Ch 2: A Living Hell
July 17th X777 in the lowest level of The Bureau of Magical Development:
For the Bureau this was the level that they used to test some of their more dangerous experiments; experiments that if done incorrectly or done somewhere else could result in half of the research facility being destroyed. It required an elevator ride that took five whole minutes to gain access to this area of the facility, and until today this level mainly focused on lacrimas and weapons the Council were interested in. But now it had a new thing to focus on, or it would be more accurate to say someone to focus on.
Currently chained to the center of a fairly large room by magic restraining shackles was a young pink haired boy that was just now finally regaining his consciousness. And as soon as he did, Natsu shot up only to fall back down flat on his face due to the shackles around his wrists and ankles. This caused him to let out a growl as he tried to slip out of them, which he quickly realized wasn't going to happen. So with a little smirk he decided to just melt them away and figure out what was going on, but to his shock and horror nothing happened.
"Sorry but that's not going to work Natsu, those chains seal away your magic. Something that I'm shocked we had to resort to in order to keep you under control, but that just speaks to how strong of a test subject you are." came the same voice over the speakers that he heard while he tried to escape the other day.
"Why are you doing this and where is Igneel?" shouted out Natsu as he continued to try and break free of the chains that prevented him from using his magic.
"I'm doing this because you're the last known dragon slayer in the entire world my boy." replied the voice in a creepily excited tone. "As for that dragon you're trying to find, I have no idea where it went and no else does either if it even existed at all that is." finished the voice as Natsu stopped fighting against his chains and looked up at the speaker in the corner of his empty room.
"You're lying, Igneel exists and you're also lying about nobody seeing him!" he shouted back while glaring up at the speaker with a look that really didn't belong on someone as young as him.
"You're right, I don't know if this dragon of yours actually exists or not. But I do know for a fact that no one has seen a real dragon for at least a hundred years now." stated the voice still sounding amused by all of this.
"Then you're wrong! Lahar told me that he saw Igneel flying through the skies!" he shouted up at the speaker once again with a slight grin coming over his face.
"That's because we told him to tell you that." said the voice as a confused expression came over the young teen's face. "We knew that if he told you that stuff you'd willing follow him without a second thought, making it that much easier for us to capture you like we did." explained the voice with a little chuckle at the end.
"So he lied to me?" asked Natsu with his head down as he looked at his shackled feet.
"That he did Natsu, and do you want to know why he did?" asked the voice that he still couldn't put a face to.
"Why?" he asked not really caring what reason Lahar had for lying to him. All that he could think of right now was if all humans were like this, and if so was that why Igneel kept him away from them the whole time they were together.
"He lied to you because he's afraid of what you might be capable of. And he's not the only one my dear little dragon slayer, all it took was a few words from me and the entire Council was on board with taking you out before you can do any real damage." answered the voice in a tone that hinted at how much the person was enjoying all of this.
"But I didn't do anything wrong, and I would never go around hurting people who don't deserve it!" he argued back while once again glaring up at the speaker.
"I don't doubt that, even while you were trying to escape you tried to get out of here without hurting anyone that you didn't have to. But unfortunately for you that doesn't really matter anymore, the Council has more than likely already forgotten about you since you're no longer a threat to them anymore." replied the voice over the speaker again. This caused the young pink haired dragon slayer's expression to change into a slightly confused one, which more than likely indicated that he was trying to think through something.
"So you could let me go?" he asked with a hopeful expression quickly coming over his face.
"Indeed I could." replied the voice, resulting with Natsu's expression becoming one even happier than it used to be just moments ago. "But I won't." continued the voice over the speaker system as the boy lost his joyous expression. "You're too valuable of a test subject to me, not only do you have a form of lost magic. But you also seem to be quite proficient with it and have more raw magic than most mages ever achieve after years of training." explained the voice in a serious tone that lacked the creepiness that it usually had.
"But I need to find Igneel." stated Natsu with a slightly defeated look passing over his little face.
"Sorry, but that will have to wait until I'm through with you." said the voice once again going back to that creepy tone that sounded as if this was all very enjoyable for the man.
"What if I promised to come back after I look for Igneel just for a little bit?" he asked once again looking up at the speaker with a hopeful look.
"We possibly could have done something like that yesterday when I proposed that you stay here as a guest of mine. Although, like I said yesterday that was a onetime offer, from here on out I don't really give a fuck what you want. But I do want to make one thing clear to you Natsu, I will always get what I want and it will definitely be less painful for you if you realize that fact quickly." responded the man calling the shots through speaker as the door opened. And waiting on the other side of those doors were some slightly banged up security guards that didn't look too pleased with the dragon slayer that put them in their current state.
"You're going to regret not letting me go." he mumbled just barely being picked up by the microphone in the room, and being completely ignored by the guards that were slowly walking towards him.
Most kids would have become terrified just looking at the group of men coming towards them with such wicked grins on their faces. But then again most kids weren't raised by a dragon, and not just any dragon, Igneel, the King of the Fire Dragons. So rather than having a scared expression like most of the guards thought he would, Natsu just glared back at them defiantly.
"I think you have it completely wrong my boy; you're going to be the one regretting that you didn't accept my offer." stated the voice with a little laugh at the end. "Remember boys, he still needs to be capable to run a few tests of mine after this." finished the voice before the speakers made a slight click, which meant that they were just turned off.
"So who's going to be the first one to put this brat in his place?" asked one of the guards as he flipped a switch on the rod he was holding. This resulted with the other end of the rod springing to life with electricity racing around the tip, just waiting to find a way to the ground.
"I think that honor should go to me, seeing as the little prick broke my arm." answered a fairly large guard as he made his way to the front of the group. And sure enough his right arm was now in a cast and resting in a sling in front of his chest.
"You shouldn't have gotten in my way." stated Natsu with a slight smirk directed at the man. Who upon hearing this seemed to completely lose what little restraint he still had left and charged the chained down boy, delivering a devastating kick to his chest. A kick that did more damage than it usually would have thanks to the chains holding the boy from flying back and into a wall.
"Not so tough now are you?" he asked while standing over the boy with a smug grin.
"Tougher than you'll ever be." coughed out Natsu as he slowly got up to his feet. "What kind of coward attacks a little kid that's chained up?" he asked while giving the man another smirk just like the one before.
"Oh I'm going to really enjoy this." declared the guard as he twirled around to grab the electrified rod from his fellow guard. And before any of the other guards could even move, he turned back around and started to hit Natsu over and over again. He was now letting out a crazed laugh as he continued to shock and beat the boy to his heart's desire.
Meanwhile in the Control Room of the facility:
"We need to stop this at once." declared a woman wearing a lab coat and was the only other person in the room besides Brain. She had black hair that you couldn't tell how long it was due to her having it up in a messy bun, which she didn't care how it looked so long as it kept her hair out of the way. Just from one look at her you could tell that she had a natural beauty to her, and if she devoted a little more time to appearance would definitely turn most men's heads. Instead of being worried about such trivial things in her opinion, she focused on her work for the Council that she has been working for over the last decade which would put her at the age of someone in their early thirties. The only other things that would set her apart from her fellow scientist was her red glasses and pencil that she always kept tucked behind her right ear.
She and Brain were currently watching a lacrima screen that was showing Natsu being savagely beaten by the one guard with the rest of them just standing back and watching.
"We'll do no such thing Dr. Sarah." replied Brain with a sinister grin slowly making its way across his lips. "This is a perfect way to see how resistant the young boy is, while also serving as a good stress reliever for the guards." he continued to say while taking a seat in one of the chairs and pulling out a notepad to jot his notes down on.
"But he's going to kill him!" declared Sarah while turning away from the screen, not wanting to see any more of the ruthless beating.
"Yes he is." he said to her shock and horror.
"Then why on earth are you not stopping him?" she asked now actually yelling at her superior.
"Because you've got who's killing who all wrong." he answered now sporting the biggest grin she's ever seen on him, which unfortunately only made what he just said even more confusing to her. "Judging by your expression you're still a little confused. If you continue to watch I'm positive that you'll understand within the next few moments." he said while gesturing to the screen he was intently watching.
"I don't want to watch a man mercilessly beat a child to death!" she shouted back at him.
"And I can promise you that you'll see no such thing today." replied Brain as he pulled out the chair next to him while not taking his eyes off the screen for even a second. "Come take a seat and watch our little test subject do what he's been trained to do." he said while giving the chair a few pats.
"What in the world are you talking about?" she asked once again completely lost at what her superior was hinting at.
"Just watch." he responded in an excited tone. Sarah could tell that he wasn't going to answer any of her questions right now since he believed that she would figure it all out if she went back to watching the lacrima screen. So with an exhausted sigh she sat down in the chair next to him and went back to watching a boy being beaten by a man at least fifteen years older than him.
Just as she went back to watching the live feed of what was transpiring a few hundred feet below them, it happened so suddenly she would have almost missed it if she had blinked right then. One moment the giant guard that had been beating the boy senseless with one of their electric rods was all of a sudden staggering forward thanks to one of his legs being kicked out from under him. But before the man could even hit the ground, in one swift motion there was now a chain wrapped around his neck that was slowly asphyxiating him. And the one responsible for this drastic turn of events was the young boy, who was now glaring at the other guards with the chain attached to his right wrist thrown over his left shoulder to keep the choking guard from being able to loosen the chain around his throat.
"One step forward and I swear on Igneel's might I'll kill this bastard!" shouted out Natsu causing all of the still shocked guards to actually take a few steps back. Which after the young dragon slayer witnessed caused him to loosen his chain around the guard's throat just enough for him to get the air that he so desperately needed.
"Now that's more like it." he said now giving all of the slightly scared guards a frightening grin that let them all see his fangs. "So which one of you jerks is going to get me out of these chains?" he asked in a commanding tone.
"Don't give this fucking brat a god damn thing and attack him for…" shouted out the guard currently at the boy's mercy. Only for it to quickly change into the sounds of someone having the life choked out of them as they frantically clawed at whatever was constricting their throat.
"Do you really want to die that badly?" asked Natsu while giving a quick glance over his shoulder at the gasping guard. "Because if they don't listen to me, then that is exactly what's going to happen to you." he finished while slowly turning back to the other guards. Letting them all see from his expression that he wasn't messing around and would definitely end the other guard's life with a quick yank of his chain.
The guards were definitely out of their comfort zone on this one and didn't really know how to react, so they did the first thing that came to mind. This was to not say or do anything, and instead slowly turn towards the camera watching them with a pleading look on all of their faces. Hoping that Brain would tell them how they should handle this situation that absolutely none of them saw coming.
"Rats, I really thought that he was going to kill him right away?" stated Brain as he leaned back in his chair and started to rub his chin in thought.
"You knew this was going to happen and just sat back and let it!" shouted Sarah as she twisted to her side to look at her boss.
"That I did, but as I just said, he didn't do exactly what I thought he would." he replied while still stroking his chin in thought. "Rather than finishing the guard off, he's decided to try and use the poor soul as a bargaining chip to help him escape." he said now once again sporting one of his creepy grins.
"We need to tell the guards to do as he tells them." stated Sarah as she turned away from him and started to go for the intercom to relay that order to them. But before she could even take her second step a firm hand took hold of her left wrist and stopped her from proceeding any further.
"We will do no such thing my dear." he said as his grin continued to grow in both size and creepiness. "I want to see if our little dragon slayer is a man of his words and carries out that threat of his." he finished now starting to chuckle to himself as he pushed Sarah to the side and headed to the intercom.
"You can't be serious, you're actually going to let one of your own men die!" she shouted at him from the spot on the floor that she fell to.
"Indeed I am; that idiot brought this on himself for letting the boy rile him up like he did. And now he's going to suffer the consequence." replied Brian with another chuckle before reaching down and turning on the intercom.
As soon as the guards heard the speaker come back to life with a slight crackle, they all let out a sigh of relief. All except for one of them, who was currently making a wheezing sound and had a bluish tint to his face thanks to the lack of oxygen. Little did any of them know that the message they were going to be receiving was something that none of them were hoping for.
"You are definitely a boy full of surprises Natsu, but that just makes me only that much more intrigued with you and what you're actually capable of." came the voice of Brain from the speaker.
"Thanks I guess, so are you going to let me go now?" Natsu asked back as he gave the chain a quick yank that caused the poor guard to let what the rest of the other guards could only assume was a scream.
"No, that is exactly what is not going to be happening today." replied Brain in a calm tone as the other guards looked at the camera in shock. "Guards please slowly approach our test subject." he commanded, only for all of the guards to look up at the camera as if they must have misheard him. "That's an order!" he growled out at them, letting them all remember who they really should be afraid of right now.
And to Natsu's shock and horror they all slowly turned back to him and started to take one step at a time towards him. The first two steps that they took caused him to slightly freak out and wonder if they really cared so little about one of their own to just let him die. But once they took their third step towards him he snapped back to reality and knew that he was soon going to find out the answer to his own question about them.
"If any of you takes another step towards me he's as good as dead!" spat out Natsu as he gestured to the guard behind him with his left hand. And he was pleased to see all of them once again come to a complete standstill that is until a slight cough came over the speaker. Letting all of the guards know Brain was still watching them and expecting them to continue on like he ordered them to. The next few seconds felt like an eternity to the young dragon slayer as he watched all of the guards take a united step towards him as a single unit.
Natsu had always hoped that he would be fortunate enough to never have to take the life of another human being, but it seemed that he wasn't so lucky. Igneel had repeatedly drilled into that little skull of his that the world was a cruel place, and that he at some point in his future might have to kill someone. He just never thought that it would come so quickly, or that it would be over something so stupid as testing if he was a man of his word.
So with a prominent scowl spread across his mug, Natsu with a swift jerk pulled down on the chain shackled to his right wrist. What resulted afterwards was a loud pop and a slight crunching sound coming from behind his back, signaling that the guard had just been sent to the afterlife. This caused the other guards to once again come to a complete stop and look at him with horrified expression coming over most of their faces. Since a good majority of them believed that the boy was just bluffing about his threat to kill the guard like he claimed he would.
And that shock quickly turned into anger at witnessing one of their own being put down right in front of them. But before any of them could act on their anger the amused voice of Brain came out of the speakers again. "Impressive, to think that someone so young could kill another human being so easily. But considering that you were supposedly raised by a dragon it should have been expected I guess, so as a reward the rest of your physical and endurance test for today will be postponed." he said to the shock of the guards.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me, we're just going to let this little bastard off scot free after he killed Mat!" shouted out a clearly upset guard as he glared up at the camera that Natsu took notice of after the guards first started to look towards it.
"For today we are, or are you starting to question my authority and how I run this facility?" asked Brain in a stern tone as the guard shook his head no. "Good, because you all know what happens to those that do. Oh and Mat dying today should be seen as a warning to the rest of you to not let your emotions get the better of you. Not only that, but that my orders are to be followed to the T which he didn't do and I would have killed him myself if Natsu hadn't." he finished in a threatening tone that caused the guards to all gulp and nod their heads in understanding.
"Good, and seeing how we still don't have a room designed to keep you contained just yet Natsu. That will be it for today since I don't feel like watching you beat the living shit out of the guards more than you already have." finished Brain before once again turning off the intercom and taking a seat in his chair.
He watched with a smug grin spread across his lips as the rest of the guards begrudgingly left Natsu all alone in the room as they crammed into the elevator after retrieving the body of Mat. As soon as the guards were in the elevator Natsu collapsed to the floor and looked as if he was in serious pain, but was still trying to hide that fact from where he now knew the camera was located.
"You let him die." stated Sarah in a disbelieving voice.
"I did, and because of that we now know the boy doesn't just throw around empty threats and probably believes that someone is only as good as their word. Which would probably explain why he was so shocked to find out that Lahar lied to him yesterday." he said while quickly jotting down a few notes on his pad.
"We could have found that out without losing one of our own." she pointed out still shocked at what she just witnessed.
"True, but then we never really would have known how far he was willing to go. Now we know that there is pretty much nothing he won't do if he sees no other option." he replied while starting to write notes on other tests to test the boy's will and determination to get out of there.
"What did you mean when you said that we would see him do what he was trained to do?" asked Sarah now watching the screen with a blank expression, more than likely still trying to come to grips with what she just watched play out before her.
"You still don't know?" he asked her with an eyebrow raised questioningly, only for her to shake her head no at him. "Now this is probably not a commonly held belief by most people in the world. But for me at least, it is something that I can't deny and find it hard to see how people think otherwise. Magic at its core is just another form of a weapon that only a select few are given access to." he stated as if it was the one thing he truly believed.
"How do you figure?" she asked, thinking about all of the positives that have come from magic and the studying of it. But after being with Brain for the past few months she knew for a fact that he always had a reason for everything he said and did.
"It's our next step in the evolutionary line of humans, making the likelihood of the continuation of our species drastically better. As with all evolutions that occur naturally, they are brought about only to increase the chances of that species' survival. Which for us humans is magic, something that gives our puny species the power to take on creatures we would otherwise have no chance going up against in a confrontation." he explained while still writing things down on his note pad.
"I can see how that would make sense, but that still doesn't explain what you said before." she replied with a thoughtful expression slowly coming over her features as she tried to figure it out on her own.
"If you are of the same mindset as me on magic just being a different form of a weapon that we humans were lucky enough to receive. Then Natsu using his magic to fend off and eventually kill his tormentors is doing what he was meant to do after all of his training with his lost magic." stated Brain as he stood up and headed towards the exit.
"Then wouldn't that mean he's eventually going to come after us?" she asked his retreating figure that came to a stop in the doorway.
"Indeed it would; and all I can say to that is I'm excited to see what he'll be capable of when that day finally comes." he answered before closing the door behind him and leaving Sarah all alone in the control room with nothing but her thoughts and the screen displaying Natsu curled up in on himself.
January 28th X778, just a little over six months later:
"How was that?" asked Natsu in between slight gasps for breath, which showed how tired he actually was after letting off that last move of his. A move that completely decimated the Magic Power Finder positioned on the other side of the room.
"You did great Natsu, but unfortunately that MPF wasn't designed to withstand the temperatures that you can produce. So we weren't able to get an accurate read on your power levels." came the voice of Sarah over the speaker system.
"Sorry." he replied with a sheepish grin as he scratched the back of his head. "You said you wanted me to use my strongest move and that's what I did." he finished just as the wall behind the MPF crumbled and collapsed in on itself. This prompted the four guards in the room with the young dragon slayer to start becoming extremely nervous for their own safety. This was something that they were usually concerned about whenever in the presence of the pink haired boy.
Over the last six months, Natsu has on numerous occasions tried to escape from the Bureau of Magical Development. All of which failed thanks to Brain intervening before it would have become too late to contain the boy. And during most of these failed attempts of his, some of the guards would get in his way and try to prevent him from continuing on. But that would always end with them receiving one hell of a beat down, that only got more severe the longer Natsu remained a captive of theirs.
The reason for this increase in hostility towards the guards was directly related to their usual visits to him almost every morning. These visits of theirs consisted of them beating him in various ways that they were only able to do thanks to him being shackled with magic suppressing shackles. Of course all of the guards didn't participate in this barbaric activity of theirs and those were the ones that he would still take down usually with a quick chop or kick to the back of their heads.
Another reason that the poor guards were slightly on edge at the moment was because most of Natsu's escape attempts happened when they were running these sort of tests on him. Something that none of them were too thrilled to hear about when Brain first started to do them, but how else were they supposed to learn more about his magic if he couldn't demonstrate it to them? But luckily these guards got the schedule when Sarah was in charge of doing the tests, which meant that the likelihood of the dragon slayer trying to escape were extremely low.
But not because of her being feared by him, no it was because she was one of the few people in the Bureau that actually treated him like a person. And because of this he quickly grew to like her and tried to not make her life harder than it already was by misbehaving. Of course this didn't happen overnight for Natsu and it took her visiting him for over a month before he started to open up to her. It wasn't until he overheard some of the guards wondering why she was nice to him, when all he did was cause Brain to get upset with her and give her more work to do. That was when he started to do as he was told with her and not attempt to escape.
And after doing that he found out that a lot of the stuff they were trying to get him to do wasn't that bad. Some of them were as simple as showing off what moves he knew and testing how much damage he could cause. Of course his favorite test was sparring against random mages that he had no idea where they came from or if they were in a similar situation as himself. For all of these sparring tests he has yet to lose to any of them, which is quite impressive considering that some of them were at least twelve years older than him.
Unfortunately for Natsu, these tests weren't as frequent as the ones that he disliked. Like the various tests they ran on him to see how fast his body would recover from certain illnesses and wounds. Or the one test that he completely despised, which wasn't really a test and definitely them just stealing his magic and trying to put it into a lacrima. Something that they have so far been completely unsuccessful in, meaning that they were doing that one almost three times a week.
He also wasn't a fan of that a certain test that ran for a few days, just to determine if he could last longer than most mages without food or water. Brain and the rest of his researchers were shocked to find out that it was exactly the opposite of what they predicted. It seemed that using dragon slaying magic required a high intake of calories and if he didn't get them his magic decreased drastically in power. After finding that out he was given as much food as he could ever possibly want during his down time, something that he appreciated since they actually had pretty good food.
Overall Natsu still had a few things to be thankful for, which allowed him to keep a small sliver of hope that he'd eventually make it out of there and find Igneel. And because of that little hope he was slowly learning more and more about the Bureau and how it was run. Each escape attempt of his gave him a new little piece of information that he didn't have before, one of the biggest ones was that they didn't know how good all of his senses were. And judging from their tests it didn't seem like they were too interested in finding out, which gave him a huge advantage so long as it stayed that way.
"Let's get moving brat." said one of the guards as he stepped towards Natsu only to stagger backwards after getting one look from the boy.
"Just because I don't intend to try and escape today doesn't mean I won't beat the living shit out of you." he growled out while giving the guard that spoke up a glare that almost caused the man to shit himself. "We all know that he doesn't give two shits if a few of you are sent to the infirmary, so what was it you were saying?" he asked still glaring at the guard.
"T-to t-take your time and… and that you're needed in the sparring chamber in t-twenty minutes." the guard stuttered out as he slightly started to hide behind one of the other guards.
"I didn't know that I was going to have a sparring session today." replied Natsu in an excited tone that was completely opposite from the one he had just moments ago.
"That would probably be because today's session is going to be a little different." stated Sarah over the speaker.
"How so?" he asked her back while looking up at the camera with a curious expression spread across his face.
"That I unfortunately don't know, Natsu, but you know who seems really excited about it." she replied in a slightly nervous tone that she hoped he wouldn't pick up on. But that hope of hers was quickly destroyed with just one look at the serious expression the boy now had on his visage.
"I guess I'll just have to wait and find out for myself." he said as his expression shifted back to a slight smile that was meant to reassure Sarah that he'd be alright.
"That you will… good luck." she said before turning off her microphone and falling back into her chair while releasing an exhausted sigh.
"It would seem that my decision to not stop your little visits with him might pay off." stated Brain from a chair further behind her. Sarah didn't even have to turn around and look at him to know that he currently had one of his devious grins plastered across his face at the moment. And frankly she didn't care about it, what she cared about right now was how this upcoming test was going to affect the young dragon slayer she started to bond with and just lied to.
"This is the last time I'm ever going to lie to him." she declared in a tone that would have caused a lesser individual to turn and run. But unfortunately Brain wasn't such a person and only seemed to enjoy it when she tried to fight him on things related to Natsu.
"You and I both know that this will definitely not be the last time you do something like that to him." he chuckled out while getting up from his chair and doing a few quick little stretches of his arms.
"It'll be the last time that I ever do it for you." she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear her as she looked at the monitor with a sad look as it was currently showing the young boy walking through one of the hall ways.
"And I'm completely okay with that my dear Sarah." he replied while coming to a stop in the doorway of the control room. "But keep in mind that we are both here to find out everything we can about him and his magic, so don't let your feelings for him distract you from that fact. Or possibly cause you to do something that would force me to terminate your current deal with the department." he finished before heading out the door and going down the hallway.
During his walk Brain couldn't help the small smirk making its way across his face as he headed towards one of their waiting rooms. He never would have guessed that two such promising individuals would pretty much show up on his doorstep. Yes, Natsu came with very specific instructions on what he was supposed to achieve with the boy during his stay with him. He was already learning so much from the young dragon slayer and knew that he was only going to learn more about the boy's magic during the rest of his stay. And luckily for him he just recently found a sure fire way to accomplish exactly what Acnologia wanted for the boy.
"Am I finally going to get to see this dragon slayer of yours?" came the voice of a young teenager, effectively snapping Brain out of his thoughts. While also slightly shocking the man since he rarely got lost in his own thoughts like that, but you couldn't really blame him when everything seemed to be falling exactly into place for him at the moment.
"Yes you will Jellal." replied Brain with a wide grin as he looked at the young blue haired mage waiting patiently for him in a waiting room that had chairs lining the walls and nothing to do but read the magazines provided. "And I can guarantee that this meeting will change your life." he finished with his grin only getting bigger.
"We'll see about that." scoffed Jellal as he got up from the chair he was sitting in and followed after Brain.
"That we will, and are you sure you're actually okay with fighting him?" Brain asked while giving the boy a quick glance as he led him to the elevator that led to the lower levels.
"Of course, what better way to see for myself if he's actually as good as you claim?" he answered while glaring up at the man that was currently helping him learn a few new types of magic. "And yes I know that you're afraid that he might kill me, but I'm confident that I'll easily be able to handle him." stated the ambitious mage before Brain could say something along those lines to him.
"You've been warned, good luck Jellal." replied Brain still having that enormous grin of his as he pressed a hidden button on the wall they were next to. And they both watched as the wall receded back just far enough for it to then slide open and reveal an elevator waiting there. "This is where we'll part ways." he continued to say while gesturing for Jellal to enter the hidden elevator. Jellal just shook his head and entered the elevator with a confident smirk spread across his lips as the doors closed and the elevator started to descend.
"This should be interesting." said Brain as he headed back to the control room.
Down in the arena:
The arena wasn't anything more than a completely barren room that had been reinforced to handle what Natsu could dish out. This meant that the walls were a few feet thick of some of the country's strongest stone and had an additional three inches of what was supposed to be fire proof steel. Something that the young dragon slayer proved to be absolutely false when up against him and his flames. And right now said boy was waiting in the middle of the arena for his opponent to finally show up.
"It's about time." said Natsu as he turned to look at the door opening. Only for him to be at a loss for words once he saw who he was supposed to go up against, which to his eyes at least was a boy just a few years older than him.
"So you're the boy claiming to be raised by a dragon?" asked Jellal with a smirk as he strolled into the arena as the guards closed the door behind him.
"It's not just a claim, I was actually raised by a dragon." he growled back at the blue haired boy that he already didn't like. "Are you guys serious? This isn't even going to be a chal…" he started to ask one of the many cameras floating around the room. But before he could finish his thought he was sent flying into one of the other walls by a swift kick to his chest.
"You're quite the cocky little brat aren't you." stated Jellal as he watched Natsu slowly get back up.
"No, I just know when an opponent isn't worth my time." replied Natsu as a slightly menacing grin slowly spread across his mug while he looked up at his opponent.
"I can't wait to make you choke on those words." he said before sprinting at the pink haired boy with speeds that most would have a hard time to be able to follow. With a confident grin spread across his face he pulled back his right arm and was ready to smash it into Natsu's face. Then the unthinkable happened to him, his fist was stopped before it even got close to making contact with its target.
But that was just the start of what was going to become a very humbling experience for the young blue haired boy that believed to be stronger and smarter than everyone else he's met so far. He tried to pull back his fist only for it to start feeling like his hand was being crushed in a vice at an agonizingly slow pace. That was when he finally locked eyes with Natsu and was surprised to not be looking at a mere boy like he expected. No, what he saw before him was what he could only describe as a dragon in human form, glaring at him with disdain for thinking that they were equal.
"You're just like all of those other bastards that I've gone up against so far." growled out Natsu as he continued to crush Jellal's hand. "Thinking that because of my hair and age that I'll be an easy fight, well guess what?" he asked while his captive at the moment was trying his hardest to not scream out in agony. "You've just made one of your worst mistakes in your miserable life." he finished with a swift punch to the other boy's gut. Causing Jellal to almost pass out from it alone, but instead he coughed up a little blood and spit as he was then sent flying to the other side of the room.
"Now you've done it." he coughed out as he staggered to his feet. "DARK MASS!" he shouted out as a dark sphere formed in front of him and started to expand towards his opponent who didn't seem too worried about the spell just cast. The sphere of darkness after becoming at least as twice as big as the two of them together shifted into tentacles and launched towards Natsu.
Who once again didn't seem to care, which was probably because he dodged them as if he had been practicing his whole life for that exact attack to be sent his way. This of course caught Jellal off guard since that attack wasn't one that any normal mage should be able to dodge so easily. But as he was soon to learn, Natsu was anything but a normal mage and was now right in front of him with a grin that he knew meant he was soon going to be in a lot of pain. And just like he thought, he was then sent flying to the right as a searing pain was felt on his left side along with what he could only assume was a few of his ribs cracking.
"Just stay down." stated Natsu now standing in the spot that used to occupy his blue haired opponent.
"Fuck that you little piece of shit! I don't care if Br…" shouted Jellal in anger as he got back up to his feet, luckily catching himself before he gave out information on Brain. "He said I couldn't kill you but I no longer care what that bastard wants, you're going to die today! DARK VANISH!" he bellowed with a crazed grin, but that grin became an expression of complete shock and confusion. Because instead of watching the pink haired boy explode and leave behind just his clothes like the few other times he used that spell, absolutely nothing happened.
Well saying absolutely nothing happened would be incorrect since Natsu used this time and Jellal's shock to get right up to him. This time deciding to actually call out a spell of his, and since he already had Jellal backed up against the wall he knew he would be able to land multiple of them. "FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FISTS!" he shouted out as both of his fists ignited in his orange flames right before he unleashed a fury of hits on the completely unprepared teen in front of him.
Natsu only stopped this assault of his when he was confident that Jellal wouldn't be able to get back up on his own accord, something that he was sure about since he felt a few more bones break under his fists. He gave the barely conscious mage one last sneer before heading back into the center of the room, where he now stood waiting for his opponent to be taken out of the room and for them to inform him what was next. But after a minute of waiting in silence he got fed up and decided that he might as well ask them what they wanted him to do.
"That wasn't even a challenge for me, so what's next?" he asked while giving one of the floating cameras that caught the entire fight a confident smirk. Nothing happened, and he had to wait another few minutes without getting any response, causing him to listen to the wheezing breath of Jellal in the corner.
"Okay I'm getting sick of just standing here!" he shouted out while now glaring at the cameras watching his every move.
"Then do something about it." came Brain's voice from a camera now floating right in front of him.
"Like what, I've already beaten him?" he asked with a confused expression now prominently displayed on his face.
"Yes you have, but you haven't beaten him completely." replied Brain in an amused tone, which caused Natsu to only become even more confused as he tried to figure out what exactly he was being told to do.
"What do you mean I haven't beaten him completely? He can no longer fight." he stated while pointing to the defeated form of Jellal.
"For now at least, but give him a few weeks of recovery and he'll be more than ready to fight you again. But this time he'll know what he's up against so he'll probably try and do something underhanded to get the best of you. And as you've already heard he won't think twice about killing you if that happens." said Brain in a serious tone that no longer sounded like he was enjoying himself.
"Then I'll just beat him again no matter what he might try to pull on me." declared Natsu.
"Now you're just being as arrogant as he was when going up against you just a few minutes ago." he stated in a tone that Natsu interpreted as smug. After saying that the two remained quiet, Natsu was trying to figure out what he was still supposed to do while Brain was waiting for the boy to come to the conclusion on his own.
"I'm not going to kill him just because you're fucking telling me to!" shouted out Natsu now covered in his own flames that were slowly getting bigger and wilder with each passing second.
"But that's the only real way to be certain that he'll never bother you again." came the voice once again from one of the other cameras since Natsu accidentally destroyed a few of them in his sudden outburst.
"I'm still not going to kill him for something as stupid as that!" Natsu defiantly yelled back.
"If you don't do as you're told then there will be severe consequences for you." said Brain now having a slight tint of anger in his voice.
"I don't give a fuck what you do to me, I won't kill him just because you told me to." he shouted out as he started to condense all of his fire into his hands, which let Brain know what he was about to do. So with a tired sigh Brain pushed a button in front of him and watched the young dragon slayer slowly start staggering about, no longer being capable of casting a devastating spell like he was just seconds away from doing. The last thing he saw before exiting the control room was Natsu falling flat on his face thanks to the gases they pumped into the room.
"You'll soon realize that you don't really have a choice in this matter." Brain mumbled to himself before heading to his own office to start preparing for the next part in his plans. As he exited the control room he didn't notice the proud smile that Sarah had on her face after watching Natsu refuse to kill Jellal just because he was told to.
July 5th X778:
After the incident on January 28th things became a lot worse for Natsu, the first thing that happened was he was no longer able to have as much food as he wanted. This was something that upset him more than he would ever like to admit to anyone, but it was a small price to pay in his mind for the life of someone else. The next time he had a skirmish he was once again told to kill his opponent after rendering them no longer capable of fighting. He once again refused and they were forced to take him out with the gases that seemed to be one of the safest ways of taking him down.
Once he refused for a second time he was subjugated to more severe beatings by the guards and more of the other tests that he didn't care for since they were pretty much just torture now. But he still held strong and continued to defy Brain and wouldn't kill his opponent after taking them down. After a month of this going on Natsu was caught off guard when Brain didn't sound upset with him when he stated that he wouldn't kill the man just like all of the ones before.
It was a week later when he figured out why Brain wasn't upset with him and didn't do anything to make his time there worse than it already was. And the reason for that was because he had spent the last week slowly killing Natsu's opponent in a very agonizing way and recording it for the dragon slayer to watch. Natsu tried to not watch but didn't really have an option when he was chained down in a room with it playing on a continuous loop.
Natsu hoped that this was going to be just a onetime punishment, but after not killing his next four opponents he found out that he was incorrect about that. This brought him to a really low point where he was forced into killing his opponents, not because he cared for any of them. But because, despite his overall distrust for humans and slight hatred, he still didn't believe that anyone deserved to be put through something as terrible as Brain was doing to them. At least that was how he was rationalizing his reason for killing them as quickly and painlessly as he possibly could.
But even after telling himself that he couldn't help but feel disgusted with himself, something that Sarah picked up on. And since she was the only one in the whole facility that seemed to care about him in the slightest, it was up to her to help him. Which she was able to do by telling him that all of the mages he was facing off against and eventually killing, were criminals that the Council were going to execute before the Bureau asked if they could have them. Of course this wasn't the whole truth, but it was more than enough to make Natsu no longer have such severe self-loathing.
And that is how the rest of his time at Bureau of Magical Development went for Natsu, tests upon tests with him facing off against a new mage at least once a week. Which is exactly what he was doing at the moment, trembling underneath him was a young shadow mage that in Natsu's opinion only impressive spell was being able to go into his shadows to escape attacks thrown at him. But even with a move like that he wasn't able to escape from the dragon slayer towering over him.
"Please, have mercy!" pleaded the man before his eyes shot wide open in shock.
"This is the only form of mercy I can give you." replied Natsu in a whisper as he pulled his hand from a now gaping hole where the man's heart was located. "A quick death." he finished with a sad expression as he burnt away the blood on his hand. After which he looked up as the doors to the room opened up, revealing a group of completely terrified guards.
The guards being afraid of him was something that he grew accustomed to during his time there, that along with the hatred for him that they only showed when he was chained up. So seeing them currently like this intrigued him enough to not try any sort of escape attempt so he could try and figure why they were acting this way. With this in mind he put his wrists behind his back and waited patiently for them to cuff him and shackle his feet together as an extra precaution.
"You know the drill." stated one of the guards in a harsh tone as he nudged the dragon slayer forward.
"Yeah, yeah, back to my cell until the next test. So what's it going to be today?" he asked the guard only for him to pick up an increase in all of their heart rates and a smell that he now attributed to true fear. Smelling this caused him to really grow concerned about what they weren't telling him at the moment since he usually only smelt that specific scent of fear before he delivered the finishing blow.
So for the rest of the walk back to his cell not a single one of them said a single word to each other, which wouldn't have been that odd for him if it didn't feel as if they were walking on eggshells while in his presence. Once he was back to his cell, they chained him to the floor like normal but this time a few of them went back into the hall to get something. And that certain something was a small lacrima screen with a video lacrima already playing in it.
He was about to ask them what the hell was going on when the screen flickered from footage of him to a close up of Sarah. And just from one look at her he could tell something was wrong with all of this, but unfortunately he'd have to wait and see.
"Hello Natsu, and before you try and talk back to me I feel the need to tell you that this is only a recording." said Sarah with a sad smile slightly forming at the edges of her lips. And she was spot on about him trying to talk with her because as soon as she said hi to him he opened his mouth to speak, only for his mouth to snap shut after the last part.
"The next thing I need you to know is that none of this is your fault." she said only for a hand to come flying from off screen and hitting her hard on the side of her face.
"This is completely his fault, if he had just killed all of his opponents like I had asked him to, none of this would have been necessary. And the two of you could have continued on with whatever you want to call this secret relationship of yours that I knew about from the very beginning." spat out the voice of Brain as Sarah's head hung down as some blood slowly started to drip from her lower lip.
"I told you that I was never going to lie to him for you again." she stated in a soft voice that the camera barely picked up, but for Natsu it was literally the only thing he could hear at the moment as he glared at the screen in complete hatred.
He was shocked to then hear the laughter of Brain for the next whole minute as Sarah kept her head down so he couldn't see her face. "Indeed you did Sarah, and I should have known that you wouldn't change that in your final moments." he said in cheery tone that was completely wrong with what was happening on screen.
Natsu however went completely white after hearing what Brain just said, and his vision started to go red in rage. Silently pleading to whatever god that might hear him to please let him be wrong about what he feared might have already happened.
"Yes Natsu, by the time you've seen this I'll have already been dead for a while if I had to guess." said Sarah as her head tilted back up, letting him have one final look at a genuine smile of hers. "When I first started to work for the Bureau I believed that we were working towards making the world a better place. And that the Council always knew what they were doing, but after my time with you I no longer believed that." she continued to say while still smiling at him. At this point the guards thought it would probably be safer for them if they left him alone in his cell, which meant that none of would be quick enough to stop him after the video stopped.
"They claimed that you were going to become some sort of monster that would destroy the whole Wizarding world if we didn't stop you while you were still young." she said with a slight scowl coming over her face as she said it. "But after being with you for just a month I could tell that was a complete lie. And even after everything we did to you, you still didn't go about needlessly killing anyone that he told you to." she continued to say once again having a smile on display for him.
"No, you somehow still saw the value in all forms of life, even in those that only ever treated you poorly. So my final wish is that you don't let what you're about to see change that in you." she stated with a sad smile as tears started to come from both of her eyes. "We're not all like this, which I know is going to be hard for you to believe since all you've ever seen from the civilized world is the worst it has to offer. So once you make it out of this hell hole, which I know you'll eventually do, please see for yourself what else the world has to offer." she said before another hand came out of nowhere and started to hit her.
"You already showed me so much of that, just by treating me like I wasn't a monster." mumbled Natsu as tears freely streamed down his face that was now looking at the floor. He couldn't watch any more of the footage of her being mercilessly beaten, unfortunately he couldn't block out the sound so he didn't even have to look to know what she more than likely looked like. So for the next few minutes he was forced to listen to her being beaten to death, knowing that there was absolutely nothing he could do to prevent it.
"Natsu…" came the strained voice of Sarah after there being a slight lull in the video of her eventual death. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of this. I can only imagine what the world would've been like if he hadn't gotten his dirty hands on you." she said before letting out a blood curdling scream that caused Natsu to once again look up at the screen just in time to watch the life fade out of her eyes.
That was the moment when he decided that he wasn't going to try and remain the mage that Igneel wanted him to be. Especially if the only person that was ever nice to him died because of it. Now that didn't mean he was going to completely disregard all of Igneel's teachings, no it meant he was no longer going to hold back on anyone that wronged him. So with that decision in mind he let out a final roar of anguish that could be heard from the highest level of the facility.
And the next thing he did shocked all of the guards that were watching him from the control room since it shouldn't have been possible. But there he was, spewing fire from his mouth that quickly melted away the shackles restraining his arms and legs. After which the screen went black, but not before they all got a glimpse of the deadly expression he currently had on his visage.
"What in the hell was that?" asked one of the two guards standing outside of his cell after the ringing in his ears stopped. But before his fellow guard could respond, both of the doors were blasted off their hinges and crashed into them which luckily protected them slightly from the fire billowing from the doorway.
The guard that spoke up first, slowly pushed the door off himself and blinked a few times as he tried to figure out what the hell was exactly going on. And what he saw right then he would later describe as what he imagined what hell was like, flames burning absolutely anything that was flammable and even starting to melt everything else that wasn't. But what really made him think that he was currently in hell was the figure completely engulfed in flames slowly walking over to his fellow guard that was still trying to get a door off himself.
He knew that it had to be Natsu inside of the flames, but with how strong they currently were he couldn't help but see the boy as some sort of demon. And seeing his red eyes only attributed to that thought of his, which was then reinforced as he watched a stream of fire spew from the boy's outstretched hand. Only for the flames to engulf his fellow guard that was still trapped and wasn't even able to let out a scream before he was reduced to nothing but ash.
"You're only alive because you are one of the few guards that never hurt me." came the deep and somewhat demonic voice of Natsu as he walked past the completely terrified guard. Who was too scared to even move and could only stand there and watch as Natsu slowly walked down the hallway to one of the guard's break rooms.
That unfortunately had noise canceling runes in it, otherwise the unsuspecting guards currently in there wouldn't be completely unprepared for what was heading their way. Which was an extremely pissed off dragon slayer that had more than a few scores to settle and wasn't going to leave this place until they were wrapped up. This meant that the guard currently in the hallway got to watch Natsu blew the door and some of the wall around it wide open. This was then followed by the boy going into it and screams of pain and complete terror soon following afterwards.
Inside the Control room:
"Where in the fucking hell is Brain?" shouted out a scared shitless guard as more of the cameras were taken out as Natsu systematically went through the lowest level, eliminating any one that ever wronged him.
"He's not answering his communication lacrima either." replied a different guard.
"Then what exactly are we supposed to do?" asked another that was just as terrified as the rest of them.
"Lock the place down and activate all of the safety protocols we've got in place for such an occasion." answered one of the few guards not completely freaking out at the moment.
"So we're going to leave the rest of them down there with that monster?" asked the first guard with a horrified look coming over his face.
"Would you rather have him coming up here and doing that to us?" asked the guard that by default became the one calling all the shots.
"No, but we're pretty much condemning the rest of them to a terrible death." he replied back still looking conflicted by all of this.
"I don't like this any more than you do, but it's the best way to contain him. Destroy the elevator." commanded the leader of the group as one of the guards hurriedly booked it out of the room to do as he was told.
"What if that doesn't stop him?" asked one of the guards that had yet to speak up.
"Then we'll have to rely on some of the other safety protocols such as the gas that usually takes care of him." replied the now designated leader of their group. But just as he said this one of the cameras from the level right above Natsu's went out as a different one showed him slowly coming through the floor that he just destroyed.
"Oh dear god, he's literally just going through the floors!" screamed out a guard before bolting from the control room for his dear life.
"We should all get out of here while we still have a chance!" shouted out a different one as he and a few others followed after the guard that just fled.
"STOP!" shouted out probably the only guard currently thinking clearly somehow. "The facility has gone into complete lockdown so you won't be able to get out of here until the lockdown is lifted. Which unfortunately for us can only be done by our superiors who have either already fled for their lives or we won't be able to get into contact with in time." he explained with a serious expression.
"So what in the hell do you expect us to do?" asked one of the few remaining guards in the control room.
"The safest place is here, where we'll be able to activate any safety protocol that doesn't go off by itself." he replied while watching the screens with a keen eye as more of them went black.
Three hours later:
The control room only had one guard in it and it was the one trying to get the rest of them to act reasonably this whole time. He was currently sitting in front of the monitors that have all been taken out for the last few minutes. But the thing that stood out the most about him was the fact that he somehow had a peaceful expression spread across his face as he slowly blew out a puff of smoke from the cigarette currently in his mouth.
"Took you long enough, and I'm a little curious as to why the gas no longer knocks you out." he said as a figure appeared in the doorway behind him.
"I was kind of a little busy dealing with the rest of those cowards. And I burnt it away before it could ever even enter my lungs." replied Natsu in that same voice that would cause most men to shiver in fear.
"Interesting and for some of those sorry blokes this was the only job that they could actually get." he stated with a dry chuckle at the end. "Something that probably doesn't shock you since you've been on the receiving end of their anger more than a few times. So I guess this is how my story ends, seems kind of fitting since I sat back and did nothing." he finished while slowly turning in the chair to look at Natsu, who he was surprised to see no longer covered in flames.
"No, you and a few others aren't going to die here today because you never did me any harm." stated Natsu as he turned away from the guard and headed towards the exit of the facility.
"But we just sat back and did nothing." he pointed out as Natsu continued to walk away from him.
"There really wasn't much that you could have done for me, just look at what happened to the one person that did." responded Natsu while still walking away from one of the few remaining guards. "But if you really do feel bad about everything that happened here, just make sure that next time you don't just sit back and watch." he finished before getting into a wide stance and blasting the exit wide open with a FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR.
"Fine, but what should I tell the Council about all of this?" asked the guard before the dragon slayer could disappear from his view.
"You probably don't want to tell them that I'm even alive since I'm already supposed to be dead right now." he answered with a sad laugh. "Tell them that one of your experiments went wrong and caused a chain of explosions to go off, which won't be too hard for them to believe since the whole place is still on fire and might collapse any minute now." he said before continuing out into the snowstorm that was currently raging outside.
There were only seven survivors that day, which was also happened to be the last day Brain was considered an underling of the Council since this was the second time under his watch that the entire Bureau of Magical Development was destroyed. That day was also the start of a rumor about a mage that would eventually be known as Salamander, a fire mage like none before him.
End of Chapter
Author's Notes:
Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. So at this time I'd like to apologize for taking such a long time to update not only this story, but also the rest of them. I could give all of you the reasons it took me so long to post new chapters, but it's just easier to say that life happened. With that taken care of I'd really like to know what you all think about where this story is heading, which you can do by either leaving a review or shooting me a PM. And if you do either of those two, I'll try to respond back as soon as I can.
Until the next Chapter
Digem Out!