I Leave You, My Pride

Caged

The grave was empty. Everyone knew that even as they stood around it and listened to the funeral sermon. After all, the person it was meant for had not even been human, and he had no body left behind to put into the ground.

When Loke died, he simply faded from existence.

The entire black-clothed crowd kept glancing to Lucy. They knew this was hardest on her. Maybe she had not been there during the entire three years when he posed as a human, but Loke had been her loyal Celestial Spirit for a long time ... some said they were "more than friends." She used to fiercely deny it while still blushing.

No one dared to tease her now.

Gray watched her a little closer than the others, and he had made sure to stand beside her during the prayers and sermon over the grave marker. He realized she was not crying. Her eyes, obscured by a black veiled hat, were empty. She stared at the tombstone as if it did not even exist. He knew full well that she had cried and raged for days after Loke's death. Now, nothing. Maybe her tears were all used up. Gray was not sure, but one thing was certain.

Something more was wrong with Lucy. She did not look merely grieving. She looked preoccupied, as if something even worse than losing her loyal friend was weighing on her mind.

***

One Week Earlier

Lucy could hardly believe this was happening. She once had a nightmare like this, yet here it was happening right in front of her.

"Loke!" she shrieked.

He laid on the ground, a gapping hole in his torso, particles of spirit energy already drifting into the air. On any normal fight, he would have simply slipped back into the Spirit World long ago. However, the runes wizard Lucy had been fighting was clever and knew precisely how to stop her. The box of glowing runes the two were trapped in forcefully kept them in that location with no ability to leave that space.

No ability for Lucy to call another Celestial Spirit.

No ability for Loke to leave the Human World before the injury killed him.

The runes wizard trapped her and Loke there, then walked away chuckling sadistically. He did not care if some Spirit died. They were tools, anyway. However, he reasoned that the pretty blond girl was worth keeping as a ransom. She looked refined, probably from a rich family ... a family who would pay to get her back. So instead of killing her as he had been ordered, he trapped her there, left her alone, and went off to help his friends finish off the pesky wizards of Fairy Tail.

Lucy pounded on the purple glowing runes, but it was impossible to break out. She focused on Loke instead. She knew things were getting worse when his powerful golden glow began to dim to a sickly green.

"Loke," she shuddered, but he only moaned, grimacing in pain. She hated to see him in such agony, and she knew that if he did not break out soon, he was going to die for real, trapped in Earthland. She pulled out the Lion's Key. "Close the Gate of the Lion. Close!" she screamed, thrusting immense amounts of magic into it.

"Lucy," Loke warned in a raspy breath. "The runes are solid. We can't break them. Please, don't kill yourself."

"You're going to die if I do nothing," she snapped, still gripping the key hard, her hair fluttering as she channeled in more magic.

"That's ... going to happen anyway," he moaned. "Please ... just hold me now. I don't want to be alone."

Lucy dropped the key as she saw his body waving in and out of existence. "No ... it can't be happening."