"Alright so..," Lucy stood in the center of the large group of people. Natsu had picked her up and placed her on a table, calling for everyone's attention. The young man remained relatively close to his friend, giving others quick glances but not being able to completely keep eye contact.
Lucy reached over to her friend who stood on the seat of the bench of the table, placing her hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. His black eyes followed her hand up to her face, making eye contact with her.
"Can I tell them?" she whispered just enough for him to hear. A simple nod was all he gave, sighing as he looked at the ground next to him with a scowl. Clasping her hands together , Lucy gazed at everyone.
" According to Natsu and Happy, there have been a few.., problems they ran into while trying to defeat Zeref," The celestial mage paused, eyeing the crowd around her, " Zeref has the book of E.N.D and it's connected to Natsu," the air around them tensed. It was heavy and thick and Natsu felt uncomfortable in the situation.
"Are you saying Natsu is..," Lisanna spoke up from the back of the crowd where she stood with Elfman and Mirajane.
"Yes. Natsu seem's to be E.N.D," Erza climbed onto the table next to Lucy, "And if anyone has a problem with that, you'll have to go through me," her expression was cold and stern. Erza would not budge to anyone who would harm her team mate.
As Erza stared the crowd down, whispers were shared between members. Gray stepped up next to Natsu, showing that he was on the dragon slayer's side.
Levy raised her hand from the middle of the crowd, a large grin on her face.
"That's okay! Natsu is a Fairy Tail wizard, we're not going to kick him out for something like that!"
Members of the guild nodded and voiced their agreeing opinions. Natsu snapped his gaze from the floor to the group around him.
"This gives me a better reason to fight Salamander! I can see how strong he really is if he's E.N.D!" Gajeel's voice echoed in everyone's mind. Thanks to Warren's magic, everyone was able to stay in contact through these moments.
Natsu grinned cheerfully, he was a lucky guy to have a family to be as accepting as this. Lucy placed her hand on his shoulder again, her smile warm and reassuring.
"You need to trust me more, Natsu..,"
The pink haired man returned the smile, muttering a 'thank you' to his friend. Grabbing Lucy's wrist, Natsu pulled her down into him. The weight of her caused him to jump down from the bench but he didn't mind, all he wanted in this time was to hold her close and appreciate that she was in his life.
"How are we going to defeat Zeref now?" someone called once the chatter had died down.
"Lucy had an idea to put Zeref in the dead like state that first master is in," Erza replied for the blond mage.
Natsu climbed back up onto the bench, pulling Lucy up with him. She gave him a quick squeeze hug before turning back to the group of mages.
"All we would need is to have someone with the same curse to well.., touch him.., or..," as Lucy thought more of the idea, she began to see several flaws.
"I'm the only one with the curse as far as we know..," Mavis strode through the crowd to the team on the table, "And my body is encased in a crystal with no way of bringing me 'back to life'"
The hope that was brought back quickly disappeared again. It was true, they didn't have a way to bring Mavis' physical body back.
"What about the crystal?" Natsu asked, peering over Lucy's shoulder to the small master.
"Hades put me in there to prolong the life of my physical body and study it," Mavis answered the question.
"But what if we put a.., well.., a living or awake person in there..," Lucy suggested, knowing it would probably fall short.
" I have no idea what it would due but it most likely wouldn't work..," Makarov joined the conversation, "A crystal like that would take too much power to create and keep Zeref sealed,"
Lucy frowned, trying to think of another way to defeat Zeref but not completely kill him.
"We could ask him to change his mind..," she mumbled. Natsu picked up what she said and chuckled quietly.
"That won't work, obviously, Luce,"
"It was worth a shot thinking of it,"
"What do we do then?" a voice called from the crowd of guild members. Voices sprung up with ideas and objections. Each plan that came up had a major flaw.
"I have to go back," Natsu murmured, "I have to try and kill him..,"
staring at the mass of arguing people, Natsu sunk into the depths of the crowd, eventually vanishing out of the guild without notice. Lucy struggled in attempt to make the room quiet.
"SILENCE" Makarov's voice boomed the guild hall, echoing around. Mages froze in respective fear of the master.
"We can not possibly form a plan if we're arguing," Makarov jumped up onto the table with the three who stood on it. Lucy shuffled down from the table, no longer wanting the spotlight of the conversation. Gray followed suit of Lucy, deciding it was best to listen instead of lead.
"If Natsu is E.N.D, that means he is the only one who can successfully end Zeref. But that would mean an end to him as well," the current master tugged at his mustache, "There may not be any other way to go about this..,"
"There has to be!" Lucy was quick to defend Natsu. Even if he was the only one, there were consequences that she would not be able to live with. Happy flew close to Makarov, feeling hostile at the mention that the only choice was for Natsu to end his own life by defeating Zeref.
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"We're fairy tail, Natsu is fairy tail, we can come up with a way to defeat Zeref and his army!" Tears brimmed the blue cats eyes. Makarov gave the exceed a warning glare. Momentary, Happy stayed where he was before flying away to find Natsu for comfort.
Being unsuccessful in the attempt, Happy went to Lucy. He urgently whispered to her, telling her he couldn't find their mutual pal.
"Natsu is missing!" Lucy spoke loudly, glancing about her area with panic, "Natsu where are you!" she called, shoving people to the side. She knew him well, and if any of these plans didn't work, he'd do something on his own again. A cold, dark feeling arose in Lucy. A feeling of misfortune and horror. She knew where he had gone.