chapter nineteen: the celestial dragon
"It's almost complete." Zeref stood up from his chair. He turned and looked at one of his men. "Can you go get me the Celestial wizard, Lucy Heartfilia, and the Shadow Dragon Slayer, Rogue Cheney?"
"As you wish, sir!" He quickly ran to the room where the dragon slayers and celestial wizards had been taken after having their magic drained.
Natsu, Sting, and Gajeel, although tired, were busy trying to think of a way to break out. Wendy was with Lucy and Yukino, and Rogue was looking out of the window.
"There's got to be a way to open this damn door!" Natsu yelled.
"Well, why don't you find one, Salamander?" Gajeel told him.
"I'm trying!"
A loud knock sounded on the door just then. Natsu, Gajeel, and Sting moved away quickly from the door and sat down.
"I'm here to get Lucy Heartfilia and Rogue Cheney!" the man said.
"What do you want with us?" Lucy asked.
"My Lord Zeref wants to talk with you. Please, follow me."
Lucy stood and followed him. Rogue followed her but was stopped by Sting. "I have a feeling this is a mistake. Don't go."
"We can't help it whether this is a mistake or not. This man, Zeref, he will kill us if we defy him. We have to go."
Sting let go of him and watched Rogue go. Natsu's flames flared up. "He better not do anything to our friends."
"This is Zeref we're talking about. There's no telling what he'll do." Gajeel sat down on the floor. "But knowing him, he probably has some kind of diabolical plan up his sleeve."
"Hopefully they'll be okay," Wendy said.
"We'll just have to wait," Yukino said. "Hopefully our friends are trying to come up with a plan to get us out of here."
As they sat and thought about their friends, Lucy and Rogue were being led to Zeref. With each step, Lucy knew that meeting the Black Wizard would wield nothing good for her and her friends. She looked over at Rogue and noticed that he was stone-faced. She steadied her breathing and stood beside him as the door to where Zeref was waiting opened.
The man who guided them walked into the room and knelt before Zeref. "Lord Zeref, I've brought you the two you asked for: the Celestial Wizard, Lucy Heartfilia, and the Shadow Dragon Slayer, Rogue Cheney."
"Thank you; you may be dismissed." He waited for the man to leave before approaching Lucy and Rogue. "Please, sit."
"What do you want us for?" Rogue asked.
"I'm sure you're aware what I needed your magic for?" he asked them.
"Yeah, to create some kind of false dragon!" Lucy said. "A celestial dragon."
"Yes. Only, the thing is, it's still... incomplete."
Lucy inwardly sighed. It's still incomplete, she thought to herself.
"Which is why I brought you two here. To make it complete."
"What?" Lucy said.
"Having a celestial wizard and a dragon slayer in the celestial dragon will complete it. However, if you say no, I'll get your friends and put them in the dragon." Zeref gave them an evil smile. "And you know I would."
Lucy grit her teeth. Next to her, Rogue had his fists clenched in anger. He shut his eyes and counted to ten. "Okay. We'll do it. On the condition that you'll let our friends go."
"Deal." Zeref turned to one of his henchmen beside him. "The other dragon slayers and the other celestial wizard, make sure they make it out of the building okay before they are strapped in," he told him.
"Yes, sir."
Zeref turned back to Lucy and Rogue. "Well, shall we get started?" he asked them.
"Yes," Rogue said. Lucy nodded grimly.
Zeref led them over to where the celestial dragon was. It was larger than any other dragon they had seen before and was solid gold with a galaxy-like pattern on its stomach.
"So how do we get in there?" Lucy said quietly.
"I don't know." Rogue stared at the ground.
Zeref answered Lucy's question: "Don't worry. Just close your eyes, and when you wake up, you'll be inside the dragon."
Lucy felt her eyes getting heavy. She fell over and could've sworn she was supposed to hit the ground, but didn't. She tried to move her arms and legs but found it difficult to do so. When she was finally able to open her eyes, she saw that her arms and legs were shackled to a large, galaxial orb. She tried to call out to Rogue, who was still unconscious and chained to a multi-colored sphere swirling with what looked like white, black, red, blue, and gray clouds. She realized it was the dragon slayers' magics, and he was unconscious because he was the mind of the dragon.
"Why am I awake and Rogue is unconscious?" Lucy asked Zeref, who was watching them.
"Hmm… he should've woken up by now. He'll be up soon. Don't worry."
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm up," Rogue muttered. "So this is the inside of the celestial dragon? I thought it'd look different than this."
"Yeah."
"Is it supposed to be moving? Because if it does, I'll get sick," Rogue said.
"No, it's staying still for right now," Lucy assured him.
They stayed there in silence for a while. Lucy kept thinking about what Zeref really wanted to do with this celestial dragon. It seems like a hassle to make, and even bigger trouble to mandate.
"Hey, do you see that down there, on the ground?" Rogue asked her suddenly.
Lucy craned her neck to look. She could barely see his flames. "It's Natsu and everyone else!"
"They're here to save us," Rogue said. He smiled at her.
Outside the celestial dragon, Natsu looked up at Zeref. He launched himself toward him with his flames. "Give me back my friends!" he yelled angrily.
A/N: So I haven't updated in awhile. I've had a lot going on. Updates on this series probably won't be as often as they were, I'm sorry. I hope y'all like this new chapter tho!