Merry Christmas everyone!

This is the final chapter of To End an Era. I don't think the ending I planned was anything you all wanted, but it's how the story ended up writing itself. At least be glad there's closure, right?

This, and all my other updates today (for those of you who read my other stories) are my Christmas gifts to you!

To Tumble Down

He had heard it all.

For being such wonderful actresses, Lucy and Wendy were pitifully incompetent when it came to noticing another's acting in kind.

If he did not love her, if he did not need her, he would have killed her on the spot. However, the part of him that couldn't let go of his love for her stopped him from killing her immediately. Wendy, on the other hand, was disposable.

Rogue still wasn't sure if Lucy was going to die or not, whether he would put her out of her misery, but he knew now that she would never love him—never. The ache in his chest from finding out she had attempted suicide because of their impending union had returned with a vengeance, only made worse by the fact that she had lied to him and he had believed her. That he hadn't trusted his instincts was shaming enough, but the fact that she had been able to deceive him simply because he was so desperate to believe she loved him, that she could love him, might as well have crowned him the king of fools.

Lucy had fallen asleep in his arms, which no longer warmed him like it would have before their conversation. The cold betrayal in his heart frosted over whatever emotion he had held for Lucy. She wasn't the girl he thought she was; she was a snake in disguise, a conniving, manipulative woman like all the others. She was no longer the sweet, innocent girl he had fallen in love with. She had been warped by the events of the past three years, apparently, twisted by time…

Broken by his proximity.

With disgust, at her and mostly like himself as well, he pulled away from her sleeping form. She shifted slightly, grimacing in pain in her sleep. He was torn between wanting to end her pain permanently and smoothing the frown from her lips.

He stood and exited his room, going to find someone to fetch Wendy. After sending a maid to retrieve her, he went to his throne room and took a seat on his throne, steepling his fingers under his chin and thinking about how to handle the situation.

So the remnants of Fairy Tail had been teaching themselves dragon slayer magic. That could be problematic, and according to Wendy, they were ready to launch an attack but needed Natsu. He doubted Natsu's death would prevent them from ever trying to free the world from his grasp, but it was definitely a start.

Wendy walked into the throne room not long after Rogue had decided how to deal with the situation. When she came to a respectful distance from the throne, she bowed with all the practiced reverence of someone who had truly lived under his rule.

"Wendy Marvell," he mused as she straightened herself, and he reveled in the way she flinched as her brown eyes widened at her name coming from his lips. "You should learn to be more aware of your surroundings."

She was frozen with fear for only a moment longer before she composed herself and shifted into a defensive position. "I guess you heard everything, then?"

Even Wendy had been changed by time. She was harder now, more aware and less innocent. How things had changed in the past three years…He sighed. Perhaps Lucy's shift in personality wasn't her fault, just as Wendy hadn't chosen to give up her childhood as she had. Maybe, in time, he could forgive Lucy for her transgression.

It was possible that when she truly had nothing left to live for, she would cling to him as she drifted at sea. She deeply wounded him with her betrayal, so it was only fair that he wound her back equally. Lucy was all he had in this world, his only light in the encroaching darkness. The darkness had only began to take over him when Frosch died.

It had been a mistake to keep Natsu alive, apparently. He kept her hoping for a love that would never be, remembering a time that was long past. When her world was just as dark as his had been, she would embrace him fully.

"Yes," he replied at length. "But I don't suppose you'll give up your friends' location willingly?"

Wendy's eyes hardened. "You supposed right."

"Tell me, how important is it to your group that Dragneel stay alive?" he asked with feigned disinterest. "From what I heard, he seems quite crucial to your cause. That isn't much incentive to keep him alive."

Wendy couldn't hide her reaction. She gasped softly and then, without responding, white magic began to gather in her palms as she prepared an attack.

He was in front of her in an instant, holding her up by her slender neck with a single hand. Shocked at his speed, the attack failed and she was left gasping for air.

"While you and your friends may have improved your skills, so have I," Rogue told her smugly. "And I'm afraid that if you don't answer my question in the next three seconds, I'll be forced to kill you."

Wendy suddenly blasted him with white magic in a desperate attempt to stay alive and he was sent hurtling across the room. He caught himself before he crashed into the wall and quickly recovered, standing tall and dusting his clothing off nonchalantly. Conversely, the teenager was gasping, rubbing her abused neck and trying to regain her footing after being dropped.

"Not bad," he said calmly. "But unfortunately, an attack on the king is punishable by death." With a swipe of his arm, blades of shadow shot towards Wendy at an incomprehensible speed, giving her less than a second to react and in her barely composed state, she was unable to.

Blood seeped into the red carpet of the throne room.

Epilogue

The throne room had been altered to have two seats, one off to the right of the original. It was there that Lucy sat, day in and day out, her lifeless eyes gazing dully on the red carpet, pointedly still stained from the events starting one year ago today.

She wore a long red gown and gold jewelry, forged by the finest jeweler the world had to offer. She looked beautiful; her husband told her this every day. Her blonde hair had grown out and was currently in a high bun on top of her head, a few wayward flaxen strands framing her face. She idly leafed through the book on her lap, not interested in reading.

She wasn't interested in much these days.

"The dress you requested is due to be completed today," the man to her left said. "Would you like to try it on before or after lunch?"

The king gave his queen everything she asked for, sparing no expense for her happiness.

What he didn't seem to understand was that she would never, could never, be happy again.

"After lunch is fine," Lucy replied softly. Her eyes strayed back to the damned bloodstain that her husband refused to remove from the carpet. 'A reminder,' he'd said.

That day, the rest of her hope had died.

Rogue had killed Natsu with a quick snap of his neck, shortly after finishing with Wendy.

He hadn't informed her of anything. When Wendy didn't visit, Rogue told her that she had left. Lucy was confused and hurt, but couldn't break the ruse so she pretended everything was fine while she was confined to bed rest in order to heal.

When a month passed, she knew something was wrong. Rogue hadn't attempted to touch her yet, hadn't so much as kissed her while she was healing, and at first she had attributed it to Wendy's instructions. It was suspicious, as he had also been acting somewhat more coldly towards her, but she hadn't minded in the slightest. One part of their plan was working, at least.

The night she woke up to the sounds of magic and destruction, she thought that it was all about to be over—that she would be free. She had gotten up quickly and gone to aid the fight in any way she could.

By the time she was finished descending the steps from her and Rogue's shared bedroom and found the source of the noise, all she saw was carnage and a bloody, wild-eyed Rogue.

It was worse than losing them the first time.

Not long after, Rogue drove the final nail into her coffin: he showed her Natsu's empty cell.

She broke.

Tearing her eyes away from the bloodstain, Lucy turned to look at her husband. They had been wedded not long after that and what she had been trying to avoid had happened. She hadn't cared, though. There was no one else to give herself to and it was just her body—a body wasn't much when there was nothing inside.

A maid appeared from the back entrance. "Your Majesties, lunch is ready," the elderly woman told them before retreating back inside.

"Come," Rogue said. He grasped her hand and gently guided her down the steps from her throne, leading her to the dining room. Lucy allowed herself to be led, leaving her unread book behind.

They sat down to eat and ate quietly. There wasn't much to be said. Rogue had gotten what he wanted and she had lost everything.

As she took a bite of the mashed potatoes, a food that used to be one of her favorites, she tasted nothing but ashes. There was a time when she loved the dish and would have been excited to have it prepared just as she liked it.

There was also a time when she would have fought with Natsu over who got the last serving of them.

That time would also have been when Gray would have called Natsu a pig, they would have started fighting, and Erza would have broken them up.

They probably would have destroyed half the room in the process, too.

But that was a time that was gone to her. So much was gone, now. Her previous life was all but a distant memory, happiness a long forgotten emotion.

That era had ended.

fin.