Bloody Love [A NaLu Fanfic]

Chapter 8: Separated

"Luce?" Natsu called to the fading figure which was walking quickly away from him. "Where are you going! Wait up!"

Lucy's figure suddenly stopped, jolted, and fell to the floor.

"Lucy!!!" Natsu yelled as he ran up to her. But just as he was about to reach her, she vanished.

"What the hell?!?!" Natsu cried, looking around frantically for Lucy. "Lucy!! Lucy, where are you?!"

Only the echoes from his cries responded, however. Infuriated, Natsu punched a wall. His flames erupted from his hand and were sucked away down the tunnel again.

"Damn it!" Natsu yelled, but he had no choice but to walk on.

In Lucy's tunnel, she was surrounded by mirrors. They showed her in different moods and different scenarios, but this time they were all dark.

In one of them, Lucy is fighting a swarm of monsters but she gets overwhelmed and beaten to death.

In another, Lucy is lying on an experiment table, bloody and beaten.

In another, Lucy is holding onto Natsu's hand as she dangles from a cliff, but her hand slips and she falls to the jagged rocks below.

In the final mirror, Lucy's eyes are bloodshot and her hands glowing red. She's crouched over a male figure as she devours a rich red heart.

"What is this nightmarish place?" Lucy's lips trembled. She pulls out one of her keys and holds it in front of her. "Open, gate of the lion, Loke!" Lucy commands.

Loke did not come.

"What's going on? Why won't my magic work?!" Lucy panicked.

"Open, gate of the Virgin, Virgo!"

Virgo did not appear.

"Open, gate of the archer, Sagittarius! Open, gate of the golden bull, Taurus!"

No celestial spirits appeared. Exhausted, Lucy slumped to the ground, breathing heavily.

"Why can't I summon my spirits?" she asked aloud. "Why can't I summon my spirits?!?!" In a rage, Lucy's raised her hands, which were again glowing red, and placed them on the nearest mirror she saw. The mirror began to crack...

----------------

Natsu, still walking in his tunnel, passed by multiple skeletons slumped against the wall. "Looks like this place wasn't favorable for some people..." he noted.

Natsu abruptly came to a stop when he saw another strange apparition.

"Who're you?" he loudly demanded of the hunched figure which was at least three times his size.

The figure turned around and gazed at him with a beastly green face resembling a hog mixed with a bull. It had a hog's snout, tiny hog eyes, and bull horns. Snorting, it charged at Natsu.

"Aww yeah, I've been craving a fight!" Natsu's hands flamed up excitedly. "I'm all fired up!"

Natsu collided with the hog-bull, which extinguished his flames easily. Bouncing back, the hog-bull pawed its feet and charged once more.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu punched the darned animal, but of course it remained unscathed. In fact, quills on the animal's back suddenly raised up, pointing at Natsu, and fired.

"What the heck, you're a porcupine too?" Natsu yelled at it, dodging the poisonous quills, before swooping down with "Fire Dragon's Claw!" and kicking the beast in the face.

"Fire Dragon King's Wing Attack!" Natsu threw fire and wind at the hog-bull, and finally it buckled an fell to its knees with a loud, wounded roar. Natsu landed on the ground with a silent swish of his feet, staring at the defeated hog-bull.

"Now, I wonder where you came from..." Natsu looked around more carefully this time, and he realized that he'd reached the end of the tunnel.

"What the hell? This can't be right." Natsu pushed aside the animal, which had fallen over a hole. Natsu stared down the hole but all he could see was darkness. He lit a flame in his hand, which got sucked down the hole. Strangely, however, the fire provided no light to illuminate what was down there.

"Well, looks like that's my destination," Natsu muttered and jumped into the hole.
----------------

When Natsu landed--roughly, he might add; it hurt--he found himself in another dimly lit room, except very large. In the center of it was a strange lacrima, full of dark black essence.

---------------

Lucy could feel her anger channeling through her hands as she attempted to annihilate these despicable mirrors without thinking much about what she was doing. The glow in her hands intensified as cracks appeared in the glass, which had gone dark, and finally, with a burst of energy, the mirror shattered into a million pieces.

Now there was a hole in the wall, however, and Lucy found herself facing a large room, in the middle of which was a dark lacrima.

On the opposite end of the room she could make out a pink-haired figure.

--------------

As Natsu was taking in his surroundings, suddenly part of the opposite wall of the room burst open and he saw Lucy sitting there, her glowing hands in front of her, the glow was starting to fade.

"Lucy!" he called out as he ran over to her.

"Natsu," Lucy said as she got to her feet and stumbled over to him. He wrapped her in a warm embrace.

"Thank God you're alright," he murmured into her hair. Lucy pulled away quickly.

"Of course I'm alright, you dumbass," she scolded him. "Right now we have to destroy that lacrima! I'm sure it's what's causing the mist in the city!"

"Who would have planted it in here though?" Natsu asked.

"I don't know," Lucy replied. "But we need to get rid of it, quickly."

"Alright," Natsu said, his hands flaming up. He charged the lacrima. "Fire Dragon King's Crimson Blade Attack!"

When his flames came into contact with the lacrima, an intense white light expanded from the lacrima which filled the room. Everything went dark.

-----------

Lucy awoke to Natsu shaking her. She was still in the same large underground chamber, but the lacrima was gone.

"Did you destroy it?" Lucy asked Natsu, who was sporting a confused expression.

"I think so... after that huge bright light, I passed out, but the lacrima disappeared."

"Oh good," Lucy sighed in relief. "We can get out of here and report back to the mayor now." She tried to stand up, but her knees buckled and she fell down.

"Lucy, you're hurt!" Natsu cried, catching her before she fell onto the ground. He picked her up bridal-style. "It's okay, I'll carry you. Come on, let's get out of here." Natsu leapt onto the wall like a ninja and started scaling the wall.

"Fire Dragon's Blazing Iron Fist!" he punched a hole into the ceiling and the two of them saw bright daylight. Natsu carried Lucy through the hole in the wall to aboveground, landing on the streets of Caligo, which was now bright sunny without any mist.
__________________________

Natsu and Lucy finally completed the mission! But what was the meaning of all the images Lucy saw in the mirrors? And what is the Mayor's "mystery reward" for them? But most importantly, what does this city's story have to do with Lucy's predicament (remember--she still has no heart! Except she's healthy for two months after consuming the heart-essence so she's okay for now)? Stay tuned to find out!!!