Lucy couldn't help but wonder if she was the only one who knew they were being tracked and hunted.
Cobra reassured her very quietly that she wasn't.
They didn't stop, and they didn't sleep, nor did they eat as they pushed and pushed for the safety of Crocus, only a few day's walk from where they'd confronted the Nuckelavee. Insulted, the creature now sought them even more fiercely, its cries flooding the trees as it trailed after them, simply waiting for the right time to attack. It scared Lucy more and more with each passing minute, her blood nearly boiling beneath her skin with her fear.
Natsu felt it, of course, and was searching furiously, hunting for her. His own explosive rage and frustration made her fear all the worse, and it was like an endless cycle between them. She could feel him closing in, though she still didn't necessarily know where he was. He couldn't come soon enough. She didn't think the Nuckelavee would think to challenge him...but then again, Rogue and Cobra both said it rivaled the Dullahan in age, strength, and wisdom. It merely chose to show it in a different way.
It showed that one night when they stopped for a small rest and crept up on them with shocking silence. The owls had still been hooting when it had suddenly materialized overhead, blocking the moon's light. Lucy had screamed and screamed, as had Angel, as Rogue hauled them both as far away as he could without leaving a cornered Cobra behind. Its yellowed nails had reached for him; he'd met it in the face with a nice-sized glob of venom that had made it laugh.
Even days later, that laugh was haunting Lucy. It had been the cold, high-pitched giggle of children who knew nothing but malice and the intent to hurt people.
No, the creature wasn't hunting them.
It was playing with them now, tormenting them with wild glee until their hearts gave out.
"This is bad." Rogue spoke seriously, his gaze sharp with exhaustion, impatience, and desperation. He had work to get back to - his guild, his Marked One, and his duty as the Guardian of the Eclipse Gate. Lucy wondered if the lack of dedication to the Gate was hurting him, for he looked wild with pain for just a moment. It unnerved her. Would the keys do the same to her if she didn't pay them such close attention?
No, the keys reassured her with a flicker of warmth. No, they wouldn't.
"You think?" snapped Angel, bristling. She, like Lucy, wavered on her feet. Only human, she was ready to pass out, too. "What the hell are we supposed to do with something like this? Natsu Dragneel's almost preferable to this thing. At least with him, he apparently lets you know he's coming."
"Not always," Lucy sighed, remembering the burning of a councilman's house in Crocus. "Only when he likes that you're scared." It only served to earn her a nasty look from Angel that Lucy ignored. Lucy rubbed her temples instead and mumbled, "Natsu's close, he just can't pinpoint where we are, I think. We keep moving around, and it's making it harder for him. I think he could get it to potentially leave us alone; he got along well with the Dullahan."
"The Nuckelavee and the Dullahan are two very different creatures, Lucy," pointed out Rogue with care.
"Yes, but it's Natsu, and he's always surprising me, so why not be optimistic?" Lucy glanced over her shoulder as a scream filled the trees. Shaken, the group continued moving. As they walked, Lucy fell into deep thought, struggling to come up with a solution.
It smacked her in the face like a brick wall and the moment it did, Lucy nearly slapped herself. "I'm an idiot!" she cried, earning amused looks from Rogue and Cobra. Angel just looked at her blankly, as if annoyed she was just realizing such a thing now. Cobra cackled wildly, stroking Cubellios's head as Lucy muttered angrily under her breath at herself. Whipping around, she sank back, back, back, touching that piece of Natsu.
Natsu went still, she noted, at the touch as she sought him out in a way she'd only ever done once before. Bit by bit, she latched on, focusing all of her effort onto him. When she felt confident that she was as latched onto him as much as she was going to be capable of, she went to work. She drew on every ounce of strength she had, staring hard at the space before her.
A grin burst to life on her face when the Portal formed. "Ha," she breathed, exhaustion sweeping through her. Such specifically located Portals were far more difficult than any other kind - excluding those that sent her to another country.
Pride swept through her as Natsu understood what she was doing. Pride, and relief, and excitement - as well as nervousness that Lucy found herself echoing. They'd not properly seen one another in months, not since Loke's trial. But she forced herself to ignore that thought, finishing the creation of the Portal. She opened her mouth to tell them to step through - and found her body locking up in horror when something darted out of the trees at them. The Nuckelavee had found them, and its rage-filled screaming told Lucy that it was not pleased to see them making an escape. "Go," she gasped, reeling back instinctively.
Angel didn't need to be told twice. She darted through the Portal, Cobra a step behind. Lucy and Rogue barreled through it after them. Before it could slide shut behind them, however, the Nuckelavee began shoving itself through, reaching with grasping talons. Lucy cried out when it caught Rogue and dragged him to the ground. The equine head began snapping at him like a vicious dog.
The hairs on Lucy's neck rose when she heard the scream that left Rogue as its jaws clamped down on his leg and twisted until a familiar, sharp snap was heard. Blood splattered her skin, hot and sticky. Without thinking, Lucy lurched forward to help him when he finally freed himself. She hoisted him back by an arm, feeling sick when she caught a glimpse of his mangled leg. Perhaps its teeth were old and rotten, but they had carved deep wounds into his leg and broken it badly enough that she saw the gleam of bone. Her own wrist ached. It could have been worse.
Lucy forced herself to focus past the agony that spliced through her body and soul. A Portal should not have been open this long, not on her own power. She could feel a low throb in her skull, violent and painful, and blood flowed steadily from her nose as she slashed the first key she touched through the air. Scorpio appeared before her with a grin, sand already flying. The Nuckelavee screamed, desperately clawing, but was forced back when the sand blinded it and stung at its eyes.
For a moment, Lucy thought they'd won.
But when the Nuckelavee shoved a leg in, and then another, laughing at their attempts, even Scorpio turned pale. Heaving for air and slicked with sweat, Rogue croaked, "Get it out. Get it out."
"I'm trying," Lucy rasped, eyes bleary. "Scorpio-"
Scorpio kept himself planted firmly between the ancient monster and Lucy. "I can't do anything against this, Miss Lucy. I'm sorry."
Lucy clenched her jaw. "Damn it," she seethed. She raked a hand through her hair, struggling to think of what she should do. Rage towards her own helplessness flooded her, and she fought the urge to simply scream with it. She should have been capable of doing something. She was the Lost Star - and the Keeper of Celestial Spirits, though that had yet to be official.
It took Lucy just a moment, but she realized that not all of that rage was her own.
Her lips parted, a cry spilling from her as Natsu's fury crashed down onto her, overwhelming every corner of her mind. Her blood nearly boiled with the force of it - nearly boiled from the searing flames that suddenly exploded around them, black as night yet never touching a hair on Lucy or Rogue's heads. Scorpio vanished with a triumphant laugh, not wanting to get in the way.
Natsu barreled into the Nuckelavee, looking every bit like the vicious, wild demon he was when he wanted to be. He tore into it with fire and smoke, shredding at any defense the Nuckelavee had. "Out," he roared. "Get out."
The Nuckelavee was taken aback by the outright challenge by a newcomer and screamed at him. Natsu met the scream with one of his own, the sound scraping along Lucy's soul dangerously. He was bordering on the demon he'd become in Mard Greer's court, she realized with a spark of concern. She supposed they didn't have much of a choice with something like the Nuckelavee standing before them.
Rogue, ignoring the agonizing pain that must have come with his leg, dragged himself to his hands and knees - and promptly vanished into shadows, which surged forward to help Natsu. Lucy didn't think he was among those that slammed and shoved at the ancient creature, struggling to push it back, but it certainly did the job. Between the pair of them, they managed to shove the Nuckelavee back, back, back, until it stumbled free of the Portal.
Lucy let half of her Portal slam shut when she saw it reach for them again, furious.
Heaving for air, smoke puffing from his lungs with every breath, Natsu rounded on her. His eyes were wild, yet Lucy found herself stumbling towards him with a rasping sound from deep in her throat. "Natsu." Her knees buckled just as she reached him, and he grabbed her arms with haste to keep her from falling.
"Hey, Luce," he said unevenly, smoke puffing over her face. His eyes flickered uncertainty, and Lucy remembered that this was the first time they were seeing one another after Loke's trial. Still, she thought his lips tugged reluctantly into a hint of a smile.
She could feel Rogue settling into her shadow, wherever it was. Her grip tightened where it had come to rest on his arms. "We need...to get out," she managed to get out. She felt ill. Incredibly ill, actually, now that she thought about it. "Now," she added, blood bubbling at her lips.
"Right." Natsu grew serious. "C'mon." He didn't hesitate to start tugging her, carefully helping her stumble along. And when Lucy found her legs weren't working, he picked her up and began carrying her through the passageway, his grip tight. Lucy couldn't figure out if he was pleased to see her or not, his face carefully blank now. She couldn't bring herself to care.
Lucy found that she could only bury her tear-streaked face in his scarf, fighting the urge to weep at the warmth of his skin on hers.
They were screwed, thought Natsu, staring irritably at the pair whispering to one another as he stepped free of the Portal. They shut up immediately when they saw him, carrying the nearly unconscious Lucy. He hoisted her up a little better, unsure of how to feel. Now that he had her in sight, he wasn't sure what to do with her. She was Lucy, and he was admittedly happy to see her, but the last time they'd seen one another…
She'd broken a fundamental part of his trust in her, and he wasn't sure he could give it back so easily. Not after what she'd hidden from him. At the same time, he wanted to simply forget any of it had ever happened. He wanted anything but to address what had happened. But there was no choice. When they were safe and had the keys again, and when Natsu had figured out the pair before them, he knew they'd have to talk.
For now, however…
"Rogue," muttered Natsu as he let Lucy sink carefully to the ground, her glazed eyes rolling to try and focus. He knew Rogue was there. His eyes lingered on the dragon with interest; he'd not known there were other dragons around outside of those he knew of and Acnologia. How had he hidden in Igneel's territory for so long and not been found out? He was clever - and someone Natsu needed to keep an eye on.
As if reading his mind, the dragon bared his teeth in a wild grin.
Natsu made himself ignore him as Rogue materialized from shadows. He was clearly in pain, his face stricken with it, and his hands shook as he went to work on looking at his own legs. Natsu, keeping a close eye on his Marked One, crouched beside him and muttered, "There's nothing we can do for that out here. You need a proper healer."
Rogue clenched his jaw, frustrated. "I know." He slid his gaze to Natsu's. "How far are we from home?"
Natsu was bewildered at first. Home? What did he mean by home?
"We can't be far," slurred Lucy beside them, surprising them both. "Right? We could make it within a handful of days if we pushed it."
"Forget where we are," said the silver-haired woman accompanying the new dragon. Natsu shot her a small, icy look, not trusting a hair on her head. He squinted at her, unable to help but think she looked somewhat familiar. "Is that thing going to find us here?"
Rogue snapped his eyes to Natsu again, searching for an answer. "No," Natsu muttered. "It shouldn't. It would have lost our trail. We just need to make sure we don't go back near where it's been hanging out." Natsu pushed a hand through his hair, frustrated.
A hand tugged on the end of his scarf urgently. "Natsu," rasped Lucy, and he felt a jolt of alarm in his face when he realized there was blood staining the corner of her mouth. He felt even more alarmed when he realized there was black dripping steadily from his own nose, earning vicious wary looks from the two newcomers. She tugged at his scarf again. "Loke-"
"Right." Natsu shoved a hand in his pocket and retrieved the key, showing it to her. Lucy's eyes lit with relief at the sight of the golden key, and Natsu hesitantly pressed it into her palm. It was searing at even his skin by the time he'd withdrawn. She lifted the key to her lips, muttering something to it that even he couldn't catch.
Hesitantly, Natsu reached over and took the key from her. She pried her eyes open again to watch him as he took the ring of keys from her hip and attached Loke's key to it. She gave a small, warm smile.
And then, just like that, Lucy's consciousness slid away and he was left alone in his head. He was anxious about the silence echoing through him, reminding him of how it had taken her three weeks to wake up last time she'd struggled so badly with Portals. Still, as Rogue slid into a doze, unable to sleep properly around the pain, Natsu found himself ripping fabric from Lucy's already torn shirt to dab the blood on her face away. His stomach dropped when he found a little at the corners of her eyes.
"No more Portals," he muttered aloud, sick.
"You bleed black like the demons of old," a voice said from behind, and Natsu stiffened. Slowly, he turned a sharp-eyed glare on the dragon. The purple snake Asuka had described was coiled around him, not bothering him one bit with the way its tail lashed against his leg. Natsu didn't dare approach. Demon or not, the venom would hurt if he was struck by that thing's bite.
"So?" he rumbled, wary of what the dragon was capable of. If he could read minds or something similar…
He was the last person who needed someone in his head.
That dragon gave a broad, shark-toothed grin. "Who are you and why do you bleed black? What makes you so special?"
He didn't like him. At all. Nor did Natsu like the suspicious silver-haired woman beside him. They were clearly friends, or partners at the very least. The way she stuck closer to him than anyone else told him as such. Natsu perked up at the challenge on the dragon's face, finding himself responding with a smug, toothy grin of his own. He let some of that old magic bleed out into the world, warning him off. "None of your business," he warned.
The dragon debated whether or not he was interested in continuing his path of thinking and then shrugged, deciding otherwise. Natsu was admittedly impressed; Loke had said the pair valued their own skins too much to try anything, but he'd not really believed him. Still, Natsu turned his attention away and looked at the pair before him, uncertain. With one unconscious and the other too injured to walk...
This was going to be a long trek back to Crocus.
"Something's wrong with Rogue."
The words spilled from her lips before she could even realize what she was saying, and Yukino found that her distress was growing with each passing second. For hours now, she had been able to tell that something was wrong with Rogue. She wasn't one hundred percent sure just what it was, but the fact that she'd been able to feel fear for just a few minutes…
Sting, sprawled out comfortably in a chair watching as she swept the cottage floors, watched her closely with narrowed blue eyes. As both her lover and Guardian of the Gate, he'd been more than happy to take over for Rogue when the celestial spirit had shown up on their doorstep, demanding they protect Aries. The golden key now rested comfortably with the others at Yukino's hip. And, fond as they were of the pair of idiots who held the other keys, Rogue had been incredibly willing to track down Lucy, who was reportedly stuck with two criminals.
"I can't go track him down, Yukino," Sting said with a grimace, wishing he could. "I can't leave you unprotected." The magic lashed at him for merely thinking of doing so. Still, he could practically see the scales that rose and fell along her neck. He wondered if it was in response to Rogue or to her own agitation.
"I know, but still." Yukino made a frustrated sound, and not for the first time, Sting could tell she hated what she'd agreed to do. Usually, Yukino was okay with being the Keeper of the Eclipse Gate. But on the rare occasion...there were times when she hated herself for agreeing to lock herself away in a singular area, destined to live there for the rest of her life.
Sting wondered then if it was possible to have two Keepers at once. Why couldn't it be if they had two Guardians? Something told him otherwise, however.
As Yukino strode past him, pacing anxiously, Sting snagged her wrist and tugged her to a halt. "Have some faith," he told her, not unkindly. "Rogue's been to hell and back before with and without help. He'll be fine. He's a dragon, Yukino."
"That's part of the reason I'm worried," she grumbled, distressed. Her fingers brushed over the keys she carried. "I hope he's okay…" She didn't even want to imagine what it was like to lose someone who carried a piece of her soul and vice versa. The mere thought of it made her want to cry. She knew Rogue could sense her fear, which only made her feel worse. She didn't need to distract him if there was danger afoot.
"Hey," Sting said, and Lector and Frosch rubbed against her ankles, purring in comfort as he searched her gaze. "Relax, Yukino. Go get that paperwork we've gotta finish. We might as well do something useful while we wait, since we can't do anything anyways."
Sighing, but agreeing, Yukino went to fetch the paperwork, but only after Sting had pressed a fond kiss to her fingertips.
I forgot to update yesterday! D: I was so excited about this chapter, too. Hope you enjoyed regardless! ;)
Guest, regarding ODAS...ODAS is just a shortened form of Of Dust and Shadows! :)
Thanks to reviewers (XxCelestialAssassinxX, AthomeinFairytail, Sele de la Luna, Glassygirl, lcr0718, TigerArrowgirl, PersephoneQOTU, rao hyuga 18, Lycamall, Guest #1, Kaisha, Lissuin, valerioux, shortymcnugget, Lodemai04, stranger1999, Bookwork129, BeautifulSamurai, itsxoi, madaraswife, and Guest #2!) as well as those who favorited and followed!