Too Late

Ch 6

Natsu pov

It's been a little over a month since Lucy died and a week since Erza comforted me at Lucy's grave to be better but, I've gotten no better. Every day. I go to the board at the guild to pick up a small job if I find one that offers enough but doesn't take long, if I find one I go get it done, then head straight to Lucy's grave. If there isn't one, I just go to her grave and I stay there all day. I have no motivation to do anything else.  "I went on a job today. Erza and Gray insisted they come with me. Pretty simple. Go in, beat up the bad guys, collect the jewel, come back to Fairy Tail. I know they're worried about me but they don't need to be." I pause and take a breath. "I just can't get passed you being really gone. I know I should try to move on, I know I should try to get back to being my old happy self.. I know you'd tell me that's what I need to do too." I glance up to the sky, close my eyes and breathe in and out, "I know my last promise, I couldn't keep it, but I promise Lucy.. I'm gonna try to move on.. And live my life the best I can. I will always miss you." I kiss the tip of my fingers and place them on her grave stone and turn to head back  to the guild. "Natsu.."

 I stop in place and get goosebumps on my skin. I swivel my head back and forth. Was that.. Lucy? I look back at her grave.. Great now I'm officially losing it. Now I think I hear.. "Natsu.. please, please hear me!" "Lucy?" "Is that you?" "Natsu!! Please! Hear me!" "I I I do, Lucy I hear you! But how?" "I don't think he can hear me.. this isn't working.. what am I going to do??" How is this happening?? Lucy died. I saw her body. HOW am I hearing her?? Am I imagining this?? "Natsu.. I don't know if you can hear me.. but I'll speak in case you can.." She pauses for what felt like forever, "Lucy??" "I'm not dead." I freeze. She's alive?? How? "I can't remember anything, except you. My memories are being wiped away from me by a dark guild master. All I can remember is that for some reason, you think I'm dead and that you're important to me as I am to you. I can't even remember what we were to each other, just that we mean a great deal to each other." Someone has her?? And they're ripping away her memories? Why? "Lucy tell me where you are! I'll come find you!!" "The dark guild is called Dark Hakai.. not much is known about them outside of their base. I think by this time tomorrow, the last of my memories will be gone and I won't remember you or anything about you. And new memories, false ones, will be in their place. I don't know if or how you can, but please help me."

"Lucy? LUCY! Wait come back! Don't leave me please! Tell me where this guild is! I'll come for you right now!!" Nothing but silence in return, "Lucy?" "Natsu?" I turn around so fast my feet could have drilled through the ground. Erza, Gray, Happy, Wendy and Gajeel all stood behind me with concerned looks on their faces. "Are you okay?" Wendy asks nervously. "Lucy is alive!" They all widen their eyes at what I'd said. "He's completely lost it." Gajeel mutters buut I heard him. "I heard that!" "Look man, we all miss her, and we all wish more than anything that she was still with us but," I interrupt Gray "She's alive! I'll prove it!" I start digging up Lucy's grave. "Natsu! STOP!" Erza shouts. Gray and Gajeel grab each of my arms to pull me back. But they're not stopping me, if she's alive, NO ONE is stopping me from getting to her. I explode in a giant fire ball that propels Gray and Gajeel clean off me. I dig and dig and dig till I reach the coffins lid. I punch through the wood and can't believe what I'm seeing. "Natsu knock it off! All you're doing now is desecrating Lucy's grave and destroying her resti.." Gajeel stops talking when he sees what I see. Gray, Erza, Wendy and Happy do the same and look at what we see. "I told you! Lucy is alive!" They look at me horrified and confused and look back down at the grave and to the empty coffin that laid before us. 

"Natsu tell me right now how you somehow knew her body wasn't in there! You were THERE they day she was killed AND when we laid her body to rest! Start explaining!" Erza screams at me. "She spoke to me. I could hear her reaching out to me.. some kind of mind link." "Since when has Lucy been capable of doing something like that? Happy asks me. "What did she say?" Wendy asks. "Just that she's alive. And that she's lost her memories!" "What?!" Gray exclaims. "She said all she remembers is me. Not what happened to her, where she is, why I believed she was dead.. that a dark guild is doing this to her. Some guild called Dark Hakai. She also said that by tomorrow night the last of her memories will be gone, and false ones will be put in their place." "Oh no! Poor Lucy!" Wendy says. "We've gotta do something." Gray adds. "Like what? How? Are you guys forgetting NONE of us have even heard of them before?? Or a guess as to where they could be? She could be anywhere!" Gajeel shouts. "We need to take this information to master. It's possible he's heard of them. Let's start there." Erza tells the rest of us. We race back to the guild.