Nobody POV
"I...I can't leave her..." Lucy finally spoke words that no one saw coming.
Everyone snapped their heads towards her, eyes wide with surprise and shock at her answer.
"WHAT?!"
"Lu-chan, you can't be serious!" Levy exclaimed.
"Guys, just look at her," Lucy gestured to Paw. "She's all alone in this world, I'm the only one she has left."
"But what abo-?"
"If I leave her, then she'll have no one. She'll be left completely alone with nothing but a broken heart and tears," Lucy defended. "I can't bring myself to just abandon her here, especially after all that she's been through. She needs me."
"We need you too, Luce!" Natsu argued hotly.
"I know, but..." Lucy trailed off, looking conflicted. She let out a sigh after a few moments. "Listen, we've had absolutely wonderful adventures and I'm grateful that I got to experience every last one, but they can't last forever."
"Says who?" Gray asked, crossing his bare arms over his chest.
"I do. All good things must to come to an end, and this is where our adventures end," she answered. "Right here, in this world of dreams."
"So that's it, huh?" Laxus said after a few seconds of silence. "You're just going to stay here with that demon instead of waking up and coming back to reality?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, I really am, but this is it," Lucy nodded solemnly. "This is goodbye."
"But Lucy, if you stay here then you'll-!" Wendy tried to say, her eyes glistening with tears.
"I know," Lucy cut her off. "I know."
She approached the blue-haired girl, kneeling down in front of her and putting her hands on her shoulders. Wendy whimpered, her dark lashes brimmed heavy with tears; her hands clenched into shaking fists, in a desperate battle against the grief.
A lone tear traced down her cheek, and just like that, the floodgates opened.
She wept, tears streaming from her deep blue eyes; loud, heaving sobs tearing from her throat as she hugged Lucy tightly. After a minute or so, they pulled apart and the blonde stood up.
"Just promise me something. Promise me that you'll never stop having new and exciting adventures, and no matter what...you'll never stop smiling, okay? It would hurt me so much to know that I saved one heart, only to break so many others."
"There's really no convincing you is there, love rival?" Juvia prompted.
"No, there isn't." Lucy confirmed.
"We're going to miss you, Lucy," Erza said, her voice sad but respectful.
"I'm going to miss you all too," Lucy smiled softly. "One last hug?"
Natsu was the first one to hug the celestial mage, with Lisanna and Levy following closely behind. The others joined in on one big group hug, before separating after what felt like the forever.
"We'll never forget you, Lucy," Lisanna sniffled, using the back of her hand to wipe tears from her eyes.
One by one, the dreamers began to pull off their scarves causing them to wake up, while those without scarves simply pinched their cheeks. This happened until only Natsu and Gray remained in the dream realm.
"Come on, Natsu," Gray put a gentle hand on the fire dragon slayer's shoulder. "It's time to go, we can't stay here."
Natsu was silent as he stared at the blonde, his olive eyes remorseful. "Sleep well, Lucy..."
With that said, Natsu silently reached up and pinched his cheek. The devil slayer followed quickly behind, leaving Lucy alone with Paw.
Lucy walked over to the shadowy creature that was still in its begging position. She dropped to her knees in front of her, and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Paw to lift up her head.
"Fr-friend?" she asked, tears still falling from her eyes. "Where...? Where are they?"
"They left," Lucy answered quietly. "I'm staying."
"You're staying?" Paw asked, before frowning. "You...you aren't lying to me, are you?"
"No, I'm not lying," she reassured as she shook her head. "I'm staying here with you. I couldn't bring myself to just leave you all by yourself."
A riant smile slowly stretched across Paw's face before she lunged at Lucy, encasing her in a tight hug as the storm around them began to die down.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you so, so much!" Paw was crying tears of joy now.
Lucy was unable to hug her back as her arms were pinned to her sides, but Paw didn't seem to mind. She pulled away from her, keeping her hands on Lucy's shoulders. She stared into the stellar mage's eyes, which were the deep brown of winter trees at twilight.
"I swear that you won't regret this decision in the slightest!" Paw promised. "I'll do whatever you ask of me, and do my absolute best to make you happy for as long as you're with me!"
The world around the two of them slowly began to come back to life until it looked how it did before the savage storm.
"Just name anything and it's your's, friend!" she exclaimed as took her hands off Lucy's shoulders to wipe the tears from her own eyes.
"Well..." Lucy trailed off, trying to think of something. "First, I want you to change forms."
"Oh?" Paw looked surprised to hear that. "Who do you want me to be?"
"I don't want you to be anyone," Lucy told her. "I want you to be whoever you want to be."
"...What?"
"I want you to create a new form for yourself, something that isn't anyone in the real world," Lucy explained to her. "I want you to just be the you that you want to be."
"Be the me that I want to be?" she asked herself. "I...I guess that I could do that."
"Then come on," Lucy got up and pulled Paw to her feet. "I mean, you don't have to do it right now. You can do it whenever you're-"
"No! I can do it!" she insisted. "I just...I just need to think of who I want to be that's all"
Paw went quiet and began to ponder what she want to look like if she were like Lucy, it took quite a bit of time before she came to a decision.
"Okay...I think I'm ready..." she sounded unsure.
Paw shape shifted into a human figure ever so slightly taller than Lucy with skin as pale as snow, her messy dark brown hair reached her shoulders, her turquiose eyes were blank and gave off a faint glow, her teeth were sharp like a shark, her pajamas were a plain white, and an ankle length black robe hung from her shoulders like a cape.
"How's this?" she asked.
"Do you like it?" Lucy asked back.
"Yes?" she was still unsure as she looked over the form that she had taken. "Yes, I do like it."
"Then that's the only thing that matters." Lucy smiled at her.
"You mean it?" she asked.
"Yeah," Lucy nodded. "Friendship can't just be based on what one person wants, it's based on the wants of both people."
"If that's the case then can I have a hug?"
"Of course"
Paw then enveloped Lucy in a hug and let out a contented sigh as Lucy wrapped her arms back around the dream monster, but even as she hugged Paw, she just couldn't take her mind off of her friends.
I miss them already...
!~Time Skip~!
Some time had passed since Lucy had decided to stay in the dream world with Paw and the two of them were on an adventure through the dream world, they were in the book town currently.
"Who did you make this place for?" Lucy asked as she looked around at the scenery.
"I made it for that blue haired girl, if memory serves me right then I think that her name was Levy," Paw was following behind her.
"You built this place for Levy?" Lucy turned around to look at her. "Why? I thought that you didn't like anyone who tries to take your friends away."
"I had a change of heart when I found her trapped underground," she decided to leave out that she was planning to trick and kill her.
"Oh," Lucy was surprised to hear that. "Well, I'm glad that you saved her so thank you."
"Don't mention it."
The two of them continued exploring the mountains with Paw using her powers to make the path much easier to navigate, but when they were out of the mountains, they were met with rain.
"Oh!" Paw noticed and quickly created an umbrella which she held above her and Lucy to shield them from the rain. "That's better."
"What is this place?" Lucy looked around at the scenery. "Who did you make this place for?"
"Oh, I didn't make this place for anyone. This has been here since I first created this place," Paw answered.
"Why would you create a place like this?"
"Well it didn't always look like this, it used to look really different," she explained. "I guess that I just never got around to fixing it"
"What happened to it?"
"I'd, um..." Paw frowned at the memory of what happened. "I'd rather not talk about it if it's okay with you."
"Oh..." Lucy got the hint that this was a touchy subject for her. "I'm sorry for bringing it up then"
"It's alright, it's not your fault." Paw was quick to forgive her friend.
Before the two of them could go further into the swamp, Lucy suddenly had a small coughing fit which caused Paw to flimch in surprise.
"Friend?" worry was evident in Paw's voice. "Are you alright?"
"I'm," she coughed one last time. "I'm fine."
"That didn't sound fine," Paw frowned. "Are you really sure that you're alright?"
"I wouldn't say it if I wasn't sure, Paw." Lucy tried to reassure her despite the strange feeling that she had.
"Hmm..." Paw wasn't sure. "Still, let's get you out of the rain just in case"
"But I said-." Lucy tried to remind her.
"I know what you said but let's just go, okay?" she cut her off. "I don't want you to get sick."
"Alright." Lucy gave in knowing that it was useless to argue with someone like her.
Paw put a hand on Lucy's shoulder and turned her around leaving the swamp unknowing that Lucy's cough was so much more than just the symptoms of a small cold.
!~Time Skip~!
More time had passed and Lucy was currently taking a short rest underneath the branches of the telescope tree.
"It's only getting worse..." Lucy wasn't feeling very well.
She coughed but stopped just as Paw reappeared.
"Sorry for the interruption!" she apologized as she came over to her. "Are you ready to go on another outing?"
"Actually, Paw...," Lucy opened her eyes to look at her. "I don't think that I can go exploring with you today..."
"What?" she rose an eyebrow. "Why not?"
"I'm not feeling too great...," she confessed. "I think it's better if I just try and get some rest today."
"Oh..." Paw seemed to be disappointed.
"Hey, don't look like that," Lucy tried to reassure her. "You can still go and have fun without me."
"It wouldn't feel right exploring without you though," Paw frowned. "It'd be so boring..."
Lucy opened her mouth to say something but all that came out was more coughing causing Paw's frown to become bigger and her disappointment to turn into worry.
"Friend!" she exclaimed in worry crouching down in front of her.
"I'm ok, I'm" Lucy coughed once again. "ok..."
"You're not ok! That sounded even worse than last time!" Paw's concern for the blonde was only growing with every passing second.
"Listen, Paw... I'm going to be fine," she insisted. "Just go and have fun, ok?"
"Fri-" she tried to protest.
"I'm not going to take no for an answer, Paw" Lucy cut her off. "So either say yes or don't say anything at all."
"...Ok..." she very reluctantly agreed.
"Good now go have fun," Lucy smiled. "I'll be resting right here."
After that, Lucy shut her eyes and tried to get some rest.
Paw stayed there just staring at the blonde until she stood up with a sigh and walked away from the tree.
"No way that cough is going to be fixed with just simple rest," Paw thought to herself. "I need to go get something to help her but no way that I can just leave her here by herself especially with how long the trip is going to be."
Paw looked back at the blonde to make sure that she wouldn't hear her before looking back ahead.
"Come to me!" she whisper yelled so she wouldn't disturb Lucy's rest. "Lotus, Primrose!"
The two were summoned appearing in front of her, Primrose had an unreadable expression on his face and Lotus's eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying.
"Yes, Master?" they both asked in unison.
"It's Paw now, not Master" she corrected them. "I have an assignment for the two of you."
"What..." Lotus sniffed and wiped her nose. "What is it?"
"I'm going to be leaving friend for a while to get something to fix that worrying cough of hers," she answered. "This may take a while so I need you to watch her and make sure that she doesn't get any worse while I'm gone, can you do that?"
"Of course we can," Primrose nodded. "We'll make sure that absolutely nothing bad happens to her."
"Good," Paw smiled. "I'll see you later."
With that, Paw teleported away leaving Lucy in the care of Primrose and Lotus.
Paw didn't reapprear at her house, she didn't reappear in any of the areas, she didn't reappear anywhere in the dream world instead after quite a while of searching, she reappeared at another house floating on a patch of land floating in an endless dark void.
"I don't have anything in my realm that can help, I know that for a fact," she thought to herself.
The house was similar to Paw's in some ways but was completely different in every other aspect, there was even a different symbol on the front door with it being that of a star made up of connected lines, a circle around it.
"Maybe they'll help me" she hoped.
Paw walked up to the front door of the house and reluctantly knocked as she wasn't sure about this, she had never interacted with another monster like her after all.
Until now, she didn't even know that other monsters like her were even out there let alone existed.
"Oh this is hopeless!" Paw thought to herself after a few seconds. "They won't help! I should just turn around and go ho-!"
But just as Paw was about to turn around and teleport back to her own dream realm, the front door opened bringing her face to face with another dream dweller like herself.
"Uhhh... Hi..." Paw awkwardly greeted her. "How are you today?"
"I'm... Fine..." the other dream dweller seemed wary of her. "Who are you?"
"Well I'm Paw and I'm a dream dweller like you" Paw introduced herself.
"Another dream dweller? That's interesting..." she seemed surprised. "I'm Revlis... What are you doing here?"
"My friend is really sick, she said that she's fine but I don't believe her one bit," Paw explained. "I don't know how to fix her so I was hoping that maybe someone else would have the solution on how to fix her."
"Is this friend someone that you created or a human?" Revlis asked.
"She's a human," Paw answered. "Can you fix her?"
"Hmmm..." Revlis hmmed as she thought. "I might have something... Come in and I'll get it for you..."
Revlis's shadowy form moved out of the doorway allowing Paw to enter into the other dream dwellers home, Paw looked around at the interior as Revlis began to search around the room for something with her vivid purpleorbs looking foucused as she did.
"So what's with the human form?" Revlis made small talk.
"Oh my friend suggested that I take the form of someone that I want to be," Paw answered. "What do you think? Do you like it?"
"It's not a form that I would take personally but..." Revlis trailed off as she finally found what she was looking for. "Oh! Here it is!"
Revlis turned towards Paw holding an bottle filled with a glowing white liquid.
"What's that?" Paw asked.
"It's what will cure your friend of her sickness," Revlis answered.
"Are you sure about that?" Paw was wary of the potion.
"Of course I am," Revlis nodded. "What's making your friend sick can only be cured by this potion, she'll be immortal once she drinks it so there's no need to worry about her getting sick anymore."
"Immortal? Isn't that kind of overkill?" Paw frowned. "I know her cough is bad but I don't think immortality is the way to go."
"I would say otherwise when that cough is going to wind up killing her..."
That caused Paw's eyes widen in pure shock as her form faltered for a split second.
"WHAT?!" Paw yelled in shock. "She's gonna die?! Why?!"
"You seriously don't know?" Revlis raised an eyebrow.
Paw quickly shook her head.
"Paw, if we keep a human trapped in the dream world then they'll start getting sicker and sicker until they eventually die" Revlis explained to her. "You don't want her to die and you don't want her to leave either, right?"
"No..." Paw answered.
"Then get her to drink this, it'll keep her with you and you'll never have to be alone ever again" Revlis held out the potion for Paw to take.
"What about you?" Paw took it. "Aren't you going to need it for your friend?"
"I haven't taken someone yet but there is this one person that I have my eye on," she said. "I just have to make another potion before I take him."
"Oh"
"Now get going," Revlis pointed at the door. "Who knows how long you have left before your friend drops dead."
"Right," Paw nodded. "Thanks, Revlis."
Before Revlis could respond, Paw ran out the front door of Revlis's house and teleported away back to her own home but before she appeared, something happened.
Primrose and Lotus were standing off to the side of the telescope tree having a conversation.
"I just... I just miss him so much..." Lotus was still upset over Geranium's death. "I don't know what to do now that he's gone..."
"I know the feeling, Lotus" he put a hand on her shoulder. "It'll go away in time and you'll start feeling better... Trust me..."
While the two of them were talking, Lucy began to wake up from her nap.
"Ugh..." she quietly groaned.
Her tired eyes opened up and looked around the area only seeing Primrose and Lotus who were facing away from her but she didn't pay them any mind.
"I don't feel any better..." she thought. "Maybe things will get better if I do go on a walk?"
Lucy began to get up from her spot against the tree.
"It's worth a shot..." she thought.
She got up to her feet and began to walk forwards on shaky legs taking slow steps as she went.
"Don't fall over... Don't fall over..." she quietly said to herself.
Lucy managed to get out of the telescope tree's dim shadow cast by the moonlight, she took a few more steps before she began to feel very dizzy.
"Oh no... Don't fall over... Steady..." she thought.
She slowly rose up her foot to take another step but wound up wobbling feeling like someone had placed a skateboard underneath her feet.
"Don't fall over, you can do this!" she tried to mentally tell herself as she struggled to regain her balance. "Stay up!"
Unfortunately luck was not on her side as she fell over with a thud alerting Primrose and Lotus who quickly ended their conversation and turned to face her.
"Hey!" Lotus exclaimed once she saw the blonde. "Just what do you think your doing?! You shouldn't be up!"
The two were about to go to her side and bring her back to her spot underneath the telescope tree when Lucy spokee up.
"N-No!" she stuttered due to the dizziness. "I'm ok! I can make it on my own!"
Lucy got up onto her hands and knees slowly got up to stand on her feet, she turned to the telescope tree and gave a reassuring smile to the two of them.
"See? I can do it on my own," she reassured. "There's no need to stop your conversation because of me."
Lucy took a shaky step but when she was about to take another one is when she found herself falling once again only this time, Primrose and Lotus weren't the only ones who saw Lucy fall.
Paw reappeared just in time to see Lucy fall to the ground with a thud.
"FRIEND!" she cried out in worry.
Paw quickly rushed over to Lucy's side, she dropped down to her knees beside the blonde.
"Friend! Are you ok?!" Paw was cautious about touching her as she wasn't sure if it would make things worse.
"I'm," she was cut off by a cough. "I'm ok."
Paw let out a sigh of relief before turning her attention to Primrose and Lotus, her eyes shifting into an angry glare.
"You both were supposed to be watching her!" she barked. "What's wrong with you?!"
"Master, I'm sorry but-" Lotus tried to apologize.
"You can't even remember that you're supposed to call me Paw now!" Paw reminded them. "If you can't remember something as small as that then how are you supposed to remember that you're supposed to be watching her?!"
"Paw, please were-!" Primrose tried to apologize.
"She could of gotten hurt, she could of gotten killed!" Paw continued. "She's sick! Anything could have happened to her if she had wandered off!"
"Paw..." Lucy spoke up to try and get Paw's attention.
"But did either of you remember that?! No! Of course you didn't!" Paw continued. "You probably wouldn't even be able to remember if she had started coughing again!"
"Paw..." Lucy tried to get her attention once again.
"I swear the two of you are in so much trouble!" Paw continued. "Once I take care of friend, you can bet that I'm going to-!"
"PAW!" Lucy raised her voice.
Paw's attention was quickly taken off of the two of them by Lucy's voice, her eyes softened as she turned to look at Lucy.
"It wasn't their fault, they were about to help me when I first fell over but I wouldn't let them." Lucy explained to her.
"But they shouldn't have let you get up in the first place." Paw argued.
"They thought that I was sleeping so of course they wouldn't of been paying attention to me," Lucy defended the two. "Besides I'm the one who tried to go on a walk so if you're gonna be mad at anyone then be mad at me just don't punish them, they didn't anything wrong."
Paw was silent for a few moments before sighing.
"I could never be mad at you, friend...," Paw then turned her attention back to Primrose and Lotus. "Both of you can go now..."
"Yes, Master." Lotus mistakingly called her.
Paw opened her mouth to correct Lotus but was unable to as the two of them quickly disappeared after that.
"Ugh..." Paw groaned as she shook her head.
"So how was your walk, Paw?" Lucy asked.
"Oh I didn't really go on a walk." Paw answered.
"Then what did you do?" she rose an eyebrow.
"Well hold on just a second..." Paw held off on telling her.
Paw picked up Lucy and moved over to the telescope tree, she set her down up against it before sitting down herself.
"Comfy?" Paw asked.
"Yeah but what did you do today?" Lucy asked again.
"I went to go get something to fix that nasty cough of your's and I did find it but...," Paw trailed off. "I wound up finding out what was causing that cough."
"Really?" she was surprised. "What's causing it?"
"Ummm... Promise to not freak out?" Paw was reluctant about telling her.
"Why do I need to promise?" she rose an eyebrow.
"Just promise to not freak out, ok?" Paw repeated.
"Paw, what's wrong with me?" she persisted feeling a bit worried.
"I'm not going to tell you until you promise to not freak out, friend." Paw stayed firm.
"Alright, I promise to not freak out," she gave in. "Now what's wrong with me?"
"Well because you're staying in the dream world with me, you're only going to get sicker and sicker until you eventually die." Paw spoke quickly.
Lucy didn't say anything, she didn't even flinch as she stared at Paw.
"...Is that it?" she spoke up after a few moments.
"What do you mean is that it?" Paw asked. "Did you know that you were dying?"
"Yes, I knew." she confirmed with a nod.
"Why didn't you say anything?!" Paw couldn't help but raise her voice.
"I'm sorry but I didn't want you to get all freaked out that I was going to die," she apologized. "Also I was hoping that I had just caught a cold and that it wasn't time for me to go yet."
"Well it isn't going to be time for you to go yet, I got something that will fix you" Paw answered.
"How are you going to fix me if I'm going to die, you can't-,she was cut off by a cough causing Paw to flinch slightly. "You can't cure death, can you?"
"No, I can't cure death but I can prevent it." Paw answered.
Paw pulled the potion out of her robe and showed it to her.
"What's that?" she asked.
"It's a potion that will turn you immortal, you'll be able to stay with me forever and nothing will ever come between us," Paw explained to her. "We can be together and I promise that it will be absolutely great."
Lucy just stared at the potion in the bottle with an unreadable expression on her face.
"All you have to is drink it and everything will be ok." Paw told her.
Paw waited for Lucy to take the potion from her and drink it but she just continued to stare at it.
"...Friend?" Paw rose an eyebrow slightly worried that the blonde may have died already. "Can you hear me? Hello?"
Lucy continued to stare for a few more moments before turning her attention back to the dream dweller in front of her.
"Paw, I can't drink this" she told her.
"Huh? Is it the way it looks?" Paw asked. "Friend, I know that it may look strange but I promise that it's tasty."
"No, it's not that," she shook her head. "I don't want to be immortal."
This sent Paw into a surprised silence at hearing that, she stared at Lucy with a surprised look on her face.
"You... You don't want to be with me forever?" Paw found her voice after a few moments.
"That's not what I said..." she corrected.
"Well that's what it sounds like..." Paw frowned.
"I said that I didn't want to be immortal, not that I didn't want to be with you," she told her. "I would stay if I could Paw but if staying with you means that I have to become immortal then I can't."
"But why not?!" Paw raised her voice. "Why can't you stay with me? What's stopping you from staying with me?!"
"Paw, calm down" she tried to calm her down.
"No, I want to know!" Paw refused to calm down. "What's stopping you?! Why do you want to leave me?!"
"Because if I drink it and become immortal then eventually you'll leave me!" Lucy gave her the reason.
"What are you talking about? No, I won't." Paw claimed with a confused expression.
"Yes, you will... Just because I'm immortal, it doesn't mean that you are so eventually you'll age and get old... You'll pass away someday and even if I decided to wake up then my friends would meet the same fate..." Lucy explained it to her. "I would be all alone and I would wind up just like you if I drank that potion and became an immortal..."
Paw was in a stunned silence with her mouth hanging open slightly and her turquoise eyes were wide in shock as she processed what she had just been told.
"So Paw... Don't make me drink it... I can't drink the potion and become immortal..." Lucy pleaded. "Eventually I'll be the one who's left alone by everyone and I don't want that so please..."
Paw looked at the bottle in her hand before looking back up at the blonde.
"But if you aren't here then..." Paw trailed off not wanting to think about it.
"Everything will be ok... After I'm gone I'm sure that you'll meet someone better than me, you'll make new friends..." she tried to cheer her up.
"I don't want new friends, I only want you..." Paw shook her head. "But... If you really don't want to drink it then..."
She threw the bottle to the side and it broke against the ground causing the liquid to scatter across the grass.
"I'm not going to force you..." she said. "I don't want you to be unhappy and I don't want you to spend the rest of your life alone either..."
"Thank you, Paw." Lucy thanked the dream dweller.
"Don't mention it." Paw seemed sad that she wouldn't be able to keep the blonde with her.
"Now... Let's just enjoy the time that we have together, ok?" she suggested.
"Ok..." Paw agreed.
!~Time Skip~!
Even more time had passed since Paw had broken the bottle that would give Lucy immortality, Paw tried to stay cheerful as she spent what little time she had left with the blonde but it was getting near impossible as Lucy was getting worse and worse everyday.
Now she could barely even keep her eyes open as Paw carried her around piggyback, she used her abilities to make the sky overhead look like a big colorful galaxy with the stars twinkling.
"Look at that, friend," Paw smiled with the blondes head resting on her shoulder. "The sky looks absolutely beautiful, don't you think?"
"Mmhm..." Lucy quietly agreed with a slight nod of her head.
Paw continued walking around the island before coming back to the telescope tree, she walked past it planning to continue showing Lucy around.
"Paw..." Lucy spoke up quietly.
"Huh?" Paw stopped. "What is it, friend?"
"Can we just sit down and relax for a little bit?" she requested.
"Oh... Of course..." Paw nodded.
Paw headed to the telescope tree, she took Lucy off of her back before sitting down against it with Lucy held in her lap.
"Are you cold, friend?" Paw asked.
"A little..." she answered.
Paw took off her black robe and wrapped it around the blondes shoulders before pulling her body into a hug to warm her up.
"Isn't that better?" Paw asked.
Lucy didn't answer.
"Friend?" Paw was worried.
It was a few moments before Lucy finally spoke up.
"Paw... My time is almost up..." she spoke quietly.
"What?" Paw answered.
"Pretty soon it's gonna be time for me to go..." she continued.
Paw's eyes widened when she realized what Lucy was talking about.
"What? Now?" she asked. "N-No! You can't leave now! There's still so much that I want to do with you!"
"I'm sorry, Paw... I'd love to experience whatever you have in mind but it's almost time..." Lucy told her. "I can feel it..."
"Just hang on!" she pleaded. "Everything will be ok! I'm sure that it's just a false alarm! You can stay with me for longer and we can do lots of fun stuff together but you won't be able to do it if you don't hang on!"
Paw's voice quivered as tears came to her eyes.
"So please hang on..." she pleaded closing her eyes. "Just for a little bit longer, I'm not ready to be alone again yet..."
"It'll be ok, Paw... You'll never be truly alone..." Lucy reassured giving a small smile. "Even if I'm not here, Primrose and Lotus are... Besides you can always make new friends..."
"But they're not the same as you..." she cried. "No one could ever replace you, you're my best friend and I love you..."
"I'm sorry, Paw... I can't stick around any longer..." she apologized getting weaker. "Thank you... for... everything..."
Lucy's body rested against Paw's and her turquoise eyes widened, her human form faltering for a moment.
"Friend?" Paw asked.
But there was no response from the blonde.
"Friend?!" Paw asked louder.
Once again, there was no response and it was clear to Paw now that her best friend had passed away.
"LUCY!" Paw used her real name for once. "NO!"
Paw began to shake her.
"PLEASE! I'M NOT READY FOR YOU TO LEAVE YET!" she cried out. "COME BACK, PLEASE! OPEN YOUR EYES! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"
Paw continued shaking her but Lucy wasn't reacting to anything that the dream dweller did and after a while, her body began to grow cold in the dream dwellers arms.
She pulled Lucy close and buried her face into the top of Lucy's head allowing her tears to wet Lucy's hair.
"Please, Lucy... Don't go..."
And that's the Stay ending for this story, I actually planned for this ending to turn out in a couple of different ways originally.
At first I planned for Lucy to reject the potion but give Paw a final request to let her see her friends one last time prompting Paw to bring everyone into the dream world and it would end with Paw watching from afar with a smile on her face as they walked off but I scrapped it because I think Lucy would rather be alone than have her friends die alongside her.
The second, I planned for Lucy to accept the potion and live with Paw in the dream world until Paw eventually grew old and died leaving Lucy in the dream world as either an eternal dreamer or a new dream dweller but I was already too far into the ending to go back and change it when I came up with it so I scrapped it.
And the third, I planned for Lucy to reject the potion and things to carry on like they did in the ending only it continues with Protea appearing to Paw as a spirit and explaining that she can still save Lucy if Paw is willing to let Lucy wake up. Paw does and looks through the telescope tree into the real world to see Lucy waking up which causes her to sadly smile and say "If my love is what's hurting you then I'll set you free" but I didn't feel like that fit her character so I scrapped it.
And those were the alternate stay endings but anyways everyone before you go, there's something that I want you to do.
I have a beta reader named Revlis Charm and she works hard to edit these stories and make them less crappy, she's put up with my laziness and tendency to get easily distracted so I want you all to give her a big round of applause for all her hard work because she deserves it. Go on, I'll wait.
...
Did you clap? ... Ok, good.
Now for the last time for this story if you aren't going to read the Leave ending as well.
Review plz?
