Natsu POV
It takes me a few seconds to process what Mirajane has pointed out about the slumbering Lucy. Like an icy wave, a swift and tragic impression sweeps through me.
Is she not breathing?
She's not breathing?
Lucy's not breathing?
Snapping my head towards Lucy, I sprint across the room to the bed she's laying in. I tear the covers off her body and press my ear to her chest, my mind and heart racing. Sickening panic grips me as I desperately listen for some kind, any kind of life.
Don't be dead don't be dead don't be dead...!
There is nothing. Even with my heightened hearing, I hear nothing.
"Natsu...? Is sh-?"
"Come on, Lucy! If we didn't give up on you then you sure as hell can't give up on us!" I pull my head away from her chest to look at her peaceful face, before slapping her hard. "Come on, dammit! Wake up!"
I put my ear back, but there is still no sound. I'm about to pull my head away again and call for Wendy when something stops me.
"Nat-?"
"Shhh!"
I listen intently, my teeth biting into the soft flesh of my lips.
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
"Thank the gods of magic...her heart is beating..." I sigh, alleviation flooding my system. The quiet tympanic heartbeat is the only outward sign that there's still some life within the blonde.
"Then why isn't she breathing?" Gray asks from behind me.
Wendy comes over to my side and examines Lucy.
"She is breathing," the young girl confirms. "She's just doing it at a slow pace."
"Don't tell me that there's another monster that we have to deal with..." Laxus grumbles.
"No, she just appears to be in a deep sleep," Wendy reassures me.
"LUCY! Wake up!" I bellow into her ear, but nothing happens. "Dammit...!"
"Paw did tell me that she put a lot more energy into the sleeping spell this time...it will probably take a lot more than a yell in her ear to wake her up," Gray tells us, frowning.
"So what are we supposed to do, then?" I hiss, anger flaring up inside me as I whip around to look at him. "Just let her die, Gray?! If we do, then we're basically killing her!"
A look of mild hurt flits across the ice mage's face as his eyes shift away from me. I feel a pang of guilt for saying that, but I'm too overcome with worry for Lucy to apologize at the moment.
"We could slap her again," Sting suggested after a few seconds.
"How about we all yell as loud as we can at once and then try slapping her?" Wendy suggests. "That does seem like a pretty rude awakening, after all."
"No offense, but that's just dumb," Gajeel grunts, and she looks down in embarrassment.
"LUCY!" I shout, beating on the celestial mage's chest despite Gajeel's comment. "LUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCYYYYYYYYYYY!"
Surprisingly, it works and Lucy jolts awake. She quickly sits up with her eyes screwed shut.
"Ow, ow, ow!" she yelps, batting my hands away. "What are you yelling for, I'm right here!"
"Luce!" I wrap my arms around her in a tight hug. I bury my face into the crook of Lucy's neck, staying there like that for a while. In that moment, holding her, my heart aches for my best friend. After so much trial and suffering, finally, finally I'm with Lucy again.
I breathe in, inhaling the familiar scent of cinnamon and fresh flowers as I nuzzle her gently.
"Natsu...? Did you come in through th-?" she opens her eyes, and immediately seems confused. "Wait, where- how did you- this isn't my apartment..."
"No shit Sherlock..." Sting mutters as I pull away to give Lucy some air.
"It's a long story, Lucy. But to put it in short...an ancient monster called the PawPrinted Dream Dweller trapped you in a dream world with a few others. And if we don't get you out of here, then you're going to die," Lisanna explains gently.
"Wha-? Die?!"
"I know it's a lot to take in, but we're telling you the truth," Erza assures her. "We need to get you out of here as soon as possible."
"How are we going to get out of here?" Lucy asks as she slides out of bed, wobbling on her feet. "I don't see any doors..."
"Uh...hello? We're in the dream realm," Gajeel frowns. "We just gotta wake up..."
"Oh right," Lucy sounds slightly embarrassed. "I guess I'm a bit scatterbrained after being asleep for so long."
"A bit?"
"Yes, a bit," she sighs. "Anyways, how do we wake up?"
"Well, I know it sounds a bit cliche, but we have to pinch ourselves to wake up..." Levy answers.
"Seriously?" Gajeel raises an eyebrow at her. As the others go on talking, I notice that Gray has been silent for a while now. I recall my previous outburst towards him, and wince slightly. Hesitantly, I move over to him.
"Hey..." I start, trying to muster an apologetic look. Gray's eyes dart up momentarily, allowing me to glimpse the dejected hurt and ire in them for a second. His cold fury burns with a dangerous intensity. I never worry about a frequent fireworks and showers of red hot sparks, no, it is these bitterly cold, slow burning rages that threaten to engulf our friendship. I open my mouth again, but am unable to finish my sentence.
"Natsu? Are you listening?" Erza interjects, and I turn to her. "Um, yeah...what were you saying?"
Titania sighs, before speaking again. "We were saying that we're going to wake up soon. You need to pay attention."
I sneak a glance back to Gray while Erza is talking, noting how the ice mage still isn't saying anything. He just goes on staring at the floor, his face void of emotion.
"Yeah, right...right..." I nod in response to Erza, shifting my attention back to the group reluctantly.
"You just have to give yourself a pinch on the cheek to wake yourself up," Levy tells us. "Do it as hard as you can but everyone who's wearing a scarf should take off their scarves instead."
I look at my muffler with a frown.
"I meant the people who have scarves from Paw, Natsu," she adds. "Not the people who have scarves from dragon parents."
"Oh."
"Anyways, we've spent enough time here already. We have to go before Paw comes to check on Lucy," Erza states. "So everyone either pinch yourself or take off your scarf, because it's time for this dream to end."
I reach for my face, the others doing the same, but my fingers are inches away from my cheek when the sound of a door opening causes me to stop in my tracks.
I spin around to see who has come into the room, only to see the sable form of Paw standing there. Her nitid turquoise eyes are wide in shock as she stares at all of us, completely still.
"Umm...hi..." Lisanna awkwardly greets her as I move into a defensive stance. Paw growls, fires of fury and hatred smoldering in her narrowed eyes.
"YOU!" she snarls, her face contorting with the venomous outburst. "What are you doing in here?! How did you get here?!"
"What is that thing?!" Lucy exclaims, stepping back.
"Friend!" Paw's eyes soften when she notices that the blonde is out of bed. "You're awake!"
"That's the PawPrinted Dream Dweller, Lu-chan," Levy informs her.
"What?! That's it?" Lucy sounds surprised. "But...how? It always looked like Lisanna whenever I saw it."
"She has a habit of pretending to be someone that she's not," Lisanna relays to her, voice tinted with spite.
"Shut up! I can be anything that she wants me to be!" Paw spits at the takeover mage. "How the hell did you all get in here to begin with? This place isn't reachable from the mainland!"
"That's not really your business."
Paw growls in frustration at that answer.
"You know what? I'll deal with that later, there are more important things at hand," she decides. "Like getting you all out of my house and out of my life!"
"Oh, that'll be easy," Gray speaks up. "We were actually just on our way out."
"...Really?"
"Yeah, we'll just be taking Lucy with us and be out of your hair just like you wanted," I answer.
"Taking Lucy? Taking...friend?" her eyes widen, before shifting into a glare. "Oh no you won't! You aren't taking her anywhere!"
"Yes, we are!"
"NO, YOU AREN'T!"
"Eep!" Wendy squeaks, trying to stay on her feet as the room violently shakes.
A regnant magic pressure starts to build in the room, and it appears to be radiating from Paw.
"YOU AREN'T TAKING HER ANYWHERE!"
Without warning, we are teleported to the ruins of what I recognize is Yukino's observatory. What once was a nice, tidy room has now been diminished to rubble and rocks, with bits of key fragments glittering on the floor.
"YOU HAVE ALREADY TAKEN SO MUCH FROM ME!" Paw roars. "ALL OF MY FRIENDS! YOU TOOK THEM AWAY, AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU HURT IN DOING SO!"
We are transported to Wendy's destroyed palace. Forked lightning, brilliant and white-hot, flashes through the blackening sky. Rain falls in thick sheets of droplets, water seeping through my clothes and chilling my skin. The bone-chilling cold seems unbearable in the howling wind and icy rain, and the sound of thunder rolls through the area as another lightning bolt splits the sky.
"IT WAS NEVER ENOUGH FOR YOU, EITHER! YOU JUST TOOK AND YOU TOOK AND YOU TOOK AND YOU TOOK! I'D GIVE YOU ANYTHING IF YOU WOULD JUST LEAVE US ALONE! BUT NO! YOU WON'T BE HAPPY UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!"
Next is Levy's book town, the houses now ablaze with flames. Torn-out pages from books flutter down from the malicious sky like rain, quickly catching fire themselves.
"YOU WON'T BE HAPPY UNTIL YOU RUIN MY LIFE AND TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME! I'LL BE ALL ALONE WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! THEN WILL YOU BE FUCKING HAPPY?! THEN WILL YOU SMILE?!"
We are then at Mirajane's castle, the storm much worse with lightning striking the swamp water around us. The remnants of the castle are now veiled in mud and moss, seeming as if they have been there for centuries.
"DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ALL ALONE?! TO FEEL THE ENDLESS VOID OF EMPTINESS, TO HEAR NOTHING BUT YOUR OWN VOICE FOR DECADES!? THEN WHEN YOU FINALLY, FINALLY HAVE SOMEONE, YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE ON TOP OF THE WORLD! LIKE NOTHING CAN EVER BRING YOU DOWN! YOU GET TO SMILE AND LAUGH AND YOU ACTUALLY FEEL GOOD FOR ONCE!"
We are teleported to Sting's church, it being completely submerged in the swamp water. We would have been underwater if it isn't for the fact that we have manifested on the roof. The streets lay below turbid water, sickly green-brown like the river, carrying some trash that usually adorns sidewalks. But the water is getting higher by the second, with the rain cascading down like a waterfall.
"BUT THEN, ONLY FOR THEM TO BREAK YOUR HEART INTO TINY PIECES WHEN THEY LEAVE YOU! YOU CRY AND CRY AND IT FEELS LIKE THE PAIN WILL NEVER FUCKING STOP FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE! IT KEEPS ON REPEATING ITSELF OVER AND OVER, BUT I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! I DON'T WANT TO FEEL LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!"
Finally, we are back at the island where we were told Lucy would be.
The wind doesn't howl, it screams. The rain doesn't fall, it is driven, hard, merciless, torrential. The trees do not sway, they creak, bend and moan as their fine limbs are ripped away. The once resplendent flowers have decayed, the grass now a sickly yellow-brown. The sky is canopied in dark clouds that block out the sun, and the lake is dried up to a crater.
"I DON'T!" Paw is standing across from us at the large oak tree, her tirade reaching its end. "I don't...!"
Her eyes shift to the ground and become glazed with a glassy layer of tears. As she blinks, they drip from her eyelids and slide down her cheeks. She bites her lip tightly in attempt to hide any sound that wants to escape from her mouth.
Paw's lower lip quivers as words slowly make their way out of her mouth. "Pleaseā¦" she begins, yet what follows is engulfed in the tremors before she speaks again.
"I d-don't want to b-be alone again..."
She falls down on her hands and knees, in a defeated position as she touches her forehead to the dead ground.
"Please, friend...I'm begging you...don't leave me, don't go with them...stay with me..."
I'm unsure what to say as I stare at the begging Paw; I turn my head to look at Lucy, and see that she has a sympathetic expression on her face.
"Lucy..."
The blonde doesn't look at me or even acknowledge that she hears me, but I know she's listening.
"What are you gonna do?"
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