"That's enough. Both of you."

Natsu hastily points to his future self.

"He's here to kill you, Lucy!"

I gulp and nod my head.

"I know, but Natsu-"

"No! I don't care what he says. There's another way! I can fix this if we just keep trying!"

Future Natsu injects himself in the path between us, his back to me as he yells at Natsu.

"There's only one way that you can fix it! She has to die! I have to do this! For everyone's sake!"

I bite my lip and close my eyes in frustration.

They won't stop.

My fists clench at my sides and my face scrunches up.

They just keep going back and forth between each other and what they see as their duty...when it's not...

They need to see that.

"Neither of you get it!"

They both go quiet again, their heads turning my way.

"All of your efforts are fruitless! Don't you see? Nothing you do will change it. You can't fix it, Natsu."

They both stare at me, at a loss for words.

"There was one moment, a trigger that set me off on the path of destruction. I know that you think it was when you died. One of you sees that you can't stop your death and the other thinks they can avoid it...but those ideas are pointless...it doesn't matter."

My lips press into a thin line and I inhale through my nose before speaking again.

"The one defining moment was the day that I decided I was going to find a resurrection spell. After that moment the path had already been laid down, not before and not after."

Natsu opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off before he can get a single word out.

"You can't change it Natsu."

His mouth shuts and he looks down to the ground causing my hands to tremble slightly in uneasiness.

I tear my gaze away from him and take it over to his future self.

"I'm sorry that you spent your life trying to correct the repercussions of my actions when it wasn't you who can."

I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep breath to get rid of the doubt building before opening them.

I can't think about Natsu right now.

"I won't become the reborn black wizard. I won't cause any destruction."

I see Natsu watching me from the corner of my eye with surprise. I gulp and keep my eyes trained on the future him.

"I won't mess with black magic. Ever...I won't..."

I pause and bite my lip to keep tears from wellings in my eyes.

"I won't bring Natsu back to life."

They both watch me, an unexplainable emotion stirring in the future Natsu's eyes.

"I will never become the person that you described."

Something flashes in my vision and all of our faces move to future Natsu's hand, where his fingers start to shine and then become transparent.

He watches his hand in awe and I can visibly see the weight that lifts off of his shoulders as relief fills him.

He stops looking at his hand and looks up to me.

He changes in an instant, some of the serious, unhappy person slipping away the moment he realizes he can finally be in peace.

"Who would have thought?..."

He stares at me with something that I can only describe as a type of awe in his eyes.

His arm slips away into tiny specks of light that rise up to the ceiling. Yellow light starts to illuminate objects all around the room as more of him starts to shine.

In this moment I truly see him. He's been gone for so long, with nobody to bring out who he is. Without people by your side the person you are... is nobody.

It hurts me to think that Natsu went through that, even if my Natsu stands a few feet behind me, currently untouched by the future's grasp.

Before he's gone completely I say what else needs to be said...what I need to say.

"I forgive you, Natsu, for what you had to do. I want you to know that none of this is your fault."

His eyes fill with wonder and they start to glisten.

The relief he feels overwhelms him and a tear cascades down his cheek.

My lips barely tilt up in the corners.

He can finally cry knowing that it's over and he finally gets to rest.

He gazes at me through glistening eyes and through the bright light that shines from him as he slowly starts to disappear.

"You really are good, Lucy. If only I had stuck by your side-"

I interrupt him before he can finish his what if.

"I doesn't matter."

The world he had lived in had ingrained into him, scarring him, but now that world is disappearing and with it all of the weight it forced onto him.

"Thank you, Natsu."

Thank you for trying to stop me even though it wasn't your place or your burden.

The what if's don't matter anymore. You can go knowing that nobody will go through the horrors that you've gone through.

Understanding flashes in his eyes even with so little words.

"I'm...so relieved."

His eyes shut peacefully as he slowly disappears. A hint of a smile teases his lips as he accepts his fate with open arms.

The light creeps up his neck and travels across his face, all the way to the tips of his hair and after one more moment, what was Natsu breaks apart into tiny pieces of light that float slowly into the air.

———
One more chapter then an epilogue type chapter😬