Chapter 28: The Last Day

One day, twenty-four hours, one thousand four hundred and forty minutes, eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds. That's how much longer Natsu Dragneel had until his veins turned purple all over his entire body, how long he had until the poison that had begun in his left arm completed its journey to his heart and eventually stopped its steady beat. One day until he took his final breath, and joined his father in the next life where he would be waiting for him with open arms. Twenty-four hours until he would close his eyes and sleep free of nightmares for the first time in what felt like an eternity. One thousand four hundred and forty minutes until he would be free from the agonizing pain his body was in, no more broken leg or bruised torso, no more scars covering his body, he would be good as new. Eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds until he would leave this world behind, leave behind his friends both old and new, the ones he made at Fairy Tail or right there in Nirvana, the ones he met years ago or just a few days. One last day until he left Lucy, never able to see her smiling face again, never able to see the shimmer in her brown eyes, unable to tell her how much she meant to him, and how she had given him the strength to stay alive in this Hellhole. Of course if by some miracle the poison didn't kill him, the sub-zero temperatures of the freezer he was trapped in would.

He sat curled up in a ball for warmth in the small metal ice box that he had been trapped in, his skin was turning blue and ice began forming on his flesh, his hair frozen, his fingers and toes numb. The water he had been soaked with prior to being thrusted into the freezer had long since frozen over. His teeth clattered together as he shivered, he had begged for some miraculous return of his powers, but no such luck awaited him. Of all the forms of torture Brain had subjected him to, this was by far the worst. Natsu was miserable, he had closed his eyes out of fear that they too would freeze, so now he was stuck in a dark, cold empty void. This was certainly not the way he thought he would go out. He had lost track of how long he had been stuck in there, maybe it was an hour, maybe two? Maybe it was only ten minutes.

"I think he's in here." A familiar gravelly voice whispered from outside the large metal door, Natsu's eyes fluttered open. Was he imagining things now?

"Shhh, we need to be quiet." A female voice shushed the previous one, Natsu blinked a few times as he stared at the direction of the door.

"Let's just get the popsicle out of here so we can leave this place far behind." A third voice spoke up and a split second later the door swung open, Natsu's eyes immediately blinded by the bright lights outside of the dark room. He squinted and could barely make out three silhouettes outside of the freezer.

"What are ya waiting for Salamander c'mon or I'm shutting the door again." The gravelly voice spoke up and suddenly he was yanked outside of the freezer. The warmth outside of it was so nice, he fell to the ground still shivering and trying to adjust to the light. When his eyes finally did adjust he looked up at the figure who had pulled him out of the cold room.

"C-C-C-Co….Cobr-Cobra…" He shivered looking up at the scarred man, who grunted in response.

"Here put these on." A sweet angelic femine voice knocked Natsu out of his trance, he turned to the source of the voice to find a smiling white haired girl holding a pair of pants. He took them without hesitation and put them on still shivering.

"Sheesh, I knew Brain was a horrible person, but this is messed up even for him." Natsu turned to see a blonde haired man looking down at him with….pity? Maybe, Natsu couldn't really tell. He broke out in a fit of coughs, his vision blurred slightly and he became dizzy, even though he was sitting down on the floor shivering he felt like falling over. Cobra must have noticed this, or at the very least the purple markings all over Natsu's body cause he let out a weird sound that sounded like a cross between a growl and a hiss.

"Bastard didn't even drain my poison from his body…." He muttered, Yukino crouched down so that she was eye level with Natsu.

"We're going to get you out of here, can you walk?" She asked, Natsu took a second to understand the question, even though English was his primary language it sounded foreign to him. Once he processed the question he shook his head gesturing to his leg.

"N-not...b-b-b-by myself…." He shivered. Cobra then bent down with a huff.

"Guess since I'm kind of responsible for this I'll give you a hand." He muttered, and helped Natsu to his feet.

"Here, I'll help." Sawyer offered, and walked towards Natsu's other side to help stabilize him. They both winced as they touched Natsu's frozen skin, Sorano beamed as she looked at the three boys.

"Alright...that Lucy girl said that we were meeting in the garage so that's where we should go!" Natsu ears twitched, as he perked up a little. Did he hear that right?

"L-L-Luce?" He asked, Sorano looked at him and smiled.

"Yeah, cute girl a little bit shorter than you, blonde hair. Why? Do you know her?" Natsu's eyes widened in horror. Why was she here of all places?!

"Y-yeah...W-we're fr-friends…."

"Well then, all the more reason to not make them wait any longer! To the garage!" Sorano announced and marched away.

"Easy for you to say...You're not the one carrying A hundred some pounds of frozen lizard." Cobra groaned under his breath.

"I HEARD THAT!" Sorano yelled back, Cobra rolled his eye as Sawyer chuckled while they helped Natsu down the hall, his mind kept wandering to what he had just been told. He was going to see Lucy at least one last time, and even with everything wrong with him, he couldn't help but to smile at that.

Lucy meanwhile was stealthily wandering through the quiet, empty halls of the prison. Meredy, and Lyon with her she held onto the small key that Sorano had given her to unlock the power nullifier collars the prisoners were wearing. They turned down the final corridor that led to the cell block, and her mind started thinking about Natsu once more, they needed to hurry up and complete their task, Natsu was running out of time.

"This is bizarre…" Lyon whispered.

"What do you mean by that?" Meredy asked him, Lyon shrugged, Lucy also turned her head to look at him.

"I just mean that there is nobody around, don't you find that a bit strange?"

"Now that you mention it, there is a certain abandoned ghost town vibe." Lucy stated as she noticed what he was saying, the prison that usually was full of so many people was completely empty. It was quiet, too quiet, it put the three into a state of uneasiness.

"Y-yeah...it is really creepy…" Meredy noted in agreement with the other two, despite this they kept going forward. Eventually they reached the cell block, the only sounds filling the hall were the footsteps coming from the trio. Wendy's head picked up once she noticed them, her eyes red and puffy it was obvious that she had been crying, no doubt she was scared about Natsu. Lucy waltzed over to her cell and opened it using the keycard, and number passcode that Sorano had lent her. The glass slid open and Wendy backed into the corner terrified.

"P-please...l-leave me alone." She freaked out her hands shot up to her face as she began sobbing.

"Wpah, woah, woah...Wendy calm down. It's me." Lucy removed her helmet and face coverings allowing the young girl to see her face and long golden locks. Wendy calmed down upon seeing her before standing up and running to embrace her.

"Lucy….It's terrible, they treat Natsu so bad! A-A-And...He i-is hurt badly!" The girl cried into Lucy's stomach, she felt her heart break as she wrapped her arms around the young girl tightly squeezing her reassuringly.

"I know...shhh it's okay….We're getting out of here…" She whispered comfortingly, using the small key she placed it in the slot on Wendy's collar, allowing it to click off and fall to the ground. While she was doing that Lyon had made his way over to Sherria's cell and unlocked it as well.

"LYON!" The girl ran and jumped into Lyon's arms. He smirked as he pulled down his mask.

"Hey there Sherria. How have you been?" He asked while using another one of the keys to take off her collar.

"It could be worse...I feel bad for that Natsu kid...Brain seems to have it out for him."

"You can say that again…" A new voice spoke from beside them.

"JELLAL!" Meredy chimed and ran over to his cell. She hurriedly opened it throwing off her helmet in the process, and embraced the blue haired male.

"Hello Meredy." He smirked as she squeezed him tightly.

"What am I chopped liver?" Ultear joked from across the hall, Meredy quickly unlocked Jellal's collar and ran over to Ultear's cell.

"Of course not. I missed you two so much!" Meredy sniffled as she repeated her previous actions with Ultear. Ultear smiled into the hug.

"I missed you too Meredy, I knew you'd come."

"What's going on here?" Kagura asked slightly dazed while Lyon unlocked her cell.

"Sounds like we are braking outta this joint, which is wild!" Bacchus grinned, but was also slightly dazed as Meredy mirrored Lyon, Ichyia sniffed the air in his cell.

"I knew I recognized your scent! You're Miss Ashley." He pointed at Lucy who felt the familiar cold shiver run up her spine whenever she was near that creep.

"Ashley? No her name is Lucy, Mr. Ichiya." Wendy beamed, and Lucy's face fell into a frown as she opened Ichiya's cell.

"Is this true Miss Ashley, you lied to me! You are actually Miss Lucy?" Ichiya asked slightly offended that Lucy had lied to him. She sighed.

"It wasn't a complete lie….Ashley is my middle name." Lucy explained as she walked away from him in a hurry. A few minutes later everyone was out in the hall, their collars all removed from their necks.

"Okay everyone! We are getting out of here, follow us to the garage!" Lucy spoke and motioned for the large gaggle of people to follow her. They moved as fast and as quietly as they could, it was harder than they imagined it would be though as the large building was a maze. Lucy's heart was pounding in her ears terrified of the possibility of Brain catching them. They stumbled into a room hoping it was the right one, but in reality was just another storage room.

"Dammit…" Lucy cursed as she leaned against a wall to take a breather. Jellal walked deeper into the room, his eyes fixated on something.

"Hold up, this might not be all bad…." He walked over to a box on a shelf, and took it down. A large grin formed on his face.

"So they didn't just throw our stuff out." He pulled out a large blue coat with fur lining.

"Wait is that, what I think it is…" Kagura asked as she too spotted something in the room, despite her dazed state from having her power completely removed from her body she kept walking forward and reached onto the shelf pulling down a kimono and a sword? There was a glimmer in her eyes as she unsheathed it.

"Sweet they kept my gourd!" Bacchus cackled as he fished into a box and pulled out a brown gourd, and uncapped it taking a swig of the liquid inside.

"And my coat!" Yukino chimed in pulling out a large white fur coat. Soon all the prisoners had found their personal belongings and had changed out of their jumpsuits into their normal attires, once that was settled they exited the room and returned to their search for the garage. Finally they found it, there were still no guards or anything around making them all grow uneasy. Upon entering the garage Lucy's eyes lit up, before she even knew what she was doing her body was running forward. Running towards four figures by a van who were waiting for them, more specifically the one who was sitting on the ground, his back against the black vehicle, cocooned in a blanket.

"NATSU!" She yelled out in pure joy seeing him again, he looked up and he smiled warmly at her as she slid on her knees next to him. Immediately she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, tears flowing down her face as she squeezed him.

"L-Luce…." He shivered into her neck as he reciprocated the hug holding her tightly. He ignored the pain his body was in, the fuzziness of his head, everything. The world stopped spinning as the two held onto each other, nothing else mattered as Natsu felt the tears dripping down his face as well. They didn't notice the way Sorano and Yukino had rushed to hug each other, both of them weeping in joy in seeing their sibling again. The way Kinana had leapt into Eirk's arms and the two exchanged a heated kiss, the reunion between Sawyer and Richard. None of that mattered to them, nothing but the tight embrace the two childhood best friends were caught up in. Natsu could breath in her faint vanilla scent allowing it to calm him down completely forgetting all of the stuff he had been put through in this place. Forgetting about how he was supposed to die later that die, unfortunately that fact wouldn't lay forgotten for long as their tender moment was broken by a fit of coughing coming from the salmon haired boy. Lucy backed up and looked at him with a soft expression.

"Are you okay?" She asked gently, he couldn't reply as more coughs came from his mouth. Lucy frowned as she placed her hand on his forehead immediately pulling it back.

"Natsu, you're freezing!" She glanced at his neck and saw that his collar was still on, she stumbled to grab her key and unlock it, it fell to the ground with a clang.

"There….you should be able to use your fire to heat yourself back up now…." She smiled warmly at him, he nodded and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sure enough he felt the warmth travel through his body, he breathed out and a few small flames came out, Lucy smiled as she saw life return to his cold green eyes. He smiled for what felt like the first time in a lifetime.

"T-thanks Luce…" He whispered once more burying his head into the crook of her neck.

"Natsu! I'm so glad you're okay!" Wendy had also ran at him, she also jumped at him hugging him tightly. Natsu grunted, but nonetheless grinned as he sat being crushed by the two girls' hugs.

"I could say the same to you Wendy." He ruffled the young girl's hair she beamed at him.

"Are you hurt anywhere? I can heal you!" She pulled away, Natsu grimaced and nodded his head allowing the blanket to fall from his shoulders revealing his shirtless figure. Lucy gasped at the strange purple marks that covered him, not to mention all the bruises and cuts he had.

"I made some friends." He sarcastically told the two who were looking at him in horror.

"Here, I'll help! You are in real bad shape!" Sherria ran forward joining the other young girl in using their powers to heal the poor teenager. Lucy held onto his hand tightly, watching on as all the bruises faded away along with some of the minor cuts and scrapes. They moved down to his broken leg and Natsu squirmed in pain as the bones mended themselves. Soon enough though the pain subsided leaving him relatively good as new, with the exception of the purple markings, and the scar on his neck from Erigor.

"Here, try to stand. Bones are hard to heal, so we had to combine our powers to try and fix your leg." Wendy exclaimed, Natsu nodded and rose to his feet with the help of the three girls. He slowly applied pressure on the leg that had been broken, and exhaled in relief when he felt no pain. He hopped up and down a few times, and it seemed to be fine.

"Thanks guys, I feel a lot better!" Natsu grinned, finally being able to stand by himself for the first time in awhile.

"Well what are we waiting for! Let's get out of here!" Jellal smirked and walked towards Natsu. He placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hell yeah!" Natsu nodded at the blue haired man. They began loading up the vans, Natsu rested his head on Lucy's shoulder, Wendy sat on the other side of him neither one wanting to leave him. Natsu looked out the window, he was really going to see the outside, they were going to be free, maybe they could have Ichiya or Porlyusica make an antidote to his poison. Erik sat in the driver seat next to Kinana. He turned the key in the ignition, but the car didn't start.

"What the Hell?" He muttered attempting to start it a few more times, but the engine wouldn't turn over, the same was happening for the second van.

"What's happening?" Kagura asked up front, Natsu's eyes darkened at what he saw out the window.

"Brain." Sure enough the two vans were surrounded by guards. Natsu got up and walked outside, joined by the occupants of the two vans as they were trapped. Natsu, and Brain stared at each other down. Lucy hid behind Natsu slightly freaked out that they were caught.

"Prisoner Eight…."

"Brain…." The two glared at each other.

"Why am I not surprised to see that I have been betrayed?" Brain asked looking in Erik, Sawyer, Richard, and Sorano's direction. Midnight walked from behind his father a dark expression on his face.

"You were who ratted us out! How did you know!" Sorano shot at the boy, who shrugged.

"I don't much appreciate my so-called friends going behind my back. I followed you to the security room, and was in there when you came up with this plan…" He held up his hand turning it invisible.

"You little." Cobra growled his fists clenching. Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear all stood back to back, Lyon and Sherria prepared for a fight as did the other prisoners. Natsu and Brain stood silent as they stared at each other. Natsu's blood began to boil as he stared at the man, thoughts of the last week flooded through his mind, and how much he just wanted to attack him. So that's what he did, shooting himself forward his fist became engulfed, Brain just stood in place with his arms crossed behind his back as Natsu came closer.

"NATSU LOOK OUT!" Lucy and the others yelled out in horror as they saw what he didn't until it was too late. Thrusting his fist in Brain's direction a strong gust of wind blasted him out of the air. He fell to the ground with a thud he looked up to see a hooded figure standing above him holding a scythe against his neck.

"Erigor." Natsu growled, kicking the man off him. Erigor took off his hood revealing that he had shaved off his white hair leaving him bald with a hint of a stubble on his chin.

"Salamander…" The two stood across from each other, Brain smiled as the guards began to close in on Natsu. Similarly the former prisoners were prepared to fight every last one of them.

"Everyone stand down….Let's see how this plays out…" Brain grinned. Midnight glanced up at his father slightly confused.

"Father? Are you sure?"

"Of course….I do believe those two have some frustrations with the other they wish to release."

"You got that right boss." Erigor twirled his scythe and pointed it at Natsu.

"This brat has been a thorn in my side for too long." Natsu's fists tightened.

"That makes two of us. I owe you a beating for everything you did to me!" Natsu's fists burst into flames and he rushed at Erigor, who prepared for a fight.

"You took everything from me! I will kill you!" He swung his scythe at Natsu who ducked it and kneed him straight in the gut. Erigor bent over, dropping his scythe in the process, Natsu meanwhile leapt into the air combining two fireballs into one larger one, Erigor's eyes widened in recognition of Natsu's attack. Natsu hurled it forward at the self titled God of Death who only held his arms up to block it, unable to sidestep it. Lucy watched in awe as she watched Natsu twirl in the air, she had no idea just how skilled he was. A blush crept onto her face as she watched the way his muscles flexed and tightened with his movements. The others were also in awe of the power Natsu was capable of, they all knew he had the heart of a lion, but up until this point he had been helpless, and broken. When the smoke from the large fireball dissipated Erigor was laying on the ground motionless, Natsu landed on the ground, with a cocky smirk on his face, but something was off.

"...I….win….." He panted out heavily, Jellal studied him curiously.

"He barely even fought and he's already out of breath?" Lucy glanced at Jellal curiously before returning her gaze on Natsu who had fallen to one knee and sure enough was struggling to catch a breath. Jellal wasn't the only one who noticed this as Brain was watching Natsu with a hint of amusement in his eyes. Erigor struggled to sit up, his cloak had been completely burned away leaving most of his body covered in ash and burnt as well. He grasped his scythe with a shaky hand.

"...Damn brat, I forgot how hard you could hit…" Natsu's face darkened as Erigor stood back up, Natsu also attempted to rise to his feet, but he couldn't find his balance suddenly feeling nauseous he felt dizzier than he had before. Stumbling around he didn't even notice that Erigor had sent razor sharp wind attacks at him until he was sprawled out on his back.

"NATSU!" Lucy shouted and attempted to run at him, but Jellal stopped her and she glared at him.

"What's the big idea! Natsu's in trouble!" She snapped at him.

"Even so, he would be more upset if you rushed into danger and got hurt." Ultear explained, Lucy huffed.

"So what am I just supposed to sit by and watch him get hurt?!"

"He'll be okay Lucy….He's Natsu after all...He always gets back up." Wendy beamed up at the blonde girl who let out an exasperated sigh watching as the boy she fell in love with stood back up albeit with shaky legs. He began coughing and Erigor took that as a chance to attack, he flew forward and swung his scythe. Natsu was barely able to stumble out of the way, he attempted to punch Erigor with a flaming strike, but the fire dissipated before it made contact, he still managed a pretty good punch to Erigor's cheek, causing him to back up a few steps. Natsu looked down at his hand confused as to why his flames disappeared. As he was looking down at them his vision became blurred and fuzzy. Another dizzy spell hit him making him lose his balance. A gust of wind sent him onto the ground once more as he was off balance. He laid flat on his back coughing harder than he had before, his vision darkened while Erigor stalked towards him raising his scythe in the air preparing to bring it down onto Natsu.

"This is where your story ends!" He hissed as he began bringing the sharp blade down. An audible cracking sound echoed throughout the large room, followed by the metallic clang of Erigor's weapon falling to the ground. Natsu's vision began to return. He looked up to see Erigor on his knees, and standing behind him was Lucy with her whip in hand.

"Luce?! What're you doing?!" Natsu choked out breaking into coughs after the sentence left his mouth.

"Saving you!" Lucy snapped back, Erigor turned to glare at her.

"You'll pay for that you bitch!" He ran at her and charged at her. Natsu struggled back up to his feet and rushed in to intercept Erigor delivering a strong flaming punch to Erigor's face knocking him out.

"Don't you touch her…" Natsu panted, he again lost his balance falling backwards in a fit of coughs as Lucy caught him. Brain watched this scene curiously, an idea forming in his head.

"Now that our fun is over with….Guards take them back to their cells, except for those two…" He pointed at Natsu and Lucy.

"I want them in my office." The guards began to close in on them, and Natsu soon succumbed to the poison and blacked out.

Chapter 29: Confrontations

A/N: Once again thank you for all the kind reviews! You guys are amazing as always, and I actually have a question for all of you. What has been your favorite arc so far?

The Salamander Arc: Chapters 1-7

The Phantom Lord Arc: Chapters 9-14

City of Stone Arc: 15-20

Nirvana Arc: 22-Ongoing

I'm genuinely curious so please let me know!

Nalucenter thank you for that huge review lol! I smiled the entire time while reading it, now in response to your questions.

My favorite characters are Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Jellal, Ichiya, Zeref and Ultear.

My favorite fic author is probably LoneStorm who is responsible for The Keys of Fire, a story that actually helped inspire mine! Also Mslead-Kytrin!

I started watching the anime about five years ago, I had read the manga prior, but my significant other wanted to watch it as it is their favorite anime.

I have not started Edens Zero yet, I just read Mashima's Heroes though and really enjoyed it.

I wouldn't say I'm a great writer, but thank you! :D I would say I'm passable, but not great. The way I write is pretty weird, I am a film major so I write this story the way I'd like to watch it, I even play music that correlates to scenes as I'm writing them. For example when I was writing Natsu and Gajeel vs Laxus I was listening to the song Three Dragon Slayers. Along with that I also preplan what I want to happen in an arc, and it definitely helps me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!