WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH

"I'm off to school, dad." Lucy called up the stairs, not bothering to wait for a response, knowing there would be none. The phone in her back pocket began to buzz, pulling it out, she saw that the call was from Igneel.

"That's odd" Lucy thought, selecting the answer icon and holding the phone to her ear. Before she could properly answer, Igneel's voice began to frantically spill through the speaker. "Igneel, slow down! Is everyth- a car crash!? Alright, I'll be there soon."

Lucy threw her bag on the living room couch, running to the stairs to call up to her father. "Dad, I need you to drive me to the hospital!"

As soon as Lucy walked into the second floor lobby, she spotted Natsu, anxiously tapping his foot and biting his nails. There were bandages wrapped around his head, left arm in a temporary sling. Igneel sat on one side of him, tossing the dark pendant of a necklace between his hands.

From what Lucy could gather over the phone, someone driving in a large truck had run into Zeref's car while he was driving Natsu to school. The truck was estimated to be going around 70 miles per hour, running straight into Zeref's side of the vehicle, taking most of the damage in an attempt to protect Natsu, Zeref ended up in critical condition.

"Mornin', Luce…" Natsu mumbled as Lucy sat down next to him, barely turning his head as he checked his phone, responding to the concerned texts of their friends.

Lucy sat down next to Natsu, being careful not to move his arm as she gave him a quick hug. "Are you okay?" She asked, already quite certain of what the answer would be.

Natsu thought for a moment, putting his phone on mute to help him ignore any more questions. "Physically; I've honestly had much worse." He paused, looking for some sort of reaction from Lucy, only to be met with concern. "Mentally...kinda shitty."

Lucy gently placed her hand on Natsu's shoulder, knowing any wrong move could cause tears. "He'll be okay…"

It had been nearly three hours and nothing had happened, leaving both Natsu and Igneel a panicking mess.

They were aloud to go in and see Zeref at one point, but Natsu refused, saying he didn't want to see Zeref again until he was awake.

Natsu decided to distract himself with his phone, texting people and playing games to help pass the time.

"Are you sure you don't wanna see him?" Igneel asked again, watching Natsu lose for the fifth time in a row.

Before Natsu could respond, a slight commotion was heard down the hall, followed by a voice over the hospital's intercom. "Code blue, floor two, room 209!"

Natsu shot up, dropping his phone on the chair as a group of nurses ran down the hall, pulling a large cart with them.

"That's Zeref's room!" Natsu yelled, following the nurses as Igneel and Lucy trailed behind him.

Two of the nurses stood in front of the room, trying to hold Natsu back while explaining that he couldn't go in, as he would just be a nuisance to those trying to resuscitate the patient.

"But he's my brother!" Natsu yelled as he struggled, trying to look through the windows on the doors for a sign that Zeref was okay.

Time seemed to freeze when Natsu saw the defibrillator in the nurse's hands, sending a shock through Zeref that did nothing, the line on the heart rate monitor was still flat, the numbers still said zero.

Tears began to sting Natsu's eyes as the nurse continued her attempts, sending the shock through Zeref a second time, the tears spilling onto his cheeks when they went for a third.

Natsu watched in horror as they tried once again, only for the monitor to stay the same. Another nurse put up his hand, looking down at his watch before calling something out, another nurse writing on her clipboard.

The nurse with the watch turned to look out the window, shaking his head to the two standing outside the door, signalling that Zeref was gone.

The nurse stepped to the side, saying something to Igneel with an emotionless expression, but Natsu didn't hear, not even when Igneel began to argue, for he was already sobbing as his legs gave out, collapsing to the ground.

I'm gonna be completely honest here, this was one of the first things I planned for this story, and my excitement to write this chapter is probably a bit worrisome...

Anyway, today was the last day of summer, which means updates might be slower, but I usually finish my work at school, so they could definitely still be at the same pace, I've already started part two of this chapter, but I can already tell it's gonna be quite long, so there's no telling when it'll be finished (hopefully soon)...