XXX

April 12th, X778

The sun streamed through the windows when Lucy awoke once more. She peered blearily around the room, filled with items that had been neatly organized and mostly empty of other people. Natsu was nowhere to be found, which initially worried her, but her concerns about where he'd gone were quickly disrupted by two things.

One, her body hurt. Every inch of her was sore from her tumble down the stairs. Her face in particular, where the Vhalis had caught her with its arm, ached badly.

Two, there was someone she didn't expect to be present staring at her from where they waited at the end of the couch, perched lightly on the arm rest.

Lucy yelped, heart leaping into her throat. She choked on a scream, stifling it just barely, and slapped a hand over her chest as if it would ease her sudden bout of panic. A smile ghosted over Erza's lips as she watched Lucy's reaction, her scarlet hair ablaze in the bright morning light. "My apologies," said Erza, clearly amused. "I didn't intend to frighten you, Lucy."

"You're good," said Lucy breathlessly, letting out a soft, sharp exhale. She really wished Erza wouldn't scare the daylights out of her first thing in the morning. She'd honestly have preferred that Erza had knocked on the door like any normal person. But, she supposed, the gods and spirits weren't normal people. "Err, what can I do for you?" It worried her that Erza was here in front of her. She'd not exactly approved of Natsu's relationship with Lucy after all.

Erza's sharp attention was intimidating as she stared for a moment, silent. She sighed and tucked a lock of hair behind her ears after some time, organizing her thoughts before finally speaking. "You have Natsu's favor."

Lucy was even more confused. "Yes? I don't know when he decided to do that though." She was at a complete loss as to where this conversation was going.

Erza's lips twisted into a hint of a smile. She thoughtfully looked about at the supplies spread out. Lucy fully expected Erza's disapproval, but she seemed pleased instead. That made Lucy immensely suspicious, given Erza's protests initially. Cautiously, Lucy asked, "Not to be rude, but why are you here, Erza? I don't know where Natsu is, but I could–"

"You assume I didn't attempt to talk to Natsu before I came to you," mused Erza. "Just as you assume that when he realizes I'm here, he won't chase me away." Lucy jolted a little, startled, and a soft chuckle slid from Erza's lips, unnerving Lucy. "You have my most sincere apologies, Lucy. When I first mentioned this safe location, I didn't know it had been tainted by such darkness at its heart."

While Lucy appreciated the apology, she didn't find herself too happy about it. "A lot of you have said that, but it's a town of humans. There's always someone who'll pop up and do something bad. Maybe they won't be as evil as the last guy, but they'll do something. It's what happens when you put a bunch of traumatized people together."

Erza acknowledged that with a dip of her head. "Regardless, it was never my intention to direct you towards danger, and Natsu seems to have taken personal offense to that – with good reason," she added, studying the heavy bruising on Lucy's face. She lifted her chin and met Lucy's gaze evenly with a grim expression. "There are more important matters at hand than the arguments between Natsu and I. Jellal may have found something that we need to look into. Since Natsu won't listen to me, I'll have to entrust this information to you so that you might convince him to keep an eye out while you travel."

Lucy straightened, interested. If Erza was worried enough about what they'd found to ask Lucy to pass it on when Natsu wouldn't listen, then it had to be rather important. Which meant it could only be about one thing. "You found something about why the gods were booted from Valhalla."

"Maybe," said Erza, stressing the word. "When I help the ones I'm summoned to, I don't often notice their cause of death. It has nothing to do with my work, and until recently, there were simply too many people I had to help for me to stop and pay attention. It isn't my responsibility. I need only touch them, and Gray deals with the aftermath, sending them on their way. Jellal, however…Jellal interacts with them on a personal level. He helps them, guides them, sometimes punishes them if he must. A few of those souls have mentioned a section of the northern mountains in Fiore. Those mountains haven't seen a single flake of snow during the entirety of this winter."

Lucy understood what interested Erza immediately. This winter had been the coldest, snowiest winter Fiore had likely ever seen. So how could there be no snow in the northern areas? In the mountains that towered high above the clouds?

"We attempted to look ourselves," continued Erza, "but we couldn't find anything. I thought, perhaps, another pair of eyes might see what we couldn't."

Stomach churning at the idea of just how far they'd have to go to get to the northern mountains as well as the level of hiking and traveling they'd have to do while being cautious of Vhalis, Lucy promised, "I'll tell Natsu."

"Thank you." Erza seemed as if some weight had been removed from her shoulders. She straightened and rose to her feet, gracefully brushing non-existent dust from her white dress. She paused when Lucy spoke.

"Do you still think the relationship I have with Natsu shouldn't exist?" Lucy didn't know why she bothered to ask or why she didn't keep her mouth shut. Erza stilled, face unreadable. "I…Gray told me. What happened when Jellal became a god. But Natsu's not the same. He's not Death."

She definitely shouldn't have spoken about that.

A rueful smile whisked across Erza's face and she sighed softly. "You're not wrong," she told Lucy. "But consider the balance of things. I take everything in the end – even the gods, though it's so very rare that they die. What happens when I come for you?" Her gaze grew sharp as it locked with Lucy's, flashing dangerously. "Because it will happen, Lucy. You will die. I will claim you as I've claimed so many others. It doesn't matter if a man like the one you escaped takes you, or a simple cold. It could be tomorrow, or in a century's time. It will happen.

"And what will happen when Natsu is confronted with that? I can tell you that contrary to what you believe, Lucy, Natsu won't allow it to happen willingly. He'll put up a fight. As good as a person as he tries to be, he is still a god who views things differently than you do. He could refuse to do his work, as I did. Consider what would happen if the sun refused to heat the world, if it refused to rise and fall, what damage it could do if it didn't bring springtime alongside Levy. Or, he could take an entirely different route neither of us can consider. Regardless, history repeats itself; I have seen enough to know that."

Erza, finished with the conversation, spun away from Lucy. She called apologetically over her shoulder, "Jellal suffered because I could not do what I was meant to do. I do not regret that I have him now, but I regret that I put him through such pain and fear. I hope I'm wrong about Natsu, if only for your sake, Lucy."

With that, Erza disappeared, as if she'd never been there at all.

Natsu, it turned out, had gone with Mirajane to acquire some missing things Lucy had mentioned the night before, and he looked so incredibly proud of himself when he returned and showed her that Lucy almost laughed. Mirajane had seemed incredibly amused as Lucy expressed her gratitude and showed him the things she'd been shoving into bags when they'd come back.

After finishing with their own bags, Lucy had decided it was a good idea to go and check on Wendy, to see how she was doing. Mirajane had promised to start sorting Wendy's things for them – just in case Wendy decided to go with them. Natsu didn't even ask; he simply tagged along, meandering through Hyacinth with her. Lucy was grateful for it; she hadn't wanted to walk alone through Hyacinth again. Not yet, anyways.

Lucy decided to tell him about Erza's visit as they walked. "Erza stopped in earlier," she said, figuring it was better to get the conversation over with so they'd have a clear idea of where to go when they spoke with Wendy.

Natsu immediately scowled at nothing in particular. "I told her to leave us alone."

Lucy's lip quirked. "So she said. But you really ought to have listened to her; she suggested something we ought to check out while we're traveling. Not that I'm too excited about it," she admitted with a wince. "She said there was something weird going on in the northern mountains."

"Why can't she go look at it?" protested Natsu, huffing lightly. He ignored a curious look that was thrown his way from across the street as he yanked his scarf away from his mouth and rolled his eyes. "She's not too busy. Humans are still dying, sure, but there's not nearly as many to keep track of as there were a year ago."

Lucy winced. It was harsh, but not untrue. She didn't like hearing that out loud though. "She did look. She said she and Jellal both looked. They couldn't find anything, so she thought it might be helpful to get another pair of eyes on the area. Maybe she thinks you'll find something she can't."

Natsu stopped walking entirely, furrowing his brow. "No," he said with a surprisingly agitated look in her direction. He was immediately wary. "She doesn't think I'll see anything, Luce. She went to you because she thinks you will. You're human. You can see things we can't always see. I know my people had a few things they could do to hide them from gods, and they didn't even worship the gods that I know now. For all we know, someone's done a ritual to hide their true location from us. I could stand right on top of them and still not see them. Even if you're pointing it out to me."

Lucy was fascinated with the idea of supposed rituals that might prevent a god from spotting something or someone that she nearly bypassed something that might have been far more important: the mention of a life before ascending. Natsu never talked about what life he'd led before he'd become a god. He'd mentioned very few pieces of information here and there, such as living near Crocus where no civilization had existed for thousands of years. She knew that he didn't like to think about how he'd died either, but that was all she knew.

So, with great care, Lucy searched his gaze and asked, "Were you one of those people? The ones who performed rituals like that?"

Natsu wrinkled his nose, playing absent-mindedly with the end of his scarf. "No. I had a brother that was though," he added quietly, lost in thought. Natsu's gaze grew distant as he spoke. His grief was a quiet one, but clearly there. "My people…we fell in line with specific gods. I followed Igneel. He wasn't a god, but we didn't know that. We just knew about the sacred volcano he lived in. We knew we didn't have any say in what he did or didn't do, so we just thanked him for the good days."

"And your brother?" Lucy asked.

Natsu's gaze sharpened then. "He wanted immortality," he said, "so he looked to Acnologia, the chaos-bringer. His followers relied on human sacrifice and experimented with rituals meant to bring them power. None of them ever actually worked though. Erza told me that after I…" He trailed off for a moment, then continued, voice rough, "The only ones that actually worked just hid Acnologia's followers from the gods. It's what killed him in the end. Acnologia's followers offended Igneel." Natsu clenched his jaw, eyes burning with fury that wasn't directed at Lucy. "Most people don't know those rituals anymore. I don't think they do anyways. Acnologia's a spirit that's been gone for a long time regardless, so the ones my people used wouldn't work."

Lucy chose to change the subject then, deciding she'd pushed far enough into Natsu's personal business. She nodded wordlessly, mulling over what she'd learned about Natsu's past in their short conversation. If she'd had internet access, Lucy would have gone to look everything up, seeing what she could puzzle out regarding his life. At the same time, however, Lucy found it was rather nice that Natsu had chosen to share that piece of himself with her.

"Well," said Lucy, starting forward again, "if it's not that kind of ritual, maybe it's something similar."

Natsu walked beside her, arm brushing hers. Lucy admittedly wished he could exude heat as he once had, though she was happy to have him there at all. "How long do you think it'll take to get us there, Lucy?" he said with a sigh, which almost made her laugh. Almost. He didn't like that they were going to investigate what Erza wanted them to.

Lucy made a face as she thought of how long it had taken them to reach Hyacinth, let alone a place on the entire other side of the country. "It's going to take us a long time," she admitted. "Way longer than it took us to get here, even taking Gray's ship into consideration. If we had cars, maybe a day or two, but…"

Natsu folded his hands behind his head, thoughtful. He was uttering that otherworldly hum. "We'll have to be a lot more careful with the Vhalis if Gray doesn't want to come. His ship can't go inland unless there's water to use. We could have taken it otherwise."

Lucy wished they could take Gray's ghost ship. The Borealis had been incredibly safe in comparison to crossing the country by land. The Vhalis wouldn't have come near it if they were so keen on avoiding Gray. Actually, she almost hoped Gray would come with them if only to help keep the Vhalis at a distance.

Noting that Natsu hadn't seemed opposed to Gray coming like he normally would have, Lucy teased, "I mean, there are smaller rivers and streams. It'd be difficult, but we could try and squeeze that ship upstream."

Natsu flashed her a grin. "It'd be funny to have him admit that it couldn't fit. Maybe we should make him try."

Lucy couldn't help the soft laugh that escaped her. Bumping his shoulder gently with hers, she said, "Come on, Wendy's going to wonder why we're taking so long to come and check in on her." Lucy hoped desperately that Wendy chose to accompany them, no matter how selfish that desire was. Logically, she knew Hyacinth was relatively safe now, and that if Wendy chose to stay she'd be under Juvia's protection. But at the same time, Lucy couldn't feel safe herself. It felt wrong to leave Wendy behind though.

They reached Yukino's before long and Lucy was delighted to find that when they knocked on the door, none other than Wendy herself answered it. "Lucy!" she cried, immediately tackling Lucy in the tightest hug she could. Lucy clutched her in turn, body smarting in protest, but Lucy could care less. She buried her face against Wendy's hair. It was good to see Wendy up and about, although her own loud cheer of Lucy's name had made her wince.

A light breeze washed over Lucy's cheeks, nearly caressing it. Wendy pulled back with a startled grin. "My mother says thank you," Wendy told Lucy.

Lucy hadn't expected that, and she hugged Wendy again because of it.

Eventually, Wendy moved on to Natsu, cheerfully greeting him with a beaming smile. Natsu's gaze swept over their young friend closely to ensure she was alright before he relaxed, carefully ruffling her head. Wendy only giggled. "How's your head, Wendy?" asked Lucy as they ducked into Yukino's home.

Wendy touched her head thoughtfully. "It hurts," she admitted. "I've had a migraine all day and I'm really tired because Yukino kept waking me up last night, but she said I'll probably be okay."

"Good." Lucy was relieved. She'd been exceptionally worried about that head wound.

"What about you?" Wendy asked Lucy in turn, gaze sweeping up and down her and lingering on Lucy's bruises. "Are you okay? Your face looks terrible!"

Lucy grimaced, face throbbing at the reminder. She'd not dared to see how bad it was in the mirror before they'd left to check on Wendy. It hurt even with the slightest shift of movement. Fighting the urge to touch what she was sure was a beautiful black eye and split lip, Lucy reassured, "I'll be fine. Bruises go away. Besides, Yukino'll have something I can take, I'm sure."

"Yes I do," confirmed Yukino herself as she swept into the room, wiping her hands on a towel and accompanied by a frowning Sting. His blue eyes flicked towards Lucy for half a second, and Lucy didn't miss the wave of guilt that washed through them. Yukino had told him then. Lucy wondered why he felt guilty. It wasn't his fault she'd gone headfirst into a crazy man's house. "I've got plenty, and I'll make sure to give you one of the good bottles, Lucy."

"The good bottles are unopened," added Wendy cheerfully.

"That'd be great, thank you," said Lucy.

Natsu watched them all, and Lucy glanced at him, a little concerned when he didn't say anything. In fact, any sign of warmth had fled, which was unusual for the usually overly enthusiastic sun god. He said nothing as he trailed behind Lucy when they were invited inside. He sat beside Lucy when she dropped heavily onto the sofa in Yukino's living room. He was close enough that Lucy ended up squirming over an inch. His gaze was as sharp as a knife as he slowly studied first Yukino and then Sting when they followed suit. Unsure of what he was thinking, Lucy gently elbowed him in the ribs and then said, "Actually, I'd like to barter with you, if you don't mind. I'm leaving Hyacinth, and Natsu's coming with me, so we'll need some good medical supplies."

Wendy, who'd seated herself comfortably on the floor near her friends, shot right back up, eyes round with alarm. "What?!" she whispered, even as Yukino and Sting exchanged a quick, unsurprised look. Lucy didn't know how she felt about that.

Biting her lip and ignoring the stab of pain that accompanied it, Lucy said simply and truthfully, "I'm not comfortable here, Wendy. You can stay if you want, but you're more than welcome to come with us if you'd prefer."

She felt horrible about the immediate panicked distress that flashed across Wendy's face when she realized the depth of the decision she had before her. Did she stay safe in Hyacinth or did she leave with Lucy and Natsu when they set out? Lucy reassured her, "You can take your time to decide, Wendy. You don't have to decide right now. We aren't leaving for a few more days. We have to get supplies and such figured out anyways, and if you do choose to come, you'll need to recover a little more."

Wendy snapped her gaze to Yukino, as if hoping Yukino might help her decide. Yukino only smiled warmly at her and told Lucy, "I'd be more than happy to trade with you." She made no comment on what Wendy ought to do, which Lucy appreciated.

"Why should we offer you anything?"

Natsu's sudden sharp question made them all turn to look at him. His expression was cold. Despite the conversation he'd held with Sting the night before, when they'd stopped to have Wendy and Lucy's injuries looked at yesterday, he was anything but friendly now. His onyx eyes were chilling as he looked between Sting, and then Yukino slowly. "You had information that you waited until the last minute to give Lucy. Knowing that information sooner could have made a difference. You could have gotten them killed because you were too scared to deal with the reality of the world around you."

Lucy winced, wishing she'd not told Natsu the entirety of what had happened while he was away until they'd left Hyacinth. "Natsu, that's unnecessary–"

Natsu only shook his head angrily, exhaling sharply, and Lucy was completely unprepared for the ash that suddenly shot in her direction. Lucy sputtered and waved it away from her face, wide-eyed. Sting leaped to his feet, looking alarmed, and both he and Yukino seemed to stare at Natsu with a hint of fear. Lucy didn't like that; Natsu wasn't someone she wanted people to fear, even if was beginning to look more like the god he was. Even Wendy seemed unnerved.

Natsu didn't move from his seat, simply staring at the pair. "Innocent women died because you didn't want to talk," he told them, and even his voice seemed rougher as he stared them down. Fiery suns lit in his eyes for the first time in a while. Lucy could have sworn she smelled something burning, and it was that smell that made her decide enough was enough. Ignoring the instinctive desire to flinch away from Natsu, she grabbed his wrist and instead hauled him to his feet. Heat stung at her fingertips.

Without a single word, Lucy dragged him out of the house, calling over her shoulder, "Wendy, you know where we'll be!"

She left Yukino and Sting looking horribly guilty and fairly frightened by what they'd just seen. Lucy ignored them; she had other things to worry about right now, like the way Natsu's heavy breathing sprinkled burning embers with each rasp and he seemed practically combust from the inside out.

Lucy had a lot of questions for him about everything that he was doing, but she didn't ask them. Not at the moment, when Natsu looked ready to explode. Rather, she said wryly, "Deep breaths, Natsu."

For a moment, that fury turned on her, and for the first time since Lucy had realized that he'd not been delirious when it came to gods…she was afraid. She instinctively flinched away. She snatched her hand from his arm, nearly tripping over her own feet and falling off the front steps to Yukino's house. Natsu grabbed her arm to stop her from falling, more out of reaction than anything else. It yanked her much closer than she'd have liked to have been at the moment, nearly chest-to-chest. Lucy stared up at him, wide-eyed and ready to move if need be.

"Sorry," rasped Natsu, and as quickly as his strange reaction had come on, it was gone. Natsu looked as he always did outside of a few lingering specks of ash that flew when he coughed, as if he were clearing the remnants from his throat. There was no sign of fiery rage now. Instead, there were only smears of ash on his lips and the lingering smell of smoke. "I…I'm sorry. That wasn't nice. I don't like what they did, but I shouldn't have… I'm sorry, Luce."

The sincerity of his voice almost hid it: the little, tiny inkling fraction of fear.

For the first time, Lucy wondered if he was as scared of her leaving him behind as she was of him doing the very same.

Some cute stuff at the end! And some background on Natsu!

I've had some new thoughts that will be making it into the fic. They're extending it a good amount. Hopefully people like the crazy stuff this is heading towards.

IF YOU DIDN'T SEE, "Plaguefall" is finally up for you all to read! It's the tale of how Jellal came to be a god, alongside how he met Erza. :D

Thank you as always to reviewers (marn-marn, xennia-x, Uchida Akira, TheAngelicPyro, hopelesskar, CMenard, BetaDreamer, & Nami4Life!), as well as those who favorited and followed. It really does mean a lot to me. :)