Chapter 36: The Fight Begins

YASEIKA POV

That boy is unaware of what he is messing with. Tampering with. An insignificant part of me wishes to tell him the truth, even though it could kill him. What is this? I have never felt this way about anything before. Not since before the day I left home.

I saw the worry and fear in Heartfilia's eyes when she saw through the Book of Requirement that I was going to die. This revelation does not surprise me. The fight that is to come is the most intense that this world has experienced in centuries, since the Dragon King Festival. Surely something just as significant as Acnologia proclaiming himself the Dragon King will happen this time. However, if I go down, I'm bringing him with me.

I have devised different strategies to combat him and win. Worst case scenario, I will leave him battered to the hands of Titania. I will give her what she needs to finish him off when the time is right. For the time has nearly come. The end of the month comes, only for the end of an era. For an era to end and for the next to begin. But will it begin in peace and light? Or in flame and death?

? POV

All of the mages in Magnolia are currently spending time with those that they care about in order to mentally prepare for the war that is to come. The Heiress has provided them with very little information about the outcome, but they still worry. They crave togetherness with those they care about, fearing that this may be the last time they can be together like this. Fearing that come the next day, some of them may not be alive to talk about it.

The Ice Make Mage promises to tell the Water Witch about his feelings for her after the war. He doesn't now because he plans to focus on defeating END, the bane of both his and his father's existence. He needed to focus. In order to complete his mission. What will he do when he realizes that one of his friends and comrades is the demon that he needs to kill? Will he have the heart to go through with it? Even I can't tell.

The Requip Mage praising the Sky Dragon Slayer of her commitment to their guild, promising to protect both her and her Exceed companion during this war. The younger ones say the same to Titania.

The Fire Dragon Slayer, or should I say the human form of END, plays a game with the Celestial Mage and his Exceed partner, blissfully unaware of the future that awaits him. On the other hand, the Celestial Mage keeps giving him worried looks. I watched the Heiress provide general information about what was going to happen to the boy, and while I believe that this was uncalled for, it does not appear to have changed the future one bit.

The Iron Dragon Slayer and the Script Mage are sitting outside together, talking about everything and nothing. An Exceed watches the both of them with a wary but relaxed eye.

A father and his father's smoking partner are with the family of gunslingers, watching the young girl child play with the boy child user of Rainbow Fire. Worry and fear are in their expressions. Will the children be safe? Will they all be able to survive this? Will families be broken as a result of this fight? Will they die in order to protect the young ones?

A daughter wonders if her father will come home in time to fight. He is one of their strongest mages after all. But even he can't stop what is to come.

The White Dragon Slayer and Shadow Dragon Slayer rest with their Exceeds, the latter barely able to sleep, thinking of the one member that is completely alone during this time: the Heiress.

The ghost cursed by my own hand makes plans with the current Master, hoping to prevent as many tragedies as possible that are to come tomorrow. Unfortunately for them, as both I and the Heiress know, some people are going to die tomorrow, despite their best efforts at protection. After all, she knows the names of those going to die, but I know how. I know when and by whose hand the final blow will come.

The person in question is currently sitting upright, her tall form overlooking the entire city. Her purple eye not missing a single movement around her, while her yellow eye shifted with a blind gaze. Her tail was shifting on the ground, and her wings flapped slightly. I can sense her anxiety, but not just about the fight that is coming. I have told her what she can say and what she can't, as it is part of her punishment. Using that spell before she was ready and using it for the wrong reasons to boot. It is a rule of life. Thus, I must enact it.

She is currently angry with me, even though she won't openly say it. Making a deal for power with her brother appears to have agitated her. Still, I can't say our relationship has been particularly friendly, even after all of this time. I am causing her pain after all.

Despite this, we converse from time-to-time, her attempting to weasel information related to the future out of me. She believes herself to be so powerful, despite not being in complete control. I, of course, hold the upper hand. I am a god.

But even now, she is unaware of her greatest weakness. Although I have indirectly warned her of this danger, I can only wonder what she will choose to do when it comes to light. What will she do when the power she possesses as a dragon slayer is not enough to defeat her enemies? What is she willing to give up in order to win?

We will all meet in the coming future. All that follow the path of light and the path of darkness. Question for them though is, will they be alive or dead?

The faint light of the sun is beginning to appear on the horizon while the near fullness of the moon falls. The dawn of the new day that will bring stunning revelations and tremendous loss begins now.

LUCY POV

I woke up early in the morning, an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. I stretched out my body, feeling another's body next to mine. I froze at first before remembering the events from last night.

In a moment of randomness, I had asked Natsu to stay with me. Yaseika's words were still running around in my head:

That magic he has developed…comes at a terrible price….run the other way. I will contain him.

Contain him? What on earth does she think is going to happen to him? Even the brief thought of losing Natsu in the near future is messing with my head, and I couldn't even imagine a life without him in it. So I had asked him to stay, some part of me afraid of losing him if he left. He seemed to be looking at my face with great focus before he agreed. He and I just lay in bed together, neither falling to sleep for a while, before I heard a loud sound that seemed to be coming from far away.

I felt Natsu tense beside me before he murmured, "That's Yaseika. That's her roaring now."

My heart began to beat fast in my chest. I whispered, "Does that mean the enemy is already here? That we are in danger?"

He shook his head and his face fell. He muttered, "She doesn't sound angry or in battle. Just sad. Really sad." He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight to him. Even though the position was a bit provocative, I didn't mind in the slightest. The roar trickled down to silence, before the quiet enveloped the both of us yet again.

He broke the silence, speaking to me tenderly, "I'll protect you Lucy. Just like I protected you in the Dragon Raid. I won't let you be like…" he trailed off, but I knew what he was referring to. He wouldn't let me become like my Future self, who died in order to protect me. Although, if I understood the Future Lucy's notes correctly, the Natsu from her time had died protecting her. I couldn't let that happen. Despite what the future is supposedly telling us, I will protect him too, from whatever is supposed to happen.

I said, "Thank you, Natsu. But we are a team. You, me, and Happy. We'll protect each other." I smiled at him and he chuckled.

Shortly after that, we had fallen asleep and now I was awake in bed with Natsu. He was currently still asleep, his eyes closed peacefully over his relaxed face. I saw his bandaged arm and felt the magic power emanating from it. I frowned and ran my hand over it, wondering just what the consequences would be to use this power.

Then I heard a voice, "You don't usually have that look on your face. Is something wrong?" I jumped to see his onyx eyes staring directly into my own. I pulled my arm away quickly, but he grabbed onto my hand, his gaze piercing.

I thought about my options for a moment, before finally saying, "I'm scared Natsu. Yaseika…"

His eyes narrowed at the sound of her name, "What about her?" he asked. While I did see he cared and worried about his "sister", he didn't like a lot about what she had said about the war yesterday. Something about it being ridiculous and unnecessary. Something about her needing to stop being so pessimistic.

I continued, saying only what I needed to, "She came to visit me last night, just before you and Happy showed up. She told me that…she was concerned about this magic that you had learned for the purpose of defeating Zeref."

He broke out into a grin, "What's the problem?" He held the arm in question with his other hand and said, "There's nothing to worry about. This is definitely powerful enough to take him down, or at least get rid of the majority of his magical ability."

I hesitated before continuing, "She told me that certain magic comes with a price. The Dragon Slayer Forbidden Art takes the caster's life. Iced Shell does as well. Even Mavis paid a price of the Curse of Ankhseram after using a spell prematurely. I'm just worried that this magic you developed comes with some kind of side-effect as well as a result of being so powerful." At my words, his smile fell and turned into a frown for a just a moment, before he turned away from me. This was not missed by me, "Hold on! There isn't a side-effect you know about already, is there?!"

He flinched at my raised voice before he murmured, "No. I don't know for sure what is going to happen when I use the spell. But I do know something will."

"What?! How?!"

He continued, "Back when I was training for a year, before I ran into Gildarts, I came across this temple of some sort. It looked long abandoned and since it seemed pretty isolated, I decided that Happy and I could stay there overnight. I remember having this dream, where I met this guy. I couldn't see his face, but he called himself Ankhseram."

I cried out, "That's the God of Life and Death itself! It's because of him that both Zeref and Mavis are cursed! Why did he talk to you?"

Natsu shrugged and said, "I don't know. He said something about how my heart was calling out for more power, the power to defeat my enemies. He said he would give that power to me, if I was willing to pay the price for it after I had used it." He chuckled, "At first I was pretty hesitant but then he said something along the lines of how as a god, he can't break his deals, and usually he asks for the payment in advance. But he said that my future deemed it necessary for my payment to be paid at a later time. Eventually, I agreed, as he convinced me that this was the only way of having a future without Acnologia or Zeref. He touched my arm and a bandage appeared." He rubbed his covered arm and finished with, "When I woke up in the morning, I still had the bandage on my arm, and I could feel the power pulsing through me. I can't tell you what the spell does, as I do not know for sure myself, but I will know what to do when the time is right. That's what Ankhseram told me anyways."

The next few minutes passed in silence. I was processing what he had told me, until I eventually slapped him in the arm. He looked at me in confusion and I screeched, "You IDIOT! You should have told me what happened. This deal you made…you could be in real trouble! You could even become like Zeref or Mavis! You could be cursed by Ankhseram for using this spell!" I held my face in my hands and I could feel tears threaten to fall down my cheeks.

I could hear Natsu shuffling slightly until he was standing up in front of me. He took my right hand, the pink Fairy Tail guild mark standing out proudly in the faint light of the morning sun. He spoke, determination and fierceness lacing his words, "I promise you Lucy. I will never let that happen. I swear upon Fairy Tail, upon Igneel, upon anything you want, that I…we will come out of this fine. All of us. Even if the god comes and asks me for my life as payment, I will fight with everything I have to make sure that we will always have a future together…as partners."

I blushed at his words and the double meaning behind them. I didn't think that he had meant the words like that but they still caused a faint flutter in my chest. Sometime during the one year of Fairy Tail's disbandment, I realized that I harbored very strong feelings for Natsu, and not just in the friend way. I had missed him for more than I had initially realized. I just didn't know what to do about them. Especially now that the present may be the best and worst time to confess said feelings.

I wanted to tell Natsu about the future I had read in the Book of Requirement, about Yaseika's currently 'scheduled' demise, when a faint whirring sound came from outside.

NATSU POV

This sound, while it was quiet, I could tell that it was coming from relatively close by. The noise began to raise in volume with each passing second. Then I heard a voice, clear as day in my mind. It was Mavis. She screamed, "Prepare for battle! They are here!"

Lucy and I shot into action at the First's words. Shaking the sleep from our eyes, Happy ended up bursting into the room, barely even able to stand upright. Within minutes, we left Lucy's apartment.

Sprinting down the street, the sight that greeted us was not a good one. The streets were currently almost completely deserted, but the sky was what presented the worry. Up in the air were many battle airships, at least 3 dozen that I could see immediately. All of them had their weapons pointing forward, towards Fairy Tail.

There was one larger ship leading this air armada, and although it was really far away, I could make out the figure of a young man dressed in black robes, a white toga billowing in the wind. He was standing at the front of the ship, a single arm held out in front of him. I growled low, "Zeref."

He was here.

In the next few moments, the Black Wizard swept his arm to the side, and with that, all chaos erupted. The ships fired magic beams down towards the ground and explosions could be seen and heard. I could distantly hear shouts of the guild members scrambling for cover and to make a protection barrier. Spells and incantations were being screamed above the chaos.

The other guilds, Sabertooth, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, even Mermaid Heel and others were coming as well. I could sense them, but they would be a while before they would arrive. As of now, Fairy Tail was alone in combating the Black Wizard.

The battle to protect Fairy Tail, to protect Fairy Heart, and to protect all of Fiore has now begun.

I turned to see Lucy and Happy at my side, both of their jaws dropped open and eyes wide. Lucy's eyes began to fill with tears and I felt the power under the bandages pulse with power. I took Lucy's hand and she looked at me in shock. I said, squeezing her hand reassuringly, "Together."

She swallowed and gave me a watery smile and whispered back, "Together."

And thus the battle begins! I hope you enjoyed this latest installment! I will not be updating again for a while, till about mid-April because of trips and commitments. So here's a slightly longer chapter to make up for that. But I hope you stick around and will read till the conclusion of this tale! Because it's coming soon!

Speaking of the conclusion, I'm currently working on developing the fight sequence and the result of this fight. There are many different ways to end it and I can't just choose one. So I've decided that for the ending of this story, I'm going to eventually post several different "endings", like in a video game. Whichever one is the true ending is up to you the reader. You can choose how the story ends.