Fairytale of Doom
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Worlds in Ruin
Reality made itself known to Natsu through a savage stabbing pain that pierced up his arm and across his ribcage – almost but not quite at his heart. The cursed rose wrapped around him like ivy throttling an oak, thorns buried deep into his skin.
With a yell, Natsu ripped it free. Blood followed it like red ribbons unravelling from his flesh. He hurled the cursed thing to the ground and stamped on it, again and again; like hell would he let this goddamn flower get away with-
It was too late that he heard the titter.
Something wrapped around him and hoisted him bodily into the air. At first, he thought it was the rose again, but these vines were night-black and far more numerous. With no fire to burn them, Natsu only had his strength to rely on, and his limbs were already stretched to breaking point.
"What an interesting curse," mused a high voice. One clawed, slender hand, designed for the artistry of wickedness, plucked the trampled rose from the ground. The golden sparks it shed cast ominous shadows upon her night-black robes and sickly green skin. "I may just keep it for myself."
Nor was she the only sinister stranger who had appeared in the room. A hulking man with the eyes of a hawk lurked by the entrance to the underground chamber, one hand on the hilt of his sword. Next to him stood a person who looked like Juvia, but smelled like rancid octopus to Natsu's sensitive nose. And then there was the grey-haired woman of stone and steel, who had tried to marry Natsu off to one of her horrid daughters. Her hands rested atop a rigid cane, back straight, no hint of a smile on her face as Natsu redoubled his efforts to escape from the vines, although her eyes gleamed malevolently.
Cana was similarly bound by vines. They sealed her mouth shut too, ensuring that she hadn't been able to warn Natsu.
Yet the chamber was not silent. It rang with pitiful, wailing cries.
Fairy Tail's greatest enemy was curled up in a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth as he sobbed. He did not appear to have noticed the intruders. Natsu wished he would look up and see them, just to end that cacophony of grief and torment, from which even his mighty heart shied away.
If Lady Tremaine could hear the sound of suffering, she gave no sign. "Do not forget what we came here for, Maleficent." She stepped towards Mavis's glass coffin and the treasures it held. "Ah, yes. These are the keys this fool made the mirror reveal. Maleficent, if you would be so kind…"
The dark fairy's lips thinned at the order, but she duly waved her hand, and the glass coffin, along with the shield and sword laid atop it, lifted into the air of their own accord.
"That's Fairy Tail's magic!" Natsu snarled. "Give it back!"
"Why should I?" A sneer curled Lady Tremaine's lip. "Your story is over. It is time for our happy endings."
"Happiness isn't about stealing things from other people. If you can only be happy by making someone else miserable, then you don't deserve it!"
"And yet here we are, winning," Tremaine lectured him. "We stand united, while your petty squabbles against each other gave us exactly the opening we needed. And there I thought you were supposed to be the heroes of the story."
The villains laughed. It wasn't nearly as awful as Zeref's unceasing sobs.
Natsu found himself saying, "You wanna take over the kingdom, right? Well, we ain't gonna stop you. Not even Zeref will fight you for it any more." Not that he could, with his arms locked around his knees, pleading for the nightmare of his own memories to end. Only by wrenching his gaze away could Natsu keep his words steady. "You don't need my guild's magic. You can be the queen without it. We can all win."
"Queen of the Glass Kingdom?" Lady Tremaine's arched eyebrow cut into his pride. "Is that what you think I'm after? All I wanted from the Glass Kingdom was its army – the army that now surrounds this castle. They answer to me now, thanks to the king's foolish decision to abandon his duties and chase after you."
She glanced at Zeref's still-rocking form, an expression of disgust on her face. Natsu did not follow her gaze.
"You are far from the first to have discovered the Magic Mirror," she continued, "though you fell woefully short of uncovering its true powers. The mirror revealed to me the truth of this world. It is nothing more than a story already written. My fate – and that of my comrades – is fixed. No matter what we do, we are destined to lose to some goody-two-shoes princess and her fairy godmother, our efforts for nothing, all because some author decided that a child with no ambition or cunning or inner strength is more worthy than a woman who had to fight tooth and nail for her place in the world! Well, no more. We're changing the story. With this magic you were so kind to bring into this world, we can transform the Magic Mirror into a portal that will take us to your world. You can remain here, in this stilted play of good and evil. We are going to a realm where we can triumph!"
"No, you're not!" Natsu snarled. "We need that magic to get home! I won't let you trap us here!"
"What are you going to do to stop us?"
Natsu thrashed and thrashed, but the vines did not loosen.
"That's right. You'll be staying right here, under the watchful eye of my army," Tremaine gloated. "He, though, is coming with us."
The huge barbarian picked Zeref up by the scruff of his robes. He dangled there, a broken, shivering wreck, eyes screwed shut against a disaster that was still not as bad as the one he was reliving.
Natsu should have been pleased to see his archnemesis being so easily manhandled by an enemy.
He wasn't.
"We'll take our leave, then," Lady Tremaine spoke. "Enjoy your futures in this world. Your world's future now belongs to us."
The thorns ensnaring the Beast's Castle vanished as Maleficent and the other villains departed. In the entrance hall, Lucy dropped to her hands and knees, wheezing. Her friends fared little better; Levy staggered and Erza tried not to look like she was clutching her injured arm.
Scanning the room, Lucy could see a whole range of emotions: disbelief at everything that had just been revealed about Natsu, fury towards Zeref, stung pride that first the Black Mage and then an ambush of villains had got the better of them… and beneath all those firework-bursts of feeling lay the hollow emptiness of defeat.
They had lost the fragments of Fairy Heart.
They had come so close to getting home, and they had lost.
But there was one thing even more important than victory or defeat, so Lucy picked herself up off the floor and ran.
Heedless to the questions shouted after her, her footsteps beat down the same path that Zeref had forced Natsu to walk. She barely spared a glance for the silent chamber: Cana brushing herself down, Natsu staring listlessly at the ceiling, the vaulted cobwebs newly abandoned by their weavers. No, Lucy Heartfilia marched right through it and threw her arms around her best friend.
Natsu flinched. He'd never done that before; it only made her hold him tighter. She buried her face into the familiar texture of his scarf, inhaled his scent, dug into his warmth.
Not END. Natsu. Just like he always had been.
"Luce…" he murmured, question and hesitance and pain, and she hated that she'd let her shock and denial get the better of her earlier; that she had ever given him reason to doubt.
"Nothing's changed, Natsu," Lucy told him forcefully. "And I promise you, everyone else feels exactly the same." Their friends' footsteps had followed hers once they'd caught on, filing into the room behind her, and she didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that she spoke the words in all their hearts. "You're still you. And we are going to pay Zeref back tenfold for everything he put you through."
Natsu's face twisted in anguish. "Luce…" he said, again, but Cana cut him off cheerfully.
"That reminds me!" In one easy motion, she whipped the Book of END out from under her skirts. "Nabbed this while Zeref was distracted. Don't know what you did to him, Natsu, but it worked a treat – it looked horrible!"
"Yeah," Natsu said, unusually subdued. "It was."
Lucy gave him a strange look, but Gray spoke up before she could ask. "Cana, did you have that hidden under your dress?"
"Yup! Figured those villains would snatch it if they saw it, so I kicked it under my skirts. I knew this ridiculous floor-length gown was good for something. Never would have got that book down my cargo shorts!"
Lucy choked. "You do realize that is literally part of Natsu, right?"
Cana winked. "Enjoy the view?"
"The view of what?" asked the baffled Dragon Slayer.
"Don't ever change, Natsu," Lucy sighed, rolling her eyes.
Cana laughed, but it hadn't quite dispelled the tension. Although Lucy had believed wholeheartedly that she was speaking for the whole team earlier, there were some complications that she hadn't properly considered – and from how Natsu was watching Gray with a wild beast's wariness, he hadn't forgotten to consider them.
"Yeah, I got questions," Gray said bluntly. "But from how you were acting, I don't think you've got many answers, so it'd just waste everyone's time to do the whole thing now. We've got bigger problems to worry about, haven't we?"
Gruff words, hedged sentiments, but when said to the eternal rival he had barely been able to admit that he liked before finding out he was his sworn enemy, it kindled an even brighter spark in Natsu's eyes than Lucy's heartfelt declaration.
"Yeah, we do," Natsu affirmed, sounding a little more human.
"So, do you want this back, or should I stick it back under my skirt?" Cana asked innocently.
Lucy yanked it out of her hand. "That's quite enough of that." Then, upon realizing that she wasn't sure what one did with the physical embodiment of the soul of one's best friend, she gave Natsu a helpless look. "Uh…"
"Keep it," Natsu spoke up. "I trust you. And… if we run into Zeref again, he'll expect me to have it. It'll be safer with you."
Unable to deny his logic – and wasn't that a turnup for the books? – Lucy nodded, and tucked the Book of END into her bag. It felt so harmless under her fingers. Nothing but paper and ink, no different from the fictional words she herself wrote into existence… except somehow it was different; her teammate's beating heart.
She was trying not to think about it. It would be a while before she succeeded.
Cana interjected, "I don't think we'll see Zeref again, though. Maleficent and that lot are dealing with him for us."
"What happened down here?" Gray asked.
Cana recounted the story with occasional glances at Natsu. When he didn't pipe up, even to explain his inspired attack with the cursed rose (which Gajeel took full credit for, despite some angry notes being blown on Juvia's harmonica as a result) or what the flower had actually done to Zeref, which it seemed only Zeref and Natsu had been privy to, she shrugged and finished the story on her own.
By this point, they had all made their way out of the basement and back to the main hall. Erza strode to one of the windows they had been boarding up earlier and peered out. Grimly, she reported, "Torches as far as the eye can see. That Lady Tremaine was telling the truth – there's a whole army out there."
"Plus Gaston," Gajeel added, squinting through another gap with his superior eyesight. "Guess he decided teamin' up with the army was his best chance at revenge."
As she could always be counted on to do in a crisis, Erza turned back to them authoritatively. Her arm may have been broken, but her warrior soul was as firm as ever. "As I understand it, the situation is this," she assessed. "Zeref is being dealt with by this world's villains, so we no longer need to worry about him. However, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Shan Yu, and Ursula have the three fragments of Fairy Heart, which they plan to use to travel to our world and wreak havoc. With that infinite magic in their possession, there is no telling the damage they could do. Meanwhile, we ourselves have no magic left, our castle is under siege, and to make matters worse, we have no way of even warning our friends back home, let alone getting back to them. Is that correct?"
"Sounds right to me," Lucy chimed in despondently.
"Well… not quite," voiced Gray. Though he sounded reluctant, all eyes were on him now, so he had to continue. "We still have the First Master's way of getting home, remember? True love."
"…And there I was thinking things couldn't get any worse," Lucy groaned.
Doggedly, Gray continued, "We're all together, now. Sure, it's not going to work for all of us, but shouldn't we at least get the people home that we can?"
No one said anything. The walls and ceiling received a lot of awkward looks.
"Look, it sounds as silly to me as it does to you," Gray sighed. "But isn't it worth a try? We're not achieving anything trapped in this castle."
Cana raised a hand. "I don't actually know who my true love is supposed to be."
Everyone looked at each other.
"By process of elimination, I think it's probably me," Laxus observed.
"…Huh."
"You don't have to sound so excited."
"No, well, it's just… I always assumed I would feel some kind of attraction to my supposed true love, rather than…"
"Mild disappointment?" Laxus suggested dryly.
Cana snapped her fingers. "Exactly! No offence, Laxus, you're a great drinking buddy and all, but I'm calling bull on this whole fairytale romance thing."
"Hear, hear," muttered Lucy.
Unfortunately, this only served to draw the unexpected matchmaker's attention towards her. "Okay, maybe Cana's a non-starter, but there are definitely some legitimate relationships here, and it would be stupid to keep pretending otherwise," Gray said defensively. "Lucy, every man and his Exceed knows about your crush on Natsu-"
Lucy squeaked.
"-and here you are, the Cinderella to his Prince Charming. If that's not a sign, then I don't know what is."
"Okay, first of all, I quit being Cinderella as soon as I got here," Lucy retorted. "And secondly…"
But she got no further. Natsu Dragneel, son of the Fire Dragon King and apparently the most powerful demon ever created, was doing an excellent impression of a deer in headlights.
Everyone was looking at him as Lucy's rant tailed off, but he was looking at her. "Uh, Luce…"
"It's alright, Natsu," she cut in. "You don't have to explain yourself."
She understood his decision to carry on, though. What was one more truth after everything?
"The thing is, Luce, I don't… get… any of it," he mumbled. "Romance, attraction… any of that stuff that people talk about. Not that you're not pretty! Because you are. Really. But I just don't… feel any of that stuff."
The last of her outrage melted in his anxiousness, and the smile that graced her lips was truly beautiful. "Yeah. That's okay, Natsu. To be honest, I've thought it might be something like that for a while."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Because I'm not pretty, I'm gorgeous, and no one can see me naked as many times as you and not make a move unless there's a reason for it," she joked.
A smatter of laughter ran obligingly around the group, and Natsu seemed to relax a little. "Thanks, Luce. You know you're my best friend, right?"
Her hand came to rest over the Book of END in her bag. "Yeah, I know."
The moment lasted only until Gray dared to clear his throat again. Then Lucy's frustration at this goddamn world kicked back in, and she rounded on the ice mage unfortunate enough to have attracted her attention. "Any more bright ideas, Mira Lite? Maybe we should talk about your obvious romance. Are you ready to accept Juvia's feelings?"
Gray went as red as if she'd dropped him into a volcano. Which, metaphorically, was exactly what she'd done, in front of everyone as well. A wave of remorse crashed over her – and then she remembered how he'd kissed her on the boat without explanation, and how Juvia deserved better, deserved clarity, and her heart hardened. She met his eyes, and knew he was remembering the same moment as her. That was why he didn't run away, either.
Juvia stepped forward, hope shining in her eyes, as if she was the only person in the room who couldn't see the cliff edge they were rapidly racing towards.
Gray's shoulders slumped. "Juvia… you're really important to me, and I'll never forget everything you've done for me, especially against Invel. But I don't feel the same way about you that you do about me. I'm sorry – I wish I did. But I don't, and I know now that I won't."
He swallowed, but kept his head raised; he had to see this through. "I know you've never accepted it when I've turned you down in the past. Maybe I was never clear enough. This isn't how I wanted to do it, with everyone else listening, but since we've been forced to this point – please let this be it, Juvia. Let's move on, for both our sakes."
There was silence, as Juvia's pen stuttered through a response. At last, she flipped the sign to reveal five shaky words.
Juvia understands. Be happy, Gray.
Then she ran from the room, tears spilling behind her like pearls from a broken necklace.
Cana was already on her feet. "I'll make sure she's okay," she assured them. "It's not like I'll be needed here." And she set off after Juvia at a jog.
In all honesty, Lucy wanted to run over to Gray, too. He looked like he'd driven a knife into his own stomach – and she couldn't blame him.
Lucy, who had already been working to move on from her unrequited feelings, had found that Natsu's confession had set both him and her free. It would be a long time before either Gray or Juvia reached that stage.
Perhaps one day, when they were past the guilt and the heartache, they would both be better for it… but not today.
Seeking something that wasn't the hollowness of Gray's expression and Juvia's departure – how could such a quiet room feel so damn crushing? – Lucy's gaze caught upon the one of their number who wasn't a Fairy Tail mage.
No one had batted an eyelid at the fact that Jellal had chosen to stay with his independent guild, despite the fact that he was part of Fairy Tail in spirit, and had even fought in their name at the Grand Magic Games. Erza trusted him, and that was worth so much more to her friends than a Fairy Tail guild mark.
Perhaps it meant more to Erza, too.
Lucy's head was a cynic, but her heart still lingered in those golden evenings with Layla Heartfilia and her tales of bravery and romance. Love wasn't easy, but none had had it harder than those two. From the darkest of days had come unshakeable courage; across guild lines longing glances had lingered; bonds had thrived despite everything the world had thrown at them – surely their journey was too real to be a mere fairytale, too clumsy to be anything less than true.
Lucy saw their gazes meet across the room.
Saw golden eyes which had clambered unwavering out from the ninth circle of hell finally dim.
Saw the shadows flicker in the almost-imperceptible shake of his head.
Saw his lips move in those two words – I'm sorry – so much less than Gray had said to Juvia, and so much more.
Saw Erza give a single jerky nod, and that was all, because Erza wasn't prone to public displays of emotion, let alone fleeing a room in tears like Juvia had.
But Lucy also saw the miniscule way her back had stiffened, and her shoulders set, as though she was about to fight off a horde of Alvarez soldiers, and she thought it would be a long time before the straps of Erza's armour loosened again.
Even after opening her heart, Erza's feelings had always been reserved – solid rather than flashy, dependable rather than dramatic. Not even Lucy, one of her closest friends, could guess how deep or shallow her feelings had been, or what she'd had at stake in this world, or what that tiny shake of Jellal's head had cost her. As her feelings had been hidden, so too would be her heartbreak. Titania would go on, Fairy Tail's ever-stoic champion, until Erza Scarlet was once again ready to join her on the front lines.
Lucy felt a guilty sense of relief when a new voice spoke up: "What about Gajeel and Levy? They're already a couple, right?"
It took Lucy a moment to realize who had spoken, and she rounded on Natsu. "Wait, how do you know about that, Mr I Don't Really Get Romance?"
"It ain't a secret," Gajeel pointed out, a bit miffed.
"Hey, just 'cause I don't feel it myself doesn't mean I'm an idiot!" Natsu folded his arms sulkily.
"Flame-Brain's right, for once," Gray added. "That's one pair we can definitely get home – Belle and her Beast!"
"Mulan and her Li Shang, actually," Lucy reminded him. She had used up all her envy on the subject, and her voice just came out flat.
"What? Really?"
Levy smiled bashfully. "Yeah, though we never did find out why I'm Mulan."
"Does it matter?" Lucy asked. "The important thing is, you've got a way home!"
With a determined nod, the Solid Script mage stepped forward. "Right. So… what do we need to do, exactly?"
"It's a stupid fairytale world, so probably kiss," Lucy sighed. "Of course, it won't be true love's first kiss, as that ship's already sailed…"
Levy's cheeks reddened a tinge, but not nearly enough for Lucy's liking. They were supposed to be on the epic journey of life together, dammit! It felt like Levy had sneaked back down to the games console and cleared several stages while Lucy had been sleeping on the job.
Levy stepped forward. Gajeel did too.
It wasn't exactly the most romantic of moments even before factoring in the nosy ring of Fairy Tail mages around them.
"Umm, do you all have to watch?" Levy tried.
"Well, yeah. We've gotta see if it works," Natsu pointed out, back to his usual lack of tact.
"And we don't know what will happen," Gray supplemented, with slightly more logic. "What if it's not just those two who get teleported back home, but some sort of opening in the fabric of reality that offers us all the chance to escape? We need to be here just in case."
Laxus drawled, "Besides, it's nothing we haven't seen before. Funny how a Dragon Slayer seems to forget he's not the only one with good eyesight when he sneaks off to dark corners of the guildhall with his girlfriend."
At least Gajeel had the decency to look embarrassed. Levy, however, still seemed preoccupied by their audience. "I mean, really…" she tried weakly.
"Oh, come on, we've all been embarrassed today," Lucy assured her. "If Natsu and Gray could say their pieces in front of an audience, you can definitely kiss your pre-existing boyfriend. This is your happy ending!"
"Umm…" Levy's fingers twisted in the hem of her t-shirt.
Now even Lucy was starting to feel bad for her. Damn her too-soft heart. Changing tack, she tried, "Okay, fine, think of it differently. This isn't about true love, or whatever – it's for the guild. You've got to kiss him, go back home, and warn all our friends that a bunch of fairytale villains wielding infinite magic power are about to make the Alvarez War a whole lot worse!"
"R-right, yes," Levy stammered. "I have to do it to save our friends…"
"You okay, Shrimp?" Gajeel prompted gently. Once the nickname had been an insult, then a joke between friends, and now it overflowed with affection.
And Levy… Levy shook her head.
Slow, and then frantic.
"I can't." Tears glittered in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Gajeel, I can't, I'm sorry!"
And it was her turn to flee the scene.
A scene which immediately erupted into chaos. Because if they had seen Gray's rejection of Juvia coming a mile off, and they had failed to see what had passed in silence between Erza and Jellal at all, then no one had predicted this – not Gajeel, who stood shellshocked amidst the outcry, or the rest of them, who were demanding of each other the one answer no one had: why? How had Fairy Tail's favourite enemies-to-lovers pair come to this?
Everyone moved, but only Lucy moved with purpose. She elbowed her way through the whirlwind of gossip until she was close enough to drag Jellal out of it by his arm. "Go after her," she snapped.
"I'm sorry?"
His confusion almost seemed genuine. Almost. But she'd seen how the two of them had got along on the way back from the fake guildhall – and, more importantly, she'd seen who Levy's eyes had sought in the crowd right before she'd fled the room.
Her glare told him so in no uncertain terms.
"It's not what you think," Jellal told her quickly. "I confided in her when I faced up to my own feelings, and that's the only reason why she…"
"I don't care what the reason is!" Lucy huffed. "I just don't think I'm the one Levy wants to see right now. If you can help salvage this situation at all, then go and bloody do it!"
That did the trick.
Alone, Lucy turned back to the room in turmoil – a room of fractured hearts and frayed emotions, hopes without worth and pasts without future, endings torn up and worlds in ruin – and there was one thing she knew for sure: the theft of Fairy Heart by the literary embodiments of evil hadn't done nearly as much damage to her friends as they had done to themselves.
A/N: Well, here we are. The lowest point of the story, where everything has gone wrong for our heroes. On the plus side, at least this means things can only get better from here! Tune in again next week as we begin the long climb out of this hole... ~CS