Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
ACT III: Crossroad - Where demons roam
Approximately X793
Chapter 12: Round 3, fight
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
It was a horrible sight that awaited the celestial mage and the blue exceed.
On the ground Wendy and Carla was lying, panting with horrible wounds. Gray was staggering on his feet, trying his best to keep going on, but it was rather evident that he was exhausted. Erza was launching an attack against Natsu, but in a swift movement he dodged her, leaving her panting and trying her best to gather her composure again. But even the armoured mage was doing fairly unwell and was covered in wounds and blood. Sure the demon also had a few cuts and wounds, but it was nothing compared to the others.
The thing that surprised Lucy the most was the new appearance Natsu had taken. Not only physically but his aura seemed so much more lethal and wicked, making a shiver run down her spine.
Lucy couldn't control it, but seeing him like that frightened her. It was like her instincts tried to warn he, that this being was something so evil, that she should flee as quickly as possible and not look back. Her legs was shivering uncontrollably threatening to collapse, but she somewhat managed to keep her rationality and determination.
Her heart was hammering in her chest when she stomped out into the open.
"Stop this" her voice was steady and calm in spite of the feelings that was raging inside of her.
"Lucy..." Gray looked at her with a hint of hope flashing in his eyes.
Erza didn't turn to stare at her, but it was evident that she too was gaining more spirit by her presence.
"Lucy-san..." Wendy whispered, tears glistening in her eyes.
"... what?" Natsu froze in his position and eyed her up and down, his jaw dropping in shock.
Erza quickly jumped over to her, where she stood trying her best to stay firm despite of her condition "Did you find a solution Lucy?"
"You could say that" she answered.
"But... how?" Natsu asked in a bewildered tone and raised an eyebrow "How the freaking fuck are you alive?" he pointed a shaking claw in her direction.
"Does it matter?" Lucy forced herself to smile and to stare into the demon's eyes "I'm here now"
"Ye... yeah..." he sucked in his breath as the black colour in his eyes started to vanish. His pupils were still glistening red though as they kept staring at each other.
"I'll help you" the celestial mage took a shaking step towards the demon.
"Help me? But you..." his eyes glistened with sadness as he continued "... you're scared..."
"Yes..." Lucy confirmed his statement and took another step "... wouldn't you be?"
"Perhaps..." the demon sighed heavily his eyes locked on the approaching girl.
"I'll help you" Lucy said while taking a deep shaking breath, trying to search momentarily for the light within her, but for some reason she couldn't find it, because it was still dormant inside of her, waiting for her to pull it out somehow.
"You'll help me" Natsu snorted defiantly "As if..."
"I will" the celestial mage said trying her best to sound confident.
"Yeah... riiiight..." the demon's eyes shone with disbelief "... as if I'll trust something a mirage or whatever you are says"
"What...?" Lucy blinked in confusion.
"Like the fuck I'll trust an illusion that spawns at a bloody convenient time would say" Natsu growled.
"Lucy be careful!" Gray cautioned her.
"I know" she answered and a second later Natsu launched himself towards her, his hand raised behind him, prepared to strike her.
Still being in her Taurus stardress she hit the ground making a sudden wave of rocks appear, that functioned as a shield from the incoming attack, but it didn't hold for long as the demon collided with it and forced himself through.
Once she saw him emerging Lucy quickly used her whip and snapped it in his direction, where it wrapped around the demon's wrist.
"Ahhh!" shouting from the bottom of her lungs, the celestial mage started turning around in a circle on the spot, swinging the whip with her, thereby making Natsu fly around with a surprised look on his face. Eventually she snapped her wrist downwards, making her victim follow the movement before crashing with the ground.
"Nice one" Gray chuckled from beside her.
"Thanks!" she smiled brightly.
"What do you need us to do?" Erza asked but kept her eyes fixed on their opponent.
"I need to summon something" Lucy said rather cryptically.
"Alright" the armored woman nodded, before she raced towards Natsu who was running in their direction.
"Do your best" Gray nodded and followed Erza.
"Heck no I'm done playing with you guys!" Natsu growled as he smashed his shoulder into Erza, knocking the air out of her lungs. The scarlet haired woman was still against his body as he kept running until he crashed into the incoming ice mage, making both his victims smash into each other. Instantly after that the demon spun around on his heels and delivered a firm kick to Erza, making the two people fly across the field, from the force behind the kick.
"Erza! Gray!" Lucy shouted but she didn't get time to be worried, because the enemy was coming at her and fast.
"Stardress Sagittarius form" she pushed the key towards her chest and quickly found another key "Open gate of the Lion, Loki"
A second later said person had spawned and after quickly taking in his surroundings, understood that they were in a rather serious situation.
"Someone really had a makeover since I saw him the last time" Loki smirked before diving into the fight, fists clenched and fully ablaze.
"Yeah.." Lucy had a sad smile playing on her lips, as she started firing arrows in the former Dragon Slayers direction, whenever she was sure that she couldn't accidentally hit Loki.
Honestly she hated this down to her bones... the feeling didn't lessen when the other two mages joined the fight again. Wendy and Carla was staggering back on their feet too, obviously wanting to join as well.
Friends fighting each other...
Feelings being twisted and turned...
Love turning into hatred...
Her eyes widened in realisation, making her freeze before shooting another arrow.
What was she doing? Fighting him wasn't the answer and she knew that. All she had to do was see through his demonic features and see him for what he truly was.
He was her friend... her best friend in the whole world...
A warm but pleasant feeling spawned in her stomach as she recalled the memories they had shared together. As the images appeared in her mind, the feeling in her stomach started to pulsate inside of her, almost as if it was a living thing.
Then she understood... if she choose to see her former friend as an enemy then Lumen Historie could easily be turned into a dark weapon. Especially if it amplified the emotions she was feeling and erased the opposing feelings. Fortunately for her, recalling the memories they had shared together, shattered everything that was just remotely negative, even the fear she still felt rummaging inside of her.
Taking a deep breath Lucy didn't realise that her stardress and bow was suddenly starting to evaporate, as a faint glow spawned cross her skin, leaving her standing in her regular clothes
It was there, she could feel it. The warm and loving feeling so innocent and pure.
Once she found the hidden magic it immediately started streaming through her veins, all around her body like a warm liquid.
In all honesty it felt really amazing.
As it washed through her body Lucy suddenly felt really confident and secure. That wasn't all, because for some weird reason she also felt slightly light-headed and giddy. It was almost like she had the power to embrace everything no matter how horrible it might be.
With that Lucy started walking towards the fight and as she did they all stopped, transfixed by the approaching and glowing girl.
"What...?" Natsu asked in a bewildered tone when he saw the light that was surrounding the girl.
"It's okay" she smiled warmly at him and for some reason her allies knew that they had to move away from whatever was going to happen between the two of them.
"No..." the demon shook his head "... what are you doing?"
"I'm stopping this meaningless fight" Lucy answered and looked at the demon, with eyes that was suddenly glowing in a warm orange colour. All of her body started to glow and radiate more brightly, bathing everything in a soothing heat.
"No..." Natsu's body was shaking as he stood frozen in his position from fear.
"Lumen Historie, Fairy Heart" she whispered making the light surrounding her more vivid and wild.
Lucy started walking towards the demon and as she did, she left beautiful glistening footprints behind her, that started dissolving into tiny sparkles in the air.
"No... no, no, no, no, no!" the terror was evident in the demon's tone, but he still didn't move. It looked like he really wanted to though, but the sight of her somehow paralysed him.
Like an animal who was suddenly caught in the light...
She didn't say anything but smiled warmly, at the demon who was staring back at her with huge frightened eyes. His body was starting to shiver more visibly and a few streaks of sweat was pouring down his forehead.
"No..." he gulped loudly "... don't come closer"
Lucy still didn't say anything, instead she widened her smile.
She honestly felt amazing! The power of the spell was filling her with so many warm and compassionate feelings.
The one magic... love...
Still feeling light-headed and giddy, Lucy continued walking until she was close enough to place her hands on his shoulders.
"... no..." his voice was barely audible "... get the... the fuck away..."
A bright laughter escaped her lips, making the demon flinch as if the sound was somehow painful for him to hear.
"I'm sorry..." Lucy tilted her head slightly to the side "... but it ends here" and with that she gently pressed her lips against his, ignoring how the demon somehow managed to get some movement back into his body and moved his arms around her torso like he was about to give her an awkward hug. His arms was shaking violently but after some effort he managed to press his long claw like hands into her back, puncturing her skin.
Lucy almost didn't feel it for some reason. Sure it wasn't like she was completely numb but it was like a small prickle on her back, but nothing more. That was why she didn't flinch when Natsu in a quick movement, used the last of his strength to pull his arms downwards, leaving a huge and deep trail of scratch marks on her back, that started bleeding profoundly.
"Lucy!" Gray, Happy, Erza and Carla shouted at the same time.
She didn't register their call. The light was slowly consuming her senses, leaving a radiating warm feeling in her head. Lucy could feel some of it slowly vanishing though, because it was being transferred to the other person and as it did Natsu started to glow in a warm soothing light, that seemed to somehow evaporate the scales on his body. Even his horns and claws started to crumble into tiny pieces and started to vanish into the light.
After a few minutes there was nothing left of the demon. Only light and the two of them standing in the middle of it, still with their lips pressed firmly against each other.
Lucy slowly leaned her head backwards and smiled a toothy grin "Hey there, long time no see?"
"I..." he blinked looking thoroughly confused "... where am I?"
"You're back!" she laughed "Neat ain't it?"
"Uhm... yeah, I guess but back from where and..." he blinked a few times "... wait... did you just... kiss me?"
"Uh-huh! With my super sparkling mouth! Yup-yup!"
"Ohh kay? Uhm... why are you glowing like that?"
"Because that's how it is! Super perfecto neat and co-co-co-cool! That's who I am! Bada-bing, bada-boom"
"Huh?" he gave her a bewildered look "Did you hit your head or something?"
"Nope!" she shook her head and laughed again "I'm perfectly dandy and..."
Her eyes widened, as the light seemed to pulsate in a weird and really unpleasant way inside of her.
It was like it was trying to consume her all of a sudden.
"What's wrong?" Natsu asked in concern.
She didn't answer.
Her body was suddenly paralysed as the light seemed to dig into each cell and fibre of her being, burning through her system like a wildfire.
Blood suddenly started streaming out of her nose, but she didn't feel it. No, she didn't even register that tears was flowing down her cheeks.
Lucy didn't even see the horror in Natsu's eyes as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
He was shouting at her.
Calling her name.
But why couldn't she hear him?
It was like everything was in a weird static and muffled tone.
Pain... pain like she had never felt before started ravaging in her head, like it was being stabbed multiple times with tiny blades, that tried slicing everything into pieces.
"... my head..." she managed to say as blood, started dripping out of her ears.
Please someone stop this... it hurts... my head...
She heard Mavis gentle voice saying something and the next there was a flash of light blinding her momentarily, as reality was swept away.
A/N: If you've seen Doctor Who then you might notice a resemblance to that series in this chapter :)
I don't know if Lucy can mix her dress and keys like that but I don't see why not, since she can summon her stardress without summoning the spirit – and honestly that be soooo hardcore and cool, because then she can function as DPS while the spirit is a tank and vice versa :)
And talk about leaving you on a cliffhanger huh? Mmm and where is Zeref I wonder… Bwahahah! See ya soon kittens *hugzz*
