E.N.D.

Chapter 24

The End

Note: Here's the final conclusion to this story. Once again, I want to say thank to everyone who's been following this story. You guys are the best and I hope you've all enjoyed it. I didn't do this on purpose in anyway, but another one of my stories picks up where this story will leave off. A New Family is kind of like a spinoff to what happens in the future so be sure to check that out if you're interested. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the final chapter and thank you once again for all of the support.

"Where I am? What happened? Wait a second, I know this place. This is my body… But how? E.N.D. had me under its control. Geez, I'm so confused." Natsu looked down at his fists as he clenched them tightly. "I'm back to normal. It feels so good to be back." At that moment, a bright light started to fly right at him which caused him to cover his eyes. The light continued to surround the area until it vanished in the blink of an eye. When he opened his eyes, he saw the sky right on top of him with ruins of buildings on his side. "What the heck?"

"Mmm." That soft sound caused him to look to his side and when he did, he saw Lucy sleeping right next to him.

"Lucy." He gently put his hand on her head which caused her to wake up. She slowly raised her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Natsu!" Out of nowhere, she leapt right at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh my gosh, you're alive. I was so worried. We were all worried that you wouldn't come back. Thank you. Thank you so much." As Lucy continued to pour out all of her words, Natsu was outright confused.

"Lucy, what are you talking about?"

"E.N.D. is what happened." The two of them turned their heads and saw Makarov walk towards them.

"E.N.D…. Right, that thing I talked to back then."

"Natsu, how do you feel?"

"I feel fine now. The only thing that I'm confused about is how am I back? That guy was freaking strong. I couldn't find any way to get through him and back to you guys."

"You can thank Lucy for that. We beat the clock just barely, but she ended up finding an ancient sword that could eliminate a demon from the host's body. That was you. Without that sword and without Lucy, you would be dead." At that moment, Natsu's eyes widen with shock.

"Dead."

"We were finally able to learn the whole truth about this." Natsu took a deep breath. "You see you're a creation of Zeref meant to rival him as the final battle for this world. You won and killed Zeref. However, there were some things that needed to be established before that fight could take place. Zeref inputted an incredible power source known as E.N.D. inside of you. However, the only way that power could be awakened was if you become strong as a mage yourself. Once that power was awoken, you were jailed away inside of E.N.D.'s powers and only given 72 hours to live since Zeref's purpose was to make you into object of unstoppable force. He, too, cared about this world. If you were victorious, you would soon be wiped out of existence. That's where Lucy came into play. She, Erza, and Wendy went looking for the sword that could save your life and finished the job in the nick of time. Are you getting all of this?" Lucy turned to face Natsu and saw that he had his head in his hands.

"What the hell? How does any of this make sense?"

"I know it's hard to except, but…"

"No, I won't accept this. I'm the child of Igneel. He raised me and he made me who I am today, not Zeref." Natsu suddenly threw off the blankets and ran off in a rush.

"Natsu!" Natsu didn't listen. He continued to run until he ran into some of his other guild members. They were kneeling on the ground. He decided to see what they were doing and saw the bodies of two people on the ground: Meredy and Mest.

"What happened to them?" They all looked at him with weird looks.

"You don't remember?" There was a pause. "They're dead. You're the one…" He couldn't stand to listen anymore. He ran off again, but only this time, to somewhere he had no idea where.

He continued to run until his legs lost their ability to hold him up. He fell onto the ground and crashed hard. That was when he lost control of himself. Tears started to run down his face as he slowly brought himself off the ground. As he looked at the ground, tears fell from his face and onto his hands. He couldn't believe the words he was hearing and the things he was seeing. It almost felt like a dream, but he knew it wasn't. Everything happening around him was all real. There was no denying that fact.

He quickly wiped away his tears. He knew that he couldn't cry like this. This wasn't the time to do so. He picked himself off the ground and looked straight ahead to see a clearing. He walked over to it and saw that he was on top of one of the hills on the outskirts of the city. He looked outwards and saw all of the destruction that E.N.D. caused. He didn't know that it was him doing it, he just knew that he felt bad about it all.

"This is horrible. I couldn't have done this. I promised to protect my friends and instead, I hurt them. I hurt the people of Magnolia and worst of all, I killed two people." He suddenly dropped to his knees and looked at his hands. "I'm not a murderer." He brought his head into his hands and let everything out. "Aahhhh! Nnnoooo!" For the first time in his life, Natsu truly felt like he let himself and everyone else down. Unfortunately, he had no control over what had happened, but he was determined to pin this all on himself. "Everyone, I'm so sorry. This is all of my fault."

"No, it's not. None of this is your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for." He heard that familiar voice which made him turn around. It was Lucy who managed to catch up to him. "None of this is your fault. Can you hear me?"

"Lucy, but… Look around. Remember what I did… How is this not my fault?"

"That wasn't you," she said as she walked closer to him. "All that time E.N.D. took over, I knew you were still in there fighting. I wanted to believe it because you would never do something like this. You vowed to protect your friends." Natsu suddenly clenched his fists and slammed it on the ground.

"But I didn't. I killed Meredy and Mest." At that moment, Lucy went silent. There was no hiding that fact. All she could do was make sure that Natsu didn't feel any more worse than he already was. She took another step towards him and knelt down in front of him.

"There are just some things that we can't control in this world. There are so many things we wish we could do, but we can't. For the longest time, I wanted to reunite with my mother, but that never happened. For you, you were able to reunite with Igneel. You remember that, don't you?" Natsu didn't respond, but deep down, he wanted to say yes. "And you told him about everything you've accomplished while he was gone." He wiped his eyes and nodded. "Everything you've done, you've done with a purpose. Just consider this the same way. You admitted defeat, but now, you'll never lose again." He suddenly looked up at her as she brought her head into his. Their foreheads touched, just like the time future Lucy appeared before them. "I'll always be here for you Natsu because you've always been here for me."

"Lucy…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." At that moment, he stood up and marched off in the direction of the town. Meanwhile, Lucy was so confused. She thought that her little speech had worked. The only thing she could do was hope that it actually did.

When Natsu made it back into town, he walked right up to where the guild building once stood. He looked at the remains and tried his best to hold back the tears. As he did, the townspeople and the guild members crowded around him in curiosity. He looked around and saw them looking at him with worried looks. He knew he had to set things right and that was exactly what he was going to do.

"I know I've done many things wrong. I even brought death upon two of my comrades; may you rest in peace." He looked down and tightened his fists. "I don't want this to happen again so I've decided the best course of action. I'm leaving the guild until I figure out who I am. When I return, I will answer to everything that I have done." He turned around and walked off to his house in the woods. However, as he walked off, he brought up his right hand and raised his two fingers to the sky. That's when everyone knew that that was Natsu. Everyone slowly followed in his example until he vanished from sight. When he got home, he saw Happy reorganizing some things around house.

"Ah, Natsu! You weren't supposed to be home yet. I, uh, wasn't really ready yet, but… Tada. Welcome home." Natsu looked around blankly until he found his backpack. He walked over to it and started to fill it with only necessities that he would bring with him on his journey. "Natsu, are you okay?"

"I'm fine Happy."

"What are you doing?"

"I have to leave for a while. Don't worry about me."

"What are you talking about? I'm coming with you." Happy attempted to fly towards the door, but Natsu grabbed him by the tail and pulled him back towards him.

"I know you mean well, but this is something that I have to do on my own. Watch over the place for me while I'm gone, yeah?" Happy nodded his head slowly. He knew that there was something different about Natsu, but couldn't really put his finger on it. They said their goodbyes as Natsu walked out and shut the door behind him. "Goodbye Happy."

"Where do you think you're going?" It was Lucy who was behind him.

"I'm sorry, Lucy, for doing this to you again, but I have to leave this place for a while." He turned around to face her eye-to-eye, but noticed that she also had a bag with her.

"I know what you're trying to do and I've decided to come along with you." Hearing those words caused him to drop his head in sadness. There were already so many things not going according to plan so he had to set things right.

"Lucy, you… You just can't."

"Natsu, you've always been with me no matter what. This is my way of repaying you."

"There's nothing to repay. I did that out of my own will."

"Then let me do this out of my own will. You can't leave me alone again. I'm not letting you." He raised his head and saw Lucy pointing her guild mark right at him. "Do you know what this means?" He was silent. "It's your home. Fairy Tail is always thinking about you. Until the time is right, I will be by your side this time." A smile finally breached his face.

"Alright. Then let's go on an adventure."

The End

Ending Note: For all of you NaLu shippers, I'm currently writing a story called A New Family that dives into Natsu and Lucy's relationship in the future. Be sure to check that out if you're interested. Once again, I hope you enjoyed this story and I hope to hear from you guys about how I did.