Summery: The fight with future Rogue was over but something wasn't right, Natsu and the rest of team Natsu all sensed it, something wasn't right with their Lucy.

The long, hard fought battle with the dragons and future Rogue was over, they had gone back to their own time and the city of Magnolia was final beginning to return back to normal.

A month had past and the guild was as rowdy as always.

"Food!" Natsu cried out as he entered the hall in the late afternoon; as usual Natsu had slept in.

Mirajane rolled her eyes but complied, getting Natsu his favourite spicy chicken, meanwhile Gray looked over to Natsu, who had just sat down by the bar with Happy nested on top of his head, clearly still tired.

"Oi! Flame head! Don't you have any manners?!" the ice mage shouted from his table with Erza eating her favourite strawberry cake and Juvia sat admiring Gray's every move and physical appearance, not to forget his voice.

Natsu looked towards Gray and it all began, as it usually did.

"What was that ice princess?!"

"You heard me!"

Erza was sure to keep out of this one, she ate her cake quickly so the fight between the two block heads wouldn't ruin it, she then got up, without saying a word she grabbed both Natsu's and Gray's ears before slamming their heads together "I thought I told you boys to quiet down" her voice was deep and dark, the boys began to sweat and grimace under her intense rage.

"S-Sorry!" they said in unison before going back to their original places, muttering curses under their breaths.

All was the same, until a certain blonde mage entered the hall quietly. Most hadn't noticed but those who did were made up of team Natsu, even Happy's ears perked up, he flew over to the other end of the bar where Lucy placed herself. Lucy sat quietly, her head hung low and wearing a black cloak, similar to her future self. However, upon seeing this, Natsu's fists tightened, his knuckles turning white.

'Seeing herself die… I knew it took a toll on her… But why is she punishing herself like this…' Natsu thought to himself, he wanted to comfort her but every time he tried he got one-worded responses… He hadn't seen her face in a month, she always kept her head down and hood up, to the point where no one bothered to talk to her any more, they'd all ran out of ideas on how to help her.

Happy stood on the bar "Lucy? You okee?" he asked with a worried expression, out of the whole guild he was the only one that hadn't given up.

"Yeah…" was all he got in return from Lucy, but something was off today, and Natsu heard it in her voice… or rather, it was her voice that was off, it carried a dark, deep undertone.

Natsu glanced around the hall and noticed Gajeel and Wendy both looking at each other with worried frowns; Natsu was right, he wasn't just hearing things. This was enough to jump back in and try to communicate with his best friend "Lucy? Please can you look at me?" he asked, more sincere than he'd ever sounded before.

This sincerity caught the attention of Gray and Erza. Sharing worried glances they watched Natsu closely.

Lucy sat still for a while; she didn't want them to see her… This month had taken a toll on her in more ways than one… She watched herself die, but her future-self's death was in vain… She didn't want to upset Natsu by telling him this. The only reason Natsu is still his cheerful self is because he believed that future Lucy had saved his present Lucy…

"Natsu…" Lucy's voice still had that foreign undertone; it rang clearly in Natsu's ear, though he was happy she spoke his name for the first time in a month.

"Lucy, what's wrong… please, it's been a month, you know you can tell me- us, anything. This guild is your family after all~" he smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, but she quickly shrugged it off.

Natsu's smile instantly dropped, and he felt like his heart was being squeezed, it was suffocating him to see his teammate, best friend and potential crush, in this state.

"Natsu… Please, just leave it alone… You wont like what you see" she spoke, but to no avail.

"Not like what I see?" Natsu asked "Of course I will Lucy, no matter how you look, I- we all still love you!~" he grinned again in hopes that would cheer Lucy up somewhat.

Natsu's word's of love didn't go unnoticed, Erza raised a brow and Gray couldn't help but smirk and mumble something about 'you more than us' under his breath. Of course Natsu heard this but decided this wasn't the time to start fighting his rival.

"O-Okay…" Lucy spoke, she sat up, everyone was watching her, she pushed back the hood and what everyone saw they could never have expected.

Lucy looked at Natsu and Happy's pained and horrified expressions, she'd expected as much, because of this she didn't have the courage to turn around and face the other gasping guild members.

When she had dropped her hood, large black horns were present atop of her head, poking out from her now white hair, her hair flowed down to her back. Her eyes had changed from light chocolate brown to a light morning sky blue. Crawling up her neck were tar black veins, extending up her jawline, the same black stained from her hairline and temples.

She, in one word, looked like a… Demon.

"L-Luce… What happened to you?" Natsu asked, his body was shaking; tears were brimming in his wide eyes. He didn't know whether to be angry or scared. The once blonde mage looked down, ashamed of her new appearance but before she could open her mouth she was interrupted.

"So, I guess the cats out of the bag, Lucy, my child, I trust your judgement to reveal yourself but I would not like you to fall further than necessary" The master spoke from the balcony just outside his office.

Natsu gritted his teeth together "You knew about this old man!? And you didn't tell us!" he growled, his hands igniting, however it was short lived when he saw Lucy flinch at his words and fire.

"I was instructed to stay quiet and thought it was in Lucy's best nature" Master defended. "Lucy, my dear, why don't you come up here, Team Natsu, you too!" he spoke softly towards Lucy but shouted towards the team. "I think it is time to explain the unfortunate events that have fallen" he spoke before disappearing into his office.

Lucy simply nodded her head before replacing her hood and walking up towards the office.

Team Natsu all stood, looking at each other with worry and dread.

It wasn't long before they were all assembled inside the closed office space, Lucy stood next to the desk Master Makarov sat at "My dear, you're safe in here, you're among friends" he spoke softly, Lucy nodded and removed her cloak entirely.

To everyone's shock, Lucy's lack of cloak revealed large black, bat-like wings, or rather, dragon-like wings. She wore a black crop-top and dark skinny jean's, the blackness in her veins strung down her arms and torso, close to her heart.

The team all looked at her with wide eyes, not out of disgust, but out of horror and dread. They were worried for their beloved family member, if this is a permanent and unthreatening thing then all was well, they can easily accept any form Lucy held, but if this was harming her then it was another story.

After a moment for Lucy's new form to kick in, the group all looked towards Master Makarov for an explanation. Natsu started it all off "Old man… what did you mean by 'Fall further than necessary'?" his question received only a nod, Lucy's eyes never once looked at her friends expressions, by strict order of the Master.

Makarov cleared his throat "This might be hard for you to hear my children… so please… take a seat" they all obeyed and grabbed a seat.

"Especially for you Natsu… Lucy was adamant on keeping you out of it, but I suppose we could only keep her secret in the dark for so long…" These words began to worry Natsu further; nonetheless, he continued to listen.

"Our dear Lucy was hit with dark magic during the dragon war…" he began, receiving some gasps, but mostly confusion on how that could have happened. "Natsu" Master got his attention "You and Wendy were the only ones, other than Yukino, that had the pleasure of meeting Lucy from the future, correct?" Natsu nodded to this, albeit saddened by the memory causing him to clasp his hands together and lower his head. The others had all heard the story after the war was over but they didn't understand how this correlated with Lucy's condition. The Master soon clarified however.

"The Lucy from the future was killed while saving our Lucy, she was struck but the future Rogue's black magic, a dark magic that possessed a killing curse, hence the reason why Wendy was unable to heal her…" the Master voice trailed at the end, he knew that Wendy still felt pain thinking about that time.

"This killing curse originated from demons blood, this is how Rogue from the future turned his shadow magic into curse magic" Master continued "Unfortunately…" he trailed again, seeing Lucy physically flinch next to him, her eyes brimming with tears, knowing what he was going to say.

"Lucy's future-self… Died in vain" Master finished.

Natsu growled and stood up "WHAT!?" he asked in a loud voice, worry and dread seeping out of him.

"Natsu! Calm down!" Makarov shouted in return, Natsu gritting his sharp teeth but complied and sat back down, shooting Lucy worried looks. Makarov sighed and pinched his nose before continuing "Lucy was struck, we don't know how but we theorise that the dark power that impaled the future Lucy somehow hit our Lucy too, of course the killing curse had already taken effect so what remained was pure demon blood, this is what is inside Lucy"

It took a moment for this information to process. Erza was the first to speak up, she stood and walked over to Lucy, placing a warm hand on her shoulder, offering a friendly smile "Lucy, you don't have to hide" Erza spoke kindly, Lucy moved her eyes to look at her friend and practically big sister. "If we had known earlier then this wouldn't have changed, no matter what we are all here for you and will help you~ you know that" Lucy's expression however, never changed, she only glanced at Makarov.

Masters nod told the group that this wasn't over "Lucy was ordered to avoid you" he told them.

Gray and Natsu's eye widened more if they could "B-But why gramps?" Gray asked, Natsu stood up, he couldn't take it any more, his fists were tight and trembling "Old man… you said… you said future Lucy died in vain… how can that be? Lucy is right here, alive…" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

Makarov sighed "Lucy here is not dying" he clarified, knowing that's what everyone thought, as soon as those words were out in the open everyone visibly relaxed "Jeez gramps! You could have told us that from the start!" Gray exclaimed earning a nod of agreement from Natsu. "If she's fine then how did the other Lucy die in vain?" Natsu continued.

"I didn't say she was fine Natsu…" Makarov spoke low and his eye were fixed on his desk, he was struggling to tell them the straight facts. He then looked up as Lucy placed a hand on his shoulder with a small fanged grin "It's okay Master, I'll finish, I'll be okay I promise" she spoke and he nodded in acceptance.

Lucy looked at her teammates and smiled, the same smile everyone had missed "Right! Natsu sit up straight! You too gray!" she ordered pointing her finger at them, they both blinked with wide eyes before doing as they were told. This made Erza laugh a little 'she's really turning in to me isn't she' she thought and took her seat next to Natsu.

Lucy smiled feeling like her old self again after so long, she'd missed her friends "Okay, I'm just gunna say this straight" she took a deep breath "I've been avoiding everything and everyone because Master thought it best that I don't encourage the darkness inside of me" she told them, Natsu opened his mouth to say something but Lucy cut him off holding her palm up to him "Not finished…" he closed his mouth.

"This darkness running through me is slowly changing me, I have been trying to keep it under control, and it's been going reasonably well but as you can see, it creeping closer to my heart each day" she sighed, looking at her arms. "The base line is, I don't have a very long future with you guess, I'm sorry" she told them with a quickly saddening expression.

"WHAT?!" that all rang in unison.

Natsu frowned and stood up, putting his hands on her upper arms, making the celestial mage look up at his with her new blue eyes. "Lucy… you're not dying… so why do you have to leave us?" he asked with the same sincerity as last time.

Lucy smiled and cupped his cheek with her fairy tail marked hand, tears threatening to fall "Because… the darkness will consume me Natsu, when that happens… I don't know what I will do… I already asked for Master to kill me before that happened but he refused"

"We duh!" Natsu exclaimed and shook Lucy "What the hell were you thinking?! We will find a way! Maybe you can control the dark magic!" he offered, Lucy couldn't help but laugh.

"Control it? How?" she asked wiping her tears that fell sneakily.

Natsu shrugged making everyone almost fall of their chairs "I dunno, but we will give it our best shot! Cuz that's what Fairy Tail does! We look out for our own!" Natsu offered his signature toothy grin.

Erza stood and took Lucy's hand "And besides~ I'm sure Mira can teach you how to control your demon blood, as she too possesses demon blood, hence her Satan souls~"

Makarov blinked before looking extremely forlorn, the others glanced at him, Lucy blinking with an awkward sweat drop.

"Master…" Erza gripped her fist with all her might, controlling the frustrated tick growing larger on her forehead "did you not even consider this fact?" she asked dangerously close to bursting.

Master laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head "Ah… that idea must have slipped right by me"

"WHAT!?" they all shouted, "So you're saying you put Lucy through isolation and us through extreme emotional stress for nothing?!" Erza exclaimed.

Natsu growled, fire rippling off his entire being, Master gulped but suddenly the flames disappeared and Natsu's face flipped completely, now looking excited and relieved "Lucy! You hear that! You'll be just fine!" he yelled happily making Lucy laugh, but felt a little bad for the beating Erza was giving the Master currently.

"Besides, you look super cool!" Natsu gleamed with stars in his eyes, Gray rolled his eyes at Natsu's childish nature.

"Can you breath fire too!?" Natsu asked earning a punch in the head from Gray "You idiot! She's got a demon soul like Mira, not a dragon soul!"

"Yeah so?! She looks like a dragon!" Natsu head-butted Gray before coming up with another hundred questions.

Lucy just smiled softly 'maybe everything will be alright after all' she thought to herself, finally getting a small grip on this new power she possessed.

It's hard to write anime comedy . but still, hope you enjoyed it at least, have to say it wasn't my best work in my opinion butttttt….. I'll leave the judging up to you haha Requests still open! I'm working on the first request right now ^.^ Just thought I'd throw out something from my imagination first ^.^