Part 2

Volume 2

Chapter 25 - Beyond the Chasm

A clash of light and energy exploded and then threw both forms back from each other. One light and firey, and one dark as the night sky. Natsu attacked again, this time bringing his hands in front of his face and puffing his cheeks up. A funnel of compacted fire burst from his lips and sped toward the blond girl. After a moment, the mage gathered his power and let the smoke clear.

A single stone orb cracked and burst open. The inside showed a girl, her wavy blond hair free about her shoulders. While unharmed, she dripped with sweat and a murderous sneer split her features. Then she jumped and raced toward him, her hand solidifying in stone as she rake the talons across his chest. He jumped back, a gash splitting his chest.

Following up before he could react, Sareva in Lucy's body, pooled her power into both arms and came wildly at him. Natsu ducked and dodged, but blow after blow flung him across the barren room with its glass floor. And yet he flipped up and kept coming at her. Finally Sareva leaped and kneed Natsu as hard as she could in the face. An arc of blood sprayed from his mouth as his head snapped back and his limp form sailed up before landing a short distance away.

"This has been fun, but I think we are reaching the end of our wager." Sareva's heels clicked on the glass as she moved toward the prone form. Just before she got there, he stirred and sat up, wiping his mouth of blood. "Oh? Going to give it another go?"

Natsu stood slowly and tossed the end of his scarf over his shoulder. "I don't know why it took me this long to realize." His stony gaze reached hers. "You can't use even half your powers in here. You can't use your spirits because they are locked out there." He indicated the mirrors scattered around them. "And what is a celestial mage without her keys."

He flew at her so suddenly her eyes widened, and she barely dodged his punches, but he kept coming. "It made me wonder. Even if you are Lucy." He lashed out with a kick. "Even if you learned so many new techniques." He followed up with a spinning kick. "Even if you open ten gates. You will never have the heart Lucy has, you will never know how to fight with conviction." His punch grazed past her face. "You will never know what it means to fight to protect your friends." Sareva misstepped a second late. "Or the ones you love."

Sareva's eyes dilated and froze for exactly one second. The exact second Natsu needed to slam his fist into her face and send her spiralling form crash and roll away from him. Natsu clenched his fist breathed hard. A feral anger crossed his features, and Sareva would never know how much it hurt for him to do that to Lucy's body.

Sareva's chuckle caught his attention and his eyes narrowed as she stood slowly. "The girl fights still." She waggled one finger in the air as if in reprimand. "Naughty Lu-chan." Sareva looked up at Natsu. "This must be driving her mad." She clucked her tongue chidingly. "It won't do to have a mad goddess. Zaref will seem such a pale comparison."

A vortex of dark magic swirled around her, gathering faster and faster. Natsu closed his eyes in concentration, and when he opened it, his skin seemed to crack from the rage of fire within, running down each cheek from eye to jaw, and along his Biceps and abs. Louder and louder the crackling of fire and whirling of dark energies grew. Sareva laughed, her voice ripped away into the whirling vortex. Natsu took his vest and scarf and threw it on the ground away from them.

He felt his power grow stronger and stronger and as it peaked he exploded toward her, the full force of his punch channeling into his fist. Dark magics swirled by him as Sareva screamed. "GATE OF THE T..." Her face changed a fraction with a choking sound, and Natsu barely heard the whisper. "Now, Natsu," as his fist hit an unresisting Lucy directly in the stomach. Time seemed to slow as he realized what Lucy had done, then her body shot back with such force, her neck whipped forward in her momentum. The limp body flew back so far and fast, before rolling to stop like a ragdoll, limbs strangely akimbo.

"LUCY!" Natsu raced toward the still body and pulled Lucy into his arms. "Lucy, speak to me. I didn't mean to. Lu-chan..." The girl's eyes fluttered open weakly and a tiny smile curved her face. "We got the bitch." Natsu turned with Lucy in his arms to find Sareva's spirit pooling into a form behind them.

The soul of a thousand girls was silent before offering a grudging half bow, one hand to her heart. "You have won, fire charmer. Our wager is concluded."

"Release us from this place." Natsu said, his gaze brokering no disagreement.

"It is as you wish." The ghost said.

"I think not."

Natsu and Sareva turned. A guardian stood behind them, his muscles wet with sweat, and a large staff with a hammer head on each end. "I have waited too long to let this opportunity pass by. Lucy is the blood. She must become the goddess." At his strange words, Lucy whimpered and opened her eyes. Looking down at her broken form, Natsu tightened his grip.

"I'm getting Lucy out of here if I have to take on each of you guardians one by one."

"The chasm, it opens." Sareva's hushed voice drew all eyes as she gazed skyward. A funnel of white cloud began roiling higher and higher above them, disappearing into the endless night sky. The dark at the end of the tunnel was a blackness of infinite space. Stars whispered the secrets of the cosmos, and Barclay began to laugh.

"Finally. Finally she will return."

Lucy touched Natsu on the chest to indicate he should set her down. He did so gently, his eye taking in every flinch, every bruise and scratch on her body. He kept one of her arms around his shoulder to help her stay upright, while he held her waist with the other. "You aren't a Guardian." Lucy said, her voice hoarse from Natsu's smoke and fire. " You are the god of earth. But you killed her."

Barclay swung his staff as if it weight less than a toothpick, the heavy hammer head stopping inches from them. "A goddess cannot be killed. I will bring her back to me. She belongs to me. The earth and the sky."

"What makes you think she will ever want you back." Natsu said insultingly. "After what you did?"

"YOU DARE! I am no mortal for you to pester with your insolence. I have lived a hundred thousand years for this moment. She will be mine and mine alone."

Thick stone arms burst through the glass floor and grabbed Natsu's legs. A second larger arm gripped Lucy around the waist with enough force to rob her of all but the smallest breath. The arm moved swiftly over to where Barclay stood. "You will be the host of my beloved. You will be my eternity." Black spots danced in front of her eyes and Lucy could barely manage 'Ca..t.. br..th.."

A pillar of fire detonated from the heavens, crashing straight into Natsu. When the waves and waves of roiling fire cleared, Natsu stood in the center, his hair aflame and his eyes black. "RAKAMA. I have found you coward."

Barclay's eyes darkened until they were also pitch black. "KALARAZ! HOW ARE YOU HERE?!" His gravelly snarl rumbled through the verse in which they stood. Kalaraz ripped his legs free of the stone hands as if they were less than water against him. Picking up Natsu's whiste firescale scarf and vest, he picked the unconscious Lucy from the stone hand as if it were nothing. Wrapping her gently in the protective clothing, he disappeared and reappeared in a flash, this time without the girl.

"We have unfinished business you and I" Kalaraz funnel of flame became hotter and hotter, but smaller and smaller. Finally the flame turned blue, and with a roar the titans crashed into one another. Rakama raised pilars of stone to wrap around the fire god but he simply burnt through them. A golem of stone smashed Kalaraz to the floor, but he heaved it off him before once more flying straight at the earth god, his fists hitting shield after shield of hardened stone.

Rakama managed a powerful uppercut that threw Kalaraz into the sky. Nimbly the fire god twisted in the air and rocketed back down, pounding Rakam into the glass so far down, it seemed they had created a crystal prison for themselves. Quickly Rakama called on his earth powers to shift around Kalaraz, meaning to bury him in a grave of sharp crystal rock. The temperature however grew hotter and hotter, melting the crystals.

Kalaraz punched Rakama repeatedly, ping ponging him off the sides of the cavern walls until finally they both flew up and out of the deep crevice. Kalaraz fire slowly began turning white as his rage built, and solid black stone armor like polished chitin covered Rakama's muscled form. The hammer staff too crystalized until the head was a massive pointed black head. "Let us finish this." Kalaraz roared at the same time Rakama charged at him.

"YOU WILL CEASE." A ripple of power shattered all of the mirrors floating in odd fragments around the goldverse. A thick heaviness descended on both fighters and they dropped to their knees, unable to stand. Rakama's staff crashed to the ground and resisted all efforts to be picked up. Gritting their teeth, both men stared toward the sky.

The light grew brighter and brighter before the world around them shattered. When they could see again, they were no longer in the lense of the world, instead on top of the pyramid in the jungle. The remaining Fairytail members, guardians and zodiac spirits stood in a halfmoon around the two gods as each gazed skyward. Lucy, her eyes black like the night sky hung just above them. Around the top of the pyramid, a ring of floating debris, smoke and light orbited them.

"My love, you are alive." Rakama spoke with feeling, a song of loneliness in his voice.

"As I have always been." Lucy's voice was deeper, more sultry. It held the wisdom of a thousand eras, of galaxies birthed and passed.

"How?" Tears rolled down Rakama's face.

A tinkling laugh fell from Lucy's mouth. "You spread my pieces across the earth, where they could best see the night sky. You were foolish to think that I could not find my way home. It took a thousand births of a thousand celestial children, but I am fully restored in my power."

She gazed around at the decimated remains of the lense and took in the Fairytail members and guardians. "But the question is, what have you done?"

"What he always intended. To entrap you." Kalaraz said almost sadly, his face still impassive.

"Kalaraz, my love, rise." Natsu's fire-filled form stood, and rose into the sky alongside Lucy's.

"Rakama. This is my one love. You have searched for me across expanses of time and space, but know that I will never be yours. A hundred thousand years you have lamented the abberation upon my body. I forgive you for this. I forgive you." Rakama's head fell to his knee and sobs wracked his heavy chest.

"But it is not my forgiveness you need to seek from this point on. You know this. All things must change, even the heavens and earth. Be free Rakama. Find your peace." Rakama gave a sudden shudder and toppled sideways, a heavy presence rushing from his body into the air. Then it was gone.

"Guardians of this temple." Lucy turned her black gaze on the three warriors huddled around Rakama's unconscious form. "Rakama created you from clay and the elements of life and enslaved you to this task. Consider it complete, and seek your own peace. The world is yours to discover."

"Kalaraz, release him." A rush of fire flowed upwards from Natsu, and the dragon slayer fell forward to his knees, his whole body shuddering.

"Lucy," he managed to say. "She came here for help."

"Indeed. This body is unbalanced." The spirit left Lucy's form, leaving the girl floating in the sky. Suddenly a scream ripped from her throat. It went on forever and ever. Tears streamed down her face in an endless river, dropping onto the stone top of the pyramid until air failed starved lungs.

"It is done." Natsu ran forward to accept the limp form as it descended and lowered her to the ground against him "The girl will recover. But be warned. While the tenth gate is intact, should she ever use it, it will be her last."

Then the dawn of life and creation flowed upwards, and the orbit of debris fell clattering into the pyramid below. Natsu held Lucy tightly against him, and as the moon appeared, he toppled over backwards with her on top of him, letting darkness claim him.

Would love a review or two!

:) Epilogue next.

-Kami