Seven days guys. Seven days and if this little one isn't out on her own, I'll be making her come out.
Good news for you guys, that means that this story will be done soon! Well, both good and bad I suppose. I'm guessing some of you will miss it when it is gone, but I promise I have at least one more in the works for this site. But don't let me keep you.
As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!
"Lucy."
"Mmhm?"
Loke sighed. "You've been staring at the wall for almost fifteen minutes now."
Lucy blinked a few times. "I'm sorry. I guess I didn't realize."
"It's okay." He reached over and warmed up her tea once more for her. "What were you thinking about?"
Her cheeks began to heat, and she avoided his gaze. "Nothing."
"I don't believe that for a second. Tell me." Loke scrunched up his nose. "Unless it's dirty stuff. Please don't make me listen to that."
"No no, it's nothing like that." She fiddled with the spoon in her tea for a little while before she responded. "I was just thinking about Natsu."
Loke sighed. "Are you sure that's the best idea? How are you supposed to be getting over him if you keep thinking about him?"
"I wasn't just idling thinking," she said defensively. "I was just wondering what would have happened to us."
"You mean if he'd been allowed to stay?"
"Yeah." Lucy pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "I would have aged, and I don't know how long demons live, but I have a feeling it's a lot longer than the seventy years or so I've got left." She finally met his eyes. "Do you know?"
Loke leaned back and crossed his arms. "I've really only heard about it. I know a few dragons who've lost their mates, but I've never been around right after it happened, so I don't know first hand how bad it can be.
"From what I understand, though, it ruins them. Their mate is their entire world, and losing them makes life not worth living anymore. They can continue on, of course, but nothing is ever the same for the dragon again. It's like they're still alive, but what makes their heart beat is just gone."
Lucy nodded. "So it's better that we're separated now. Probably would have been better that we'd never met at all."
"Oh no, princess." Leo leaned forward and grabbed both of her hands as Lucy's eyes filled with tears. "Never think that."
"But-"
"Never think that," he said again. "I haven't met a dragon yet who regretted meeting their mate, no matter how long they had with them. I can assure you, no matter how Natsu would have handled losing you, he wouldn't have either. And even though you only had a little while together, I can guarantee he doesn't now." Lucy nodded a little, but couldn't stop the tears as they began to fall in earnest. Loke moved forward and put his arm around her as she cried, remaining silent as she worked through the pain.
When Lucy's tears finally stopped a while later, she looked up at Loke with a small smile. "He never would have let you take him if he hadn't been sleeping, huh?"
"I wouldn't have even considered trying," Leo said fervently. "I have no doubt he would have tried to kill me, and I'm not sure I could beat a bonded dragon, especially one with demon blood.
"If both halves of him had figured things out and bonded to you, I'm not sure there's a force in all the realms that could have taken him away from you, or vice versa."
When the air finally settled, Leo jumped to his feet to look around. As he suspected, everything was back in its place, from the not-quite-full pool of blood to the softly glowing candles.
Damn him! Leo's hands dug into his mane. Damn him, damn him, damn him! "We could have figured it out," he whispered. "We could have saved her together, you idiot, what were you thinking?!"
Messing with time was a dangerous and mostly forbidden use of magic among the magical races. There were some spells that only made it seem like you were moving forward in time, but really just froze you in place until you reached the target moment. There were some spells that could make it seem like you moved backward, but only allowed you to revisit a memory, not actually move you through time.
The spell Natsu had used had been nothing like those.
He had actually turned back the clock. Looking around, Leo couldn't be sure how far back he'd gone, but he'd wager it wasn't more than an hour or so. Natsu was young, but not so young that his remaining life force would generate more than a day at most, and that much time would be a waste. Added to that, he'd used more than just the time reversal spell, so his reserves had been pretty drained.
He'd frozen time, to stop Lucy from dying, and then taken Leo out of it, both of which would require a massive amount of magic to achieve. He'd probably used magic earlier when he'd been fighting the researcher and there was no telling how much he'd used destroying Zeref's personal realm. With all that, there was no way for him to figure out how far back he'd gone. And unfortunately, it was completely silent around him so he had no idea if any of them had even made it to the basement yet.
Leo allowed his legs to fold under him as he dropped to his knees. Damn him, he thought again. He rubbed his face with his hands as he took a moment to mourn his lost comrade. Pausing time might have been enough, if he'd just let Leo help him. While his healing magic wasn't as good as Wendy's, he could have patched Lucy up enough to save her life and then got her out of harm's way.
Or could he?
Zeref was still there, and as strong as he was, with the powers he possessed, he would have been hard to beat, but surely they could have figured it out. Natsu had taken out Midnight with almost no effort! Surely he could have taken out his brother, too.
Could he have done it in time?
That was a good question, one that Leo wished he could answer. As much as he didn't like it, hated it even, Natsu might have made the right choice.
The only choice.
Leo wondered if Natsu had considered his options. Had he analyzed the situation before acting, or had he made the last ditch effort his first plan? And how much of him had acted on the plan? Considering his form, the demon had been involved in the decision, but had the dragon half of Natsu been aware, too? Had Leo been right, and all of Natsu had bonded to Lucy?
He didn't have any of those answers, probably never would, but he did have one thing- another chance to save Lucy.
And he had to succeed this time.
With a brief prayer to the gods, he stood again and flew off to search the tunnels. The cave Natsu had been fighting in was closest, so he'd try there first to see if any of them had even made it into the labyrinth yet.
As he entered the space, he was almost relieved not to see anyone there. If Lucy was still strapped down to the table in the lab, it would probably be easier than he anticipated to get her out of there.
When he finally heard a noise, he nearly jumped out of his skin. The complete silence had worried him at first, but he'd thought it was just a side effect of the spell. He spun around, and found that he'd just been looking at the wrong portion of the cave. Natsu and Gillax were there, fighting against one of the walls, although it wasn't much of a fight.
Now that he was really looking, he could see blood on the ground- a lot of blood. It had dripped and splashed all over, some even on the walls. Looking at the pair, he could see that both had been pretty badly hurt in their fight, but now it was just a slaughter. Leo wasn't sure the other demon was even still alive, but Natsu's demon side didn't care. He was still slashing with his claws, cutting Gillax into little pieces that flew across the space and bounced off the walls. It churned Leo's stomach to watch.
The demon was definitely as terrifying as Virgo and Taurus had told him. If he'd seen this kind of thing prior to looking for Natsu in his brother's other realm, he's not sure if he would have had it in him to face the thing. Natsu's eyes were crazed, the bloodlust having completely taken him over.
Leo didn't want to watch as Natsu snatched up an arm and began to gnaw on it- this wasn't a side of Natsu he wanted to know. He moved to leave, deciding he should head to the other cave so he could plan his move there. As he turned, he didn't see the stalagmite that was behind him. As he passed through, a rock knocked loose and fell. As it clattered to the ground, Natsu whipped around and stared hard into the darkness in Leo's direction.
The angel held his breath. The hybrid shouldn't be able to see him out of time as he was, but perhaps since he'd cast the spell, he could? And how had he even managed to knock that rock over? He shouldn't be able to interact with anything! Had it been a fluke?
The demon lowered himself to all fours, that arm still in his mouth, and began to sniff the air. His wings vibrated as he sought the source of the noise, but apparently found nothing. He perked up and then looked towards the cave entrance, where he could apparently hear the others in the cave.
That was Leo's cue to get moving. He dashed out of the cave, arriving in the other cave just as Zeref claimed he was only trying to free his people and give them a new start. Everything was still quiet, but at least he could hear.
Leo moved to float near Lucy. As he checked her over, he realized that she was awake. Her eyes were barely open, staring below her as her neck hung loose, but she was definitely awake. She tipped her head a little towards Zeref and Midnight, and after a moment, Leo could see the vein in her neck begin to pulse faster. When he looked, he saw what must have worried her- Zeref was holding a knife.
The very knife that was going to kill her.
He wished he could comfort her, but he had to wait before he revealed himself. He had to time it right, so he didn't mess with the time flow too much. If he appeared too soon, he could create catastrophic damage to the stream. Time slowed to a crawl as he watched the others talk and then react to Natsu's entrance. He turned away as Midnight disappeared, and focused on Zeref. He was the threat to Lucy, so he was the one that needed to be stopped.
Should he take the knife? Should he appear next to Zeref and kill him? Should he grab Lucy and teleport them? As he considered his options, he noticed something above them. It was hard to see, but he could have sworn there were faint markings on the stone. Natsu's fire blasted next to him, but he didn't pay any attention as he realized the marks were Virgo's runes. She was up there, waiting for a moment to strike and get Lucy back. Why hadn't she done something the first time?
Leo looked at Zeref and saw the moment he decided to finish Lucy off. Lucy was looking through him now, staring at Natsu. Leo prepared himself. He had to catch the knife before it hit Lucy, and then get her out before Natsu released the explosion he was going to create. Erza would be in the blast zone as well, but he would just have to hope that she could keep herself safe.
As the knife flew through the air, he put out his hand and forced himself back into the time stream. An ear popping sound temporarily disoriented him, but not enough to stop him from catching the knife. As he appeared next to Lucy, the others in the room were momentarily distracted, just enough that as Natsu started his spell, they were all knocked off their feet.
Lucy gasped as she realized he was next to her. "Loke-"
"We only have a moment, Lucy. I'll explain later." He used his magic to dissolved the restraints holding her up and caught her as the runes above him glowed and Virgo appeared.
"Leo, how did you-"
"Later. Take her." With no other words, Leo changed course and forced Lucy into Virgo's arms before pushing them towards the ceiling. Virgo grabbed the blonde and then disappeared into the rock, but not before Leo caught the terrified, yearning look in Lucy's eyes as she looked at Natsu.
The heat around them was intense, but Leo didn't let it slow him down. He knew what was coming, so he dashed over to Erza and put up a shield.
"What is happening?!"
Leo didn't answer as runes he hadn't noticed the first time formed around Zeref's feet. The king made an effort to hide in his shadows, but it seemed he was unable to. Fear widened his eyes as he tried to get away, but couldn't move from where he was standing. Leo saw Natsu still staring at the ceiling where Lucy had disappeared as Zeref continued to struggle.
Natsu looked Leo's way, his glowing eyes soft, and smiled, somehow giving him a smile that matched those he could give in his human form.
Thank you, Leo.
And then the magic and heat shot back to Natsu, leaving the cave silent and motionless for one long moment before the explosion happened once more.
When Lucy woke again, she found that she was crying. Her face was wet, her nose was stuffed, and her pillow felt more like a puddle than a pillow. She opened her eyes and saw that her lamp was glowing softly next to her, lighting up the little dragon statue sitting next to it. She wiped her face with her hands and then sat up to find a tissue.
One appeared in her face and Lucy finally noticed that she wasn't alone.
"I figured you might need these," Erza said, a box of tissues in her other hand.
"Thank you…" Lucy took the offered tissue and cleaned her face. After a few more tissues, her face was dry and she could breathe again. After tossing them in the nearby trash can, she finally turned back to Erza. "What are you doing here?"
"Leo thought you might appreciate having someone around if you woke while he was returning your friends to their homes. Virgo is assisting, so I offered to stay here with you."
"Oh. Well, thank you." She looked down and fiddled with a loose string on the edge of her blanket.
"Lucy."
Lucy refused to look up, but when Erza said her name again, she whispered, "What?"
"I know you have questions. Ask them."
Lucy reached out blindly and grabbed the statue Natsu had given her, moving it to sit on her lap so she could stare at it. "Who had me?" she asked eventually.
"King Zeref, one of the demon kings. He plotted with two others to kidnap you and use your blood to bring about the return of the origin, which Leo tells me you know about. We were able to stop them, though. Kings Xeenathen and Rhjothe are currently being sentenced by the remaining kings and Zeref is, well… we think he's dead."
"You think?"
"We believe Natsu killed him, when he…"
Lucy squeezed her eyes closed and willed herself not to cry. "He sacrificed himself, didn't he?"
"He did. The best I can tell from what I saw, he may have used a time altering spell, which would have used his life force, effectively killing him."
"Why would he do that?" Lucy whispered.
"My best guess is you died the first time through." Lucy's head snapped up, shocked, and Erza described what she had seen. "With Leo popping up as he did next to you, and his other body disappearing the way it did, I believe you died, and Natsu reversed time and pulled Leo out of the time stream so that he could reenter at the appropriate moment to save your life. With the way he caught that knife before it got to you, I don't see any other explanation for Natsu's actions."
Erza glanced over at the door, obviously hearing a noise that Lucy did not, and rose to her feet. "I would ask Leo if you want the whole story. He has not told me what happened yet, although that will be remedied shortly."
As Erza moved towards the door, Lucy whispered, stopping her in her tracks.
"Thank you."
The demon looked over her shoulder. "There is no need to thank me."
"But there is." Lucy lifted her head so she could look at the demon, that little dragon clutched in her hands. "I remember what you did. With Natsu's gift and my memories."
Surprise momentarily froze Erza to the spot, but she quickly shook it off and then continued to leave the room, a small smile on her face.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I know what you're talking about."
