Oooh, ominous title! Evil happenings are afoot! *cue ominous thunder*

Okay, anyway. Chapter Four is finally here, yay! Sorry for the long wait, folks. :D Things will start to move in this chapter (where it actually starts to pick up is up to interpretation), and I can't be more excited. There's a lot of crazy stuff ahead – for me, you, and our little gang of heroes! And I do mean A LOT of craziness. The next several chapters will be a wild ride. Brace yourselves!

Anyway, Chapter Four ho! Let's do this!

(This is probably my second favorite chapter so far after chapter 2. The angst is freaking PALPABLE here. Oh, and SPOILER ALERT. Yeah, that should be obvious by now; I shouldn't need to remind you guys anymore.)

Ch. 4: On The Wide Path To Destruction

I couldn't tear my gaze away from Natsu's.

That was the scariest thing. I'd seen him grim and serious before, but this was on a whole other scale. His eyes made it seem as if lightheartedness didn't exist, or was just a foreign concept. I'd never seen his mouth go so thin before. He sat cross-legged on my bed with his arms folded across his chest, glaring at me with those intense eyes of his with no intention of letting me go.

It was like he was challenging me. Go ahead and hold back. You do that, and this country will burn to ashes.

I still couldn't believe that he was asking this of me – no, not just me, but everybody else, too. Natsu – our Natsu – was telling me that we couldn't save him and was asking us to try and kill him. Didn't he know us at all? Didn't he remember how we'd broken through every obstacle by never losing faith in each other – most of all ourselves? How could he expect us to go through with his request after all that? I wanted to protest, to argue that he just couldn't be serious, but the fire in his eyes dissuaded me because I knew I'd only get hurt if I did.

The worst part was that some part of me knew he was right. Even so, I couldn't accept it – I didn't want to face the truth, the horrible possibility that this could be the last night that I would be speaking with Natsu as himself.

"Well, Lucy?" Natsu's sharp voice broke me out of my shock. "Don't keep me waiting."

I struggled with all my might to keep my voice from shaking, but I failed miserably. "Natsu…" I stuttered. "I…"

"I told you we don't have time for this!" he snarled. "Enough with all this kindness crap. I need an answer from you now, Lucy – while I'm still around to hear it!"

At that, my blood froze. My heart clenched in terror, forcing me to take a step away from the bed. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Natsu can be bone-chillingly frightening when he's genuinely angry. I'd seen him that way several times before whenever he'd been confronting a particularly cruel enemy threatening our guild or anyone associated – and every time I'd seen it, I was glad that it hadn't been directed at me. His opponents' reactions had always been the same – expressions ranging from disbelief to pure fear. It wasn't hard to figure out why he was called a 'monster' all the time. Combining his near-immeasurable strength with his righteous rage was basically guaranteeing a slow and agonizing defeat at his hands.

I wondered to myself if Natsu realized that. He wasn't even doing anything to me and I was still beside myself with terror. I couldn't bring myself to move, to speak, to do anything. I didn't want to make him angrier with me; that was just asking for a death sentence.

I don't know how long we stayed that way, but Natsu eventually sighed heavily in disappointment, surprising me. His eyes were closed and his expression looked…strangely resigned.

"So this is how it's gonna be?" he asked me quietly, opening his eyes to stare at me again with an oddly accusing light. "You're backing out on me; is that it?"

I was shocked beyond words. How did he get to that conclusion? "What?!" I exclaimed, my eyes wide. "No, of course not! I just –"

Natsu scoffed without humor. "Oh, really? Well, that's funny, 'cause I can't see it any other way. Looks to me like you're just giving up, Lucy."

I couldn't give a response to defend myself from that. He'd found the weak chink in my armor. He'd pulled the truth right out and laid it out in the open for all to see like he always did. There was no hiding from it. My confidence was shaken more than anyone would ever believe.

"Natsu, I…" What? What could I possibly say to him in this situation that would satisfy him? "I promise; it's – it's not what you think –"

"I don't want to hear your excuses," he cut in tersely. "It doesn't matter what you say to me when all that's coming out of your mouth are lies."

His words cut clear through me like a hot knife. The accompanying pain was brief yet incredibly sharp. I didn't know what to think, didn't know what to feel when he said that. I was just a jumble of messed-up feelings at that point – confused, scared, hurt, angry – because I couldn't understand his words or implications.

I felt so lost.

Happy must've seen the devastated mask I was probably wearing, because he turned to his friend and cried indignantly, "How can you say something like that, Natsu?! She isn't lying about anything, you know! She's not giving up on you!" He looked to me for confirmation. "Right, Lucy?"

Before I could gather myself enough to respond, Natsu beat me to the punch – and his words were not friendly.

"You don't get it, Happy," he said in an uncharacteristically cold voice. "It's not me that she's giving up on. It's herself. It's about time she grew a damned spine."

"What're you talking about?" Happy demanded as he suddenly flew in between me and his old friend. "What do you mean she's giving up on herself? You're barely giving her a chance to say anything! You're not making this easy for her!"

"Ohh, now I get it," Natsu said scathingly, glaring up at Happy floating before him. "You think I'm making this hard for her on purpose, huh? Is that what you think?!" He looked like he was on the verge of slapping Happy out of the air, and he lowered his head and clenched his fists in an attempt to curb his urge. "I thought you were my friend, Happy. Can't you see why I'm doing this? At all?"

Natsu almost sounded as if he was close to tears, which surprised me more than anything else he'd just done. He'd been angry with me just a couple seconds ago, and now he was suddenly about to cry?

"Well, all I can see is that you're hurting her, Natsu!" Happy shot back. "You're being mean to her!"

"And do you think I'm actually enjoying this?!" he shouted from his hunched position.

Happy looked taken aback at Natsu's sudden outburst, at a complete loss of words. I couldn't blame him; I think his shouting chased my vocal chords away.

"Look," he began in a low voice, his words hissing through his clenched jaws. "I hate having to do this, too. I don't want to do things this way, but I told you guys already that this is the only possible way to get rid of this thing!" His entire body was shaking now as he raised a hand and clutched his heart. "I have faith in you guys, and I have faith in myself that we can all pull through this. I know I said faith isn't enough to make everything okay this time, but what I meant was that we have to act on it. We can't just sit here and hope for the best. I know that, and I know that you guys know it, too." A trickle of water trailed down his face, glinting like a lone diamond in the light of the room, and I had to do a double take to make sure that wasn't a trick of my eyes. I couldn't believe it – Natsu was actually crying. "But…how am I supposed to get my confidence to mean anything when my own friends are too scared to help me?!"

His words left no room for backtalk – it was almost like an assault. I kept getting the feeling that he was practically attacking me with his words, trying to force me into a corner and pry the answer that he wanted out of me.

I also felt near-incapacitating remorse. I couldn't believe I hadn't considered Natsu's part in all this. It had to have killed him to ask something like this of me and everyone else in extension. He knew that it'd be hard for us to follow through with that request. He knew that it would hurt us more than he'd ever be in this situation. But he'd asked anyway, because it was the only thing that could be done to save him in the certain event that we wouldn't be able to fulfill the challenge by the deadline. He didn't want any innocent strangers getting hurt because of him, and especially not his fellow guild members. He didn't want to risk it.

No one else could do it. It had to be Fairy Tail. Natsu had understood that from the very beginning; that was why he'd posed the request to me. No other wizard from any other guild could help us from here on out – not even Jellal, who knew about this thing more than anyone else. None of them would be able to take on active roles in this.

In the end, Natsu had been right all along. I'd been the one who'd lost faith in him and myself. If I didn't pull myself together, we wouldn't be able to do anything, and the monster would undoubtedly win and take Natsu away from us forever. I had to make this right, and I finally, finally knew what my answer was.

I didn't think twice when I moved forward and pulled Natsu into my arms. He was still trembling beneath my hold as I embraced him. He didn't give any sort of reaction, but that didn't matter.

"I'm sorry, Natsu," I murmured as I pulled him closer. "You were right; I was losing faith in myself. It won't happen again. I'll do everything I can to help you, and so will everyone else. I promise."

I honestly have no idea how long we stayed that way. We could have been like this the whole night, with me holding Natsu in my arms and Happy perched right next to him on my bed, one paw on his friend's leg, like we'd all be struck dead by first light at the hands of fate. This moment was so poignant; I almost wished that it would stay this way forever. I didn't want anything to interrupt this. It was easy to imagine that the real world was nothing but a dream now, that the monster in Natsu's heart never existed and everything would work out without anybody getting hurt.

I almost didn't notice it, but I suddenly felt strong arms wrap around me and pull me in so close that my entire body was practically against his. It was so abrupt I let out a little yelp of surprise, which almost broke the atmosphere. Though it should've been obvious, I didn't think to assume that it had been Natsu who'd done that until I heard him speak, and it was the strangest thing – I didn't even consider feeling embarrassed.

"Thanks, Lucy." Those two words alone held so much weight that they nearly ended the moment on its own, but he kept going. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. Honestly, I…I'm scared, too. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to scare anybody…but I really feel like…at the least, you should know."

No, I didn't want to hear this. I couldn't bear to. The words "I'm scared" should never come out of Natsu's mouth, ever. This spoke too much against what Natsu was to us, and what he represented in our guild. I would've excused it as me just hearing things, but I could feel the tension in his arms, hear his ragged breathing, and feel the shakiness of his words…it was clear to me as day: He was definitely scared.

Happy must've noticed that, too, because he floated up and perched on Natsu's left shoulder. "Natsu…" he whispered, gazing at his friend with melancholy.

"I'm not scared of the monster or anything," he breathed, his arms tensing up all the more. "I'm more afraid of what I might do…of what – of what it might do to you guys once it takes over…I don't want this thing to do anything bad to you guys…I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hurt all of you like that…"

"Don't worry about that," I cut in breathlessly. I couldn't take any more of this. I hated this wretched demon more and more with every word Natsu spoke. "You won't be the one doing anything to us. It'll be the monster, not you! We won't hold anything against you, because none of it will be your fault; I promise!"

"Lucy…"

I gripped his shoulders and managed to pull away from him, which was surprising (and somewhat unsettling at the same time; it was clear that Natsu was losing his grip in all terms of the phrase) so I could look at his face. There was a pleading look in his eyes so intense that it almost broke me on its own. It looked really fragile, like it would crack any minute and he'd break down completely. The tears streaking down his cheeks nearly clinched it.

"We'll do whatever it takes to help you, Natsu," I said firmly, doing my best to ignore his expression lest it dissuaded me. "So promise me that you won't talk like this ever again. I want you to be you. You have no idea…you don't know how much your confidence means to us. You give us the courage to do whatever we have to do, and we can't help if you're not confident, right?"

"Yeah," he answered so quickly he startled me. "I know. It's the same with me." He quickly dried his tears with his left sleeve and gave us a trace of his trademark smile. "Okay, it's settled. No more crying for me. It's really not like me at all, huh?"

Relief coursed through me so strongly that my knees turned to jelly – it was a good thing I was already on the ground, because I would have collapsed otherwise. I settled with crumpling against Natsu's lap – I couldn't move, regardless. I felt tears of my own spring into my eyes.

That must've freaked him out at least a little bit, because he suddenly took my shoulders into his hands and began stuttering, "H-hey, Lucy, you okay? Why're you crying; was it something I said?"

"No, it's not your fault," I assured him as I sat up and wiped the teardrops from the corners of my eyes. "I'm just relieved to have the Natsu we know and love back. Right, Happy?" I added as I turned to the blue cat.

"Aye!" he proclaimed happily from his position on Natsu's shoulder. "Welcome back, Natsu!"

This got a laugh out of him. "Well, I aim to please," he joked, and we all started laughing – maybe even a little bit too much given the situation, but we didn't care. The fog of gloom around us was finally gone for the moment, and we were going to savor every second of it.

I glanced at the window, and I was surprised to see how late it had gotten. I hadn't even noticed the time passing so quickly. To be fair, though, way too many things had happened for us to really take note of it.

"Wow…it's gotten pretty late," I remarked, prompting Natsu and Happy to turn and stare out the window to see for themselves.

"Man, I guess being mopey really makes time fly," Natsu observed.

"It's supposed to be the other way around, Natsu," Happy said pointedly. "Besides, it wasn't the mopey part that made the time go by so fast."

"It wasn't? Then what was?"

"I – I think it's high time we get to sleep, you guys," I cut in hurriedly before Happy could sneak a snarky comment in. "We wouldn't want to be tired tomorrow, you know?"

"You guys go ahead," Natsu said as he got up off the bed and made his way to the table and dropped himself into the wooden chair. "I'll be staying up tonight."

I was surprised. "Natsu, you need this rest more than any of us," I said worriedly. "You can't just –"

"I know, Lucy," he sighed irritably as he lowered his head onto the table. "Geez, it's not like I'm some stupid goldfish. I know what's at stake here."

"But then –"

"I'll be fine," he interrupted. He then let out a huge breath, staring at the opposite wall. "Besides, it's not like I'm exactly eager to sleep with some freaky demon lurking inside my chest waiting to haunt my nightmares."

I flinched at the casual manner in which he'd brought that up, but thankfully he didn't notice me this time. "Oh…right. Sorry."

"Forget it," he grumbled as he buried his face in his arms. "Just go to sleep already."

As expected, I couldn't fall sleep.

Too much was weighing on my mind right now. I was terrified of what tomorrow might bring – I knew what to expect, and that was probably the worst part. I knew what would happen before this time tomorrow, and I knew that it wouldn't be pleasant. And if Erza and the others didn't make it back before then…it would be even worse for all of us.

And of course, I was worried sick for Natsu in the middle of all this. I could only imagine the thoughts going through his head now, knowing what was coming tomorrow, and I couldn't help but feel a bit of admiration. It took amazing conviction to keep his head cool in a situation like this – especially for someone like him. I knew that if I'd been the one in his shoes, I'd be freaking out like there was no tomorrow.

No matter Fairy Tail's reputation of incredible faith and strength of bonds, it took that very same strength to keep that faith. We make it look easy, but it's really not – it's just easier for us because we all love each other like family. I was still struggling with it now even after all the promises I'd made to him.

Though Happy was sound asleep next to my pillow, I couldn't get my eyes to close. A big reason for that was that I couldn't take my eyes off of Natsu, who was just barely visible in the moonlight. He hadn't moved from his spot at the table. His face was shadowed in the darkness of my room so I couldn't see his expression, but I didn't need to check to guess the mood he was in. At least from my position, I was only looking at the left side of him that had the sleeve covering his arm so I didn't have to see his bare right shoulder where his Fairy Tail mark had been.

"You're still awake, aren't you?" Natsu said suddenly, shocking me so much I almost fell out of bed. I think I may have even yelped at a point.

"Natsu…" I began, flustered, "how did you –"

"You were breathing too hard," he said simply. "You're quieter than that when you're asleep."

I kept forgetting about his animal-like senses. Honestly, they were too sharp for his own good.

Hold on…how did he know what I sounded like while I was asleep? He couldn't have been watching me sleep at some point…right? That was just too creepy to think about. Natsu didn't strike me as a pervert…though all things considered…

"You know that I'd be watching you sleep anyway, right?" he said without warning again. "Besides, look who's talking; Miss Flying Naked Lucy."

I felt a tic going in my forehead. He just had to remind me of that traumatic incident. Heck, I still had nightmares about that day – and not just because a giant dragon had been trying to eat me right after he'd magically removed my clothes. "Geez, since when did you become a mind reader, Natsu?" I grumbled, pulling my blanket up to my chin. I had to suppress the urge to throw my pillow at him.

He chuckled quietly without a hint of humor. "I'm not a mind reader. You just make it really obvious. You don't do much to hide what you're feeling; you ever notice that?"

Yes, I was painfully aware of that fact. I'm not good at hiding things from people; my face is always like an open book – at least, that's what my father had always said. But he didn't have to go and rub it in; I already knew.

"Yeah," I mumbled through the covers. "But I can't really help it, you know? It's just a habit, I guess…since my dad never paid attention to me when I was little, I had to learn to make my feelings clear to him or else he'd never understand what I wanted. It probably just carried over."

Natsu didn't say anything in reply, which I was actually grateful for. I didn't want to think about my dad right now – not in the middle of all this. His death was already tough for me to accept; I didn't want to dwell on what could have been. Besides that, it must've been hard on Natsu to hear me talk about my father after Igneel left him all that time ago. It was still a sensitive subject for him – the subject of his father, and dragons in general. He didn't need that kind of baggage right now. None of us did.

"Sleepy yet?" he asked after a minute or two of silence. He sounded strange, and I couldn't place his tone. Impatient? Disappointed?

I shook my head. "Not really," I admitted. "I can't stop thinking about tomorrow."

Natsu sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, can't you make this easier?" he complained, righting himself on the chair. "Try not to think about it; just take it as it comes. It's not a walk in the park for me, either, and you all know how much I love dwelling on complicated stuff."

"I…well…I just find it difficult to understand how you can be like this right now, that's all," I said nervously.

"Seriously, Lucy," he said resignedly, resting his chin on his hand as he turned to look at me. He looked like a ghost in the pale moonlight – silvery, transparent, and glowing; a visual I really didn't need right now. "I told you already that this isn't easy for me, either. I'm trying not to think about it just because things will just get more annoying to handle if I did."

I curled up on my side as I muttered, "I really get jealous of you sometimes with your simple view on life."

"You just think too much."

"Yeah, I've heard."

"Well, then; do something about it." There was no inflection in those words.

"Easier said than done," I sighed, rolling over to stare at the ceiling. "Same with sleeping."

"Should I help you with that?" he offered. There was no double meaning behind his proposal, but I was still wary.

"How?" I asked suspiciously. "You don't know Sleep magic or anything like that."

"Yeah, I don't. But I didn't say I'd be using Sleep magic."

I bristled as I slowly comprehended the direction this conversation was taking. "You're not seriously thinking of knocking me out by punching me in the stomach, are you?" I demanded in a furious whisper.

"Is there a problem with that?" Again, no emphasis on his words. His lack of expressive language disturbed me for some reason.

"Yeah, too many to count," I hissed in lieu of yelling at him in the middle of the night. "Are you insane or something?"

"Wanna try me?" he challenged half-heartedly, like he wouldn't particularly care if I refused. Seriously, what was up with him right now? He was acting so weird.

"No thank you," I said stiffly, flipping over under my covers so I wouldn't have to look at him. "I'm just gonna go to sleep now."

"Good. You need the beauty sleep."

There were so many choice words I felt like flinging at him right now, but it wasn't the time or place. I pulled my blanket up to my nose and closed my eyes. I must've been more tired than I thought, because I fell asleep before I even realized it.

"Lucy?" someone called from somewhere above me. "Lucy, wake up!"

I rolled over under the covers, still half-asleep. I struggled to open my eyes, but the bright light of the morning sun nearly blinded me, prompting me to pull the covers over my head.

"Get up, Lucy!" another voice yelled this time. "Natsu's gone missing!"

That woke me up.

"What?!" I exclaimed, bolting upright and throwing the covers off of myself. It took me a second or two, but I realized that Happy hadn't been the one to wake me up. I looked to my bedside and found –

"Gray! Erza!" I cried in surprise. "And Wendy and Carla! What are you all doing here?"

"We decided to drop in on you guys this morning to see how things were going," Gray began darkly, "but when we got here, Natsu was gone."

"Natsu's gone?!" My heart plummeted to the soles of my feet. I glanced frantically around the room, but there was no sign of him. The chair he'd been sitting in last night was empty, and pushed into the desk as if he'd intended on not returning for a long while.

No, no, no, no. This could not be happening. "But how – when did he – ?!"

"Not only that, but Happy is gone, too!" Carla went on feverishly, raising her tiny paw indignantly. "We can't find the two of them anywhere!"

"You don't think he followed Natsu last night, do you?" Wendy asked fearfully. "I mean, it's happened before, so…"

"This is bad," Erza said through tight lips, clenching her fists. "If Natsu's gone, we won't be able to meet the deadline for sunset tonight. Of all the times this could have happened…why now…!"

Hearing those words reminded me of what Natsu had forced me to promise last night. He'd been sure that we wouldn't be able to meet the deadline and had made me promise to go at him with the intent to kill once the monster took him over. I'd been hoping somewhere in the back of my mind that Natsu would be the one to break it to them, because it only made so much sense, but…no such luck. Did he possibly force me to make that promise right then because he'd known that he wouldn't be around when everyone else came back?

I need an answer from you now, Lucy – while I'm still around to hear it, he'd ordered me.

Suddenly I felt like someone had poured ice-cold water down my throat. Oh, God. So this was why. It hadn't been just him being edgy and impatient. I felt even worse than ever, and my hatred for the monster increased tenfold for effectively saddling me with the responsibility of crushing my friends' spirits with the news telling them to try and kill their close friend. I abhorred it with every fiber in my being, and I would do anything and everything in my power to make this thing pay its dues.

"Guys," I began quietly, gaining everyone's attention without much effort, "there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" Gray asked urgently. "Is it about Natsu?"

I nodded, doing my best to keep my tears at bay. "We were talking last night, about – about this game, and…he made me promise something then. Because he probably knew he wouldn't be here when you guys got back and…wanted me to be the one to tell you."

A shadow crossed Erza's face at my words. "Go on, Lucy. What did he tell you?"

I swore to myself at that moment – if we managed to get through this somehow and get Natsu back, I would take the monster that had ruined our lives and make it rue the day that it messed with our closest friend. I didn't care what happened to me. I had to make it pay.

"Well," I continued slowly, "he told me that…"

Yes, I'm aware that Natsu was acting really un-Natsu-like right here even without the stupid monster thing. It's intentional.

Lucy's spine has officially grown two whole sizes as of his chapter. I can't believe how suggestive this chapter turned out to be. It might as well be called "I Ship Natsu and Lucy". Haha…yeah the two are totally gonna end up together in canon. XD This will totally definitely absolutely not become significant later. I swear.

Anyway, yes. Things are getting really serious now. Natsu's gone and run off on our resident girl and kitty cat without warning; where do you think he went? What'll happen now that he's out from under their watch? And where the heck were Gray and Erza when we needed them? Argh, the stress! *spork'd*

Okay, sorry; I'll stop now. But one last thing…

I HATE YOU, GRAY. YOU AND YOUR STUPID ICE MAGIC. AND I HATE MYSELF FOR CHOOSING TO NARRATE WITH YOU.

…Alright. I'm done for real now. See you next chapter, whenever that happens.