Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, nor chapter 545 of the manga from which my story begins. Hiro Mashima has that honor. However, this story idea I came up with on my own. So let's begin!

"Gramps!" Natsu yelled at the top of his lungs.

Makarov's face twisted up with pain as he managed to open his eye. At first he didn't know where he was, or what in the hell was going on, but then after several moments of trying to remember, he remembered everything. The whole guild had begun the 100 year quest given to them by the royal family of Fiore. Their mission? To find every guild master, who had all gone missing in the last week without a trace. And to find whoever was causing this chaos. They traveled across the continent, and after searching high and low, they had finally found them, and this place. This battlefield. Where his children were dying, being barely even touched and then falling to the ground, dead. He felt so helpless, especially since he had let himself become captured so easily when the guild first arrived. From where spikes of cold iron dug his hands into the wall, he could see that more than half of them had fallen.

Only seven remained. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy, Carla and Wendy stood, frozen with determination to not fall, but fight to rescue their master and relieve all the worry and sorrow that the guilds felt at the loss of their masters. And to avenge their fallen guildmates, which meant more to them than the world.

"Gramps, we're coming for you!" Natsu screamed.

"Just hang in there!" He heard Erza cry out. But as soon as the words escaped her lips, a piercing scream echoed throughout the battlefield. It had come from Makarov.

Blood gurgled in Makarov's throat as he managed to shut his mouth again. An over excruciating pain coursed through his body, worse than the previous form of torture that he had endured over the past few days. The guild mates eyes widened, not only with fear, but of anger and hatred of whoever his captor was. Then, out of the shadows, a raspy voice came close to his ear.

" Yes. Scream. Make your "children" suffer while watching their master become so abused, he is paralyzed, and then make them watch you as you die a slow, agonizing death." The voice then cackled with laughter, and the figure beside Makarov disappeared. Another scream echoed throughout the battlefield.

"Master!" Erza cried.

"Gramps!" Yelled Natsu and Gray.

" Hold on Master, you've got to hang in there!" That voice belonged to Lucy.

The edgy voice echoed again, "There's no point. Your Master will pay for toying with the idea that he and his pitiful little guild could ever overpower me!" Another laugh.

Natsu gritted his teeth. "Lucy! You and Wendy go get Gramps all healed. We'll take care of this-"

Another ear-splitting scream of pain.

"Go, Now!"

"Hai!" All of them exclaimed in unison.

"Hang on Master, we're coming!"

But Makarov couldn't hold on. The pain was simply unbearable. He spat blood on the ground, and as the last little bit of magic energy that was keeping him alive drained from his body, he felt the pain drain too. And then, he lost feeling in all of his limbs and hung limp on the wall from the spikes. He looked down at his children, slaughtered, and then on the party that was still standing. All of their eyes told a message. Some told tales of fear, some of hatred, but all of them told tales of sadness. Sadness that their Master was leaving them forever, and nothing could be done about it. Tears filled the eyes of all the standing members. And then, Makarov smiled, and began to speak:

"I'm very proud of you, my children."

Everyone looked up at him with mild surprise and still sadness.

"Even at the last trial, you never will stop fighting for what you believe in. You fight for your friends, your family, and for your guild's sake. You deserved a better father, one that would always care for you, and I'm sorry that I couldn't be any more to you."

"Master, no, don't talk like that, you're going to be fine-" the trio had reached the bottom of the hill from which he was hanging.

"Dammit, the walls' too high. Hang on Master, we're coming-"

"Don't bother with me children, it's too late for me-"

"No it's not! We'll think of something-"All of the guild members had gathered at the foot of the hill now, and all had tears in their eyes as they looked up at the dying face of their Master. Makarov's vision was starting to blur and so he really didn't know who was speaking, but he knew it was no longer Lucy's. He spat more blood.

"There is no time. You must protect yourselves-"

"Of course there is, you'll see. We'll get you down from there and-"

"No. You must fight now, and forget me."

"No, I refuse!"

"Listen to me."

"No, we're gonna save you-"

"Children!" he said sternly. There was a moment of stunned silence, and then in a quiet voice, Makarov spoke,

"I just wanted you to know-"

"Hang on Gramps!"

"Hang on Master!"

"Stay with us-"

"...that I-"

"Hold on!"

"...couldn't be more proud of you all."

Makarov took a deep breath, then let it out. Then He smiled again, His eyes shut, and he was lost to the world.

"Gramps! NOOO!"

##############################################################

For a moment, no one spoke. Then sobs erupted from every standing member of the Fairy Tail Guild. Long hard sobs, of sorrow and sadness echoed throughout the body filled plain. And the ground was watered with the tears of mourning. The only other sound was that of a growing, evil cackle.

"Ha! Guild scum! Your emotions have left you wide open."

##############################################################"As quick as a flash, cold metal spikes shot out of the ground and grabbed every member and pinned them to the wall. Cries of pain were made, and the evil cackle sounded again.

"Again, wide open! Guild wizards really are dumber than they look." the voice mocked. Every guild member was struggling to get free, but to no avail. Many were still crying, but not even tears could sway their captor, apparently. All except one were clueless on how they were going to escape. Natsu was getting fed up with all this crap, and with tears still in his eyes, yelled with all the willpower he could muster:

"Show yourself, you mindless bastard! You cowardly scum! Come and fight me so I can show you what happens to those who kill the people I care about!"

There was a moment of silence. Then the voice spoke. "Very well."

From out of the shadows, a hooded figure stepped forward. Every step closer he took to the remaining guild members, the spikes dug harder into their hands. But none of them would scream, they wouldn't let this figure have the sick pleasure of hearing them in pain. The figure stepped forward until his face was only an inch from Natsu's. Natsu was absolutely writhing with what looked like a mixture of pain and struggling to get free and lunge at this lunatic with all the fury of a Dragon Slayer. However, the figure didn't let him go. Cries of pain were heard from every remaining guild member, and Natsu yelled through gritted teeth.

"You..." More screams of pure pain. And then it went silent.

"Yes, me. Your greatest nightmare."

##############################################################

"NO! Stop it!" Natsu yelled, eyes full of tears. This was truly his greatest fear.

Every one of the people he cared about, was being murdered before his eyes. Carla, Wendy, Erza and Gray all hung limply next to Makarov, not breathing, swaying with the slight breeze. And every time he tried to shut his eyes, a searing pain forced his eyes open again. Dammit.

Only Happy and Lucy remained.

"You've got a special connection with these two, don't you Dragneel?" The mouth under the hood seethed. Without waiting for a response, the voice continued, "Not that I even care. However, that will be all the better for me, watching you watch your friends die, then joining them!" The figure cackled again. This guy was seriously a psychopath, all the more reason to break free of these damn things and make him pay. Natsu struggled some more, but no use, these things were holding him like a fly tacked to a wall.

"No! I won't let you!"

"I'd like to see you even try."

Before Natsu could even retort, the figure had pulled forth a giant blade and held it up to Happy and Lucy's neck.

"Any last words?" The figure said maliciously.

There was a small silence before Happy spoke.

"Natsu," Happy began, " please promise me you'll enjoy the worlds yummiest fish for me, okay?" He smiled.

"No, Happy, don't talk like that, you'll get to eat those fish yourself-"

"Natsu." Lucy whispered in a raspy voice.

Whatever Lucy was about to tell him he didn't really want to hear. He wanted to get free, pound this lunatic, and revive everyone. But as yet another tear streaked down his cheek, he knew that that was a lost cause now.

"What?"

The figure raised the blade.

"I just wanted to say I-"

The figure swung down.

And then everything went black.

"Wake up, Natsu. Please."

##############################################################

Natsu opened his eyes, sat up, and immediately screamed, "Lucy!"

"What? I'm right here." And there she was. Safe and sound. Smiling at him. And he wasn't on a battle plain, but back in her bed in Magnolia.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? How did you come back? And-"

Natsu paused mid-sentence. Lucy looked confused, like he was speaking a foreign language.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

"It's okay."

There was a small silence.

"Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"What was the last adventure we went on?"

##############################################################

"You really don't remember?"

Lucy seemed puzzled. Then she sighed.

"The last adventure we went on was when we battled Tartaros. Then you proceeded to try and leave for a year, not telling anyone but me. After about three days, you and Happy decided to stay at an inn in Hargeon. While you were asleep, someone broke in and put some very powerful sleep magic on you. Happy was able to wake up and escape with you uninjured all the way back to here. I've been caring for you for about a week now, waiting for you to wake up, and now you have."

"So the whole thing with Avatar, the Alvarez Empire, and with the Hundred Year Mission, it was all a dream?"

"Yes." That all sounded like gibberish to her, but Lucy was not going to interrogate Natsu on his crazy dreams.

"Natsu!" The familiar voice of a blue flying cat was heard as something fuzzy rammed into Natsu's chest.

"Happy!" Natsu hugged his friend tighter as he spoke:

"Don't ever scare me like that again! I knew you would be tough, but for a while, you really had me worried!"

Natsu and Lucy chuckled. Poor Happy, getting so riled up.

"C'mon Natsu, everyone at the guild hall wants to see you." Lucy said impatiently.

Happy flew up into the air as Natsu put on his vest and wrapped his white scarf around his neck.

"Ready!" He exclaimed.

They exited Lucy's apartment, and then began to jog toward the ruins of Guild Hall.

They ran past the overfilled carts of the town market, and past the beautiful tree in the South Magnolia Park. They ran past all of the people, the faces and finally, they arrived on the front steps of the guild-crater. Both Natsu and Lucy glanced at each other, and then raced to meet their awaiting guildmates.

So Yes, That is the turn I would take if I was writing Fairy Tail. I'm sorry if I made spelling errors or the story's confusing, but I have a lot of ideas and I needed to start by making like two arcs part of Natsu's dream. Also sorry if the story's just bad, but this is my first fanfic that I've ever written, so I lack a lot of experience.

Also, review and follow if you want to, I'm probably going to add more to this story anyway, just because. Thank You For Reading!

-BetaTest401