The Beast

Chapter two,

avoid infected.

If you or a loved one are suffering from a highly contagious sickness, avoid all contact with healthy personal,

Falling out of the bed he looked up as a figure slowly rose from the sheets. The fading sunlight showed a silhouette of a woman stretching before her arms fell to her side as she looked at him. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out some of her features. Her long black hair was pushed to the side of her face, her alabaster skin free of any imperfections. A odd thing about her however, besides her red eyes, was the two golden horns on ether side of her head. Natsu continued to look over her until he realized she was as nude as the day she was born. Blushing Natsu turned his head looking away.

"W-who are you?" Natsu asked as the woman crawled to the edge of the bed looking over him.

"My name is Sayla, you and I fought yesterday. I beat you and brought you here-"

"Here? Where's here?" Natsu interrupted Sayla as he stood up and looked out the open window to see a unfamiliar town looking out over the ocean.

'Where the hell am I? Why can't I remember anything past the train-or was it a boat?' Natsu's thoughts were interrupted as he felt two arms snake around his waist making him stiffen as the woman rested her head on his shoulder.

"Um...what are you doing?" Natsu stuttered.

"Holding my mate."

'This woman is so weird-MATE?' Natsu spun around to look at her. "What do you mean by that! I al-" He cut himself off as his eyes met hers. The dim glow her crimson eyes gave off slowly started to consume his mind as his vision fell into a haze. Slowly, he rose his hand and cupped her cheek as she nuzzled into his touch. Taking in her scent his mind became even more fogged as the smell of vanilla and copper flooded his nose. The fog was lifted when he recognized the second smell. Much to Sayla's disappointment, Natsu removed his hand and looked her over. "Are you hurt anywhere?" Natsu asked. Sayla tilted her head slightly before she smiled.

"You're just smelling your dinner from last night."

'Dinner? This smell is diffidently human bloo-' Natsu froze when he looked beyond the woman to a mirror. From his lower jaw down the crimson color rained down his bare chest. Slowly he walked towards the mirror looking at himself. He slowly swiped his finger across the slick surface of his chest before bringing it close to his face. Natsu was shocked yet again when he found the eyes in the mirror were not his, they were the same as Sayla's. "

If you're still hungry, I think there might be some left in the hall." Sayla said as she wrapped herself in a white kimono before coming to his side. "Unless your hungry for something else?~" She whispered in his ear. Natsu didn't hear a word as his eyes left his reflection to look at the door. Slowly he walked towards the door and reached for the door knob, the coppery smell began to increase. Pushing the door open he was greeted with a mangled corpse, the flesh missing and bones broken. Natsu slummed to his knees in front of the corpse before he arched his back and vomited at the corpse's feet. After he finished he slowly looked back at the corpse.

'I...did...this? There's no way.' Natsu thought as his eyes widened, memories flashing before his eyes. The train ride, the boat, the island, saving Erza, attacking Erza, destroying the town, fighting the monster that bit him, losing. Natsu jumped up and began to run down the hall, what ever that thing is in that room, it turned him into this.

"Wait you're still hurt!" Sayla yelled as Natsu reached the end of the hallway. Crossing his arms over his chest he smashed through the window. It was then he realized he was on the second floor. Crashing into the ground he took of down the street, trying his best to ignore the corpses that scattered the street. He watched in horror as several white eyes watched him from behind the windows of the homes. The images of the villagers that erupted from the bunker still fresh in his mind. As the last moments of light left the sky, Natsu could hear the creatures behind the doors, waiting for something. His ears perked when the sound of a small child rang in his hearing. Running to the source the sound he slammed the door open to reveal a corpse sprawled out on the floor, several infected gathered around it. Natsu calmed himself as he quickly ran past them and up the stairs. Coming to the room on the left he ran in to find a infected scratching on the door to the closet. Igniting his fist he struck down the creature before he hissed in pain. Extinguishing the flames he saw he had deep burns on his hand.

'I got burned? What the hell did that thing do to me?' ignoring the pain he grabbed the door ripping it off it's hinges to reveal a small girl with black hair rolled into a ball crying. As Natsu reached for he she screamed causing Natsu to curse, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. Quickly grabbing the girl he held her in his arms as he burst through window landing on the ground.

"Hey it's alright! You're safe!" Natsu told her as the girl calmed her screaming. She looked into his eyes before her bottom lip quivered as she cried into his chest. Natsu held her before he looked up to see the last of the light leave the sky before a series of howls and screams could be heard all over town. Cursing, he ran for the wall as several infected burst from the homes giving chase to the duo. As he approached the wall he used one foot to jump as he cleared the wall and landed on the other side before he ran for the jungle. As he kept running he began to slow as the creatures of the jungle drowned out the sound of the infected. Natsu turned his back to a tree as he slowly slid down the trunk. The small girl's cry had turned into a whimper as he went back into his thoughts. Rising his hand he began to look it over. The burns that were there before had disappeared baffling him.

"Mister?" The quiet voice brought him out of his thoughts as he looked down at the girl.

"Hold on to me for a second." Doing as she was instructed, she wrapped her small arms around his neck as he began to climb tree. Once he was satisfied with the height he climbed onto a large branch and balanced himself as he rested against the trunk of the tree. The small girl was still sniffling as she rested on his chest.

'Think Natsu, what would Erza do?' A frightening image of the red head mage flashed in his mind. 'Never mind, what would Mira do?' "Hey kid whats your name?" Natsu asked as he looked down at her. The child looked up at him and wiped away her tears before answering.

"My name is Ki."

"That's a nice name. Mine's Natsu." Natsu said giving her his best smile. "Try to get some sleep tonight. Don't worry, I'll keep all the monsters away." He reassured her. Soon her breaths became calm showing him that she was asleep. Natsu listened to the sounds of the jungle as the disturbing screeches could be heard from all around. While keeping one arm wrapped around Ki, he used his other arm as he pointed his finger and shot several small fire balls towards the jungle floor. Bringing his hand to his face he looked at the burnt flesh at the point of his finger. He watched as the dead skin began rolling off the burnt area as small black stands made a new layer of skin to replace the old one. Natsu rose his arm to his mouth and breathed out before he quickly bit down on his arm. He winced in pain as a bitter taste flooded his mouth. Quickly, he spit out the foul substance and looked at his arm. Instead of the crimson he found a black liquid leaking from his arm. He could only watch in fascination as the black stands began to stitch the bit mark together before re-sealing. 'What the hell happened to me?' He thought as he continued to watch the jungle.

Slowly his eyes opened as the sun broke through the canopy. He looked down at Ki who was still sound asleep. Looking down at the ground he held onto Ki as he jumped down. Expecting to land flawlessly, Natsu screamed out in pain as a sickening snap was heard as he fell backwards. Ki jolted up and was about to scream when Natsu put a hand over her mouth. Looking behind Ki he saw his leg bent in a awkward angle, and a piece of white sticking out half way down his leg. His eyes slightly widened as the black threads went to work forcing the bone back in place, causing Natsu to jolt in pain. After a few minutes he slowly applied pressure to the leg. To his surprise he found his leg was completely healed.

'I shouldn't have been hurt in the first place, Ugh!' Natsu mentally screamed as he punched the ground. Once again he felt a jolt of pain shoot through his hand. Bringing his hand up he saw at lest three of his knuckles were shattered.

"Um Natsu?" The voice was wasn't received as he watched the bones under the skin rearrange themselves. "Natsu!" The girl yelled getting his attention. "I'm hungry." She said as her stomach rumbled causing her to turn red.

"Now that you mention it, I could go for a bit myself. Lets see what we can find." He said as he stood up and the two began to walk through the jungle. As they walked in silence he looked over to the small girl, a saddened expression held on her face. Natsu frowned before he began to speak. "Hey Ki, ever hear of a guild named Fairy tail?" The girl shook her head as they reached a small stream. Natsu walked out in the middle and watched the water flow. "It's the strongest guild in all of...Fiore, yeah Fiore." Natsu frowned. 'What the hell was that?' "Anyway its full of awesome people. There's gramps, Mira, Erza, Gray, Lucy-" Natsu paused as he quickly shot his hand into the water and pulled out a fish. Ki 'wowed' as he placed the fish on the bank before returning to the water. "Where was I? Oh yeah-"

Natsu continued to talk to her as he continued to fish. After he caught a few more he built a small fire as he stuck the fish over the fire, while telling her all about his life in fairy tail. After giving her a stick with a fish he took one for himself as he found his hunger was slowly returning. Before he took a bight from the stick a flash to the corpse from the hallway flashed in his mind as he lost his appetite and stuck the stick in the ground.

'How could I do that? What's wrong with me? What would the guild say?'

"Natsu how could you?!"

"They were innocent people!"

"there were children!"

"Murderer!"

"Monster!"

"Natsu...why?"

"Natsu?" The frightened voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah Ki?"

"What are we gonna do?" Natsu frowned at her question. They couldn't go back to town, no way in hell. That was the only settlement on the island.

"Don't worry, I'm sure a guild will come and save us. Trust me." he said giving her his best smile. The girl looked at Natsu and returned his smile.

"Okay."

As days turned to weeks Natsu was beginning to lose hope for rescue. It was his third week on the island and several things had made him worry what his next move would be. The first and most important was Ki's safety. The small nine year old understood danger, but without a way to defend herself she would be easy pickings for the stalkers.

That brought up his second problem. The Stalkers would eat anything that moved. They hadn't been a problem the first week. Though the second week was when Natsu woke up in the middle of a moonless night he saw the eyes, those glowing white eyes that starred into him. He couldn't guess how many were actually down there, waiting to get a bit out of them. One thing he noticed was that the stalkers were far weaker and slower in daylight. Natsu figured that the best time to scavenge for food was mid day.

And lastly was the most unsettling. Through these three weeks Natsu has been unable to eat anything. The Hunger he was experiencing was unlike anything he had before. He knew by now that a normal human being would have starved to death long ago. But with this hunger, it grew slowly. Once he noticed the hunger and his inability to eat normal food he thought he could hold out, maybe-

"Natsu are you alright? You froze again." Ki waved a hand in front of the slayer. Natsu shook his head and gave her a weary smile.

"heheh Sorry, where was I?" He asked while rubbing his head.

"The part where Erza took a blast from the cannon!" She smiled.

"Oh yeah, our fight with Saber tooth-"

"You mean Phantom lord?" Ki corrected him.

"Yeah Phantom." He said as he tried his best to complete his story. He found it was getting increasingly harder to remember details from the past. It use to be only small things, like village names, or how a place looked. But after that boar attack last week, that almost ripped out his side, things had been harder to remember. Speaking of the boar attack, Natsu noticed that his regeneration had started to become slower and slower with each time he had to use it.

After the indecent where he snapped his leg, Natsu and Ki looked for a new place to rest when they came across a large cave that could easily hold a fully grown wyvern in the side of the cliff that cut the jungle in half. Ki sat at the mouth of the cave while Natsu watched the sun almost completely disappear from the sky.

"Go ahead and get some sleep Ki." Natsu said as he scanned the jungle.

"But can you finish the story? Please?" She asked with her big, brown eyes. Natsu gave the jungle one last look before he and Ki walked into the cave. The bare space housed only a small fire pit and a crudely made bed from leaves. Ki walked over to bed and stretched out while looking at Natsu. Natsu sat between the entrance and Ki and released a breath.

"Now where was I?"

"You just beat up Gajeel~" Ki said as she yawned. Natsu smiled at the memory.

"Right so I had just beat Gajeel-"

Natsu started again as he recalled the incident with Phantom lord. Soon sleep claimed Ki as Natsu attempted to remember in detail only to fail miserably. His thoughts paused as the pain in his stomach grew. "Damn this hunger." Natsu said as took a berry into his mouth. Rolling the soft fruit in his mouth he bit down only to gag and spit it out.

"Time is running out and it seems the infection is being slowed by something." A tall, lean figure spoke as he watched the pink haired dragon slayer on one of the many screens in the room.

"Could it be his dragon slayer abilities are slowing the infection, Keyes Sama?" A feminine voice asked as a smaller person stood next to Keyes.

"We can't rule out that possibility, Lamy. We will make preparations for another test on the matter, but first we need to see if the dragon slayer is immune to the current strain. I expected Sayla to do enough but it would seem the virus has...compromised her. And we don't have enough time to wait for his need to feed to accelerate the infection process, so we'll have to injure him Or," Keyes paused as the screen zoomed in on the little girl next to the dragon slayer, "ring the dinner bell." Keyes said with a chuckle as he looked over to a blank monitor as it lit up to reveal a creature with several tentacles and a frog-like face. "Yakdoriga, your next objective is to find the dragon slayer in sector twelve and eliminate his companion. And under no circumstances make contact with the infected. You are to execute this mission at dawn, Dismissed." Keyes finished as Yakdoriga nodded. After the screen turned black Keyes moved back to watching the dragon slayer.

"Keyes-sama, If he's caught by the infected humans or Sayla for that matter he will most likely share Sayla's fate?" Lamy said as she looked over to the blurry image of a room in ruin with a person curled into a corner.

"Assets and expendables my dear, Sayla knew the risks and agreed to them anyway. Besides, even with the virus's weakness to sunlight, Yakdoriga has no hope of besting the dragon slayer. Even in his weakened state."

"When Kyoka-sama finds out where Sayla's been She isn't going to be happy. Even less when we tell her she might be gone for ever." Lamy mused as she turned to leave. "The lab calls for me, Keith-sama, farewell~" Keith ignored the annoyance as he watched the dragon slayer.

'It took Sayla Two weeks to to forget her time as one of the nine. And one fatal blow to forget her origin. If it takes this long for for dragon slayers to fully succumb to the virus, how strong are they? No, how strong is he?'

Natsu gripped his stomach as he felt the cramps worsen as he paused and rested against the tree.

"Natsu are you hurt?" Ki asked looking up at Natsu. Natsu ruffled her black hair and stood back up.

"Just needed a little rest is all. Come on, lets see if we can find any of those berries, the red ones." Natsu said with a grin as it his mood was instantly brightened by the look of excitement on the little girl's face.

"I saw some over here by the creek yesterday! Come on!" Ki said as she ran into the jungle. Natsu laughed before he began jogging after the child while smelling the air.

'All clear.' Luckily for Natsu, stalkers all smelt the same. A foul, putrid, rotten scent. But a scent he would smell from a mile away. "Ki, where'd you go?" Natsu called out as he came to the small stream. With no sight of the little girl Natsu took in a deep whiff before he sighed. 'Don't scare me like that.' Natsu mentally asked as he strolled to the stream and dipped his hands into the cool water. "Hm well since Ki left I might as well leave-"

Natsu was interrupted when a blur of white and black slammed into his lower body from it's hiding place from behind the tree to his right. Natsu let out a laugh when he noticed the small girl was shaking and tears were beginning to fall from her brown eyes. "Ki-"

"Please don't leave me alone! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! I won't do it again, I promise-" Ki was cut short when Natsu knelt down to her height and embraced her small form.

"I'm so sorry Ki, I didn't mean to scare you like that. I'll never leave you alone." Ki's cries turned into whimpers as she pulled away from the dragon slayer.

"P-promise?" Ki asked as she began clearing the tears from her eyes.

"I promise I'll always be there for you, that I'll protect you. I swear." Natsu finished as he smiled at Ki. "

AHHHHHHHHH!" Ki screamed as Natsu turned around only to be knocked to the side.

Keyes watched as Yakdoriga interrupted the two by knocking the dragon slayer to the side.

*Sniffle*

Keyes turned his head and looked at Lamy as she blew her nose in a tissue.

"What? It's a emotional moment." said the bunny girl. Keyes continued to stare at her before one of her large bunny ears twitched.

"Uh, I'll go...check on...Sayla...Bye." She said as she sped off to the other end of the room, watching one of the far monitors. Keyes watched a Yakdoriga picked up the screaming girl as a tentacle split and hovered above the center of her chest as electricity danced on the tip.

"LET HER GO!" The slayer yelled as he threw himself at demon. Keyes only hummed as he saw the tiny scratch on the girl's cheek. Turning his attention to the slayer he saw Yakdoriga slam his tentacles into the slayer. The slayer cursed before he ignited his hand charging the demon. Keyes took note that the slayer was moving far slower after his first contact with the virus. The slayer screamed as he began slamming fire-punches into Yakdoriga. The demon cried out in pain as he shot a arc of electricity out as it hit the male square in the chest causing him to cry out in pain and fall to the ground.

"I wonder where she's going?" Lamy asked as she ran around the room tracking her target on the monitors.

'At this rate the slayer will lose.' Keyes thought as he continued to watch as Yakdoriga approaching the slayer. The slayer watched as it passed him and walked to the now paralyzed child. Just as Yakdoriga was about to reach the girl a clawed hand ripped him away. Keyes watched as the Dragon slayer's arms had morphed into longer, claw handed arms with small spikes. The demon tried breaking contact with enraged slayer only to scream in pain as the spikes prevented him from getting a grip. The slayer slung Yakdoriga away from the girl and followed it until he was kneeling over it. With a vicious speed, the slayer began clawing into the demon. It's howls of pain echoed throughout the jungle until it ended abruptly. As the Slayer sat up from his mauling he took deep breaths before he stood up and his arms untangled into several black strands before returning to their original form. Flexing his hands he turned his back to the demon to look at the child.

"Ki are you alright-"

"NO!" Keyes yelled as he looked at the scene. The dragon slayer had been impaled and stood looking at the tentacle that pierced his left side.

"What happened?!" Lamy asked as she stopped to look at the image. "Won't he just regenerate?" she asked. "Keyes slammed his fist into the monitor freezing on the image.

"If he had eaten in the last three weeks, yes. But as he is he can't regenerate any damage from that fight. And even if he had, the destruction of a heart stops the virus from regenerating without outside help." Keyes sighed. "Make preparations for another dragon slayer to arrive at the island. And hurry, we're almost out of time." Keyes said as he left the viewing room.

"Ki are you alright-" Natsu was cut off as a tentacle pierced his back and was exposed from his chest. Natsu's mouth hung open as the tentacle ripped clear through his left side making his arm fall limp and the black blood to pour from the large wound.

"NATSU!" A older female voice screamed as she jumped the stream and landed on Yakdoriga and took her clawed hand and ripped the demon's head off before throwing it across the stream. Ki looked at the woman like she was a ghost. She had the same transformation Natsu's arms had. But unlike Natsu her legs had transformed to long, slender legs with pointed ends. Once she was sure the demon was dead the modified limbs returned to normal before she collapsed beside Natsu. With tears in her eyes she pulled Natsu into herself and began to cry.

"How could be so reckless?"

"Y-you can do something right? You can fix him?" Sayla looked up as her dull crimson flared to life as she saw the human. The urge to feed screaming at her.

'A human! I can save him!' "Yes," Sayla said as a her bottom three fingers grew large, gray claws, "I just need a human's blood-"

"Take mine!" Sayla was surprised by the human's outburst.

"And why would you do that?" Sayla asked the human. Out of all the humans she's met, never had one offered it's self on a platter.

"He saved me, not just today but when we met. I'm alive right now because of him. It's my turn to save him." She said as the tears had seemed to stop falling from the child's eyes. Ki stepped forward as Sayla held out her hand and turned it upside down before she bit down, her sharp teeth cutting into the soft skin. Ki grunted in pain as Sayla held her mouth to her arm for a few seconds more before releasing Ki's arm and gently brought her lips to Natsu's. Slowly The black tendrils began to attach and drag the almost severed arm back to Natsu's body. After the wound was completely sealed Sayla removed her lips from his and watched as his chest began to move. Sayla cried out and threw her arms around Natsu. Slowly Natsu came to as he smelt the air. His now alive and glowing crimson eyes looked down at Sayla before patting her head. Sayla looked up and hugged him again before he smelt something else. The sweet smell of copper. His eyes locked on the small human. Gently he removed Sayla before he stood up and looked down at the child.

"Hungry?" She asked as she watched him. Natsu said nothing as the child cried before running to Natsu and wrapped her arms around his mid section and began to sob.

"I-I thought-t I never w-would see you a-again!" She cried before she was slammed into the ground. In one quick movement Natsu was hovering over her as his lower jaw extended. After all, it had been ages since he last eat.

'Not a lot to eat here, Saver it.' taking a bit out of the now screaming pray trapped underneath him.

"NNNNATSU! NATTTSU PLEASSSSE STOPPP!"

Ignoring the sound he took another bit out of the human.

"NATSUUUU! PLLLEASE!"

*Crunch crunch crunch*

"IT HURTS GAHHHHHHHH!"

The sound was growing more annoying by the second. Deciding to finish his meal in peace he rose his fist into the air, ready to crush the skull of the child.

"YOU PROMSISED! You would protect me...You promised." The child cried out as she seethed in the agonizing pain before she stopped and her body grew limp.

The glow of his crimson eyes faded as he slowly tilted his head to look down at the girl.

"K-Ki?" Natsu choked out at the sight before him. Most of the small girl's shoulder was missing as her hollow eyes looked up at him. "No,no,no,no,no,no. KI, KI WAKE UP!" Natsu begged as he began to shake the lifeless corpse of the small girl. "Natsu?" The use of his name caused him to glare at the woman who was watching from the sidelines. The crimson glow came back as he scooped Ki's small body up and glared at Sayla. "BRING HER BACK!" Natsu roared as stood in front of Sayla. Sayla seemed frightened of the slayer as she took a step back from him.

"I-I can't."

"BULLSHIT, I'VE SEEN THEM!" He continued as he took another step towards her. Attempting to take another step only to find she had met with the trunk of a tree.

"I-I told you I can't!" She said again as shook her head.

"WHY NOT!" Natsu roared again.

"S-she won't be the same, and then you'll be disappointed in me," Sayla said as tears began to fill in her eyes. Natsu's eyes dulled as he watched the woman cry, "Then you won't want me, and I'll be alone again-"

"Don't leave me alone! I promise I won't do it again!"

Sayla was cut off when Natsu leaned in and touched her forehead with his own. She looked at his pained face as he opened his eyes to look directly at he.

"I don't care what will happen, please just bring her back. I promise I won't leave you alone. I'll be with you...Sayla." Natsu finished as he stepped back and watched the woman. She stepped forward and reached her hand out for Ki's body while looking back at Natsu one last time. Using the blood left by Natsu, she used her finger and painted a crescent moon on Ki's forehead before it flashed a dark purple before it disappeared. Natsu watched as black strands began to rebuild her missing shoulder. His gaze tore away from the shoulder when her eyelids began to flutter, before slowly opening to show pale white eyes starring back at him.

AN: As always, have a good one

Justaguy35