A/N: Listen to Anime Music Station's Top Fairy Tail Sad OST Rain Mixed Emotional Music as you read this. It's what I listened to as I wrote it and I could not stop crying. It was perfect as long as you can get it lined up right. I'll let y'all decide how it should be lined up, just don't read while there is a pause in the music, okay?
All rights to Hiro Mashima.
"I'M SMILING! CAN'T YOU SEE? I'M SMILING! SMILING! SMILING, SMILING, SMILING, smiling," she screamed, but her voice was slowly fading away from the hours and hours she had spent yelling at the gravestone in front of her.
"I'm okay," the girl continued, "stop it, stop it, I'm smiling. They won't go away. Please just make it stop. I'M SMILING! WHY?! YOU PROMISED! YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T LET ME CRY ANYMORE! YOU TAUGHT ME THAT A SMILE WILL ALWAYS STOP THE TEARS, SO WHY AREN'T MY TEARS STOPPING?! YOU PROMISED ME!"
She collapsed to the ground, her golden hair streaming a moment after her. The girl tilted her head towards the sky. Dark clouds covered the sun and rain began to fall. As the rain fell, so too did the smile from her face, and tears from her eyes. The girl's mouth opened and a scream emerged from deep with her body. It resonated with the cracking of her soul and the shattering of her heart.
As the girl screamed a golden glow appeared around her body and burst out into the area around her. One by one the spirits she called family appeared, each with tears pouring down their faces and a knowing look in their eyes. They knew what was happening.
The girl's magic wrapped around everything in the city and nurtured it. But as life and peace came with her magic, so too did the never-ending sadness in her soul and the shattering of her heart. The residents of the city could not help but smile and cry at the same time.
Her magic and heart-breaking screams filled the city for what seemed like hours, until she finally collapsed, spent. Her friends rushed forwards, only to be pushed back by an invisible shield. It was then that they realized that the girl's spirits still surrounded her, and so too did a bubble of her magic.
Slowly, oh so slowly, the girl made her way back to her feet, struggling to stand. She staggered and almost fell a few times, but she did not accept the helping hands her spirits offered her and they retreated to a respectful distance. Finally she was on her feet. There was, incredibly, a genuine smile on her face as she looked at the grave of her partner. Tears still streamed down her face and her heart was still broken, but know she knew what she had to do.
She spread her arms wide and tilted her arms back, breathing in deeply. With every inhalation, more and more magic was pulled to her. She sought out the well of magic that had been fought over. That had resulted in so many casualties. She grabbed that well and pulled it into herself. The girl was surrounded by a light so blinding that even her spirits had to avert their eyes.
Once a strong connection had been forged, she began to sing. It was soft and under her breath, but rose in volume with every word. Her song echoed through the city and the magic that was swirling around her spread around the city and then around the country, bringing the rain with it.
All over the world people gasped in awe as golden rain fell and their fallen comrades and loved ones rose, confused, for they had died. Everyone looked to the sky and thanked the person whose voice they could hear echoing like an angel's in the clouds and in every raindrop. The people who recognized the voice also realized what had happened, for the lyrics conveyed it very clearly if you knew what to listen for.
As the last notes of the song died away, so too did the rain and the glow of magic surrounding the girl. She collapsed to the ground, only to have a spirit with blue hair and a mermaid's tail catch her and slowly lower her to the ground, keeping the girl cradled in her arms. The girl's friends watched in horror as one by one the spirits spoke with the girl and then disappeared crying, but obviously attempting to smile for the girl.
One spirit, a man in a suit with orange cat ears clung to her hand sobbing.
"IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS!" he cried, "I WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU, FOREVER!"
"I'm sorry, Loke, no Leo," the girl replied, shakily reaching out to stroke the man's ears, "you can only protect me for so long. It was fated to end like this when we learned that Natsu would die when Zeref died. We still destroyed Zeref because Natsu insisted he wouldn't die. We chose to believe him and I chose to end Zeref with the One Magic, despite knowing that Natsu would most likely die too."
"I DON'T CARE!" Leo yelled, "I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU! THE WORLD CAN'T LOSE YOU YET! IT STILL NEEDS YOU!"
"Stay then, Leo," the girl sighed tiredly, "I cannot force you to go back, my magic is almost gone."
"I will stay," Leo vowed in a quiet voice, "I will stand by your side even after death. I will never leave you."
"My loyal lion," the girl smiled at him. Leo bowed respectfully and stepped to the side so that the girl could talk to the spirit holding her. The only one left besides Leo.
"We had a good run, didn't we Aquarius," she asked, looking up at the mermaid spirit who cradled her like a child.
"Sure did Lulu," the woman replied, desperately trying to stop her tears. She knew now that she loved this girl more than anything in the world. More than Layla.
"Why're you crying?" the girl asked reaching up to brush away the tears of the woman, "it doesn't suit you."
"I'm sorry," Aquarius said in response, hugging the girl close, "I'm sorry I didn't, couldn't, do more for you."
"No," the girl shook her head, hugging the spirit back, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize how much you hated me until the end."
"Silly girl," Aquarius choked, "I don't hate you. I love you."
"I figured as much," she smiled, looking out at the grave of her partner again, "almost as much as you loved Mama, nee?" Aquarius could only nod.
The barrier surrounding the girl and the two of her spirits finally dropped and her friends immediately rushed forwards screaming her name in horror. They slid to a stop in front of her on their knees.
"Hey minna," the girl looked at the smiling, "everyone okay?"
"Everyone but you," a red haired girl answered mechanically, tears streaming from both her eyes.
"Good, I succeeded then," the girl looked up at the sky and the stars that were just starting to peek out.
"Please, don't go," a dark-haired boy pleaded, reaching out for her hand and grabbing it. The others crowded around him and all laid a hand over his on hers.
"I can't stay here any more," the girl looked at them, "I'm so tired. I've done as much as I could." She glanced at them and chuckled a little, "please don't look at me like that," she told them, "I love you all, but I can't stay here any longer."
Leo came running over from where he stood and skidded to a stop next to her head. "No, no, no, no, no," he said in a frantic voice, more tears pouring down his face, "stop, you aren't allowed to leave yet."
"Gomen, minna," the girl looked around the group of people surrounding her and the ones standing farther off, a horrified look on their faces, tears streaming freely. It was a quiet moment before she spoke again.
"I...love….you….all….live….," she said in a faint voice that could barely be heard, a smile gracing her lips. As her last breath was expelled from her lungs, so too was her magic. It floated to the sky in the shape of millions of tiny stars.
"Wait," the scarlet haired girl cried, "wait, I didn't say goodbye! Come back! COME BACK!"
Everyone stared in horror at the limp golden-haired girl in the arms of the slowly fading mermaid by the slowly fading orange-haired man in a suit.
The five mages surround the girl caught her as her spirit's disappeared, tears streaming down their faces in rivers, any attempt at seeming fine melted by the rain.
Fairy Tail mages around the city felt her presence disappear and rushed as fast as they could to the spot where she'd just been. They arrived in ones and twos staring at the small group in front of them in horror. They approached slowly, hoping to see something amazing in the center of their huddle.
They saw a golden haired girl limp in the arms of five different mages that claimed themselves her siblings. Time froze as realization struck them. So they hadn't just lost Natsu, they'd lost his partner. Two of the greatest mages in history. No. THE greatest mages in history. The destroyers of Zeref. The apocalypse for the Alvarez army and empire. The two most amazing people on the planet.
And as one they screamed their savior's name to the heavens in hopes that maybe she'd return.
"LUCY!"
A/N: Why did I write that?! I just broke my own heart! I can't stop crying now. I can barely see well enough to type. I just broke my own heart.