"Hey, Juvia," Gray's solemn voice filled the car as it pulled onto the main highway back to Magnolia.

"Gray, my love," Juvia sounded through the speakers. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Natsu could feel Gray's eyes bore into him, his friend not used to seeing him so completely broken. But Natsu didn't look back at him, merely stared out the passenger window seeing nothing they passed, his thoughts desperately picking apart every interaction he'd ever had with Lucy to try to figure out what he had done to ruin everything.

A sigh left Gray before he answered his girlfriend. "I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Lucy kinda flipped out. She needs some time to get her shit together, so I think it would be better to cancel your brunch plans."

The call ended shortly after, and for a time the only sounds in the car were the steady thrum of tires on pavement and the slight hum of the heat blowing out of the vents. They had almost reached the halfway point when Gray decided enough was enough.

"Do you-?" Gray began, but was interrupted before he could fully form the question.

"No," Natsu replied. His lower lip quivered and he shut his eyes against the burn of tears that threatened to fall once again.

Determined to pull Natsu from his thoughts, Gray was about to try a different approach when his phone rang. He answered it without looking at the caller, but was not expecting the voice coming through the speakers.

"Gray, is Natsu with you?" Loke skipped any sort of pleasantries, which was completely unlike him. The uncharacteristic start of conversation was the first thing to pull Natsu's attention since he left Lucy's office.

"What do you want, Loke?" Natsu managed to ask without his voice warbling, but it was close.

"Just thought you'd like to join us for lunch. There's an 8-Island a few exits up."

"Us?" Natsu sat up straight in his seat for the first time since getting in the car. "Who, exactly is 'us?'"

"Great, we'll see you soon." Loke's tone seemed nervous to both men, but neither commented on it.

Minutes later, Gray pulled the car into a nearly-empty parking lot - three familiar cars lined up next to the front entrance of the restaurant. Natsu was out of the car in seconds, throwing open the door and rushing inside.

"What the fuck are you all doing here?" He scanned the faces of each member of the Zodiacs, all of them present. "And if you're all here, who is with Lucy?" He looked to Loke with his next question. "Where is she?"

Every set of eyes except one found something interesting to look at besides Natsu, only Capricorn able to stand the scrutiny. He stood from his seat, walking calmly to his boss and leading him to a booth away from the others. He waited for Natsu to sit down before he spoke.

"She wanted me to give this to you after we all left the estate," Capricorn told him, pulling Lucy's letter out of his coat pocket and handing it over.

"So, what, she broke my heart and then wrote a letter telling me to piss off?" The vitriol in his voice couldn't have been hidden, even if he'd cared to do so. It was all too fresh, and it still didn't feel real to him. "I think she made it perfectly clear she wants nothing to do with me."

"She called me into her office several minutes before… the incident. That was handed to me during that time, with instructions to get it to you. Just read it; it's what she wanted."

Capricorn walked away to rejoin the others, giving Natsu as much privacy as he could in the moment.

With a deep breath and shaking fingers, Natsu opened the envelope, pulling out the folded page within. Before he even had a chance to unfold the letter, he noticed several small blotches of ink that had bled through the paper. At first, he tried to make himself believe that maybe she used a pen that had broken while she was writing, but the spots were more like watercolor. Was she crying when she wrote this?

It seemed ridiculous at that moment, but he felt a pull to go back and comfort her. Even though she wanted nothing to do with him, he still desired to help her through whatever had happened. Maybe, in time, she would allow him the opportunity to correct whatever he had done wrong. With a deep sigh, Natsu unfolded the letter.

Dearest Natsu,

I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do. There is not much time, and I cannot think of any other solution that will keep you from the danger that is coming. Your godfather sent me a message a few minutes ago. Someone is being sent to the manor to retrieve me, and they have orders to kill you on sight.

Though I don't yet know what I will say to convince you to leave, I have a feeling it will have to be particularly cruel, and I'm sorry. With every fiber of my being, I'm sorry. I don't deserve it, but I hope you will forgive me one day, and that we can at least be friends again.

Please be safe.

Yours always,

Lucy

Tears threatened once again, but Natsu pushed them down, turning in the booth to stand and face the team he assigned to protect Lucy.

"Gray, keys," he called out as he walked back to the door. They were snatched out of the air next to his head mid-stride. "One of you is coming with me, right the fuck now."

There was no surprise that both Capricorn and Loke joined him as he slid into the driver's seat of Gray's car, and he didn't say anything as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to the estate.

"Does either of you know what the fuck she was thinking?"

"You've got the mood-swings down pretty good today," Loke commented with a hint of a grin.

Natsu replied by glaring at him in the rearview mirror, earning a muted 'sorry' from the self-proclaimed team leader, who shrunk down as far as he could into his seat.

"I believe she was only thinking of keeping you out of harm's way," Capricorn told Natsu. "Which you're just putting yourself right back into by driving us back there."

"I'm supposed to be the one protecting her," he mumbled, his hands tightening on the wheel until his knuckles turned white and his fingers ached. "I promised to keep her safe."

Few words were spoken after that, Natsu ignoring everything other than making it back in time to stop whatever was about to happen.

Whatever calm he had achieved began to crumble within miles of the Heartfilia Estate. Natsu continuously told himself that the flash of lights was his imagination… It was a car accident further ahead… Lucy had called the police, and he made it back in time to watch Jose's men being taken away in handcuffs. Each of those thoughts proved to be just wishful thinking.

Panic and bile rose in his throat as they made it to the head of the driveway. Blue and red flashing lights lit up the surrounding area, emergency vehicles blocking his view of the mansion, and one police cruiser parked across the driveway. Throwing the car in park, Natsu jumped out and hurried to the uniformed officer standing next to the cruiser.

"Sir, you can't park there," the officer told him.

"Please," Natsu begged. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, sir, I cannot divulge that information to bystanders." The officer took a step towards Natsu, intending to herd him back into the car and away from the scene.

"He's not just some random bystander, this is his fiancee's house," Loke said from a few feet behind Natsu.

The officer studied the two men for a moment before nodding.

"I don't know much, just that there was an explosion at the house."

"Was anyone hurt?" Natsu's throat constricted at the thought of Lucy being injured. He knew, however, that she was strong, and she could make it through whatever had happened.

"There was a single fatality. A blonde victim, but that's all I know."

"No," Natsu whispered as his knees buckled beneath him, only Loke's quick movement behind him kept him from collapsing to the ground.

Icy-cold fingers gripped Natsu's heart and squeezed it tight. Tears blurred his vision, and he was vaguely aware of Loke thanking the officer for the information before leading him back to the car.

Capricorn looked up as they approached and ended his phone conversation before helping Natsu into the back seat and taking the keys from him.

"Hibiki called; there was a network breach a while ago," Capricorn said as he turned the car around.

"I don't care right now," Natsu replied. There was no fight left in his voice, no feeling whatsoever.

Natsu's actions mirrored those from just over two hours ago as he leaned his weight against the door, looking out the window and seeing nothing. Every passing second, the hole in his heart tore a little wider, grew a little darker, and he could feel himself being consumed by that darkness.

He didn't see Capricorn pass his phone back to Loke, had tuned out the words they spoke as soon as the car started moving.

"Natsu," Loke said, "you're going to care. Hibiki found the source of the breach and sent a link to Cap."

"I said I don-"

Natsu stopped talking as he watched the video feed that had been shoved in front of his face by Loke. He had not spent much time there, but there was no mistaking the halls he had left only a few hours ago.

"What the hell is this? Is this live?"

"This is when the video starts - around two hours ago," Capricorn answered from the driver's seat. "Miss Lucy forwarded all of the camera and microphone feeds to record on your servers; he watched the feed through the end of the attack. He told me what happened to Miss Lucy."

"I already know what happened." Natsu spoke with no emotion in his voice. There was none left with which to speak. None of his usual fire and life could be heard, just the emptiness which was consuming him. "The cop told me. She… she's dead."

Those words lit something inside him. Within the darkness, a spark sputtered to life, filling the emptiness within him with rage like he'd never felt before. It spread more quickly than he imagined, bringing a clarity as it burned through him. Jose and Bora both would pay for what they'd done. Holding back was no longer an option. Mercy was also off the table.

Natsu pushed aside his grief, instead focusing on revenge - for himself, for Lucy, for everyone who had been harmed in any way by those monsters. The one thing he knew with certainty was that the revenge would not be sweet. Nothing would be sweet again without Lucy.

I'm so sorry!

A few notes to address some things:

Ghost is an o/c courtesy of my hubby. I couldn't find a character from FT who fit quite right in the position, so he helped me out. There will be more info about Ghost and his motivations later.

Dragon's Lair pizza is a real thing. It comes from my favorite pizza place and it's fucking delicious.

Yes, I did make myself cry writing this chapter, as well as the next one, and I hope y'all stick around to find out how this ends.

Thanks for all the faves, follows, and reviews.

TTFN, Lovelies