Love of my Life

Chapter 7

Though the strange mark was worrying him, Natsu put it to the back of his mind. His first priority was finding his teammates. Then he could deal with his new tattoo.

He sprinted through the hallway, looking for any kind of clue that would point him in the direction of his friends. Everything was identical, from the thick, steel doors that would appear every now and then, to the dull, gray cinder blocks that made up the walls.

Natsu slowly came to a stop as he realized there was a better method to this madness. Sticking his nose in the air, he slowly sniffed. The strange stench filled his nostrils, preventing any specific smells from coming through.

Heavy footsteps echoed through the hall, forcing him to duck into the closest room. Natsu closed the door quietly behind him, waiting for the steps to pass before he turned around and examine the room.

It was similar to the room he had woken up in. In the center of it, a large, glass cylinder filled with blue liquid cast shadows on the walls. Except unlike the one he had seen, a small, unconscious boy was floating inside of it.

"Hello," he called quietly, then louder, "Hello?"

The boy did not move.

Natsu gently knocked on the glass. "Are you okay in there?" Still no response.

He studied the boy. He was young, possibly 13 or 14 years old. Dark, shaggy hair covered his face, and black circles lined his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

The most peculiar thing about him was that like Natsu, strange dark marks covered his body from head to toe. In those areas, his skin was flaking and seemed to be coming off in chips from his body, floating around the tank as debris. Natsu gulped and willed himself not to look at his own dark mark.

He brought a small flame to his hand, still not up to his full strength. If this boy didn't get out of the substance fast, his whole body would wither away in the tube. Natsu began to heat the glass, remembering something Lucy had once told him.

They had been sitting in the guildhall together, eating a bowl of delicious soup that Mira made them. She smiled when she delivered it, and Natsu swore she gave Lucy a tiny wink. He scarfed his down in only two slurps, but a piece of carrot had gotten stuck in his throat.

"That's what happens when you inhale food, idiot!" Lucy said. She pushed her water glass towards him. "Here, drink this."

Natsu drained the whole glass in one sip, but the carrot still remained. He coughed and sputtered, and at some point during the whole ordeal, he must have drawn fire to his hands. Lucy watched him worriedly, as if she couldn't tell if he was being serious or just kidding around.

He coughed one last time, and the carrot popped out of his mouth, landing in his empty bowl. At the same time, the glass shattered in his hand.

"Ow!" he cried. Bits of glass were now stuck in his hand and beginning to draw blood.

"Oh my god," Lucy said, rolling her eyes. "You'll be fine. We can take the glass out in the infirmary."

Mira hurried over, her face pale with worry. "What happened?" she asked, surveying the scene.

"Someone just discovered another one of his powers," Lucy said sarcastically.

Natsu perked up, ignoring the pain in his hand. "Wait, really? What is it?"

"Glass shatters when it's hot, so I guess that means you can shatter glass," she said. "Now let's get those shards out before they get infected."

"Cool," he whispered under his breath, looking at his hands in awe.

It took Lucy almost a half hour to get all the glass out of his hand. He studied her while she worked. Her hair was slipping out of its ponytail in small locks, and her face was scrunched up while she concentrated. Sometimes, she would bite her lip if she couldn't reach the glass, and whenever she did so, Natsu felt his face blush so much he had to look away.

Back in real time, he continued the slow process of heating the glass. There was a lot of it, after all. Soon enough, a crack appeared. He smiled, and with refreshed determination, applied more heat. The rest of the glass cracked and shattered and came raining down around him like confetti.

There wasn't much time for celebration, however. As the tube came crashing down, buckets and buckets of the strange blue liquid came pouring out, covering the entire room. Natsu yelped and jumped up onto a nearby table, scattering various medical tools to the ground. The unconscious boy also fell to the ground in a heap.

"Now would be a really great time to have a flying cat," he said to himself. There was no way to cross the room without covering himself in the substance, which apparently left decaying marks all over the skin. He would have to find another way.

Natsu's first priority was saving the boy. He reached out as far as he could, straining to reach him. By sheer luck, Natsu's hand managed to grab the boys wrist.

As gently as he could, he pulled the boy towards him and onto the table with him. The boy was too light to be healthy. The residue of the liquid still covered him, and Natsu hissed as it touched his own skin.

"Hey, wake up," Natsu said, prodding the boy with his finger. No response. "Hello?"

"He's not going to wake up."

Blythe was standing in the doorway, her feet submerged in the liquid. In one hand, she held a large ring with silver and gold keys attached to it. In the other, she held Lucy under her arm. She was limp.

"What did you do to her?" Natsu snarled, fire already in his hands.

"Nothing yet. What happens to her is your decision," she said calmly.

"Let her go!" he shouted, launching a fire attack towards Blythe. She held up Lucy's keys and used them as a shield. They absorbed the full force of the blow, and his fire tained the shiny surface of the metal.

Blythe clicked her tongue, examining the keys. "Now, look what you've done."

Natsu sucked in a breath. Lucy's spirits meant the world to her, and he couldn't risk hurting them.

"What do you want?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"The deal I'm offering is a very simple one." She smirked. "You get to chose one person to stay here with us: you, the kid, or the girl. The other two will be freed without any other questions."

Natsu struggled for breath. This was by far, the most awful choice ever presented to him. He couldn't imagine leaving the boy there to die, which he certainly would if he spent even a days more time in that liquid. Leaving Lucy wasn't even an option; the thought never crossed his mind. There was only one choice left.

"I'm staying," he said. "Let Lucy and the boy go."

Blythe cocked her head to the side. "Interesting. As promised, these two will be released, effective immediately." She snapped her fingers and a little girl appeared behind her. She was ghastly, her face was pale and her legs and arms were so thin they could've been twigs.

She practically dumped Lucy into the girl's arms, and waded through the liquid to snatch the boy. Blythe snapped again, and the little girl hurried away, struggling to carry both people on her tiny body.

"I suppose you're not going to make this easy, are you, fire boy?" Blythe sighed.

"You bet your ass I'm not," Natsu smirked. And with that, he launched himself at her in a flaming fury.