Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima

ACT V: Ragnarok – The Fateful Encounter

Approximately X793

It was over... the war was finally over.

All enemies had been defeated leaving the guilds victorious even though it had come with a cost. Not everyone survived and those who didn't make it would be mourned for a long time. Despite of that the second people realised that they had succeeded a huge ripple effect went through the mages, making them all cheer and cry like they had just lived through their own worst nightmare. For some that was exactly what they had done, making them feel a mixture of emotions as people started hugging their comrades.

Unbeknownst of this victory a certain celestial mage was experiencing and witnessing something utterly traumatic right in front of her eyes. Her dearest friend, the person she caressed more than she had ever admitted out loud died right in front of her eyes. Lucy was warned that it might happen, but she never believed it... no, she was absolutely sure he would pull through somehow...

Devastated and crushed we find our heroine on the battlefield, desperate for a solution...

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

Chapter 38: Victory?

"No..." Lucy gasped in horror as she caught the Dragon Slayer's lifeless body as it started falling forwards, before she gently manoeuvred him down on the ground "... no..."

She shook her head in denial, before desperately trying to hear the sound of him breathing, but there was nothing but silence.

"Please..." her trembling hands searched his neck to find a pulse, but she had no luck in finding it. However Lucy refused to accept that, so she kept searching as tears started to blur her vision.

"Come on..." her voice cracked as she started shaking the other mage's shoulders "... wake up"

"Lucy..." Gray said in a caring tone before he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You can't..." she bit her bottom lip and stopped shaking the Dragon Slayer "you... can't... no!"

Determined and in denial she started performing first aid on Natsu's body, even when she knew deep down that it was a futile effort, because the damages was too intense all the way down to a cellular level, that simply reviving him wasn't an option.

"Come on!" Lucy roared as she slammed her hands against the fire mage's chest, before she started blowing air into his mouth, ignoring how the blood on his lips was directly transferred to her own.

The blonde didn't know how long she continued the process, before Gray forced her to stop by wrapping his arms around her, capturing her in a tight hug from behind.

"Let me go!" she struggled against his arms, refusing to give up.

"It's too late Lucy" Gray said in a calm voice, clearly trying to suppress his own feelings.

"No! It can't be!"

She kept struggling until all energy suddenly seemed to vanish, replacing it with grief and agony which made her cry loudly.

"Let me get through" Jellal's voice boomed all of a sudden and before they knew it the blue haired mage was crouching down beside the Dragon Slayer, where he started whispering something inaudible, before he made a few hand signals and placed his hands above the fire mage.

"What...?" Lucy whispered with a sniffle as she watched pink light emerging from Jellal's hands.

"Time magic..." the blue haired mage said stoically "I learned a bit from Ultear, but I'm not nearly as good as she was"

"What?!" Gray said and unconsciously pressed the blonde more firmly against his chest "How?!"

"Does it matter?" Jellal smirked to himself as he continued casting the spell, inwardly hoping it would work.

"Oh no!" Wendy's voice rang all of a sudden as she made her way over to them from her hiding place and in a swift movement placed herself across from the blue haired mage "Is he...?"

"Wendy!" the blue haired man gasped sounding mildly astonished "What a nice surprise"

"You.. you think so?" she stuttered nervously.

"Yes, I need your help in doing this"

"Really?"

"Yes, what I'm trying to do is restore his cells, but since the demonic part is gone we need to reconstruct him. For that to happen I will use time magic to restore his DNA so they go back to the way they were when he was just a human being. Once I've done that I want you to use your healing magic that will hopefully force all of his other DNA to start a chain reaction, that makes the rest of his cells remember their original form"

"Sounds difficult..." Wendy sounded disheartened for a second, before she nodded her head in determination "... but let's do this!"

"Let's" Jellal nodded as they started performing their spells in silence.

None of them knew how much time passed by, since their perception of things was clearly affected by the situation.

"Mmm..." Jellal bit his lip in thought before turning to look at Erza "Do you have any medical gear stored?"

"I believe so, yes" the scarlet haired woman nodded "Do you need anything in particular?"

"Yes I need something to help him breathe... a respirator would be most useful"

"On it" she said and a few seconds later summoned her nurse outfit and the item the other mage had requested.

"Lucy come down here" Jellal motioned with his head encouraging her to come over.

"What do you need from me?" she quickly got out of Gray's arms and made her way down to them.

"On my signal I need you to start giving him mouth to mouth" he stated before turning his head to glare at Laxus "You, come"

"What?" the blonde man said but came nonetheless.

"On my command I need you to use your electricity on him, hopefully that'll restart his heart"

"Very well" Laxus cracked his knuckles ready to perform.

"And finally Gray" Jellal continued "If this works then I need you to use your ice to force Natsu's body to cool down"

"Why?" the ice mage asked.

"His body should be in a lot of pain, from the things we've done to it. I mean we basically just reconstructed his DNA, so we need to force his body into a coma, by lowering his temperature considerably"

"Understood" Gray nodded, ready to react at any second.

"Good" Jellal took a deep breath "Wendy are you ready for this?"

"Yes..." she answered.

"I'll count down from three and then I need you to move, to make place for the others, okay?"

"Uh-huh..."

"Good" the blue haired mage smiled towards the healer "In 3... 2... 1... now!" when he stopped Wendy quickly bounced backwards.

"Laxus please use a tiny spark on his heart" Jellal said making the lightning mage crouch down next to Natsu's body, before he pressed his hand against the Dragon Slayer's chest, where a string of electricity shot into the lifeless body.

"Lucy..." Jellal nodded in her direction and she quickly started doing mouth to mouth, which she continued with until she was ordered to stop, so Laxus could use his electricity again. They did this procedure continuously until they saw the Dragon Slayer's hand twitch.

"It's working" Jellal said with a hint of joy in his voice.

Lucy didn't react to it because it was her turn yet again to give air to Natsu. Once she finished and Laxus sent another shock into the fire mage's body the Dragon Slayer suddenly gasped loudly, before his eyes shot wide open.

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled as she looked at said person, who was staring with huge blank eyes at the sky.

"Gray, quickly! And Erza be ready with the equipment" Jellal roared making the ice mage slam his hands against the ground, where ice started to form around the Dragon Slayer. Unfortunately it was not soon enough, because a second later the air was filled with a heartbreaking and intense scream from Natsu.

"Calm down!" Lucy urged as she quickly grasped the fire mage's head between her hands "Please!"

"Come on!" Gray roared as he made even more ice spawn and after a minute it started to have an effect on the Dragon Slayer who stopped screaming.

"How are you feeling?" Lucy asked before noticing how sickly pale Natsu was.

The fire mage didn't answer but laid perfectly still breathing through his mouth, making it fog whenever he exhaled because of the low temperature.

"You know what, you're doing great" the celestial mage kept talking hoping it could have a positive effect, but also because it made herself feel more calm "So just hang in there"

Lucy couldn't say for sure, but it actually looked like the Dragon Slayer smirked ever so slightly for a second, which encouraged her to continue.

"And when we get back I promise to make food for you... and..." she sucked in her breath, barely noticing that tears was streaming down her face again "I promise not to yell at you so much, if you sneak into my apartment and... I'll even go fishing with you, without complaining about it... and I..."

Lucy stopped because it was clear Natsu was on the brink of losing the remaining pieces of his consciousness and sure enough a few seconds later his eyelids closed, making an unpleasant shiver run down her spine.

Noticing that it was time for the next step, Jellal called for Erza who quickly placed the equipment on the Dragon Slayer while the blue haired mage started performing yet another spell.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked wanting to know what was going on.

"I'm putting his brain on pause, so he doesn't get out of the coma once the heat gets back into his body" Jellal answered

"I see" she nodded but kept her eyes fixed on Natsu "But how will we move him like that?"

"I'll carry him" Elfman popped out from out of nowhere "You can carry the machinery I'll take his body"

"Ohh, good idea" Lucy agreed, feeling slightly nervous she would be carrying the thing that essentially kept him alive.

It didn't take long for Jellal to finish his spell and once he did, Elfman scooped Natsu up into his arms, while Lucy carefully took the important machine and held it firmly against her chest.

And with that they found themselves leaving the scene, victoriously after a really long and emotional battle. All of them exhausted after fighting for such a long time, but all of them longing to get home so they could get some much deserved rest. Besides there was a lot of wounds both mentally and physically that they needed to mend. It would take time, but as they say time heals all wounds.

A/N: And with that this act/arc has finished! Let me hear you say: "Wooooh!"

Thanks for sticking with me for so long you guys, just a little more and then this story will be finished :) To show my appreciation I'm hereby sending you a ton of imaginary chocolates and snacks ^^

Important info: So you might ask, how they could revive Natsu but not the other characters that was Ko'ed. Well for one thing too much time has passed since they died, so it would be impossible to restore their bodies. Not only because of physics but because their souls have gone to the next world, so if they tried reviving them they would turn into mindless zombies that would stagger around aimlessly.

Also in this universe a respirator ain't that big (I mean it's small enough for Lucy to carry it). That might be silly, but I dunno... I'm too tired to explain stuff right now XD

Catch ya on the flip side kittens *heart sign*

To guest reviewer: I was sad to see them go too, but like you said they're finally at rest with each other in another place, so they got kind of a good ending as well :)

/H