Water arched through the air as the beast tossed its head. The Leviathan spread its maw wide and roared into the cloudless sky. Natsu growled, jerking through the pressure spiking behind his forehead, squeezing his eyes shut as the fractured shards of curses and rage clawed through his chest. The Leviathan's small, beady eyes glinted dully as it twisted it's head. When it growled, low and jading, the sea rippled and danced. Lucy gazed up at the monster, squinting through the haze of the brightness of the sun. Natsu's words echoed over themselves in her head, a cacophony of possibilities she didn't want to believe.

"How…how do you know?" She murmured. Natsu sagged under her hold. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"I don't know how, I just know." Shivering, Natsu forced one eye open. "It's the same feeling from back then."

"But that's impossible!" Happy trembled. He clung to Lucy's arm, fur damp and whiskers wilted. "All the demons were destroyed when you defeated Zeref!"

Natsu grunted, staggering to his feet. The Leviathan watched him, ghostly eyes swinging with every sway of his uncertain legs.

"Apparently this guy didn't get the memo."

Captain Kobe pulled himself up along the door frame of the ship's cabin, the last of the sea leaving his lungs in a fit of coughs. He was dripping and shivering like a wet dog, but he appeared to be fine. Trembling, fear bright in his eyes, he looked up to the monolithic figure of the Leviathan. Kobe had seen the ocean's fury before, seen the wrath that nature could inflict with frothing fists and thunderous blows - but that was a controlled force, predictable and avoidable. This was chaos incarnate. This was disorder made corporeal. A thick, almost palpable feeling of doom permeated the atmosphere, freezing the poor man to the deck of his ship. Dread and hopelessness drowned him more than any wave ever could.

The Leviathan gathered itself, coiling like a snake. Even from aboard the deck of the Light Chaser, Kobe could still hear the harrowing pops as the creature's jaw opened wide, dislocating from its skull to hang ragged beneath its head. Translucent teeth gleamed in the sun, spears of bone and void opening wide like a gate the abyss that would swallow the little boat whole.

Water churned like a bubbling cauldron as the Leviathan lunged, surging toward the boat in a blur of teeth and hunger. Closing his eyes, the old captain cowered behind his arms and waited for death.

"Open! Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

Blinding gold light cracked though the air. A hollow clang echoed behind the static of wind blowing through a grassy field. The sky turned amber, filtered through the stars that cocooned the ship with warmth and neon. A tremendous crash rattled the boat as the Leviathan's teeth clamped onto the bubble of magic, piercing and gnawing but not breaking. Waves billowed from the boat's hull as the force of the beast's mouth pushed it through the sea. The abyss snapped closed and withdrew with the rest of the Leviathan. The demon flashed its teeth, screeching in frustration. The magic surrounding the boat dropped, stars winking out and falling from the air.

Loki stood firm on the deck, tall and ready before Lucy and Natsu. Lowering his arms, the spirit glared at the monster over the brims of his dark glasses.

"Are you guys alright?" Loki asked. "I felt a strange power just now."

"We're okay," Lucy sputtered. She certainly didn't sound okay. "But we need to get out of here quickly!"

"No."

Natsu brushed Lucy's arm away, wincing as he gathered his feet beneath him and trembled into his own weight. Squinting through the pulsing veins of lava swimming in his eyes, Natsu glared at the Leviathan. Sparks of crimson danced in the fibers of his irises, manic with fear and anger. If he was still in pain, he was hiding it well.

"We've got to take this thing down and figure out what's going on," Natsu seethed. His lips twisted as he winced, growling through the stinging tear in his chest. "I want to know why one of Zeref's demons is still alive and kicking after all these years."

Happy's paws tightened around Lucy's arm, his worry telegraphing into her. "Natsu…"

Loki broke his stare-down with the Leviathan, surprise flashing in the dark space behind his eyes as he blinked at Natsu. "That thing is an etherious?"

The Leviathan circled the boat as they spoke. Agitated, wary, the beast snapped its jaws in the face of this new magic of stars and shields. In the wake of its pacing, the Light Chaser slowly began to spin. Natsu stumbled on the deck, his knee cracking into the hard wood as his head lost itself in the dizziness of polarities. Lucy took his hand, his palm burning into her knuckles.

"That would explain the dark magic I felt," Loki muttered, watching the Leviathan, he eyes dark and predatory. "But I thought all of Zeref's books were burned?"

Lucy wedged herself underneath Natsu's chest, hoisting the dragon slayer to his feet once more. Happy curled around his leg, a stabilizing weight counteracting against the turbulence of the bucking sea. The boat spun faster, water thrusting against the sides of The Light Chaser. The weathered wood of the hull groaned against a pressure it wasn't made to withstand.

"Doesn't matter what we thought, that thing is definitely not burned!" Lucy shouted at the spirit, frustration lacing her words. They were wasting time. "And we're going to die unless you do something!"

Loki moved swiftly, dashing across the deck and leaping from the rail of the boat. Within the brief space of weightless time, stars and light coalesced in his waiting hands. A condensed nova of gold and dust flashed into the shadows of the depths below. The sea imploded, cracking apart between Regulus and Polaris. The Leviathan jerked, flinching away from the boiling aftershock. Loki disappeared into the frothy waves, diving deep and away from the boat. Lucy and Happy watched the Leviathan snarl as it dove after the spirit, the roiling sea rushing in to fill in the space left behind. The battle continued below the water, told by the flashes of light and turbulent ripples that rose from underneath.

"He's going to need help." Lucy grasped another key, holding it skyward. "Open! Gate of the Sea Goat! Capricorn!"

With another burst of stars and light, the tall spirit stepped up to Lucy with a short bow. Before he could speak his usual formalities, Lucy thrust an arm out, hand pointed to the cascade of bubbles coming up from the depths of the sea.

"I need you to help Leo distract the Leviathan long enough so we can get out of here!" She spoke quickly and urgently. "But please, be careful!"

"They don't call me the Sea Goat for nothing, Lady Lucy," was all Capricorn said before he too, jumped into the rolling waves. Lucy would have summoned more spirits to help even the odds, but experience and necessity had taught her that it was better to have fewer spirits fighting with all their strength, rather than many spirits fighting with half their strength.

"Lucy, no!" Natsu plead, straining against her. "I told you, we need to beat that thing!"

Lucy ignored him, looking over her shoulder back at the Captain. "Kobe! Get us to land!"

The captain took a slight moment's hesitation, a torpid of fear and awe delaying his courage. Remembering himself and the vow he had made, Kobe shook himself out of his shock, set his resolve, and climbed to his feet. Grabbing the wheel once again, Kobe groaned as he strained to hold it in place, fighting against furious currents. When the Light Chaser was once again still on the water, Kobe cranked the wheel hard. Realigning with the wind, the boat glided across the waves, set on a straight course for the shore. As they left the Leviathan and Lucy's spirits in their wake, Natsu struggled weakly in their grip.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He spat angrily. "Turn around!"

He was not prepared when Lucy suddenly slammed her hands against his chest. His feet lost themselves, tripping as Natsu stumbled till the backs of his knees hit the bench on the ship and landed heavily on his butt. He moved to surge back up, his will demanding that he stand and fight despite the harrowing odds and screaming pain - but Lucy stepped up against him, pinning his knees and pushing his shoulders back.

"I'm not letting you anywhere near that thing!" She screamed, her voice cracking against the coiling desperation in her throat. He could hear it, like an icy chill on the wind, his anger quickly fading. Something wet touched his lip, tinging his tongue with a salt that didn't come from the sea. "I won't lose you again! Do you hear me, Natsu Dragneel?!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy yelped, still clinging to Natsu's leg, trying desperately in all his twelve-pound might to anchor his friend to the safety of the deck. The blue cat sniffled as he too began tearing up, eyes lost within dark memories. His small body shivered, trembling as he nuzzled his face into Natsu's calf.

Lucy glared down at him, her eyes pleading despite her effort to remain strong. Natsu didn't dare try to move, trapped within the hold of their terror and conviction.

"I will not..." Lucy's voice shook as her fingers dug lightly into his skin. "I can not let you risk your life for this. You mean too much to me."

Lucy raised her hand to Natsu's face, the diamond ring on her finger glinting in the sun. "We're bonded together, Natsu, by something stronger than friendship. Where ever you go, I go. What ever happens to you happens to the both of us. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He did... and he was an idiot for not thinking on his own consequences. After all these years, nothing had truly changed. Natsu would follow her anywhere, chase her into the swallowing oblivion if he had to - and she would do the exact same for him. They weren't kids or teenagers anymore, though. He couldn't act as recklessly as he used to. He had to be better than that, for her sake.

Sighing, Natsu leaned into her, his hand cradling Lucy's jaw and catching her tears with his thumb. His eyes dropped to the scar on her hip, the starry blemish starkly contrasted with her pale, smooth skin. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to - Lucy could see his thoughts plainly, as if they were printed on his face. When he finally looked up, his dark eyes gazing solidly back into hers, Natsu gave her a small smile.

"Okay," he said with a nod. "I'll stay right here."

A shaky breath escaped Lucy's lips. Dropping her head in relief, Lucy sagged herself onto the bench next to Natsu. Happy loosened his death grip on his leg, fuzzy face still pressed to his skin. Sitting up, Natsu groaned as his stomach roiled. It did seem, though, that the farther away they got from the Leviathan, the glass shards behind his heart ground less painfully, tore a little less of him away. His etherious, against his expectations, was receding. Perhaps it had only been residual magic he had been feeling, and not actually E.N.D. baring his teeth once more. At least, Natsu hoped so.

The Light Chaser had just entered lighter, shallower waters when Lucy winced. Panting, she looked out to the open ocean, a thin sheen of sweat on her brow. The stream of magic she had been feeding her spirits had taken its toll, stealing the bronze from her cheeks and leaving her pallid. Lucy huffed a sigh, her eyes glistening as she looked up at Natsu.

"Loki and Capricorn are back in the Celestial Plane." She peered out over the waves. "I hope they bought us enough time."

Natsu followed her gaze to the ocean, a line of worry creasing between his eyebrows. He could feel the grip around his heart relax, a small but growing relief as the curse subsided. The memory of pain hurt worse than the dull ache that sat like a hot stone in his chest, but Natsu doubted they were out of the woods just yet. The boat slowed as the sluggish currents of the shallows and the coastal breeze shifted near the warmth of land. All was quiet, save for the water lapping against the boat and the distant roar of waves crashing on the beach. The sea leading out to the horizon was likewise calm, a brilliant façade for the horrors that lurked beneath. All eyes on deck plastered to the blue horizon, too afraid to blink and miss the threat that was surely waiting in the moments between heartbeats, poised to strike. But after a tense while of anxious trepidation, the Leviathan had still not returned, and Natsu was beginning to think that just maybe-

"Gah!" Crumpling forward, Natsu cried as his body seized. A spear of pain jerked through him, rending him to pieces. "Damn it! It's coming!"

Even as he spoke the words, the Leviathan broke the surface of the ocean, twisting and writhing in a raging maelstrom a hundred yards off. With blinding speed, the demon coursed toward the tiny boat, skipping over the sea like a snake over sand. Hundreds of small, fresh cuts around its mouth and eyes oozed white with glowing liquid ethernano. It crashed over the waves, no sign or show that it was thinking about slowing down. The monster was going to ram them, and the small wooden boat didn't stand a chance. Shooting to his feet, Natsu darted for the cabin of the ship on unsteady feet.

"Happy, get Lucy!"

Lucy wasn't as fast as Happy, the blue exceed gripping her shoulders and snapping his wings open. The deck disappeared from beneath her feet, the boat growing smaller as Happy hoisted her up and carried her high into the air. A desperate shout tore from her mouth as Lucy watched her fiancé disappear inside the Captain's cabin. In the time that it took for her frantic heart to beat just once, the Leviathan had plowed onto the sandy shoal, bulldozing across the sand bar into the Light Chaser. A flurry of water and wet brown skin and teeth obscured the small boat beneath its fury. The sharp crack of splintering wood and grinding metal echoed up to Lucy and Happy, a harsh cacophony of destruction. The Leviathan ground to a quick stop, its momentum cut as it ran against the shallow floor. The beast beached itself just short of land with its demonic glory exposed for all to see, a slimy heap of hunger and flesh. Its gills puffed uselessly, trying to circulate air and failing. Although it had given up the advantage of deep water, its sheer size and power still presented a danger as the monster thrashed and tossed. The boat had been blown to smithereens, no trace or hint of the fate of the occupants left behind.

"Natsu!" Lucy wailed, tears brimming in her wide eyes. Clapping her hands over her mouth, engagement ring burning coldly against her lip, Lucy pushed the worst away from her assumptions. He wasn't gone. He wasn't gone. He wasn't-

"Lucy, look!" Happy's eyes were locked onto a point on the water, a drop of splashing near the Leviathan's tempestuous tantrum. Lucy watched the familiar head of pink hair breach the surface, a potent relief stinging her eyes with more tears.

Natsu grimaced, panting as his face bobbed above the water. Sand shifted just beneath his toes, but the water was still too deep to properly stand. Small cuts on his forehead and jaw ached and bled sluggishly, splinters embedded beneath his skin. Kobe splashed to the surface next to him, spluttering and reaching. The missing wedge of flesh from his ear had reopened, the old scar running crimson down the side of his face. Natsu had gotten to him with nanoseconds to spare, sweeping the poor Captain off of his feet and throwing themselves overboard as the Leviathan roared past their heels. Kobe gasped, following Natsu as he swam for shallower depths. There the two men fell into the knee-deep water, shivering down from the rush of adrenalin.

Panting and trembling, Natsu coughed copper and salt from his lungs. A drop of red bloomed in the sea beneath his face, his tongue tasting like old coins. Lucy and Happy shouted his name, their voices distant and quiet behind the ringing in his head. His motion sickness was no more – a hefty consolation – but the dark energy within him was spiking through the broken glass, dousing his fire beneath hate and hunt. Natsu couldn't even tell the difference between curse and magic anymore. Even the strain, the fight to keep those claws and jowls at bay, cut him to his core. It was hard to stop something from happening when he didn't even know how it was happening. Gritting his teeth, he looked up and across the water. The Leviathan flopped and jerked, moving slowly but surely toward the mage and the Captain across the sandy bottom of the ocean, its weak fins heaving its massive body forward one inch at a time. It snarled at Natsu, beady eyes flashing manically as it dragged itself closer. The Leviathan tossed its head and screeched, white ethernano-blood flying from a thousand wounds.

The water splashed behind him. Natsu twisted his head to look, his neck craning painfully and stiff to see his fiancé plunge into the shallow sea. Lucy wobbled for a moment, gaining her footing beneath her, Happy's paws a steadying balance on her shoulder. She waded toward him, eyes bright and sanguine. Natsu choked, his heart ripping in his chest, reminding him that the Leviathan wasn't the only danger in the water.

"Stop!" Natsu rasped as he threw up a hand. "Don't come any closer!"

Thankfully, they listened, halting just several feet away. Grunting, he pushed himself to his feet, the sand sinking beneath his heels. Sweat and salt water dripped down his face, stinging in his eyes and the cuts on his face. Natsu cringed, another sliver of malice cutting through the frayed tapestry of his soul. If this kept up any longer, he was going to be torn apart from the inside out. The Leviathan was surging closer, its vigor heightened as the space between them grew smaller. Kobe had abandoned him, crawling backwards through the water until he bumped into Lucy's knees. The poor fisherman was scared out of his wits, his mind scattered before fear and flight. Lucy and Happy stood their ground, but wound like tight coils for the first opening to run.

They wouldn't run, though. Not without him, Natsu realized. And he was already too far gone.

There was no time to think. His contaminated magic thrummed through his limbs, mixing with the etherious coursing through his veins. He knew the risks. He knew his odds weren't good. But, as much as he hated to admit it, he was barely hanging on by his fingertips as it was. The curse was fragmented, a fraction of the storm he had drowned in three years ago - but it was enough. Natsu hissed his frustration through his teeth, glaring back at the Leviathan. If he was going to fall, then he was going to take big ugly with him.

Untying the white scarf from around his waist, Natsu gathered it into a ball and turned to Lucy. She snatched it out of the air as he tossed it to her, eyebrows arching through her confusion.

"Hold onto that for me."

His lips were smiling. His eyes weren't.

"I'll be right back. I swear."

He turned away, away from his love and his life, and waded toward the snapping maw of death and demons. The beast roared, waves of water and foam splashing loudly as it tossed its head. Lucy stared after him, she and Happy helpless to do anything but watch.

He summoned his raw magic. The wild etherious rose with it. A muscle in his neck spasmed out of his control, painfully snapping through the tendons in his head. Growls slipped between his teeth, pain fading as fury rose to take its place. He started running, picking up speed quickly even in the knee-deep water. The Leviathan screeched and thrashed in anticipation, its large teeth shining. The first flames flared up from Natsu's fingertips, up his arms and across his shoulders. In the bright sun beating down on the waves, his flames blared darkly, black fire swallowing the light. Terror struck Lucy like a lightning bolt.

"Natsu, don't!" Her legs started moving. "Na-!"

A firm grip clamped down on her arm, jerking her to a stop. Captain Kobe's large hand cuffed her in place and held fast, Happy captured in his other arm. The small cat clawed and kicked at his flesh, but he held tight.

"I can't let you go, Miss Lucy," he said, voice soft, haunted. "You won't make it."

"You don't understand!" Lucy yanked against him. "I have to stop him, or else he'll-!"

The Leviathan roared. Lucy turned. She choked as her heart shivered to a stop.

Natsu burned across the sea, shining like a dark star. The flesh of his arms charred beneath the same flames he commanded, burning his skin to charcoal black that sheathed his fists in pitch gauntlets. The unmistakable and powerful feeling of malice permeated the air, squeezing her lungs against her ribs. Lucy's stomach dropped, her last threads of hope cut with the sharp knife of loss. She had thought she would never see her best friend - the love of her life - like this again.

The ocean water boiled around him as Natsu sprinted headlong through the sea, surging toward the twisting Leviathan. The monster rose up to meet him, its mouth spread wide with an ear-splitting roar cracking like thunder. Natsu jumped, one fist balled and swelling with demonic flames as he soared toward the monster's head. His teeth flashed from his snarling mouth, resonating into his own beastly roar. The fangs of the Leviathan enclosed Natsu from above and below, a cage of bone ready to snap shut around him. Natsu thrust his fist forward, blasting an inferno down the creature's throat. The Leviathan's body jerked, its insides illuminated like a festival lantern. Its brown, slimy skin split apart along its hide, spewing fire and black smoke. Lucy could feel the heat of the flames from where she stood, blistering her skin and boiling against her legs. She wanted to look away, but the carnage was too captivating.

The black flames burned everything they touched, rendering all to ashes. The firestorm Natsu had created broke the Leviathan apart within a column of flames reaching the sky. Even the sun dimmed against his fury. The water flashed, quickly filling the air with thick, salty steam. Lucy closed her eyes and hid, shielding her face behind her arm. For a few painstaking seconds, the only sounds she heard were the death cries of the Leviathan, the sizzling of flesh and water, and the roar of the demonic flames. A terrible symphony of pain and despair.

Then, everything went quiet as the grave.

Lowering her arm, Lucy cast her eyes around the steamy sea, trying to listen above the sound of her frantic heart and breathing. Stepping forward, out of Kobe's relaxed grip on her arm, Lucy numbly waded through the steaming waves, terrified for what she might find. But she had to know if Natsu was okay. She had to find him.

Lucy didn't know when she started running, her feet splashing loudly through the water. She was vaguely aware of Happy flying beside her, skimming over the surface, fur and feathers damp. Each step she took urged more tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks.

"Natsu!" Her call echoed hollowly in the steamy atmosphere and went unanswered. "Natsu!"

A splash, distant and scattered. Lucy and Happy stopped, spinning toward the sound, peering through the dissipating steam to the familiar outline taking shape as it rose from the surface. Lucy gasped, clutching his scarf tighter. She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

"Lucy."

Natsu stumbled out of the steam. There were no more flames, dark or light. His silhouette was whole, unharmed but shuttering under his own strength. His head hung to his chest, weighed with exhaustion as he moved slowly through the water. Lucy should have been glad, roseately seeing the halo of the sun through the steam. But something still felt… off. Her instincts knew something she didn't, warnings sparking through the nerves that tightened her muscles to flee, screaming through the doubts in her mind that Natsu shouldn't be this quiet. Lucy stood her ground, despite the quivering in her gut that told her she was a rabbit being cornered by a fox.

Natsu lurched, stumbling like a puppet with cut strings. He shuddered, his muscles rippling beneath his skin, like insects were crawling through his flesh. When Natsu raised his head to look at Lucy and Happy, his irises were small black dots peering out at them from the vast shadows of his soot-covered face, dangerously manic and hysterically wild. He panted ragged breaths, dark smoke curling past his teeth. Blood oozed from the cuts on his forehead and jaw, glowing in the dimness, contaminated with ethernano.

Lucy couldn't find Natsu in the person before her, couldn't see him in those eyes that glared at her with an insatiable hunger. He was barely there, if at all. Natsu was a stranger she had met only once before, three years ago in darker, more desperate times.

"No…"

Natsu's fingers twitched, the char on his hands cracking apart. She could hear his teeth grinding in his skull, friction and struggle as he fought to regain control. He was losing.

"Lucy… Happy…" The words were almost inaudible, drenched in a growl.

Soft paws on Lucy's shoulders, trembling and damp. Happy hovered close behind her, ready to fly. They both knew that it wouldn't matter how far he flew. E.N.D. would find them. Natsu grunted as his body spasmed, his head cracking as it twisted. His eyes rose back up to the girl and cat, and for a brief second, Lucy saw terror in the pitch of his gaze.

"Run."

A/N: I don't think I've ever had a first chapter get so many favorites and followers. Thank you so much!

EDIT: This chapter had been edited for style and content 3/21.

Reviews are greatly appreciated, even if it's just to point out stuff I might have forgotten or inconsistencies. Don't be afraid to critic me or ask questions~!

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