Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
ACT I: Dragons, Demons and Humanity – The Massacre
400 years ago ~ Approximately X372
Chapter 2: Fateful decision
The war between the dragons and humans eventually came to an end. There had been too many casualties on both sides and the pain would forever be etched into the memories of the survivors.
Bad things had happened during the war and had lead to something even more horrifying to suddenly appear.
Achnologia...
Once he was a human Dragon Slayer, but after going on a killing spree against dragons and bathing in his victims blood, he had somehow overused his magic, which unfortunately turned him into a dragon. After that Achnologia proclaimed that he was the Dragon King and was above all other creatures. That was the reason the war had been named the Dragon King Festival and it would forever be a dark event that would be etched into history.
But even though bad things happened, something good came out of it too. The survivors made a contract with each other called the Magna Carta and that would ensure fair rights to both humans and dragons. In that way the dragon's swore to protect the humans, who in turn promised not to use their powers to slaughter the dragons. It was a huge development in the rights for both dragons and humans, because it ensured them that no one would reign the land with unlimited powers. Besides it made it possible for the dragons and humans to coexist.
Unbeknownst to the humans and dragons another thing happened at the same time, making the guild Tartaros disappear from existence. No one had seen the guild for the rest of the war, nor did they cause a huge havoc as they had done during the horrible event.
What they did not know was that the dark mage Zeref had approached the guild and turned a lot of the strongest demons into books. His reasoning for this action was that he would wait until the time was right. For now he would have faith in humanity and hope that it could somehow restore itself. And for that to happen the demons needed to vanish. It wasn't their time after all...
So with that in mind Zeref found himself walking towards a goal, that might be the solution to a brighter future...
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Igneel let out a sigh as he glared at the dragons around him. Grandeeney, Metallicana, Weisslogia, and Skiadrum all of them was no longer a part of this world. Achnologia had made sure of that when he ripped their souls out of their bodies and slaughtered their remains. Which essentially meant they were all spirits and none of them knew what to do about the whole situation.
"So what now?" Igneel asked the other dragons who stared back at him unsure of how to answer that question.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see" Grandeeney smiled warmly "And have faith in the future"
"As always you make a speech about faith" Metallicana smirked knowingly at the other dragon.
"Shut up!" Igneel growled feeling utterly impatient "Someone is coming"
They all turned and saw a person wearing black clothes approaching.
"Zeref" Igneel muttered in a low voice.
"The dark mage?" Grandeeney asked in curiosity.
"Yes" the fire dragon nodded.
"Igneel" Zeref said when he was within talking distance "It saddens me to see what has become of you"
"Tsch, I don't need your pity" the fire dragon snorted.
"Do you remember what you told me during the war?" the dark mage asked "About having faith in humanity?"
"Yes, what of it?"
"If I said that one day humans will face a great villain, that is stronger than anything you have ever encountered, would you still believe that they could unite and save themselves?"
"I do" Igneel nodded "If something is a tread to the humans, they will do whatever they can to protect what is dear to them"
"Then let me be frank with you. In the future the humans will have to face the demons I created. I do not know when, but they will when the time is right"
"So..." Igneel spat in annoyance "... why are you telling me this?"
"Because I want to ask if you think it's possible, that the dragons can have a positive influence on the future against the demons"
"What is this all about Igneel" Weisslogia asked as he turned his head towards the other dragons.
"I've heard about these demons and the dark mage Zeref" Skiadrum said before Igneel got a chance to answer.
"Me too and it ain't pretty..." Metallicana snickered momentarily "... wait are you saying that this little shrimp is Zeref?!"
"It would seem so" Grandeeney smiled towards the metal dragon.
"To answer your question Zeref" Igneel groaned "I do believe the dragons can have a positive influence, if the humans are willing to accept our help"
"I see" the dark mage nodded "then I have a proposition for you"
"What proposition?"Igneel's voice was filled with scepticism.
Zeref reached into his cloak and fetched a book "This contains the strongest demon I have ever created. As you know he is destined to kill me one day"
"... how do you store someone in a book...?" Skiadrum wondered out loud to no one in particular.
"Ohh that brat..." Igneel snickered and suddenly felt annoyed "... what does that have to do with me?"
"Nothing and everything I suspect, because it all depends on the important question that concerns his personality" Zeref said and stared at the book in his hand.
"What do you mean?" the fire dragon asked.
"Etherious Natsu Dragneel is half human and half demon. That means he might be the answer to the fight between the two factions. When the time comes that is... So you dragon's now stand with a choice, which could possibly help save humanity"
"I'm not sure I follow your logic" Grandeeney asked "How can we possibly do anything in our state?"
"That is simple" Zeref turned to look at the sky dragon "Even though you're spirits, the magic you had when you were alive was so vast, that it can sustain your form for a limited time. So for now you have a physical form"
"I see" Weisslogia nodded.
"Yes" Zeref said "So my proposition for you, is that you find suitable students you can share your knowledge with, before your existence I erased for good. Then when the time is right I will summon you to the future"
"How is that even possible kiddo?" Metallicana smirked to himself feeling somewhat smart.
"I will take care of it, if you choose to follow this path" Zeref looked at each dragon in turn "So what do you say?"
"Are there any consequences if we do this?" Weisslogia asked.
"I can't see anyone other than we have to raise a child and teach them our knowledge" Grandeeney answered "Besides what else is there for us to do right now?"
"You have a valid point" Weisslogia nodded "And we would help in keeping the promise made in the Magna Carta. Very well I will participate"
"So will I" Grandeeney smiled warmly towards the other dragons "Whatever the future holds, I want to make sure it's a world where all humans can live peacefully"
"Tsch!" Metallicana snorted "If the idiotic flame dragon is in on it, then so am I"
"Watch out who you call an idiot" Igneel growled in anger "Or I might have to beat some sense into you"
"What is your answer Igneel?" Zeref asked seriously "Do you stand by your words you told me and believe in humanity?"
"Yeah, yeah I guess I have to don't I?" Igneel groaned in defeat "But you know that you're telling ME the great Igneel to raise a human child?"
"Ohh don't say it like that" Grandeeney turned her head towards the fire dragon "You love humans so I'm sure it'll be a piece of cake for you"
"... you clearly haven't seen how disgusting human kids can be..." Igneel grumbled to himself.
"Very well" Zeref nodded "I want you to find your students and come to the Eclipse Gate on the 7/7"
"So a month from now?" Igneel asked.
"Yes..." the dark mage answered "... but before I leave there is another thing I need of you Igneel"
"What?"
"Since you were the one who told me that you had so much faith in humanity, I will give you the task of raising him"
"Who?" the fire dragon crooked an eyebrow in suspicion.
"You'll see" the dark mage smirked almost teasingly, as he opened the book in his hands. There was a light radiating from it, blinding the dragons surrounding it. A second later a person suddenly emerged from inside of the light. As the person came into existence, the light started to vaporise until it was gone.
Igneel blinked a few times as the effects of the blinding light vanished, making him stare with huge and surprised eyes at the pink haired demon.
"Eh?!" the fire dragons eyes bulged as he pointed towards the kid "What is HE doing here?"
"Eh?!" Natsu's eyes bulged as well as he pointed towards the dragon "What is HE doing here?!"
"Unfortunately this isn't the time for you two to have a happy reunion" Zeref groaned impatiently "So that will have to wait"
"What are you talking about?" Natsu turned to stare at the dark mage.
"I don't need to explain myself to you" sighing Zeref made a few hand signals, while chanting something and suddenly the markings on Natsu's body started to move.
"What are you doing?" the demon asked bewildered by the events.
"This isn't your time" the dark mage said in a sad tone.
The markings on Natsu's body kept moving, until only the lower part of his right arm was covered. Once there it started glowing.
"What is this? What's happening?!" Natsu roared as an intense pain shot through his arm where the markings were, making him scream in agony "Stop this!"
The meat underneath the markings was being torn apart, making blood freely stream down the demon's arm. It was so painful that Natsu started heaving for air, while simultaneously twitching from the agony he was feeling.
"What is the meaning of this?" Grandeeney hissed "You're hurting him!"
Zeref didn't answer but kept staring at the demon, who suddenly feel to his knees, landing in a puddle of his own blood.
Once more the markings started to radiate, but this time the markings slowly started to remove itself, as it ripped itself off the demon's skin.
As the markings started to fly into the thin air, it turned into tiny glistening droplets, mixed with the blood from the demon. It took some time but eventually all markings was gone from Natsu's arm and flowing in the air, where it started to form into one massive liquid looking ball.
Zeref motioned with his hand and the ball suddenly popped, making it vanish from existence. His book however started glowing and pulsating in a weird way, almost as if it was alive. A sigh escaped the dark mage's lips as he closed the book in his hands, and as he did the glow vanished too.
Natsu was still sitting on his knees facing the sky through clouded eyes. His body was frozen stiff and his mouth was open as if he was still screaming in agony.
Suddenly the boy's contours started to become more vague and blurry, until all of him seemed to shiver. There was a flash of light and a weird almost unpleasant cracking sound, as the demon's frame vanished entirely and was replaced with something a lot smaller.
All of the dragons glared curiously, because they were suddenly staring at very tiny human child. It didn't look like he was more than perhaps three or four years old. Other than that he had spiky unruly pink hair and onyx coloured eyes. Physically he looked fine too, there was no markings or even a droplet of blood from the wounds he had received earlier.
The tiny human turned his head from side to side, and started rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Wh... where...?" the kid sniffed as he glared at the huge dragons. It took a few seconds for him to comprehend the situation but once he did, he let out a terrified scream and started crying, with huge fat tears streaming down his chins.
"What's his problem?" Metallicana winched at the annoying sound.
"He's scared!" Grandeeney hissed towards the metal dragon "There, there human child" she tried comforting the kid but it only made him cry even louder.
Zeref exhaled as he kneeled down in front of the deeply troubled child "Natsu, are you scared?"
"Mmm..." Natsu let out a whimpering sound, as he turned his head towards the dark mage.
"It's going to be okay, the dragons won't harm you, I promise"
Natsu blinked a few times with his huge eyes "Really?"
"Yes" Zeref smiled in encouragement.
"Mmm..." Natsu rubbed his eyes for a few seconds before he suddenly wrapped his tiny arms around the other person's torso, hugging it like it was the only safe place in the world.
Natsu whimpered once more as he tried to hide his head against Zeref's chest.
The situation was so weird and unknown to Zeref that he froze. He hadn't been this close to a human being in ages, because he was afraid what might happen. Sure he wanted to be acknowledged just like every other creature would, but couldn't get that luxury because of his dark magic. That was why being hugged was such an alien thing to him, making him feel rather perplexed.
As the kid kept hugging him tightly there was a sudden unknown but warm feeling spreading inside of the dark mage. Zeref had never experienced in a long time...
Hope... It felt like hope...
A sigh escaped the dark mage's lips and he felt how his own insecurity vanished, making him pat the kid very on his back.
"Natsu" the dark mage said in a gentle voice.
"Mmm" the child grumbled.
"Listen to me I need you to be strong okay?"
"Wh... why?" the kid turned his head and glared at Zeref with huge tear filled eyes.
"Because from now on Igneel is going to take care of you"
"Me?!" Igneel roared in surprise, making Natsu so scared that he quickly crawled inside of Zeref's cloak, in order to hide himself from the big scary dragon.
"Igneel will you be quiet you're scaring the poor child" Grandeeney hit the other dragon with her tail behind their backs, making the fire dragon hiss in pain and surprise. The wind dragon ignored this however as she lowered her head towards the human and the dark mage.
"Don't be scared my child, we are quite harmless" she smiled warmly "Can you tell me your name?"
The child sniffed a few times and slowly popped his head out from inside Zeref's cloak "N... Na... Natsu..."
"Such a pretty name you have. My name is Grandeeney it's a pleasure to meet you"
"Uhm..." blinking he lazily rubbed his eyes to remove some lonely tears "Nice to... to... meet you too..."
"Are you scared?"
"Uh-huh" he nodded vaguely.
"So tell me, do you by any chance like dogs or maybe cats?"
"Ca.. cats.. I... like cats"
"Well think of us like giant cats" she chuckled "We aren't soft and furry, but we are very loyal to our family"
"Giant... cats?" Natsu sobbed as he glared at the huge dragon.
"Yes" the wind dragon nodded.
"But... cats... can't speak"
"You are right my dear" her smile widened "But we are magical creatures, that's why we can speak"
"Magical?" his eyes lid up making him glide out of Zeref's cloak and take a few steps forwards.
"Indeed we are and so are you"
"I am?" Natsu smiled enthusiastically.
"Yes you are. You're a very special kid and that's why you have to go live with Igneel"
"But..." the kid's spirit lowered considerably, making his shoulders drop "... he... is mad"
"Ohh this old thing?" the wind dragon smirked warmly "He's just hungry... sometimes he loses his temper when he's like that"
"I..." there was a blush on Natsu's cheeks "I get... mad... when I'm hungry too"
"You see? You two aren't so different after all" Grandeeney gently started nudging the kid in Igneel's direction, with her snout "Now go on and say hi to him. He isn't so scary once you get to know him"
"But... but..."
Natsu froze in horror because he was suddenly standing in front of the big fire dragon.
"Natsu..." Igneel lowered his head to his level.
"Ye-yes?"
"Are you scared?"
"Mm-hm" he nodded.
"I'm sorry kid, I didn't mean to scare you like that"
"Is... is..." Natsu glared at his feet nervously "... kay... you... you're hungry..."
Igneel laughed "I am, yes"
"Uhm..." Natsu blinked and suddenly put his finger up his nose. He stood there evidently digging after a bogey until he found a big one "... mmm..." muttering the kid stared at the slimy substance that was covering his finger.
"What are you doing?" Igneel raised his eyebrow in curiosity.
"He-here..." Natsu pointed his snot covered finger towards the dragon with blushing cheeks.
"Are you trying to give me your snot?" the dragon's eyes twitched in disgust.
"... kids are disgusting..." Metallicana muttered to himself.
"Yeah... you.. you're hungry?" the kid blinked not understanding why the dragon was even asking him that question.
Igneel started laughing wholeheartedly, making Natsu jump in surprise because of the loud volume.
"Sorry kid but I don't eat stuff like that. But thanks for offering"
"Uhm..."
"Do you want to see something cool?"
"Yeah?"
The fire dragon smiled as he raised his head "Watch this" he started spewing fire up into the sky. It was so bright it illuminated a huge part of the heaven. As the fire hit the wind in the sky, it was sent flying in a lot of different direction, making it look like the fire turned into shooting stars of fire.
"Wooow!" amazed and astonished Natsu glared with huge glistening eyes at the sky, until Igneel eventually stopped his show.
"It's been a long time, since I saw that" Weisslogia said in a stoic tone.
"Yes it has" Skiadrum nodded.
"It's still just as ugly as that stupid flamehead" Metallicana chuckled teasingly.
Igneel ignored the dragon's taunting and turned his head towards the kid.
"You liked that Natsu?" the fire dragon asked while lowering his head.
"YESSS! IS... I... AAMM... WAUUU!" the tiny kid stuttered and started bouncing on the spot while squealing "COOOL!"
"Would you like to learn fire magic?"
"Yeah!" Natsu clenched his fist in determination "Fire is... the best!"
"Then I think we'll get along fine, because I can teach you how to use fire"
"Really?" his eyes was huge with stars sparkling in anticipation "Promise?"
"I promise"
"YAAARSH!" Natsu ran all he could on his tiny legs until he was close enough to wrap his arms around the dragon's snout "You-you-you-you... you! The... are you the are... best!"
Igneel laughed wholeheartedly at the kid's rambling and instantaneously knew, that he would like him. There was just something about the kid, that made his heart melt.
"Igneel" Zeref voice shocked Igneel because he had almost forgotten about the dark mage.
"What is it?" he countered.
"I trust you with the upbringing of this child. When the time comes we'll see if your high hopes in humanity is justified. For now we will part ways..."
"Yes..." Igneel nodded "What will you do now?"
"I have to go into a slumber to restore my strength. The whole ritual took a lot of my energy... and then I can assure you, that I will make my next move"
"I see..."
"We will meet again in the future..." Zeref turned around and started walking away.
"Yeah see ya" Igneel grumbled.
Grandeeney, Weisslogia, and Skiadrum nodded towards the wizard while Metallicana made a hooting sound.
Natsu was eager about the prospect of learning fire magic, but quickly seemed to grasp the situation and turned around to stare at the departing mage.
"Wa... wait!" he jumped down from Igneel's snout and started running towards the other mage. But unfortunately for Natsu, Igneel grabbed his tiny body and held him inside his huge claw, prevented him from moving any further.
"I'm sorry kid but you have to stay here" the fire dragon said in a low but warm voice.
"No... but..." he started struggling against the claw "WAIT!"
"He has to go Natsu"
"NO!" the kid tried kicking, biting, hitting but nothing had any effect "COME BACK!"
"Natsu! Why are you acting like this?" Igneel held back a growl.
"Because..." tears was once more streaming down Natsu's face "... he's lonely... he..." his voice cracked "... all alone... he... should come back..."
Zeref kept walking without turning around.
"... please... come back..." Natsu started sobbing in a more audible voice "... please..." his sob turned into a long high-pitched cry in grief, as the mage became invisible in the distance.
The crying child was so unbearable and heartbreaking that it left all the dragons speechless as the kid continued to scream his heart out.
Zeref wanted to stop when he heard Natsu crying. It was like someone had stabbed him in the heart, making him feel more vulnerable than he had felt in a long time.
And Natsu could feel his loneliness hiding under the darkness... very perceptive... or was it perhaps because he unconsciously knew about the bond they shared?
Chuckling sadly he removed something wet from his face and was rather surprise when he saw it was a watery substance.
"Tears..." Zeref felt baffled for a second as he stared at his hands "... so this is how it feels like..."
His heart was throbbing painfully making him clench one of his hands above it chest "It hurts... doesn't it?"
Natsu... rest assured we will met again... I promise...
A/N: Natsu as a kid is so freakishly adorable... like... super kawaii!
Anyhow I just wanted to say that there won't be any character deaths (or well some of them has to die eventually), but it will not turn into a slaughter festival, where END/Natsu goes on a rampage and kills all the members from Fairy Tail. I mean I like tragedy and angst, but I'm not gonna step over that fine line, that makes thing too cruel.
Ahem... anyhow, that was it for arc/act 1! (I had totally forgotten how much dialogue was in this arc, but it is needed for future events to happen).
Ohh I almost forgot to mention, that this will be updated whenever I finish an entire act, which means there will be more than one chapter, each time I update.
That's kinda neat, no? ;)
Hope you have a nice day y'all!
/Hejmdal