No fear
Chapter eight
"Okay, I'm in. So what am I supposed to do now?"
"Well, what do you see? What does the scenery look like?"
Juvia was telepathically talking to Warren while she he had sent her inside of Natsu's head. She had felt a significant dip in his magic the day after they ate outside in the forest and Juvia had to admit that it also felt good lying around and having a good make out session with him. She had never done anything like that and it just felt right before in Natsu's strong arms as they kissed each other like their lives depended on it. Still, she had brought it to Makarov's attention and he had sent Warren and Wendy to attend while Natsu was asleep.
"Juvia, I'm basically inside of your head when you think of things like that."
Warren's voice came filtering through, making Juvia groan in pure shame. She had forgotten that Warren was linked to her and therefore could see her thoughts. She was just going to have to focus on the task at hand for now and not think a single thing about Natsu himself.
"Okay, well the scenery is red. Red skies and burnt grass. It's really hot, like a very hot and humid summer day with no wind or anything. I have a feeling that this place was on fire while he was stuck in his dragon force. Is there anything you want me to do?"
"Yes. You need to head to the heat source and use your magic to extinguish the flames. If what you're saying about him running on dragon force is correct, then we're going to need to stifle those flames. There might be an enchantment surrounding his dragon seed and once you find it, you touch it. Wendy gave you a disabling enchantment spell, right?"
Juvia nodded as she tried to feel out where exactly the heat source was coming from. She found it and started making her way towards it. All around her, there were doors that linked to certain memories about certain people or times. She continued to walk on and she saw a fire burning in the distance. That was clearly where his dragon seed was and all she had to do now was get to it.
"I know what you're thinking and the answer is don't."
Juvia paused when she heard Warren's voice. She had almost forgotten that he was there. "Don't what?"
"Don't run. Walking is the best thing you can do when it comes to the mind. If you start running, it will give you the illusion of continually running but never getting close. Besides, I'm starting to feel the heat through the link. You'll get way hotter if you run."
Juvia laughed and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't even think the heat is that bad anymore. It's an acquired taste."
"Yeah, I bet it is," came Warren's sarcastic reply as Juvia just smiled to herself. She continued to pass by the doors that were labelled and when she looked again, she was so close to the dragon's seed. It looked like it was on the table placed in front like a set of diamonds or a crown on display for everyone to see.
"Juvia, I'm sweating through this link. Tell me you've found it?"
"I'm standing right in front of it," she responded, distracted. The colour of the flames were a brilliant shade of red and they burned stronger than anything she had ever felt before. Juvia was reminded of how Lucy told her that Natsu ate Igneel's flames and almost became unstoppable. She wondered if that was what was triggered from within him.
She didn't know why she did it, but she glanced up at the final door that was behind the dragon seed and she gasped when she noticed that it was her name that was attached to it. The colour was different from the rest, a shade of blue just like her hair. Her name was written in large letters with a heart dotting the letter 'i'. Juvia blushed and felt the urge to go and open the door, but she refrained from doing so. She had a job that was more important than finding out why the hell she had such a special door.
"Okay, so you want me to just extinguish the flames, right?"
Juvia waited, but got no response from Warren and she frowned. "Warren? Warren?"
"He can't hear you right now."
Juvia turned around and saw an orange haired man standing behind her with many tattoos decorating the top half of his body. He was an attractive man and Juvia was stunned that there was someone else in here. She took a minute to gather her thoughts before she then asked him,
"And who are you?"
Ignia cackled as he leaned on Natsu's flaming dragon seed. Juvia felt herself clench her teeth in anger, annoyed that someone would disrespect Natsu like this. However, it was also the wordless answer she needed.
"Oh, so you're Ignia."
"In the flesh. You've clearly heard so much about me and I, know a bit too much about you."
Juvia bristled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Ignia pointed behind her to where the door was. "That is one door that Natsu doesn't let me into. He's told me keep out of there, but I couldn't help myself and I just had to observe you more and more from my domain. I've learned a lot about you."
Juvia didn't know how to react as she pursed her lips. "Okay, well we're not here to discuss me, we're here to discuss Natsu. Are you doing this to him?"
Ignia had put the dragon seed down at this point and at Juvia's accusation, he put both hands in the air as if to surrender. He still had a smirk on his lips and his halcyon orbs glittered at her. Even if he said no and was telling the truth, he still looked guilty of it.
"This has nothing to do with me, sweetheart. He's currently running on my magic, but that wasn't my fault. Dumb idiot got hit by some nasty dark magic and as a counter, I used my magic to make sure that he didn't say night-night. Yeah that's right, your lil boyfriend here would've died if it weren't for my magic."
Juvia blushed. "He's not my boyfriend! But wait, Natsu is strong, how could he get hit by magic that would have..." She couldn't even finish the sentence. Just to know that Natsu actually would've died if it weren't for Ignia intervening. It made her stomach turn and bile rise up to her throat. What was the guild supposed to do without Natsu? What is she supposed to do without him?
"So now that the dark magic is gone and his life is no longer in danger, why don't you just let him go?"
Ignia snorted. "Would you believe me if I told you that it's actually Natsu choosing to stay like this?"
Juvia just stared at him, not sure how to answer. Of course she didn't want to believe him, but he hadn't been lying to her with anything that he's been saying, rather he's been filling in the gaps of their knowledge. The only question she would ask right now is why Natsu is choosing to stay like this, but she knew that even Ignia wouldn't have a clue.
Heaving a sigh, she nodded her head, surprising Ignia a little bit. "I believe you and I know you probably don't even know why he's choosing to stay like this. Do you have a way that I can help him? Because if it's your magic he's running on, then I can't do anything to stop that. There's no point in me extinguishing the flames."
Ignia smirked as he walked towards her. Juvia didn't have anywhere else to go and it wasn't like she was afraid of him anyway. She stared up at him, defiance in her eyes just in case he was going to hurt her. He looked down at her seriously, the smirk all gone.
"You underestimate yourself too much. I know you've got the power to do whatever you want. Look at you, you're already here without sweating. You haven't been thrown out of Natsu's mind like that mind walker. If you're strong enough to be here, you're strong enough to do what you need to do. At least he chose a strong mate."
Juvia licked her lips to wet them as she shyly ducked her head down. "We're not really mates."
"Sure. Anyway, touch his dragon seed and start doing what you need to do. Once it's done, you'll be out of here. It might take him some time to come back to his proper senses, or the effects might be immediate. Remember, I can't help because he wants to keep it going, got it?"
Juvia nodded as he handed her the dragon seed. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Okay, so I just...I just keep feeding it water, right?"
"Right."
She was surprised that he gave her space to do what she needed to do, but she appreciated it. Nodding her head, she flooded her hands with water to try and stop the dragon's fire magic. She knew that this was a test after all the times that she's been doing it for Natsu. This would be the final hurdle to see if her magic reserves had gotten bigger enough to do what needed to be done.
She didn't know just how long it had been since she started, but she was starting to feel hopeless, but she knew that she couldn't stop. She just had to keep on going and that was what made her continue. It wasn't going to be an easy feat. Ignia is a dragon god and his magic was leaps and bounds above any human's magic, so this would require a lot of work.
After what genuinely seemed like a few days, the fire around the dragon seed went out. Juvia was panting and sweating heavily and she felt like her eyes had sunken too far into her head. She heard clapping in front of her and she was rudely reminded that she wasn't alone. Ignia was grinning in the same fashion that Natsu would, ferally.
"You did it. I guess you can have him back now."
He took the dragon seed from her and placed it on the table before he reached out to lift Juvia up. She was so tired that she practically flew into his chest.
"Woah, be careful. You're a beautiful girl, but you're not my mate and that hatchling might get angry."
There was amusement in his tone and Juvia just rolled her eyes as she pushed off of him. She had never felt so sluggish before and this was a first. She groaned at the thought of having to walk all the way back down that long tunnel just to get out of Natsu's mindscape.
"Natsu isn't a hatchling.'
Ignia chuckled. "You're all hatchlings to me, especially when I'm already older than you by 400 years."
Juvia smirked. "Natsu is around the same age."
"That doesn't count. Anyway, you should probably get out of here. Try not to use your magic for the next week and make sure that idiot hatchling doesn't use his for 2 weeks, got it?"
Juvia ran her hand through her hair as she could finally stand up by herself as she nodded. "I'll try my best to make sure he doesn't."
Ignia nodded with satisfaction and then pushed her gently. She gasped in surprise as she fell to the floor, but she was back in Natsu's home. Warren was there in front of her, trying his best to shake her as Natsu lay on her lap with her fingers on his head. He was still out cold by the looks of things and Juvia could feel her heart pounding.
"Juvia, you're alright! What happened in there, I was calling out to you, but it seems we got cut off."
Juvia gasped for her air one last time before she fell back on the sofa with a tired nod. Still, she couldn't help but smile.
"The heat caused the connection to cut off and then I spoke to Ignia from within Natsu's mindscape. He said that he triggered his magic from within Natsu to deflect the dark magic attack and then Natsu kept running off of Ignia's magic for reasons unknown to even Ignia."
"Is that so?"
Juvia turned her head to see that Master Makarov had made an appearance as well and Warren nodded.
"We were worried about you, so I called Master over to come and see if he could pull you back. You were in there for a really long time, you know."
Juvia sighed as she rubbed a hand over her face. She stood up, swaying slightly and Wendy had to stand by side to make sure she didn't fall over. She was grateful for it.
"Thank you, all. I had to extinguish Ignia's flames and that took a really long time. Trying to flood a dragon seed that's full of dragons magic is very long and tiring. I feel like I might need to sleep for a good few months just to get my energy back up."
They all chuckled and Juvia glanced down at the sleeping mage. It was all over. His care and affectionately for her was all done now. She put the image of the door in the back of her mind and looked forward.
"Ignia said to make sure that Natsu doesn't use any magic for at least 2 weeks and I can't use magic for 1 week. Also, just because I stopped Ignia's magic, doesn't mean that Ignia's personality might stop filtering through immediately."
The others frowned, but it was Wendy who asked. "Does that mean it's down to Natsu whether or not he comes back out or not?"
"Exactly that."
Makarov hummed with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I wonder what made him cling to Ignia's magic like that. Hopefully, it's a reason that has been resolved and that means we won't have to put up with Ignia's personality for much longer. But well done for doing what you've done, Juvia. There was no better person for the job. I know you've grown from this experience. Like you said, it's not easy to extinguish the flames of a fire dragon slayer and doing that has now increased your reserves by ten fold. That's probably why you need to wait the one week to fill it back up again and then you can use your magic."
Juvia's chest warmed up and she smiled while accepting the praise. "Anyone could have done it."
Wendy shook her head. "Not just anyone, Juvia-chan. You."
"We better leave you with him so that if he wakes up and he's still got Ignia's personality, he won't hurt us guys for being in his home. We'll get going, call anyone of us if you need anything."
They all saw themselves out and Juvia sighed as she stared at the sleeping Natsu on the sofa. She headed over to him, getting down on her knees so that she was close to him. She studied his face, even lightly tracing his scar with her finger. He had such a rugged look about him that just looked so calm and peaceful now. She couldn't help but smile as she continued to look at him. She glanced down at his lips, the lips that she kissed and that kissed her as she turned scarlet red. She rested her forehead on his as she breathed him in. This was the last time she would ever be this close to him.
"Thank you, Natsu. Thank you for showing me what I could have if I was really your mate."
She laid a soft kiss on his temple before pushing herself up to her feet and heading over to the kitchen to start making some dinner. She knew she didn't have to do anything, but she needed to keep herself busy. She had too many thoughts running around in her head, too many words that she needed to say but couldn't. She was going to be left all alone now. Natsu didn't need her anymore, no one did. She wasn't that useful to anyone, except maybe Gajeel and Levy. That's where she was going to pour all of her energy into. She was going to continually take her stack of 4-5 jobs and the be the best aunt that she could ever be.
As she willed herself not to cry over the fact that she was going to miss Natsu, she felt a pair of familiar arms wrap themselves around her. The rain clouds that had threatened to gather immediately dispersed as Juvia found herself sinking into Natsu's arms. She felt him nuzzle her hair as he whispered sweet nothings in her ear, bringing her out of her dark thoughts. She soon came to realise that Natsu wasn't purring or growling to calm her down. His voice didn't sound like gravel at the bottom of a canyon. This was him. This was his jovial tone, although it was clear he was exhausted.
They were done, really and truly done. He was going back to his team and they would get to go on all their fun little adventures again. He was going back to Lucy, the girl who was his true mate, the one woman who would get a very special door to herself. She would go back to her scouting jobs, her solo jobs, her cold bed where she's alone, will wake up alone and will eat alone. Everyone was going to have each other and she was going to have no one.
Still, all she could do was put a smile on her face and act like everything was okay. At least now she would be getting away with it again. Natsu wasn't going to be in tune with her anymore and he wasn't going to know that she was upset or distressed. Now she could be depressed without anyone trying to help her feel better.
"Welcome back, Natsu."
She stepped out of his embrace and turned to face him. She watched him laugh tiredly as he scratched his head.
"Thanks, Juvia. It's all thanks to you."
I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter! Love you guys for reading. Sorry if I don't write ANs anymore, I just don't bother anymore really.
I do have one thing to say though and I really don't mind losing readers if you don't agree. FREE PALESTINE!
Lolita-chan