Warnings: 1st PoV, AU, weirdness.

A/N: I was listening to the song by Xandria with this title and, dunno, got a bit of a bunny, I guess. It's just some silliness thrown together, though I don't know how it ended like this. :P It's not surprising, though. OTL
As per usual, unbetaed.

Dark Night of the Soul

I walk through the snowy planes. I've been walking for quite a while now, the rubble of towns left behind me, their scent of smoke and death still clinging to me like ghostly fingers. I shouldn't but am chilled to the bone.

I want to get away, to disappear and with me, all my mistakes.

It's the right season for it, at least. Fall has ended, winter is high. The snow storms the perfect way for me to hide.

For every step I take, it's taken away by the snow that falls.

The sky is overcast, the spiraling snow also dancing around me. It's better if I forget it, right?

Then, I can hear a voice, coming from... nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

It's calming.

It's comforting.

I follow it.

And without knowing, find myself in a black void where an overwhelming feeling of loneliness presses down on me.

It's hard to breathe so I end up gasping. Slowly falling to my knees.

But I'm not on the snowy plane anymore. Underneath, polished black slabs of stone reflect me, a dark distortion.

The pressure eases slightly and, from the darkness a beacon of light comes.

It's...

It's a person?

Yes, someone who doesn't seem much older than me. But... I rub my eyes... is it one or two persons? One tall and too bright and a smaller one that looks more accessible, that youth...

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

My mouth opens and closes, no sound coming out. I'm frozen in place but this person exudes heat. Probably too much as I feel sweat starting to bead on my forehead.

"What is this place?"

The words fall from my mouth but I didn't know I was going to ask them until then.

"This?" the other asks amused. "It's my home. And now, why are you here?"

"I... I don't know." I utter sincerely. I really don't know how I ended up here. There was darkness and then this - whatever this is.

"Okay..." the other says after a beat of pause. "Fine, there aren't many ways or reasons for people to come here. So come. My name is Natsu, I own this place." He extends his hand and I take it. I'm entranced.

It's as if time has stopped in this place.

I still don't know where I am, just know that everything is massive, dark, polished, cold, dead, warm and dangerous.

And Natsu, despite the warmth he gives away, isn't as bright or warm as he first appeared. And how did I see him for both ways he is? Because I did, how did I do that?

It takes some time - if such a thing exists in this place - before I see the truth.

The first figure I saw, the youth with pink hair and dressed in a bizarre way (what's with that scarf anyway?) and too carefree-looking is Natsu.

But the tall figure is true too.

I find it the hard way.

Finding myself kneeling before marble stairs that lead to a large throne. And sitting in it, is Natsu.

But not the Natsu I knew.

No.

This person - can I call him that? - is tall and slim, lithe, his hair dances like a flame, a halo around his head, clothed in heavily embroidered robes, runes I don't recognize and that seem to dance before my eyes, strangely he still has the same trousers and sandals. It's quite a bizarre view.

And his eyes. Oh, when they focus on me I can't help but freeze. It's strange. Exhilarating and frightening.

He opens his mouth and speaks.

Anointing me with a new name. From upon his throne, where blood is slowly dripping.

I stand and walk to him.

My footsteps marked on the red blood. Silent. The new word etching itself upon me.

For I am no longer Gray Fullbuster. That name is gone, left behind with my abandoned home and life.

In that day, as the sun reached its peak I fell on the snow.

My hand plunged into the crunchy snow, reaching for the sleeping earth beneath. Like it, I wilted away. My being scattering in the wind, in millions of particles.

Frozen and taken.

But you aren't always happy.

I don't think I was the reason for you to get in a mood. But you deserved the punch I threw at you.

You were in your young form and quickly responded.

That was the beginning of a new mean of expression between us.

We don't talk.

We do our thing. Separated but together.

Which is a strange thought, in the end.

But I can feel the darkness starting to fall upon me.

Sometimes the ice that used to be so clear is now nearly black, even despite being transparent.

Why can't I do it like before?

After a long time of reflection I realize that all of this darkness has fallen upon my soul too.

A perpetual night.

That sigh your bright but dark side let out made me shudder. You can't take it anymore? The harsh words don't affect me but the disapproval...

I don't like it.

So I go out.

After this long I've learned the tricks.

I walk and walk, going to different places, different countries, different shores.

I hear my story.

Here and there.

Not everything, not how it was. There's a lot that has been made up but, they return.

The fears from before.

The past I ran from, everything.

You may call me but I won't go.

I hear the call.

I can hear a voice, coming from... nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

It's calming.

It's comforting.

I follow it.

But this time it doesn't take me to the place I've come to call home.

No.

This time when I enter the void, the blackness that involves me is forever.

I go.