Chapter Fifty-Six

Lucy's Resolve

"Are you upset with me?" Lucy broke the silence that had fallen upon them.

They'd been marching through the woods at a decent pace for the last half an hour, and she could bear it no more.

Natsu stopped dead in his tracks, grabbing Lucy's arm to stop her from tripping over him and sprawling to the floor.

"Why should I be upset with you? Is that why you've been oddly quiet?" He asked, now worried that he'd done something to make her feel that way.

"Well…" she said, unable to meet his gaze, "I wasn't strong enough to stop Erza from being taken down like that." She admitted, hanging her head.

"You're an idiot," he said quickly. He pulled her towards him, "A lovable one, but an idiot still. You aren't to blame for that, and nobody has any right to tell you to do better." He spoke so softly that she was reminded of the gentle side to him.

It was so similar to the fleeting glimpse of his youth that she'd been allowed to see.

"The nature of your magic has changed, everything that you're used to is different now. No one can tell you that you should be able to do this or that. All that matters is that you do what you can, isn't that a whole part of being a Fairy Tail mage?" He asked with a raised brow, feeling that his point had already been made.

"I guess so, I still feel like I could have done more to help her." She told him glumly.

"You did what you could, and that's what matters to me. I would never be angry with you for something like this. Situation reversed, Erza would be more focused on trying to find a resolution than dwelling on the past, and that's what we should do, right?" He asked, a bright smile returning for the first time in a while.

It warmed her to the core. This was it, this was the reassurance she'd needed.

"Right," she agreed, "though, that comparison is perhaps a tiny bit skewed, seeing as Erza is so much stronger than me and her resolve seems to be made of tougher stuff than whatever you're made of," Lucy added.

"Yeah, she's pretty unique in that aspect, but, so are all three of you. You're each excelling in areas that even I pale in. The love you have for your friends and spirits is something that I've only ever seen in Anna… Figures, I suppose." Natsu hummed.

They continued to trek through the forest until they walked into an opening that didn't look quite right. It was uncanny, too perfect to be natural.

"We're not alone," Lucy said, locking eyes with two approaching figures.

"Well, this is new," Natsu mused, "I've never been accosted by a monkey before,"

"A monkey?" One of them asked slowly.

"Maybe it's just the suit? I've never been one for formal, and the one time I was tricked into wearing a suit, I ended up on the cover of a magazine," he sighed as though I had been the most testing experience of his life.

"Anyway, we don't have time for whatever this is meant to be, we have to go and rescue Wendy from Brian so that she can save the life of one of my…" Natsu went silent, a frown forming on his face before he looked to Lucy for help.

"What do I refer to you as a collective? We said no labels, but… You know what? It's not important," he waved his hand in the air dismissively.

"Who are you again?" He questioned, looking confused at the gathered group surrounding them.

"Natsu, will you focus!?" Lucy smacked the back of his head. She hadn't meant to use anywhere near the level of force that she had.

He fell forward a few steps, clutching the back of his head which was now throbbing.

"Lu-ce," he said through gritted teeth, messing up her name but not having the capacity to fix his error, "Please note, Dragon Slayer magic has made you disturbingly strong. I would love it if you could not do that again," he almost growled at her as he looked up.

"Stop messing around and I won't have to!" She barked. On the surface, her adrenaline had pushed her into defensive mode, but underneath her harsh glare, she was worried that she might have actually caused damage to him.

That moment had come and gone when his usual smile had returned.

"Alright, fine, you don't have to start a domestic," he said.

"Who did you say you were? I'll forward the bill for the headstones to whoever employed you,"

"Naked Mummy, we were hired by Oración Seis to stop any and all who would try to get in their way, which would be you." The one with the impressive afro told them.

"Uh huh… Do you know who I am?" He asked casually.

"No." Both of the leaders answered, shaking their heads.

"Great! Then the magic council won't find out about this," he said with an easygoing smile.

'Give me the reigns, you never let me do anything fun anymore.' E.N.D. complained.

"I never let you do anything fun to begin with, why do you think that I'll suddenly just give you control?" Natsu asked, speaking aloud but having no qualms about hiding it anymore.

Lucy knew exactly what was happening, and while she'd taken an instinctive step away from him, her face showed a lot less alarm than her body.

"Natsu… Did you used to answer him out loud?" She asked.

"Hmm?" He looked up at her before realising what she'd asked, "No! This is probably your fault, you and the rest of Fairy Tail!" He yelled.

"Wait, did he say Fairy Tail?" One of the monkeys asked as the two leaders backed up.

"Ever since I've been intrinsically involved with you and the others, he's been a whole lot less angry and somehow we've seamlessly been communicating to the point where I haven't even questioned it," Natsu huffed, his glare strengthening when he looked back at the leaders of Naked Mummy.

"Let's just kill them and be done with it!" One of them hissed.

Natsu snapped his fingers, "Igni,"

The leader was reduced to a pile of ashes before his scream had even reached their ears.

"Now, if you were hired by Oración Seis, then you know where their base is, hence how you've been getting orders. So, where is it?" He asked, his patience wearing thin.

"Well, actually, only big brother Zato knew where they were hiding," the other leader told him with an almost audible gulp.

"Are you about to tell me that that is big brother Zato?" Natsu's glare grew with intensity as he pointed at the pile of ashes on the floor.

The other leader slowly nodded, wide-eyed at the near-cosmic horror he was witnessing in the Fire Dragon's eyes.

"Then you're useless to me," Natsu told them quietly.

'Yes!' E.N.D. yelled in ecstatic triumph, 'Immolation Sphere!'

"No, why do you keep suggesting that?" Natsu crossed his arms and looked straight up, watching the blue sky through the small patches in the canopy above.

"That would kill everything, including Lucy, and we don't want that do we?" Natsu asked.

'Despite what the Heartfilia woman did to me, I do not place my grudge with this one that you are so fond of,' E.N.D replied.

"Coming from you, that almost sounds like a confession of love," Natsu grinned, knowing this could quite easily set E.N.D off.

"Did he just say that he loves me!?" Lucy asked, eyes wide as she stared at the Fire Dragon.

'Our hearts are mirrored, do you love her?' Natsu knew that if he could see E.N.D's face, it would have a victorious grin splayed across it.

"Firstly, know your place, Demon," Natsu's glare toward the sky increased.

"Kill them!" the remaining leader bellowed as everyone jumped into action, the vast majority all aiming at Natsu.

"Rude, I was trying to have a conversation," Natsu grunted as he pirouetted backwards, skipping and dodging as dozens upon dozens of dark mages came at him from all angles.

From an outside perspective, it would have seemed more akin to an elegant dance, but in the heat of battle, he was simply acting upon instinct and moving into whatever space he could while he thought about the best way to deal with the situation.

Dragon Slayer magic? Barely any left. He'd keep that as a last resort if he found any of the Oración Seis.

Curses? He'd already used Igni and with that one simple curse, he could already feel E.N.D's presence grow stronger.

Fists? Fists.

With a powerful jab, his fist connected with the closest mage and rocked his jaw at such a hard angle that the man hit the ground with gravity-defying speed.

"Loke!" Lucy called out, still not having the same familiar pull whenever she held her keys. The connection with Like was growing stronger with each minute, and he'd been the second one to reach out to her of his own power after Aquarius had decided to try to drown Natsu.

"Well well," his voice crackled as the connection grew stronger, "An Angel and a Demon," he laughed before finally stepping into existence, his body growing stronger as he became tangible.

"Lucy, Dragon Slayers consume their element, as soon as Leo starts fighting, you start sucking it all in, your strength will come back!" Natsu explained, shouting over the sounds and cries of the dark mages unfortunate enough to be within his reach and striking distance.

"Would you like me to begin, Lucy?" Loke asked as he adjusted his tie somewhat, not waiting to hear Lucy's response as the light of regulus filled the air around his fists.

She watched in amazement at the parallels between Natsu and Loke as they fought against their opponents. Leo and the rest of her Celestial spirits were the only people she knew that were older than Natsu, who likely held more experience and battle prowess when it came down to it, and yet…

Watching Loke was like it always had been, he had answered a personal summons to help her, and he was having no trouble fighting against the mages of Naked Mummy, but Natsu, she could already see that he was taking the mages down faster, harder, and was likely still arguing with the darkness inside him.

His focus wasn't on the battle, it was on the internal conflict. Despite all of that, he was still on the verge of killing every mage that he had hit, with only his raw physical strength behind each strike.

Loke might have been older than Natsu, by unbelievable amounts, but Natsu had been in conflict for almost his entire life without rest or reprieve. He lived and breathed battle, and even though he had given Erza almost all of his remaining magic, he exuded power on a scale that nobody else could compare to.

"Lucy, eat the Celestial energy!" Natsu yelled, now looking like he was getting irate.

"Right!" she nodded, taking a deep breath in, then out as she thought about what she was doing.

Right before she began, Loke expanded the field of regulus light, pounding his fists into the ground, taking multiple mages off their feet with each strike.

"This will throw me back from this world, but there will be a lot of lingering magic, once I'm gone, take it all!" Loke told her before throwing his hands together and bathing everything in light.

Lucy felt Loke leave them before she could even see.

"I forgot how much I hated that!" she heard Natsu complain with a pained groan from somewhere behind her.

She didn't hesitate or waste any more time, she took a deep breath in just like how she'd seen Natsu and Gajeel do it.

She felt the Celestial energy go through her throat and spread out within her body. She felt every single drop of power and it was enormous.

Celestial light enshrouded her body as she joined the fight, making her way to where Natsu was punching and kicking. He had been so engrossed in his internal argument that a fist had been swung in her direction.

She caught the hand and stepped in between his feet, spinning to his other side and lashing out at a mage who had nearly managed to flank Natsu.

"Words are enriched with power and triggers that allow our body and magic to utilize it that much easier," Natsu told her, letting go of her and summoning a fraction of the little magic left in his body.

"Fire Dragon: Iron Fist!"

The single strike blew a crater beneath the feet of the two mages it hit, both of them fell down lifeless.

"But the language of Dragons is innate and undeniable in a Dragon Slayer, its in your nature, if you speak the words, your attacks will be stronger than you ever imagined!" he shouted.

"Karyū no Tekken!"

It was the same attack, but the vibrancy of his flames and the intensity of the heat were massively stronger. This time, the iron fist had ended the fight, exploding along the ground with so much force that the few remaining mages of Naked Mummy that hadn't been killed, burned, or beaten into a bloody pulp, had all fled at the sight of the Dragon Slayers using their magic.

"You're…" Lucy breathed out, feeling overwhelmed by the magic in her, "How do you keep it all in place?" she asked, watching as her breath released a small stream of kaleidoscopic steam despite the heat around them from Natsu's attack.

"Time and experience, you'll get it eventually. Now, I would think that those guys are running away from the massive power that's flaring up over there," he reasoned, hooking a thumb over his shoulder at the distant clearing in the treeline.

"Let's go crack some skulls, get Wendy back, and save Erza." Natsu grinned, feeling the thrill come back to him.

"Let's go crack some skulls," Lucy managed to break into a smile as the two of them picked up the pace and pushed through to the clearing.

They saw the mouth of an open cave. The magic that Natsu had sensed flared again, only this time it was so strong that Lucy could almost see the waves rippling at the entrance of the cave.

"No…" Natsu whispered in disbelief. "Wait here, do not move unless you see me come back out," he said, furrowing his brow, looking ahead furiously.

"Jellal!" she heard him scream in rage. It wasn't uncommon to hear Natsu's true emotions when he spoke, but it was incredibly rare that it wasn't hidden behind his usual humorous facade.

He hadn't gotten more than a few feet into the cave before a wave of raw magic hit him head-on, sending him careening back into the forest, slamming into dozens of trees before it fell and his body stopped.

Out of the crumbling cave, Lucy watched in horror as a man with blue hair and a long red tattoo over his face came slowly striding out, his eyes locked onto her as the latest obstacle in his path.

"Oh," she said before magic circles broke into existence around his hands and fired down upon her with the might of the heavens.

A/N: This one took a while, I couldn't quite nail the direction of it and again decided on a few rewrites.

CWM: I hope you're ok. There is a plot point to Gemini and this version of Natsu.

END is on his own side and has his own agenda and motivations, for now, but they both absolutely share the same hatred for Zeref, that is the one instance that they cooperate and agree on.