Chapter 2:
Rain, fall and hide the tears from God
"Rain falls, night beckons. The Knight seeks the Dragon, the Moon is forever. Red, Black, White, rage against fate, you lonely Sun!"
Erza finally reached the little hut that Natsu and Lisanna shared as kids. She stopped for a second, panting and trying to ignore the shooting pain at her side, no time to think about such things, where is Natsu? She looked around and finally noticed the Dragon Slayer staring up at the sky alongside Happy who was crying at Natsu's feet. She started to move towards him but stopped when she saw the gravestone in front of them.
Could it be… He was making that gravestone while I was blundering through the whole of Magnolia? She immediately felt better with herself for not finding him before he finished his tribute to Lisanna. After what seemed like an appropriate amount of time for Natsu to grieve some more, Erza decided to talk to him. She then reached out and touched his arm, feeling him suddenly tense at the contact.
"Natsu?"
"Erza? Nani?" He said coldly. Erza had to resist flinching at Natsu's tone.
"Come on, you'll catch a cold. Let's go back to the guild."
"-don't want- guild" He murmured quietly, Erza however got the gist of it and she frowned. The rain continued to plink against her armor and drench her head to toe.
"Natsu, they won't hate you for what you said to Elfman. They understand what you were feeling when-"
"What do you people know of what I am feeling?" Natsu suddenly interrupted her mid-sentence. Normally, she'd beat him for interrupting her but the look in his eyes when he turned at her and his tone prevented her from uttering a sound.
"Lisanna was my only friend, she was the only one who ever understood me for who I am. We promised ourselves to each other Erza, PROMISED!" He suddenly shouted, the dark aura starting to emanate from him again. Erza then remembered once again what he said back in the guild.
I'll become a Dragon, a Demon, the Devil himself, if that's what it takes…
"NATSU!" She yelled, snapping. The thought of Natsu turning into another him was too painful to imagine. "Think for one second! She wouldn't want you to become like this Natsu, she loved you for who you are, don't sully her memory by becoming someone different for her!"
"THEN WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO TITANIA? Move on and act like everything's fine? That everything's the same as always? NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME! LISANNA IS DEAD AND I WASN'T THERE TO PROTECT HER!"
Suddenly Erza understood what was eating Natsu up. Elfman considered him to be too weak to protect them during the S-Class mission, thus leaving him behind. If he had been stronger, they would have taken him with them and maybe, just maybe, he could have made a difference. So much like a blue-haired boy from a past long buried.
"Is that it? Is that the reason why you are like this then Natsu? You hate yourself for being weak?"
Everything stilled then at her words. Happy, who had been watching them fight suddenly tensed. The rain seemed to fade to black, the thunder and lighting ceased to make noise, as Natsu slowly turned his head to look at her directly for the first time in this argument.
"What?" He said in a dangerous voice. Erza then realized that what she said was over the line and completely wrong. She took a step back as Natsu's dark aura became stronger than ever before, it was suffocating.
"You think I hate myself for being weak? I'm not some human," He spat through his clenched teeth, "that takes things as a matter of pride and honor and all that bullshit. Elfman," He spat his name, as if the very word was poison to him, "was too filled with pride to get it through his thick-skulled head that he was not as strong as he thought himself to be." He then raised his right hand and pointed it at the grove of trees. A magic circle appeared at his hand, and a great fireball erupted from his hand to incinerate the trees within a second. The explosion burned everything within a 40 meter radius of the fireball's target. Erza's eyes widened at the destructive power of just one of those things, and suddenly she realized that Natsu was just holding back his power most of the time in order for others to not get hurt from the power. He continued.
"I however, know exactly how powerful I am." His eyes then bored into hers, seemingly starting straight through her eyes and into her soul. "I have no use for pride or honor or any of those human traits. I was raised by Igneel, a dragon, a race that has no need for human pride." He then turned back to the grave.
"At first, I thought pride was an integral part of being normal, then I began to notice you and the rest of you humans fought over pride like it was a treasure hoard. Elfman was one of the worst, always spouting about being a Man and talking with honor and fists, in the end, he couldn't do shit.
"That was when I finally remembered what Igneel taught me all those years ago: Pride is Useless, Honor is Useless, Family is Everything. It does not matter if you kill your opponent in battle, or you use underhanded tactics to defeat them, all that matters in the end is that you do defeat them. Everything comes after Family.
"Bye Erza, I'll go back to the guild after I finish mourning."
Erza had nothing to say to that. She knew then that at that moment Natsu would be treading the same path he did, and she could do nothing about it, nothing at all…
Erza trudged back to the guild slowly, gait slow and awkward as if she was drunk. Truly she wasn't, but she was close to what it felt like if she was punch-drunk, that was for sure. Her red hair lay scattered on her back, and her bangs hid her eyes from gossipy people. Her hands were clenched as they fought not to grab the nearest object and hurl at a target, any target. The rain hid her own rain of tears, as she saw the rain also did for Natsu in the clearing.
Natsu. The object of her grief right now, the reason she was crying uncontrollably. He already made his decision, she knew, he would be like him, consumed by power and hatred. The worst part was that she helped him along, even if it was indirectly. Whenever he was depressed she would beat him and tell him to pull together, or just ignore him; not once did she try to ask him why he was sad. As a result he had only one true friend in the whole guild, Gray would always fight with him; Cana was too busy drinking to care; Mira would likely have been possible but she would never have done it; Elfman would just spout his talk about being a Man and ignore the problem.
She finally reached the guild and slowly swung open the shut doors. Only vaguely did she register that the doors were shut to signify mourning, her thoughts were too beat up to care. She entered and saw that the guild was more or less the same as around four hours before, Mira and Elfman were seated in a table surrounded by fellow mourners, the ones who didn't know Lisanna that well staying back and letting them work their grief. All heads turned at the sound of the doors and stared at the rain drenched figure of Erza. She shook her head slowly.
"He's not taking this well at all." She answered the unspoken question in the air. It was obvious that Cana had told them about her reason for leaving the guild at that time. She walked towards the table and sat down beside Mira.
"What the hell? He's not the one who lost a sibling here!" Gray immediately shouted, before someone, most likely Cana, shut him up with a smack to the back of the head.
"Gray, you have no idea what Natsu is going through right now! Why don't you use that vaunted brain of yours and understand why?" Erza said coldly to Gray, sending shivers of fear down all their spines. Gray opened his mouth to retort but Mira interrupted.
"She's right Gray. What would you do if you had only one friend in the world and suddenly that friend died?" Gray then quieted down and took a solemn look, like he knew what pain Natsu was probably feeling right now.
"Is he still, mad at me?" Erza turned to see Elfman, a defeated look on his eyes. She couldn't bring herself to lie to him and so she nodded. Elfman got the meaning and buried his face in his hands. She knew then that Mira and Elfman were not finished grieving for Lisanna yet, it might be months, maybe years before they could stop grieving, maybe never. She was no stranger to this kind of pain. She would tell Elfman exactly what Natsu said about him later, there was no need to destroy his spirit so thoroughly.
Maybe when Natsu returns, I'll have both him and Elfman talk about it. Erza thought, but deep in her heart she knew that that would be the last she would see of Natsu for a long time.
After Erza finally went away, Natsu stared once again at the grave, now decorated with the promise rings and the thing his foster father gave him. Happy by then had stopped crying at was staring at Natsu differently, as if he never saw this side of him before. Truly he didn't, none of them ever did; none except the girl to whom he dedicated this grave to. She was the only one who realized what he really was, and made him tell it to her; when he finally did, her response was priceless to him. She accepted him for being a Dragon Slayer, saying that him being so strong he would be able to protect them, his family. He had blushed heavily then and said that he would always protect her.
"Guess I didn't keep my promise ne Lisanna?" He said, smiling bitterly. He already missed her so much, and it was just a few hours since he found out. How would he cope a month from now? A year? He didn't know, what he did know was that he could never go back to Fairy Tail, not yet anyway. It hurt too much to be there, to feel her presence slowly fading from the halls and from people's memories. Also, it would be too much to ask for him to tolerate human pride now, Lisanna's death made sure that he would no longer feel that emotion, no more pride or honor. Family was everything. He looked down at Happy, who was staring back at him.
"Don't worry Lisanna, I'll take care of Happy so that someday when we meet again, maybe when Happy and I die, we could be together once again, wait for me until then my love."
With those parting words Natsu Dragneel cast away his life at Fairy Tail, for a time, and turned away from the bright, happy guild, to a world of darkness. From then on, the name Salamander would resonate all throughout the continent, spoken in utter fear and anxiety, as it was said that the mere mention of his name would bring the wizard himself to your doorstep.
On the large stone, wrapped around in a protective manner, was the scarf Igneel gave to him, fluttering in the wind that held the rain.
Rain, fall and hide the tears from God. The end of innocence, the seething surge. Rage, grief, anger, come and rip out the soul. Envy, Pride, Honor, washed away by the torrent. The Black Sun shines.
Yo! I'm posting this the moment I finish it to make sure I get the most from the inspiration I got haha.
Please review so I know what to mod or if the story is awesome or what not haha.
Cheers,
Creleuth
