques breathed.
The dragon slayer, no longer had small black eyes. No, what was looking at the boy were the colour of molten gold and ink black, clock face and hands and numbers moving endlessly within them. They were the eyes of the man who looked through time. Gold light burned from his body like an aura, faint lines growing darker across the slayer's skin until it was a the picture of the skin the God of Time wore I'm his natural form. Even the salmon pink hair slowly turned to black, falling along the edges of his face.
"So this is what became of you." Chronos said, his sad eyes moving over the body of the young boy. "I didn't know."
"No, Chronos." Jacques growled. "You didn't care. Not even when Azela died."
Chronos' expression grew pained. He took a step towards him. "I-"
"YOU PROMISED TO PROTECT HER!" Jacques screamed. His body curled in agony, the memories flashing through his mind. "You promised." He whispered. "And now she's destroyed."
"She lives on, Jac. Through her daughter, her daughter who was save-"
"Saved by Izanagi, you mean?" Jacques turned to look at the God, his face tired and pitiful. "...Her name was Rose."
"You were the stranger who raised her?" Chronos' eyes widened.
"I thought of her as the last piece of Azela at the time." Jacques said. "Azela called her Rose. I was there when she was born. She was beautiful, a spitting image of her mother."
"But Lucy-"
"Time went on, Chronos." Jacques interrupted. "People changed."
"Even so, you know this is wrong, Jacques." Chronos took a step forwards. Jacques took one back.
"What was wrong was letting Azela go. I should have been smarter than none of this would have ever happened. Even if you won't protect her, I will. I remember the promise we made to protect her over a thousand years ago and I will uphold it even if you won't."
Chronos stared at his long lost friend. "You're right, Jac."
Jacques turned. "What?"
"I said you're right. I didn't protect her. I also do not remember our promise. Nor do I remember her. I have seen what is left of Azela and for a long time now, I have felt like something was missing." His hand pressed over the Heartfilia flower on his chest, the one tattoo he never remembered getting. "I could never have guessed it was her."
"...You don't remember?" Jacques breathed. His blue eyes searched the God's and he could see the truth their. When he said her name, it was not cold, nor affectionate. It was just soft, gentle.
"I remember you." Chronos said. "The boy who would come and play with Azela. So young and arrogant. But you were also brave and kind and you became my trusted ally. Although you didn't approve of mine and Azela's relationship, so long as we were happy, you said you would always be there." Chronos' eyes lifted to meet his friends. "And then when Azela was lost, I wasn't there for you, my friend. I may have lost my memories of her, but your memories remained and I buried them deep in the loss I couldn't understand nor remember where it came from. Not until a friend showed me what I had lost." Chronos took a deep breath and looked is friend in the eye. "That is my guilt to bear for what had happened. Now it is due time I fix it."
"Fix it?" Jacques frowned.
"Somehow, Azela must have pulled your soul free of the river of time. You and all your memories of her live on which is why I was able to go back and visit them. But now you are also trapped. Trapped on the outside." Chronos' explained. "You have lived a long life on the outside, now it is time for you to return."
"Not until you bring back Azela." Jacques snapped.
Chronos shook his friend. "There is nothing I can do, Jacques. She has now become a pillar of time. She is a paradox that holds the world together. No Man nor God has the power to change that now."
Chronos stepped forward, his large hand moving to touch his old friend. Jacques eyes looked down on the ground, wide and still. A thousand years of trying to bring her back. And nothing.
"Then you are no good to me, Chronos'." Jacques turned to look up at his friend. "This ends now."
Jacques moved fast. A thousand years to train his human body and he whirled as fast as light. Chronos in a human vessel couldn't even have dreamed to move out of the way.
The black crested knife drove into his stomach, tearing through flesh and bone and soul. Chronos choked, strength drained from his body as he looked down at the blade and the handle made from glass. Inside an hour glass, grains of sand dropping through to the other side. "A God blade?" He whispered, falling to his knees.
Jacques wrapped his arms around Chronos' body as he fell, his arms tight in an embrace around his back, the golden glow slowly beginning to dim. "You are a pitiful creature, Chronos, God of Time." Jacques whispered into his ear. "You are weak as you are now, but even still I love you, my dearest friend. And I will find a way, no matter how much blood I need to shed, and I will bring her back. For me and you, both brother. For when a God cannot act, it must be up to Man to act in their stead."
Jacques lowered Chronos' body onto the ground. The God held onto his small arm, strength fading. "No... Jac, don't do this. Azela doesn't-"
Jacques placed his hand over Chronos' mouth. "You are the God who Forgot, Chronos. You don't even know who she was." Jacques gave a small smile. "Now rest in peace."
The sand fell to a few grains and his body became limp. The few fell to one and his golden eyes began to dim. And then the final grain balanced on the edge, about to fall and silence fell on the God of time.
But the final grain did not fall.
Light burst from the wound of the blade. It became a fluid thing dancing in the air as the hour glass shattered and the sand took to the sky. The ground roared with a power that shook the earth as an ocean of sand began to pour from every nook and crevice of the temple. The golden light swept it up like a soaring wind, ribbons and ribbons of sand galloping through the air like an unstoppable army.
Shouts and screaming echoed through the chamber until the seas stopped and mounds of golden sand settled in a still plain across the ground, flats as a sun-dried desert.
Jacques gasped for air as he dragged himself from under the sand. He spat dirt and dust from his lungs, his knees wobbling as he pushed himself to stand. He looked across the sand and found Chronos' body laid on a soft table of sand.
Someone stood over him, their back to Jacques. Their skin glowed with such a pale luminescence, they were only a translucent figure. They reached down to the broken handle of the blade and pulled the knife free from his chest. Their hand rest over the wound and when it was removed, the wound was sealed and not a scratch was left.
"Who are you?" Jacques demanded, staggering towards them. "A god?"
Their head turned over their shoulder, and then looked back down, their hands busying themselves arranging Chronos' vessel's torn clothes until they were whole again.
"When a God cannot act, it is up to Humans to stand and fight for each other." The ghost whispered, their hands reaching up to brush aside Chronos' midnight black hair. "They are not words to be used carelessly."
"I said," Jacques growled. "Who. Are .You?"
The figure turned and a white faceless figure stood in front of him.
The light began to pulse, each beat making the light dimmer and dimmer. At first he noticed the soft brown hair, and then the paleness of her skin and the long white dress that covered it, and lastly as the light receded into her pupils, two beautiful brown eyes looked back at her.
"Hello, Jac." She smiled.
"...Azela."
Did you know that -Filia actually means daughter in Latin? So Lucy's Name is actually Heart-daughter. It was a beautiful coincidence that fit really nice into my story and I couldn't just leave it out.
Anyway, see you at the next chapter, which will be soon hopefully. :)