E.N.D pulled the weapon from Natsu and released his hold on his neck, letting him fall.

"NO!" Lucy screamed and was at Natsu's side instantly, holding him. His breathing was too shallow and too much blood was pooling underneath him and onto her lap. His eyes were closed shut and his hands balled into fists. Natsu gritted his teeth.

Wendy was at her side and didn't waste anytime using her healing magic. Erza and Gray screamed and charged E.N.D while he just stood there smiling over Natsu's body.

"Natsu talk to me! Say something please!" She let the tears fall and pulled him closer.

Slowly he opened his eyes. When they met Lucy's, he smiled.

"Hey, Luce what's up?"

She didn't respond. She only gripped him tighter.

"Why you cryin? It's not like I'm dying or anything. Sorry," Natsu squeezed his eyes shut for a second wincing at a sudden jolt of pain. "bad choice of words."

"Natsu..." Lucy spoke through the tears.

"Luce I'm sorry but I need you to do something for me." She looked at him. "That guy over there? I need you to run away from him."

Lucy shook her head vigorously. "No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not running away!"

"Luce please..."

"NO. I'm not leaving you! Wendy is going to fix you up and then we can go home together. Whatever happened to 'it's always more fun when we're together'?! What will Nashi say when she finds out that her mom ran away from her dad and the man who..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

"Lucy?" She turned to Wendy, who had stopped her magic. She was shaking her head.

"No no no no no no no please no. I'm not going to let you die. You're going to come home with us! You can fight with Gray and then Erza will break you up and then afterwards you'll go and eat with Nashi and we can go on more missions and-"

"Lucy stop." Natsu had turned serious and Lucy stopped talking. "Erza!"

Gray and Erza were still fighting E.N.D as best they could but they haven't even landed a hit. Both of them looked exhausted.

"Go! I can handle this guy for a bit." Gray shouted to Erza and then gritted his teeth, firing his next attack.

Erza was seeing just how bad his condition was for the first time. A large hole ran straight through his abdomen. Blood was leaking out onto Lucy's lap as she held him up. He turned to Erza, refusing to show any sign of pain. The sweat on his forehead and dull look in his eyes said otherwise.

"Take everyone and go." Erza was about to retaliate when he continued.

"Just leave me and go. Just keep running and don't look back." Natsu's expression had softened. Of course he wanted to be with his friends, but E.N.D had proved to be too much for them and he wanted them to retreat while they still could. Even if it meant leaving him behind as dead weight. He didn't want to think about what everyone was going to say, he just wanted them to live because of him.

Erza looked back and forth between Gray and E.N.D fighting and Natsu. Gray was almost at his limit. If this kept up, everyone of them could...no...they would be dead.

"Gray! We're leaving!"

"What about Natsu?! We can't just leave him here?! Erza!"

"NOW!" Her red hair hid her face as she stood up and started pulling Lucy away. Wendy reluctantly followed in tears.

"No! I'm not leaving! Erza let me go!" Lucy pushed at Erza's arm, attempting to release herself from her hold but Erza wasn't budging.

"We need to respect Natsu's wish. Come on." Erza tugged on her arm, not daring to look back no matter how badly she wanted to. E.N.D had completely forgotten about Gray leaving in the middle of a fight and had moved back over to Natsu. E.N.D picked Natsu up by his hair and positioned him so that he was on his knees facing everyone's backs as they ran away. He conjured another one of the swords but this time it was smaller, like a dagger. He winced when the grip on his hair tightened but then saw Lucy's eyes staring directly at him. He gave her his famous smile and mouthed something to her before the dagger had disappeared again, this time in his chest. Natsu's eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped backwards.

Something inside Lucy snapped. An earth shattering scream escaped from her lungs and the sky turned dark. Thousands of stars rained down from the heavens and landed all around them.

E.N.D reacted just in time to produce so much fire, that it surrounded him and Natsu and charred everything else. The whole scene, the stars and flames, could be seen from miles away. When the last star had fallen Lucy was unable to stand, forcing Gray to carry her over his shoulder. He looked back only to see that E.N.D and Natsu's body had completely vanished. Lucy gave into unconsciousness, repeating Natsu's last words inside her head, the same words that he had said to her after she had lost in the Grand Magic Games:

"You were amazing."