It's been almost a year, hasn't it?
I apologize for the long wait but I did have my reasons. Between getting a new computer, graduating college with one of three degrees, my mom getting cancer again, and my father always disappearing when he feels like it: I really lost track of time and the power to write anything. Those that follow my tumblr probably noticed my decline of oneshots and lack of participation in angst week as well as Nalu week. It's been hard.
Updates will continue but not every week like it was before. I took on two jobs and I still have degrees to finish by Spring.
I want to thank everyone that reviewed. I did see them and they did allow me a boost..enough to plot out the rest of the story. I just have to write it in story format.
Also, I'm wondering if I should post some oneshots on FFnet. I have everything on Tumblr buuuuut maybe branching out will be worth it? Let me know what you think about that.
"Did you have fun?" Mard Geer hummed atop his horse as Acnologia trudged up the hill, a burning city crumbling behind the Bringer of the Apocalypse. A crack echoed over the smoky air, one far building collapsing in on itself. Mard only chuckled, flicking ash from his shoulder with indifference.
"He's here." Acnologia growled, not bothering to admire the destruction. Eyes stared onward, past the feeble remains of the army and the forest of trees, over the mountains towards the East. He bore no expression, no hint to his thoughts. Only a dark promise of the bleak future. "END."
Mard froze, ripping his gaze away from the beautiful destruction he and his army wrought. "Master END?" he hissed, "Here?"
Acnologia did not affirm, only adding indifferently, "The pieces, the keys and the holder are too."
Mard held his breath for a moment before licking his lips in amusement. "Both of them are here and you come to me empty handed. I expected END to be dormant but the Pieces of the Spirit King should be easy to take. I must say, I expected more out of you with this task, Master Acnologia. Lord Zeref would be ashamed." His horse shifted uncomfortably, tossing its head in agitation. Even to an animal, the tension of the air was ever present. Danger hung in the air thick like dripping turpentine oil.
Acnologia parted his eyes from the East, locking on Mard with little concern or rise to the insult. "END was a whelp, one that I will eradicate in front of Lord Zeref once he awakens. I do not fear either of them. The keys will come in time, where he sleeps and waits for his creation. I will be the only shadow of this world." His boots shifted in the rubble, anchoring his weight to solid ground as Mard's expression erupted into pure rage.
"How dare you speak about Lord Zeref that way! How dare you defy your orders! This is not your world and it never will be. There is only Zeref and his will-" Mard snarled, going as far as to jab a finger at the warrior. "-you are a mere creation of a greater whole! You would be nothing without Lord Zeref, noth-"
It happened in a flash, so fast that the horse Mard rode didn't react until it was over. One moment Mard was snarling and hissing, then he was gurgling and clutching at his chest. Red bubbled between his fingers, the man trying to silently understand the hole through his chest. Then, his horse startled, knocking him from the saddle and on his back.
Acnologia, the Bringer of the Apocalypse, stood a few meters away, blood caked over his fist and the tiny push-dagger he used to carve into Mard's chest.
For a moment, only the crackles of the burning city filled the air, the army too stunned to react as the commanding officer lay drowning in his own blood. The throne of power had been usurped in mere seconds and the future now bleaker.
"You are in my way." the monster of a man said, not bothering to share one look at the dying man as he advanced on the army, which parted to let him through without so much as a word. "This sham is over. Go back to dust and nothing. I will be the only one to kill END and I will erase anyone in my path."
Not one soldier stopped him, parting for him like petals on a disturbed lake surface, waiting until Mard took his final draw of air before silently starting to scatter. The war was over with the death of its instigator and the world was allowed a false peace.
It was not the first time blood had been shed over the simple pieces of fate.
Dawn crested the hills around Cedar, illuminating the smoldering ruins of a once proud city.
Buildings lay in disarray, fires just now dying to embers with no fuel left to burn. Bodies scattered the streets, empty eyes locked on the void beyond as the town finally began to die. The sight was horrid.
It was what the refugees came back to.
Homes were flattened, ransacked and demolished beyond recognition. The places where generations of families grew and loved, now nothing but ash and rubble. War was an unkind mistress with a firm hand, and now all that was left was sorrow and memories of what was.
People wandered the streets in tears, free to live but chained by death all around them. Screams of separated lovers, lost children, grieving wives, saturated the air like humidity. A town so lively had fallen, and many could only guess what happened to the towns that came before them.
Like Magnolia, the proud landmark city silent as the grave these past few days. Not one pigeon made it back from the journey, most likely still circling for a post to land on or died in the events that prevented contact.
The army moved on, broken without a leader and an instigator.
It seemed a few generals fell in battle, lost among the carnage. Tartaros was finally no more.
Lucy gazed out of the shattered windows of her room, taking in the blood red dawn that she always associated with bloodshed in the night with bitter silence.
Igneel, her mentor and second father, had fallen in battle to a man with wild black hair and blue markings on his skin. Acnologia, the War Lord with a thirst for annihilation. Natsu almost withheld the information from her until she prompted him once too many. His voice was snarled and chilly, almost temperamental with her interrogation.
He let the information sink in as he properly wrapped her wound in the safety of the tattered Dragneel Manor, not speaking another word to her besides grunts and gestures. Lucy almost wanted to slap him if she had not been so overwhelmed and exhausted. Plus, from the way he was acting, Lucy could draw conclusions as to what Natsu witnessed.
She had lost her father to greed.
He had lost his father to war.
Gray and Juvia were missing as well and Gajeel had not checked in for the longest time. Her worry for her friends was biting and nagging, so she could only imagine how Natsu was handling his thoughts.
His eyes were polished onyx, cold stone that once rested in a furnace of heat, now chilled to a dark shine. His eyes were sharper, his movements more jagged out of retained frustration and withheld sorrow.
He had not hunted down Acnologia after he found her, opting to satisfy his concerns for her safety before anything else, but the woman could tell he was filled with conflicting emotions.
He was different, almost like a stranger to her now. Even as they walked back to the estate, he was silent, eyeing her hips every so often: undoubtedly noticing the jangle of her keys and seeing the tips of the golden items peek from under her shirt.
But, he never asked, growing more stern and severe over the span of the evening and well into the night. His thoughts were whittling away at him, gnawing his resolve down to his very bones. Still, he didn't reach out.
She fell asleep cuddled in blankets on the floor of the library, listening to the thumps of chairs breaking and his anguished howls from the floor above, her recovered pistol under her pillow as a constant protector.
The dawn brought nothing to her but more sorrow.
In her hand, clenched and wrinkled, rested a hastily scrawled note that was certainly Natsu's penmanship. The parchment was riddled with ink blotches, his words bled into the paper. Words she never expected to read.
'I must find Happy and I do not know if I will return to Cedar. Go to Hargeon, meet with Grandine. Sorry...I will find you when I am stronger.
-Natsu'
Lucy watched as wagons rolled into Cedar, families returning to the only home they had ever known. Broken and beaten souls finding the one place they called home a wreck. She could hear the cries of widows, the screams of children, the agonizing work to dig out the rare survivor.
Up high on the hill with an empty house, Lucy Heartfilia sat alone with a piece of paper and a lonely heart. It was almost as bad as being alone in that prison tower or waiting alone on the tower top. Lucy hated being alone. She loathed the silence that was normally filled with Igneel's laugh or Levy's excited chatter. Happy would be bothering her for a picnic by now, she was certain of it.
Is this what Natsu meant by 'staying'? Leaving without really talking to her or even asking her to come along?
The paper crumbled under her fingers, brown eyes never leaving the horizon, where Hargeon awaited.
Go to Haregon, he said. Meet with Grandine, he said.
Natsu was trained with this assassin mindset but she was also a disciple of Igneel, well learned in the ways of combat. There was something in the air, something horribly wrong and she was going to investigate, Natsu's orders be damned.
Contact with Magnolia was severed days ago and she did not hesitate to assume the army passed through there first. Fairy Tail could be in danger or worse without any communications. To get to Hargeon, she had to ride through Magnolia.
She just would not ride past Magnolia and use her talents where they were needed. Natsu would just have to find her there...with Fairy Tail.
"Sorry Natsu but I will not hide anymore. I am going to Magnolia... Fairy Tail needs me." she breathed, feeling the warm of the sun on her skin and the weight of the keys at her hip.
She could only hope her friends were safe and far from danger.
"You gotta be kiddin'." Gajeel grumbled, sidestepping a fallen chimney.
"You absolutely have to be fucking joking." he added, scowling at the bodies that littered the street. Sparing only a moment of silence in respect, the man then turned to offer his hand to help the tiny blue haired woman over the mass of bricks.
Levy held a cloth to her nose and mouth, the stench of smoke and death something she will never forget as she accepted Gajeel's assistance over the obstacle. There were no words she had to share, all her thoughts escaping in silent tears and everlasting worry. Still she saw what Gajeel was referring to, the single body just to the left, pinned under a beam of smoldering wood.
Metalicana, only half visible under the crushing weight, covered in blood and peacefully resting. The armor he wore was scuffed and dented, truly stating the effect of battle before a beam of wood finally felled the Dragon Assassin.
He had a wistful smile on his face.
Gajeel sneered, marching up to the corpse and snarling. "This is how you die? Big badass like you always claimed to be, killed by a wooden stick?! Unsightly."
He turned away, teeth bared, only to freeze when Levy placed her gentle hand on his shoulder. "Gajeel...we should probably get back to the wagons. Everyone might get worried. We still have to find Lucy, Natsu and the others as well." she whispered, not daring to look at the lord that saved her life all those months ago. Seeing him this way felt so wrong, so unjust. The strong man she had known looked so old and worn, his final moments probably ghastly.
She was thankful to have found Gajeel upon returning to the city, alive and well.
Before the black haired man could answer, however, a new and fairly tired voice whispered, "S-Some assistance...pl-ease?"
Startled, both Gajeel and Levy glanced down to witness Metalicana's eyes crack open and his face grimace with confused pain. "W-While I am still y-young and alive, v-vile youngling-" he added when Gajeel's face came into focus.
"Holy fuck-" the black haired man whispered, flailing his arms in a panic before rushing forward to reach for the timber, Levy right behind him. Gajeel did most of the lifting but Levy kept up the pace by tugging the prone Metalicana while the younger Dragon Assassin grunted and pursed his lips; fingers digging into the heavy wood until his father was free.
Levy flinched when Gajeel finally let the wood go, the crunch a reminder of how many bones would have been broken had he dropped it at the wrong time. Metalicana, too, winced before struggling to sit up, favoring his lower ribs and right knee.
"T-That shit came out of nowhere. I expected an enemy to defeat me...not a piece of lumber." he wheezed, waving away Levy's hands and grasping the tail of Gajeel's cloak. "Tell me good news. Is the wine cellar safe?"
The librarian did not startle when Gajeel snarled and thwacked Metalicana on the back of the head, although far more gently than she had ever seen. "That's what you are worried about?! The city is burning, the others are missing—probably dead—and you are worried about the wine?!"
Metalicana threw his hands up in defense, a grimace crossing his features at the action. "Shoulda put your ass in a basket and left you at the nunnery twenty years ago and got a pet falcon or something. Woulda been a better man for the ladies-"
Gajeel bristled, "This ain't all about you, old shit. We gotta find the others and regroup-"
"Igneel's dead." Metalicana deadpanned, looking aged now, eyes sunken in silent mourning. He did not acknowledge the shocked expressions or the disbelief. This was no time for sparing feelings. "He died a true assassin and his runt is well on his way to ending up in a plot next to his pops. Acnologia is on the move and I would bet my left nut that so is his founding co-conspirator."
"T-That...T-That cannot be-" Levy whispered through her hands, eyes already watering.
Gajeel did not betray his thoughts other than darkening eyes and pursed lips. "Is this about what you trained me for, old man?"
The look shared between two men answered his question.
"Gajeel, I trained you to serve the light, to stomp out the darkness by living as a shadow. You always knew what you had to do should the time come." Metalicana murmured, finally accepting Levy's quiet hand to help him stand. "Well, that time has come. Everything is permitted."
"Aye. I know what to do." Gajeel replied coolly, emotion melting from his expression to reveal nothing but duty. "Can you watch out for the shrimp? She might fall in a hole or something without supervision."
Though she had no idea what they were talking about earlier, once her nickname came up, she fixed Gajeel with a flustered scowl only to flush when he spared a tender look and a smirk.
"I got some things to do. Try and grow taller for me. It is hard to bend over to kiss you." he purred, patting her head with a condescending cackle.
Levy paused her growing tirade, blinking slowly before pinching his cuff and locking gaze with him. "Come back alive." she whispered, "or I will make you regret it."
Gajeel frowned before sighing and ruffling her hair. "Sure."
"I am right here, you know." Metalicana grumbled.
As quick as a snap of the fingers, Levy pinked and leaped away as if Gajeel burned her, "R-R-Right! L-Lu and Juvia are missing, plus Gray too! We will find them!" she yelped, covering her face and turning away from the men to busy herself with scouting for help.
After checking that she was out of earshot, Metalicana turned back to his son with a stern gaze. They said nothing, father and son just staring.
Then, "You cannot be weak. You have always known what the right thing is and now that Igneel is not here, you have a promise to fulfill. END can never reach his creator and anything that guarantees that is worth it."
Gajeel pursed his lips again, an acid taste in his mouth. "Old Red knew what he was and knew what he had to do should the time come, but now it falls to me. I got it."
Metalicana nodded, but his distaste for the situation was evident in his tense behavior. "May your horse ride fast and your sword not miss." he murmured, not offended when Gajeel did not acknowledge his farewell and just turned to leave.
After all, severing a bond built over a lifetime was something unforgivable.
The old Dragon Assassin sighed and turned his head to the sky, wishing he could see the sky through the dark clouds.
"Forgive me, my old friend. The future has to be protected."
Thanks for sticking with me so far! Hopefully life settles down so I can actually get a chapter out once a week again!