Words: "Words"

Thoughts: 'Thoughts'

Spells: "Spells"

Yelling: "YELLING"

Non-human being speaking: "Speaking"

Soft Sound: *Soft Sound*

Loud Sound: *Loud Sound*

Acnologia flew up into the sky and prepared to unleash a destructive attack. The mages of Fairy Tail stood in a small circle with their arms intertwined. However, they did not notice that Natsu Dragneel, one of the participants of the S-Class Exam which took place in the island they were on, building up a large amount of magic. After a minute of preparation, Acnologia unleashed a devastating roar and a beam of powerful magic escaped it's mouth headed towards the mages' direction.

"Secret Dragon Slayer Art: Fire Dragon's Vanguard!"

Everybody's eyes snapped open and saw a dome of fire engulf them, with Natsu at the epicenter. Acnologia's attack hit and Natsu struggled to keep the dome intact. Moments later the dome dissipated and surprisingly the island was intact.

"Looks like Igneel was right," Natsu spoke in a soft tone, as everyone focused on him "this spell can negate almost all magical attacks.." *crack*

FLASHBACK

"Natsu, I have two new spells to teach you." Igneel said to a dazed young pink-haired boy. Upon hearing these words, the boy jumped up and began to listen intently.

"One of these spells can and will negate and absorb all magic based attacks against you," Igneel began, his words exciting the boy "However the negating effect depends on how strong the attack is and how strong your body is. If the attack is powerful, then your body must be equally or more powerful in order for it to be negated. If this is not the case, the spell will dissipate and you will be obliterated."

FLASHBACK END

Everyone's eyes widened when his skin started to crack and turn into a light shade of green.

"Too bad my body is barely strong enough." He said with a short laugh.

"N-n-n-Natsu….What's happening to you?" Master Makarov asked, his small and bandaged body was visibly shaking due to both fear and worry.

"I negated Acnologia's attack," Natsu explained with a small smile "However, it's attack was really powerful and the strength of the spell I used depended on the strength of the attack and the strength of my own body. It looks like my body's strength was barely enough."

*crack*

Natsu's body was now covered in an intricate spiderweb pattern of cracks. At this moment, Acnologia was preparing for another attack and Natsu, noticing this, began to slowly move towards it. That is until he was stopped by a certain red headed mage.

"Not another step.." She stared at him with an ice cold glare. Surprisingly, Natsu just kept going and before he got into a battle stance, he felt cold metal against his neck.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Natsu simply smiled, and answered.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm saving my comrades." He looked at her with emotion filled, yet serene eyes before pushing the sword away. With those words, he leapt towards Acnologia and started to cast another spell.

"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn" Natsu's body was engulfed in flames and he propelled himself towards Acnologia. His comrades stared in shock as he inched closer to his target. Finally, his body impacted Acnologia, but he didn't stop there. The power behind Natsu's attack caused him to propel Acnologia away from the island and him along with it, even though it seemed that Natsu was out of magical energy from the use of the Fire Dragon's Vanguard earlier. When he was far enough, Natsu Dragneel gathered the remnants of his magic power and forced it out of his body thus creating a big fireball, which burnt the underbelly of the large black dragon. When the fireball was big enough, he released his magic and caused the bubble to explode.

"Secret Dragon Slayer Art: Fire Dragon's Last Breath!"

FLASHBACK

"The other spell I'm going to teach you requires you to be in Dragon Force so that your body can handle it or else the massive power produced by the spell will kill you." Igneel calmly explained

FLASHBACK END

*BOOOOM*

A powerful shockwave tore through the sea and caused tidal waves to form. Fortunately, said tidal waves couldn't reach the island due to a protective barrier enveloping the island. The effects of the explosion were gruesome; Acnologia was missing its front left leg and one of its wings was torn. The severe injuries forced the mighty Dragon King to retreat. However, Natsu's body was nowhere to be seen. Back at the island, all members were mourning over their comrade's death. Mira and Lisanna were crying in the arms of Elfman, who was trying to comfort them. Lucy was shaking uncontrollably as she was trying not to cry, but she was failing miserably. Gray, Gajeel and Laxus were on their knees.

"DAMMIT! Flame-brain, what were you thinking! Who am I supposed to fight now, HUH?!" Gray roared at the sky.

"Salamander….Out of all the stupid things that you have done….. THIS TRUMPS EVERYTHING!" Gajeel yelled as he slammed his fists on the ground, making a crater. Levy was beside him and she was trying to calm him down, but to no avail as she was preoccupied with the grief that washed over her.

"Why?...Why?!...WHY?!...WHY?!...WHY?!" Laxus screamed as he was punching the ground with Lightning-enhanced fists. The Raijinshuu were close by, but were too depressed to even try calm him down.

"N-n-natsu-san…*sniff*... y-y-you p-promised….. t-t-that you would…..*sniff* help me find….. Grandine…" Wendy sobbed while holding her arms. Inches from her, Carla was comforting a depressed Happy, who took his death the worst. Not far from them were the shaking figures of Makarov and Gildarts - who was holding his weeping daughter, Cana - . Only Erza seemed to have not been affected by his death, for her face remained as stoic as ever.

"Requip" Erza was engulfed in a bright light and when the light died down, she was wearing red pants with yellow flames at the bottom and her chest was wrapped in bandages. Afterwards she summoned a sword, held it in front of her, and twisted it so that the tip was pointing at her exposed stomach. A lone tear fell from her left eye as she stabbed herself. However, the blade never made contact with her skin because her entire body except her head was encased in ice.

"Erza! What do you think you're doing?!" Gray angrily asked, and simultaneously voiced everybody's thoughts at the moment.

"I-I don't know…" Erza slumped, her scarlet hair covering her eyes. However, her guild mates saw through her lie and pressed on.

"Erza…. Don't lie to me," Master Makarov sternly looked at her "Let me ask you one more time… What do you think you're doing?" Suddenly, Erza broke down, shocking everyone for Erza was perceived as a strong-willed woman who knew how to keep her emotions in check.

"Do you *sob* want to know what I think I was doing? *sob* I was obviously trying to end my life!"

"But why Erza?" Lucy asked.

"The reason is simple Lucy…. Due to Natsu's death, I have lost my will to live. This... pain I'm experiencing... dwarfs the pain I felt when Jellal abandoned me." With that said, realization struck the Fairy Tail members like a train. Erza had feelings for Natsu; feelings so powerful, she can't live without him.

"I know you find it weird, but it's true." Erza began, breaking everyone's train of thought "I li-, no, LOVED Natsu. When he first came to the guild, I began to develop feelings for him. However, I denied those feelings due to the fear that Natsu would be just like Jellal.

"But he wasn't," she sadly smiled "his carefree attitude, his warm smile, and his dedication to protect those he care about removed all doubts I had in my head. When Natsu began to develop feelings for Lisanna, it felt like my heart was going to break. I thought that Natsu was just as bad as Jellal, but when she 'died', I saw that he deeply cared about her and decided to throw away my feelings for him." She paused and looked into the eyes of her comrades. She saw that all of them were surprised except for Lisanna, who looked guilty. However, when she looked at Lucy, she noticed that Lucy also had a look of guilt.

"GRAY! Unfreeze me!" Erza ordered, making Gray snap out of his shock; obviously Gray obeyed her. When the ice dissipated, Erza began to walk towards the group.

"Lucy, tell me do you also have feelings for Natsu?" the knightess asked in an uncharacteristically soft tone. Lucy opened her mouth in an attempt to answer, but couldn't form the words in her mouth. Instead the girl nodded, causing a small smile to form on Erza's lips.

"If that's the case, then I shall discard my feelings once more so that you wouldn't feel guilty about stealing him from me." the moment she said that, Lucy began to tear up while everyone looked at Erza and were inspired at her move of self-sacrifice. Except for a certain iron dragon slayer and blue exceed.

"Gehehehe… Erza, you are totally clueless about us dragon slayers." Gajeel said.

"What do you mean?" the guild asked, curious about what Gajeel has to say.

"To keep it simple, we can only love one person," he began "it's like a curse you see. If said person doesn't return our feelings, dies, or loves someone else, the depression we would go through is unimaginable. Second, the person a dragon slayer likes or loves will have a mark placed upon them. The mark is an indicator that you are theirs and theirs only. Furthermore, there are two stages of the mark. The first stage is when they find the person they love; the mark would just be a scent which indicates their interest in you. The second stage is when the dragon slayer seals the bond; a unique insignia will appear on your body and you will inherit all of the dragon slayer's abilities and by the looks of it, you are marked by Salamander." his last statement rang in everyone's heads, especially Erza.

"This is the best part: judging by the strength of the scent, you have been marked for nearly 7 years." this earned a gasp from all the guild members.

"I don't believe it." Lisanna shakily said.

"Too bad, you're gonna have to." Happy coldly replied. It would be an understatement if the guild was described to be surprised in that moment. Never in their lives would they hear Happy reply in such a cold tone.

"Natsu has been in love with Erza for a long time. He still hasn't made his move on her due to her past with Jellal." Erza cringed at this

"However, I can see why everyone is so surprised at this. Everyone suspected that he would be interested in Lucy or Lisanna, but he isn't, he never was. Natsu only saw the both of you as his very best friends, no more no less. By the way, the main reason why he likes to fight Erza is that it's his way of interacting with her without it ending awkwardly." Happy finished.

"Happy, how long have you known this?" Mira asked.

"Ever since Oracion Seis. Natsu told me everything when we got home." Happy sulked "You should have seen him. He was so depressed about Erza crying because of Jellal's arrest that he didn't eat for 3 days straight." with those words, Erza fell on her knees and began to cry, all the while she was muttering "I'm sorry, Natsu" over and over again.

"What's done is done," Gildarts said. "we can't change the past, but with its lessons we can create a better future. Let's go home" As the Fairy Tail members stood up, albeit slowly, the barrier that protected them from the tidal wave dissipated.

'Looks like the First Master was protecting us' Makarov thought. Moments later, a ship reached the shore and Doranbolt came into view.

"Thank goodness you're safe! Come on aboard, I'll give you a ride home" Doranbolt exclaimed. When they got on the ship, he noticed that many members had red, puffy eyes and gave off a depressing aura. When his eyes landed on Happy, he suddenly remembered something.

"Happy," the blue exceed looked up "I have something for you." Doranbolt walked up to him and produced a familiar scaly white scarf. "I found this floating near the explosion's epicenter." Surprisingly, Happy pushed the scarf away.

"I don't need it, but someone else does." he gestured to a weeping Erza. The rune knight went the grieving red head and gave the scarf to her. She mumbled a quick thanks and wrapped the scarf around her neck.

"Set sail to Hargeon! WE'RE GOING HOME!" Lahar yelled to his crewmen.

(02.13.2015) A/N: SPECIAL THANKS TO 'thatrandomguy42' FOR POINTING OUT A FLAW IN ONE OF NATSU'S SPELLS.