30: fire and flames are in your eyes.


Lucy sighed as she stood in the elevator that was taking her up to the office where she worked at.

It's been a long time since I've last been here, she thought, crossing her arms.

The last time she had stepped in for work was before things had gotten complicated. At that time, the biggest news was Galuna Island being frozen in time so she went there both to get a Zodiac key and to figure out why it was frozen in time. She had gone there with Natsu.

She sighed and leaned against the wall of the elevator. That day, she had gone to Tenrou Island with Natsu and they had fun at the Red Lizard amusement park. After visiting Mavis' grave, they went to Galuna Island and that was were the trouble began. Spriggan 12 member Dimaria Yesta was there and after the encounter, Lucy finally started to believe everything Natsu was telling her. Little did she know, Natsu had the wrong person.

The elevator doors slid open and Lucy walked out into the hallway. As she walked down the hallway to the office, she debated whether or not she should call Natsu. The girls don't want me talking to him and they made good points. But...I feel guilty.

"Lucy! You're here!" Jason cried when she entered the office. He was crying tears of joy when he saw her.

Lucy bowed. "Sorry for not showing up for a long time."

"It's cool! You were shot, then you have to deal with the deaths of your father and your friend! That's a lot to take in!" Jason cried.

Lucy gave Jason an empty smile as she walked over to her desk.

"By the way, where's Natsu?" Jason asked.

"Um..." Lucy started, sitting down. "He's in the hospital."

"Him too!?" Jason cried. Lucy nodded.

"Why?" Jason asked.

I can't tell him that Natsu was in a painting, Lucy thought as she searched through her brain for an answer. Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything so she simply sighed and logged into the computer. "It's complicated, but it doesn't concern me."

Jason blinked and leaned closer to her from his desk. "Did you two fight?"

"No. We just have nothing to do with each other," Lucy answered.

Jason fell out of his desk. The other employees noticed. "Boss!"

"Lucy's dealing with a breakup!" Jason cried, running over to hug Lucy.

"What!? Breakup!?" Lucy cried.

"I honestly thought you and Natsu would last. You two are always together," a co-worker said.

"It's okay, Lucy! I've been through so many breakups so I know how not cool they can be!" Jason told her.

"Didn't you call me here during a blizzard to help with an article?" Lucy asked, hoping to change the topic.

"Oh yeah!" Jason cried, letting go of Lucy.

Soon, the office was bustling with the movement of employees as they worked together to complete the article. Lucy had quickly taken charge of the room as she instructed people on what to do and provided guidance.

"Lucy, is this right?" A co-worker asked Lucy, pointing at her computer.

Lucy, who was looking through the pictures the guy who they had as paparazzi take, walked over to the co-worker and looked over her shoulder to see what she meant. "It's too vague, you know? With this kind of stuff, you need to put just enough information that isn't too vague or too much, you know?"

"Ah! Thanks, Lucy!" The co-worker cried.

Lucy nodded before approaching the table where a bunch of co-workers and Jason were crowded around. "Here are the paparazzi photos."

"So cool! Thanks, Lucy!" Jason cried.

Lucy put the pictures down on the table so everyone who was at the table can see. "We should emphasize the background in these pictures."

The co-workers took the pictures and started to look through them.

"Damn! What a dirty bastard!"

"I know, right!?"

"We might be slandering his name, but it's for a good cause!"

"Yep! We're bringing justice!"

"Make the information against the guy as much as you can," Lucy told them as someone else called her name.

She left the table and walked over to the printer where 3 guys were standing. "Yes?"

"I was given documents of his illegal transactions so they're printing. But the information is vague and paints him out as a good guy. How can we use it against him?"

Lucy grabbed a few of the documents that were printed out and scanned them. "You need to look for the right information."

"So I have to read through all 78 pages!?" The co-worker cried.

Lucy glanced at him. "Why are you printing out 78 pages?"

"That's...a good question," the guy answered.

"I'll take some to lessen your burden. Get the others to also help out," Lucy said before walking over to her desk. The minute she arrived at her desk, however, someone else had called her over.

Jason was watching her from where he was standing. Lucy's so cool. She's putting 100% into this. But it's obvious that she's trying to distract herself from something and I'm having a feeling that it has to do with Natsu. He sighed and shook his head. They definitely broke up. But why...?

"Boss! It's cold in here!" An employee cried, snapping Jason out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, it is cold. Someone, put the temperature up!" Jason ordered.

"Damn! Look at all that snow outside!" Another employee cried.

Everyone went to the window and saw that it was not just a blizzard brewing outside. At this point, it looked like a large bucket of snow was getting dumped on them.

"Will I be able to drive in this weather?"

"I hope my kids at home are okay..."

"Sure, we get snow but we never get this much snow."

"Suddenly, making a snowman sounds like a bad idea."

"The temperature must be in the negatives!"

"Damn! The snow just won't stop falling!"

Lucy was also looking out the window with her co-workers. Even she was concerned about the snow. Maybe I should have worn a heavier jacket. Man, sitting at Fairy Hills with the girls in cozy blankets in the living room watching a movie sound so nice right now...!

"Who was the guy I sent to put up the temperature!" Jason cried, pulling out a blanket from a drawer in his desk. "It's getting really cold in here! So not cool!"

"I did, boss, but it's at the highest setting!" The employee cried.

Jason wrapped the blanket around himself and walked over to the thermos tack. Just as the employee said, it was at the highest setting. "What...?"

"Is it just me, or does it feel like the temperature in here is dropping like crazy?" The co-worker standing next to Lucy asked.

Lucy rubbed her hands together in order to keep them warm. "Yeah, I feel it too."

Suddenly, the lights started flickering on and off.

"What's going on!?" An employee cried, asking the same question everyone was wondering.

"Yo! Look at the thermos tact!" Someone cried.

Everyone crowded around the little object that is used to adjust the temperature in the office and saw that it was quickly falling to the negatives.

"Everyone! Grab what you're working on and let's go to the room next door!" Jason ordered while thinking, there must be a ghost doing this! I knew ghosts existed! So cool!

Shivering, everyone grabbed their stuff and went next door. However, the room next door had ice forming all over the place.

"How...?" Lucy was too much in shock to finish what she was saying.

"Look for a room in here that's normal!" Jason ordered.

A group of employees nodded and ran off. At the same exact time, the power went out. Everyone took out their phones and turned on their flashlights in order to see.

I had a miss call from Gray? Lucy noticed the notification on her home screen.

Suddenly, they heard someone scream.

"Find where that scream came from!" Jason ordered.

Everyone nodded and started running in the directions they heard the scream.

As Lucy searched, she debated on whether she should call Gray back or not. After remembering that Gray told her that he'll kill Natsu, she decided not to call him back. He probably called me just to tell me the news.

She slowed her walking and sighed. "It's sad that things ended just like that..."

Suddenly, she tripped over something big. Once she caught her balance, she shone her flashlight over what she had tripped over. Then, she fell back and screamed. "What the fuck!?"

A co-worker was laying lifelessly on the floor and based on the way their body looked, they had frozen to death. Their eyes were wide open like a deer in headlights and they were looking dead at Lucy.

"Ah. I've found you," a sophisticated voice said. The voice was coming from down the dark hallway.

"Let me guess. Spriggan 12?" Lucy asked, standing up.

"Correct," the voice said.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Aren't you guys done with trying to get me? You guys are not even supposed to succeed so why are you guys even doing this? Besides, I'm not Anna!"

"Whether we're supposed to succeed or not does not matter. Our orders were to escort you to the Underworld and I will stick to our orders," the voice answered.

Lucy shone her flashlight in the direction of where the voice was coming from and saw that it was from a formal looking man with blue hair.

"That's very bright. Oh, my name is Invel Yura," the man, Invel, said.

Lucy sighed. "Oh yeah. Forgot. I must go to the Underworld so Anna will come back to life."

"Oh? So you know. Please make it easy on the both of us and willingly come with me," Invel said, holding his hand out for Lucy to take.

"But what if I don't want Anna to come back?" Lucy asked.

Invel rose an eyebrow. "You don't?"

"I get it, she was the one who Natsu sacrificed everything for, but it's not fair that I have to die just for her to get her own happily every after," Lucy answered.

"But I heard that you're willing to trade your life for your friends' lives," Invel said.

"Yeah, because they're my friends," Lucy answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"But Anna Heartfilia is your ancestor. Family first, you know?" Invel said as he started to slowly walk towards her.

"Did she put my family first when she decided to go through with this plan? She tricked my dad and I watched her kill my mom when I was in Star Memory. Now she's allowing me, her own descendant, to be killed just so she can come back and live out the rest of my life. So no, she didn't put my family first," Lucy explained as she felt anger rise inside of her.

"You care about Natsu Dragneel, right? Wouldn't you want him to be happy? Sure, you can continue to trick him by saying you're Anna, but the truth will always come out in some way or another. Imagine how angry he'll be when he finds out that you were never Anna and that you pretended the whole time that you were," Invel said, putting his hands behind his back.

Lucy clenched the fist that wasn't holding her phone. Unsure of what to say, she simply glared at Invel.

Invel stopped in front of her. "He doesn't want you, so you should just leave quietly."

Lucy had enough so with her clenched fist, she punched Invel in the nose. Invel fell back and cradled his now broken nose. "You bitch!"


Invel's howl carried throughout the whole building so everyone heard it.

"What was that?" Jason wondered out loud as he cuddled with a few of his employees on the floor to keep warm.

"I think it's the Grim Reaper!" An employee cried.

"The Grim Reaper?" Another employee asked.

"People are freezing to death left and right. It wouldn't be a surprise if the Grim Reaper was here," the first employee explained.

"I don't think the Grim Reaper would yell 'you bitch!' to anyone..." the second employee mumbled.

Meanwhile, on the fire escape stairs, Gray heard the voice. "It's Invel!"

He turned to look at Natsu and saw that he was no longer wearing hospital clothing. "Just...why?" Gray asked.

"I robbed this guy who froze to death of his clothes!" Natsu answered triumphantly.

I'm not even going to say anything, Gray decided.

"Do you think the guy who yelled a few seconds ago found Lucy?" Natsu asked.

"No doubt about it. Worse of all, I know that guy," Gray answered.

"We have to get to Lucy!" Natsu cried, running off.

Gray grabbed Natsu's arm to stop him from running. "When we get to Lucy, what will you do to her?"

"Ask me this later! We have to hurry up!" Natsu cried.

"What will you do to her!?" Gray yelled.

Natsu paused as he stared at Gray. Eventually, he answered. "We have a lot to say to each other."

Gray didn't believe Natsu but he let go of his arm anyway. "We have to hurry up!"

Soon, they left the stars and entered the top floor. The first thing they heard was the sound of high heels clicking on the floor. It was safe to assume that the owner of those high heels were running.

"You save Lucy and say whatever you need to say. I'll kill Invel and then I'll come back to kill you," Gray said before running off.

"You still wanna kill me!?" Natsu yelled after him before running in the direction he heard the high heels coming from.

Those are Lucy's heels, he thought as he ran.

Just as he had predicted, the heels were from Lucy who was running for her life after punching Invel in the nose. Lucy looked back behind her to see if Invel was behind her or not. Since she didn't see what was in front of her, she bumped into Natsu.

Lucy, believing the person she had bumped into, prepared to run away but Natsu pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad you're safe," Natsu said as Lucy struggled in his grip.

Recognizing Natsu's voice, she stopped struggling. "Natsu?"

"Gray's dealing with some guy named Invel," Natau answered before grabbing Lucy's hand.

"Y-You and Gray are working together?" Lucy asked in disbelief as Natsu lead her down the hallway.

"Eh, I guess you can call it a truce?" Natsu responded.

Soon, they approached the door that lead to the roof. "We'll be safe up here," Natsu said as he opened the door.

Although the angry blizzard had degraded to sorrowful flurries, there was still a bunch of snow covering the roof. The stars were not visible and the thick snow clouds hung in the night sky. Still holding Lucy's hand, Natsu led her to the center of the roof to a bench. He heled Lucy down and grabbed both of her hands and held it tightly in his hands in order to warm her up.

"You okay?" Natsu asked, sitting down next to her.

"You're out of the hospital...I thought you were going to die," Lucy said through her chattering teeth.

"As long as I'm conscious, I can heal myself," Natsu answered.

"That's good to know," Lucy said, looking down at their hands.

A long silence was drawn between them. With a million thoughts running through their heads, they didn't know what to say.

It was Lucy who decided to break the silence. "Did...you kill Erza?"

Natsu froze as Lucy carefully lifted her head to look up at him. "It's complicated. Jacob did most of the damage that killed all of the Oracion Seis members and Erza was injured. She was still alive so I..."

He trailed off when he saw tears start to form in Lucy's eyes. He was tempted to lie to cheer her up, but he realized that it would be a bad idea. So, he took a deep breath and finished what he was saying. "I finished the job."

Lucy gasped and looked down. She was shaking as her gasps turned into sobs. Her hands slipped out of Natsu's hands and landed on her skirt. Her fingers curled tightly onto the ends of her skirt as her sobs grew louder.

On instinct, Natsu proceeded to pull Lucy into a hug but he stopped himself. I shouldn't...

"Why?" Lucy whispered through her sobs.

"I wanted to help you get all of the keys so I made a deal with Jacob a while before you met him. I made the deal with him during the time you were in the hospital. He was to kill Angel and give me her keys. In return, I won't kill him. If Angel was out, then we'd get Yukino's keys and Gajeel got Zoldeo's key. I didn't mean to kill Erza," Natsu confessed, unsure with what to do with his arms.

"So why did you do it? Based on your plan, she wasn't even involved," Lucy whispered before putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs so she could hear Natsu's reasoning clearly.

"She saw me take the keys from Jacob. If I let her go free, that would be trouble," Natsu answered.

"So you killed her," Lucy concluded.

Natsu didn't say anything.

Lucy started to punch him on the chest. "I can't believe you! She didn't have to die! You could have just let her go! I made that deal with Jacob so she and the others wouldn't die!"

"But if Jacob had killed her, you would have traded your soul," Natsu said.

"Of course I would! In a heartbeat! Definitely!" Lucy sobbed.

Natsu grabbed Lucy's fists so she wouldn't be punching him anymore. He made a mental note that her fists her freezing. "But I don't want you to die!"

"Correction, you don't want Anna to die!" Lucy cried.

Natsu stared at Lucy without saying anything. Lucy, meanwhile, had stopped crying when she realized that she had slipped up.

Shaking, Lucy slowly looked up at Natsu. "I-I-I-"

"You're right," Natsu said softly, cutting her off. "I don't want Anna to die."

"Y-Y-Y-You know," Lucy realized as Natsu let go of her fists.

Natsu moved some of Lucy's hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "You look just like her. The both of you have the same color hair, same eye color, same skin tone, same height, same everything. Plus, her scent is on you...of course I mixed you up with her."

His hand that had move the hair rested on Lucy's cheek as his face inched closer. He wiped a tear that had escaped from her eye away with his thumb. "You have no idea how pissed off I am right now. I thought I had her...but there's another obstacle in my way."

Lucy started to vigorously shake her head as more tears escaped out of her eyes. Her mind kept on commanding her legs to get up and run but they wouldn't move.

Natsu closed his eyes and pressed his lips against Lucy's lips, catching her off guard.

Lucy blinked a few times, unsure of what to do and how the situation even turned into this. Natsu's tongue slowly ran across Lucy's lips so she parted her lips to allow Natsu access. The kiss was filled with raw passion and sorrow. She could tell that he's been wanting to do it for a long time based on how passionate it was. As for the sorrowfulness, she couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from but she found herself resonating with it. Lucy closed her eyes and slowly rose her hands to grab onto Natsu's shirt as she kissed back with the same sorrow and passion he was giving her. She didn't want to let him go so she tightened her grip, hoping it would get him to stay.

"Sorry for making you cry," Natsu mumbled against her lips before deepening the kiss.

Natsu pulled Lucy into a hug and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her. It was as if they were begging the other to stay. Unspoken desires was expressed through the both of them and Natsu's kiss soon grew desperate. It was still cold outside and the snow was still slowly falling around them like they were in a snow globe. The two didn't care what was going on in the world at that moment. The only thing that mattered was them, Natsu and Lucy.

Suddenly, Lucy felt her feet burning. She tried to ignore the feeling but it soon became unbearable.

She pushed Natsu away and looked down at her feet, panting. With horror in her eyes, she watched as the flames that had engulfed her feet travel slowly up her body. She fell off the bench and started screaming.

"Make it stop! Natsu! Please! It hurts! Make it stop!" Lucy begged, rubbing her hands together as if she were praying. "Stop! Please, s-s-stop!"

Natsu's eyes no longer looked human. His eyes were of the eyes of a demon as he looked down at Lucy without any remorse. He leaned towards her from where he was sitting and dug his finger into her hair. "It'll be okay," he said tenderly, rubbing her scalp in reassurance.

"Natsu...!" Lucy choked out as the flames made it to her waist. "Natsu, don't do this!"

Natsu tiled his head. "But I have to."

"Because of Anna!?" Lucy yelled before screaming as the flames travelled higher.

"I want to free Anna but if it means I have to kill you, so be it," Natsu answered.

"What about everything we've been through!? What about everything you've done for me!? Don't lie and say that you didn't feel anything because I know you did!" Lucy yelled.

Natsu stopped rubbing Lucy's scalp and stared at her. The flames had engulfed everywhere but her face and she was screaming and crying at the same time. "Your pain tastes delicious."

"I hate you..." was the last thing Lucy whispered before the flames engulfed her entire body.

When Natsu heard those words, he felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. Seeing Lucy's silhouette burning in his flames didn't sit right with him. He reached out to grab her but it was too late. The flames had faded away and her ashes remained.


Random Fact: Reading The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (the book that the Chinese drama The Untamed had adapted) for real got me in my feelings. Just finished chapter 78...I'm in tears...

Wassup!? It's ya gurl sugarsugarrush!

As I typed up that kiss scene that I'm still cringing over and that scene Lucy is burned alive in, HEARTBREAK ANNIVERSARY by GIVEON, SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK by Joji, Die For You by The Weeknd, and Ending Scene by IU were playing on repeat and it took me 4 hours (almost 5 hours to be honest) to write those scenes cuz I was cringing sooooo hard (I was crying and screaming as I wrote the kiss). I wanted to listen to a love song to help me type up the kiss and make it all steamy and shit but it didn't work. So, I turned to sad songs. Besides, their little moment was sad

Reviews:

Amanny- Yep!

Copperrein12- Thank you so much!

So, I got a sociology test to take so ima end this! Don't forget to PM me or leave me some reviews! Later, yo!