AN: Hurrah, here's the first chapter of the re-write! Please leave some feedback saying which version you like better so far, and thanks for sticking around through my I-can't-make-up-my-mind-on-what-to-do phase. There will be no more editing or re-writes from now on (excluding grammar errors).

I realize that I will probably get flamed by some unhappy readers, but I suppose that's understandable, and I will take these hurtful comments like, as Elfman would say, a MAN!

*hides under desk with a pillow and spare food*

I just didn't want to post it as an entirely new story because, essentially, it is still the same story with the same OCs and stuff—plus, there are already large amounts of people who have alerted to this story and I didn't want to make them have to do all of that stuff all over again :1

I hope you enjoy this new version, and thank you.

The Fire Within

Chapter 1: Gears in Motion

I am the absence, yet still the essence. I am the existence, yet still oblivious. I am the burning passion, but still as cold as ice.

I am the darkness which has yet to see the light.

Where are they?

The unpleasant screech of nails dragging across scales was all Natsu could hear in his mind as he worked desperately to remove the dark layer that beset his scarf. Even the thought of having the snowy garment stained forevermore as a menacing, unholy onyx made his eyes livid, and his heart seethe with rage.

Who did this to Igneel's…

"Do you hate it?"

Natsu snapped his head up, hearing the barely audible voice only a few feet away. "You… did this?" he spat, rising up from the ground to challenge the one guilty of vandalizing his scarf.

A solemn figure cloaked in regal robes lay on his back, his head facing the sky. The area around him was empty and grey, enshrining him in a field of nothingness. Draped over his eyes were strands of his black hair, making his expression nearly unreadable had it not been for the downward curve of his lips.

Yielding no reply, Natsu clenched his fists and yelled. "ANSWER ME!"

"Isn't it… such a sad and lonely place?"

At that moment, he realized the world around him was filled with nothing but white as far as the eye could see. It made the entire experience seem… surreal. He vaguely wondered how he had come to be in such an empty place—and more importantly, what exactly was this place?

"This is the future of this world—devoid of any life…" the man mused, reaching out to grasp a crippled, dry leaf in his hand. "It is tragic that all things must come to an end, isn't it?"

Natsu didn't understand this. "What the hell am I doing here?" he demanded blatantly, not taking his eyes off the stranger. He refused to believe that this land—this empty land—was the future Earthland was headed to. This guy was probably just spouting crap to confuse him—not that he wasn't already confused enough.

The man mulled over his thoughts, his lips curving into the long-forgotten ghost of a smile. "Why are you here? Yes… perhaps it is reasonable for you to wonder such things, Natsu."

He rested his hands on the ground—well, that is, if all of this white space could be called ground—and sat upright, turning his head to look at the pink-haired boy. Natsu hadn't expected this person, who said so many confusing things, to have such gentle—yet lonesome—eyes.

Green met grey as the two stood in the empty world, not even the sound of the softest breeze reaching their ears. Natsu felt as though he should speak, but something bothered him. This man… Something about him was oddly familiar.

That sickening scent… Who are you?

The man smiled forlornly and asked, "Natsu, that scarf is very precious to you. Do you dislike what has happened to it?"

Natsu clutched the garment around his neck and glared at the man. "Of course I do! Igneel gave me this scarf and I won't let anyone who thinks they can just—"

"Do you hate what it has become?"

A frown was Natsu's immediate reply. "What are you sayin'? It's still a scarf… But why'd you have to go and make it black? I liked it the way it was!"

"Even though it has changed color, the scarf is still the same one you have worn countless times before. It still bears the same scars received through your struggles," he explained.

The mage looked down at his scarf and pondered the thought; was this really still Igneel's scarf? It was hard to believe that may be true—but it was black, for pete's sake! If Igneel had wanted to give him a black scarf, he would have!

"Although someone of good nature has been forced to change, in the end they will always be that one, same person, despite the wickedness or cruelty they may have displayed," the man further explained.

Natsu observed the darkened scales that hung loosely around him and lifted the ends of the scarf up to his eyes. Peering closely, he could scarcely make out the dents and scratches that he was familiar with on the surface of the black material. It was true; they were still there. But why was he being told this now?

"You're telling me all of these weird things…" he mumbled absentmindedly, still running his fingers over the rough garment. "I don't know if this is a dream or what, but of course I know something like that!"

The stranger lay in wait, anticipating what Natsu would deduce from his words.

"I know that people change!" Natsu yelled, staring straight at him bravely—fearlessly. "But if there is one thing that doesn't change, it's who they really are. No matter what they do, or the decisions they make…"

He lurched forward. "No matter what, they will still be themselves!"

The man smiled gently, almost as though he was relieved that Natsu understood what he had said, and slowly, the white illusion of the barren world changed into the familiar night setting of Magnolia town; the sakura trees were in full bloom, and the two of them stood atop of Fairy Tail's guild building.

"Natsu," he said. There was an almost wistful tone to his voice; Natsu could feel the great sense of longing he had simply by the expression upon his face. "This world is beautiful. Even if you are full of tears and sadness, you can always open your eyes again and find happiness. In this world, you can do whatever it is you wish to do, and become whatever it is you desire to be."

He grimaced. "Yet, even in this beautiful world, I am…"

And those familiar words were what caused Natsu's memories of the man to resurge. The forlorn and saddened eyes of his were all-too-familiar to the dragon slayer, and with the puzzling nature of his words, he knew that he was not mistaken.

At Tenrou Island, with Evergreen and Elfman during the S-Class Trial. That was the first time he saw him. He had that magic—that terrible, destructive magic—that ended the life of all that it came into contact with.

He had told Natsu to run.

"ZEREF!"

"Even still… I am happy you understand, Natsu."

When Natsu opened his eyes, he realized that he had somehow fallen onto the floor and that his head really hurt—throbbed, even. He also noticed a rather intimidating shadow looming over him, its hands glued to its hips.

What was that dream? Natsu wondered why he was dreaming of the black mage of all people. Was it because he was concerned about whether or not he'd reappear again? Or was it because he was afraid of him? Afraid of how he had caused Master Hades to disappear simply by—

Barely awake, he vaguely heard a familiarly feminine voice yelling, which sounded a lot along the lines of "Natsu you idiot, this is MY BED—Heck, this is MY ROOM!"

He blinked. Oh right, he was at Lucy's house! Geez, why'd she have to kick him off the bed like that? He'd told her almost a million times about how much comfier her bed was than his—

—Okay, so she'd told him to buy himself a new one. But why'd he have to spend his own money if he could just use hers? Honestly, Lucy needed to think more deeply about these things!

Sometimes she was just so weird.

"Oh, good mornin' Lucy!" a rather muddled Natsu replied, stumbling drunkenly across the room. "Didya make breakfast yet?"

Lucy promptly delivered a "Lucy kick" to his gut, sending him flying across the room and smashing his torso against the wall. Natsu wondered why she never used that kick when she actually should—it would save them a lot of time on their requests.

"I told you to stop breaking into my house! I should be pressing charges, you know?" Lucy responded unhappily, placing her hands on her hips.

She continued ranting for nearly ten minutes about how he was always breaking into her house, and breaking her furniture, and sleeping with her in her bed and—wait that sounded just so wrong.

Realizing the implied nature of her words, she then began lamenting about how she'd never be fit to be wed, and how bleak her future would be because of his unbelievable idiocy. By the time she was done with it all, Natsu could be legally declared as half-dead.

"But I told you… that your house is so much cleaner… than mine…" he choked, gasping for air through his newly flattened lungs.

"Then clean your own room!" It was impossible to rationalize with this—this thing. Honestly, how could someone's logic be so unbelievably flawed?

If things continued going along this path, Natsu knew he would make her seriously annoyed (not that she wasn't already). Resorting to final measures, Natsu turned to her, pouting as best he could. "Clean it for me, Lucy?" he asked, giving her a pleading bow.

For a moment, Lucy almost felt guilty for beating him up. That is, before he added, "…Since you're a maid, right?" in which she instead deciding to send him flying through her window and into the river canal.

"We've already been over and done with that episode!" Natsu heard her yell angrily as he plummeted head-first into the water. "Clean your own room—and stay out of my house from now on!"

Natsu rose up from beneath the waves, rather displeased by the rude awakening. A group of the usual Magnolian merchants passed by him in their wooden canoe, and called out to him, asking jokingly if he'd been kicked out of his girlfriend's house again.

"Guess he's off to a rough start," one of the merchants commented, seeing as how the pink-haired teen chose not to reply.

Natsu leapt out of the water and onto the sidewalk, then shook his head, sending droplets of water flying out all around him. Partially dried, he then decided that since he was awake he might as well head over to the guild building and start his day off early.

Oh, wait. Lucy's clock said it was already ten o'clock in the morning. Never mind starting the day early, then.

With a grin plastered across his face, he began his walk through Magnolia Town, greeting the citizens that passed by and barging into any furniture store he could find, checking to see if they had met his demands of lowering their bed prices.

Unfortunately, they hadn't, and they promptly kicked the dragon slayer out of the store, threatening to call law enforcement if he ever set foot in there again. Grinning, he walked away from the store, thinking that since he wasn't even allowed to buy a new bed now, Lucy couldn't object to him using hers.

He strolled along the beige-and-grey cobblestone roads with his arms raised behind his head, admiring how fine that morning was. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Ichiya was soaring rather ungracefully through the sky—

—Wait, Ichiya? In the SKY? From the direction Fairy Tail was in?

"Meeeeen!"

Natsu quickened his pace and burst into a full sprint, weaving through the morning crowds as fast as he could to reach his guild. He swerved around the corner of the local bookstore, carelessly knocking over a pile of trash cans, and began running furiously after he heard the store owner yelling for him to "get him here!"

As much as he'd have liked to come to a halt as the store owner had kindly suggested, he decided to leap onto the red-and-white canopies of the nearby restaurant and make a daring escape along the window railings.

A few of the brunchers waved at him and suggested that he don't cause too much trouble for Fairy Tail so early in the morning, which he responded to with a toothy grin, exclaiming that he wasn't.

Not even five seconds after he'd said he'd refrain from causing a ruckus, he lost his footing and fell from the railing, through the canopies, and flat onto the sidewalk. He quickly shook his head to snap out of his dazed state, and was about to make a run for it, but…

"Natsu, what the heck were you doing?" a rather bewildered Lucy asked, staring with a rather amused expression at his sorry self.

Natsu quickly grabbed her hand and dashed towards the guild, not even bothering to take a second's pause to answer her question. "Lucy, I just saw that weird perfume guy flying out from our guild!" he explained, zipping around corners and pulling her along as she flew through mid-air.

"Hieeeee!" Lucy wailed, desperately missing the comfort of solid, flat ground. Weird perfume guy? Oh, Natsu must have meant Ichiya—that womanizer from Blue Pegasus.

Lucy shivered; that man was just beyond creepy. She was silently thankful for not having to see him when they would arrive at the guild.

"It's fine if you're worried about something like that…" she wailed, tears flying from her eyes. "…BUT COULD YOU STOP DRAGGING ME? I'M PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF WALKING THERE MYSELF!"

Natsu grinned. "Sure thing, Lucy!" and let go of the blonde's wrist. She shakily stood up from the ground, the ends of her hair tangled and standing up on end, and attempted to dust herself off.

Noticing her disheveled hair, Natsu burst out into a fit of laughter and pointed at her head, crying, "Lucy, your hair looks just like that rooster from before!" He didn't even know it was possible for someone's hair to stand up so perfectly straight—besides his own, anyway. Oh, Lucy didn't seem to pleased with that comment…

Lucy sat hunched over, sobbing quietly to herself, mourning the loss of her perfect hair. "Three hours—three hours gone down the drain…" she sniffed, radiating a gloomy aura.

Natsu gulped as she turned her head, giving him the darkest glare she could manage. Thankfully, he was saved from becoming Lucy's punching bag by the sudden commotion from within Fairy Tail building, which they had both somehow come to stand in front of.

Not missing his chance to escape, Natsu kicked the wooden doors down (oh crap, that was going to cost a lot of jewels to fix) and stomped into the main hall demandingly, screaming at the top of his lungs "WHAT HAPPENED?" attracting a few odd stares as he did so.

"Shut up, firecracker! We're in the middle of something important here!" Gray screamed back equally as loud. He and a Fairy Tail's other guild members, as well as the mages from Blue Pegasus, sat together near the stage, seemingly in the middle of a serious discussion.

Natsu ground his teeth. "What'd ya say, naked snowman?" he retorted, igniting his fists in red flames.

The two mages began throwing fists, ice, fire, tables, and pretty much anything they could get their hands on, forcing some of the more mature mages to seek refuge in another room.

The usually soft-spoken Mirajane furrowed her brows and clutched a heavy, black binder against her chest. She looked uncharacteristically stressed, and even had faint traces of dark circles beneath her eyes, indicating that she had had experienced a very long night before.

She gave the two of them a stern look and said, "Quiet down you two, we're discussing something important right now—and with the members of another guild! At least save your arguing for later, or I'll get mad."

Natsu and Gray immediately backed down, seeing the dangerous aura radiating off of her figure, and sulked away into a corner.

"Droopy-eyes," Natsu muttered under his breath.

"Shut up, squinty," Gray hissed back.

Cana looked up from the barrel of alcohol she'd been chugging and spared the two of them an annoyed glance. Curving her lips up in amusement, she casually reminded the ice mage, "Gray, your clothes…"

Gray looked down at his nude body, which was only armed with a pair of black boxers, and cursed out loud, running through the back doors in a panic. His usual antics evoked a small giggle from Wendy, who'd always thought his stripping habit to be quite humorous and comedic.

Lucy shuffled her way in uncomfortably, seeing how many eyes were on her as she made her way through the crowd to the round of empty chairs upfront. She forced herself to wave politely to the unfamiliar faces—who waved back in response to greet her—and randomly chose a seat to avoid disrupting the meeting any further.

Without notice, the man beside her immediately grasped her hands, and Lucy had to resist a strong urge to initiate one of her "Lucy kicks". Turning her head, she realized that it was none other than a womanizer from the Trimens team—Hibiki Laytis.

Hibiki presented the stellar mage with a kiss on her finger, and purred, "Ah, Lucy, I didn't know we would meet again so soon. It must be fate that has brought us together." He put on his most charming smile and behind him, Eve and Ren fanned a box of multi-colored glitter, producing a sparkling effect to heighten his appearance.

"They're completely in sync," Lisanna remarked, observing the Trimens with fascination.

Lucy smiled awkwardly and retracted her hand. "R-Really…" she stuttered, unable to find the words to describe what she really felt about the whole scenario.

She noticed Hibiki wince slightly when she moved his arm, but didn't take it as anything serious, dismissing it as another antic to gain her attention.

"Now, now, Hibiki, don't go flirting with poor little Lucy over there!"

Hibiki, Eve, and Ren obediently sat down in their proper seats and nodded their heads in unison. "Yes, Master Bob!"

The guild master of Blue Pegasus fluttered out from behind the stage using his tiny, white wings, along with Makarov who stood beside him, arms crossed. The two made a rather odd sight—a cross-dressing, overweight adult and a short, jester-like old man.

Gajeel turned his head and stifled a laugh. Levy berated him and gave him a light hit on the head.

"Glad that you made it, Lucy!" Makarov smiled, acknowledging her presence with a nod. He then turned to count how many of his children had managed to make it in time for the unannounced meeting.

Surprisingly, everyone was here. Unsurprisingly, the guild was overwhelmingly full.

Wakaba smoked on his pipe and released a puff of smoke into the air, much to Macao's dislike. The latter of the two glared at the other, mentally telling him that he would most definitely pay for that later.

Wakaba shrugged the glare off and blatantly asked, "Okay, so what's this urgent thing you were starting to tell us about?"

Guild master Bob glided gracefully across the stage humming a cheery tune to himself. "Well, we are very concerned about the recent string of attacks in Fiore—I'm sure you've heard about them by now," he began, staring off into space thoughtfully.

Nearly every week two months prior, a town would be mysteriously attacked, going up in flames. At first, the Fairy Tail members would jokingly blame Natsu for going overboard again, but evidently it wasn't him who was burning down the establishments.

The pyromaniac had quickly become a large concern, and even the Fiorian army had been forced to get involved—however, they had made no progress on the case, and were always lagging behind the attacker, arriving just one day too late.

"What about them?" Evergreen inquired half-heartedly, being much more focused on her nails than the actual meeting.

"A few weeks ago we'd received an unsigned request; it just appeared on our request board without any warning at all," Bob explained. "At first we thought that it might be a prank from one of the guild members, but I'm afraid that just wasn't the case!"

"Being the fool he was, Bob allowed a group of his mages to freely accept the request, seeing as how he thought it was a hoax," Master Makarov continued, taking over for the cross-dresser, who had become rather occupied flirting with his male guild members. "That team of mages didn't return for nearly two weeks, and when they did, they had been severely weakened and burned."

Makarov furrowed his brow in thought and bowed his head. "One of them didn't make it through the night."

"What happened to them?" Natsu demanded, curious to see who had taken up the request.

The Trimens team rose from their seat, keeping their eyes lowered to the floor. "We were the ones who accepted that request," Ren announced. He pulled back his sleeve to reveal a nasty burn, which had blood soaking through the gauze wrapped tightly around his arm.

Hibiki and Eve had similar wounds which all looked equally as painful as the other's, all wrapped and bandaged tightly to prevent the scabs from breaking, and further bleeding.

Lucy gasped and covered her mouth. She stared at the three with wide brown eyes, wondering what exactly they had encountered to be wounded so terribly. It was terrible, unknowingly setting out to face a monster of that caliber.

Hibiki raised his head and flickered his eyes around the room, taking a good look at everyone seated at the meeting. He assessed their expressions of curiosity, wonder, confusion, and sympathy, and took a deep breath. "You might not believe me if I tell you, so I'll show you what exactly we were up against. We didn't even have a chance to beat it."

He snapped his fingers and activated his Archive magic, booting up the system quickly and scrolling through the vast text amounts of glowing yellow text on the screen.

Archive is a caster-type magic which is categorized in the technological field. It allows the user to convert information into magical data, creating a virtual "library" that is shared with other archive users, much like computers and the modern-day internet. Using archive, information can be stored, received, or gathered conveniently.

Despite its usefulness, Archive is a recently developed magic, meaning it is still fairly uncommon.

Hibiki skillfully input a long code using the circular keyboard, bypassing the numerous password restrictions he had placed on the file.

After what had seemed like an eternity of waiting, he revealed an image that could only leave everyone in shock.

Gajeel widened his eyes and clenched his fists. They couldn't be serious. Damn, this wasn't a funny joke at all. "Ain't no freakin' way…"

Wendy leaned on the edge of her seat at a loss for words. It couldn't be…

Natsu sprang up from his seat, pointing at the large image with an accusing finger. "That's…! Are you kidding me?" he cried out in disbelief, unable to comprehend exactly how—

Beside Hibiki, Eve nodded seriously to confirm the fact which nearly no one wanted to be true. "That's exactly what it is," he said, gesturing at the large, red beast immersed in flames.

"What has been wreaking havoc across Fiore… is a dragon."

"A DRAGON?" the mages yelled in unison, gawking at the scaly red monster.

The dragon's eyes shone an impossibly vivid yellow, and its head reared back as a rush of red flames came forth from its maw, the action perfectly captured in the presented image. And, like in the stories of old, a set of large membrane wings spanned from the lizard's back, coupled with a crown of golden horns that decorated its massive head.

Lucy had never believed dragons existed—not even for a second. Sure, Natsu had said he was raised and taught magic by a dragon, but she had never thought it had made sense for a dragon to teach someone magic whose sole purpose was slaying a dragon. Hence, she'd dismissed it as a tall tale.

Yet, here was proof that those monstrous beings really had existed—that they still existed.

That's a dragon? she thought, a cold chill streaking down her back. Natsu was raised by something like… THAT? How could you possibly even face such an intimidating creature, let alone live with it?

Contrary to what he'd said, Gajeel was actually interesting in this development. Pantherlily realized this and encouraged him to ask more about it, but Gajeel had just denied any interest in the matter and stubbornly turned away.

"I knew they weren't all gone!" Natsu exclaimed loudly, ogling at the image like a blind man seeing the sun. He paused for a moment. Wait, wasn't there…

That's right—Gildarts had seen another dragon before the S-Class Trail! "Hey, was there a black dragon with it?" he pried, folding his arms across his chest.

Ren widened his eyes in surprise, but shook his head. "No, it was only one. Wait—you're saying there's another dragon out there?"

Gildarts, who had just arrived back at the guild a few days ago, raised his hand and admitted with a cheeky grin, "That would be me."

Makarov lowered his head and closed his eyes in thought. Now there were two dragons running around Fiore, free to do as they pleased—and if he remembered correctly, the black dragon Gildarts had mentioned to him a while ago wasn't a very friendly one. Heck, he'd lost an arm and a leg to that thing (literally), not to mention an organ.

"Hey, thanks to that lizard, my body's a little lighter now!" he'd joked, roaring with laughter.

With a frown, Makarov mumbled, "So there are two dragons running amok… At this rate, the Magistrate is going to get involved." He paced back and forth in thought, concern for his children—and the country—scorching through his mind. What could they do? Would they leave matters to the authority?

Bob covered his mouth, faking surprise, and edged closer to the fellow guild master. "Oh Makarov, you don't mean that!" he cried dramatically, playing with the ends of the old man's hat. "Take it back!"

Members of both guilds watched awkwardly as the two old men scuffled and argued with one another on the stage, unknowingly acting out their own little play. "The Grumpy Old Man who Denies the Affections of his Cross-Dressing Lover!" was what Levy decided it would be called.

"No way, no how," Bisca disagreed, waving her hand.

Having enough of fooling around, Bob recomposed himself and looked around the room for three certain mages.

"Now if I remember correctly…" he thought out loud, scanning the faces of a few rather uncomfortable Fairy Tail members. "My Makarov had three little dragon slayers in his guild!"

"Who're you calling yours?" Makarov yelled in protest, lighting Bob's behind on fire with magic. Bob quickly matted the flames down and smiled, not unnerved a bit by the fact that just a second ago his tushie could have been singed by flames.

Bob was probably the weirdest cross-dresser ever produced by the world.

His face lit up once again after spotting Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy in the crowd, and floated down to the closest of the three. He hovered in front of the pink-haired dragon slayer, stretched his cheeks, and exclaimed what a "cute little boy" he was.

Subsequently, everyone in the main hall fell flat on their face. "Get to the point!"

Much to Natsu's relief, the pedophile of a guild master released his face, but still maintained his cheerful smile. "My, my, you're all so impatient!" he gushed, shaking his head from side-to-side. "Okay then; if my sources are correct, then it seems as though the dragon's next target will be Magnolia Town!"

Gajeel put on a malicious grin, and chuckled darkly to himself. "Gihihihi… So that's what you guys want, eh?"

Natsu laughed and rolled his shoulders backward, cracking his knuckles as he did. "I think I get what this guy's saying—"

He was interrupted by a bone-crushing hug from Bob, who snuggled against him and squealed, "Makarov, your children are so smart!"

Makarov's brow twitched, but he knew further argument with the guy (was he even still a guy?) would be hopeless. "Natsu, as an S-Class mage, I am giving you my expressed permission to take Gajeel and Wendy on this request," he announced, tossing a roll of parchment to Natsu, who grabbed it greedily from Bob's crushing embrace.

He continue, "If this was a few months ago, I'd have never even thought of asking you to do this—let alone know about it. But Natsu, you've grown quite a bit, and your magical power has certainly increased as well."

"And if you've been taught this dragon-slaying magic, well then, you should be using it for its true purpose!"

The guild master raised his fist into the air and exclaimed, "My children! Put your faith in your brothers and sister! Because they are dragon slayers, they are the only ones who can bring down this threat!"

The crowd of mages cheered the trio on enthusiastically, hopeful that they would somehow be capable of bringing the dragon to a halt, if that was even possible.

Natsu blinked and gawked at Master Makarov. "What? I thought you were just gonna let me go and ask it where Igneel was!"

The sound of face-palms and head-smacking echoed throughout the hall for the rest of that night. Natsu grinned amidst all the chaos around him, and eagerly joined the brawl that ensued afterwards.

And out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn there was a speck of black on his scarf.

Hunched over in the dark with a plate of strawberry cheesecake, Erza cowered in a corner, shaking uncontrollably as she brought a piece of the sweet up to her mouth.

"Ich-ch-ch-chiya," she stuttered, eyes wide with fear.

Meeeen…

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Thank you very much for reading (and sticking with) "The Fire Within"!