Full Summary: (Taking place during the plight of the Eclipse Arc) The country that was plagued by an army of over 10,000 dragons burned to the ground and was reduced to useless rubble. There was no hope for this corrupted future as the dragons demolished the human race with ease.

Only one celestial spirt mage had the potential to change the future and save her friends by opening the Eclipse gate into the past. Everyone's fate rested on her shoulders now. But what would become of a certain pink-haired dragon slayer if he managed to follow her through the gate. (A what if scenario of what could have happened if future Natsu got involved)

July 7, X791

The fire dragon slayer collapsed out of the Eclipse door into the secret underground room of the King's palace that Colonel Arcadios had showed him just a few days earlier. The palace walls were still intact and the terrified cries of soldiers were no longer pounding in his ears, meaning he successfully traveled through time. To which point in time exactly, Natsu had no idea. The real issue was the fact that Lucy was no where to be seen. She used her magic to open the gate while many of the dragons were distracted by how juicy Fiore's reinforcements tasted. Even if Lucy was unaware of the fact that he had followed her into the past while the door was still open, he was only a few minutes behind her. She wouldn't have gotten too far ahead of him so he should've at least still been able to pick up her scent. There was always the possibility that Lucy was sent back further in time while the gate had less power drained. It's not like Natsu knew how this time travel contraption worked anyway, and frankly, he could care less. His first and foremost priority at the moment was to find Lucy. They could figure out how to stop the dragons together from there.

Natsu frantically raced through the maze-like halls of the castle as the emptiness of it made him start to panic. He remembered coming across hoards of Royal Army soldiers when he and his friends tried to escape last time. This time, however, not a single one appeared, making him believe that everyone was outside and that there was less time than he initially thought.

He was finally able to trace the smell of smoke that lead him into a hallway towards the entrance of the castle. There were large gapping holes in the walls and pieces of destroyed columns across the floor that definitely marked the signs of a battle taking place here. The smoke that still dissipated through the air and the freshly charred interior of the room felt as though a fiery explosion had passed through it. This type of collateral damage kinda reminded him of… himself.

Natsu heard a woman's voice echo through the spacious room as he continued to get closer to the source.

"Don't let anger get the best of you."

"I'm not," said someone with a raspy voice similar to his own. "Future Rogue took the wrong path at some point. That's not the present Rogue. He did nothing wrong. If we kill him, we'll be the ones ta-"

He stopped and turned his head when he noticed the unexpected presence in the room. The presence made itself known by stepping out of the shadows and meeting the stare of who could be none other himself; the Natsu of the past. Confusion and shock were written on everyone's face with their wide eyes and jaws agape. The thick silence was suddenly broken when both Natsus shot up at each other with stars in their eyes.

"NO WAAAY! There's actually TWO OF ME! Think of all the pranks we can do now!" Future Natsu yelled excitedly.

"YEAH! Oh! Oh! Let's scare people! Lucy will totally freak out for sure! It'll be hilarious!" the other Natsu hyped as he imagined everyone fainting at the sheer sight of two Natsus.

"No wait! Let's challenge Erza to a fight! There's no way she can defeat both of us!" he countered back as a scene of Erza cowering in fear from his doubled strength played out in his head. "HAHA I'M FIRED UP NOW!"

"EXCUSE ME!"

Their fantasies were short lived as Ultear finally snapped them out of their ridiculous little world. "Have you forgotten that Rogue is still out there right now and we have no idea what he's up to?!"

Present Natsu turned toward her and addressed her with a cocky, yet more serious tone, "No problem. This Natsu came from the future to help us just like Lucy did, right? And now that there's two of me, kicking Rouge's ass will be even easier."

"Why would I want to fight Rouge?" Future Natsu replied with arms crossed over his chest and a look of confusion on his face. "W-Wait a second! You already met the Lucy from my time? Where is she? I need to..."

He paused when the smell of blood suddenly caught his attention. Lucy's blood.

It led his eyes to the unmoving heap of a body lying on the floor only a couple yards away from him. A wave of horror and dread suddenly took over his features. His muscles tensed, his breathing halted, and his whole body felt as if it had been cryogenically frozen. He couldn't get his body to move, it refused to let him take even a step. He was just too afraid to see the truth with his own eyes. Ultear, Meredy, and Present Natsu remained silent. They avoided eye contact with him when he turned to them for answers, but the pity and sorrow clearly present in their eyes was unmistakable.

After several long moments trapped in his horror stricken state, he finally willed his body to move closer to the crumpled body.

"Lucy...?"

A flashback suddenly engrossed his thoughts. The dragon slayer remembered the battle between himself and the thousands of dragons that painted the sky with their fiery breath. He was not prepared for the chaos awaiting him outside after escaping the collapsing prison cell. Everything had been destroyed or burned to ash within days. The people of Crocus, the guards, the buildings, his friends…all gone. For the sake of keeping his own sanity, he made himself believe that the guild retreated to somewhere safe and tried desperately not to think of the much worse possibility. It was just him surrounded by the dragons and landscape engulfed in flames. Why did he let himself get separated from Happy and the others? Fighting without Happy was a huge disadvantage for him.

He fought and searched for hours, or maybe even days. It was hard to tell, who could keep track of time when the sky refused to change from anything but colors of hellish red? He hadn't exhausted his magic power yet thanks to massive wild fires all around him, but the constant feeling of isolation was finally starting to take its toll on the dragon slayer.

He was beginning to lose the will to fight.

What was the point? He couldn't even defeat one dragon, let alone 10,000 of them all by himself. Yet before he could let the dragons overwhelm him, he spotted something that turned his world right side up.

There stood Lucy, crying in the center of all the devastation while watching the stone walls of Mercurius come crumbling down from the brute force of the dragons.

"No… where are you? Please… I need you! …Natsu…" he heard her choke out through her sobs.

And just like that, he was there with her in an instant. He jumped in front of her as a huge explosion of dragon fire headed straight in her direction. He sucked up every little bit of it with his dragon slayer abilities.

"Sorry I'm late, Lucy." He said while giving the dragon a vengeful glare. Like hell he was going to let this one go when it almost incinerated Lucy. "Cocky bastards."

"Natsu!" He heard her say as he jumped right back into battle.

It didn't take long for the battle to wear down on him physically more and more. Even while using Dragon Force, he could only keep fighting consistently for so long. Lucy had run to his aid several times. She let him sling an arm around her and lean on her body for support.

The fact that Lucy was still alive and breathing was enough to give him hope in an utterly hopeless situation. The fact that she was still there for him, by his side, gave him the desire to keep fighting, and vise versa. He knew if he were to give up and back down, he would lose Lucy forever. And if he lost Lucy, he would lose everything.

..

His mind hazily picked up Lucy scream his name as blackness eventually obstructed his vision and his brain shut down. As he continued to slip in and out of consciousness, he could vaguely make out Lucy opening what appeared to be the Eclipse door. Even in his exhausted and delirious state, she never left his thoughts.

"Lucy… stay safe."

...

Natsu was ripped out of his flashback to be brought back to the sight of Lucy's body sprawled across the marble stone floor. He kneeled down beside Lucy and leaned over her body to inspect her. Why couldn't he feel any magic energy coming from her? Why wasn't she moving? Or breathing?

It's not like she is… I mean, there's no way. I wouldn't actually let this happen… I couldn't… he thought to himself, but his ignorance was doing a poor job of convincing the logically side of his brain.

She's really…THIS ISN'T FUCKING HAPPENING!

()()

Author's Note: Just letting you know that the next part is coming out: within the foreseeable future, where things get a lot more heated! Get it? Y'know, cuz Natsu and fire. Anyway, this is my first story and I'm still getting use to the layout, but feel free to review if you want to.