"Natsu!" "Natsu!" "NATSU!" Natsu woke with a start. 'cold sweat?' He thought... 'that word… cold' as he recalled what had happened those few years ago.

"Goodbye Natsu try not to do anything dangerous, okay?" Lisanna said with a small, sly smile, indicating the underlying joke.

"As if! I'm too scared to do that kind of thing and you know that." He retorted in a less than confident voice.

"Come on Lisanna! Quit hanging around The Coward, we need to leave!" Elfman called over to his younger sister while Mirajane snickered. He was clearly hurt by the words and looked down.

"So what if I'm a coward? There's no shame in helping people with their daily chores." He folded his arms and mumbled under his breath.

"Come on Lisanna!" Mirajane called

"I have to go now just... don't let Gray get to you, okay?" She said with a caring look.

"Okay!" He replied with a big smile.

Natsu had come to the guild the next day. after they broke the news to him of Lisanna's death, he grabbed Elfman by the collar and screamed at him for being weak and arrogant. He ignored everything, and everyone around him, next thing he knew he was in the middle of the street.

"Natsu!" Gray called out to him with a arrogant grin on his face, Natsu just sulked with tears in his eyes "Wow you are such a coward!" He said while laughing. Natsu's eyes just widened before glaring at Gray with rage

"You know something…?"

"What coward?" he emphasised the word heavily. He then realized Natsu was glaring at him heatedly.

"I only act as if I'm a coward because I don't like hurting people. But I can make an exception for you!" His expression turned into that of an enraged dragon's, as his right fist connected with Gray's jaw sending him flying through the guild's doors, that were at least 100 feet away, surprising everyone with a yelp at the now battered Gray

"Who did this!?" Erza asked enraged.

Gray had a look of extreme fear in his eyes as he pointed at the now destroyed doors as Natsu walked through, the dust only revealing two red dots where his eyes should be, with an exasperated expression on his face,

"Never and I mean never insult me or my closest friends again or the pain will never end for you, not even Erza would be able to stop me from ripping you limb from limb." He said angrily.

Erza was none too happy about this, as she barraged him with insults, he just stood and looked at her with a dead expression on his face, as if he'd died but his body was still there in auto-pilot,

"Erza?" Natsu said in a trance-like state. Erza was taken aback at his voice, it was low and sad, "Have you ever lost the one person in your life that loved you like you loved them?"

"W-w-well…" she just stopped talking and looked like she was going to cry.

"The one who meant everything to you only for them to be ripped away?" Erza looked at Natsu as if he'd grown a second head "I just miss her so much, I wish there was a way to bring her back, just for a moment so I could tell her how I really felt about her." He said as tears started to flow from his eyes and down his face. Everyone started falling over in the guild.

The only word Erza mumbled before falling over was, "Mystogan."

Mystogan walked in as everyone fell asleep, everyone except Natsu that is. Mystogan looked shocked to see the crying child just sitting there awake "How is it that you are awake?" The staves mage asked curiously.

"I don't know." He replied as he looked at all the sleeping bodies around him,

"Interesting... Natsu right? I just came in to grab a job request, would you like to come with me?" He asked as he looked at Makarov who just nodded his head as he tried not to fall asleep.

"Sure I could use some time away from the guild." He said as he walked upstairs with Mystogan, "could I leave them a note explaining that I left?" Natsu asked cheerfully,

"If you'd like to then go ahead." He replied.

"Okay hold on." Natsu said as he got a pencil and a piece of paper and wrote.

'To the Guild

I'm leaving for a while, I don't know when I'll be back if I ever do come back, just know that you won't have to deal with me or my problems again.

Signed, Natsu Dragneel'

The guild eventually woke up and found the note lying on a table.

As they finished reading the note, some had tears in their eyes others just walked aimlessly around the guild, also sad, Natsu hadn't realized the impact he had made on the guild.

"Wow, I can't believe he left." Mira said as she sat on the bar and swung her legs.

"I can, I mean, look at how Gray treated him." Macao said while glaring at Gray.

"Yeah." Wakaba nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, yeah I get it, I'm a horrible person, can you shut the hell up now? And I'm not the only one that was a complete jerk to him." He said with a sharp edge in his voice. He looked directly at Mira and Elfman who pretended to not see his gaze. He then sat by a window staring angrily.

As Natsu left the guild he got the feeling he wouldn't see this place in a long time.

"So Mystogan where are we going?" Natsu asked as they walked out of Magnolia.

"We're going to kill a dragon." He replied nonchalantly.

"Are you really that powerful?" Natsu asked dumbfounded.

"Under normal circumstances, no, but I have you with me on this job, so yes. Dragon Slayers are the only ones capable of killing Dragons after all." He said as they walked towards a mountain.

After a week of traveling, they arrived at the base of the mountain and started climbing. At the halfway point of the mountain, they heard a monstrous roar in the air. They both looked up, and there was the Dragon in all of its glory

(A.N. I recently got permission from another writer to redo his first and only story as he isn't going to write anymore soon. So here's the remastered version of Chapter One. Let me know what you think.)