I limped hurriedly as fast as I possibly could through the late night woods, the cool wind pushing past me and nipping at my sides and ear tips. My right leg had become strained and was burning due to overuse. A small level of sensation had come back to my left leg, but not enough to where I could walked normally on it once again, so I was forced to solve most of my weight onto my other leg and gain a horrible limp. Using my powers to create a lamp in my hands, I ran through the shadowed trees for what seemed like hours, but I knew I couldn't have been moving for more than two. My restricted movement had caused me to fall multiple times, now I bared several scratches and bruises, my clothes torn in various places, but I kept on going; hoping that I could reach Lucy in time before it was too late.
Halfway through the run I heard the sounds of battle once again rejuvenate, most likely indicating that Lucy had reached the academy grounds and was currently fighting the guards there. I knew perfectly well how skilled Lucy was at defending herself, I saw it myself when she was saving me. Even so, though I knew this, I could not help but wonder if she was getting hurt, if she was struggling with bad odds or was surrounded by greater numbers. My logic was being overridden by my anxiety and I couldn't help but fear for her safety.
Not too much longer after that the sounds began to die down and the previous silence was regained. I felt my pace slow momentarily before quickly accelerating out of fear for her life. I was scared that Lucy had lost to the rouge agents, but I was afraid that she survived and was now on her way to the machine to go die.
After what seemed like a heart wrenching amount of time, the line break of the trees at last came into view. Despite the fact that I was already tired and drained of energy, I ran full throttle out the forest that surrounded the school and busted for the gates. The front gates and road were covered with bodies and discarded weapons littering the grass and pavement. Whether they were alive or dead, I did not know. Although no blood was seen anywhere. Pushing past this unsightly scene, I headed onward for where I knew the underground laboratory was.
The insides of the building was nearly pitch dark, the only light other than my own being the patches of moonlight from the windows, but even that was dim due to the moon being at a waning crescent. Light waves of wind currents blew by me, riding chills up my spine, slipping into the building through cracks in the walls and windows. The breeze blew through the long corridors, creating an eerie underline hum around me. Every so often my ablaze hands would shine upon an unconscious (or dead) body and I would find myself jumping back in surprised fright. These bodies showed no blood as well, signifying no physical damaged, yet they all looked a tad bit too pale for me.
With my footsteps echoing harmoniously behind me I walked briskly down the corridors until I arrived at the door opening that served as the gateway to the underground system of laboratories and cells. The steps down were even darker than the halls, and I had to increase my flame. Sprinting down the stairwell I went flight after flight until I reached the ground floor that held the machine Lucy was after. Behind the door of the lab I could hear movement, which I guessed was being made by Lucy mucking around with that blasted machine. Opening the door I threw myself in and was met with an icicle as sharp as a dagger being thrown at me. Out of instinct and an adrenaline rush I shot a blast of fire at the ice and saw it evaporate a foot in front of my face, narrowly shaving me from death's clutches. I blinked and looked up, Lucy was standing on the opposite side of the room with her hand out in an offensive pose, a puzzled and anxious look on her beautiful face.
"Natsu what are you doing here?" She demanded and put her extended hand down. "I told you that I had to do this alone!"
"No you don't!" I told her and stumbled over, falling at her feet out of exhaustion. Lucy quickly caught me before I could hit the ground, and set me down gently.
"Natsu," She cried and brushed a strand of hair out of my face, "this is something you can't fix, let it go."
"No!" I denied. "You can still be saved. If you were to use up enough muta by reconstructing a large enough object, you could drain your powers until you become stable."
"Nat-" She began desperately but choked on her own words and fell back. I tried to reach out for her but she held a hand up and told me to stay back. The hair on my arms stood up as I felt the muta power levels around us rise. Her powers began to pulsate and she temporarily lost control, her energy bursting at the seams.
Curling in on herself as she laid on her side, she screamed in pain as it became too much for her to bear. The table beside her turned to bench, then to a tree, to steam, to coal. The floor around her turned to gravel, then copper, then to dirt. More and more items changed until she calmed down and was left tired on the floor of dirt and sand.
"Natsu we've run out of time, I can't go on hope anymore." Lucy sighed in despair. "And even if it did work, my power will only continue to build up, in seven years or so I'll be ready to erupt again. I have to do this now while I still can." After that Lucy stood and pushed me against the wall. Before I could say a word the wall behind me began to wrap itself around me and cover me as if it were armor glued to a stand. I couldn't move a muscle.
"This armor is made of adamantine, a metal created in this lab with my powers, nothing can break through, you'll be safe."
"But Lucy-"
"I'm sorry Natsu." Lucy said as she touched the wall next to her, creating a rag and a clear liquid, dabbing the rag in said liquid that was currently sliding down the wall to the floor. She walked towards me. "But I have to do this." She shoved the cloth against my nose and I inhaled.
My vision began to blur and fade, my mind became fuzzy and I felt drowsy.
"Lucy…" I murmured as I felt myself fade.
I then blacked out. I could only guess that she had created chloroform.
…
When I came to I was immediately met with a headache and a dry mouth. I thirsted, and looked around for water, but saw nothing but metal. Suddenly my memory hit me and I realized where I was.
"Lucy!" I called out in alarm, afraid that I had been too late and she had went into the machine.
Peering out into the space around me I saw that most of the equipment had been covered in a protective layer of stone. Lucy was at the computer center that connected to the machine, turning on the machine and setting the process up.
"Lucy stop!" I called again.
Lucy looked up from the screen of the connected computer, obviously distressed that I had woken up again.
"No Natsu, I have to do this." She said as firmly as she could while shaking. I could tell that she was stressed and scared about what was about to happen to her, what she was going to do to herself. I again told her that this was not necessary and that there was another way, but she wouldn't listen, telling me that there was no time to waste.
Lucy imputed a code that unlocked the system, and turned the setting to a high power of conversion. The screen started to load and showed a countdown to launch, just five minutes.
I yelled for her, but she ignored my cries. Without looking at me, she raised a hand in my direction, and a blast shield formed over my face, with two minuscule air holes. I bent my head as much as I could to look through as she walked in, shutting the door behind her. The metal door of the converter had a small plexiglass window several inches thick that allowed me to see just a smidgen of her face.
Tears.
She was crying.
The countdown hit zero. The machine came alive with a loud roar and a bright orange light shined through the sides and window. A buzz went through my body and air as the muta levels skyrocketed and consumed the area in energy. The fair on my neck and arms raised in response, and I felt my senses heighten beyond the normal limit. A blood curdling scream of pure and exquisite pain erupted no more than half a second after the machine switched on. It made sense for it to be painful, we mutants were kept alive by our muta genes, without them we'd die, so having them ripped out of the DNA must be a torture like no other. Yet, seeing her eyes roll back in torment, and her body jerking around in agony; I could not stand to watch, as I felt the pain with her.
Lighting my entire being on fire I tried to heat up and melt the adamantine metal armor around me; but I could not do so fast enough, and Lucy continued to have her life drained away. I knew very well that if she went off while I was out of the armor that I could die, but I was willing to take the risk to shut it down.
Timeless minutes went by until I finally was met with some (rather painful) results. The metal began to slowly melt. But it melted above my skin and began to burn my body. I may be a fire mutant, but even I was susceptible to burns. Lucy's screams were soon joined by shouts of my own, though less frantic. I gained back some movement and was beginning to force myself out when things went drastically wrong.
The charts of power appearing on the screen were rising beyond a rate that the machine could not handle all at once. The screen turned red and flashed: WARNING! Signifying to shut down the process. If the power levels went beyond 100,000 the machine may burst or malfunction. However, Lucy's powers were already at 250,000 and still climbing. The computer warmed a catastrophic collapse within ten seconds.
I desperately wanted to grab Lucy and pull her away, but I had only managed to get my right arm out of its safety guard when the countdown began, and before I knew it, my vision was filled with white and my ears became deaf.
A blast went off a completely obliterated everything around the machine. The protective cover of the evidence was blown through in seconds and the lab was left nearly unrecognizable. The capsule which held Lucy disintegrated and practically vanished, most of it turning to ash. The bottom floor of the building blew open like the top of a volcano, shooting up metal, lab equipment, miscellaneous items, and me. Three fourths of the entire academy grounds was left in ruins, and a shock wave was sent out that blew down trees.
I could only hope that the camp was still safe and left unharmed.
I couldn't remember exactly what happened to me, as I temporarily went both deaf and blind, but the next thing I knew I was laying a hundred feet away from the blast zone, my armor in pieces and piercing my body in some spots, but I thanked the mostly solid adamantine for saving me from death. Ash, dust, and dirt coated my skin, which was now covered in third degree burns on my the right side of my face, all up my right arm, right side, and stomach. However, with shock taking over and adrenaline pumping through my body, my wounds only felt numb. Coughing out the smoke from by lungs, I forced myself into a sitting position and looked around me; all I saw was fire.
Getting up onto my legs I immediately fell down, lacking the strength to walk, so I resolved to crawl. I yelled out for Lucy, my voice sounding tunneled in my ears. I searched for her, returning back to the epicenter of the explosion and looked down into what was now a crater. There at the bottom I saw Lucy, her clothes burned away, her body left naked and covered in ash and dirt, but not by wounds. I paid no attention to her state of dress and fell down the edge and tumbled down to her, still not able to walk. She laid nearly lifeless staring in defeat at the sky. Now up close I could see that she did have wounds, but the damaged skin and cells were being reformed.
Lucy was the first to speak.
"I failed…" She whispered, "...and now everyone is going to die. There's no way they can escape the blast."
"There's still something you can do." I said laying next to her in exhaustion, placing my hand on hers, using up the very last of my strength to do so. Instantaneously I felt my wound begin to shift and disappear. I inwardly gasped in awe of her powers; so special and amazing they were.
"Natsu, I don't know if it will work." She murmured, remorse filling every word.
"Not much to lose now." I chuckled dryly. "And if you do go down, I'm happy I was with you at the end."
I heard Lucy suck in a breath after I spoke those words, I chuckled lightly and relaxed where I was. Feeling no pain, ignoring my regrets. All I had in this moment was Lucy, and that was more than enough happiness to last me a lifetime. I could pass on peacefully now.
"I love you." I heard her say quietly.
My mind went blank and kicked into overdrive when I heard those words. I turned to look over at her, but she was gone, and I felt the ground beneath me move. I realized that I was moving up on a large tower made of stone. I peek down what was now hundreds of feet down, and I saw what I never could have dreamed of.
The land around Lucy began reconstructing into water. All of it, the grass, the dirt, the trees, the hills. The entire mountain was sinking down into the earth as a massive lake was formed. The land down the mountain, where the camp, began to rise up higher than the water level, slowly forming a new, smaller mountain. Then as the water began to flood over the lands, a crevice formed and split the surface of the earthland in two, creating a river that was one mile long in width and, as I could see, spilled into the sea, which was sixty-eight miles away.
Up from my birds-nest I watched as the entire face of the earth was changed, creating an entirely new landscape. A new mountain just twelve miles away from the old one stood nearly six thousand feet tall. In the spot where the old mountain sat was now a lake three hundred and forty-five miles long. All previous Indications of the devastation by the explosion was now completely gone.
The pedestal I was on began to sink back to earthland and form an island in the midst of the lake. When I at last stood back on what was now ground level, I stared in awe at was now here. A new forest, larger and more diverse, now surrounded the lake and mountain.
Stumbling around the island I searched for Lucy until I found her floating offshore of the island. Wading through the waters, I pulled her into my hands and carried her back to the island, setting her down on the grass under a maple tree.
She was unconscious and obviously tired, but the rise and fall of her bare chest told me she was still alive. Though I could sense her power level was significantly to where even I was more powerful. She had dropped down from the most powerful mutant, to the bottom level. Looking at her I could see how a reconstruction as large as the one she just did had changed her. Her hair was no longer down to her waist, and barley even met her shoulders. She was smaller, seeming to shrink a few inches, and I could see that she went down a cup size or two, not that I minded, that's not what attracted me to her.
Yet, the thing that stood out the most, was that her left eye socket was left empty.
All of these occurrences showed just how much of a toll that much of her power had on her. But if it meant that I got to spend my years with her, I would never make a difference to me, I can only hope it's the same for her.
Coming back to consciousness, Lucy lazily looked around slowly till her single eye landed on me. A relieved smile crawled onto her face and she let out a sigh.
"It worked?"
I nodded and hummed in affirmation. "Yeah, it did. But at a price."
Lucy looked down at her body and saw the differences, but paid them no mind.
"That's alright. I'm alive." She said. "And so are you."
Grinning, I took of my jacket and placed it over her so she could cover up, Lucy thanked me and leaned into me when I sat her up against me as I leaned against the tree.
"I never got to say it before, but…" I gently grabbed Lucy's face and pulled her face over to look at me directly. "I love you, Miss Lucy Heartfilia."
Lucy's smile grew larger, " I told you not to."
"You said it first."
Lucy rolled her eyes and put her head back into the crevice of my neck and sighed in content. I could tell from the months that I've known her, that this is the first times she's felt this happy and relaxed in years.
"Lucy, can I kiss you?" I asked softly. Lucy lifted her head and looked at me in surprise, a beautiful red blush spreading across her cheeks.
"I didn't expect you to ask." She told me.
"I would never force myself on you." I declared to her. "May I?"
Lucy nodded, a heartfelt smile, small and almost not there, on her face, tears of joy prickling at her eyes.
"You may."
Taking my cue I gingerly placed my lips on hers, they were cracked and dry, just like mine, it hurt and felt like sandpaper, but to me in this moment, nothing could ever be as soft or as sweet. Through all the tumult and the strife, we both made it and conquered over the things that were holding us captive. The invisible chains that held both her and I and fallen off at last, and now we could finally be as we were always meant to, in each others arms.
The next step was going difficult, the government was still corrupt, and it was unknown if this technology was leaked to anyone else. If this got out and was turned into weapons, another civil war could very well start between the mutants and the humans. A meet had to be set with the state and negotiation must be made if both were to survive.
But I will leave that all to future for now, for in this moment, I had my own little paradise of just Lucy and I here on this island. Which would be the perfect place to build a home and start a family.
But again, that's all for the future,
It was time to meet up with Gray and the others.
.
.
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Woah I didn't think this would be the last chapter! But here it is! This may very well be my last NaLu fanfic, I'm starting to wrap up my fanfics so I can focus on being a novelist, taking classes and all that. However, I just might make a new one later, maybe in a couple months, but it's not a definite yes.
I love all of you m followers, I want to thank you for being with me all these years, especially those of you who have been with me throughout several of my stories, your contribution are what kept me writing and what inspired me to seek out a career as a writer.
I hope you enjoyed my stories, I had a lot of fun writing them. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy; remember my PM box is always open if y'all wanna talk. I love y'all, goodbye.
p.s the size of the lake is similar to Lake Superior. Byeeeeeee~
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