"Are you talking about rewriting all of those... things?"
Gray gestured to the thick leather-bound tome Lucy gripped in her hands. Beaten and battered, they sat on the cobblestone ground near a park, away from the battles currently taking place with the Alvarez army. She looked down, eyes hardening at the brown book that was her best friend's literal life.
"I'm sure that somewhere, there's a piece of information we can use to save Natsu. We have to find it...!"
Episode One: The Curse of Contradiction
Lucy's body stirred and her eyes fluttered open. Her mind registered nothing as she blinked a few times. Then all at once, aches and pain rolled in waves throughout her whole body, and she let a small groan escape her lips as she squeezed her eyes shut. She slowly pushed herself up and took several deep breaths, straining her neck to look around at her surroundings.
She gasped as her eyes widened. Glancing around again, her heartbeat picked up and began to pound against her chest as panic filled her. Everything around her was white, and not even a speck of dust could be seen.
"Where am I?" She wondered out loud. The last thing she remembered was... right! Something had happened to Natsu, messing up the letters in the Book of E.N.D. She had just finished filling in those missing letters when her body burned up, unbearable heat taking over her insides as she messed with the demonic letters. Natsu's flames, Happy had suggested.
Gray had helped her out immensely by cooling the effects of the demonic fire with his own demon-slaying ice as she continued to rearrange and rewrite the demonic script in Natsu's book. Let's save Natsu together, he had said. If not for Gray, Lucy probably wouldn't have been able to finish rewriting E.N.D by herself.
We are in your mindscape. A deep, masculine voice echoed around around Lucy. Perking up, she looked around but couldn't find the source of the voice.
"We? Who are you? Why don't you show yourself?" Lucy called out.
I do not have a physical form. Although, I guess I can just use a temporary one for now. The voice resounded again. Lucy blinked, confused.
"Behind you."
Whirling her head around, Lucy came face-to-face with a handsome tanned man, who appeared in his twenties. Black hair was chopped in a boyish style, save for the long ponytail tied at the base of his neck with a golden cuff. The ponytail draped over his left shoulder, pooling down into his criss-crossed lap as he levitated. His chest was bare, but he was adorned with golden accessories - a wide collar made of pure gold embedded with emerald and sapphire elements, golden wrist cuffs, a gold waistband littered with ruby sparkles around his white baggy pants, and golden ankle cuffs over his bare feet. A long golden chain hung around his neck, a heavy ankh hanging at the end of the chain. Narrow golden eyes were trained on Lucy as he folded his hands into his lap.
"Who are you?" Lucy repeated.
"I am Ankhseram."
"Ankhseram?" Lucy's eyes widened in recognition at the name, "I've read about that name before! If I recall, you must be the Mildian god of—"
"Life and Death," he finished for her.
"Where are we?" Lucy asked again. Ankhseram sighed.
"Like I said, we are in your mindscape. A cognitive realm of your mental thoughts. Although, I'm a bit surprised to see there's nothing here."
"I was trying to save my friend. Do you know what happened to him?"
"How selfless, being worried about others over your own predicament," Ankhseram now crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. Lucy waited for him to continue with hopeful eyes.
"... He is alive, thanks to your meddling with the very book connecting his life to the world."
Lucy let out a sigh of relief, not realizing she had been holding her breath.
"And for that, I have come to pay you a visit," he continued nonchalantly. This time Lucy looked up at him with a confused look.
"Natsu Dragneel is someone who died over 400 years ago. Zeref Dragneel's disregard for maintaining the sacred balance of life and death not only brought the dead back to the land of the living, but it also resulted in his punishment of being cursed with my Black Magic. Although, moments ago it seems he has been freed of my curse.
"But I digress. You, Lucy Heartfilia, have also blatantly defied the Law of Life and Death by playing around with the very demon magic that brought Natsu back from the dead. Natsu should have died for good when Zeref blasted through his stomach, but now he lives. Humans do not hold the power to decide who lives and who dies. That is my duty as the god of Life and Death."
Lucy swallowed thickly, vaguely realizing the direction this was headed in.
"It wasn't that I was 'playing around' with someone's life! Natsu is my friend, my best friend! Of course I would do anything to save him! I did everything and the only thing I could do in that situation!"
"Natsu's fate had been decided over four hundred years ago, when his hometown was raided and attacked by dragons. You measly humans keep daring to disobey and defy my decisions as a god, so you all must be punished for your sins. Zeref Dragneel, Mavis Vermillion, and now you, Lucy Heartfilia. Toying around with demon magic is not a joke. Who are you to think you can hold another person's life in your hands?" Ankhseram's demeanor was calm, but Lucy could feel the anger and fury radiating in the space around her.
It was pure intimidation that made Lucy shudder. But she couldn't back down, no matter what!
"Because... because it's Natsu! I would do it again in a heartbeat. For any of my friends, I would do the same thing," Lucy responded with hardened resolve. She stood up to face the god, hands clenched into fists beside her. It probably didn't do much to intimidate him back, but she hoped she looked the part even just a little.
"Oh? You would do it again? I was going to give you a chance to beg for forgiveness, but it seems like you cannot be reasoned with."
"I'd take any punishment over saying that I don't care about my friends enough to let them die when the means to save them is right in front of my face! I would do anything and everything for my friends!" Lucy vowed.
Ankhseram slowly unfolded from his levitating criss-cross position and nimbly set one leg, then the other leg down so that he was standing in front of Lucy. He took a step forward to her. She took a step back in response, gulping a little.
Ankhseram took the giant golden ankh that was hanging on the chain around his neck into his right hand. Golden slits never leaving Lucy's chocolate brown orbs, he pressed the ankh over her heart.
"If that's so, then I punish you... with the Curse of Contradiction."
The ankh glowed a deadly black and Lucy's heart jumped. She doubled over in pain and cried out as black engulfed her body and her heart thumped painfully against her chest.
"From here on forth, the more regard you have for life, the more you will kill. The less regard you have for life, the more control you will have over the curse. This is the judgement you have been given for meddling with life and death."
"Nngh...!" Lucy's agonizingly screamed as the white scenery swirled around her.
"The curse will be fully active once the final nuisance is taken care of. If you care about your friends so much, go squish that bug Acnologia first. He's also been a pain in my side for four hundred years."
With that, Ankhseram said nothing else as he also morphed along with Lucy's mental landscape.
"...cy! Lucy!"
Lucy's eyes shot open as she continued to scream.
"Hey, are you alright?!" Hands gripped both of her arms steady as Lucy stopped and locked eyes with Gray.
"... What happened?" She whispered. Gray helped her sit up.
"You suddenly passed out right after rewriting E.N.D. Natsu was also just with us, telling us how the fight with Zeref ended, but he suddenly vanished into thin air!"
"Natsuuuuuu!" Happy wailed, "He must have disappeared because the book disappeared too!"
But Ankhseram told me that Natsu's alive! Lucy desperately thought.
In that moment, sliding of gravel and stone could be heard behind Gray, Lucy, and Happy. Gray turned around and saw Erza and Mest teleport into view, Erza slammed her hand on the ground to stop herself from the momentum of the teleportation.
"Erza!"
"There's no time! We'll explain everything later! Just follow me!"
"But Natsu..." Lucy was shaking.
"Natsu is alive! It's Acnologia!"
"This is the magic from all of the mages across the continent!"
"FAIRY SPHERE!"
Sweat poured down the side of Lucy's face in concentration as she formed the hand sign for Mavis's signature spell. A sphere of glorious light engulfed the gargantuan being, with the Fairy Tail guild mark proudly glistening and marking the spell for all the world to see. The black dragon fought and slammed his great tail against the barrier of light, thrashing about on top of the ship he was clinging onto on top of the ocean.
Lucy could hear the mages around her yell as they poured all of their magic into the link connecting them to her. They were united. The whole continent was united as one.
"Acnologia, he...!"
"He's disintegrating!"
"Did Fairy Sphere have that kind of power?!"
"No, this must be—"
"He did it!" Happy shouted as he flew into Lucy's arm for a big hug.
"Yeah. Natsu and the dragon slayers, they won!" Lucy cracked a tired smile, squeezing Happy to her chest.
Almost immediately, cheers resounded throughout the whole city as everyone pumped their fists up or threw their hands up in victory. Loved ones embraced each other—family, friends, couples, partners and the like. Some cried, some laughed, some threw themselves down in exhaustion. It was over.
Lucy looked up in relief and sighed, Happy in her arms. Suddenly, a crack split through the clear blue sky, and the sky literally shattered, akin to glass being dropped onto hard floor. Just as suddenly, Natsu, Wendy, and the other dragon slayers were thrust through the lapse in space.
Natsu! Lucy smiled wide, until she noticed he was falling straight at... her!
"AaaaaAaaAAAaAAAhHHH!" He yelled through the air, flailing a little with wide, comical eyes. Lucy blanched and he crashed right into her, foreheads knocking together as Lucy fell over with Natsu on top of her.
As the dust settled around them, Natsu pushed himself up a little, caging Lucy in between his arms. He grinned. Lucy affectionately squeezed Happy as she glanced up at Natsu, tears of relief welling up in her eyes. Natsu was alive, and he was here.
"I'm home!"
"Welcome home!"
And for a moment, just for a moment, all else was forgotten as the pair smiled at each other in that state.
For the next few days, the entirety of the Kingdom of Fiore was trying to pick up the pieces left from the war with the Alvarez Empire and Acnologia. Before anybody could do any real work to rebuild towns and cities, the mages needed to rest and recover their physical health and magical power.
In Magnolia Town, many hospitals had been crushed and houses destroyed, leaving the injured with nowhere to go to receive treatment. Those who were physically capable to move around worked overtime to help establish makeshift medical camps, setting up tents with beds and securing medical supplies by scrounging up whatever they could find around town.
As the guild hall was still standing, most of the Fairy Tail mages opted to stay there in the company of each other. Fairy Hills dormitory had unfortunately been demolished in the war, much to the girls' dismay. Levy had a meltdown about her book collection being crushed, which led to Gajeel awkwardly patting her on the head and offering to help her pick out the salvageable ones from the rubble. Erza and Juvia went through a similar tantrums about their armor and Gray-sama goods respectively. Girls like Evergreen and Laki had taken it surprisingly well; Evergreen stated she could always make more statues anytime she wanted and Laki mentioned that she had connections to a certain... place that sold wooden torture devices and the like.
As for Lucy, her home was one of the few buildings surprisingly unaffected by the fighting from the war. So she stayed at home to rest, while Natsu and the other male members of the guild who sustained the most physical damage were prioritized to have their injuries be healed by Wendy first. Afterward, he enthusiastically offered his assistance around town.
She had spent the past few days sleeping to recover her stamina and magical power or at her desk, writing down the events of the war to the best of her memory from her own perspective. She just knew this event would make for a great climax in the novel she had been slowly working on.
Although Natsu and Happy made themselves busy by trying to get reconstruction started around town, the two always made sure to visit her at night and talk about the day's events. They updated her on their friends' endeavors or what they accomplished for the day.
"And it turns out, he got into a fight with Elfman and ended up blowing up his own house! Ahahahaha!" Natsu had shared that Gray's house had managed to make it standing through the war, but ended up destroyed anyway due to a silly fight with the male Take-Over user. Lucy would have normally chastised him for laughing at a comrade's misfortune, but Lucy couldn't help but let a small laugh escape her lips. She could easily see Fairy Tail members cause even more destruction when they were supposed to be rebuilding the town.
"H-hey, you shouldn't be l-laughing about that," Lucy giggled. Natsu grinned.
"You are too," he pointed out smugly.
"N-no I'm not!"
"Yeah, you are!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
And they stopped, blinked, stared at each other for a few seconds, and burst out in laughter. Lucy clutched her stomach as she laughed from her belly.
Happy happily munched a fish at Lucy's table, watching the pair.
"Dekiteruuu~" he muttered his trademark phrase and smirked to himself.
"Hm? You say something?" Lucy asked as she wiped tears from her eyes.
"Nothing at all!" He replied.
"Lucy, if you're feeling all rested up, you should come out tomorrow! Let's help around town together!" Natsu invited with a toothy smile.
"Alright, I suppose I've recovered enough," Lucy agreed. She was starting to get bored being holed up at home anyway.
So for the rest of the week, Lucy, Natsu, and Happy visited key places around Magnolia to see what the others were up to and to help with the reconstruction progress. They had visited the guild hall, and Lucy couldn't help but burst out in laughter and share a knowing look with Natsu when she saw Gray's setup in the corner. He only had some clothes folded neatly next to a makeshift futon. Gray had looked at her in annoyance and confusion at being laughed at. Lucy noticed Juvia's set-up next to Gray's. Apparently, the water mage had been ecstatic to hear that Gray also had nowhere to go and cheerfully welcomed him with open arms at the guild, much to his chagrin. Juvia acted like they hadn't lived together for half a year, with the way she got extremely excited at the prospect of sleeping next to "her Gray-sama" for the time being.
The trio had also visited Kardia Cathedral, helping workers pass stone to rebuild the cathedral's towers or securing the safety of the painters standing on very tall ladders while they repainted the high ceilings or mended the stain glass windows inside of the church.
They had even stopped by the Twilight Ogre guild hall (or what was left of it). Rivalries aside, the mages of Twilight Ogre had also lent their magic to defeat Acnologia. So Natsu and Lucy offered to help them rebuild their guild as well. They even made friends with some of the mages they went head-to-head with after coming back from their seven-year sleep at Tenrou Island.
And all the while Natsu, Lucy, and Happy went on their mini adventures throughout town, Happy couldn't help but notice some changes in his beloved partner.
It was subtle, but Happy saw how Natsu always stood a little closer to Lucy than before. The way that he would glance over to her while they completed semi-dangerous tasks, like throwing up logs to others who stood up on walls. How he would always be the first one to catch her arm when she tripped. The way he would cross his arms and blow up at his bangs in impatience while Lucy offered some homemade rice balls to some no-name men while making small talk with them. The increasing frequency of sleepovers at Lucy's apartment.
There was rarely a time where it was just Happy and Natsu anymore. If Lucy wasn't around, Happy actually felt that something was missing; incomplete.
"Hey, Natsu?" Happy called out to his partner one night while they lied down in their hammock together in the dark. It was a rare time when the two of them turned into their own house for the night.
"Hmm?" Natsu replied, eyes closed and half asleep. His hands were behind his head and Happy was curled up on his chest.
"... We're still partners right?"
"What are you talking about, Happy?" Natsu murmured. "We're partners forever, bud."
"Lucy too?" Happy closed his eyes and smiled.
"... Yeah, Lucy too."
And then the next day it happened.
Natsu had climbed into Lucy's home unannounced through the window. Happy had mentioned something about having promised to meet with Charle and Pantherlily today to visit the Exceed Village to see how things were progressing there. So, feeling bored, Natsu sought the company of his blonde friend.
Lucy had just finished showering for the morning. She cheerfully threw open her bathroom door and stepped out clad in a light pink towel wrapped around her body, humming a tune. Steam slinked into her bedroom behind her.
"Yo!" Natsu threw up a hand in greeting nonchalantly as he sat on her chair flipping through that day's issue of Sorcerer Weekly.
"My roo—oh, why do I even bother," Lucy sighed. She should've just known he'd be here. Recently, Natsu and Happy had been starting their mornings at her house every. Single. Day. If it wasn't from already being there from sleeping over the night before, they'd sneak in when she was in the shower.
"Whaddya wanna do today, Lucy? Maybe we should help out with Fairy Hills," Natsu grinned up at her. Lucy didn't have the dignity to even feel embarrassed anymore at the unnecessary number of times she's been in a less than ideal state of undress in front of her best friend. She let out a small huff but smiled a little.
I would do it again in a heartbeat! For any of my friends, I would do the same thing! Lucy's own voice rang throughout her mind as she suddenly was flashed with a memory of her meeting with a certain god.
Yes. She had absolutely no regrets saving the pink-haired dragon slayer who sat in front of her. Her best friend.
I'm so thankful that you're alive, Natsu.
But as quickly as that thought came, Lucy suddenly felt a sharp pang. She gasped in pain, and her heart thumped loudly once more as she clutched at her chest.
"Lucy?" Natsu jumped up in alarm, tossing aside the forgotten magazine.
"Nngh..! Natsu, g-get away...!"
A dark, black aura suddenly enveloped around Lucy and she dropped to the floor onto her knees. Ignoring her plea, Natsu knelt down with her, holding her shoulders in worry.
"Hey, what's wrong?! Lucy!"
From here on forth, the more regard you have for life, the more you will kill. The less regard you have for life, the more control you will have over the curse. This is the judgement you have been given for meddling with life and death.
Ankhseram's words echoed through her head, and Lucy screamed. Suddenly a burst of black energy radiated from her, pulsing throughout the room. Natsu yelped in surprise and was knocked back.
The pair fell to the ground.
Natsu regained his bearings first, as he pushed himself up to a sitting position.
"Lucy! Lucy, you alright?"
Lucy stirred and opened her eyes. Natsu helped her sit up as she held her head in her hand groaning.
"Ugh... what happened?"
And the moment she looked at Natsu, she gasped once more in shock.
"Natsu, your scarf!"
Natsu looked down. His once pristine white scarf made from Igneel's dragon scales was now stained a dark, inky black.
Natsu had experienced this once before on Tenrou Island, and it involved a certain Black Mage. He blanched. With wide eyes, he slowly looked to where Lucy's potted plants stood in her room.
All of her plants had wilted.
To Be Continued
Next time, on Finding Lucy: Lucy decides to leave Magnolia, far away from Fairy Tail so her friends won't be affected by her curse. Gray, feeling responsible for Lucy's predicament, figures out her plan and insists on going with her. Natsu is shocked at their sudden disappearance and vows to bring them back. Juvia is devastated. Erza, of course, takes it upon herself to look after everyone.
Author's Note: Oh no, not another story I can't finish..! Hah. I've been so obsessed with Fairy Tail recently. The first chapter turned out way longer than I intended. I really wanted each chapter to be around 1,500-2,000 words. But there was just too much to set up. The beginning of this chapter starts from around manga chapter 532. After Acnologia's defeat, there is a year timeskip in the actual manga. This is the crew's adventure during that one year period! I'm planning this to be around one cour/season of an anime (10-12 "episodes"). Even though NaLu is my OTP I really enjoy the friendship between Gray and Lucy, so there's a lot of that here.