12: get the job done right.


The news of the shooting at Sabretooth spread like wildfire. Police cars and ambulances raced to the company along with news trucks and helicopters. Once they arrived at their destinations, the people started to do their jobs. The police entered the building to find the shooter and keep order, the wounded were loaded onto the ambulances, and the reporters were covering the story.

"Sting Eucliffe! Do you have a statement!?"

"Sting Eucliffe! What happened!?"

"Sting Eucliffe! Do you take responsibility for the live lost!?"

"Get these people away from me," Sting told his bodyguards Rufus and Orga as he exited the building. Rufus and Orga nodded and started to push the reporters away.

Sting and Yukino were attempting to make their way towards a limo waiting for them at the side. Rogue and Minerva were waiting for them in the limo. Once they were in, Orga and Rufus quickly got in and closed the door.

"We don't wanna deal with all those people outside," Orga said as their excuse.

"You're paid to do that that," Minerva said.

"Give us a promotion and we'll see," Rufus said.

Rogue sighed. "This is definitely going to affect our shares." He turned to look at Minerva. "Sabretooth is protected by your territory magic that allows you to sense whenever there's a threat to the company. How come you weren't able to sense the threat?"

"I did but when I did, it was too late. It's like they just appeared out of nowhere," Minerva answered. "There were 2 being with strong magical power that came in today. One of them has the same power as you and Sting."

"A dragon god came in?" Rogue asked.

"A former one. Natsu Dragneel," Sting answered.

Rogue looked surprised. "I haven't heard that name since Acnologia was killed. Doesn't he go by END now?"

"END. The demon from the stories? He was a dragon god?" Yukino asked.

"It's a long story," Sting answered, looking out the window.

"How is he out of the Book of END though? I thought that nobody can open that book," Rogue asked.

"I'm not completely sure, but I think it has to do with that Lucy girl he was with. They seemed close," Sting answered, watching Natsu enter the ambulance Lucy was loaded into. He clenched his fists. As always, trouble came knocking on my doorstep when you show up!

"I heard that he left the heavenly realm and became a demon so he can bring his lover back to life after his brother Zeref refused to let her leave the Underworld," Rogue said.

"That kinda sounds romantic not gonna lie," Yukino commented out loud.

Rogue started to put two and two together. "Who was the second person with enormous power? How did he or she come in?"

"I didn't get to see who it was but I sensed the minute he came. It was at the exact same time as when the shooting started," Minerva answered.

"And the shooting lasted for a little while. The mother of the child that was saved by Lucy said that the shooting ended when Lucy was shot," Rogue said.

"But the shooter was not seen exiting the building," Minerva said.

"Because he's on of the Spriggan 12, guardian of the Underworld and the shields of Zeref, the god of death," Rogue concluded.

"Why the fuck would a guardian shoot up our lobby and leave after shooting Lucy?" Orga asked.

"Because Lucy is the lover Natsu brought back to life and Zeref wants her back in the Underworld," Sting answered.

Yukino gasped. "No way!"

Sting faced his employees. "All of those innocent people were harmed by END in our building. Some people are dead because of that demon. This happened because END found a way to bring Lucy back to life when she should be in the Underworld. The only way for a human to enter the Underworld is through death and they've sent a member of the Spriggan 12 to do that. There will be more innocent lives lost if Lucy continues to roam around the place. We must kill Lucy."

"Sting, you're not serious," Yukino told him.

"I'm serious! How can I, CEO of Sabretooth, let innocent blood be spilled!? I'm at fault! It's all my fault!" Sting cried, his voice breaking.

"The water works are coming..." Minerva mumbled.

"I get why you're upset, but if we do kill Lucy, we'll be involving ourselves in something that's not our problem," Rogue told Sting.

"We were involved the minute he entered Sabretooth," Sting answered.

"Shouldn't we kill the demon and the girl?" Rufus asked.

"We can talk about killing Natsu and Lucy later. Sting and I are focused on helping the Oracion Seis," Yukino answered.

"But if the Oracion Seis kills Lucy, they can get all of her keys. It works out for everyone," Sting said.

Yukino frowned. "Um...true...you're right...but let's just wait and see if she survives this first."

Sting stared at Yukino. She feels bad for the girl. He sighed. "Fine. But the minute we get news that she's fine, I'm killing her."

"Fine," Yukino answered. I can't let him kill her. There's another way we can solve this without bloodshed.


Natsu followed after the doctors as they rolled the unconscious Lucy to the emergency room the minute they arrived at the hospital. However, the doctors wouldn't let Natsu go past the doors.

"What!? Let me in! Don't take me out! I need to stay with her!" Natsu cried as the doctors dragged him away from the doors.

"Sir, are you the parent or guardian of the patient?" One of the doctors asked.

"I'm her boyfriend!" Natsu cried.

The doctor looked like he was done with everything as he explained things to Natsu. "We have to perform surgery on your girlfriend in order to remove the bullet. Then, she will have to stay in the hospital for a few days until she's healed."

Natsu smiled. "So she's alive!?"

"Yes. For now. Can you leave?" The doctor asked, annoyance laced in his tone.

Natsu stopped struggling and let the doctors enter the room. Then, he sat down on one of the benches and crossed his arms. "Everything's fine. Lucy's fine. Zeref can't take her."

His leg wouldn't stop shaking and his nerves were out of control. However, he forced himself to stay calm and focus on other things. The minute Lucy was shot, the shooting stopped. That's just a coincidence, right? Yeah. Of course it is. I'll hunt down the shooter and make him pay. How should I do that?

Thinking of ways to torture the shooter had managed to calm Natsu down. Soon, he found himself drifting to sleep.

The minute Natsu entered dream land, a black-haired doctor casually strolled past him. He came close to Natsu and waved his hand in front of his face. "Yoo hoo...you awake?"

No answer from Natsu.

The doctor smiled like a madman and stepped away from Natsu. "Damn...that was too easy." He tried to hold back a laugh as he cracked his knuckles and made his way towards the doors of the emergency room. "Time to make sure blondie is dead...hehehe..."

"Wall Eetho," a voice said behind him. He turned around and saw Brandish.

"Hey. Guess what I did?" Wall, the doctor, started laughing. "I shot up Sabretooth!"

"Yes. I know," Brandish answered. "To get Lucy, correct?"

"Yep! I shot her in the abdomen! She should have lost a lot of blood! I'm just here to finish the job!" Wal explained with enthusiasm.

"Really," Brandish said sarcastically. "And how are you going to do that?"

Wall spun around in his doctors' get up. "There's a surgery going on there and I know the whole anatomy of the human body! I know which organs would cause her an immediate death and which ones wouldn't! Hey, for fun, should I make it hurt a lot?"

"What do you think?" Brandish asked.

"Yeah...I should!" Wall cried.

"You're following the orders to make the death look as natural as possible, correct?" Brandish asked.

Wall vigorously nodded. "A shooting takes place at Sabretooth and Lucky Lucy Heartfilia happened to be one of the injured! Then, she dies during her surgery!"

"Ah, I see," Brandish answered.

Wall pointed an accusing finger at Brandish. "You better not be here to take all of the credit! This was my idea and my idea alone!"

Brandish sighed. "I could honestly care less about that bullshit."

"Then why are you here?" Wall asked.

Brandish glanced at Natsu to see if he was awake. "I don't want her dead yet. I want her alive."

"You know our master says we need to kill her, right?" Wall asked.

"I know. I'm just telling you that I want her to stay alive for a bit," Brandish answered.

Wall started to walk around Brandish was amusement in his eyes. "So why are you telling me this? To get me to stop? You know you'll be punished by our master if you stop me, right?"

"Who said I'm going to stop you?" Brandish asked.

"You know, the Great Wall doesn't like to play mind games. You should know that it's kill or be killed for me. Move out of the way, you're ruining my fun!" Wall cried.

Brandish was unfazed. "Dimaria has shown us that we should beware of the wrath of a demon, especially the wrath of END."

Before Wall could say anything else, Natsu immediately opened his eyes and charged at Wall. With one hand, he grabbed Wall's face and slammed it onto the wall.

"Brandish...are you...going against...our master...!?" Wall barely managed to choke out. His whole mechanical face was being crushed by Natsu who had a suspiciously calm expression on his face.

"I'm not going against Zeref. I'm just choosing not to help you," Brandish answered as she sat down on the bench. "It's such a bore."

"You fucking bitch!" Wall yelled as Natsu tightened his grip on Wall's face.

Cracks were starting to form on the face. If it was just Wall's puppet, he wouldn't mind. However, this was Wall's real body. His puppet was the one in charge of the shooting of Sabretooth. He had stayed at the hospital to wait for Lucy's arrival so he could finish the job.

Natsu sighed. "You're just a machine. It won't be fun to deal with you since you can't feel pain. Tell my brother I say hi when you run into him in the Underworld." He thought about it. "Wait. Can you do that? I mean, you'll become one of the dead souls there but do you dead souls get to meet Zeref?"

He decided it didn't matter. "Bye." He crushed Wall's face into tiny mechanical pieces.

Wall's body slumped to the ground but it could still move. Natsu noticed the body raise its arm, preparing to shoot a canon at him. As a result, he grabbed the arm and yanked it from its arm socket. With the arm, he slammed it onto the body over and over again until a pile of broken mechanical parts remained. He dropped the arm and with a snap of his fingers, he set the pile on fire. The fire was quick and it had gone away once all of the pieces were burnt into nothing.

"That was quick," Brandish commented.

"How did you know I was awake?" Natsu asked her.

"How did you know that I knew you were awake?" Brandish asked.

Natsu sat down next to Brandish on the bench. "Based on what I heard when I was 'sleeping,' is it true that Zeref ordered you guys to make Lucy's death look natural?"

"I didn't go to the meeting but Ajeel did. He was the one who told me," Brandish answered.

"I see," Natsu said, frowning.

"Lady Mavis is involved," Brandish said, looking up at the ceiling.

"She and my brother have been fighting for centuries. There's no way they've suddenly made up just to work together to drag Lucy down to the Underworld," Natsu said.

Brandish simply shrugged. "Once again, Ajeel is the one who went to the meeting and he's the one who told me."

Natsu thought back to the last time he spoke to Mavis. Mavis is the goddess of life who's in charge of writing the fates of every human. She said the fate she had for Lucy changed the minute I left the Book of END. And now, Zeref is sending the Spriggan 12 to come after her. Brandish just now told me that they need to make Lucy's death look as natural as possible and that Mavis is helping Zeref. Mavis told me to leave Lucy so she wouldn't suffer that much. But if I leave Lucy, she'd be killed so quickly. But that really does mean less suffering. The longer she stays, the more chances for the Spriggan 12 to kill her. So Mavis has been in on this. Right from when I left that book, she's been working with my fucking brother!

The words that Mavis had told him echoed in his mind again. "I know you love her so you won't be selfish and you will do the right thing for her."

He clenched his fists and looked down at his feet. "Those two mothafuckas really do belong together."

"Fire boy," Brandish said, snapping Natsu out of his thoughts. "I want Lucy to stay alive to see if she can actually open the gate to the spirit realm but the only way for that to happen is if she's not killed before then. More of the Spriggan 12 will come and use sneaky ways to kill her. I'll watch over Lucy just like I've been doing but there's only so much I can do. It's up to you to protect Lucy. Don't you ever leave her side like you did all those years ago. Don't even trust me cuz the minute she opens that gate, I'm taking her to the Underworld."

"So is this some sort of temporary truce?" Natsu asked.

Brandish thought about it. "In a way." She stood up. "Later." She started to make her way down the hallway.

Once Natsu was certain Brandish was gone, he looked up at the ceiling, covered his eyes with his arm, and leaned against the wall. He clenched the fist of the arm that was covering his eyes as he resisted the strong urge to curse the heavens.

Sting was right, he thought. I really do cause destruction wherever I go.

All he wanted was for Lucy to come back to life. It'd be even better if he could live a long life with her. For him to reach that goal, he spent years killing people left and right as a heartless demon. When he was taken out of the Book of END, he thought that he could stay with Lucy peacefully. But he couldn't. All because of him, Lucy is suffering, just like back then when King Glaucous killed her because of him. History is repeating itself.

"Zeref, is this your way of punishing me?" Natsu asked.

No answer.

"I know you're enjoying this. You fucking sadist, you even got Mavis in on this. I thought she was on my side. Guess not." He sighed. "Y'all really love torture."

He removed his arm from his eyes, letting a few tears run down his face. "You can stop with the torture now. Just let Lucy have a good life. That's all I ask. I'll even kill myself right here and now. Deal?"

No answer.

He laughed in a self-depreciating way. "They say to never make deals with the devil. I never learn, do I?"

He closed his eyes and drifted off into dreamland for real this time. When he woke up, the doctor from earlier who had told Natsu about the surgery was standing in front of him.

"The surgery was a success. You can wait for her to wake up if you want," the doctor said.

Natsu stood up. "Thanks."

As he followed the doctor to the hospital room Lucy was staying in, he was reminded of the time he was walking through the forest towards the cabin on that fateful night. He remembered the flames, the smoke, the shouting, the hatred.

He clenched his fits. Never again.

When he and the doctor arrived at the room, the doctor slowly slid the door open. The sound of the door sliding reminded Natsu of the screams of agony he heard from Lucy that night.

He clenched his fists tighter. Never again.

The doctor moved out of the way so Natsu could enter the room. As he entered the room, he saw Lucy sleeping soundly in her bed. Seeing the sleeping Lucy reminded him of her ashes he cried over that night.

He clenched his fists even tighter. Never again.

He entered the room and sat down in the chair next to the bed. The doctor had told him to let him know if he needed anything before he closed the door and left.

He was now left alone with Lucy in the quiet hospital room. "I promised you that I'll help you get the keys and see your mother one last time. I will make you happy. Leave the suffering to me."

He took his phone from his pockets and went onto messages. On their way to Sabretooth, Lucy had given Natsu Gajeel's number that she had gotten from Levy. Natsu tapped on Gajeel's contact and texted him.

i dont care how u do it but i need u to get a golden zodiac key from a guy named zoldeo. lucy told me on the way to stings place that zoldeo has the capricorn key and hes in the grimoire heart gang the gang that ur gang is enemies with

He got an answer from Gajeel minutes later.

gi hi hi hi

Natsu furrowed his brows in annoyance.

what type pf answer is that?

Gajeel responded.

u should be grateful i'm even doing this bullshit! u don't got no right to criticize me!

The two of them started arguing through text.


Random Fact: I personally think that the Alvarez Empire arc was both rushed and unnecessary. Everything mentioned in the arc and the Avatar arc could have gone down in the Grand Magic Games arc and the Tartaros arc. But that's my personal opinion

Wassup!? It's ya gurl sugarsugarrush!

Bruh. This chapter turned out to be a sad one. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Wow. There's too much sadness. Next chapter will definitely be a happy chapter

Reviews:

Amanny- Thank you very much!

I would say more but it's almost 4am here and I'm sleepy as fuck so ima close this! Don't forget to PM me or leave me a review! Later, yo!