All Rights to Hiro Mashima
Hello my precious cupcakes, thanks so much for all your reviews and questions, follows and favourites. :3
Things are about to heat up...can't wait to write the next chapter...
Stay Crazy,
LoadedEel
NINE
"A seal breaker you say?" Master tipped new herbs into his pipe, brandished one end at Natsu for him to light, then puffed away with a muted fervor as he thought about the problem. "The only one I knew of that could do such a thing was Brain, and in extension…Jellal."
Natsu shot a look at his blonde friend, eyebrow quirked in a silent question. Lucy whispered Nirvana and his eyes cleared up with a small nod.
Lucy tapped her nails on the bar counter, feet swinging beneath her as she sat on the bar stool between Erza and Natsu, Happy resting peacefully in front of her after gorging himself on mackerel. "Levy already had that idea, the seal's—different? She didn't really know how to explain it and Jellal couldn't make heads or tails out of it. Their magic just isn't compatible, I think."
Natsu leaned in then to Lucy's side, his warmth soothing something frazzled inside her. "What's a seal breaker?"
"As far as I know…magical seals can be placed on objects by powerful mages to 'seal it off' from other's so that the power can't be used. A seal breaker can break that enchantment."
Erza's head thunked down onto the bar top next to them, her eyes scrunched shut as she wracked her brains for a solution. She was the leader of their little group, she should be the one who has the answers.
Natsu's eyes grew round as Lucy giggled a little at her friend's theatrics. "It's okay Erza, don't hurt yourself." She let her fingers paw through scarlet hair for a moment and felt her big sister relax under her touch.
"I know Lu. It's just—ugh…I feel as if I have the answer but it won't come out of my stupid brain."
Natsu snapped up straight at her side and Lucy mourned the loss of his body heat for a moment before it turned into bewildered confusion as her best friend shot out of the open front doors and into the early evening air.
"What the hell? Natsu?" She called after him, but he was already gone.
Lucy looked over at Makarov, but he only shrugged and settled into his beer stein while Erza snorted and spooned another bite of cake into her mouth. "He's acting more like himself lately, isn't he?"
"Sometimes, it's like his memories never left. But other times, when he's just sitting there next to me engrossed in a book or being quiet and contemplative while I write…it's easy to see what's missing."
Erza leaned over then, her eyes searching for something in her face. Perhaps she found it because a small smile bloomed and Lucy's friend suddenly looked years younger. "We'll find the rest of him Lu. Count on it."
"I know," she whispered quietly. As it the words would break some spell over them. "I just—I just miss him so much."
Erza jolted a little as a blonde head of hair laid down on her shoulder. She had never really had a friend like Lucy before, willing to give her something, a true friendship, a true sister. Something that wasn't based on the Tower, something that came out of love and comradery, and a bond between two people that wouldn't break no matter what. She knew what it was like to miss something, to miss someone.
Someone near and dear to your heart, like they had gouged out a place in your chest, red and warm. For Erza, all her friends and family, her team, Makarov, and all those in the Tower were there in her heart.
But there was one spot that never seemed to be filled, and other times it was overflowing.
Lucy couldn't see the moment when Erza's eyes flickered to the corner of the room to where Jellal sat with the rest of Crime Sorciere, but she heard the whispered I know, believe me, that seemed a little sad, and completely forlorn. It sounded like a foregone conclusion and Lucy knew what Erza was thinking about.
She remembered a tearful night only weeks earlier when Erza had arrived at her doorstep looking lost and sad, and so incredibly small.
He's engaged Lu. He…I waited for so long. I don't—
She had never seen Erza so tired or shed so many tears.
Not since Simon.
Lucy had held a bit of resentment for Jellal after she had heard what he had said to her friend, and Natsu was pissed as all hell for the fact that Erza had cried again. But one look at Jellal, to see all that yearning and resentment and guilt on his face—she immediately knew that the "fiancé" was a non-existent. Erza was just too close to see that Jellal loved her, so so much.
-ooo-
"Sting? What did Master Makarov need? It hasn't been that long since the GMG, did something happen?"
"Rogue, where's Yukino? I thought she was with you."
"She's downstairs with Orga…what's going on. What's wrong?"
"Bring her up here. There's something she needs to know."
-ooo-
Natsu crashed through Lucy's front door and sprinted up the steps into her apartment. He knew immediately what he needed, but he wanted to make sure he was absolutely right before he got his own hopes up, or Gods forbid, Lucy's.
He ripped open the top book in the stack that sat in a haphazard pile towards one end of her couch, what had come to be his second favourite reading place in the entire world (the first being Lucy's lap, especially when she ran her lithe little fingers through his hair). He flipped the pages feverously looking for the right one.
Lullaby.
Then he was gone just the way he had come, in a whirlwind of hot air and exuberance. Leaving behind only the soft smell of fresh pine ash.
-ooo-
Natsu slammed the book down on the counter and gave Lucy such an excited smile that she couldn't help giving one back to him. Albeit a little confusedly. "What—what the hell was that Natsu? Are you alright?"
He just nodded and shoved the book under her nose and pointed to that one word. That title she remembered penning years ago. "Lullaby?"
Natsu nodded, his spiky hair windswept and bouncing with every shake. "Luce. Luce…the seal breaker."
Erza reached over her friend and snatched the book from the table and poured over it while warding off Lucy's grabby hands. "Wait, Erza. Don't read that."
"Luce. I remembered because I was literally just reading it the other day." Natsu gestured wildly with his arms, punctuating each word with a finger point.
Makarov cracked an eye open at the commotion but didn't say anything as he watched his children work out the problem.
"Wait…" Lucy breathed out and stopped the scrabbling for her book, Erza made a triumphant noise and slunk off to Levy's corner to read the journal. "—Natsu…Kageyama."
Natsu just knocked their foreheads together and gave her a tiny private grin. Just for her. A secret. "Kageyama."
-ooo-
Makarov gathered Erza and Gray, while Lucy and Natsu settled back onto their stools, waiting to see what their Master would cook up.
"Erza, Gray—could you please go back to ERA and ask for information on Kageyama, then perhaps we can make a deal with him to release the seal. I must admit, after seven years…I don't have much pull with the council anymore."
Gray blanched while Erza poked at a new slice of cake as nonchalantly as possible. Lucy quirked an eyebrow at them both but she couldn't catch their eyes.
The ice-make mage cleared his throat twice before he could get the lump out enough to speak. "Uhm, gramps, we may have a slight problem at the moment with the Magic Council. I sort of…insulted them? And Erza, well, she may or may not have pointed a sword in Doranbolt's face forcing him to take us home by direct line. And called them idiots. And imbeciles. And told them that they couldn't do their jobs right. And demanded a formal apology."
Lucy blinked slowly while Natsu tried to stifle a laugh behind her back.
It was silent for a moment.
Happy rolled over in his fish induced sleep to murmur about even more fish.
Erza finally looked up and caught Lucy's eye with a sheepish smile. "Sorry?"
Natsu finally broke down with heaving gasps, tearing up slightly. "Best thing I've heard all day. That sounds like something I would do. I thought I was supposed to be the hot-headed one?"
Gray tried to pinch Natsu in a fit of immaturity, but Natsu – despite his wheezing – dodged him skillfully. This only made Gray pout, his scowl dark and broody. "They insulted Fairy Tail you overgrown flamethrower, and implied that it was our fault for that shit that went down, and didn't even say thank you for that crap with the Dragons and Future Rogu—"
Lucy coughed loudly over Gray's statement, shaking her head slightly at her brother. He cut himself off abruptly shooting the blonde a strange look. He'd ask her about that later, but he had a feeling it had something to do with the snickering pinkette to her right.
Makarov sniffed derisively over Natsu's aborted hiccups. "Be that as it may, I still want that information."
Lucy smiled tightly. "We'll all go. I'm sure that I can keep them all in line."
"Thank you, my dear. You can all leave in the morning, there should be a train going out that way quite early."
Natsu snorted into his glass, his chuckles muffled by his spiced whiskey. "—sword point…"
Lucy smiled indulgently at the back of his head. Her friends really didn't do things by half, did they?
-ooo-
"Lu? Why didn't you want me saying anything about Future Lucy?"
"Natsu doesn't know yet."
"I thought he's been reading your journals?"
"I haven't—I can't write it down. I've been trying for months and nothing. I can't get anything down on paper because it would make it real, even though it wasn't really because Natsu destroyed the Eclipse Gate and that future was rewritten. But I can't—I can't Gray."
"Lu, come here. Clam down eh? I know alright, we all do I think…how hard it is to think about it all, I think we all died that night. And then Ultear…"
"I know."
"Have you and Natsu ever talked about what happened with Future Lucy?"
"No."
"I think you should tell him. It might help you Lu."
"But—"
"Lu."
"—I know. I'll tell him tonight. I promise."
-ooo-
Natsu watched Lucy twist her nightshirt into knots between her fingers. She's nervous.
They were seated on opposite ends of Lucy's couch. Usually, they would be jammed tightly together, as close as they could. But Natsu had taken one look at his best friend after his shower and gave her as much space as she needed.
"Luce?"
"Natsu…there's something I need to tell you about. You deserve to know the truth. The whole story."
"Does this have anything to do with the last journal? I've heard people talk about a swarm of Dragons but they don't show up at all in any of the other stories."
Lucy nodded and bounced her knee against the back cushion of the couch. "Yes."
Natsu waited silently for Lucy to go on, this was something that she needed to get off her chest, and he would wait for however long it took for her to speak.
"The black wizard Zeref designed many things, built out of black magic. But the worst one, the one that caused so much devastation and confusion and pain was called the Eclipse Gate."
She told him everything. Why the Grand Magic Games had been started, how the Princess had been duped by someone from the Future. About how Celestial Mages were the ones who could open it, the horde of Dragons.
Falling underground and fighting for their freedoms, Hisui, Yukino, Mira, Wendy, Loke, Arcadios.
Then—
The fight upstairs, finding Future Rogue and hearing about the future devastated by Dragons. Learning that it was Lucy herself that opened the gate…
"No! You wouldn't do something like that…I know it."
Lucy smiled at Natsu, happy that he still thought so highly of her, even when he didn't truly know her.
"That's just it Natsu, I don't know if I did or not in that timeline, and I said as much. But Future Rogue, he was hellbent on preventing that timeline from succeeding. The only way to absolutely make sure I couldn't open it…was to kill me."
"What?" His whisper was almost worse than a shout, it tore up her heart in ten different ways.
"He said that it was the only way. To make sure that people didn't die in the future…I had to—had to die. Fuck. He tried to kill me Natsu…with an arrow made of shadows, straight at my heart."
Natsu shook his head and tried to not let her words gouge part of his soul out through his chest. He felt open and cracked. He almost knew what she would say next, even if she was sitting across from him now alive and well.
"You weren't fast enough…no one was—"
He watched as a lone tear tracked down her cheek, her bright eyes shimmering with pain and sadness and loss. "—except the other me. Future Lucy took that arrow through her own chest."
Natsu shook his head. He didn't want to hear any more. Didn't want Lucy to finish this story.
"She died in my arms, Natsu."
His composure shattered.
"No. Nononono…you said I would always catch you, that I always caught you…Luce. I failed you?" At his heartbroken wretched words, she crawled forward into his lap and buried her face into his warm neck. His arms wound around her waist, a little too tight, but she felt safe.
Then she let go of everything. The pain and suffering, bone-deep sadness. She let those tears that she had locked up for months flow, soaking his pajama top through. "Fuck. Natsu…I was so scared. Dammit." She tried to wipe the tears away, but it was no use.
He hushed her, his voice wet and breathless. Suddenly she was crushed to his torso and manhandled until they were laying down, blankets pulled over their bodies, her face still stuffed into Natsu's collarbone. He kissed her forehead and gripped her tighter still.
They didn't speak again for the rest of the night.
-ooo-
The morning was somber and quiet until Natsu asked how the gate was destroyed.
"Oh, you were so pissed off at Rogue that you beat his ass while flying on the back of a Dragon, then threw that Dragon onto the Eclipse Gate."
Natsu cackled until he couldn't breathe.
-ooo-
To say that their group of four has expanded slightly on this trip would have been an understatement. Lucy sat in a compartment with Natsu's head in her lap as he dozed off, with a half-dressed Gray and humming Erza across from them.
However, due to the…interesting nature of their quest their merry band of usual idiots had some tag-along. Wendy and Charles are quietly talking with a blushing Juvia, while Happy napped on the next seat, leg twitching every once and a while. Wendy was there to quickly implant the lacrima as soon as possible into Natsu if Levy's spell didn't work, seeing as the deadline for magic deterioration was swiftly approaching.
Juvia was there to watch over her precious Gray, especially because Cana and Gildarts were in bar car partaking in afternoon refreshments.
Levy and Freed had insisted upon being there for the ride as well, seated across from each other with the equivalent of the guild's library strewn about them. Levy had her favourite pair of wind readers on and was currently decimating a book in an obscure ancient language that no one else can read. Freed was working his literal magic on the lacrima that sat on the seat beside him, muttering about the fifth rule of darkness. Time was of the essence, and it Kageyama decided to help, then Levy's counterspell needed to be implemented immediately.
Crime Sorciere was along for the added muscle to make sure that Lucy did indeed arrive in one piece and stayed that way.
An ashen-faced Laxus was slumped over in a compartment across from the researchers, trying not to hurl his breakfast all over the other passengers. Master had asked him to join to gather more information on Ivan, and seeing as Laxus is the son of the escaped convict, his rights to information were more concrete than if anyone else in the guild asked the questions.
Where Laxus was, his entourage was sure to follow. Bix was lounging across one seat reading a magazine while Evergreen painted her nails a truly horrendous shade of neon green.
Gajeel groaned pitifully from somewhere near Levy. His excuse to come with them was that someone could step on his Shrimp because she's so tiny and she needs someone to look out for her. This earned an exaggerated roll of the eyes from everyone who heard him and a quick Solid Script Fire to his ass which singed the bottom of his hair, much to his displeasure.
"Does this feel a little, I don't know…surreal to anyone else?" Gray murmured into the still air, trying not to break the strange silence.
Erza cracked one eye open. "I know what you mean, this is probably the quietest train ride that I've ever been on with this team."
Lucy smiled. "I was just saying that the other day. Quiet isn't really in our nature, is it? Feels weird, like it's too quiet, right?"
Erza nodded and let herself fall back into a light sleep with a small sigh. "—s nice though…"
Lucy looked down at Natsu with his nose stuffed close to her stomach and let her lips slip into a small smile.
The louder the better.
She turned her head to the side and watched as the scenery flew by, ready beyond a shadow of a doubt to make Natsu whole again.