AN: Important please read.

I do not own Fairy Tail, and I do not own the Pradesh family. I have spoken to Desna the creator of this family and gotten permission to write with them. And will be giving her the name of this story. She is a wonderful author and I have greatly enjoyed these characters and hope I do them justice. I upload when I can, and reviews can help me become more inspired, so please give me your honest feedback and criticism. Enjoy my newest story :)

Chapter 1: Acnologia

The moment that foul smell had reached her she knew what she had to do. It was a smell her mother had made sure had been drilled into her memory and senses from the time she was a small child. Lucy had always known that it was her duty to try to kill him if she ever came across him. He was a perversion of true dragon magic, a monster, and could not be allowed to live. Not when he was almost responsible for the complete extinction of the dragons. Until he was dead there was no hope that they could come back.

So she had cloaked herself calling on Gemini as she did, so that no one even noticed that her spirit had taken her place. Lucy was glad that the twins could understand what she wanted from her memories it saved time. The switch went by without a hitch the rest of the group were to distracted after having seen a living dragon to notice that Gemini wasn't her. For the first time around people other then her mother she allowed the familiar transformation to overtake her. The burning making her want to growl, but she kept quiet knowing if she wished to save her family than she needed the element of surprise. Slowly she felt as her bones shifted as they lengthened growing larger, her skin turning into scales, a dark gold color on the right stars shimmering within, and the left was as black as Acnologia's golden swirls in place of his blue. Showing her dual nature that she was both light and dark.

Flying at Acnologia she kept her cloaking spell on her hoping that her one chance would take him out of the fight. She knew she wasn't strong enough to kill him yet, knew that fighting him now could end up making it harder to kill him in the future, but she couldn't allow her family to die. Not when she was capable of protecting them. It was her job to kill him, and even if she could only injure him today she had to take that chance.

The same instant that her guild mates tried to hit him with their lat remaining magic she struck, allowing her form to shimmer into view as her dark claws sank into Acnologia's flesh beneath his scales. Needing him to focus on her instead of her guild mates. Feeling his skin separate beneath her claws as her magic swirled into them strengthening them, and watched shocked as Acnologia's left front leg fell into the ocean beneath them. She had only thought she would be able to draw a little bit of blood, maybe even scar his leg just enough to distract him, not completely take it off. It seemed she had more power then she had imagined. His blood burned her as it splashed onto her, it was as dark as the dragon it belonged to. Truly showing how corrupted Acnologia had become.

"Nurem!" She heard a shocked gasp from beneath her too focused on the dragon in front of her to recognize the voice, knowing whoever saw her most likely was only seeing her golden side. Because there was no way she could be mistaken for someone else when her entire dragon form was seen. Her dual form was unique only to her family, other dragons didn't have their color split down the middle. Although the name didn't sound familiar to her, she wondered how many other dragons had survived Acnologia's terror. Or if this Nurem was a slayer who had become a dragon, but kept their sanity unlike Acnologia.

"Hatchling," Acnologia growled at her, "you should not have come, you shall die today."

"If you're so sure, come and get me then," she growled back as she flew away, wanting to lead him away from Tenroujima and her guild mates. She ignored the astonished cries beneath them. Perhaps he was right, today might be her last day, but she knew he would weaken. That even though his magic was clotting his wound as they spoke, that the blood he had already lost wouldn't allow him to fight her as long as he wanted. If she could keep him distracted long enough she might just survive this when he decided to retreat. She didn't even dare hope she could kill him, she knew his leg had been luck, and that it would be almost impossible to land another strike on him.

As they flew away she had to dodge his attacks, not bothering to send her own back, knowing her own would fly closer to Tenroujima, and she would not be the one to injure her guild mates. So she played cat and mouse with him as she flew further on the ocean, praying she could get far enough away that the shock waves from their fight wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Fight back Hatchling if you don't want to die," he taunted her as he sent another roar her way. The dark magic making her recoil, her magic was based on the stars and eclipses, dark and light together. His was the deepest pits of despair and madness, like hell on earth. Just feeling it skim over her wings made her want to vomit. Her wings ached where his magic hit her as if they couldn't decide if they were cold or hot, and each beat got harder, but she kept flying not wanting to give up.

"Is the blood loss making you slow?"

"Insolent Hatchling. Do you even know who you speak to?"

"An egomaniac who lost his sanity centuries ago."

She knew she was playing a dangerous game as she plummeted downwards towards the ocean avoiding his wing attack. He was fast, but the feel of his magic made it easy to feel it even if she didn't dare look back at him. If he thought clearly and realized she was trying to lead him away from the island he would go back and destroy it. So to keep them safe she had to anger him, take away his ability to think rationally, if he even still could.

Just as she thought he might have turned back she felt sharp jaws clenching into her neck. It seemed he realized she was sensing the darkness of his magic, and she roared in pain as his teeth sunk in. He shook his head tearing into her skin as if he was trying to rip her head off of her body. Ignoring the pain she flapped her wings with as much power as she could, bucking her back legs at the same time trying to dislodge him from her body. Her blood was dripping down her face and she was worried she wouldn't be able to keep flying. That her body would be lost in the ocean when she fell, and that she would die in her dragon form. Gemini disappearing with her, and her friends never knowing what had happened to her.

Until suddenly her wing sank into something during her thrashing and Acnologia's roar of pain allowed her to dart free of him. Although she felt something squishy attached to the tip of her wing and saw in horror one of Acnologia's eyeballs. Turning to look at the dark dragon she almost fainted from the horrific view of the gaping hole in his face where his eye had been. It was a mass of tissue, bleeding terribly, and the glare on his face made her certain that now was the end. Even as she saw her own scales and skins dripping from his fangs, she was only sad that she hadn't dealt a fatal blow to him. His injuries might disable him for a time, but they wouldn't kill him. Although maybe they would be enough that the dragon slayers could succeed in killing him in a few years when he decided to appear again.

Preparing herself for her fate she was shocked when instead Acnologia disappeared into the sky. The only sign he had even been here was the eyeball still lodged on her wing tip. Smiling she found herself collapsing from the blood loss. The waves meeting her body as she fell into the water. She had survived the fight only to die by water in the end.

Laxus watched in shock as Bix called out Nurem as the dark dragon's leg landed in front of him. The blood spraying all of them, the foul stuff was black and burned where it touched, the smell of it making Laxus want to vomit it was the most rancid thing he had ever encountered. He knew the dragon he was seeing wasn't the Nurem, considering that this dragoness wasn't silver and that her scales slowly turned to black on her left, not to mention she was no where near as large as Nurem. Plus he had just left the Lunar dragoness with her slayer Cristoff back in Bosco, when he had felt his grandfather calling to him. The call of his kin strong enough to come across to the other country.

This little dragoness might not be as powerful as Nurem, but she was more powerful then he would have thought her form could hold. Laxus remembered Nurem's warnings about Acnologia, the dragon of the apocalypse, about how dangerous he was. That he was responsible for most of the dragons being dead, and that he would become stronger with each dragon he killed. It shocked him that she had taken the most dangerous dragon in histories leg. Even Nurem wasn't strong enough to fight him on her own, entire Tatsu's had died trying to fight him, and yet this small dragoness seemed powerful. But Nurem's warnings kept echoing in his head, and he doubted that she would actually be strong enough to kill Acnologia.

"Hatchling, you should not have come, you shall die today."

"If you're so sure come and get me then," she growled at him almost seeming like she was challenging the older dragon. Her voice sounding oddly familiar as she led the dark dragon away.

No instead this bravely foolish dragoness was half the size of Acnologia, and seemingly had a death wish. That or someone on this island had been claimed as her kin, even if whoever it was didn't seem to recognize her. Why else would this dragoness taunt the dark dragon. Who followed after her ignoring his blood as it dropped into the ocean beneath him, sending roars and other attacks at the dragoness whose smaller size allowed her to dodge. Her speed was enough that eventually even Laxus's dragon slayer eyesight could no longer see her. The dark dragon's mass slowly disappearing in the distance.

And when he was finally completely out of sight all the other dragon slayers cheered. Celebrating, but Laxus couldn't. He was too worried that their savior would die. They had never even gotten her name, and she could die without anyone ever knowing why. Were there other dragons out there? Waiting for her return? Would they mourn her when she didn't? Or was she all alone, the last of her Tatsu hell bent on revenge against Acnologia? Her interaction with him had been so short Laxus wasn't even sure if the two dragons had known each other. But if they did obviously there was no love shared between them since the dragonesses first act had been to take one of Acnologia's legs.

Finally finding his voice he turned to Bix, "that wasn't Nurem."

"I realized it after she left. We should call Cris, Nurem needs to know we saw Acnologia, and that he's injured. And maybe she'll know the name of the dragoness who just saved our hides."

"Although we should do it away from the others, considering you still haven't told anyone your last name."

Walking far enough away that the others wouldn't hear them, but would still be able to see them Bix pulled out his com. It didn't take long for Cristoff to answer. The younger slayer had probably been waiting for news. Since he was only thirteen, Arman had forbade him from going with Laxus. Even though they were all worried about his gramps calling him, considering his entire team had been on the island and since they were close to Bix even if they hadn't met the others it worried the entire Pradesh clan.

"Bix are you okay?"

"I'm fine Teddy Bear, but we need to talk to Nurem."

"Why?"

"You'll find out when we talk to your mother brat, now chop chop," Laxus growled. His patience wearing thin. He didn't mean to take it out on the younger slayer, but he was terrified that the dragoness was dead. If he had been able to he would go after her, but he knew that he was no match for Acnologia, they weren't even able to scratch him, so he would only be a distraction for her. But that didn't mean that he wasn't still worried. She just saved all of their lives, and no one else seemed to care. Well maybe that was a bit of a stretch. He could see Blondie staring fearfully over in the direction the dragons flew off in, but he could also smell concern coming off of her. Although she smelled a little off to him, but it had been a while since he had seen her and it wasn't like he and Blondie had been close, so he pushed that thought aside.

Cristoff didn't even growl back at him. If he didn't know that the younger slayer was already strong enough to beat him once in a while, he would have thought it was because the lunar slayer was too weak. Instead since he knew the brat quite well he knew it was because Cristoff's heart was big, and he never really fought with the people he saw as kin. No he just played pranks on them and play fighted, but he rarely ever got really angry at any of his siblings or kin. Nah instead the brat probably realized how worried Laxus was, and he knew when to push for answers and when to be patient. It was a perk of his healing magic being so empathetic.

"Hello Laxus, Bix love," Nurem greeted. Her head barely able to fit inside the com screen, even with how far Cristoff had to be standing from her. But the coms needed a certain distance between the speaker and the com for it to pick up their voice, no matter how loud you were if you were out of that range no one would be able to hear you.

"Nurem we just saw Acnologia."

Watching the horror fill onto the dragon queen's face, Laxus knew he probably shouldn't have been so blunt. But he also wasn't the type to beat around the bush. He'd get tongue tied trying to explain it slowly. It was still difficult for him to talk to anyone, even a dragon who he'd lived with for a few months. Learning more about his magic in that short time, then he had in the years he'd had the lacrima inside of him. He also knew that the only reason Nurem wasn't going insane was because she could clearly see they were safe, and she was patient enough to wait for the whole story before being reckless. Something Cristoff had luckily inherited from her, because honestly Laxus knew most of the slayers (including himself) were way to impulsive.

Laxus was glad when Bix took over from there. "He had started to toy with us, allowing us to think we might have a chance. We were finally realizing he wasn't being serious and were putting all of our magic behind an attack, and when we unleashed it a small dragoness appeared. I mistook her for you for a moment, the darkness enveloping Acnologia had hidden her color from me for a moment. Once I could see her clearly she seemed to be a golden dragon and she had stars, but when she shifted her other side was black with golden swirls. She was invisible to us until her claws had already sunk into Acnologia's leg, and she tore off his left leg. And then she lured him away. We don't know what happened after that, but it's been almost an hour and neither of them have reappeared."

Hearing the description of their savior had Nurem's eyes take on a sheen of sadness. "One of the cursed ones," she whispered so low the com had barely picked up on it. Her voice sounded so pained as she said it that Laxus wanted to leap threw the com and comfort the great queen. He had never heard her sound like that, not even when she talked about all of the dragons Acnologia had killed.

"Cursed ones?" He asked his voice cracking in horror. Did that mean that their savior really would die.

"A story for another time. All you need to know is she is one of the only ones who will ever be able to easily injure Acnologia. But it will always be dangerous. It wouldn't surprise me if she's already dead. I'm sorry I don't know her name, and I pray that evil one didn't kill her. There are too little dragons left to lose one now."

Laxus wanted to demand to know more about his savior. To growl at Nurem and tell her she was wrong. The dragoness couldn't be dead. She had to live. He didn't know why he felt so strongly about it, but he knew she needed to be alright. He did none of those things, only because of how much he respected and trusted Nurem. If she wasn't sharing the information it was because it wasn't hers to share. And he couldn't blame her for thinking their savior was dead considering Acnologia's history. That dragon scared even Nurem, and she was a founding Queen one of the strongest dragons of all time, older then Acnologia.

"Thanks Nurem. Tell dad and everyone we're alright, and we'll be heading home shortly. I love you and them. Take care."

It seemed Bix wanted to contemplate what they learned. Usually he would be teasing his brother or even trying to tease Nurem, but narrowing escaping death more then once today had turned Bix oddly serious.

His attention was quickly taken by Blondie collapsing onto the ground holding her head in pain. Everyone else rushing towards her, Wendy's hands already glowing even though he knew she had to be exhausted. Blondie waved her away though, a look of determination and fear on her face as she stumbled onto her feet. Flame brain putting his arm around her to hold her steady. Something seemed off about Blondie still, but Laxus pushed his concerns aside.

"We should leave, before something else happens."

"Laxus is right come on brats. Anyone who can still use magic can help power the ship, so we can get to port as quickly as possible."

Waking up in agony Lucy was shocked to see Aquarius kneeling over her on dry land, bandages in her mermaid spirits hands as she wrapped Lucy's neck up. It seemed she had reverted back to her human form at some point. Aquarius was so busy treating her wounds it seemed she didn't even realize Lucy was awake, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Stupid brat, what would your mother say to me or you if you died like this. You're supposed to live a happy life, fall in love, and have your own little brat who'll be my key holder one day."

"I love you too Quari," she whispered. Just the simple act of talking making her want to scream, but she refrained knowing it would hurt even more then talking had.

"Don't talk brat. You're vocal cords were damaged by that thing. I need to heal you with these bandages. You'll have a nasty mark for a while, but it won't scar. Although the medicine I used only works on celestial mages, and is only given to those the King deems worthy."

Considering Aquarius wasn't yelling at her, it showed just how worried she had been. Lucy knew this wouldn't last long, and she wished she could apologize for scaring her spirit. For almost dying, but she didn't dare talk after Aquarius demanded she didn't. So instead she just smiled brightly at her spirit. Glad that their bond was as strong as it was. Quari was only so hard on her because her family tended to have early deaths, and Quari wanted her to live a long and happy life. Something her mother didn't get. Layla Heartfilia's life might have been happy, but it wasn't long. Losing her mother had really hurt Quari, and Lucy hadn't meant to make Quari live through that pain again.

"You'll switch with Gemi and Mini when they get to the port. I was able to get us this far, and Virgo is going to get you a room until then. It won't be long, but we can't have them suspecting anything."

"I'll take it from here Aquarius. Hime please put on this cloak, and I'll carry you to your room."

Putting on the cloak, Lucy sighed as Virgo lifted her up. She wished she could walk on her own, but she knew she needed to conserve her strength. Especially when her guild mates would be here in a few hours. Otherwise they would worry needlessly, and it's not like Lucy could explain to them what had happened. The less people who knew her identity as a dragon the better. She wouldn't put them in danger knowing her secret, and it would keep her safe from Acnologia for a time.

When she was better she'd have to thank her spirits for everything they had done, and apologize for worrying them so much. At least they seemed to understand why she acted as she had. Although that didn't mean they wouldn't give her hell for it when she was recovered.