Rather than heading straight to the Archives like she'd initially anticipated, Lucy instead returned to Gray's home with him in order to first grab Happy. The small familiar was there at the door waiting, as if he knew what they were already planning to do. Gray faltered in the entrance as she simply scooped him up and turned to face the door, fully intending to open a Portal right there and then.
"Lucy," said Gray, stopping her. "You know we - well, at least Juvia and I - really regret the part we had in what happened, right?"
Lucy paused, glancing at him over her shoulder. Happy purred as he hauled his plump body up onto her other, curling his tail around her throat. "Yes," she said. "You at least. And Juvia. The others...I can't tell who regrets it because they regret hurting Natsu, or if they regret it because of the aftermath." With a hint of a sad smile, Lucy didn't give him the chance to respond. Instead, she slipped into the Portal she'd crafted, briskly walking along the darkened starlit path that would take her to the Archives. She flinched at the number of shadow people that hovered in the edges of her vision, longing for her knife. Or, at the very least, her keys.
When she stepped through the other side of the Portal, she breathed a short sigh of relief - and promptly squeaked when she realized she'd come to stand before a very large, very sharp set of jaws. Hot breath washed over her skin, and a loud snarl nearly deafened her. She swore under her breath, nearly recoiling right back into her own Portal as it slammed shut. Gajeel, her mind told her even as she fought to catch her breath, startled.
Whereas others had aged since Lucy had last seen them, Gajeel seemed to have simply grown bigger. The last time she'd seen this form, he'd still been big. But this...Lucy thought he might have been nearing Igneel's size. Perhaps Acnologia's.
Lips slid down over bared fangs as Gajeel squinted at her with irritable crimson eyes. He grunted after a moment and rocked back, scales clicking and sliding against one another. "That idiot ever tell you not to Portal this close to the Archives?"
"Hello to you, too?" tried Lucy, unsure if she was welcome here or not.
Gajeel snorted and craned his neck to peer at her for a long few moments before cracking a grin that bared those sharp teeth again. He practically cackled. "Can't believe you actually lived." He suddenly shook himself, scales cascading. Within a minute, he was patting her roughly on the head with a calloused, human hand, his eyes glittering with laughter. "Looks like Mira and Sting owe me some money."
Lucy's jaw dropped. "You bet on if I'd show up again or not?"
"We bet," he corrected, "on where you'd show up at first. Eucliffe said you'd go to him, but Mira said Magnolia and I said here. I won."
He looked so damn smug about it, that Lucy almost delighted in telling him, "I hate to break it to you, but I woke up in a hospital room with Sting sitting right beside me. So, I think you owe Sting money."
Gajeel swore loudly, and Lucy fought back a smile as she ducked around him to enter the Archives. He turned to follow her closely. Despite the situation at hand and the emptiness that wouldn't leave her no matter how hard she tried to focus on other matters, Lucy couldn't help but find herself excited to see Levy again. And, admittedly, it wasn't half-bad seeing Gajeel either.
Happy leaped down from his perch to greet Pantherlily, who was sprawled out on the front desk. The large familiar rose to his paws and yowled a loud greeting that made Gajeel grimace when the sound echoed around them. "C'mon," he muttered, leaving the cats to say hello to one another.
He took her to the library that she'd been in several times before and just as it did every time she'd been there, it took her breath away. The way the sun streamed in from openings in the ceiling, the way there were various forms of writing tucked into every nook and crevice. It was beautiful. And at the center of it all, knelt upon the floor, was a familiar blue-haired fairy. Her wings had never recovered, apparently, but they certainly did nothing to stop her work, for there was paperwork, books, and maps spread around Levy in a massive circle.
Lucy couldn't help but snort softly when, without looking up, Levy called absent-mindedly, "Gajeel, go find me that old map of Alvarez you said you'd seen yesterday, would you? I need it."
Gajeel rolled his eyes and grunted, "You told me you didn't."
"Yes, well," she said, huffing, "I lied. Please? Mavis will be here in the next hour or so, and I want to have this figured out for her before she-" She cut off, having looked briefly over her shoulder. Her eyes snapped wide behind a pair of frames perched on her nose. "Lucy!" she squealed, and Lucy offered her a friendly smile as the queen of fairies launched to her feet, hopping effortlessly over her work to tackle Lucy in a tight hug.
"Hi," said Lucy, squeezing her back. She was careful of the wings that hung limply from Levy's back, especially as Gajeel eyed the pair cautiously. Levy was just as careful with the scales that rose and fell along her arm, knowing just how sharp they could be.
When Levy pulled back, she beamed at Lucy. "Mavis said it had been you a year ago. I guess it was true then."
Gajeel stared at his Marked One in exasperation. "I told you it was her, didn't I?"
Levy waved him off. "Yes, yes, now go get that map!"
He threw his hands up and stalked off to find the map. Levy's eyes twinkled with mischief as she watched him go and she whispered to Lucy, "He thought he could best a fairy in a game of wit last night. Fairies don't like it when they're offended, so I'm getting back at him for it."
Lucy laughed softly, and then smiled when Happy and Pantherlily loped into the Archives to join them. She watched them for a moment before growing serious. Sensing the change, Levy sobered, too, as she asked, "What can we do for you? As much as I'd like to think that you're here simply to say hello, no one ever is."
She nearly flinched at Levy's casual statement. She still hated being stuck here after all this time, and Lucy couldn't blame her. "I didn't get the chance to come by as often as I'd like for the last few centuries," Lucy pointed out gently, "but I'll be visiting more often once I get Natsu back."
Levy looked pleased with the promise and keenly interested in Lucy's cautious declaration. "Ah, so you're freeing Natsu?"
"Actually," she corrected as Gajeel came back with a map in his hands. "We're not really doing anything. Natsu's freeing himself." Levy looked startled, and Gajeel glanced up sharply. So, Lucy took a few minutes to explain everything that she knew of what had happened regarding Natsu's seals, and how Rogue had commented on the magic reaching explosive levels.
"Wouldn't surprise me if he blew the top of that mountain like a volcano," commented Gajeel with a small frown.
Lucy wished her disapproval in Gajeel's comment wasn't accompanied by acceptance that everyone's concerns were sincerely something to be worried about. Because regardless of what happened in the past, with the way Natsu was waking up alongside magic that had been sealed along with him yet built for centuries, he would likely blow the mountain apart. "I thought you two might have ideas. Since you helped put him in there."
Levy glanced up at Gajeel as he rested a heavy hand on the top of her head. "Ancient magic," Levy said when Gajeel said nothing, "is powerful. Demons are some of the oldest creatures to walk this world, outside of mythics like the Dullahan. Dragons are right there alongside them. Part of the reason Natsu was so powerful, alongside simply having that much strength and magic, was because he was half-dragon. And his magic relied heavily on emotion. As END, that magic relies on his rage and pain. As Natsu, it grew to rely on other emotions. I'm sure his control ebbs and flows in the same way."
Lucy wasn't sure why Levy thought that was helpful. She knew most of that. She fought the urge to throw her hands up in frustration and instead said, "I can get his control back. I've done it before. He's done it before. It's that initial blow up we're trying to figure out."
"You ain't gonna stop it," Gajeel told her firmly. "No way in hell you can stop it."
"Then redirect it as Rogue put it." Lucy bit her lip. "He tried so damn hard to avoid hurting people. The last thing I want is for him to turn around unintentionally and do the very thing he tried not to do."
"Catch his attention."
Lucy jumped, looking over her shoulder. Levy and Gajeel exchanged amused grins as she stared at the small, blonde-haired girl who'd appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Mavis, Lucy recalled. Over the last few months that she'd spent in the past, Natsu had tended to be the only one to speak with the goddess of knowledge - almost as if she'd preferred to stay hidden and speak with Natsu and Natsu alone. Now, she stood before them with a warm look in her eyes, golden hair rippling around her in waves.
Mavis hummed, brushing past them all to meander towards the center of the massive library. "Catch his attention," she repeated. "In the past, Natsu could never back down from a challenge."
Lucy wasn't sure how that was going to help them, but tucked it into her mind for later. Natsu had always trusted Mavis's plans, and Lucy had found that anything Mavis had supposedly told him always worked out. "Thank you," she said as Gajeel perked up, seeming interested in the word "challenge." He must have been bored indeed to find such things exciting.
Gajeel suddenly seemed to remember that he held a map and passed it to Levy, who beamed at him and then bounded over to join Mavis, who'd stooped to look at Levy's work. "Gajeel found a map I thought might be useful," she said, holding it aloft.
"What are you doing?" Lucy asked with interest, fully aware that she may not get an answer.
Much to her surprise, Levy gave her one. Smiling, she said, "Mavis is helping me find past Archives. The Archives tends to be moved with each new Keeper and things are always left behind when you have so much to move. I want to see if there's anything good left." She faltered a little. "Gajeel goes to search for them with Mavis. I just find the locations."
"And tell us what to look for," reminded Gajeel firmly.
Lucy studied her friend for a few moments and felt bad for her - and for Gajeel, too. Guilt flashed over his face, and some self-loathing. Hastily, Lucy changed the subject. "Where's the latest place you've found?"
"We think," said Levy, immediately distracted as Mavis smoothed out the map, "that it's somewhere in western Fiore, near the coastline. The problem is it looks like some of the area it might be a part of the coast that sank into the ocean, which means it might be permanently lost unless I can get someone like Juvia to go and take a look."
Lucy bit her lip, thinking of Aquarius immediately. The irritable celestial spirit might have been interested, and proud that she was one of very few who could have done it. Natsu would have loved the adventure, too. Not that it'd be much of an adventure in a world where you could get on a plane. Lucy remembered the days in which she'd told Natsu of such things, and he'd stared at her in disbelief. Now, those things were going to come to life in front of him.
Mavis only hummed, "It was a little east, I believe. But this location was from the Archives that existed during the Demonic Wars, so it may have even been destroyed." She nodded to herself, and then turned away from the map, looking back to Lucy with a warm smile. "Natsu might even know where it is, if he'd be interested in helping our search when he wakes up."
Mavis was offering a task for Natsu to focus on when he'd settled upon waking up, distracting him from the distressing chaos of finding himself in a different world.
Lucy could have kissed her.
It was late when Lucy Portaled back to Gray's, silently wondering where she and Natsu would go when he woke up. She was sure Gray and Juvia wouldn't mind them staying, but Lucy was sure Natsu wouldn't want to. They'd refused to help him when he'd come to them. Why would he want to be around them for longer than he needed to? They could camp or something, of course, but they wouldn't find supplies that Natsu would know how to use in a modern world. Though Lucy was sure it would take him little to no time to figure out how a lighter worked.
Shaking her head, Lucy focused on the chattering voices in the living room and smiled briefly when she found Erza and Jellal had arrived. Lucy wondered who'd arrived first. Likely Jellal, for Erza was still giving him a few dirty looks, annoyed that he'd left in the way he had. She lost her agitation, however, as she smiled warmly in greeting at Lucy. Jellal inclined his head. "Welcome back," said Jellal, and Erza echoed him.
"Thanks," Lucy said, "though I won't lie and say I'm happy to have left the other time behind." She wasn't; she'd have gone back if she could.
Erza sighed softly and threw a rueful look at the room around her. "There is a reason we linger in the north rather than joining others here in the south." Gray looked somewhat annoyed from where he was sitting, as if insulted by Erza's lack of love for his home, but he said nothing. Lucy didn't blame him. Yet, she agreed with Erza, who Lucy realized was seated on the floor with her Keeper.
"We caught them up on the situation with Natsu," Gray told her, tipping his head back to look at her upside down over the back of his sofa. "What did Levy and Gajeel have to say about it?"
"Nothing," said Lucy, earning a frown. She let Happy down onto the back of the sofa, and he made a beeline for Jellal's lap. Jellal smiled slightly, adjusting the cloth hiding his eyes with one hand and ruffling Happy's ears with the other. "But Mavis said to create a distraction - a challenge. She said Natsu could never back down from a challenge."
Erza's spine straightened, eyes widening briefly. "He couldn't. It was one of his faults. All it would take was one mythic thinking their magic could surpass his when they entered the Fairy Tail guildhall and he would prove otherwise. He always won of course." Lucy got the feeling Erza knew from personal experience. "The Demon King's magic rivals even that of the ancient mythics, like the Fates."
Lucy remembered the three figures she'd seen once upon a time and shivered at the mere thought of them.
Juvia, who'd been quiet up until then, suddenly suggested, "So if we were to exude an immense amount of magic in the opposite direction of Crocus, in an area that's safe, he'd turn around and follow it regardless of what state his mind is in?"
"That would take a lot of magic," murmured Jellal, stroking Happy's fur. "Even in the Demonic Wars, only Igneel's magic caught END's attention in such a way. It'll take more than one mythics to drag his attention in the right direction. As of right now, the biggest gathering of magic dwells in Crocus, seeing as so many mythics moved here."
Lucy pressed her mouth into a hard line, sinking down to sit beside Juvia. Juvia squirmed over a bit to give her some room. "Gajeel would do it. He'd be a good choice. You two, too," said Lucy, nodding at Jellal and Erza. I could try a Portal to help, those tend to create massive amounts of magic…" As the conversation dissolved into suggestions of who'd be helpful and who'd not be in this situation, Lucy couldn't help but think that Natsu would love hearing that it took them so long to figure out who should challenge the Demon King.
Sting grumbled as he meandered through the trees, glancing at the watch he'd donned before leaving Crocus behind. It was so late. Yukino would be sleeping when he got back. Frustration emanated from every inch of him. He understood why Rogue was so reluctant to leave Yukino's side. She was, after all, his Marked One. But Yukino had also been Sting's lover, and he wanted some time with her, too. Still, he had been making himself be patient. He was a dragon and now, Yukino was a fallen star. Eventually, he'd get his chance.
Besides, there were far more important matters to consider. Like the cracks that had splintered through the seals in the mountainside. It wasn't natural, those cracks.
Sting stopped walking, thinking them over. He furrowed his brow. Natsu initially had begun waking up the year before, just once when Lucy had first disappeared. But now...it was almost as if the cracks had to do with Lucy's return. It puzzled him. Sting's eyes narrowed at the idea and he tipped his head a fraction, considering it further.
"No," he realized aloud, eyes round. "Not Lucy. The Gate."
For every time this had happened, powerful magic had flooded the area, confusing everyone who dwelled there. Already, he'd gotten some comments from the various mythics who still labeled him a guildmaster on top of a Keeper and Guardian. "Felt that huge blast of magic the other day," one had just said that morning. "Off to the outskirts of Crocus...did you?"
The air stilled.
The hair on the back of Sting's neck rose as he whipped around, scarcely breathing. He stared harshly in the direction of the Sacred Mountain, watching as flocks of birds suddenly filled the sky, screaming. They rushed westward in a grand wave, feathers rustling and beating at the air. Sting's head turned as he watched them. The bad feeling curling in his gut grew worse when something suddenly burst from the undergrowth, racing past him. A deer, some opossums, and other such creatures.
He didn't hear the soft foot falls until it was thundering past him. The Nucklelavee, which had taken up residence close to Crocus following the defeat of Acnologia so long ago, bellowed as it raced past him. Sting's heart skipped a beat, terror coating his tongue when it didn't bother to pause and look at him, vanishing after the wildlife. His gut twisted.
Go, whispered instincts that didn't seem to make an appearance very often in recent days. Go, go, go, go, go-
"Always listen," Weisslogia had told him when he was young, "to your instincts. It is how dragons have survived for as long as we have, even as a dying species."
Sting turned and ran, body shuddering and twisting until it became something stronger and faster. Before long, his lithe, long white body was twisting and writhing with ease, racing between trees and trying to find somewhere to take flight. Panic took control and a bellow was thrust from his lungs, flooding the air and warning everyone within the next ten miles that something was wrong.
It was pure luck that he found a clearing and hurtled into the sky, just moments before something hot and powerful slammed through the surrounding forests. Even skybound, it knocked Sting off kilter and nearly threw him back to the ground. Shaking himself off, he managed to right himself and paused to look back, that instinct still roaring at him.
Smoke was billowing into the air. It piled upon itself like ash, and already, he could see something twisting and writhing as it snaked along the shattered mountain, burning and charring everything in its path. Sting eyed the debris that was flying this way and that, luckily a safe distance from himself and from Crocus.
The entire top of the Sacred Mountain had blown, he realized as a scream pierced his ears, deafening despite the distance. It seemed to start low and quiet and grow in intensity until it was the only thing Sting could hear or think about.
And Natsu was free.
IT'S TIME. HOLY HELL, IT'S TIME! Here comes our poor child, alongside an appearance from the Nuckelavee. ;)
And it is with that note that I make the saddest, but most exciting announcement I can offer to you all: as of 7:33 pm last night, I wrote the last words of ODAS. Updates WILL be regular from here on out unless work makes it hard for me to do so for some reason. It's been a wild ride, and I can't wait for you guys to see how it finishes out. This means the entirety of my attention will now go to my other works, starting with an update on Yarrow, since you know. It's been a while. AND I will be working hard on my next huge multi-chapter, Starfall, which Bubbles and I put together one or two years ago plot-wise. :D
Also, I'm very excited. I just acquired my first car.
Thanks to reviewers (19vanelkc, stranger1999, Animus Lunari, Athomeinfairytail, Bookwork129, lcr0718, valerioux, Skibblez, BeautifulSamurai, LayLay lives, AwkwardProfessor, Sele de la Luna, Guest #1, zizi08, SistershoOk, rao hyuga 18, itsxoi, thelemonroll, and guest #2!) as well as those who favorited and followed!
