A/N: Sorry for the long delay on this. Things are very strange right now, and I'm stuck in this weird limbo feeling. This is the beginning of the 2016 entries. For the people who read the original versions, don't forget that this story is now more linear, so there will be mixes of 2015 and 2016 from this point forward, instead of jumping randomly like I did for the original prompts.


2016 - Eternity

Without a Cage


Lucy's eyes opened to find a bright blue sky filling her vision. It took a moment to realize she was lying on her back, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Instead, her head turned slightly, just enough to see rolling fields that stretched far into the horizon. It was oddly nostalgic. She couldn't put her finger on why she felt like she'd been there before, and the last thing she remembered was…

Cobra's lips on hers. His pleas for her to stay with him. Killing Rogue after she was freed from the golden cage.

There was no pain any longer. She felt rejuvenated, healthy, ready to take on the world. Except, as she slowly sat up and looked down at herself, she found that the weight she'd lost from malnutrition had been restored. Lucy was surprised to see that she wasn't wearing the sheer pink robe he'd forced her to wear. Instead, her clothing was normal. A black miniskirt and pale pink tube top. Her favorite pair of brown boots. Her hands lifted to her head, and she felt the soft strands of blonde hair had been pulled into low pigtails.

She was drawn back to the memory of kissing Cobra again and again, but there was still a smile on her lips. The memory was sad, she knew that, and she wished more than anything that she could be with him right then. But Lucy could feel it. She'd felt his love for her in that kiss. For just a single moment, she'd felt pure love from another person. How could it be a sad memory when he'd given her such a beautiful gift?

A gust of wind brushed by, her hands lowered slowly, and she smiled down at the sight of her pink Fairy Tail guild mark. The only things missing were her keys and whip. But she knew Yukino was taking care of her spirits now. They were safe.

Sounds in the distance drew her attention, and Lucy stood up and started making her way over the vibrant emerald grass. In the distance stood a small cluster of trees, providing shade to a group of people that she could hardly see. There was no point in hesitating though. She made her way over, hoping to find someone to talk to so she wouldn't have to be alone here.

She knew where she was, but that didn't make it any less scary to her. The thought that she would be in the afterlife by herself was unnerving. It seemed, though, that this place was just where she needed to be. The people she came upon were ones familiar to her.

She knew that bright blue hair set over stern brown eyes. She knew the head of pink hair hanging in ringlets past those feminine shoulders. There was no way she could ever forget the white and black hair that reached his thin hips.

Lucy's eyes widened and a bright peal of laughter crashed through the otherwise silent air and the quiet murmurs of the group. Her legs couldn't carry her fast enough as she bounded toward them, and it didn't matter to her in the slightest as she bowled over the nearest person. "Sorano!"

"L-Lucy?!" Her eyes nearly bulged from her skull while Lucy laid on top of her. "What are you doing here?"

She drew back, her smile still in place. "Well, I'm dead," she giggled. She had no idea how long she'd been there, if there was a huge time difference between the afterlife and Earthland. Maybe it had already been years in Earthland, and something had happened to the mages, something that had killed them. "And I can only assume we're in-"

"No, I get that… Jellal and us… We're… Why are you here, though?" Sorano forced herself to take a deep breath as tears blurred her vision. "You're a good person…"

"So are you," Lucy frowned.

Macbeth took a step forward, hesitant to get too close to the women on the ground. "Maybe this is our punishment," he sighed, looking down at them. "We didn't save her. We didn't even know Cobra loved her, but…"

"All those times he'd disappear," Sawyer said hesitantly.

"We should have seen it," Richard sighed.

Jellal nodded slowly, turning to look out across the rolling fields. "Yes, this must be our way to atone."

"Wait," Lucy said, her brows furrowing while looking at the group around her. "What are you even thinking right now?"

"We're in hell," Sorano said. "We deserve it. After everything we've done? This is it…"

A gentle smile lifted Lucy's lips, and she shook her head while helping Sorano sit up. She pressed their foreheads together. "You're not in hell," she said. "It doesn't matter what you did in the past, okay? You spent years in Crime Sorciere doing so much more good in the world than anyone would have imagined you were capable of."

The group of mages slowly turned to stare down at Lucy, and Meredy's eyes watered while she moved to kneel beside them. "You… You really think so?"

With a watery laugh, Lucy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I know so, Meredy. You guys… You've all done wonderful things, and you've more than made up for the mistakes you made."

The other mages stood breathlessly for a moment before Macbeth finally dropped to his knees and pulled the suddenly stunned blonde into his arms.

"Macbeth?" Jellal frowned. "What are you-"

"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her golden hair. "For everything we did. A-And I'm sorry we couldn't stop him."

Lucy sighed and embraced him just as tightly. "No one could have known Rogue had me, Macbeth," she said. "It's-"

"No," he insisted. "I mean, yes. I'm sorry for that, but… I-It's Cobra."

She stilled then as he looked into her eyes, taking in his appearance for the first time and seeing that he wasn't wearing any makeup, that his lips were a barely visible pink instead of deep black, and his crimson eyes held a tenderness she'd never noticed. "Cobra?" she whispered. Her eyes cut away from his to see everyone wearing matching somber expressions. She scanned the group, her happiness falling when she didn't see the Poison Dragon Slayer with them. "Where is he?"

As one, everyone knelt on the ground, surrounding her. No one knew what they could say, but it was Macbeth who found his voice first. "After you died," the once-Reflector mage sighed. "Cobra lost it. He… He killed us."

"What? No! He wouldn't…" There was no way Cobra could have done that. Lucy knew the kind of man he was, deep down. There might have been a lot they didn't know about one another, and she knew that he wasn't always considered one of the good guys. But one thing she'd learned about him rather quickly - just from the few times they'd seen each other in passing through the years - was that he was loyal to the ones who were closest to him. He never would have teamed up with the Oracion Seis a second time if he didn't think they were worth being around. "You're his friends!"

"He did," Sorano said. "He blamed us for you dying, I guess. He didn't really say much."

"I remember him crying though," Meredy added, looking down at where her hands were fisted in her lap. "He was crying so much. I-I've never seen him do that."

"No one has," Sawyer said. "Cobra doesn't cry."

"H-He…" Lucy felt tears welling in her eyes while she looked from one person to the next. "But… I knew what was going to happen. I didn't want to leave him, but…"

Macbeth pulled her tighter against his chest as the first tears trickled down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Lucy…"

"I… I have to see him…"

"What?" Jellal asked, turning sharply to stare at her. "I don't think you can, Lucy. We don't know how anything here works, if we're cut off from everyone or…"

A gentle step sounded just behind the tree they were sitting under, and Lucy slowly raised her head to see who else had joined them. Her breath died in her throat and a wide smile danced across her lips. "M-Mama?"

"Come with me, dear," Layla smiled. "There's something you need to see…"


Vibrant red water swirled around the drain while Cobra rinsed the blood from his tanned hands. His claws scraped roughly over his flesh in frantic, desperate swipes. He had to get the blood off. "What did I do?" he rasped. "What's wrong with me?"

He looked in the mirror, gasping and quickly swiping away the blood that surrounded his mouth and reached up to his cheeks and pointed ears. What in the fuck had he done? Why couldn't he remember anything?

Why the hell was some of the blood dried and crusted beneath his claws with more fresh blood coated over it? This wasn't right. It couldn't be right. He wasn't like this anymore. This wasn't him. It just… It couldn't be.

He looked back down at his hands, at the leathery scales reaching from his fingertips to his elbows, and shuddered in disgust while shutting off the faucet. He could taste the blood though. It was everywhere. Some old, some new, and so coppery. So familiar.

Bile quickly rose in the back of his throat and his eye slammed shut while the contents of his stomach went flying into the sink. Once it started, he couldn't stop himself. And when his teary eye finally opened, all he could see was more blood and chewed up bits of meat that he couldn't remember eating.

He was losing it though. That had to be it. But it wasn't like he really knew what to do with himself anymore. Every day for the past week, all he could think about was feeling Lucy's trembling lips and the fire in their only kiss. Thinking about her made his chest ache. It made it so hard to get out of bed in the morning. Or the evening, sometimes. He hadn't been able to really move those first few days.

He'd been moving lately though. His gaze lifted to the mirror once more, honing in on the emptiness reflected back at him. The dark circle under his eye from going too long without real sleep. The hollow indigo eye staring back at him.

He hated all of it. Was this the man she fell in love with? This pathetic husk of shit? He wasn't strong enough to keep her alive. He wasn't smart enough to know she needed him in the first place. His magic failed him when he didn't hear what was going to happen to her. He should have fucking known! If he'd known, he would have helped her. He would have told her to stop pushing so fucking hard, and he would have used his own fucking pain to supplement hers.

He could have done it all differently.

If he hadn't been such a sappy fucking bastard, if he'd only kept his cool, he could have saved her. He could have latched onto her soul with his own and dragged it back to the surface. They could have gotten her to a hospital. He would have spent the rest of their lives showing her that there was still good in the world, loving her every single fucking day.

He could have been happy. They could have been happy. And when she woke up from a nightmare, screaming and crying and begging for the phantoms in her mind to leave her alone, he would have been there to hold her and kiss away her fears.

With a growl, his bloody fist sailed toward the mirror and shattered it in a single hit. He didn't care about the way his skin split across his knuckles. That didn't matter.

He didn't want to see himself anymore. Because no matter how many times he questioned what was wrong with him, he knew the truth. "I'm Cobra," he snarled at his reflection. "This is all I'm good for…"

He nearly ripped his clothes while pulling them off and setting them to soak in the sink, then stepped into the shower. The soap was lathered and washed the grime from his body. It didn't matter how rough he was or how dirty he'd gotten in the past few days. He needed to wash it all away. His hair and face and under his nails. He scrubbed and scrubbed until his skin was raw, and then he kept scrubbing until the water had his teeth chattering.

Once finished, Cobra made his way into the next room with his maroon hair dripping down onto his shoulders and a towel around his hips. The apartment wasn't that large, but it was more than he needed. The far wall was plastered with pictures of everyone from Fairy Tail, little multi-colored strings leading from one piece of information to the next. Old newspaper clippings were covered by newer pictures with holes from moved pushpins covering the map of Fiore. There were even a few mages in other kingdoms, from what he gathered.

"You never gave up, did you?" he whispered, letting his fingers lightly trail over Magnolia. Right in the center of the town was a picture of her guild from X791. It had been so long since then. She'd spent years tracking everyone's movements, keeping them close to her heart the only way she could.

He was sure they'd already collected her body from Rogue's torture palace. He was sure the funeral was a beautiful thing. He hadn't been able to hear what was being said from his hiding place in the bell tower of Kardia Cathedral that day, but when he'd looked down at Fairy Tail and saw the large gathering of mages wearing black, he knew it was everything she deserved to have in her remembrance.

"I won't hurt them, Lucy. Your family is safe from me…"

They were probably hunting him down already. He didn't care though. No one with that guild mark would be hurt by him. They were her family, the ones she loved even though she kept her distance.

Slowly, Cobra turned away from the map with its multi-colored strings and made his way to the bed. His clothes were still soaking in the bathroom, so all he could do was remove the towel from his hips and crawl beneath the blanket, then bury his nose in the pillow that still held her scent.

"Why did you have to leave me?" He breathed in as deeply as possible, pulling the pillow down to his chest. "Lucy…"


Lucy sniffled quietly, smiling as her tears fell down and caused small ripples in the pool she was watching. "Cobra," she whispered. "Don't you know I'm here with you? You don't have to do this…"

The fact that he was living in her old apartment in Crocus made her heart melt. The lives he was taking, she knew was his only way of coping. He didn't have his friends to help him any longer. Cobra had murdered them in his blind rage right after she'd died, and now he was truly alone. The Poison Dragon Slayer had cut ties with everyone, and there was nothing for him to live for. Lucy had learned from Macbeth and the others just how proud he was though, and that he would never be able to kill himself. He just couldn't.

"Lucy," Macbeth sighed. "You're still watching him?"

"I'll always watch him," she laughed, swiping away her tears. "I still love him."

"I know," he chuckled. Slowly, he moved to sit next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "It's just that we hate seeing you cry, and seeing him like this…"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I can't help but cry when I see what he's doing, but… I get it, in a way."

"You… do?"

She nodded quickly, letting her eyes slide closed while resting her head on his shoulder. "From what you guys have told me about him, Cobra doesn't have very much going for him as far as people he loves. And every time someone has loved him, or he's loved them, they're taken away. His parents, Cubellios, then me. And you guys, too…"

"We weren't that important to him," Macbeth chuckled.

"I think you were," she said. "And you still are. I watch him sleeping, too. Did you know Cobra talks in his sleep?"

Macbeth shook his head with a smirk. "Cobra never slept around any of us. He was always awake if someone else was."

"Well, he does," she sighed. "Sometimes he's having nightmares about that day. Sometimes he's crying. But… He's always whispering someone's name. You, Sorano, Jellal, Meredy… Or me."

"Still, I think you should spend less time watching him. Your parents invited us over to the waterfall for dinner. Maybe-"

"Mama and Papa will understand," Lucy smiled. "She watched over Papa until he died. It's why she showed this place to me."

"You Heartfilia women are ridiculous sometimes," he laughed. "But, I guess it's a good thing that someone loves him as much as you do."

"I'd say so." She sat forward after he kissed her hair and walked off, touching her fingers to the water and watching as it rippled before revealing Cobra again. "I'll watch over you, Cobra," she whispered to the Poison Slayer, watching as he sent out a wild roar filled with poison and eroded the skin from a group of women and children in a homeless shelter. "You're hurting so much now… I wish I was still there for you…"


"I've loved you for so long... L-Lucy, please don't die..."

"I wish you'd told me sooner…"

"M-My keys… Give them to... Yukino. She'll take good care of them."

"Th-Thank you, Cobra. I'm… I-I'm free…"

One last breath escaped her lips as Lucy's memory faded along with her soul, and Cobra pulled it into himself, wanting just one small part of the beautiful woman he'd lost to be with him forever. She stilled and her hands fell to the ground, her keys dropping and clanging in the otherwise silent room.

Cobra's eye snapped open and he collapsed to the floor after vaulting from the bed to run from his nightmare. The only problem was that he woke up in another one. Real life, living without the blonde while surrounding himself with her in every way he could, was his nightmare.

But he couldn't find the tears to cry over her anymore. Cobra missed Lucy more every day, and he knew it was driving him insane. He was desperate to fill the void she'd left in his soul, and the only thing that could sate his ever-present need was the blood he cleaned from himself every night.

"Snap the fuck out of it," he sneered, glaring down at the moonlit scars on his wrists from his time in the Tower. "She's gone… She can't come back, and even if she could…"

He shuddered as a sudden warm breeze fluttered through the window he hadn't known was open. Odd. Cobra made sure they were always closed. He'd nailed the fuckers shut to make it so he wouldn't be tempted to open them. It was easier that way. If the drapes were always drawn and the windows always shut, there was no chance the people searching for him would be able to see him.

He knew that he was thinking about Lucy more lately simply because he'd seen Yukino. The keys that were never more and a foot away from him had warmed while he'd faced off against the Celestial mage. It was the only time someone had found him that he'd let them get away. He wasn't going to kill Yukino; for Lucy's sake, the Celestial mage got a pass. It seemed her keys knew the promise that had been made, that Lucy's dying wish was for them to have Sorano's little sister as their master.

He just couldn't let them go yet. The pouch bearing the Fairy Tail emblem still held the faint traces of her scent. It was mostly gone from her apartment after him living there for nearly three months, but every once in a while he would catch it. Almost as though Lucy was there with him.

Without thinking, Cobra crawled back into Lucy's bed, wrapping himself in the pink comforter while pulling her keys out from under the pillow. He brought the pouch to his nose and pulled in a deep breath, frowning as he tried to picture her smile again. Her voice.

The way she had sounded in her soul the day he'd lost her.

"Lucy," he sighed. "I wish you were here… I can't stop." He didn't want to stop. He didn't really want anything anymore. Without Lucy, Cobra was empty. Not even Kinana could help him. She didn't remember being Cubellios anyway, and he'd forced himself to keep her at a distance over the years so that she could have the life she really deserved. Cobra was toxic. His presence brought nothing but pain and destruction to the ones around him. Kinana deserved better than that. She didn't deserve to have people questioning her loyalty if he tried to go to her for help. He didn't want her fucking help anyway.

It wasn't like she knew who he was.

"Would you really still want to be with me?" he whispered against the key pouch. "With everything I've done… All this pain… It sounds so beautiful."

His eye slid open when another breeze brushed across his cheek and the keys in his hand warmed slightly.

"I know," he yawned. "You want to go to Yukino. You'll get to be with her someday. I just…"

"We understand, Cobra," Capricorn whispered.

"You can't let Lucy go," Aries said.

"We miss her, too," came Virgo's solemn voice.

"If we were with Yukino, maybe we could come out to help you though," said Leo.

"You wouldn't be so alone anymore…" said Cancer.

He shook his head, sighing heavily as the odd echoes of her spirits' voices vibrated through the warm keys. He didn't know why they were still able to connect with him, but it only happened when he was having an especially strange night.

"Lucy, wherever you are… Don't wait around for me. Go be happy. I don't deserve your love anyway."

His eye widened when a third breeze had the window above the bed slamming shut. The glass shattered inward and then froze in the air around him. An odd glow appeared behind him, in the center of the bedroom, and Cobra turned to look over his shoulder at the strange golden humanoid shape.

The scent of lilies in the rain filled his lungs, and the brilliant glow shined more brightly while moving toward him.

"Don't say that," it sighed.

"Y-You're…" This wasn't fucking right. It couldn't be what he was thinking. "Why do you sound like her?"

A limb reached out and paused just before brushing over his cheek, then pulled back. "When your time comes… Ask for her."

He couldn't breathe, even though he wanted to. "Wh-Why do you sound like Lucy?!"

"She wants to save you."

That was bullshit. Lucy didn't want anything anymore. She was dead. She was far the hell away from him, happy and peaceful in heaven. It was the only thing that made sense, as far as he was concerned. She didn't deserve to burn in hell like he did. She didn't deserve the pain she'd been put through before she'd died. Lucy deserved to have endless days of sunshine and happiness.

He'd never believed a place like heaven existed until she died. Maybe it was his way of consoling himself. If she was gone, she couldn't have simply disappeared into the ether. She had to have gone somewhere. Anywhere.

"Ask for her when your time comes…"

"B-But…" Why couldn't he breathe? He wanted to pull in great lungfuls of the scent in the air. It was Lucy. It had to be her. "Lucy, please… Don't leave me again." It had to be her. This had to be his Lucy. The voice, the scent. The way this golden form had tried to touch him and how much he ached to feel it caressing his cheek. Anything. "P-Please…"

"She made a promise to herself that she would save you."

"What…" Cobra sat up as the strange being started to dim. He reached out, leaning over the edge of the bed and dropping her keys to the floor. "Wait! Don't go!"

He barely caught the sound of his name before it was gone.

When Cobra blinked again, the sun was trying to peek through the closed curtains. The window was still intact. He was lying on the bed with Lucy's keys in his hand, tucked to his chest, just like they were every night. He thought back to the night before, to Lucy's scent and voice echoing in the room from the golden shape that had appeared.

'Just a dream,' he thought. 'Nothing more…'

He slowly sat up, looking down at the Fairy Tail emblem on the little leather pouch, then felt the familiar ripple of rage sweeping over him. In the next moment, he was blind to everything around him, solely focused on the too-quiet suffering souls in the city.

They weren't screaming loud enough. No one was suffering the way he was. They didn't have to remember her like this. They didn't wake up with a new hole ripped through their chests. No one knew his pain, and he wanted them to. It hurt so much that he couldn't feel his claws digging into his palms and drawing blood. Numbness swept through him, or maybe he just thought that's what it was. Maybe it was just the pain, so intense and blinding that he couldn't be bothered to feel anything else.

But these bastards milling around the capital would feel his pain. They would know his fury for only a few moments before they died.

"How fucking lucky," he snarled.

Cobra pulled himself from the bed, Lucy's keys still held tightly in his hand, and went to the living room. Right to the map of Fiore. His eye trailed across the map, past the cities that were marked out with large red crosses - he'd already slaughtered everyone in those places, and there was no reason to return.

East. West. North. South.

There.

A slow, manic smile curled his lips while gazing at the name on the map. Quattro Cerberus. A guild full of piddly shit men who would have no idea of the terror he was about to rain down on them. Fairy Tail was no longer a guild, and while he'd promised her that her family would be safe from him… that didn't mean her old guild's allies were.

He turned and made his way to the bathroom while bringing the key pouch to his nose again. Cobra hadn't a clue if any old Fairies were in that guild now - it had been more than five years since they'd disbanded - but he'd keep an eye out. They got a pass. New guild or not, they were safe from him.

He ignored his reflection in the still-broken bathroom mirror and made his way to the shower. Only when he was about to step under the spray, did he finally set down her keys. Just a few hours, and he could make them all scream. He could hear their souls wail in agony, just like his did the day she left him behind.

He couldn't fucking wait.