Chapter 19: I'll keep my promise!

Hello, minna! ♥

If you haven't already noticed, I'm publishing small oneshots for Eremika week, so if you ship that, go read em, kay? ^^

Enjoy this chapter!

//тнeвιѕcυιтqυeen♥___________________________________________________________________________________

Natsu woke up, hanging from a wall, his limbs covered in some kind of slime. His arms over his head, and his legs slightly separated. As he tried to break free, someone asked at him. When he looked up, he saw that Gray hang just at the wall to the right, and Gajeel hang on the left. In front of them another empty wall stood. Where is the door?

"Yeah, we would have been free a long time ago if that worked." Gray snapped at him, hanging in the exact same position as him, on the opposite wall - without a shirt, though.

"How was I supposed to know, I just woke up?!" Natsu yelled, the anger-mark appearing on his forehead. Sending Gray the elevator look, he smirked. "Put on some clothes, Ice stripper!"

An anger-mark appeared too in Gray's forehead. "How am I supposed to do that, when I'm hanging on this wall?!" he spouted, which just made Natsu laugh, childishly.

"Would you two stop your childish games already," Gajeel growled. "We don't know what's going on, nor where the girls are!"

In the exact same time, Natsu and Gray exchanged sneaky looks, and both grinned childishly.

"So... you're worried for Levy, are ya?" Natsu said, narrowing his eyes a bit as another childish grin snuck onto to his lips.

"O-Of course I am," Gajeel said, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks. "Aren't you worried for Erza, or the others too?"

Again the two boys exchanged looks, and giggled.

"Yeah, but you seem like you really worry," Gray teased. "More like you llllliikee her!"

Gajeel sweatdropped. "Don't be like that blue exceed..."

Gray and Natsu laughed for a minute, until a question passed Natsu's mind. "What actually happened?"

"Well, as I remember he said that he wanted to play a little more with us," Gajeel muttered, looking down. "I guess he used one of those annoying glove-things on us. That bastard." The other boys agreed, letting the silence fall over them, as they thought of a way to break free.

After a moment of silence, it hit Natsu. Since they were knocked out, Zeref was probably on his way to Lucy at them moment. His blood started boil, and he let out a growl, which made the attention to fall to him.

"Oi, what is it, Flame-brain?" Gray asked, lifting his one eyebrow.

Natsu clenched his fists, which were covered by slime. "How long..." he inhaled, trying to control himself. "...have we been sleeping?"

Both Gajeel and Gray sent him a questioning look, which he responded with a yell: "How long have we been sleeping?"

"Relax, Salamander," Gajeel growled. "Well, it must have been... about half an hour, I think."

Natsu tilted his head back against the wall, trying to get his arms free, resulting a sharp pain shooting through them. "That means..." Natsu mumbled, panting after the sudden pain. "...he probably has Lucy by now!"

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Lucy stood dumbfounded, just as the rest of the group. Wendy had picked up Carla, just as comfort. She had also switched places with Lucy, so she sat in front of her, kind of shielding her. Lily had immediately tried to wake up Elimar, but it was to late. He was dead. Haichi was lying down just a few inches away from the dead Elimar, whilst Delora still stood in position, right in front of Zeref.

"Get away from here," she said, firmly. Raising her hand into the air, she prepared an attack. "You have done enough, don't you think?"

Zeref smiled sadly. "Oh, but Delora," he muttered, putting his hand to his chin. "I don't think you have the right to say that, when this is my property." Stepping back a few steps, Delora summoned five clones of herself. She didn't even have to say the magic words; the clones just appeared, as she lifted her hands.

"So you want to fight, is that it?" Zeref mumbled, shadowing his eyes with his hair. An evil smirk appeared on his lips. "As you wish." Up from his pocket, Zeref pulled out a silver sparkling glove.

Delora let out a gasped, which caused all of the attention to turn to her. "I've... never seen that glove!"

"How many of those gloves do you even have?" Carla asked, sassily, regretting her sudden question immediately.

Zeref smirked and raised his hand above his head. Closing his eyes, he began chanting in an ancient language, which none of them understood.

"S-Stop this immediately!" Delora demanded, stepping a few steps forward, trying to stop Zeref. That was when she was reminded, that she had made clones. Making a quick gesture, she let out a battle cry as she began running towards Zeref. The clones did the same, but it was too late. Zeref's glove let out a bright light, which blinded them all for a few seconds, until the light disappeared. But so was Zeref.

"W-What did he even do?" Haichi asked, looking around, still lying on her chest.

Besides Haichi, Wendy gasped. "He... got Lucy-san!" she whispered, putting the one hand over her mouth. Suddenly all of them felt a sharp pain running through their bodies. They were electrocuted. Their screams echoed through the hallways, enough for all of the people in the building to hear.

As the pain slowly faded away, all of them collapsed on the floor, still writhing in pain.

"So... that was what he did..." Haichi croaked before falling unconscious once again. ___________________________________________________________________________________

In another cell, just a few cells away from Natsu and the other's cell, three girls hang from the walls, trying to break free. The scarlet and the two bluenettes both let out a cry of exhaustion. Every time they had tried breaking free, an heavy amount of pain had shut through their limbs, and had left them panting and aching.

"Poor Lu-chan," Levy muttered, still panting. Erza and Juvia sent a questioning look. "You know... it took us some time to get here, and... Lu-chan must have been hanging up here all along." Frowning, Erza looked down at the floor. How would they even break free?

The boys must be trying the same, right now. Erza thought, looking around. I hope they're alright. Once again, with all of her strength, she tried to break through the slime, surrounding her limbs. Even sharper pain was shot through her body, making her cry out again. As she looked up, Levy was sending her a sympathetic look.

Suddenly, familiar voices enacted in the hallway. Both Erza and Levy pricked their ears, trying to hear who it was, through the closed wall. In the start, the voices were just a faint mumbling with no meaning, but as they came closer, it was clear to hear who it was. Lucy and Zeref. There was no mistake in that.

"Walk. I said walk!" Zeref demanded, firmly, as they walked closer to the girls' cell. Just in front of their cell it sounded like somthing... or someone, dumbed to the ground.

"How disgraceful of you," Zeref said, snorting. "Now you can't even walk on your own two legs." A faint cough enacted, which made both of the girls flinch. It was Lucy's cough.

"T-To my defense," Lucy mumbled. "My soul was detached from my... body." Her voice was weak, like she was close to fall asleep. Suddenly another sound enacted. It was the sound of a hand hitting a cheek, hard. Zeref had most likely just slapped Lucy. Erza gritted her teeth.

"Yes, but does that mean that you just can sit around here," Zeref replied. "Doing nothing? I have plans, and you are not to ruin them." Another slap enacted, and then another one. Small gasps and yelps sounded too, which Erza couldn't stand anymore.

"Yamete!" Erza yelled, leaning her body forwards, only to be held back by the slims around her limbs. "Don't hurt her again!"

There was silence at first, except from small pants, most likely coming from Lucy. After about thirty seconds, Zeref let out a small chuckle.

"Can you hear that, Lucy?" Zeref asked, hitting the outer wall with his hands. "That is the Titania and the Solid Script mage. That's right. I captured your friends. No one is coming to your rescue this time."

"Minna..." Lucy muttered, but before either Erza, Juvia or Levy could try calming her down, it sounded like she was dragged away again.

"We can't just let him take Love-r... Lucy!" Juvia finally spat out. Erza let out an hrmph.

"Levy, have you ever read something about this slime?" Erza asked, turning to Levy, examining the slime.

Levy shook her head violently. "N-No... I think it's from another world. Maybe one of them Zeref travelled to!"

Before Erza even could say another word, the wall, that was supposed melt, exploded into small pieces. Some of them hit both of the girls, but it wasn't anything that bothered them. They couldn't see who blew up the wall, because the entrance was covered by dust from the crumbled wall.

"You missed us?" A too familiar, childish voice asked. Natsu!

The dust settled, and five figures were shown. Gray, Gajeel, Natsu and... Loke and Gemini!

"How did you break free?!" Levy asked, exited.

Both Natsu and Gray gestured to the two spirits standing in the middle.

"Since Lucy is... not here at the moment," Loke said, adjusting his glasses. "I helped Gemini breaking through the gate on their own. And since Natsu had forgotten to give Lucy her keys back, we ended up in the boy's cell."

Erza nodded in amusement, smiling a bit, but stiffened a little bit. "Wait, can your spirit magic break through this... slime?"

Loke shook his head. "No. Gemini found Elimar's room, where the gloves that can melt this slime was."

Levy smiled brightly at the twin spirit. "Arigato!" she beamed, making the others smile too.

Both Gemi and Mini nodded, then turning to Loke. "Loke, we have to go back now. Our magic power is running out." Loke just nodded to them, letting them return to the spirit world. With a "poof" the twin spirit had gone back, and all gases were planted on Loke. Stepping forwards, Loke put on the pair of silver gloves, and placed them on the slime, surrounding Erza's feet. The slime began melting away, so Loke moved to her hands, and afterwards to Levy and then to Juvia.

"Arigato, Loke," Erza said, rubbing her sore wrists. "You should go back now. You haven't recovered much energy since you went back, only a few hours ago." And it was true. Loke looked pale, and dark circles had formed under his eyes.

"Hai," he finally said, smiling to the group. "Save Lucy and this world for me, will ya?" And that was the last words he said, before he disappeared with a "poof", just like Gemini had.

Erza faced the group, wearing a serious face. "Let's go save the world again... and Lucy!"

They all agreed by raising their hand into the air, extending their pointing finger and thumb. The sign of Fairy Tail! ___________________________________________________________________________________

With a cry, Lucy was thrown across the room, where the machine was stood. On top of it, a big measuring meter with a scale from zero to hundred. The little arrow in the measuring meter stood on ninety. He needed the rest of her magic to complete it. And with the little magic she had left, it would cost her, her life.

Trying to get up, Lucy felt a foot on her back, pressing her against the ground with great force. As she tried to turn her face to Zeref, she was grabbed by the collar, extended from the ground.

"This time none of your friends can help you," Zeref exclaimed, smirking evilly. His grip around her collar moved to her throat, and she moved her hands to his as she tired to break free. "Any last words? A prayer, perhaps?"

"Y-You promised me..." Lucy croaked, tightened her grip around his hands. "That you would... give me my m-memories back, before I... died!" First Zeref just looked confused at her, but just a few seconds later he let out a loud laughter.

"Didn't you see it, girl?" he asked, still strangling her. "Your memories are gone! They disappeared! You can never get them back! How do you expect to make me keep my promise, when they aren't here anymore?" He kept laughing as Lucy's air began to run out. Suddenly Zeref's grib was gone, and Lucy fell to the ground, panting.

Someone had hit him from behind, and Lucy knew exactly who. The burn mark in Zeref's cape couldn't be mistaken. Natsu!

"Maybe he can't keep his promise," Natsu said, as he walked through the smoke in the entrance, the rest of the group behind him. "But, Luce, I promised you that I'd get your memories back, and I'll keep that promise!"

"Ah, Natsu Dragneel," Zeref said, getting on his legs again. "The final battle is about to begin, isn't it?" ___________________________________________________________________________________

The final battle is about to begin. Who will win? Will it end victorious for our heros, or... wil it end tragic?

Read the next chapter: The final batte