Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Ba-dum-dum. Ba-dum-dum.

Ba-dum-dum-dum-dum-dumdumdumdumdum

...

The loudest sound in Natsu's ears wasn't his heart; it was Lucy's. The sound was small at first, small and human, but it accelerated, getting faster and faster and sputtering and coughing until -

There was nothing at all.

Just silence.

Natsu watched Lucy's body hit the ground, the soft thud the only sound in the massive area. Gray froze for a minute, then he started flailing, chains click-click-clicking madly. "Lucy!" he shouted repeatedly.

"Lucy-san!" Wendy ran to her side, hands extended. They glowed with a bright white light for a few minutes before the light died out and she doubled over, gasping. "It's not... I can't... Lucy-san is..."

"She really did it," Mystgun sighed. He moved forward, looking at her still body once before drawing a stave from his back. "It was pointless, at any rate. She exerted so much magic that it would be impossible for all of it to dissipate at once, which means it's still mine for the taking, this time without any stubborn princess holding it back." He spun the stave in his hand; Natsu watched as strings of gold collected around the twisted wooden head, slowly building into ribbons of whitish-gold that swirled like a mini hurricane of Lucy's intense Celestial magic. Then he pulled back and fired all of it at Natsu.

The magic hit him in his abdomen, tracing magic circles that he didn't know were there. The magic spread all over his body like gold tattoos, lighting up a bunch of magical runes until he looked like a human magic circle. A few seconds later, the pain hit. It was so intense it felt like his body was being ripped apart by Igneel on a bad day, atom by atom. He shouted and screamed, falling flat on the ground and thrashing wildly against the chains. He felt them give as the stone started breaking against his semi-human strength. He continued flailing, his screams tearing his throat up until blood spilled down his face, his protests becoming wilder and wilder-

Mystgun knelt in front of him and calmly, very calmly, surprisingly calmly, reached his hand inside of his stomach as if it was just air and not a solid thing. Natsu didn't even feel him doing it - well, he was in a lot of pain, so a lot of things could've happened at that moment and he wouldn't have felt a thing. Mystgun searched in him for several moments before groaning angrily and pulling away. "The magic is strong," he said, taking off all of his staves and arranging them in a circle around Natsu. He felt the magic focus on a single point in the center of his abdomen, shifting from a searing pain into a pounding throb. He groaned, doubling over as the beat shook his skeleton, acting like a second heart.

"Natsu!" Wendy gasped. Natsu gritted his teeth.

"You're... You're a dragon, Wendy..." he grounded out. "Fi... Fight him..."

"Please," Mystgun snorted, rolling his eyes. "She wouldn't. She is as useless as this little princess." He stepped on Lucy's hand for emphasis. Natsu roared, lurching forward but being yanked back by his chains. Wendy, however, wasn't, and she collided into Mystgun's back. He flew forward, slamming his heels down on the ground and spinning around as she took a deep breath.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" She fired an airy version of Natsu's Fire Dragon Roar, except the air was so pressurized it slammed Mystgun into the wall with the force of a mountain. He reached for his back instinctively but his staves were still around Natsu. Gray grunted as he exerted all of his magic, managing to freeze the shackles' chains. Wendy blasted them with a gust of wind strong enough to shatter them. Gray ran over and pulled Mystgun's staves from the ground, freezing them and shattering them on the stone along with Natsu's chains. He stood up, cracking his shoulders.

"Mystgun, you're gonna get the beating of your lifetime. I'm gonna pound you into dust!" He took one step forward before the pounding stopped him. He fell to his knees, hands around his stomach, then on the floor when his body's heat became unbearable. His head was forced to the side like he just took a good punch; he was knocked back in a similar way. He felt something - something strange forcing its way through his body. He locked his arms around his stomach, trying to hold it back, but it was like Igneel, turning up the heat until his skin started to blister. Mystgun smoothed back his wind-mussed hair, watching Natsu writhe with a pleased expression. He grimaced, then shrieked as the pain became blindingly intense, like Dark Magic. It was Dark Magic, in fact. The something that was in his body was starting to come out; he could see the tip of something gold peeking through his skin like a fish peeking through the surface of the ocean.

"Natsu," Gray said, grabbing his shoulders and immediately pulling out of view. He hissed - or the skin on his hands hissed, Natsu wasn't sure. Wendy moved over, hands extended, but leaped back, eyes wide.

"Dark Magic," she gasped. "Very Dark Magic. I can't do anything."

Natsu clenched his fists, gritting his teeth as he put all of his focus and energy into keeping that whatever-it-was inside of his body. His efforts only doubled the pain, which was unbearable to begin with. His head went back and hit the ground, causing him to lose consciousness for a moment. When he opened his eyes again a part of E.N.D.'s spine was already out, trembling and crackling with black energy. Mystgun looked a bit irritated as he snapped his fingers; the staves around him lit up with multicolored magic, zapping Natsu and forcing his muscles still. He watched helplessly as the book slowly inched its way out like a snake stalking prey, bringing agonizing waves of pain with each movement.

Suddenly, there was a wet splooch. The book froze for a few seconds, then a few drops of blood dribbled down Natsu's abdomen. He watched the blood flow steadily increase until the gold of Lucy's magic turned bright red like Igneel's scales. The blood puddled under his back and turned his pants red. It spurted when E.N.D. moved again, drenching the slippery black cover with thick red. Then E.N.D. jumped, half of it popping out of his body with a snap and a crackle of black and more blood. Finally, it snapped free, launching itself from Natsu and into the air with a spiral of blood. Mystgun caught it easily; he didn't even look unnerved by the fact that Natsu's blood was all over it- Wait. Was the book absorbing his blood?

"Five years of planning and preparation have finally come to fruition," he said, tucking the book safely in his cloak and removing the staves one by one. "I would say it's been a pleasure knowing you, Natsu Dragneel, but sadly, it hasn't, and I'll be elated when your body fails from blood loss."

"Fix him," Gray growled. It was the angriest he'd ever been, and since it was over Natsu, he was surprised. Mystgun looked pleased at being useless in the situation.

"I have what I need from him," he said simply, "and now I'll leave you two to your own devices." He turned around, headed to the doorway. Gray slammed his hand on the ground; a trail of ice shot across the stone and over the doorway, forming thick bars over the only exit.

"You're not going anywhere with that," he said. "I don't know what you want to do with Dark Magic like that, but you're not going to do it with the King's guard around."

"Ah, yes, King Jude Heartfilia," he mused. "Don't you know? He is the one that wants E.N.D."

"Huh?" Gray looked completely dumbfounded.

"I've just been doing his work for him. Taking Wendy, using Lucy's magic, bringing E.N.D. out from Igneel's son... They were all orders given to me from him. If you really want to attack someone, let it be the one you idolize, Gray Fullbuster."

"You freakin' liar-"

"Gray-san," Wendy whispered, "he's not lying."

"What-" He turned to her, then back to Mystgun. "King Jude is-?"

"Why don't you think about that while you're still alive?" Mystgun pointed a stave at Gray's wall of ice; with a blast of red, it shattered into crystals. "Also, now that its purpose was served, this building will collapse in a few moments; it'd be smart of you to leave." With that, he rushed through the door so quickly he was a flash of navy and black. Gray started to chase after him but stopped, face-palming.

"Damn it; I was working for the bad guy all along, huh?" He suddenly spun to face Natsu. "The dragon... The King only kept you because of E.N.D.? So you really aren't a bad guy, aside from the thing with Erza." He waited, but Natsu didn't have enough energy to reply. The building began to shake, rocks and mini boulders falling from the walls and ceilings as the ground rumbled. "Damn, Mystgun was serious! We have to get out of here!"

"But Natsu-san can't get out," Wendy said, grasping his arm and trying to pull him up. "I can't heal him either."

Gray grimaced as he ran over, grabbing Natsu around the waist and slinging his arm over his shoulder. "We have to-" He and Wendy started towards the doorway, but were forced to stop as a huge pile of boulders slammed down ahead of it, completely blocking it off. Wendy coughed.

"I don't have enough magic to break those."

"Damn it; me neither." He spun around, searching for another exit, but there weren't any. "We can't be done for, but-" He moved towards Lucy's still body, her hair splayed across the stone like a golden river, Keys scattered around her body. He gathered them with his free hand, laying them on her chest and putting her hands over them. "I'm sorry, Lucy..."

Wendy raced forward, hovering over them just as the ceiling finally gave out, completely encasing them with grey boulders with a final thud.