An: Tada! The next chapter has finally arrived! I know it's late but who cares, at least I posted something right? :)
Just to let you all know I plan on focusing on this fic until I finish it, so if you read Before I let you go I'm sorry you're gonna have long periods between chapters, but I do plan on posting a chapter for that fic this week too.
Hopefully I can finish this fic by the end of this month or next.
Wish me luck.
Nick POV
Flashing into the infirmary without any warning, not my part or the humans, I stumbled a little silently cursing the king for my abrupt expulsion from the Spirit World. Steadying myself I stood up right and glared at the humans who stared at me in anger. Gone was my patience with dealing with angry mobs, so I turned my back to them as I walked towards the blonde I was ordered to save. The king hadn't said it outright, but I knew that if I were to fail in my attempt at saving the girls live he would kill me, or strip away all of my powers and leave me to the humans to do as they wished.
Feeling most of the eyes follow me around the room I snarled and turned towards them, ordering them all to leave except for the two healers that had volunteered to help me. Instead of instant results I had people stand there gawking at me as I looked over Lucy once again. When I turned around they were still there ready to protest before I shot a ball of fire at them. What they didn't know is that I had made the ball of fire so weak that it was meant to disappear a foot away from them, was it mean... Maybe, but it got them to leave the room finally. As the door slammed shut I turned to the two healers, who had failed to mention they were just children, and began explaining what their role was in the procedure.
"First off I just want to say that you've done a wonderful job for the amount of experience you two posses. Dedicating all of your time to constantly heal her is a fine thing, and tells me what kind of healers you truly are. But now I'm going to ask you both to take a step back and let me take the lead on this. At times it may seem like we are losing her, or that we have lost her, but that is what we need to happen.
"First I will expel the lingering poison from her body and purify it by passing it through my fire so it can't contaminate anybody else or find its way back into her system... That's the easy part." I said grimly. Looking away from them for a moment I glanced back at Lucy's unconscious form. Scanning the state of her body quickly I gulped at the extent of the damage that the poison had wrought during her weakened state. With a heavy sigh I turned back to the girls and continued.
"Now here's the tricky part, the poison has been in her system for far too long and has done permanent damage to her organs, tissues and arteries. In order for her to be able to wake up from her coma and return to how she once was I will need reconstruct all of the parts that are no longer functional." I said. I was ready to begin as soon as possible but by the looks of the two of them they would need some rest before they took on such a big task.
Seeing little Wendy raise her hand timidly I nodded my head towards her.
"But we've already healed her organs, why must you reconstruct them entirely, and how will she be able to survive without some of the major organs and sections of arteries?" She asked looking confused.
"I don't want to sound like I'm criticizing your healing skills, because I'm not, but you never healed her organs. I'm guessing that throughout the past month some of Lucy's organs failed everyday. No matter how many times you healed them it never really stuck did it?" Seeing them both nod I continued. "That's because the poison implanted itself within all of the major organs and some of the less important ones. Instead of your powers healing the organs it stunned the poison temporarily, like putting a band aids over an amputation site, ineffective.
"That's where you two will come in. For each organ I take out, I will need you two to take its place until I'm done reconstructing it. Thankfully you two already know what each part of the body does so it should be too difficult for you to send the blood and other bodily fluids to the proper places. Most of the organs I will be reconstructing will take a couple of hours each, and the ones that don't will take more or less time depending on how damaged it is. But when we get to the heart I'm going to need you two at your strongest so we will take a day to rest before we start on it. Because it's the most strained and damaged organ it's going to take much longer than the other organs." Seeing the two of them look at each other then to me with intrigued, yet frightened looks I placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "It'll be alright, I'll be here the whole time, and if at any time you feel like you need a break just say something and I'll take over while you rest." When they still looked unsure I knelt down to look them both in the eye. "I am fully aware that you've never done something like this, let alone heard about it. But it's her best shot at surviving and I know you two can do it." With a last pat on their shoulders I rose to my feet and started rearranging furniture to give us the room we would need around Lucy.
"Why haven't we heard about this type of healing before?" Chelia asked, still standing beside Wendy with a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"To be honest I've never done something this intensive before, and don't recall anyone else doing it, but it's her only shot at surviving. I've done poison extraction and organ replacement before but never together and never for so many organs. But I promise you I will do everything in my power to save her.
"Are we done with the questions for now? Good." I said when they both nodded their heads.
"I'm going to need you both at full strength for this procedure, so you two go rest until morning and I'll watch over her through the night." When they made no move to leave like their fellow guild mates had I grabbed an arm for each of them and forcibly removed them from the room, slamming the door on them as soon as they had crossed the threshold.
"Is it really possible to do what you told the children?" Capricorn, my oldest friend asked as he popped into the room beside his master.
"We will see won't we?" I said joining him by her side. "Is she really as good as everyone makes her out to be?"
"She's better. Lucy's everything Polaris should have been and more. She's kind, smart, just, and treats us spirits not as slaves as most have but as friends and family.
"If giving up meh life would ensure her survival I'd do it in a heartbeat, we all would." He said, gently stroking a few stray strands of hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear. Watching how tenderly Capricorn looked at her I still couldn't believe that she meant that much to everyone, especially the spirits.
"I better get to work then." I said walking up behind him to put a hand on his shoulder to give him a reassuring squeeze. Directing him to the chair next to the one I had set out for myself I gathered a bowl to hold my flames and restraints to tie Lucy to the bed. "Extracting the poison will be very painful for her, you may want to intervene but you can't. If you touch her or me before all of the poison can be purified by my fire it will taint you. If at any time I think you are going to go against my instructions I will banish you from this room until I'm completely done with the procedure."
Gray POV
"Who does that guy think he is, he can't just kick us out of there like that!" I yelled, shaking the grasping hands that had dragged me out of Lucy's room before I could beat the spirit's ass.
"Gray! Gray stop!" Loke said appearing in front of me in a flash of light, like Nick had done moments before. Grabbing my shoulders with his hands he shook me until I stopped fighting. "Nick is Lucy's only chance at survival and since he has to rid her body of the poison and rebuild some of her organs he can have whatever he damn well wants, and that includes privacy." He punctuated by shoving me away from the door and glaring at everyone else that wanted to force their way back into the room.
"How do we know he's with us, and not some assassin sent to kill Lucy?" Someone behind me asked.
"Do you think I'd be standing here guarding the door if I thought for one second that she was in danger?" Loke growled, insulted by the question. "Look I know that this is hard on you all, it has been equally hard on us spirits as well, but all we can do at this point is wait for Nick to do what he is best at and that's healing. If it makes you feel better Capricorn has decided to camp out in there until Lucy has been healed; not because he doesn't trust him, but because he needs to make sure Nick doesn't over do it."
"Loke's right. Nick explained what we have to do and it's going to be very taxing for us, especially him. We are lucky he is willing to risk his well being to try to save her." Wendy said, stepping out from behind Loke.
"Is everything alright, why aren't you two in there with him?" Erza asked stepping forward to lead Chelia and Wendy to a near by table since they looked like they were about to pass out.
"We're fine, promise, Nick just sent us to rest until morning. By the sound of it we are going to need every bit of strength possible." Wendy said, gratefully taking the plate of food Mira from her hands and taking a huge bite out of the hamburger.
It didn't take long for the two of them to finish their food as they answered everyone's questions about their part in the healing process, and whether or not they believed they would be capable of healing Lucy and waking her up. At first they answered hesitantly, afraid to give us too much hope but the more questions they answered the more they looked excited. Most people took their excitement as a positive thing, but I could see the underlying guilt in Wendy's eyes. Yes she was excited to help heal Lucy, but she was also excited to learn new healing techniques and that's where the guilt came play. I wanted to take her aside and reassure her that she had nothing to feel bad for, that she had done more than all of us and gave us the time we needed to find the source of the poison and the cure but I could see her eyes drooping, a clear sign that she was exhausted.
Signaling Erza and Mira to help me convince our curious guild mates to stop their questions so the two could rest I led them to the other tables to give them some space. Returning back to the girls I saw that they were fast asleep.
"Yo Flame Brain give me a hand." I said, slapping him to get his attention. When it looked like he was about to yell I silenced him and pointed to the two heals. Instantly he relaxed, picked up Chelia and led the way to the room next to Lucy's that had been their make shift room.
"You did good, finding Nick and convincing him to help us." I mumbled, thinking myself insane for praising the hot head.
"Thanks." He replied looking shocked. He was about to say more but stopped himself and cocked his head to the side, hearing something I could not. Picking up the pace we quickly and carefully set the girls down and threw a blanket on them. Racing after Natsu I grew concerned when he met Laxus and Gajeel outside Lucy's door.
"What the fuck is happening in there Loke?" Gajeel growled.
"Could everyone be so kind as to move away from the door? Nick needs to concentrate and he can't do that with all of this shouting." Capricorn whispered angrily, opening the door a crack so he could glare at Loke and mutter a few words. "Don't you have better things to do instead of pacing outside the door, like looking for your missing members?" He said shutting the door and locking it.
"Shit." Gajeel muttered looking straight at me.
"Missing? What do you mean missing, who's missing" I said fearing the worst. When I hadn't seen Juvia in the guild I had assumed that she was still out searching not that she was missing, they wouldn't possibly hide that from me... But then again they did all keep Lucy's condition from us.
"Now Gray we don't know for certain if they are missing or not but neither of them have answered their lacrima. What we do know for sure though is that Bickslow and Rufus were attacked and nearly taken prisoner but was able to hold them off and escape. It's been a few days since the attack and they just called us saying that they couldn't find Rogue, so they're going to search around their area and I'm going to send Laxus and his team to look for Juvia, Sting and Minerva-"
"I'm going with them." I demanded, interrupting Master.
"Of course Gray." Master said giving me a sympathetic look. "Gajeel and Orga will be going with you as well. It'll be easier to track them down with a Dragon Slayer in tow. Before you leave make sure you have a working lacrima, I expect a daily report on your progress and if you were to find them, let us know immediately; don not engage until you do."
Agreeing quickly I sprinted over to my discarded pack and hiked it over my shoulder. Walking backwards to make sure the others were following I was pleased when they were moving with as much urgency as I was.
ROGUE POV
Grabbing the object I quickly looked at it in between dodging attacks as the four of us backed ourselves into the nearest corner so we would only have to worry about the attacks coming from in front of us. On my third glance at the object Ayame had dropped down to me I was able to tear off the paper that was wrapped around it to find a note.
"Lasts for five minutes, use it wisely" was shakily written in uneven lettering. But what is it? I thought taking another moment to look at the shiny black cylinder. Running my thumb over it I felt a small raised area on the side. Looking up to the bear in confusion I tried to read what she was trying to mouth to me but she kept getting interrupted by Angelica who would tug on her leash as she cheered on the deranged mages and feral beasts.
"Rogue! We can't hold them off for much longer without resorting to killing them, do you have a plan or what?" Sting asked, speaking loud enough so only I could hear him.
Putting my faith into the bear once again I responded with an affirmative before closing my eyes and pressing the button.
Not feeling, hearing or sensing anything coming from the device I opened my eyes to see that everything had frozen, or so it seemed. After a few seconds I heard a thump and several more after, looking around for the source I found that it was the heartbeats of everyone in the pit and noticed that everyone was still moving, but extremely slow. Realizing that I had spent about a minute gawking I ran towards the ledge that separated me from Angelica and scaled the wall. It was an easy climb, the wall protruded and dipped in all the right places giving me something to hold onto. Once I was at the top I noticed her scared look on her face as her free hand slowly descended towards a shiny black button on the control panel in front of her. Barring my teeth at her in a silent snarl I broke the chain free from her other hand and dropped it on the ground before picking her up and tossing her over the edge of the pit so she'd fall into it when time went back to normal.
Guessing that I had about two minutes left out of my original five, I jumped into the pit and threw the three of them up and out of the pit as quickly and gently as I could. As before with Angelica they moved at a normal speed when I first tossed them before gradually slowing down until it looked like they were frozen once again. Knowing I wouldn't be able to make it out of the pit before time ran out I faced the beasts and psycho mages and released my shadow roar as time went back to normal. A second after I sent them all flying backwards, taking advantage of the reprieve of attacks I sprinted towards the same wall I had climbed earlier.
"Close the walls and ceiling!" I yelled as I climbed, sparing a glance behind me to see that some of the enemy hadn't been affected by my roar as much as I had hoped and were following me up the wall.
"But the wards!" Juvia said leaning over the edge, sending blasts of water past my shoulders to give me more time as she kept Angelica suspended in a bubble of water away from the remaining monsters.
"You won't make it out in time!" Sting said looking over the edge from behind the panel.
"Just do it!" I shouted, glad to see Minerva shove Sting to the side and slam her hand on the button. From underneath and atop of me I heard grinding noises as the various walls began to close. Putting on a burst of speed I climbed faster as the opening got smaller and smaller. I was beginning to think I wasn't going to make it out when the opening in the ceiling got impossibly small, until two large paws slipped through the hole and held it open.
"Hurry!" The bear roared. Seeing a hand reach down I flung myself at it catching it with both hands causing Sting to grunt at my weight. Just as Ayame roared again and the panels began jerking closed Sting pulled me free of the pit and we tumbled to the ground in a heaving mess. Feeling around for him with one hand as I caught my breath and fought my pounding headache, I patted the first part of him I touch, which was his arm thankfully.
"Thanks Sting." I said out of breath and received a grunt in return.
"Getupgetupgetup." Ayame said quickly from above us. Looking up at her I saw her staring down at Angelica.
"Chill out we're fine. She can't get out."
"We have to go before the guards come, they check in here every hour. She'll alert them then and escape, we need to be far from here before that happens." She said, using one of her paws to help me up.
Hearing the clattering of chains dragging on the ground i groaned and stood up. "Here let me break that-" I tried to get ahold of the chain only to have her scurry backwards in fear.
"The chain won't break, the only way to get it open is with a key she keeps hidden. It's the only way she's been able to control me since she isn't a Celestial Mage. This chain keeps me from using my powers and returning to my key, where ever it may be." The bear said looking sad.
Walking up to her I put a comforting hand on her back, far away from the chain and spoke. "We will help you find the key, it's the least we can do after you gave me that device. By the way what was it? I've never seen or heard of it before."
"it was something I have been saving since my banishment, just in case of an emergency. But since it wouldn't be any good for me with this damn chain around my neck I figured I might as well save you so we could help each other get what we both want, and that's Polaris dead.
"Oh and before you ask we don't have a cure for that poison your girlfriend is suffering from but from the reports that came in from those who survived at our base in Satan's Peak, she has the only thing that has any possibility of healing her." She said without missing a step, while the four of us halted in relief that Lucy had a chance to be healed.
"Alright Natsu!" Sting whooped.
"Juvia knew Gray-sama could do it."
"Well then once we find that key we can get out of this god-forsaken hell hole." Minerva said as she began walking again. When she was about to pass me she propelled me forward with a hand on my back to get me moving.
At that Ayame turned her head towards me when I silently shook my head at her she scoffed. "Well isn't that peachy, you didn't tell them."
"Tell us what?" Minerva said having caught our exchange.
"That you're in the belly of the beast so to speak. This is the Abastors' home base and beneath our very feet is where Polaris lies."
An: Thanks to everyone who has followed, favorited, and reviewed my fic! Even though the schedule hasn't been consistent every email reminder I get notifying my that someone has read my fic, it nudges me to write a chapter, or reminds me that I have one half written somewhere. lol
Anyways thanks a billion, I love you all. :)
Amthystra: Thanks! Hopefully this one was the same.
Alaina Kuski: no promises. ;)
Infinities Lover: Haha if only every story had an infinite number of chapters; life would be perfect. Sorry it took so long.
LHeart: thanks for your patience! :)
Adabs17: suspense is a good thing! I don't want you guys to get bored with it. Lol
artificialartofficial: thanks. It's taken forever to get to this many words but it's been fun.
jello673: thanks! :)