Fairy Tail: The Phoenix Prophecy [AU] [Discontinued]

Chapter Eighteen

[A/N]: I AM RECOVERED! I AM AT MY FULLEST STRENGTH! COME AT ME WORLD! I'LL DEVOUR YOU! MUAHAHAHAHA! Ok but on a serious note, most of the pain in my mouth resided so I thought 'eyy, time to stop acting like a whiny little bitch and post something'! So here I am now!

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     Lucy slowly opened her eyes and immediately sealed them shut under the sudden onslaught of bright yellow lights. She tried turning her head away from the brightness, but a painful metallic bind around her throat shut off that action quickly. It hurt. So much. Blinking repeatedly to grow familiar to the unwanted brightness, Lucy's eyes adjusted and she came to know where she was rather quickly.

     She was in some sorts of giant glass dome inside a strange room, chained to a metal table directly under a light. Cords were attached to her arms, her legs, her hands, and a metal cap surrounded her skull with too many of these strange wirings connected to it. What was worse was that all these strange wirings connected to her body flowed out and joined together to eventually connect as one large wire into a machine. It looked like some kind of giant battery, and all along the sides of it were computers.

     Waking overcame her and fear rose in her throat. Lucy tried to yank her body around or at least detach some of this strange shit attached to her body, but all she got out of her efforts was sore ankles, wrists, and prickling sensations that tickled her arms and legs that felt like ants were crawling around inside her and it didn't feel good at all.

     She gave up and rested her head against the metal table, groaning in pain and in frustration. Damn, this sucked. Where were the others? Natsu, Levy, Jellal, were they alright? The last she'd seen of her comrades was when they first arrived to this terrible castle. Drakes, wyverns, and even a few dragons emerged from the hauntingly terrifying castle gates the moment Tartarus returned from their hunt, and all Lucy could do was watch in terror as they took Natsu and the other dragons away. Wendy and Sting were being dragged away by Rogue, and Sting was pleading to Rogue to snap out of whatever spell Keyes had him under (though Lucy could have sworn she saw the shadow dragon wink at her), and Natsu and the other unconscious dragons were taken away without difficulty. She remembered screaming and crying out for them to not touch any of them, especially Natsu. The sweet idiot who always made her feel better. The reckless fool who saved her from her petty life inside her prison of a castle. The man who, when she was around him, gave her the ability to see everything clearly as if for the first time. The dragon who she couldn't deny she had feelings for. She remembered reaching out for him until she no longer saw him, and then she remembered being separated from the other riders before suddenly everything went black. 

     Natsu.

     Was he alright? What was he thinking of now? Was he even alive? Were they... not the ones who were supposed to stop the prophecy? No, was the prophecy even real? Was this all some kind of pointless chase? Are they sacrificing everything for nothing?

     Will I ever see Natsu again?

     The thought of never being able to see that stupid grin of his broke her heart. No, not just his grin, but his everything. The way he'd act so stupidly with his friends, how he acted so strongly despite having shown her his vulnerability, how he made her smile. If she never saw anything of this dragon prince again... She couldn't bear the thought.

    'Don't give up yet,' the strange, disembodied voice said, and Lucy flinched. 

    "Who are you?" Lucy dared to whisper, and she heard grave chuckling resonate through her head.

    'He's on his way. Take in your surroundings. Listen.'

    "What do you mean?"

     The voice didn't answer this time, and Lucy frowned. This voice... it was comforting when it spoke, but it always popped up at the strangest of times. Like when she fought Angel... how long ago was that? Was this her subconscious speaking to her or was this the work of something external? And what did he mean when he said "He's coming"?