There's just one chapter after this. Enjoyed the ride?
Disclaimer: I don't own FT.
"Where- Where am I?" Lucy wondered aloud, sitting up groggily. She gasped as she saw Erza being blasted into a pillar.
"Erza!" She called, climbing to her feet and trying to get close to the mage. Some sort of force was holding her back, and she found she could not get any closer. Any noise had been cancelled out, and Lucy was watching the battle in silence. She saw Erza stir, trying to get up, all her spirit seemingly drained. A gaunt man mumbled something before Erza gripped her head, screaming in what looked like total agony.
"I told her how to counter those illusions," a man chimed next to Lucy, voice causing her to jump, "but it seems like she can't remember any happy times right now. Another one of those illusions will drive her insane."
"Erza!" Lucy shouted again, wanting nothing more than to help. The man shook his head.
"She can't hear you. We're in a different place right now," he explained, folding his arms as he watched the fight.
"Who are you? Where are we?!" Lucy demanded.
"I'm the man you've been studyin' so much. Judoc Lysander. We're dead, and we're in purgatory, I guess you could call it," he explained, Lucy's eyes widening in shock.
"I'm dead!? I can't be dead!" She shrieked, "How am I here? Why are you here?"
"Jeez, you ask as many questions as Erza," Judoc whined, closing his eyes, "we're here because we have some unresolved things to sort out. I'm here because I'm takin' his scrawny ass to heaven. He looks a lot less healthy than last time. Must be because he was summoned early."
"H-heaven?"
"Look behind us, kid." Judoc said, Lucy noticing a glowing arch. It emanated warmth.
"This is heaven?" She asked, feeling compelled to walk to the gate.
"Don't go near it, or you won't be goin' back," Judoc warned, "it might feel nice now, but you have a lot to live for."
Lucy looked to the battlefield, Erza's nightmare seemingly stopping as she struggled to her feet, not yet ready to give up.
"But if I'm dead then I don't have a choice," Lucy stated. Judoc smiled.
"You still have a choice. Your friends are tryin' their best with your body right now. You can choose to go back," he revealed.
"How do I go back?" Lucy questioned quickly, wanting to be with her friends as soon as she could.
"You can't go yet," The smith said, "you have unresolved business here. Once you've solved it, destiny will follow your heart, and send you to the right place."
Lucy didn't reply. Moros had hit Erza with a powerful beam of magic, the girl being sent flying across the Hall of Echoes to smash into the far wall.
"She's barely alive. She's going to lose," Judoc said, any sign of emotion hidden from his face, "the illusions have taken her fightin' spirit. The next shot will kill her. I can't help her 'till she starts believing."
Lucy saw Moros power up his final attack in his hands, stepping back to allow the ball of black magic to grow. Looking at Erza's limp and lifeless body, tears welled in her eyes.
"Erza! Wake up!" she shouted, wishing the requip mage would move, wishing she could take away all the pain and stop everything.
"She can't hear you," Judoc repeated, "you're gonna have to shout louder than that to make her believe. You've saved her once already, I'm sure you can do it again."
Lucy ignored him, calling out her name again as loud as she could.
"That's better, but you really need some emotion to rip through this dimension into that one," Judoc stated, smiling as he drew his sword, the weapon shining brilliantly.
Moros' attack was fully charged at this point, lifting the energy in front of him. He released it, sending it across the huge space of the room towards Erza. Lucy allowed the tears to fall down her cheeks as emotion swelled in her chest, and she screamed with all her might.
"ERZA!"
Erza could do nothing but wait for the attack to come and annihilate every trace of her. She had failed, and the world would fall without her blood to protect it. Just as she was about to resign to her fate, she heard it. As powerful as a dragon's roar, Lucy's voice reverberated through the Hall of Echoes, carrying her name. Chills ran down her spine.
'Of course,' She thought, watching the black ball come closer and closer, 'I made a promise! I have no right to give up. You never did, Lucy.'
Legs shaking and unsteady, she found the inner strength to stand on her feet, letting out a cry of rage as she picked up the forgotten shield and slammed it against the attack. The relics glowed a bright white. She felt energy refresh her bones, and knew in an instant that her ancestor was with her.
"What is this?" Moros muttered, shoulders slumped. He attempted to enter Erza's mind once more to weaken her further, but only found strong memories of a guild, full of smiling, welcoming people. He hissed in pain, burnt by the image of happiness.
"Your generals have killed so many people... I hope my friends are bestowing on them the punishment they deserve. As for you, I will grant you the noble death you require. Come, for this time I will not be so easy to defeat!" Erza declared, wounds forgotten as she ran at him with her shield raised, the attacks he threw at it hitting the surface harmlessly.
Moros looked at her, feeling a tightness he had only experienced once before wrap around whatever heart he had. Summoning an attack in his right hand, he prepared to meet her, seeing the determined anger burn behind her eyes. He could see the outline of a large, bearded man behind her, his own sword held high above his head.
'You truly are of Lysander's blood after all.'
Raising her sword, she cut through his dark magic, slicing his hand clean off. With no mercy, she followed up with a stab to the thigh, forcing him to kneel before her. The third strike was the fatal blow that punctured his chest, tip of the sword breaking through his suit. The force of it lifted his body from the ground as Erza stood firmly, roaring in both victory and anguish.
She watched as Moros' body dissolved into a shadowy spirit, gasping as her armour too began to disintegrate. The pieces glowed yellow as they fused into another spirit, engulfing the dark one. As the final piece, the cuirass, disintegrated, she smiled fondly at Judoc, who she knew was watching, before both spirits disappeared completely, leaving her standing in the Hall of Echoes alone.
Thanatos laughed as he saw the two dragon slayers crushed against the ground, defeated.
"It's time to end your lives, and build a new world!" He shouted, preparing an attack. Natsu laughed before coughing up blood. Gajeel grinned as he managed to kneel, looking at the demon with amusement in his eyes.
"Really? It looks like your life is the one that's ending." He stated, pointing to Thanatos' leg, which was quickly turning to ash.
"Master Moros... defeated?" Thanatos asked in disbelief, looking at his leg incredulously. "Defeated by that girl?"
"That's our Erza," Natsu said, struggling to his feet, "you killed Lucy. She ain't gonna forgive anyone for that. Neither are we."
Using the last of their energy, the dragon slayers mustered up a final roar, which totally obliterated Thanatos' body, the man not even given the time to scream. Around them, the incessant attacking of minions also stopped, their life turned to dust in an instant.
When Erza reappeared in front of her guild friends she fell to the floor, curling into a ball as sobs shook her frame. She looked especially frail and vulnerable without her armour equipped. Natsu and Gray slowly made their way to her, trudging through injuries and aching muscles.
"Erza... you saved everyone," Gray said, hand on her back.
"No," Erza countered, trying to stop the flow of tears, "I didn't save Lucy. She deserved to be here. Without her, we wouldn't have known anything. We wouldn't have won. I... I never told her how I feel for her."
"That's more reason to try be happy then," Natsu spoke, allowing the mage to cry on his shoulder, "you have to smile for Lucy. She wouldn't have wanted you to cry."
"Let's go home," Gray suggested, the rest of the Fairy Tail members agreeing and beginning the journey back. Erza supported Natsu as they walked, realising that she needed to be strong for the sake of her friends. After that, when she was alone, she could finally show her weakness.
"Lucy-san..." Wendy whispered, tired from the amount of magic she had used trying to revive Lucy.
"Wendy, your powers only heal people, they can't bring people back to life!" Carla warned, trying to get the dragon slayer to stop for her own safety. Wendy clenched her fist as she looked at the still body on the bed.
"She's not dead!" she asserted, "I can sense it, she's still there!"
Lucy watched the scene as she stood alone, having watched Judoc march into battle alongside his final descendant a while earlier. She was immensely proud of Erza and Fairy Tail, glad that the ordeal was finally over. She looked at Wendy with affection, glad that the girl had not given up. She would need her healing magic once she returned to her body, the stomach wound looking particularly nasty. She knew destiny had chosen for her to come back to the land of the living, and she had no qualms with this, definitely not ready to die. She walked to her body, feeling herself being pulled towards it until both her spirit and body were one once more.
"L-Look!" Wendy pointed as the blonde began to stir. She suddenly moaned in pain, clutching at the wound on her stomach. Carla looked on in disbelief. The girl shook her head to clear her thoughts and began to heal the stomach wound to the best of her ability, only leaving a circular scar where the spear had pierced through the body. Lucy felt the pain subside.
"Thank you so much, Wendy. You're amazing." Lucy uttered, pulling the girl into a big hug, Wendy smiled happily as she returned it.
"It might ache for a while, Lucy-san, I'm too tired to heal it all." Wendy said apologetically.
"You did a great job." Lucy dismissed, feeling only minor discomfort where the scar was.
"Everyone thinks you're dead," Carla told, "Erza fell to pieces when she saw you get hit, I saw it in a premonition. They should be on their way back right now."
Lucy quickly shot up from the bed, ignoring the twinge in her stomach, thanking the sky dragon slayer once more before running from the room. Bursting out of the main doors of the Fairy Tail building she could see a crowd of limping people hobbling closer. Erza led the exhausted pack, Natsu leaning heavily on her. Their eyes met for the first time and Lucy felt her heart jolt.
"L-Lucy? Alive?" Erza whispered, truly believing this was some sort of hallucination.
"Lucy!" Natsu shouted, the addition of Wendy appearing behind the blonde and waving joyfully shattering Erza's doubt.
She let go of Natsu (despite his heated protests as he fell to the floor), sprinting through her aches and pains to Lucy, who ran to meet her. They collided halfway as they held each other tightly, relief and emotion showing through their tears. Not caring who saw them, Lucy did what she vowed to do and grabbed Erza's face, pressing their lips together, the feeling indescribable.
Between kisses, she promised to never leave the Requip mage ever again.