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Chapter 31: "Bloody and Alone"

(Year: X784)

Yajima sighed as he stood on the balcony looking over the mages preparing for the Etherion firing. Despite his best attempts, it couldn't be delayed any longer. Siegrain and Ultear had won the vote, and the Magic Council had decided to unleash one of its ultimate weapons. Within a few minutes, the shot would be sent. He could only hope that whatever 'Siegrain' had planned would prevent the youngsters from getting killed in the fallout.

Several of the other Council members tried to approach him, but he gave them the cold shoulder. Perhaps he wasn't being fair. After all, he knew far more than the others and couldn't share the information without endangering the kidnapped little girl. Nevertheless, he would have opposed this even if he didn't know of Jellal's treachery. This was a moral wrong, but the others' selfishness pushed them into making this mistake. The only upside would be that this would likely ruin the Magic Council's reputation. He would take glee in seeing their selfishness get turned against them.

The short man glanced over to see the traitors whispering about something. He shook his head. No point in spying on them. Things had already been decided. It was up to Naruto's group to put an end to this madness now. Yajima could now only place his trust into them.

Turning around, he began to walk away. He didn't want to watch this stupidity. Instead, he began to think about what he would do when the Magic Council was disbanded after this. Perhaps he could fulfill his dream of becoming a ramen chef. It would be a lot better than dealing with this bullshit.


Lucy cried out as she clutched her left arm. Life-giving blood rushed between her fingers from the newly opened gash. Searing pain surged through her after Ikaruga's sharp katana easily ripped through her soft skin. Leftover magic from the attack caused the opening to continue to burn on the inside of the wound. Numbly, Lucy stumbled back away from her foe.

Ikaruga smiled at the suffering which danced across her prey's features, "You have absolutely amazing skin, dear. So soft and smooth. You're an unmatched beauty, but such qualities are detrimental in combat. Tough, hard skin is needed to minimize damage. You're just asking to be hurt coming to battle like that. I think that you chose the wrong profession. Modeling is much safer than dungeon crawling as a mage."

Glaring, Lucy removed her hand from her wound to pull out a key, "O-Open the gate of the Taurus!"

"Mooooo!" Taurus appeared in a burst of light. He stood defensively between his master and the pink-haired assassin. "Don't worry, Lucy! I'll protect your boooooooooobs!"

"Oh my," Ikaruga smiled at the sight of the Celestial Spirit. "You have golden keys? Oh, that's right. I remember hearing about you. I thought the rumors were made up."

"Get her, Taurus!" Lucy ordered.

"MOOOOOOO!" Taurus swung his large axe down at the woman. Surprisingly, Ikaruga stopped the attack with her own blade. While the summon struggled to overpower his foe, the assassin easily held back the cow man.

"I know a thing or two about summoning magic," Ikaruga purred. "The golden keys are the most powerful, but the Spirits are only as strong as their summoner…"

"Moo?" Taurus blinked as his weapon was cut in half. His eyes widened further as he realized that Ikaruga cut through him in half. Crying in defeat, the cow disappeared into smoke.

"And you're very weak."

"AHHHH!" Lucy screamed as another searing cut appeared on her good arm.

"Rumors said that Aria was defeated by a rookie Celestial mage," Ikaruga mentioned. She flung the fresh blood from her blade. "That was you, no? How? You aren't strong enough to hold a candle to him."

"Open the gate of Cancer!"

"Stay cool-ebi," a hairdresser man with crab themed scissors appeared. "I'll—"

Cancer was silenced when Ikaruga appeared in front of him in order to stab him through the chest. Just like the cow before him, the crab man disappeared. When he was gone, Ikaruga's smiling face appeared right in front of Lucy. Another surge of pain and splash of blood appeared from Lucy's stomach. Once again, the blonde screamed in agony.

"You must have been lucky before," Ikaruga noted. "But luck won't work against me."

In desperation, Lucy swung her whip at her enemy. The weapon disintegrated upon making contact with Ikaruga's sword. Cursing, the blonde threw every weapon available to her at the pinkette. Every weapon met the same end as the whip. Once Lucy ran out of weapons, Ikaruga finally groaned in annoyance. She flashed her blade at Lucy's face. Just like the previous wounds, the katana easy cut through the soft flesh.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"


Jellal smiled, "You have arrived."

Wendy's eyes shined with joy, "Sensei!"

Naruto frowned as he stepped into the throne room. His crimson eyes moved from the arrogant man to the girl in the cage. He nodded to her in support before addressing her kidnapper, "Did you expect me to run?"

"No," Jellal tapped his fingers across the chess board in front of him. "But I thought that you might take more time."

Naruto eyed the strange pieces on the chess board. Some of them were knocked over while others were still standing. While he could possibly try to decipher the meaning of the pieces, the blonde decided that it would be wasted effort, "We're in a bomb target. I'd prefer for my friends and I not to die here."

"Fair point," Jellal stood. "Unfortunately, I now need to buy some more time."

With a snap of his fingers, Jellal activated runes along the cage holding Wendy. The symbols began to smoke and sizzle like explosive. Naruto tilted his head upon seeing that, "Oh. So you aren't that stupid."

Jellal chuckled, "Indeed. The runes lock onto our magical signals. If you get too close to the cage, it goes off. If my magic falters too much, then it also goes off."

"I see," Naruto stood in a relaxed stance. "So I can't do anything to free her."

"Nope. You just have to stay and take your beating," Jellal disappeared in a burst of magic. He reappeared right in front of Naruto to punch the other man across the face. Naruto went flying back until he landed onto the hard floor. "This is for embarrassing me with those goddamn condescending looks, asshole. You should have listened to Simon."

Naruto kept his face neutral. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Wendy squirm. Just like he thought. She would free herself soon enough. He just needed to keep Jellal distracted until she was out of the range of the bombs. Until then, he would just have to take the beating. Luckily, he was far more familiar with pain than any human should be.


Ikaruga stared down at Lucy's fallen form. Said girl rolled around in agony while clutching at her ruined face. The pool of blood gathering below the blood steadily grew larger as the life of Lucy leaked out of her open wounds. Even the assassin felt pity at this point. It was like watching an herbivore with its limbs cut off. Pity won out as Ikaruga raised her blade to finish off the pathetic creature before her.

Before she could finish Lucy off, a golden energy in the form of a lion slammed into her, sending her flying back. A suit wearing Loke appeared beside the crying Lucy. He knelt down to gently touch her shoulder, "Lucy…"

"Ugh," Lucy removed her hands to show the massive cut running down the left side of her face. The wound went right over her eye, turning the tissue into mush. "Loke…I-I didn't call you…"

"You didn't need to. I heard your cries of pain," Loke firmly squeezed her hand. "Don't worry. We'll fix this."

"I'm not worried about that," Lucy groaned. "Help me up."

"You shouldn't move."

"I won't let you fight alone," Lucy made the Leo summoning help her up. With her remaining eye, she spied a recovering Ikaruga down the hall. "I can handle pain."

"Yes, I know you're strong, but…" Loke frowned up seeing her bloody form. "I can feel your magic fading…"

"We don't have time to close my wounds," Lucy clenched her fists. "She's coming!"

Loke immediately reacted. He gathered golden magic around his hands. Ikaruga appeared in a blur around them. The lion man managed to block most of the attacks, but a few of the sword swipes made their way to Lucy's legs. Even as the new agonizing wounds released blood onto the ground, Lucy refused to exclaim in pain or fall. Instead, she forced her good eye to watch Ikaruga's movements. Eventually, Loke managed to keep up with the assassin and push her back. Once he had enough room between him and his enemy, Leo looked back to his owner, "I'm sorry. I couldn't protect you properly. I still haven't recovered fully."

"No…It's fine," Lucy reached down to grab a piece of a broken knife. Her eye remained locked on Ikaruga's only obvious weakness. "You did enough. I know how to beat her now. Get ready. We have only one shot at this."


Kisame roared with laughter as he swung Samehada down at Fu. Said mint-haired girl turned to avoid getting obliterated by the tearing sword. As the scaled blade slammed into the floor, Fu lifted her let up to ready herself for a kick. Ignoring the tiny bits of rubble which flew up when the strange weapon made contact with the floor, the jinchūriki flung herself at the larger man. Before she could land a blow, Kisame steped to the side and swung Samehada again.

Wings burst from Fu's back once more. Fu position herself just out of range of the sword. Planning to attack as soon as the sword passed her, she began to spin. When the sword was positioned right next to her, Fu cried out in surprised when her wings gave out on her. She landed in a crouch, feeling like the chakra had been drained from her back. Smirking, Kisame continued his swing to do a full spin. His sword easily tore through the wall next to them as he moved. To avoid getting torn to pieces by the swing which followed, Fu used her flexibility to position herself at an unnatural angle.

When Samehada passed her once more, Fu flipped back to gain some distance from her foe. Kisame rushed to follow her but stumbled a bit from a strange force on his foot. A quick glance down revealed several bugs crawling over his leg. Moving Samehada next to his feet, Kisame absorbed the chakra from the insects before they could detonate. Twitching, the bugs collapsed to the ground dead.

"Shit," Fu cursed. Kisame was an extremely dangerous enemy for her. Absorbing chakra like that would make most of her attacks useless. Add in that Kisame was a tank, and she was in serious trouble.

"You got some nice moves," Kisame admitted. "Not a lot of people can dodge Samehada like that."

"It's an impressive weapon," Fu felt beads of sweat roll down her brow. "Maybe I'll take it when I kill you."

"Might be a bit heavy for you, girly," Kisame chuckled. "But I'd like to see you try. Want to hold her?"

"I get the feeling that would be a bad idea," Fun noted.

"Then she'll just have to remain in my hands!" Kisame rushed forward once again.

Fu went back to the strenuous task of dodging the powerhouse Akatsuki member. As she moved, she made sure to keep her bugs close to her. No point in wasting them. She had to be smart about this. There were plenty of allies in the Tower. She could just burn time and hope that backup arrived, but she was worried about leaving Lucy alone with deadly enemies. She would have to try to end this as quickly as possible.

It was time to break out her rarely used magic. She could only hope that luck was on her side today. Not only for Jackpot, but also for the friends within the tower which might just be in over their head with these enemies.


Ikaruga raised an eyebrow upon seeing Lucy step in front of Loke. The bleeding girl shakily held onto a sharp piece of metal fractured from her old weapons. She looked ready to collapse but stood defiantly. With his master guarding her from the assassin, he crossed his arms in order to charge his magic. A golden glow flowed over the area, forcing Ikaruga to narrow her eyes to see.

This didn't make any sense. Lucy stood in the way of the attack. They had to know that she would just use the Celestial Spirits mage as a shield. There was no way for the bleeding girl to keep up with her. Perhaps they had gone mad in this hopeless situation. Ikaruga shook her head. No. There had to be some kind of plan.

It wouldn't matter if the girl died. One more cut would be the girl's end. Without Lucy, Leo would disappear as well. No plan would stop that. Ikaruga readied her sword. She would aim for the neck and end this. Without delay, she rushed forward while making sure that Lucy was constantly between her and the spirit.

Lucy smiled upon seeing this. In order to avoid getting hit by Loke's attack, the assassin had to follow a single line towards them. Normally, she'd never be able to keep track of the other woman, but now she knew the path which Ikaruga would take. Sighing, Lucy readied herself. As the sound of her foe's platform sandals drew closer, Lucy shouted out.

"NOW!"

Loke obeyed her command. He surged his energy as much as he could. The hallway was flooded with blinding light. Ikaruga was forced to close her eyes to avoid losing her vision. Having her back turned to the light, Lucy was able to just barely see what was happening. With her body completely exhausted, she couldn't throw herself forward to attack, so she allowed herself to collapse. As she fell, she weakly swiped her knife to the other woman. While too broken to properly wound the assassin, Lucy managed to barely hit her target.

Instead of slicing flesh, the shard of steel cut through the strap securing her foot to her sandal. Gasping, Ikaruga stumbled as she lost her unorthodox footwear. Loke gave a war cry as he unleashed the energy which he had been building up, "Regulus Impact!"

Loke's attack made direct contact with his foe. The lion shaped energy burst flew over the floored Lucy to ram right into the assassin. Without proper footing, Ikaruga couldn't do any to dodge the attack. Consumed by the attack, the pinkette was sent flying back through dozens of walls. After several moments of being covered by the burning magic, Ikaruga was dropped to the group in a smoking heap. She did not get up.

"Hehehehehe…" Lucy weakly chuckled. "First lesson I ever learned about fighting. Wearing weird shoes like that never pays off. If something goes wrong, you get a face full of dirt…or magical attacks in this case."


Gaara blinked as Gray suddenly stopped his march, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Gray looked around in concern. "I just feel…off."

"Off?" Juvia gasped from her position in Gray's arms. "Does Gray-sama feel sick?"

"No. It's not me," Gray scowled. "I can't explain it. Something's wrong. Like…something bad has happened or is about to happen. I don't know."

"Well, we are in a tower which is about to be hit by a magical bomb big enough to destroy us all," Gaara reasoned.

"I guess," Gray shook his head. "That makes sense, but it doesn't feel right."

"Does Gray-sama want to look around?" Juvia questioned.

Gray glanced to the injured woman in his arms, "No. There's no point. We'd just be roaming around, looking for things that might not be real. I can't think of anything that we can do right now. Let's just keep going. I'm sure that I'm just imagining it or something."


Itachi quickly learned that he hated Natsu Dragneel. The strange pink-haired man was more of a persistent animal than a human being. Everything he threw at the Dragon Slayer seemed to bounce off with no effect. The Uchiha survivor was beginning to wonder if this foe was specifically designed to annoy him. He couldn't even run away properly without Natsu relentlessly chasing them down.

"Get back here coward!" Natsu roared as he kept himself right behind his fleeing foe.

Itachi was breathing hard. His chest burned. Years of fighting illness began to catch up with him. If he kept up this pace, then he would fall over and die from exertion. Grunting, he stopped his run. Saving chakra proved to be useless. If he wanted to take down the Dragon Slayer, then he needed to go all out. This would burn through a lot of his chakra, but it was the only way to even safely get to Uzumaki without Natsu running interference.

"Ha! Finally grew some balls!" Natsu grinned. "Stay behind me, Happy! I'll…Huh?"

Natsu's face twisted in confusion at Itachi's eyes shifted from the three tomoe version of his Sharingan to a pinwheel. With the Mangekyō activated, the Akatsuki shinobi whispered his next move, "Tsukuyomi."

The sight of the Tower of Heaven disappeared around Itachi. Instead, he found himself in a fiery wasteland filled with lava constantly flowing down from active volcanos. Dark smoke lifted up from all directions to cover the sky in dark ash. Oddly enough, Natsu didn't appear in his own mindscape. With a shake of his head, Itachi tried to impose his will upon his enemy's mind. To his horror, nothing happened to change the land of lava and hardened stone.

"What…" Itachi paused as he heard a deep growl behind him. Turning, he caught the sight of a massive winged lizard with dark red scales. Pointed horns and facial scars only heighted the monster's dangerous aura. The beast smiled down at him with sharpened teeth. Raw power seemed to radiate off the beast in waves to hint that this creature existed at a higher existence than humans. "A…dragon…"

Igneel stared down at the man, "What are you doing in my son's mind, descendant of Kaguya?"


Loke smiled down at his summoner, "You did it."

Lucy was silent.

"Lucy?" Loke kneeled down to examine the girl. He gently turned her over onto her back. "Lucy? Lucy!?"

"I…" Lucy's eyes were dim. "I'm…cold…"

"No…" Loke checked Lucy's pulse to find a weakened heartbeat. "You can't do this. I won't lose another owner. You have to hold on."

Lucy watched as Loke's body began to dissolve. She couldn't keep up the flow of magic to her summon anymore, "I…sorry…"

"No! Don't apologize! Just focus on my voice! Keep me here! I won't be able to fight in this world on my own yet! Please, Lucy! Ple—"

Loke disappeared before her eyes. She was left in silence in the abandoned hallway. Fatigue raked across her mind. Her breathing slowed. For the briefest of moments, she thought that she saw her mother standing above her while whispering words of encouragement. As she closed her eyes, she thought about how much of a shame it was that there was so much in the world that she would never get to experience. With one final breath, her body stilled. Within the Tower of Heaven, Lucy Heartfilia died bloody and alone.


A bit shorter than normal, but I didn't feel the need to pad it out any more than it is. Considering the weight of their chapter, I think that perhaps being more compact would be a bit better. Oh, and yes. Lucy is actually dead.

Big thanks to my Beta Nightimes for reviewing this chapter.

On this absolutely joyful note, I wish you all a Happy New Year. I have big plans for 2018 with this story, my other fanfiction, and my own original work. Got a sequel planned for my first book along with another novel called Dragon Skin. Don't worry. I plan to keep going with this story until the planned ending.

Thank you for reading and please remember to…

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