Calamity

1

In the darkness, a person could feel one of two things. One is that they feel nothing, and the other is where one feels everything to the point of being numb. Most assume that if a person felt anything in the darkness, they would feel nothing but pain. But what is pain? Is it a physical feeling one gets if they get harmed? Was it the feeling of being left behind by someone another had come to care deeply for? Or maybe it was watching the person that they had come to fall in love with walk away from them with the one they had feelings for? But a better question is, what makes the pain go away?

A blonde lay in the rubble in the middle of a war, a war she took part in to protect the innocent people around her. The sky was a burning red, dark orange, and never-ending black. It made her wonder if her best friend had somehow accomplished setting the sky on fire, though she knew she was just trying to distract her mind from the blood and pain she felt all over her body. Even her hair felt painful.

Beside her was someone who many had thought was with the enemy, but the blonde knew better than to think that. That being was E.N.D., also known as Etherious Natsu Dragneel. Her best friend. He sat beside her in all his new demonic glory, protecting her from any and all spells that came even remotely close to them. Natsu, or E.N.D., was protecting the one person who had their back, even when their other self couldn't remember, no matter what so they would protect her from anything that would cause her more harm.

Sadly, they couldn't prevent a natural death. They could heal any injury caused by magic, but when a bolder was thrown at a human with no magical traces they couldn't do much. They weren't like that tiny Sky Dragon Slayer that could heal pretty much everything, they would go get her if she wasn't already dead. It was going okay, especially when they had a break to remove the rubble from Lucy until Zeref appeared in front of them and began to throw spell after spell at them.

It had been going on for far too long and Zeref soon disappeared only to reappear behind Lucy with a knife to her throat. "Fight me seriously or I kill this pretty blonde you are determined to protect. Either way, I'll get you fighting me seriously, I don't much care how it happens."

Growling, E.N.D peered behind him to see Zeref holding Lucy at knifepoint. Zeref was supporting Lucy, who seemed to be almost unconscious, and was holding his short silver knife to Lucy's throat. It would seem that Zeref thought that Lucy wasn't worth using magic on.

Lucy watched as the two fought, learning of the bond between them. If Zeref dies then so does Natsu. With so much blood loss Lucy felt her life begin to go and Lucy tried to fight, but she was so tired. Her body was tired. Her eyes slid shut on their own and Lucy was no more. It was then that Lucy felt the cold metal lightly grazing her neck as she felt a body behind her, a body that she was unfamiliar with.

She wished that her hearing didn't feel as if it was clogged with so many cotton balls. All she saw was a red flash behind her closed eyelids and the sound of fighting once more. Then everything went silent and she knew she had died.

At least, that was what she had thought.

When she opened her eyes again she saw someone in a black cloak and a very large scythe. Lucy was so startled that she took a small gasp as she jumped slightly at his sudden appearance. All around her she saw everything was frozen in place, Natsu was in the motion of throwing a flaming punch as Zeref stood there with a happy, almost psychotic, smile as he had black magic swirling all around his own fist as he aimed for Natsu's head.

"What's going on?"

"You were in the process of crossing over," the cloaked person rasped. "I have stopped it."

Lucy spun her head away from her best friend to face the cloaked person. "Why? Why did you stop me from dying?"

Not that she wasn't grateful, but she knew that this being was incredibly powerful. She could literally feel the power radiating from just his finger, it felt almost crushing. He could have saved anyone else from dying, but he saved her. Lucy wasn't as powerful as any of the others in the war, no, if anything Lucy thought herself to be one of the weakest mages in Fairy Tail. Even with all the training she had done in the year that Fairy Tail disbanded. Sure Lucy had beaten Jackal a year ago, but that was only because Aquarius had left a small portion of her magic behind for Lucy. It wasn't even her magic that saved Fairy Tail, it was all Aquarius's, that's what she believed.