A/N: friendly reminder-this is not a tragedy. This story is not and never has been labelled as such. There will be a happy ending. So just enjoy the rocky ride as we march our way towards the ultra fluff awaiting us on the other side.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: NO MATTER WHAT
And if the sun grows cold for you along the way.
And if the stars don't line to light the way.
And when you fall away and crash back down below.
I'll search the skies for you and I'll follow. I'll be in your afterglow.
And I'll bring you home.
Even if the sky does fall, even if they take it all, I
can't see but I'll follow you. Even if I'd die...
And when all the fires burn, when everything is overturning,
there's nothing that I won't go through.
Even if I have to die for you.
Natsu...
Spots of colour speckled Lucy's vision. She sought out her aching limbs, alarmed to find her right hand useless, her arm grating with splintered bone and torn muscle. Broken, fractured, she couldn't tell. The bruising hurt. Hot pain flared and spit like flames feeding on marrow and misery. She couldn't move.
Carefully, she opened a single eye, her right cheek swollen and tender. Hot breaths dragged their claws against Lucy's dry throat. Her head throbbed, humming a Siren's song that tempted only danger and death. She tried to shut it out, but the pain of her broken body, the confusion of her whereabouts, served to harmonise with the beguiling melody.
Open your eyes, it sang.
She knew this place. An odd familiarity slunk into her mind, visions of grandiose parties and motherly embraces gone too soon. Of salty tears and lurid arguments about money and power. Of rebellion.
A home. A beginning.
Something creaked in the distance. Lucy's eyes snapped open, the Siren's song blaring to angry timbres. Shadows fled from the ghastly sound, scurrying to the far corners of the burning manor, exposing narrow trails of blood and long forgotten memories. Phantom pain passed through her. She remembered the sensation of fingers in her hair, yanking her hard across the foyer.
Overhead, puffs of black clouds ambled across the empty sky, weeping cold tears on the horrors scorching far, far below.
Where was the ceiling?
Eclipsed in darkness, Jude's office sat as empty as Lucy's memories of this place. Mismatched patterns dusted the floor where his desk had once been. And she remembered the days before that, remembered how he would kiss her forehead before she slept, and how he'd embrace her so tenderly, the way her mother used to. Before...
Raindrops hissed where they kissed Lucy's skin. E.N.D.'s power roused warmth under her face, travelling deep into Lucy's DNA, changing her body, her magic.
Tepid fingers of smoke beckoned her to move, to stand, to escape. She choked on their putrid stench, barely aware of the floorboards squeaking a short distance away. With a tender arm, Lucy eased herself upright, strips of her torn suit clinging to sticky blood on the wall.
It hurt so much.
Propped against the wall, Lucy's head dropped to her chest, pain and fatigue weighting her down. Moving must've reopened an old wound, because something hot dribbled anew between the broken fingers of her right hand.
'Let's get married, Lucy.'
She glimpsed the ring on her finger, chipped and bloody. Talk about ill timed nostalgia.
Shadowy footsteps inched closer, accompanied by a familiar pair of black boots. Natsu crouched on the balls of his feet, both hands draped over his knees as he looked her over.
"You..." Lucy rasped. She couldn't swallow. "Why didn't you kill me?"
"You said we had three days," he whispered.
Lucy closed her eyes. Three days. That's what Lyon had said—but it had been a lie. A deception meant to catch Natsu off guard. She'd wanted their last day together to be memorable, but now his last memories of her would be of lies and incarceration. She'd imprisoned him like a wild animal. She was no better than Zeref...
Somewhere between Natsu's proposal and his ardent talk of babies, E.N.D. had stirred again. She'd sensed it when they'd made love. When he'd kissed her. Something hot and violent, something desperate. She'd barely had twenty-four hours to stop Natsu from awakening. From hurting the people she loved.
She'd asked Gray for three days. Just three days to stop him, without interruptions, without objections or judgement.
Natsu tilted her head with clawed fingers, surveying her bruised face, but not with his usual concern. This was the ravenous gaze of a hunter inspecting his trophy. Lucy barely found the strength to panic. He dropped something in her lap.
Tattered and stained with blood, Natsu's scarf barely covered her throbbing legs where he'd dropped it. The fingers of her left hand fisted around the soft material, seeking comfort in the familiarity of a past life. Maybe a part of him still remained after all.
Throb. Lucy's head bounced with flashes of a fight she barely remembered. She saw Natsu tearing across the Heartfilia grounds, an amalgam of dragon and demon, flames billowing hot in his tracks. She remembered the sickening rip of his hands tearing the scarf at her neck and the crunch of bone that followed.
Well, that explained the awful pain in her chest. She'd broken her ribs—or bruised them, if she were lucky.
"I thought you'd sleep another day," he said.
Another day? How much time had she lost?
Lucy's gaze slid to the doorway. The last time she'd been in this room, Lucy had walked away from her father, a girl abandoning her wealth for something far more valuable than gold and jewels. The walls still echoed with a little girl's fear. And now that fear was tenfold.
Maybe this place really was cursed.
The Junelle family certainly thought so. After buying out the premises, they'd simply abandoned it. Empty as the memories it left behind, the Heartfilia mansion was a ghost now, shivering black nightmares and cold gloom, illuminated only by Natsu's flames. No one had used the building since Jude lost his fortune. It sat alone.
Just like her.
"Natsu..." Lucy's breath rattled in her chest.
"I was worried you'd die before we could play again." His tone was playful, but the curve of his mouth revealed a monster's simper.
Lucy's head fell back against the wall, defeated by wounds she couldn't even see. Smoke twisted through the gaping hole in the manor ceiling, clouding the night sky, obscuring the crescent moon and its lopsided smirk.
That's right. She'd fought him and lost. They'd come crashing through the ceiling hard, but Natsu hadn't killed her. She remembered him sitting there, watching, talking all kinds of nonsense about changing the future and...
Lucy couldn't remember.
With Gray's help, Lucy had caged Natsu in Juvia's magic, returning him to a comatose state. She'd thought it would be easier that way—she could simply move him somewhere safer, somewhere quiet, and they'd finish this once and for all. She'd brought Natsu to the empty mansion, hoping to keep him away from any civilization, knowing the vast expanse of her family's land and the true danger E.N.D. posed. She hadn't expected him to wake up so soon.
The back of her head still throbbed where he'd smacked her. The distinct pop of Juvia's magic failing would haunt her into the next life. The fight was a blur now, blazing in smoke all around them. She hadn't been able to summon, and so Lucy had run.
This hadn't always been the plan. She'd really thought she could ignore it, that one day he'd change just enough that she could end things, tap into E.N.D.'s magic and use it all up. But now she knew better. There was no intermittent stage. No safe space to draw on his power and expunge it in the same instant. She had to fight him at full strength. And win.
When Lucy's three days were over, Gray would notify Fairy Tail, and the guild would make their way here to clean up whatever mess remained. Or to help, if Natsu proved himself undefeated.
Two days had passed already. The first a long day of travel, the second wasted on her wounds. Which meant...
Lucy had one more day to beat him.
Natsu skulked closer, warm breath fanning her face. Lucy grabbed his shoulder and squeezed, pushing down the fear until her hands barely shook at all.
"You want to fight, right? Then let's fight. No more games, Natsu."
Natsu knocked her hand away. "You'll be lucky if you live through the night," he said. "Fighting weak opponents is no fun."
Lucy bristled. "I'm not weak."
Intrigued, cocky, Natsu leaned in close. Lucy loathed the closeness of his face. It reminded her of precious memories, of soft kisses and tender caresses.
"Yeah?" he goaded.
She hated this. Hated the way his voice sounded just like Natsu. This wasn't the E.N.D. she'd expected. This thing was the perfect combination of the man she loved and the monster Zeref created. He was so distinctly human that it made her sick to see him so cruel.
"I'm still alive, aren't I?" she said.
His tongue dipped into the crease of his mouth. "For now."
"What do you want?"
"You, Lucy." Natsu caressed her cheek, his lips ghosting her mouth. "Always you."
Lucy surrendered herself to him. If light was love and strength, then weakness was its shadow, and right now that darkness shrouded Lucy in deleterious frailty.
"I miss you," she sobbed.
Natsu pressed his mouth to hers, hard, hungry. Lucy trembled, a thin line drawn between reality and daydreams, of kisses and bloodshed. She wanted the line to blur. For this kiss to mean the end. That things were okay and everything was back to normal. But it wasn't.
Natsu deepened their kiss. Lucy gasped a breath, left hand reaching for his torn shirt, finding hot muscle and scars. He grabbed her arms, squeezing, not caring about her broken bones. She whimpered. He caught her bottom lip in his teeth, biting. Hard.
'He marked you.'
He touched his forehead to hers. "I'm here, Lucy."
He was toying with her. He wanted to drag this out as long as possible—not for Lucy, but for Natsu. He wanted him to suffer. Which meant...
Natsu was still in there.
Lucy smashed her forehead against his. Natsu recoiled, holding his face in one hand, the other bursting to flames. His gaze snapped to hers, blood dripping from his nose. Scales rippled across his tan skin.
If she didn't move, Lucy would die.
She spit blood and wobbled to her feet, right arm limp and useless, golden keys glittering from the torn fabric of her suit. She knotted his scarf through the loop on her whip.
"Now I'm really fired up!" he yelled.
"You don't get to say that!"
Natsu lunged at her, the motion too quick, too wide. Lucy twirled around him, stumbling against the wall. Broken bones screamed beneath swollen skin. She numbed the pain in her mind, forced herself to move, shoving herself across the room with her left hand. She kicked the door off its broken hinges and raced for the downstairs foyer, memories and fear colliding in the shadowy moonlight.
Natsu leapt from the upper floor, a burning mass of rage. Lucy crashed into him, screamed. He kicked her hard in the stomach. She rolled across the floor, unspeakable pain dancing between the marrow of her bones.
How was she supposed to beat him?
With an awkward, painful shimmy, she freed a single key from her guard.
Taurus.
Please work. Please work. Please work!
She tapped the key to her chest, summoning an amalgam of shared power. Taurus manifested in a whorl of silver light, defending Lucy from Natsu's incoming blow with his mighty axe.
"Lucy! What happened to your beautiful face?" Taurus gasped.
"Focus on the fight!" she snapped.
"Hiding behind your friends?" Natsu spat. "You really are weak."
Taurus vanished in a burst of flames, a whispered apology twisting to nothing like broken dreams. His power remained strong within her, the star dress retaining its new form.
"I'm not weak!" she insisted.
"Then prove it!"
Natsu leapt into the air, driving his fist down into the ground, twisting. Lucy rolled away, gasping painful breaths. She flung herself onto the stairs. He grabbed her left foot, but Lucy whipped her right, crushing her heel into his temple. Natsu decimated the bottom steps in a raging frenzy, creating a crunching gap of splintered wood between them.
Lucy raced back up the steps, dashing for her mother's old library. There were passages here not even Natsu could find.
She hoped.
"Lucy!" he called after her. "I thought you didn't want to play games anymore."
Lucy shivered. This wasn't like any encounter with E.N.D. she'd had so far. Something was horribly different. Those crimson eyes shimmered with remnants of Natsu's light, as though he watched from within the confines of that monster's power. It left her weak, hesitant. Was he trapped in there, watching as the fight played out between them? Or was it simply that he'd become what he was supposed to be.
No. She'd never accept that!
Well now, Zeref's voice whispered, this is quite the predicament.
"I don't have time for these delusions," she gasped.
He isn't at full strength, Lucy. You must finish this now.
Lucy hated their talks, hated the way Zeref's presence lingered within the threads of E.N.D.'s power. Every time she spoke with Zeref, every word they'd exchanged, all of it was a tangle of memories in E.N.D.'s power. A concoction of nightmares, nothing more. It was the seed's way of tempting her, of warning her, of deceiving her. All of it was a confusing storm of emotion. And yet, in the eye of that hurricane, Lucy had found the truth of their bond. She knew how to sever it. And that it would cost her everything.
"Okay, Lucy," she told herself. "You can do this."
Ducking into the library, Lucy ripped abandoned books from shelves, searching for a curved handle beneath the wood. She pulled it, hard, freeing a small alcove in the wall. She followed the narrow passageway, descending stairs into the kitchen storage. Cold, damp air washed through the dark space. A musty stench wafted in with the smoke. She held her breath, barely swallowing a cough.
If she moved through the kitchen, Lucy could leave through the postern door behind the manor. The same way Spetto used to sneak her outside when her father forbade playing in the yard.
And then what?
How long was she going to run away? No, no, this wasn't about running. She had to get him out into the open, had to level the playing field. His magic was too destructive for this.
In dead silence, Lucy shuffled through the storage room. She pressed her back against the cool wall and sidled towards the door. She stopped, listened. Nothing. Preparing for battle, Lucy jiggled keys into her left hand, emptying the guard on her arm.
She hadn't been this scared in a long time. Not since she first joined Fairy Tail. Back then, she hadn't known her true strengths, her true capabilities, always quick to hide in Horologium when things got tough. Now, though...
The door crashed open. Natsu smacked his fists together and smiled almost too delightfully. "Did you forget I have a keen sense of smell? I know your scent better than anyone, Lucy."
"Of course I didn't forget," Lucy said. "Did you forget that this is my territory? I have the advantage here."
Natsu shoved her deeper into the room. His eyes darted for the passage behind her. Flames burst across the room, illuminating a rapid loss of hope. Walls of fire blocked her retreat. Lucy backed up, edging dangerously close to the flames.
"This hasn't been your territory in a long time, Lucy."
She had no choice. Lucy tapped every key to her chest, a bouquet of power shimmering gold. Power surged, sputtering, stagnant. No. She couldn't reach them.
Natsu dove at her.
Plue sprang into the air like a phantom conjured from Lucy's darkest dreams. He spread his arms wide, protecting Lucy from the approaching beast. He clung to Natsu's face, obstructing his vision, diverting his path. They crashed into the wall nearby.
"Plue!"
Natsu swept him aside like paper tossed in the breeze. Plue hit the wall and vanished. But it was enough. Lucy shoved Natsu aside and pushed into the kitchen and burst from the postern door.
She'd barely made it into the sweet fresh air when her body hitched forward like a stringless puppet. Keys scattered across the ground. She hit the grass hard, landing clean on her broken arm. Lucy's screams echoed back to her in waves of pure anguish, filling her lungs, her mind, her soul with terror.
She snatched up the nearest key and summoned, magic returning to her in a moment of pure despair. Power flooded her body, pulsing, burning. vomited blood.
Standing in the doorway, flames burning high like horns on his head, Natsu clutched his face and screamed. He retched as she choked up more blood.
Lucy's spirits didn't come. But something else did. A blur shot through the sky, striking Natsu clean in the head. It shrieked Lucy's name as it went, hurtling through the sky in a clumsy blue mass. Lucy's eyes widened.
Natsu rubbed his face, grumbling at the sudden distraction.
Happy sprawled across the ground. Lucy reached for him, the fingers of her left hand barely touching his trembling body. He shuffled closer to her, strands of fur tinged black where he'd touched Natsu's flames.
"We're a family, Lucy," he whispered.
"You shouldn't have come here. I wanted you to be safe."
Somebody must've cracked.
"Does it hurt?" Happy asked her.
Lucy smiled through a sudden onset of tears. "No. Not at all."
Happy paled in terror. "Leave her alone!"
Natsu yanked Lucy to her knees. He gripped her broken arm, suspending her in mesmerising pain. Spirals of warm colours bled to a numbing black. Her breathing slowed. Lucy teetered forward, torpefied. He caught a handful of hair, suspending her an inch off the ground. Tears dripped onto the bloody grass.
"It's a family reunion," Natsu said, shoving her aside.
Happy stood with Natsu's approach, his face a mess of fear and courage. "You won't hurt Lucy. Not anymore. I won't let you!"
He was trying to protect her. Lucy latched onto Natsu's leg, her body dragging with his weight. Natsu shook her off like a petulant child.
"Stop," she begged. "This is between us."
Lucy grabbed him tighter, broken fingers useless. She lost her grip. His boot crunched against her face, blood spraying as Lucy spun dizzily across the ground. Black spots danced behind her eyelids.
"Don't hurt him, Natsu. Please."
Don't lose both of us.
He stopped. Natsu's head lowered, his gaze sweeping the mess of keys on the ground. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled a devil's grin.
"How are you going to fight me without your precious friends?" he mocked.
"I don't..." Lucy shoved herself onto an elbow. "I don't need them to beat you."
Natsu roared with laughter.
"No!" Happy screamed.
Natsu pounced on her. Lucy stepped aside, barely dodging a right hook. Natsu jabbed punches in quick succession, flames bursting hot. She whipped her leg outwards, blocking the onslaught with her left hand when he moved too close. They exchanged blow for blow.
When he realised she wouldn't give up, Natsu took a deep breath, smoke and fire tunneling towards him. He gulped it all down, savouring the hot taste, preparing an attack not even Lucy could prevent. She snatched a key off the ground, tossing it high into the air. She caught it between two fingers, not waiting to see whose key it was as she tapped it against her chest. Urgent.
Let me protect Happy. No matter what!
Cancer leapt into action before her transformation was complete, defending Lucy from the incoming flames. Tears blurred her vision. He obstructed Natsu's approach, driving a hefty claw into the demon's stomach. The two brawled hard, kicking dust and fire into the dark night. Lucy dropped one of her twin blades as it formed, unable to carry it in her broken fingers. She'd have to make do with her left hand.
Natsu breathed more flames, fire blazing towards her in concentrated spirals. Cancer leapt into the fray, eviscerated by the ferocious heat. The magic charged onward, opening its glowing mouth and snapping hot teeth all around her.
Happy ripped Lucy off the ground, her feet barely missing the blast of flames below. "I won't let you do this alone!" he yelled.
"Get away! While you still can!"
"I won't let you die, Lucy!" Happy cried.
"I need you to trust me, Happy," she said. "I won't die. I won't leave you!"
"But—"
"Please! Trust me!"
He let her go. Lucy landed on the balls of her feet, not as deft in her current state. Natsu rushed her again, those demonic eyes wide in a rhapsodic frenzy.
He was enjoying this.
"There's a fire in my belly!" he roared.
Lucy exchanged a long look with Happy. A silent promise. She struck with her blade, catching Natsu's shoulder, slicing his arm. She swung again, sweeping a long arch, forcing space between them. Lucy parried an incoming blow, but Natsu caught the blade in his left hand, fingers squeezing until blood cracked from his scaled skin.
She recalled his fight with Gray, recalled the wound on his stomach that would surely scar—if it hadn't already. Her eyes flickered to his torn shirt, searching. It was a weakness. She had to use it, to disarm him for just a moment. Just long enough to locate her missing power.
Lucy wrestled for control, but Natsu's grip was too strong. "Give him back to me!" she screamed. "I want to see him!"
Natsu smiled. "Don't you get it? Natsu doesn't want to see you."
"You're lying!"
"You can see him in the next life."
Lucy kicked him. Hard. Natsu skidded backwards, grass and soil tearing beneath his feet. She thrust the blade, driving it with the combined speed of adrenaline and Cancer's lingering power. To her surprise, he didn't move. The blade slid home in his stomach. Shock riveted her. She saw no pain in his expression, no joy, no fear. Nothing. He was a husk.
For just a moment, E.N.D. had relinquished control.
Lucy grit her teeth. A ghostly chill passed through her, like hands guiding her body in the absence of conviction. She shoved the blade in harder. Natsu coughed blood, crimson eyes dulling just a fraction.
"Natsu, I'm sorry."
The sword vanished, twines of Cancer's power fraying to loose threads. She dropped to her knees and puffed, blistering pain overcoming her. Her bones ached so much. Everything hurt.
Happy rushed to her side. He grabbed her left arm, shaking Lucy frantically. "Get up, Lucy."
"Don't worry, buddy," Natsu said. "She'll be okay. You both will, soon."
"I'm not your buddy," Happy sobbed.
Natsu smiled. "You're right. We're family."
That sweet voice burned far worse than any of Natsu's flames. Lucy pushed herself onto one foot, her right knee planted firm in the ground. Happy stepped in front of her, protective.
"Don't come any closer," he demanded.
His back looked so strong, but in the face of Natsu's tremendous power, he was a mere fly caught in a spider's web.
Natsu stepped forward. "Move," he demanded.
Happy shook his head, defiant, strong. "No. You'll have to make me."
Before he could strike, something stopped him. Natsu halted as if bound in time, flaming fist suspended like a frozen meteor.
"What are you doing?" E.N.D. hissed. His eyes flashed rage. "Your time is done, son of Igneel. I will have my vengeance and then I'll rip your world apart!"
Natsu.
Magic returned to Lucy, jolting in piquant sparks. She shoved Happy out of harm's way and charged. Time slowed. She had one moment. This was her opening, her chance.
One breath.
She tackled Natsu to the ground. E.N.D. didn't move, didn't blink. They hit the ground hard, rolling, rolling, rolling.
Lucy landed on top of him. "You're mine!"
But she hesitated.
Natsu captured her face in both hands. "Are you scared of me, Lucy?" he asked her.
Lucy's mind flickered back to their sparring session in Crocus. He'd seemed so vulnerable then. This man didn't care if she feared him—he wanted it.
"Yes. I'm terrified of you."
He smiled. "Where..."
"What? What is it?"
"Our date. Where should..."
Her lip trembled. Lucy jabbed him in the stomach, twisting her knuckles in his opened wound. Natsu spluttered, wheezing, pain vivid in those dark eyes. He snatched a fistful of hair and yanked her closer. Lucy didn't fight him.
"I'm all fired up, Natsu," she whispered.
"What did you do?"
Lucy felt their power returning to her—felt the summon from earlier, the collection of her spirits' magic, unfurling like ribbons on miracles, setting them free. It was too late to stop it.
He ripped Aquarius's key from her neck, the broken shaft twinkling in hot firelight. She caught the crystal lock before it fell, a soft hum emanating from the smooth surface.
Columns of flame burst from the ground, casting the world in hazy light. One by one, pillars of flame rippled black. The eyes that sought her now were empty. Lost. Natsu screamed like a man tortured within an inch of his life, split so far between pain and panic they'd never piece him back together.
Now.
Lucy straightened, eyes closed, E.N.D.'s power merging with her own, illuminating everything but the darkest depths of her soul. She called to it, and it answered. Evil magic, black magic, oozed across the floor.
Thump.
"How dare you call me?"
"Aquarius," Natsu wheezed. "Lucy..."
Lucy's eyes opened to a stream of white and gold light. In the misty glow, she saw Aquarius, a picture of angry perfection.
Beneath her, Natsu gripped Aquarius's key in both hands, warring with E.N.D.'s bellicose spirit and a desire to protect those he loved.
Aquarius shot Lucy a scathing glance, hurt, angry. "I knew I saw too much Layla in you."
Lucy didn't move, instead squeezing her legs hard around Natsu's waist. Aquarius doused the flames all around them, pushing away the darkness, the blackness. Hot steam buffeted Lucy, salty and wet.
Within the mist of smoke and steam, more spirits joined them, conjured with a delay of Lucy's power. Cancer. Scorpio. Capricorn. Gemini, their small forms seated on Taurus's bulking shoulders. Aries, who wasted no time seizing Loke's hand.
"You promised me," Loke snapped. "You promised you'd never be Karen!"
Tears dripped onto Lucy's cheek. "Please. Lend me your strength."
Arrows thundered all around them. Sagittarius touched his hand to Lucy's arm, a small gesture of respect. The others joined them, standing at her back, their fingers gentle, otherworldly as they passed between their world and hers.
"Princess, I'm sorry we're late," Virgo said.
"Please," Aries begged. "Let our strength be enough."
"You have to send us back!" Loke urged.
Gemini adopted Lucy's form. "We love you, Lucy. Our power is yours."
Lucy drew in the dregs of her waning magic, borrowing from her spirits, using it to flush out what remained inside her. She knew it already. The one magic, hope, love. It would be their salvation in the end.
Combined power surged in Lucy like never before. Her garments tore and reformed into silky white, red ribbons bound to her bodice and sleeves. Hot light flared under her skin, in her eyes, blinding her completely.
"What did you do?!" Natsu snarled, his body paralyzed.
'They say if you wish for something hard enough, you can make it a reality.'
"I want to be with you, Natsu! I want..."
I want to be a family with you.
Blinding power burst all around them, fissures of immense light rupturing the ground. Natsu's screams joined the baleful cries of her spirits.
"We're with you, Lucy," Loke whispered.
"You selfish brat, if you die..." Aquarius snaked her arms around Lucy from behind. "I'll kill you!"
Lucy smiled.
Natsu snatched the ribbons on her bodice, untangling them and screaming with a desperation she'd never heard before.
"My name is Lucy Heartfilia," she said, her voice an echo of powers transcending blood and time, "daughter of Layla Heartfilia, descendant of Anna. And I'm here to stop you."
Natsu screeched violently. "Lucy!"
Lucy touched her forehead to his. "Now disappear."
Concentrated power unleashed in hot pillars of light, so tall they pierced the night sky. Stars formed in a glittering pattern on the empty canvas, twinkling new life into the smokey horizon, ebbing soft magic and healing warmth. The stars exploded and fell, singeing everything.
"Make sure you keep our promise," Loke said.
Hands released her, powers depleted, whispered sorrows haunting the vacant land. Lucy collapsed.
I want to live!
E.N.D.'s power fractured within him. Natsu howled, the pain overbearing, piercing him like thorns pushed too deep. Lucy's light bore through him like an antidote for E.N.D.'s poison, searing in its angry attempt to destroy the seed from within.
Lucy's body weight shifted against him, light. So inhumanly light. His fingers tangled in her gown, seeking reality. He kissed her passionately, carelessly, a man reclaiming his life. She didn't return the kiss, didn't breathe. Natsu shook her.
"Lucy?"
No. No, no, no!
Natsu eased her off him, her body rolling limp at his side. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening!
"It'll be okay, Natsu," a voice whispered.
He turned to see her standing in the smoke. Natsu scrambled to his feet, charging her with only blinding compassion. Natsu rushed into Lucy's violent warmth, through it. He whipped around. She looked so valiant, so brave.
So broken.
"You shouldn't move too much. That wound looks bad." Her eyes ticked to where she'd stabbed him. Hot blood oozed from the opened cut.
"Why, Lucy?"
"Tell Gray..." Lucy offered her brightest smile. "I'm sorry."
Natsu lurched for her. She stepped out of reach, recoiling not with disgust but with sorrow. Two silhouettes appeared behind her, so faded he almost didn't recognise them. First Master...
And Zeref.
Lucy joined them in the smoke.
"Remember, Natsu. No matter what..." Her voice echoed. "I love you."
Only Zeref looked back as they disappeared.
Of all her spirits, only Aquarius remained, summoned by Natsu's desperation. She bent over Lucy's battered body and wept. It was the first time he'd ever seen Aquarius look so vulnerable.
"You rotten little..." Aquarius cradled Lucy against her chest. "What is it about the Heartfilia blood that condemns you all to this?!"
Light oozed from Lucy's body, rippling like golden waters where there should be blood. Aquarius gathered it up in great spirals, containing it in a solid bubble. Lucy's body shattered like glass in Aquarius's arms, glowing fragments that fluttered into the ashen sky. Natsu reached for the broken pieces, snatching air and heat.
"Lucy!" Happy sprang into the air, defeated, desperate, trying to catch the floating pieces of their lost friend.
"Go home, boy. Live the life she wanted for you." Aquarius's gate opened in great orbs of white and gold. "And don't you dare summon me again."
Something vibrated in his pocket, a low thrum of magical power. Natsu withdrew the key and flinched. White crystal peeled away, revealing an inky lapis undercoating, oozing darkness and despair.
"Where is she?" Natsu demanded.
Aquarius smiled solemnly and vanished.
In the far distance, Natsu heard the sounds of approaching footsteps, of urgent friends coming to rescue those they loved. Gray must've contacted Fairy Tail early. It didn't matter, though...
Natsu collapsed to his knees, Happy falling into his arms. E.N.D.'s power bled from his soul, from his body, a poison sucked dry by Lucy's sacrifice. He stared at the scorched grounds, at the burning manor behind him, and surrendered himself to harsh wounds and exhaustion. His face hit the ground, darkness edging into his vision.
They were too late.
On that day, as futures crumbled and hopes died, Lucy Heartfilia disappeared without a trace.
Song: Die For You - Starset.
COMING SOON—–
CHAPTER TWENTY: AFTER THE RAIN