The Fallout
Should this fanfic insult anyone's religions, please do not read it if it does. This is based off of characters, not religion. Please try to take no offence to this.
Tainted
"Do you understand?" a strong (and scary) voice asked.
"Yes Erza," Natsu mumbled.
As he and Mystogan stepped into the portal, Gajeel saw them and immediately told Erza. She then swiftly kicked him in the stomach then punched the top of his head. She then asked another passing demon to take Mystogan to King Zeref. After, she scolded Natsu for going away from his post solely because he was bored.
Natsu grumbled as Erza accompanied him back to the prison. "Anyways Natsu, don't sleep heavily tonight, who knows when someone's going to come, oh and Mira gave me this to bring to you," Erza held out a tub of ash chicken (Hell's version of chicken). Natsu immediately started to drool.
"But, you shouldn't eat it all tonight, so I will take most of it," Erza stated. She reached her hand in and gave Natsu two ash chicken breasts and walked away with the rest.
Natsu solemnly went to work on the food he was given, sitting in his damp boring prison. Alone. On the cold floor.
"Lu-chan!" Levy shouted after her friend who was standing in front of the portal to the mortal realm.
"Levy-chan, Gray, Jellal! What are you guys doing here?" Lucy asked, turning away from the portal to face her friends.
"We're here to wish you luck, Lucy," Jellal smiled and Gray nodded.
"Yeah, you got everything you need?" Gray asked cooly.
"Yes, I have the scroll and the food that I need. As you can see, I'm wearing a cloak as well," Lucy gestured to the grey cloak that covered everything. Her wings were folded into it and she cast a charm to ensure that the light from her halo didn't shine through.
The only thing that was visible was her face, and when she kept her head down, you could barely see her eyes.
"Anyways, I'd like to give you this," Jellal nudged Gray who took out a beautiful sword.
The swords scabbard was a beautiful gold. Leaves and fruits were carved into it and a diamond was engraved into the middle of the hilt.
"What!? There's no way I could take that! Besides, I have my own weapon. To use such a beautiful sword like that down there, it's not good. How can I even-"
"I know," Jellal cut off the rambling angel, "But this really helped me, despite my power. Trust me, you'll want to keep it," Jellal insisted and thrusted the sword her way.
"Lu-chan, take one of my Light Pens," Levy held out a pen, "Drawing the symbol with other things can be difficult, so please take it!"
Lucy hesitantly grabbed the pen. Her friends were giving her such amazing things! How was she supposed to take them to such a terrible place?
"Food goes bad easily, so take this," Gray mumbled. He placed his hands together and cried, "Ice Make: Infinity Box!"
With a flash of blue, a small box made of ice appeared. "Store your food in here, okay?"
Lucy quickly drew the space pocket symbol with Levy's Light Pen and placed the sword in while sheepishly asking Levy to help her retrieve all of the food.
The angel watched as Levy flawlessly drew out every piece of food from her space pocket.
Once every bit of food that Lisanna had given her was out, she placed them into the Infinity Box, a box that could store an infinite amount of things. With the benefit of Gray's ice magic, it kept everything cold.
"Thank you guys so much! I don't know what I'd do without you guys. I'll make all of you proud and become a Gold Angel!" Lucy proclaimed and with that, she stepped into the portal and disappeared in a flash of light.
Lucy found a portal to Hell while staying incognito. Luckily, all the demons were out hunting, and Lucy prayed that no others would come out of it.
She mustered up her courage and stepped into the portal.
It really hurt to be in there. She was a creature of the light, of course it would hurt to step into such an unholy place. The portal particles (small lumps of magic that was concentrated on one area. They were scattered throughout the portal) seemed to bite at her skin, and anytime she moved it felt like she was burning.
But, like every other portal, the watery substance that suspended you would slowly carry you to your destination. It worked with both angelic and demonic portals. But in here, it felt like forever had passed before she reached Hell.
Lucy stumbled out of the portal. Hell was truly terrifying.
Lakes of lava were everywhere, the smell of smoke and darkness reeked. Demons and other unholy creatures were just walking around the dangerous terrain.
Lucy looked to her left and saw the back of a demon. He was big, and muscles could be seen. Unruly long black hair fell down the demons back.
Gajeel.
So the demons knew that she was going to come. There would be no other explanation as to why Gajeel was just standing around the entrance of a portal.
Lucy scrambled to a near bush and watched Gajeel turn around. He sniffed the air and scowled. "It smells disgusting," he walked towards Lucy and sniffed again.
Lucy had forgotten that Gajeel used magic similar to Natsu's. Dragon slaying magic. Though, their elements were different. Natsu used fire while Gajeel used iron. Their magic was complex and wild. They had techniques and they didn't always have to activate their dragon slaying magic to use their power. Lucy had fought one hundred battles with Natsu and she still didn't understand his power.
Dragon slaying magic normally enhanced almost all of your senses. Dragon slayers were like dogs. They could pick up scents and trace them.
"Gajeel here," Gajeel held up a communication Lacrima.
"What is it?" Erza asked, her voice sharp.
"I think we have a bunny on the loose," Gajeel smirked as he continued to walk towards the bush that Lucy was hiding under.
"Hmm?" a sweet voice asked from the lacrima. "A bunny? Gajeel, you know that we don't have bunnies here. Besides, you can't really-"
"He means Lucy," Laxus interjected. "Gajeel calls her a bunny for some reason, maybe he has a crush on her," Laxus snorted.
"Fuck no! Shrimp just-"
"Shrimp? Who's that? Another part of your harem?" Mira asked.
"What!? no-"
"Shrimp is Levy, he definitely likes her," Erza nodded her head from wherever she was, though no one could see it, "I've seen him go easy when fighting her,"
"I do not-"
"Ooh! So he does like her! What about Lucy though? I'm curious about her, does he like her as well?" Mira giggled.
"I'm not too sure...Gajeel are you two-timing two innocent young girls?" Erza asked with a frightening tone.
"Why would I-"
"Gajeel! How dare you! Breaking the hearts of two young maidens! If you're going to do that, at least make it more interesting!" Mira cackled, her demonic side coming out.
"What the fuck are you-"
"Nah, he ain't two-timing anyone. They're part of his harem," Laxus said nonchalantly.
"Harem!? What the-"
"Oh I see. But Gajeel, you can't have a good harem with only two girls, you need a third one, who is it? Juvia?" Mira suggested.
"The fuck!? There's no way-"
"No, it's not Juvia. He doesn't have an animal name for her," Erza stated.
"I don't have a damn hare-"
"Who else does he call by an animal name then?" Mira wondered aloud.
Laxus smirked, "Nat-"
"I DON'T HAVE A DAMN HAREM WOULD YOU GUYS JUST-"
"SHUT UP!" an extremely annoyed voice spoke up.
"I," Natsu seethed, "Had finally fallen asleep on the cold ground that I am forced to sleep on when Gajeel starts fucking yelling in my god damn ear!" Natsu grumbled, "If you guys are gonna talk then talk about something useful, not that something useful could come out of Gajeel's mouth anyways..."
"You wanna repeat that? Punk?" Gajeel snarled from his end of the Lacrima.
"I said that-"
"Boys," a terrifying voice spoke up.
"Yes, Erza?" Natsu and Gajeel both said in unison.
"Don't fight. Now then, Gajeel, don't waste the magic of our Lacrima's and tell us what you wanted to say," Erza instructed.
"But you were-ah fuck it," Gajeel scowled, "I was saying, there's a bunny on the loose."
"Bunny?" Natsu asked.
"He means Lucy, she's here somewhere," Mira replied.
"Where is she Gajeel?" Erza asked.
"She's right..." Gajeel exclaimed as he stepped over the bush to see...nothing.
"Well...?" Laxus asked impatiently.
"I don't know, Bunny Girl got away, damnit you guys!" Gajeel screamed into the Lacrima.
"Huh, Lucy," Natsu said, still processing what Mira had told him, not catching up with their current conversation, "Why do ya call her a bunny? You like her or something?"
Lucy had thankfully gotten away safely, thanks to the idiotic conversation that had taken place. Though, a handful of demons unfortunately knew she was here.
Lucy had quickly scampered away from Gajeel and crossed a bridge that lay over a lava river. She then went into a small town called Acalypha where the merchants of the demon world were.
Stalls with countless different (and strange) items were set up. Some of them were things like magazines, or Lacrima's while others were things that Lucy had never heard of.
One of the items was called a Netherling Charm. It seemed to be a talisman that granted different effects to the person who bought it. Whether it worked or not, that was something that Lucy would have to find out on her own. Another little gadget was called *Celatum Lens. Lucy wasn't to sure what it did, but it seemed to be popular with younger demons.
Clothes and accessories were also on sale. The clothes looked normal, though, there was one booth that installed their clothes with Lacrima's giving the clothing little perks like having no scent, or letting the clothes change colour.
The accessories were wild and strange. The earrings seemed to be feathers that were plucked off of animals that lived in Hell. The necklaces were no better. They were made with teeth, claws and bits of silver. Rings had strange symbols on them that told your fore coming doom and the hair pieces were emitting odd auras. Everything was really creepy.
Around the centre of the town was a map. The bulk of it was a map of the town, but you could see the outskirts of it as well.
Some places were other towns or some random caverns or lakes. There was a small arrow that pointed east, past a lake and off the map. It had a crown symbol near it. Lucy could only assume the palace was in that direction.
Lucy decided to follow where the arrow was pointed. A palace was big, surely she'd be able to see it if she walk that way.
"Pop?" a child came up to Lucy. She looked down, it was a small boy with violet hair and tear-stained eyes.
His lips trembled, "Never mind, my pop isn't back," he started to cry, "Pop never comes back. Mom or pop! They just leave me alone...!" the poor boy cried.
"H-hey! Don't cry, I'm sure your father is around here somewhere. And you're not alone," Lucy kneeled down to match the boys height. She sympathized with the boy, even though he was a demon.
"But I am...I am alone," he sobbed. "Nobody cares, nobody is there...I'm all alone..."
"You have me," Lucy smiled, "I'm here, I care about you, tell you what? Take this," Lucy pulled off a piece of fabric from the sleeve of her cloak. "Don't let anyone smell this, but when you're lonely, you can hold that. It means that a piece of me is always with you. So you're never alone," Lucy handed the fabric to the boy.
"Th-thank you miss! My n-name's Romeo. I-I really appreciate th-this," Romeo said between sobs.
"No problem, maybe I'll see you again," Lucy stood up, but she felt a tugging at her hand.
"What's your name?" Romeo asked.
Lucy cupped her hand next to Romeo's ear, "Lucy."
Lucy was starting to tire. She quickly hid herself underneath a bush she deemed non-venomous and fell right to sleep.
Five hours later, Lucy woke up from her uncomfortable position on the ground. Rubbing her eyes, Lucy got up and started to walk towards a massive tower that she could only assume, was a part of the palace.
Sneaking up to the gates, Lucy saw a bulky blond man standing guard at the door that was the entrance to the castle. His arms were crossed and he looked extremely bored.
At that moment, he looked over in her direction, Lucy darted to the side, but the man walked towards her.
"Who's there?" he asked. Lucy sighed, she was automatically suspicious for darting away from his gaze, and the cloak didn't exactly help.
"I would like a presence with your king," Lucy stepped up, "but I could 't open the gate," she tried to explain.
"And why do you want to talk to him?" the guard questioned.
"I have an important message for him, and have been sent to deliver it," Lucy tried to keep her voice low. She never looked him in the eye either.
"Oh really?" he said in a disbelieving tone. "What if you're here to kill him? Or sabotage him?"
"Why would I do that to him?" Lucy half giggled, trying to blow off what he said. She held up the scroll she was given, "This is the message. I promise that nothing strange has been placed on it,"
"Let me see that," he grunted and snatched the scroll from Lucy's hands
"Hey!" Lucy reached put for the scroll but he held it high enough so she couldn't reach it unless she released her wings.
"There's nothing on here..." the man drawled. He noticed the surprised look on the strange woman's face so he showed her the scroll. "Why is that?" he asked the girl, partially annoyed.
"It is for your king only. He has what he needs to see what is written on the page," Lucy managed to fumble out. She honestly didn't know what was in the scroll herself. She didn't dare to look, it was against her code to look at something that wasn't hers.
"Gonna be honest here girlie, I don't trust you," he said simply, crossing his arms.
"Please sir! Just an audience with him! You can gather as many guards as you wish to ensure I don't kill him. Please just let me deliver this!" Lucy pleaded.
Laxus, taken aback by the girl's persistency, pressed his lips together and nodded, "Very well, I shall lead you into the chambers."
Laxus opened the gates, then the grand doors. As Lucy walked in, faces of stone gargoyles greeted her while chandeliers made of solid lava decorated the ceiling, creating a dim light in the hall. Laxus pushed open a grand door and there at the end of the room was the King of Hell, Zeref.
"Master, someone has come to deliver something," Laxus said and pulled Lucy towards the throne.
"King," Lucy bowed to Zeref, biting her tongue. She knew this was an act, but she couldn't believe she was bowing to this scum who called himself a king.
"Rise," Zeref commanded, "What brings you here?" he asked, his eyes looked at her as if he was staring straight into her soul. It made Lucy shiver.
"I have come to deliver this," Lucy took out the scroll she was given. She handed it to Zeref, even though their hands didn't touch, the king's fingers seemed to send cold spikes through her body just from them both touching the same object.
Zeref hummed as he opened the scroll and quickly read it over (somehow, as there seemed to be nothing on it) before smirking.
"Good job, child of Makarov," he chuckled, the guards around them gasped and inspected the cloaked figure for any sign of purity. "Looks like you've done a good job to get here," Zeref grinned maniacally, "I wish you the best of luck getting out."
And with that Zeref pointed two fingers at her and a beam of darkness shot out, grazing Lucy's ear and tearing through the fabric of her cloak, vaporizing it, leaving Lucy in her full angelic glory.
"Seize her!" a guard screamed and the lot of them charged at her.
Lucy quickly flew up and out of an open window, leaving a time charm on the palace walls.
The time charm that Lucy placed on the palace blocked all demons from leaving the walls of the palace for five minutes.
A time charm, like an illusion spell, was another simple spell that angels would learn. It set a barrier somewhere for a certain time.
Lucy huffed as she barely made it out of the gardens. She flew into a small shed as countless demons chased her. She quickly used a (terrifyingly) sharp sickle to create a hole and she jumped through leaving an illusion spell to make it seem like there was no hole there.
Staying quiet, Lucy waited until the guards disappear. She found that she was in a dark stoned hallway. She considered herself lucky for not having to sneak around the palace.
The nerve of that king! How dare he reveal who I was! I shouldn't have trusted that he would leave me be, he is, after all, the king of these vile creatures! Lucy thought to herself.
Lucy walked through the hall, until she found a door. It seemed to be made of solid iron and it had a huge lock, about the size of her hand, on it.
To the left, a keychain with multiple keys of different shapes and sizes sat. Lucy grabbed it, trying to figure out which key was the correct one for the lock.
Lucy first assumed that the key would be bigger because of the size of the lock, but most of the bigger keys didn't even fit in the key hole. Differentiating the shapes of the keys to try and match with the lock would be difficult. Every key was extremely detailed, making hard to tell where each bump and and edge would fit.
A small gleam on the floor caught her eye. A key, barely the size of her pinky sat on the ground. Lucy grabbed the key and stuck it into the lock, surprisingly, it fit!
Lucy pushed iron door open. It was heavy and creaked often.
Lucy hesitantly walked into another hallway. This hallway was much wider than the previous one, it had small torches lining the walls, and between the torches were bars of iron. Each set of bars had a door made of iron and had a lock. Behind the bars and doors were dark rooms, each had an uncomfortable looking bed, a hole and shackles.
Lucy had heard of places like these, they were called prisons. Heaven didn't have prisons, the angels didn't believe in punishment like this. But Lucy had heard of these through reading stories in the library with Levy. This was where people, or in this case demons, would repent for their sins.
Lucy couldn't make out many figures in the darkness, there were a few demons that kept their heads down, while others looked at her with curious or hateful eyes. She started to worry, what if they called for someone? What if they tried to hurt her?
All demons had magic, regardless of whether they were gifted or not. Zeref believed in using Lacrimas to empower demons. It was apparently a horrible process that hurt very badly. She had caught glimpses of scars that demons had, showing where their Lacrima was implanted. They always looked horrible.
"I wouldn't worry about that. These shackles block and absorb magic, if they didn't all of us could've broken out one way or another," a coarse voice replied to the thoughts in Lucy's head.
"Where?" Lucy spun on her heel, placing a hand on her whip.
"Over here, to your left," the voice replied.
Lucy saw a figure emerge from the cell, he was young it looked like he was in his early twenties, though that didn't surprise Lucy. Demons that were conceived would stop aging at a certain age, and demons that were accepted were typically in the age of twelve to thirty five. Angels however, wouldn't age, it was why older angels didn't exist. Older souls wouldn't become angels either. If they were gifted, and even if they were immortal, it would be a strain on their body and they would become baggage. It was the same as demons, they wouldn't take in older souls.
The only known elderly angel was their king, Makarov, who was ridiculously powerful and ruled over the angels with said power.
The man had dark red-almost brown-hair and tanned skin. His hands and feet were attached to long chains. He wore a smirk as well as a simple black shirt with red pants that had black straps and a long white coat. His had a scar over his right eye, but the other seemed violet, though in the darkness, Lucy couldn't tell.
"How did you know-"
"What you were thinking?" the man finished. Lucy nodded and looked away. "I can hear your thoughts," the man replied.
"My thoughts? But I thought that you can't use magic?" Lucy questioned.
"But that isn't magic. It is my gift, I can head your movements, your thoughts," he tried to explain.
"What's your name? Why are you here?" Lucy asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"I am Cobra," he took a breath, "and I'm here because I got too close to a mortal girl."
Lucy gasped. Demons looked down on humans, thinking they were dirt, despite the fact that most demons where previously humans. And Lucy would be lying if she said that angels thought differently.
"How...?" Lucy asked. Though, she didn't mean it like she wanted to know, it just came out of her mouth.
"It's not a very short story, and it looks like you're in a rush," Cobra waved her off.
"No! I'd like to hear about it," Lucy smiled. She didn't know why, but it intrigued her, love intrigued her. In all the stories she read, love trumped all, it was a beautiful thing. But here was this man, punished because of love.
"Well, I once had a snake," he started. It startled Lucy, what had a snake have to do with this? "I'll have you know that my snake has everything to do with this!" Cobra snapped, "Well, I didn't really have a lot of friends, so one day I found a purple snake that was hurt. It was a breed that lived in Hell, a Wing Snake. They're poisonous snakes that could fly."
"I took the snake in and found that it's wing was broken. I named her Cubellios. Once she was healed, she refused to leave, and we were friends Also, it's not sad that my first friend was a snake! I've been trying to ignore your rude thoughts, but they're really annoying!" Cobra spat.
"Sorry! I just-"
"Whatever, anyways, one day Cubellios got into a fight with a salamander. As you know salamanders breathe fire, the fire was strong. While Cubellios was strong, the salamander was stronger, and she died," Cobra mumbled the last part.
"I found her lying just west from a small town called Acalypha, her burn marks were visible and the demons said that they had quite a few salamanders wandering the area.
"Anyways, one day I was soul hunting when I saw a young girl, who's green eyes matched Cubellios' and her hair matched the scales. I watched her and followed her, and I'm not a stalker!" Cobra sighed. Lucy gulped as she had forgotten that he could read her thoughts.
"She was sick, mentally. She would hear voices and she would have spastic attacks where she would go crazy and start hissing, sometimes, she'd develop purple rashes on her back and face. I pitied her, and she reminded me so much of Cubellios, so I decided to make myself visible and to visit her," Cobra half grinned at that. Lucy grimaced, it was taboo to make yourself visible, but this was love. Though, Lucy knew that cliché love couldn't work, not in this world. Cobra would stay in prison forever as punishment.
"She was surprised, but happy when I first approached her," Cobra seemed to be not talking to Lucy anymore, but reminiscing, "I hid my wings, tail and horns. She was glad that I was there because she couldn't go out of the house often. I visited her as much as I could, she told me that she was positive that the voice in her head was mine and that I seemed to call to her. But, I told her that people couldn't know about me, I said that I was practically a delusion," Cobra smiled fondly.
"She stamped her foot and said that I was real, and that even if I was some alien, she'd still be around me because I was her friend, and I understood her. I think it was then that I," Cobra started, unable to get is thoughts in order, "that I-"
"That you started to see her as a girl, and less of Cubellios, because as much as she was a reincarnation of Cubellios, they were still slightly different characters," Lucy finished for Cobra.
He nodded, "Yes, she was far more beautiful, and cute, and interesting as a human, I told her what I was, but she kept true to her word and stuck with me."
Cobra's face fell, "But demons started to notice that I was going away a lot and disappearing for far too long at a time. A demon was sent to spy on me, he caught me talking to her, I was sentenced to an eternity in prison. They wiped the girl of her memories of me, but I can still hear it. I can hear her, I know she still remembers me, maybe even a little bit," Cobra sighed. Lucy couldn't help but pity him, she didn't care that he could hear her thoughts, the love and bond that the demon and mortal had was pure, it was beautiful.
"Then maybe I should chop off your ears," a voice growled from the shadows.
Lucy turned to see a familiar figure stalk up to them.
"Cobra, don't try and pity your way out of that cell," Natsu warned, but his voice was directed towards Lucy, "I thought I smelt something disgusting."
"Natsu, I won't hurt you if you won't hurt me," Lucy tried to reason with the demon. She had a chance to escape, but meeting him practically destroyed it.
"Don't think I'll let you off the hook, not after you won the 100th battle!" Natsu growled, shooting a beam of fire towards Lucy, who dodged it so that it just grazed her shoulder.
Lucy, wanting the battle to finish quickly, drew out her whip and caught Natsu's ankle. She swung him around in circles watching his face slowly turn green. This was his weakness, his motion sickness.
Lucy flicked her wrist and untangled Natsu who lay there in a daze, still recovering from his little spin. She nodded to Cobra and swiftly flew away.
She heard a light thump come from behind her, before she knew it Lucy felt her back heat up, then her world went black.
Lucy's wrists hurt.
Her vision was blurred, she couldn't feel what was making it hurt, but it was cold and it really burned her.
"Awake already?" Lucy could hear the smirk on Natsu's face. "I though you would'a been out for way longer,"
"What are you going to do to me?" Lucy asked, trying to sound unafraid, but her eyes obviously showed that she was. She attempted to move her legs, but the same burning sensation that was on her wrists stung her ankles and prevented her from moving.
Natsu smirked and came up to her, holding her wrists that seemed to be bound by shackles. The shackles suspended her in air, but another set were attached to her ankles, allowing her to barely touch the ground with her toes. He lowered his head so his nose brushed her ear.
"I'm going to taint you," he whispered into Lucy's ear, sending strange shivers through her body. These shivers were different from the ones she got when she met Zeref. This one sent blood rushing to her cheeks and made her head spin.
"N-no! You can't taint me!" Lucy tried to declare, though it sounded more like a whimper.
"And why is that?" Natsu asked, his eyes stared at her as he leaned his body over her.
"B-because, I have to enjoy it for you to taint me, and I'll never enjoy anything like this from you!" Lucy proclaimed.
"Is that so?" Natsu asked cockily, putting a finger under her chin and raised her head up.
"Y-yes..." Lucy mumbled out lamely.
"Don't worry," Natsu whispered huskily, "I'm sure you'll enjoy it very much."
Lucy was about to say something when her mouth was silenced by warmth. Natsu's lips moved gently against hers, his other hand snaking around her waist, pulling her close.
Lucy tried to keep pure thoughts in her mind as Natsu deepened the kiss, his every move sending sparks and flares throughout her body.
He pulled away and smirked at the flushing angel.
"Did you enjoy it?" Natsu asked, licking his lips.
"No! It was the worst thing to ever happen to me!" Lucy shook her head.
"Then we'll have to try again later, won't we? I've got to go make my report, you stay here like a good girl," Natsu teased, both parties aware of the fact that Lucy couldn't move thanks to her shackles that surrounded her wrists and ankles.
"I wouldn't recommend trying anything, those shackles are designed to block magic, as you know," Natsu opened the door to her cell and walked out haughtily, leaving the door open to tease her.
Unbeknownst to both Natsu and Lucy, a small feather directly on her back, underneath the many others, slowly turned grey.
Lucy had been tainted
*Celatum=Latin for honest or truth, may or may not have been stolen from LoZ
And I don't know if I've mentioned it but...
demons have horns, tails and wings that grow out of you in a couple of weeks
Ack! I've never written a kiss scene in case you can't tell! But I hope it was good! Long chapter, hope you enjoy 'em