XXX
March 20th, X778
A large set of bulbous white eyes stared unblinkingly at him.
Despite being an immortal god of the sun, hitting the ocean's churning surface hurt. Natsu opened his mouth to curse, only for water to shove down his nose and throat. He choked, kicking hard for the surface, but he'd never been a strong swimmer. He'd come from a tiny village near the summit of Igneel's volcanic home, after all. There'd never been much swimming – certainly when there was no lake or pond to actually swim in. It had only been later, when he'd become what he was now, that he'd been introduced to the idea, and even then he'd always hated swimming.
Natsu wondered if Lucy could swim.
Natsu grimaced, flinching when he hit the rocky cliff behind him. Gold oozed, drifting into the salty water around him. His wounds stung furiously at the touch of salt, and he saw those big white eyes shift just slightly, watching with hungry excitement. He scowled at those eyes, lungs burning for air. Maybe he couldn't die, but he could sure as hell feel the pain of drowning, and he didn't like it.
Suddenly, those eyes moved closer, revealing a ghastly face. It wasn't unlike that of a Vhalis's face, if he thought about it. Ghostly pale, with some dark mottling near the too-wide mouth. There were no lips, only a red slash where jagged teeth stuck out, eager to sink into his flesh. They were stained blac, as if it had eaten the Vhalis that had shoved him from the cliff alongside it. Hair, blending with the water, swirled around that face and seemed to sway in the current like tendrils of seaweed. When it swam closer, he could see the sleek tail attached to its too-long body, gray and white and not unlike that of a shark. A delicate set of scarred gills flared on either side of its neck. The figure was massive, nearly ten times the length of a fishing boat.
It must be nice, thought Natsu irritably, to be able to breathe.
The creature's face suddenly tipped up, as if something had caught its attention. It turned to look over its shoulder, seeming keen on leaving him there to simply struggle. Panic flared deep in his chest. If Lucy entered these waters–
Fearless of consequences, Natsu reached out and grabbed its wrist. Sharp black talons nicked his skin where they touched. A scream filled his ears despite the water rushing around him. It snapped its head back towards him, baring its teeth. It attempted to wrench itself free, but Natsu held fast. He summoned the miniscule dregs of power left in his veins for just a heartbeat, searing at her skin to hold her attention.
He would protect Lucy, even if it meant offending the temperamental spirit of the sea.
Lucy stared at the surging gray water as it crashed and roared against the sides of the rocky cliff they'd climbed down. She ignored Gray's demands that she "get out of the damn water," staring anxiously at where her friend had fallen. She was up to her thighs in the freezing cold sea, ignoring the way it sprayed at her face as she screamed, "Natsu!" A sob ripped from her chest when she saw the giant fin of an extremely large shark glide through the water, lazily circling the area he'd fallen into. It was as if the shark was debating whether or not to attack and eat the free meal.
A hand suddenly closed around her arm and dragged her back onto the beach. Lucy cursed and spat at Gray, trying to wrestle free, but he ignored her attempts and nearly threw her down onto the sand like she was a misbehaving puppy. He glared down at her. "You can't enter those waters, Lucy."
She glared right back at him. "You're a god," she snarled, "so do something!"
"I can't," rasped Gray. Lucy's heart skipped a beat at the look of guilt on Gray's face. He might not have been Natsu's biggest fan, but he didn't like this any more than she did. "These are Juvia's waters, Lucy. If I had a soul to retrieve, it'd be one thing, but I don't. I can't enter the water without her permission – not here, not with her claiming this particular stretch as her home. It'd be like walking into someone's home uninvited. Juvia's…I mean a lot to her, but I'm still just a god."
Lucy bit down hard on her tongue to stifle a sob, burying her face in her hands for a moment. Wendy stepped forward to wrap an arm around her waist, trying to offer what comfort she could as she whispered in a small voice, "He'll be okay, right, Gray? Natsu can swim?"
"I…don't know." Gray glanced at the sea, gaze trailing the dorsal fin slicing through the waves. "It doesn't matter if he can or can't. It depends on what Juvia's feeling. Natsu entered the water without her permission, regardless of how. She's within her rights to retaliate. She's probably deciding whether she wants to or not right now."
"That's Juvia?" rasped Lucy in a hoarse voice, dragging her hand down her face. As if hearing them, the shark's body breached ever so slightly before diving deep, and Lucy felt dizzy. She'd seen the pale flash of skin attached to the shark's body, the size of it, the scars marring its gray and white skin.
That was no shark.
It seemed like a lifetime before something monstrous suddenly breached high above the water, jagged teeth parted in a scream. Lucy recoiled against the beach at the sight of who had to be Juvia. This was the sea spirit Gray seemed so fond of?! She was horrible to look at between her sharp teeth, bulging white eyes, and Vhalis-like flesh. She rose higher and higher, casting a shadow that covered the entire beach as she towered above them. She suddenly flung something at the beach with a snarl.
Lucy gawked as something – no, someone struck the sand with a loud thump! She scrambled to her feet and bolted, arms outstretched, and slammed into the beach on her knees, stones and pebbles tearing at her jeans and scratching her badly as Natsu suddenly shoved himself to his hands and knees. He coughed and hacked, vomiting water onto the rocky sand. He looked as startled as the rest of them as Juvia crashed back into the ocean, spraying them all with freezing cold water. Lucy scarcely cared, too relieved to see Natsu alive as he slumped down and rolled onto his back, breathless.
"Hey, Luce," he said hoarsely, smiling faintly at her.
"Natsu," she rasped, looking inclined to throttle him for a moment as he finally rocked upright. She chose instead to throw her arms around his neck in a hug, burying her face against his shoulder. "You idiot! I told you to be careful–"
Natsu laughed roughly, wrapping his arms around her tightly in turn. His voice was raw from the salt water that had clogged his lungs when he said, "Sorry." He grunted when Wendy suddenly joined them, nearly knocking them both over as she tackled them in a hug, too, tears streaming down her face.
"I should have let you sit at the bottom of the sea for what you did," seethed a feminine voice Lucy hadn't expected. She pulled back to peer at the woman who'd joined Gray on the beach, confused by the sight of her. She was beautiful in comparison to the creature she'd been moments before, her thick blue hair falling around her shoulders in gentle waves. Piercing blue eyes glared viciously at them. She wore a delicate, pretty gown that seemed to ripple around her ankles like a calm, peaceful day on a tropical ocean, and she cradled her burned, charred wrist close to her chest. Gray seemed rather agitated about it, peering at the injury with concern.
Natsu smiled sheepishly at the sea spirit. "Sorry, Juvia," he said hoarsely. "Had to get your attention somehow."
She sniffed. "You didn't have to burn me." Her gaze turned onto Lucy and Wendy, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. She inclined her head in acknowledgement to Wendy, but looked at Lucy with significant disapproval, which ruffled Lucy a little. "And for a human nonetheless."
Lucy thought about whether or not it was worth it to get annoyed over Juvia's statement, but she decided against it. She elected to simply rise to her feet, brushing sand and rock dust from her wet pants, helping Wendy to her feet a moment later. She then offered Natsu a hand, and he accepted the help. He staggered, but kept his balance. "Thank you, Juvia," Natsu said. "For helping."
Juvia huffed, but seemed placated by his gratitude. "After the poison you fed me and daring to enter my waters, I should have fed you to my eels."
Natsu winced. "It was an accident. The Vhalis knocked me off the cliff, I think. It was kind of too fast for me to know exactly what happened." He glanced at Lucy, who nodded in confirmation, face paling as she recalled watching him tumble from the cliff.
"Vhalis?" murmured Juvia with interest, looking to Gray for an explanation. He leaned in to murmur in her ear. Lucy eyed the pair, lips quirking tiredly. Gray was certainly more than a friend to Juvia. But she kept that observation to herself and wrapped her coat tighter around her. While she was fairly sure spring should have been on its way, it was still rather cold – especially now that she was rather soaked. Between hugging a sopping wet Natsu and standing in the sea, she was freezing.
Juvia nodded slowly when Gray pulled back, her gaze drifting over the three before them. Her attention lingered on Natsu. "The lost souls…a few have fallen into my oceans. They don't taste very nice." Lucy blanched at the thought. "Usually, I spit them out." She squared her shoulders, lifting her chin. "You're right to seek a way to rectify the world. I will attempt to visit Valhalla myself and speak with Mavis. She cannot turn us away the same way she can you gods. Why hasn't Erza tried yet?" checked Juvia with a glance at Gray.
He grimaced. "She's been too busy helping Jellal and I with the Vhalis."
Her head bobbed in grim understanding. She turned back to Natsu, gaze sharp as a knife when she gazed at Lucy for a moment. Juvia frowned lightly. "Natsu, there is a safe zone that is well protected a few miles east of here. The town is one I've favored for a long time. They're respectful of the waters they live beside, and have relied on fishing for centuries." She tipped her head to the side when rather than asking questions about it, Natsu clenched his jaw and remained silent. Almost kindly, she added, "I flooded the area around it, creating channels the lost ones cannot cross. Several sea creatures protect it. Your friends would be quite safe there. Grandeeney would also approve of it as a home for her daughter. You would not need to protect them as you do now."
Lucy's breath nearly froze in her chest, excitement sparking. It wasn't just a safehouse, but an entire town. An island of sorts, it sounded like, isolated enough to protect those who lived on it. She'd not thought such a thing possible to exist. She was thrilled. She grinned at Wendy, who beamed back at her. But when Lucy looked to Natsu for his reaction…
He wasn't smiling. In fact, his hands were clenched into fists, and he sounded viciously angry when he said quietly, "Keep out of my business, Juvia."
Lucy was taken aback. She'd thought he'd be as excited as they were. Juvia seemed as surprised as Lucy was, lifting her eyebrows. But she only exchanged a look with Gray, who didn't say anything. He didn't need to, nor did Juvia. Lucy was willing to bet both were thinking as Erza had thought: Natsu had no business making such close friendships with a human like Lucy. She hated that. She really didn't like that these gods and spirits liked to talk about it as if she wasn't there either.
"Your friends would be quite safe there."
Your friends. Not all of them, but Natsu's friends. As if she didn't want Natsu to stay in the safe zone despite his lacking power. Something churned in Lucy's gut as she cast an anxious glance in Natsu's direction. The irritation on his face soothed her fears, however. He didn't want to go. He wanted to stay in the safe zone with Lucy and Wendy. But at the same time, Lucy knew he wouldn't be able to. He wanted to solve the mystery of what had happened to create the Fall, why he couldn't go home.
Lucy felt dizzy at the thought. She could no longer imagine not having the man with his initially strange beliefs around every day. He was her friend. A good friend now, at that, even if he could smite her at any moment when they'd first met. Lucy wasn't scared of him anymore, especially with his diminished power, and she knew Wendy wasn't either. Not that she ever had been.
Breath hitched, Lucy was admittedly relieved when Natsu turned on his heel, grabbed Lucy's wrist, and began towing her after him. "Thanks for the directions," he said coldly over his shoulder. "You can tell Erza we found Juvia, Gray."
It was a clear dismissal. Gray was no longer welcome to travel with them. Lucy didn't think Natsu had ever welcomed the idea, but especially now, he didn't want him around. Gray looked as if he disagreed with the idea. Lucy didn't think it was entirely related to his disagreement with Natsu's choice of friends either. Gray had become an acquaintance at least, maybe even a friend in his own right.
But Gray simply shrugged, glancing seaward, and drawled, "Good luck."
"Thanks for your help," she told Gray over her shoulder.
"Hold on." Wendy ignored Natsu's irritated look in favor of bolting over to Gray. Natsu stopped, and they watched as Wendy threw her arms around Gray's middle in a hug, squeezing him gently. "Thank you for finding me," she said quietly, smiling broadly at him. Gray looked shocked, as if he'd not expected it. Still, a fond look crossed his face, and he ruffled her hair.
"Stay safe," said Gray quietly. Wendy nodded, bobbing her head once before racing after Lucy and Natsu. Lucy couldn't help but smile at her, feeling a sting of sadness that blossomed into fear.
If saying goodbye to someone like Gray stung, then what kind of pain would she endure if she had to say farewell to Natsu?
"We really should have gotten better directions before we left," said Lucy with a heavy sigh as they picked their way along the coast, heading east in the hopes of finding the safe zone Juvia protected. She grimaced as she shaded her eyes and peered down the coast, scouting ahead as she waited for Wendy to catch up with them. "We're going to miss it with our luck."
Natsu didn't seem overly concerned, scarcely reacting to Lucy's worried words. "We're fine." He grimaced suddenly, rubbing at his shoulder as if it were sore. Lucy wondered how he'd not shown more than that ounce of pain. He'd fallen from a cliff and had come out looking unscathed. Mostly.
Lucy didn't voice her disagreement. He knew how Lucy felt regarding what had happened; she'd told him after only an hour or so of walking, cautiously asking if he was okay and if he wanted to tell her what had been going on in his head when he'd decided to tell Gray to stay behind. Natsu had refused to answer, holding his tongue, so Lucy had simply explained she was worried, and that if he wanted to talk, she would listen.
They'd chosen to continue throughout the night, though she and Wendy were ready to buckle from exhaustion. They'd thought they'd reach the safe zone before then, but it appeared it was further than they'd anticipated. Now, the sun was beginning to creep over the horizon, and Lucy longed for the comforts of sleep.
"Hey." Wendy tugged at Lucy's hand. "Lucy, look!"
Lucy looked in the direction Wendy pointed, and she lit up, too. "Natsu!" she breathed, squeezing Wendy's shoulder to show her gratitude.
A sole house stood not too far away, hidden until they were nearly upon it in dawn's dimness. It was fairly isolated in the open, rocky plains, and of an average size with what initially appeared to be two stories. A balcony on the back of the house was silhouetted by the rising sun, and they could see an old, broken fence surrounding the half-acre yard. It looked darker in color than it was in the early dawn – safe, too.
Save for a single flickering light that lit what looked like a tiny attic window. A candle. A lit candle. Lucy's breath caught until Natsu suddenly bumped her shoulder with his to catch her attention. He nodded at a cracked window on the second story of the house, and Lucy watched with shock as a lanky body hauled its upper half out the window to sniff at the air with a flat, collapsed nose. Lucy recoiled. That was definitely a Vhalis, something she'd recognize without light to show its form. And it wasn't alone, for a piercing shriek came from inside the house, drawing the first Vhalis back inside.
There were at least two, maybe more.
"We aren't going in there, are we?" whispered Wendy, voice cracking at the thought of doing so.
"No," confirmed Lucy, tucking her into her side as she studied the house. "We can't get safely through the front door, let alone search and stay in a place with Vhalis already inside. We should keep going." She turned to leave, but Natsu stubbornly lingered, watching the candle light with interest. "Natsu, come one, we should go before they realize we're–"
Natsu sucked in a sharp breath. "Lucy," he breathed. "There's someone in there."
Sure enough, when Lucy looked, a pale face had appeared in the attic window beside the flickering candle. Lucy could scarcely see any prominent features on their face, but she could see the franticness of their movements as they began to hastily wave their arms, hoping someone had finally come to help them.
Wendy gasped. "We're not going to leave them, right?"
Lucy shifted uneasily, glancing at Natsu. Once, Natsu could have kept them safe from the Vhalis. Now…he was nearly as human as she was. "Wendy…we don't know how many Vhalis there are, let alone if we could defend ourselves against them. It might not be possible without getting ourselves killed."
"We can't just leave them in there, Luce," argued Natsu softly, and Lucy turned to him. His onyx eyes gleamed with determination, and Lucy knew without a doubt that even if she demanded otherwise, he was going to go in and at least try.
Lucy sighed, scrubbing her hands down her face. She almost missed Gray. Not only would he have enabled them to help this person without having some way of stopping the Vhalis, but he would have agreed with her side of the argument. But, it was two to one, and she remembered what it was like to be scared and stuck, too. "Right," she muttered, wondering when she'd gone from avoiding danger like the plague to letting Natsu and Wendy convince her this was a good idea. She tossed her pack down, and Natsu and Wendy quickly followed suit. Wendy was nervous, but as determined as they were. Natsu waited impatiently for Lucy's instructions as she cracked her knuckles and said, "This is what we're going to do…"
I want to draw that scene with Juvia above the water throwing Natsu so badly, but nothing's worked thus far. Maybe one day.
Unexpectedly, where I'm now writing, I introduced someone who wasn't meant to actually show up in the fic, but I'm loving it. It fixed all my problems.
Also, I'm wrapping up the one-shot prequel with Jellal and Erza. I'm very excited. I'll release it after a particular chapter releases! ;)
Thanks to reviewers (marn-marn, Meow Orbit, Unnamed one, BurstingDragons, TheAngelicPyro, hopelesskar, dooryy, JayScriptMage345, and Sele de la Luna!) as well as those who favorited and followed!
