sin & sorcery

chapter 11

Natsu sat on the roof of the guild, feet kicked up on the wall, arm resting on the edge of his rickety chair. A longview scanner sat in his lap and he tapped his fingers against it absently. His skin thrummed and a headache was starting to pulse just behind his temples.

He missed Gray. It had been several months since the Earthlanders had arrived and he'd been unpleasantly shocked into the past by his fiance's counterpart, and the ache still remained. He played with the ring on his finger, shifting uncomfortably as phantom pain shot up where his right arm would have been. It didn't happen often, but today was one of those days. He hadn't slept well either – restless dreams of fire and scorched flesh and blood.

A memory started to form in the back his mind. Soft kisses and fingers trailing up his arms, lips pressed to the soft place just under his ear. Gray's hair tickled his nose and he buried his face in it, sighing happily. "I love you," Gray murmured, hands trailing over Natsu's chest. His lips made their way across Natsu's face until they were kissing, soft and sweet. "I love you so much. Wanna get married?"

He shook his head, lifting up the scanner and sweeping it over the ruins of whatever abandoned town they were now in. Everything was dry and barren, little dust devils sweeping through the streets. The Magehunters he'd seen earlier were gone, taking speeders back to the city, and the dry wasteland between here and the Wall was completely still. The silence was unsettling and Natsu found himself humming under his breath.

"All good up there?" The radio tucked into his pants crackled to life and he startled, setting down the scanner and picking the receiver up to reply.

"If you mean boring as frak, you got it," he said, yawning. Lucy snorted on the other end of the line. "Chromes bugged out, it's nothin' but dirt now."

There was a silence and he wondered if something had come up, but her voice came back shortly. She must have sensed his melancholy mood, since her tone was gentle.

"You doing okay?"

He sighed, tipping his head and rubbing at his face with the stump of his right arm. Part of him wanted to talk about it – Lucy would listen, she was good at that. She'd spent many nights with him, curled up on one of the tiny beds in the apartment, holding his hand while he cried away the ache in his chest.

"Just..." He sighed. Today's mood was so intangible, so fleeting, so- "Wait a minute."

He couldn't hold both the radio and the scanner at the same time so he set the radio down, peering through the lenses out towards the Wall. It was shimmering faintly, which wasn't unusual, but Natsu could have sworn he saw an explosion beyond it.

"Natsu? What's going on?" He didn't answer, sweeping his gaze across the horizon, keeping an eye out for—there. It was so far north that it was barely visible, but he was certain it had been an explosion. Orange fire had blossomed up in the air, if only momentarily. Where was that – Sycca? Could the civilians be rioting? He dropped the scanner back in his lap and grabbed the radio.

"Luce, get up here, something's happening." She didn't respond, but seconds later the trapdoor on the roof opened and her shoulders popped through. He waved her over. "C'mere, I can't - the radio and the scanner."

"What is it?" she asked, grabbing the scanner and peering through it. He guided her to the area where he'd seen the explosion and she gasped. "Are they rioting? They can't be, that's - they'd all get..." Her shoulders stiffened and she trailed off. "Frak me, it can't be."

"What?" Natsu nudged at her and swiped at the scanner out of her hands, peering through it and reeling back at what he saw.

The Wall was coming down.