Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail
Lucy was still a bit dazed from their last trial, as were most of the other wizards. Erza seemed quiet, a bit distant as they walked. Gray just looked angry, but he had been angry when he snapped out of the illusion. It took Erza's terrifying gaze to stop him from lashing out at the god after he realized that the illusion was meant to be his test. If it wasn't for her, he would have likely gotten them all into huge trouble.
Wendy seemed thoughtful as well, but Lucy was glad to see that she didn't seem to be as upset as before. Maybe she had seen something that helped her come to terms with what she had learned about the dragons and her parents. Natsu was still his usual self, though he seemed to be frowning as he stared intently at their guide, making Lucy wonder just what was on his mind.
"Hey, Luce, come over here for a sec. I wanna talk to you." Natsu said, catching her attention. Unsure of what this was about, Lucy nervously walked over to him, still keeping pace with the guide as they stood off to the side, away from the others.
Natsu stared up at the sky, frowning slightly as he did so. "I thought I saw Igneel here, that he had followed us to this realm." he began, sounding a bit distant as he spoke. Lucy felt it pull at her heart, knowing just how close he was to his father.
"I know….that was probably one of the hardest trials I've been through yet. The things I saw….what she made me do…." Lucy began, shuddering slightly. She remembered her own desperation, the way she had felt her own weapon dig into her neck and begin to choke the life out of her. It had all seemed so real, with her friends crying out for her to stop, begging her to make another choice.
Natsu nodded, glancing away thoughtfully. "Yeah….I guess it was. He told me he was going to leave, and that I had to choose between the dragons and the guild." Natsu stated, while Lucy stared at him in surprise. It was impossible to imagine, Fairy Tail without Natsu. She knew he had spent his entire life searching for Igneel, but if he left the guild, nothing would ever be the same. It wouldn't feel right, hanging out without Natsu's bright smile and cheerfulness. She wouldn't be able to move on as happy as before, without the obnoxious guy that constantly broke into her house and did everything he could to make her smile.
"I had to choose someone to kill….between one of my friends or myself." Lucy stated, her voice quiet and haunted. Natsu blinked at her in surprise, his face serious as he gazed at her. "I couldn't decide….there was so much going on, and I simply couldn't bring myself to do anything. All of you were trying to get me to choose one of you, to tell me who wasn't needed in Fairy Tail….but the truth is, Fairy Tail isn't the same without any of you. I couldn't bring myself to hurt any of you….so there was only one choice for me to make." she explained, watching Natsu glare at her, stopping completely as he grabbed her shoulders tightly, pulling her against his chest.
"Don't you ever do that, Luce. I don't care if it hurts me, or if it hurts the others, I'm not going to lose you." he stated, his voice sure and determined. She hadn't expected this, feeling her cheeks turn pink as her head pressed against his chest. Natsu was always so warm, it was always comfortable to be here. "We're always gonna stay together, Luce, that's what I told Igneel. No matter what it takes, I'm going to fight to keep Fairy Tail together, and I want you by my side as I do it. What do you say, Luce?" Natsu asked, pulling back slightly to look down at her.
She felt her heart beating hard in her chest, wondering if she had understood his words correctly. Was Natsu actually asking her…to be his girlfriend? That couldn't be, he never saw anyone that way. He had always had something with Lisanna that he couldn't move past, and that was why she knew she would only ever be his friend. He was only asking for her help to keep the guild together, it was meant to be taken literally. That was what she thought as she slowly began to nod, her cheeks still feeling hot as she grew embarrassed over her own thoughts. Luckily, no one could hear them, because she really shouldn't be thinking this way about her partner.
Natsu grinned over at her, clearly happy with her response. She felt his hand brush against her cheek, making her eyes widen in surprise. "Lucy…." he whispered, his voice soft as he leaned down closer to her, bringing his lips to hers. She felt her body react immediately, before it completely registered what she was doing. She was kissing Natsu, her best friend and her partner at Fairy Tail. She had just agreed to…oh, god, she had been right! She had agreed to be his girlfriend, and she hadn't even realized it.
Still, she couldn't bring herself to take it back, not when she felt this connection to him. She had never felt so comfortable around anyone else, like she could trust him with all of her secrets. Lucy wanted Natsu by her side, and that was how they were going to do things from here on out. He pulled back, still smiling as he grabbed her hand, turning towards the others that were off in the distance now. "Come on, Luce, we've gotta hurry if we wanna catch up to them." he stated, his voice light as he began pulling her after him.
She ran with him, still feeling warm from what had just occurred. Natsu was acting as if nothing had really changed, and in a way, nothing had. They still had each other's backs, and trusted each other with their lives, but there was something different now. They were going to grow closer than before, something Lucy had never expected to happen with Natsu. Who would have thought that all of Mira's jokes and hinting would actually turn out to be right?
That kept her mind occupied as they finally arrived at their destination. Guide walked directly into the building in front of her, not speaking as they walked within the house. It was entirely black, inside and out, leaving them all wondering just why everything was so dark. Lucy thought she heard voices whispering in one of the rooms, but they quickly moved past it. Arriving in a large room, with no furniture, Guide stopped and turned towards them.
"This is where you shall meet Ankhersam." she stated calmly, while the Fairy Tail wizards nodded, looking serious as they waited for her to continue.
When the child turned to leave, Natsu stepped forward, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at Guide. Lucy wondered what he was up to this time, but it was best to just let him finish whatever he had in mind. "You know…something's been bothering me since we met Hachiman all those days ago. I thought he smelled funny….but you smell just like him. You smell like death and fire, just like all the other gods. Tell me, Guide, are you really just a spirit, or are you one of them, someone sent here to give us another twisted trial?" he demanded, surprising Lucy and the others.
"Natsu, you can't be serious. There's no way this child is a god, she's far too young." Gray insisted, while Guide stared at them, her gaze narrowed on Natsu as they began to argue amongst themselves.
Wendy hesitated, before speaking up herself. "No, he's right. That smell is too distinctive, this child smells just like one of the gods." she argued.
Erza frowned, staring at them as well. "Perhaps, but if she truly is a spirit, wouldn't it make sense for her to carry the scent of death with her?" she argued.
"Aye….I don't want to face another trial, Natsu. Please, just let it go, we've gone through enough right now." Happy insisted, sounding tired as he flew over to his partner and rested on Natsu's back.
"I know, Buddy, but I wanna know the answer! This girl has been bothering me since day one, I want to know who she is." he declared, while Guide stared at him, her expressions shifting from calmness into one of anger.
"You are correct, Natsu Dragneel, I am one of the gods. I am impressed, I did not expect you to discover this, not until I deemed the time right to reveal myself to you." she began, walking forward as she stood in front of all of them. "You see, the others were quite aware of my identity, and they knew to keep quiet about my true identity. No mortal has ever learned of it, and unless you passed the trials, you would not be worthy of hearing just who I am." she explained. "In fact, should you have failed, you would not have been allowed to survive after seeing our realm. No living being leaves this place without our blessing, and to earn that, you must succeed in our tests."
Lucy had a sinking feeling in her gut, already getting an idea of just who their guide would turn out to be. "No…how can a child be a god? That's just messed up. Not to mention that insane punishment. Why the hell didn't anyone warn us about that first?" Gray demanded, while the girl glared harshly at him, raising her hand and sending him flying back towards the wall without even touching him.
"Silence, do not assume to know more about me than you truly do, human. You also do not hold the right to question our rules, while standing within our realm. My appearance may be that of a child, but I am far older than I seem. I have lived four millennium, watching over the world from this very room, and ensuring that balance is kept throughout the mortal realm. Speak more on my inability to do my job, and you will truly face my wrath." she stated, her gaze focused on Gray who nodded, his eyes wide much like his companions.
Guide stepped closer to them, glancing around at all of the people in front of her before her expression managed to calm slightly. That was when she spoke once more, smiling slightly as she did so. "I apologize for my anger, though it was quite justified considering your own insulting words. You wizards have come here seeking one god, with one purpose in mind. Now, you stand before me and I shall hear your request. I am Ankhersam, the God of Death, and the ruler of this realm. It is finally time for us to begin understanding what it is you truly want from me."
Surprise! Did anyone see that coming? I don't know why I pictured Ankhersam as a child...but it kind of made sense to me, in a strange way. Thank you to those that reviewed, I'm still indecisive about if I'm continuing to write or not. For now, it just may turn into an extended break until my life is less stressful and I can focus on spending more time having fun with writing, rather than feeling like I'm rushing to meet deadlines. I'll keep you guys updated if something happens before the end of this story! The rest of my note will be responses to a guest reviewer who reviewed to the majority of my stories in progress right now. So, feel free to review and let me know what you think!
Aessire: Thank you so much for all of your support. I was so happy when I saw so many reviews in my email, and then shocked to see that they all came from one person =D. Since this story is getting updated more often than the others, I'm going to try and reply to your reviews all here, sorted by story. Starting with your reviews to this story, I'm glad you think I've gotten everyone in character. I always try and do my best for that, and I'm glad someone thinks I've managed to succeed in that goal. As for Gray's shortened trial, it just made more sense with his personality for him to be able to see through the illusion. He holds on to his pain a lot more than Lucy does, so he strikes me as the kind of person who would be quite angry with some false image of loved ones he knows he has lost. No, I am not on other writing sites at the moment, but I do have a Facebook account for the profile I created here. The link to it is on my profile page.
Next, your reviews to Karma of Contradictions: Once again, glad to hear you think I've gotten the characters down. With that one in particular, I was concerned since I don't usually write with the side characters from Fairy Tail (Anyone beyond Team Natsu and Zeref, really). I worried over Lahar's rational too, wondering if it was giving him a bit too much info early on, so I'm glad that made sense to you. For their investigation, I have a bit more planned in the future...and as stated, continuing that story will be a long journey. My outline alone is nearing 20,000 words...so, I'm trying to find spots to omit or alter for that reason. Hopefully, I manage to keep it interesting enough for such a long story. If you want to stay in contact with me, you can either message me on the profile page I mentioned before, or create a profile on this site and send me a PM. I'd love to keep talking with you too, and while a lot of my ideas aren't complete at the moment, if I don't decide to post/finish them I could let you read them if you want.
Finally, your reviews to Balancing Darkness: I will admit, I also found the idea of Natsu being paired with Zeref strange for a while. After finding a story with a plot that sounded too interesting to avoid, I finally decided I'd ignore the pairing. After reading it though, I found that I kind of liked it, in a strange way. It surprised me, since usually I'm a huge fan of NaLu and Zervis. Thank you for giving it a chance, if it helps, I do plan on giving a deeper insight into Zeref's slightly altered past in that story. I can see how Jellal's comments are a bit too convenient in that chapter...but I just didn't want Jellal to be too suspicious of Zeref that early on. There will be moments coming up that I have planned for that. As for the time skip, I totally agreed and that was part of why I created this section of the story. I don't think I'll go too in-depth on all seven years (that would take far too much time, and I have a feeling it would get repetitive), but I wanted to at least give a snippet so there was an idea of what kind of missions they were doing during that time. For Sonora...the best way to describe her is as an important side character. She won't play a huge role, but she will play a part in pushing Zeref back towards remembering to value life again. As for why Zeref explained his identity to her, it goes a little bit into how I view his character personally. Looking through the manga/watching the anime, he seems like an honest person, even if he is mysterious. When backed into a corner where he can't explain how he knows so much information, in my opinion he seems more likely to tell the truth, than to find a lie to cover up his situation. That's the reason he revealed who he was to Sonora, not for any personal benefit. As for mentioning training her in Alvarez, he is currently trying to come up with multiple variations on his plan to steal Fairy Heart and activate Neo Eclipse, so recruiting more wizards to his empire isn't entirely without benefit. As for her reaction to learning who Zeref was, I realize now that it doesn't quite read like I meant it to. She is supposed to be almost in a bit of a shock at the moment, as well as afraid of angering Zeref. She is questioning him hesitantly, trying to find a reason to believe she'll get out of this alive. Hence the reason why most of her questions try and find some kind of redeeming quality in Zeref...something she could appeal to for safety. Soon, however, she will begin relating to him a bit more. I hope that answers all of your questions, sorry for making the response so long. Feel free to let me know if you have any more!