A/N: Hi hello it's been another like three years since I last updated and I bet you all thought I'd abandoned this fic for real this time, didn't you? I promised I wouldn't, though! I just...took another long posting hiatus. Health things, job things, pandemic things, you know the drill.
Anyway, I severely cut down my plan for the ending to make things easier to finish. Hopefully it doesn't feel too rushed as a result.
The following chapters are a mix of scenes I wrote slowly over the past few years, so the voice and characterization may be a little inconsistent from the rest of the fic as my current self fills in the blanks my past self left behind.
Thank you for sticking with me all these years. As I'm posting this, the entire rest of the fic is complete, so you won't have to worry about another long hiatus. The end is in sight!
They met Jellal in a small town near Crocus, and he led them from there to an abandoned farmhouse on its outskirts. There was no sign of the mages from Oración Seis, but Jellal promised they were around.
"I have them out on patrol," he said. "We don't want Tartarus ambushing us before we can ambush them."
"Tell them thanks for us," Makarov said.
Jellal didn't comment. "We haven't seen anyone go in or out for a few days now," he said. "They likely know we're coming."
"With a group this size, I'm not surprised," Laxus remarked, glancing around at the huge crowd gathered outside this tiny house. This was just Fairy Tail, too; the other participating guilds had already arrived in the area over the past few days and were stationed in Crocus itself.
Laxus had joined them the day before, much to Mira and the Raijinshuu's delight. Natsu himself wasn't a big fan of Laxus, but he knew Laxus was strong. They'd need every mage they could get for this. Who even knew how strong the remaining Tartarus demons were? Not to mention, if something happened to Natsu that took him out of the battle…
As if reading his thoughts, Lucy's fingers trailed down the bandages on his arm and settled in his palm. Natsu laced their hands together. Even if something did happen regarding END, Lucy would take care of it so he didn't hinder everyone else's efforts. That's what they'd decided on. No one was better at taking down demons than the Celestial Spirit herself, after all.
Natsu didn't want to admit it, but he was worried. He still didn't understand why he carried END, how the book affected him, what would happen to him if END were to awaken, or anything really. Natsu prided himself on never letting his fear show, but that didn't mean he wasn't afraid. He felt powerless with regards to END. He knew nothing. He didn't even know if he would someday become an enemy to his dearest friends.
Lucy squeezed his hand, breaking his thoughts.
"I'm listening," Natsu mumbled, despite clearly having not listened to Jellal's description of what he and the Oración Seis had discovered about this place.
"They call their base the Cube," Lucy summarized, "and they have a lot of demon underlings working there. We'll have to fight our way through to the actual base, though; there's tunnels going all the way to below the palace from here." The palace was on the other side of the whole city from here. This Tartarus base was really expansive to reach all the way out here. And it was all secret underground tunnels that even the government didn't know much about. Clearly some corrupt officials were in the know and managed to use their power to keep the whole thing a secret. This was too huge to go so unnoticed otherwise.
Erza approached them. "Natsu, I know you're going to hate this, but you'll be in Phase 2. We don't want you on the front lines."
She was right. He hated it. "Why not? Is this just because of the END thing?"
"Better safe than sorry. You know, a lot of us don't want you on this mission at all. It's a huge risk. But you're one of our better mages and I know you wouldn't let us exclude you entirely."
"Damn right I wouldn't," Natsu said. This pissed him off. What made him even more angry was that he knew they had a point. But he still refused to sit out while his comrades were fighting.
"Phase 2 just means you won't have to deal with clearing out the small fry in the tunnels leading to the base," Lucy pointed out. "We'll probably still see action in the base itself."
"Exactly," Erza said.
"We get to save our energy," Happy added.
"I get it already. I know why. Doesn't mean I gotta like it."
Erza shrugged. "Fair enough. Lucy, you're staying with him?"
"Of course," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Thought so. You three should form a team when this is all over. Provided Lucy joins Fairy Tail. Which you should."
"I'm planning to," Lucy said without hesitation. Natsu looked at her in surprise. He knew she'd been thinking about it, but for her to say it so straightforwardly, she must have become more firm in her convictions.
"You will?" Happy said. "Promise? That's a promise, right?"
Erza also smiled. She clapped Lucy on the shoulder. "I'll hold you to it."
"I mean it. I've put off committing for long enough. I like it here with everyone. As much as I love my spirits, being on a team with fellow mages is much better than going solo." She looked at Natsu and grinned when she said this.
"I'm going to go back to looking for Igneel," Natsu reminded her.
"And I'll go with you," Lucy said.
Natsu didn't know if she'd still be saying that when the time came, but he was grateful all the same. Despite Happy's company, he'd gotten rather lonely during his travels, too. A fellow human was already an improvement, but of all people, having Lucy along was like a dream come true.
Erza opened her mouth to continue the conversation, but was interrupted when Makarov cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "That's my cue," she said, joining the other Phase 1 mages up toward the front of the crowd.
Makarov gave his usual uplifting speech before the big battle, which Natsu mostly tuned out because he was still kind of pissed he didn't get to be part of the first wave. Listening would just get him all fired up, and he already had too much energy in him as it was.
Cheers and applause signaled the end of Makarov's speech, and Natsu briefly joined in with a whooping shout of his own. Then the first wave charged into the abandoned hut that housed the tunnel entrance to the Tartarus base, taking most of the strongest mages with it. The hopefully-final showdown against Tartarus had begun.
Waiting was brutal.
Even as the last front-line mages for Phase 1 were departing, Natsu was already bouncing on his feet impatiently. He wanted to be a part of the action. He was almost always one of the first to enter the fight, and the last to leave. Watching others go ahead of him felt foreign and wrong.
Lucy's grip on his hand remained tight and reassuring. She stayed behind with him, as did Happy. They were a team. They stuck together.
Warren kept everyone updated with his telepathic magic. At first there were only endless tunnels with the occasional ambush from Tartarus goons lying in wait. Tartarus had definitely been expecting them.
Even when they started encountering tougher demons, the first wave was made up of mages like the Raijinshuu, Mirajane, and Erza, so the battles were fierce but short, quick victories for Fairy Tail. Meanwhile, word came from the other guilds that activity had increased around the palace, presumably from Tartarus-affiliated officials being given orders. It was slowly getting closer to the time for Phase 2 to join their comrades. Strictly speaking, they were "the reinforcements," but Natsu had no intentions of being mere backup, END or no END.
Erza shouted something about engaging with one of the nine Tartarus demons, as did the Raijinshuu and Laxus, who were shouting something about a slicing tornado. Even the Wendy-Gajeel team found an opponent, Gajeel mentioning that they'd be out of contact for a while. Then, Mira tuned in with the clincher: she'd found the regeneration room and was going to destroy it. She'd tune in again later when she was finished.
Natsu couldn't take it anymore.
"Let's go!" he shouted, grabbing Lucy and Happy in each hand and dragging them into the hut despite protests behind him. He quickly clocked the trapdoor to the tunnels and dove in. He lit a flame to illuminate the tunnel and ran deeper until he started encountering the fires set by Macao in Phase 1 to light the way to the Tartarus base. Lucy and Happy followed close behind, breathing hard.
"Natsu, wait up," Lucy panted. "We weren't given the signal—"
"Who cares about some signal? It's time to kick some demon ass!"
"But the plan—"
"—is fine. Being a few minutes early won't hurt anyone."
Natsu could practically hear Lucy's eyeroll behind him, but she kept up with his pace as he sprinted through the tunnels at top speed.
If Natsu truly had some connection with END, then he figured he could follow his instincts to get him to that damn book. He didn't know what to do once they located it, but at the very least it would help to know exactly where it was at all times. And if they could get their hands on it without activating END in the process, it would negate his status as a liability and people could stop fucking worrying about him messing everything up by becoming a demon or whatever.
He focused on the feelings in his arm as he ran deeper into the tunnels — not that his arm felt anything in particular, but he figured if he focused on it then his instincts would do the rest.
At some point, the texture of the walls changed from dirt to stone, and he knew they'd reached the actual base. He slowed down a bit, eyes darting into every nook and cranny.
"This must be below the castle," Lucy remarked, also glancing around.
"Doesn't seem fancy enough," Happy said. The walls were stone, but it was pretty ordinary stone. Huge, gray blocks slotted together with so little space between them Natsu thought there might not be any mortar at all.
"It's not directly connected to the castle, at least not originally. I know all that place's secret passages, or so I thought when I was younger. That room I was taken to when Mard Geer captured us must be part of this complex."
"Natsu, do you know where you're going?" Happy asked.
"No."
"Then why are we following you again?" Lucy said. She thought into the telepathic connection, 'Warren, do you have a mental map we can use?'
A vague sense of direction drifted to Natsu's mind. 'This is the best I've got so far. Sorry, Lucy. Give me a few more minutes.'
'Don't worry about it. We aren't even supposed to be in here yet. Thanks.'
"I have a feeling," Natsu explained. His gut was taking him somewhere beyond where Warren's map extended. The book must be somewhere deeper in the heart of the complex.
"A feeling?"
He explained his theory about finding the END book.
"Natsu, that's too reckless." Lucy stood in front of him, making him stop. "You're just setting yourself up to walk into a trap. Like a fly to honey."
"Better than walking into it by accident later at a critical moment," Natsu said. He brushed past Lucy. She didn't try to stop him this time. He had a point, and she knew it. In the meantime, he'd just have to live with making her worry. If everyone called him an idiot afterwards, that was fine. He was tired of waiting. That's what they got for making him Phase 2. His patience had already hit zero before they'd even begun.
They made their way through the halls, which were surprisingly empty. The others must have cleared out most of the small fry already. Only one or two relatively weak demons got in their way, and between the three of them, all were dispatched quickly.
Soon they found themselves in front of a huge, elaborate door decorated with creepy carvings and bits of bone.
"Now we're getting somewhere," Natsu said, excited to finally see some action. Hopefully. Big, creepy doors usually meant a good fight was inside.
Lucy reported the finding to Warren as Natsu and Happy pushed the heavy doors open with a loud bang.
The inside was decorated as creepily as the door, bones of all sorts of creatures — including humans — plastered all over the walls in intricate designs. It was spacious and held up by several thick columns. At the very back of the room was a large padlocked door that seemed promising, but of greater importance was the platform in the center of the room upon which sat a huge, elaborate throne of bones. They weren't alone.
The man seated on the throne in the center of the room was familiar, but in an uncanny valley kind of way. His long, dark hair and wild updo were familiar, as was the face, but the aura was completely different from the one Natsu remembered from the last time he saw Mard Geer. He must have been suppressing his demonic aura this whole time. But here, he was unhindered.
"I was wondering when someone would make it here, and who could it be but the Etherious Natsu Dragneel himself?" Mard Geer commented, barely raising an eyebrow at their noisy entrance. "Ah, but you're not etherious yet. My bad."
Natsu scowled. "Long time no see."
"You three sure are together a lot," Mard continued, glancing at Lucy and Happy. He chuckled. "Too bad it took me so long to realize I'd kept the wrong prisoner that day. Funny, isn't it? I thought we needed a strong summoner to bring END to us, but he was right under our noses all along."
Natsu was itching with impatience. He had a strong feeling that what he wanted was past Mard Geer somewhere, but Mard wasn't exactly going to just let them waltz on through the padlocked door on the other end. The presence of the padlock itself was a strong indicator that they weren't supposed to make it past this point.
"Natsu, backup…" Lucy murmured, just loud enough for him to hear.
He shook his head. "Too late for that," he said.
"Definitely not too late. In fact, you came all the way here to me personally. I'd say this worked out perfectly," Mard Geer said. Natsu was confused for a moment before realizing that Mard thought Natsu's comment was a response to his own monologuing.
Well, he could work with a monologue-er. Enemies that liked to talk a lot were convenient in that it gave Natsu ample time to assess his surroundings prior to a fight.
Apparently Lucy was already done assessing, because she immediately called out Loke.
"Open the Gate of the Lion, Leo!"
A flash of light illuminated the grisly carvings decorating the walls, and then Loke was standing by them. He started when he saw Mard Geer, then whistled.
"Damn, Lucy, you went straight for the head honcho, didn't you?"
"Actually, Natsu did," Happy corrected.
Mard Geer clicked his tongue. "So impatient. Very well. If you want to fight so badly, then I'll show you the true power of an etherious."
All around them, dark vines covered in razor-sharp thorns sprang from the rock. Natsu and Lucy both dodged with the help of their companions, but Natsu's upper arm still got scraped by the edges of some of the thorns. He hissed in pain.
"You okay, Natsu?" Happy said worriedly.
"I'm good. Thanks for the save."
Happy dodged another vine before, taking a cue from the way Natsu shifted his weight, dropping him. Natsu cleared out an area on the ground with his fire, burning the thorns to ash so he could make a neat landing. He looked up and eyed the sphere of thorns forming around Mard Geer, protecting him. Lucy already had Loke and Capricorn hacking at it while she protected herself from the vines with her whip.
Well. Natsu could help with that.
Propelling his fire throughout the room, he burned his way through the thorns, careful to miss his allies. The thorns turned to ash faster than Mard Geer could regenerate them, and Mard Geer retreated back to his throne, hiding behind a wall of dark magic.
Lucy returned to Natsu's side. "That fire of yours is pretty handy. Capricorn and I will immobilize him for you. Cover us?"
"Sounds good."
'There will be no more regeneration.' Mirajane's voice in his head startled Natsu. He'd nearly forgotten about the mind link.
'Thank you, Mirajane,' Makarov said. 'Phase 2 is a go. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy, what's your status?'
'We've engaged Mard Geer,' Lucy said in response. 'Path here was clear. Backup appreciated.'
'Clear? I saw the path you took, and it's crawling with demons out here,' Gray said, his inner voice breathless. He must still be fighting.
'That's enough.'
Natsu's eyes snapped up to Mard Geer. The wall was gone, and the demon was staring straight back at them with a benign smile on his face.
'Who was that?'
'Explain yourself.'
'Warren, are you okay?'
'I'm getting interferenc—'
A flurry of alarm and concern rang through the telepathic connection and then it went completely silent.
"I said, that's enough," Mard Geer said, out loud this time.
A chill ran down Natsu's spine. How many other tricks did this demon have up his sleeve?
"What did you do to Warren?" Lucy demanded.
"Nothing too bad," Mard Geer said dismissively. "Now, where were we?"
"Change of plans," Lucy muttered, fury lighting her eyes. She called her Spirits back and began to glow with light. Natsu backed away as she shouted the name of a familiar spell.
"Urano Metria!"
Light flashed, blowing all the thorns away. Natsu shielded Happy from the blast of starlight that filled the room, hiding his own face in his shoulder to protect his eyes. He had enough strength left this time to not pass out, but it wasn't an easy task, even at the edge of the room away from Mard Geer, who took the full brunt of the magic. Natsu expected that when he looked up, there'd be only dust left.
But when the light faded, Mard Geer was still there. Actually...he was different. Stronger. Huge. And with giant wings. Horror struck as Natsu realized Mard Geer had survived Lucy's Urano Metria by going etherious. That's how strong Mard's etherious form was; strong enough to survive even Lucy's most powerful spell.
Natsu cursed as he dodged a new bloom of dark thorns. They were everywhere now, sprouting up from practically every surface to a point where Natsu didn't know where to anchor himself. The floor was thorns. The walls were thorns. Everything was thorns.
"Natsu, grab on!" Happy said, pulling him up with wings spread wide. Natsu held onto his friend gratefully.
Nearby, Lucy was staying out of harm's way by clinging to one of the fish from Pisces, the other one swirling angrily over Mard Geer's head but refraining from attacking. After Urano Metria, did Lucy even have enough magic left to sustain her spirits for much longer?
Natsu refocused on Mard Geer. He might as well attack and see how strong this etherious form was against his own magic.
He let go of Happy, dropping straight into Mard Geer's body with fists blazing. It was like hitting a brick wall. No, worse than that, since Natsu could punch through brick walls no problem. Here, it didn't feel like his fists were doing much of anything. Mard Geer's skin had become impenetrable.
"Cute," Mard Geer said with a smirk before slamming his fist over Natsu's head. The world spun.
As Natsu stumbled back, Lucy took over for him. She was alone with her whip, holding Mard Geer off without the help of her spirits.
Well, now it was Natsu's turn. Taking a page from Lucy's book, he went straight for the strongest spell he had. They were up against the head of Tartarus, the strongest of all Zeref's demons. There was no need to hold back.
"Crimson Lotus: Phoenix Blade!" he shouted, propelling himself toward Mard Geer. Happy pulled Lucy out of the way just in time for Natsu to make impact.
The effect was immediate. Mard Geer sputtered out a pained cough as Natsu slammed him into the back wall. He fell like a ragdoll to the ground, black hair singed and demonic wings crooked.
Breathing heavily, Natsu landed beside him. Even as powerful as Natsu was, a spell of that scale took a lot out of him. It was the strongest one he knew.
"Lucy," he said simply, taking a step back. He needed a moment to catch his breath and re-center his magic.
Behind him, he heard her summoning Aquarius, apparently having recovered enough from her Urano Metria to comfortably summon spirits again. He was so tuned into the sound of her summon that he almost didn't hear Mard Geer whisper a quiet spell: "Alegria."
Natsu fell backwards into a pile of goop. His feet were sunken into the floor, which was now goo. The walls were goo. Before he even had the chance to react, he was already halfway swallowed up by the floor that only fractions of a second earlier had been solid rock.
"Happy!" he cried.
"Nats—" Happy too was swallowed by the sticky substances dripping from the ceiling, trapped and swallowed up by the eerie purplish substance.
"Become one with the Cube, mages of Fairy Tail," Mard Geer said as he staggered to his feet. Natsu's spell had managed to knock him out of his etherious form but hadn't killed him. "Let the Cube absorb you and feel true joy…"
"Lucy? Lucy!" Natsu called for his partner, but the floor and the walls were swallowing him and he was powerless to stop it. He'd never felt so weak, so helpless. His flames didn't work. He couldn't move his limbs. And as the gooey, fleshy substance overcame his eyes and ears and mouth, he slipped into unconsciousness.
Somewhere in his half-comatose state, he felt a sharp pain that seemed to resonate among the wall itself, and an anguished scream, and then all was dark.
