My husband is the best. He's been asking me how my writing is going every few days to help encourage me to get it done before our little one arrives in a couple weeks. There are a few more chapters to come, I'm thinking between three and five, before this story will be wrapped up. While I'm sad the end is so near, I'm also excited to finish it up. I hope you guys will like it!
As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!
Deep in the king's artificial shadows, Zeref maintained their cover as he spoke with his consorts.
"So how long do we have?"
Zeref gave a lazy smile. "I'm told it won't take longer than another few days at most."
"We need it to be done sooner. That demon, Scarlet, has been wandering around asking questions."
"You know as well as I do that she can't accuse us outright," the king said. "Either lie or avoid the question. You can manage another few days."
"We've had enough, Zeref," the second voice said. "You have twenty four hours left before we're out. The rest of the kings are opposed to returning to the origin, and they outnumber us two to one. If we're caught, we're dead. You said you were ready for this."
"I'm in agreement," said the first. "You have one more day, or we're out, Zeref."
"Are you sure?"
Zeref nodded, his expression blank. "Keep an eye on her heart rate. She's human, but she's young. She should be able to hold up for another day of hard stress."
"Luckily for her, the stress won't be created by fear, and from what I know about human biology, that will help her last longer."
Zeref frowned as he looked back at Gillax. "I thought you said the tests for fear produced more than the other tests?"
"They did, but I had to redo them. My first few tests didn't use my memory manipulator. When I redid them, I found that this particular human responds better to sadness. Luckily, she's had a lot of grief in her life, so I will have no shortage of memories to pull from."
"Do whatever you have to do. The others are impatient now that Erza is poking around, so we have less than twenty four hours to complete the ritual. Can you do it?"
Gillax brought up a fresh screen and spent some time typing. Zeref watched him fill in factors and do math until he turned towards the king with a smile. "I absolutely can, sire."
"Good. Get it done."
"You think Zeref…? No, that doesn't make sense." Natsu shook his head, his brows drawn tight as he frowned. "He's as opposed to the return of the origin as the rest of the kings, why on earth would he take Lucy?"
"I heard there's a rumor going around that a couple of the kings aren't as opposed as they claim," Leo said.
"And you just assume Zeref is one of them? Why?"
"For one thing, Erza said he was being squirrely when she went to talk to him."
"Squirrely?"
"Figure of speech," Leo said with a wave of his hand. "He wasn't being forward with her. And for another thing, he sent you here and adjusted the way the time moves so that you would elect to stay longer. If I hadn't come to get you, you'd still think it had only been a few hours since you left Lucy. Even if you'd only stayed a day, you would have been back much too late to do anything to help her."
Natsu ground his teeth a little as he paced. His hands were glowing with a swirl of black and red fire as he tried to keep his magic under control. "So you think Zeref has Lucy, and used Midnight to catch her. And you think he's using her to try and break the separation between the realms."
"Correct."
"You have no proof," Natsu pointed out. "Just feelings. Why should I believe you?"
Leo sighed in annoyance. "Will you just come with me? The worst that could happen is I'm wrong but you still get to see Lucy when you help me find her. I've gotten permission from my king to bring you with me, so even if it upsets your kings, I will be at fault, not you."
Natsu crossed his arms as he studied Leo for a long moment. "Won't it mess with Lucy to see me? Isn't there some chance it could affect your memory wipe of me?"
For the span of a heartbeat, Leo was surprised by the knowledge that the hybrid didn't know Lucy remembered him. For the second beat, he contemplated how to tell him, and then decided not to ruin the surprise.
"I'll take the chance," he said. "Now, Grandeeney said they were going to open the portal again soon after I entered. We should prepare for-"
A popping sound echoed across the rubble, interrupting the angel, and Natsu gave him a grin as he popped out his wings. "Race ya," he said as he took off.
Leo didn't say anything as he took off as well, more worried about making it out of the portal before it disappeared than beating Natsu through.
On the other side, the pair landed in front of the white dragon as the trio with her closed the portal and then took off.
Grandeeney gave Natsu a small smile, but said nothing to him as he stared at her with a frown. "I didn't know you guys could do that," he said after a while.
The dragon nodded a little. "I know. It's a well kept secret around the nest. None of the hybrids know. I'd appreciate it if you kept that information to yourself. It comes in handy during times like these." She bowed her head. "I am truly sorry about separating you from Lucy, Natsu. I hope in time you will be able to forgive me."
"I have less to forgive you for than this one," Natsu replied with a thumb in Leo's direction. "If he could just keep Lucy safe instead of teasing me with these trips to see her, I might have a chance of getting over how mad I am."
"I'm taking him with me," Leo said. "I'll bring him back once we've found Lucy and returned her home."
"There is no rush," the dragon said as she took off. "Good luck!"
The pair waved and then Leo turned to open a portal to Lucy's when he felt his magic pulling at him. When he realized Erza was causing the disturbance, he opened a portal to her.
"Leo!" It was pitch black wherever she was. So black, Leo couldn't even see her.
"Erza? What's going on?"
"Midnight is the only nightmare demon helping Zeref right now, but he does have other help." There was a thud and then the sound of whimpering. "He has two accomplices, although I'm having trouble figuring out who they are. He is also working with a demon researcher known as Gillax, who I am led to believe is rather ruthless and obsessive with his work.
"I am almost done here. When I am, I will return to my office so we can convene. Have you found Natsu yet?"
"Right here, Erza," the hybrid said. "Where are you?"
"The tenth circle."
Natsu frowned. "But there are only nine."
"That's only mostly true," came the response. "I'm sorry, Natsu, about what happened. I would ask you to hit me for my penance, but you cannot join me here. I will offer again later when I see you. In the meantime, please do your best to find Lucy. We need to return her safe and sound."
"That's what I'm planning to do," he said, looking uncomfortable. "I'd rather not hit you, though. I understand why you guys did what you did. I'm not okay with it, and I'm still pretty angry, but I do understand."
"Good." A chuckle came through the darkness. "That human changed you for the better, Natsu. I hope those changes will stick, even after she is gone."
"We'll see I guess."
"We need to get going, Erza," Leo piped up. "We'll join you soon."
As Leo closed the portal, he immediately opened one to Lucy's house. "I figured we'd start at her house. Maybe you can pick up-"
"She's not there," Natsu said. His eyes scanned the horizon as his hand came up to rub his chest.
Leo stepped close. "You know where she is?"
"Not exactly." Natsu opened himself up, allowing all of his senses to take in anything they could.
He could hear his and Leo's breaths, as well as the slowly moving lava river nearby. He could feel the heat of the realm on his skin and the faint movement from a light breeze. He could smell the sweat on Leo's brow, the dryness of the land, the brimstone and smoke in the air, and the remnants of the other dragons and their magic. He could see the red of the ground, the yellow of the sky, the craggy peaks of the mountains in the distance, and the suns as they set.
He dug down deeper, certain he had felt something, some tug that he associated with Lucy. Passed the anger, the annoyance, the pain… he could feel something that wasn't his.
"She's sad," he whispered.
Lucy curled up in her childhood bedroom, her pillow soaked in her tears. Her sobs echoed around the room, the only sound in an otherwise silent house.
Her mother was dead.
Her father had had her kidnapped.
Her friends had all left her.
The first man she'd ever loved betrayed her.
The man she still loved had disappeared.
She wanted to go back to her mother's clearing. She wanted to remember the people she had loved more than anyone else and mourn alone, but she had no idea how to get there.
Worse, the last time she'd left the room, she hadn't known where she was. This house wasn't her home. This room was her room, but nothing else was familiar. She was lost and she didn't know how to get back.
She didn't even know where back was…
Suddenly, she was falling. She opened her eyes, but it was completely dark all around her. Her eyes slammed shut… she knew what was coming.
When everything stopped moving, she refused to look. She didn't want to see it again. Didn't want to experience it all again.
She just couldn't…
"Lucy?"
Maybe if she ignored her this time… Lucy curled up tight and covered her ears. Hands found her shoulder and head, stroking her hair out of her face. "Lucy, honey, are you okay?"
A sob escaped Lucy as she realized she was going to have to see it again. No matter what she did, the cycle continued and she had to live the losses over and over again.
Hating what was happening, hating herself even, she opened her eyes even though she knew what was coming.
Because she wanted to see her.
Her mother frowned as she saw the tears, but she smiled as Lucy rolled over.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"You can still feel her," Leo breathed. "That's perfect! That means you can still find her!"
"I don't know if I can," Natsu said as he rubbed at his chest some more. Lucy's sadness was like a slow burn. It kept fluctuating, getting worse and then better, but would get worse again without fail, slowly growing over time.
"I don't understand," Leo said.
"I can feel her, kind of like how I could before with the summoning tag, but it's fainter than before. And I don't feel her in any particular direction, I just feel her."
Leo groaned and sank his fingers into his mane, pushing the hair up in multiple directions. "Okay, just let me think. There has to be some way to fix this."
"Tell me again why you can't track her?"
"They cut off my magic. It still hurts, honestly, but I'm trying to ignore it."
"And by cut, you mean literally?"
"Yes, literally."
"So she still has a piece of your magic in her. Have you tried tracking it?"
"I can't." Leo rubbed his face. "Unless it's attached to me, it's dead magic. Worse, if she doesn't live through whatever's being done to her, it could fester and rot inside of her since she's human."
Natsu's stomach flipped. "So she's going to die if we can't find her."
"She's in danger of that as long as she's away from us."
The hybrid's eyes flashed. "It seems to me you angels are the problem here. What were you thinking, putting your magic in her if it could kill her?"
"I told you, most would just remove that part of the magic, not cut it off. I still don't understand why they did it the way they did- it's not an easy process. I guess there's the chance they could have figured out what would happen by leaving it in her, but not many would have the proper knowledge to figure it out." Leo rubbed his face again. "I have to find her and remove it before it…"
Natsu watched Leo stop pacing, a look of realization spreading across his face. "What?"
"She's human," he breathed, "but she's one of the few that has a little magic in her. My magic won't hurt her, but it might help her."
Natsu raised an eyebrow at the angel. "I don't understand."
"Once the kings had agreed to the separation of the realms, my king was put in charge of protecting the Heartfilia line. The Zodiac have been in charge of watching over and protecting them in the human realm ever since the first queen sacrificed her life.
"Even with the Zodiac's presence, my king didn't believe that was enough to protect them." Leo lifted his palm, allowing his magic to swirl in his palm in a faint golden glow. "When the first queen's daughter became pregnant, he visited her in her sleep and passed on a drop of his blood and his magic. It strengthened their line, helping to ensure that they could survive the multiple generations needed to complete the ritual."
He smiled as he looked up at Natsu. "My magic isn't dead inside her. I still can't trace it, since it is no longer linked to me, but it will work with my king's magic to strengthen her further against whatever is being done to her."
"Which means…?"
"She's going to live," Leo said, relief fueling his movements. "We just have to find her."
