Tribulation

Chapter Nine: Goodbye

Lucy’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.

She was going to die. She was trapped in the demon’s grip, feet dangling in the air as the dread of her last moments sunk in.

Wait, she thought in realization, my feet are dangling…

With a jolt she realized didn’t want to die today, not when she still had a job to do. Not after everything her spirits did to get her this far. Not when Natsu needed her to get him back.

Her last line defence was probably the most comical attack she had, although it was her last resort, and she would use anything in her arsenal to live. She would not go down without a semblance of a fight – she would not give up.

Willing the last of her imaginary strength into the momentum of one final most likely futile attack, she proceeded to “Lucy kick” E.N.D. in the face.

The Etherious’ head snapped upwards in response to her sucker-punch of a kick, and, unbelievably, Lucy realized she had startled him. Not wanting to lose the opening she had created for herself, she responded as quickly as she could by yanking her injured arm from the Etherious’ grip and landed firmly on the ground. Without stopping even to breathe, Lucy proceeded to once more kick E.N.D.

This time she went for the synonymous book.

Even more unbelievably, said object flew out of his grip and into the open air, and Lucy graced herself a smile. Just maybe this wasn’t going to be as hard as she–

That was the moment E.N.D. looked at her, and just like that, she felt it more than she knew, but one thing was for certain. There was no way out. No matter what she did, no matter how much it was delayed – there was only one outcome to this scenario.

The one which involved her death.

There was no denying that fact as she stared into the enraged eyes of the former Dragon Slayer, whom gazed at her with the cold fury of someone who liked to do things slowly and painfully. Lucy gulped in terror at the thought, knowing that if he attacked her with the true intent to kill, there was no way she was getting out of it alive.

She risked a glance at Gray in what would most likely be her last seconds – and managed to catch his eye as he was standing and bleeding, a horrible gash in his neck. Lucy knew as fear overcame her that he wasn’t going to make it out of this either, not with an injury like that. He would be lucky to make it through the next ten seconds.

Was the only way out by dying?

Despair rooted herself in place. No knight in shining armour would save her the way Natsu always did. This time her knight was the dragon that was going to slay them all.

But, as the thought rang in her ears, she couldn’t help but feel some sense of morbid happiness. It was then that she realized dragon or knight, Natsu always managed to take her breath away.

That’s when her body numbed, the pain of everything having become too much for her to bear. She looked into E.N.D.’s eyes, seemingly only able to be reminded of the eyes that had seen her lovingly as the orbs watched her dying form. Her end was nothing if ironic, with the way he has finished it all. She felt herself fall into death’s embrace, staring up at the sky to the stars beyond. When something glinted in the corner of her fading vision, she allowed a smile to grace her lips.

With newfound hope, Lucy believed that maybe therewasanother way out. That’s why she forgave him.

Natsu was furious.