A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I've been incredibly busy with school work and the like. It turns out I had this chapter written awhile ago so I thought 'what the hell' so here it is. At the time I was trying out different styles of writing so it may be a little odd, but tell me what you think! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!
_
Natsu didn't like the screams, the shouts, and the constant yelling. He didn't like the way is father loomed over him or how his mother scowled. He didn't like the weighted hits, punches and kicks he received or the bone shattering labour that he went through everyday. He liked it less when his turn was over and they moved on to their next victim.
Natsu didn't like how his brother cried either.
What he did like, however, was the booming thunder, the fierce lightening and the pounding rain. The sounds that drowned out the fighting and crying. Natsu liked storms, it was like the sky's sorrow was so intense that it ceased to be sad.
It was angry.
It became the type of anger that consumed a persons being, filled them with unimaginable rage. It was like Natsu in a way. So sad that he was furious.
Natsu often stayed up to watch the lightening crack it's unyielding whip over the land, loving the colours it created. Loving the way the rain impaled the earth and coloured the sky with its misery. But he didn't love that the lightening always left something behind to smolder in the ruins.
Fire.
He didn't like a lot of things, but fire was his least favorite. Fire was two faced. It nurtured you, warmed you and built you up.
Only to tear you down.
It burnt, consumed and razed the landscape, the people, the everything. It was indiscriminate, man, woman and child would all feel it's wrath as it forged it's own path through the rubble. Its burning tendrils constantly seeking new victims to punish.
Yes, fire was too much like his parents, all smiles and laughs until the doors closed. The burns they had left on Natsu would last a lifetime, even if there were none to see.
So It was ironic that fire became his saviour.
Natsu found his displeasure for the infernal thing diminishing as its smoky fingers clawed at his home. At his parents. He decided he liked these shouts much better than their usual frightening sounds.
Was it wrong to stand and watch? His brother did too, and he was the smartest person Natsu knew.
Did that make it right? Who decided what was 'right' and 'wrong' anyway?
Even with only six short years of life under his belt Natsu had figured out that 'right' and 'wrong' were just excuses. Excuses people used to justify why they did what they did. Why everyone could not be equal.
A hero.
A villain.
He couldn't tell the difference anymore, the distinction between the two used to be so clear cut.
But now a villian was his hero, they had freed him from his hell when all others had turned a blind eye.
But now Natsu understood. Good and bad, right and wrong. They were just words, loaded with emotions that didn't exist. A hero was a coward that hid under the banner of 'right', and 'justice'. They lied, cheated and stole the freedom of others, made them conform.
To bend under the backbreaking 'right' way of living.
That's what his brother, Zeref, would tell him later anyway. Zeref used to always ask him why no hero came to save them, no matter how hard they cried.
It wasn't till later Natsu finally had an answer for him.
"Because heroes are frauds. They lap up the fame, and adoration but never truly help."
His brother just smiled, "Correct, The idea of 'right' and 'wrong' exists to condemn those who have power, who can do a better job. 'Heroes' just keep pushing the councils rules in hopes of stopping true freedom. They keep us dependent on them by limiting our power, our ability to solve our own problems. 'Right' is nothing more than a concept to discredit those who are able to see the true meaning of freedom...Everything is permitted, or nothing will ever be solved."
It was that fateful day that Natsu realised the truth. Heroes were just the lap dogs of the council. There to distract from the true horror of the world and disguise the shackles that lay on the wrists of every citizen.
He would free them all, no one deserved to be as captive as Natsu was.
Zeref grew his empire from the two of them up. Many gathered around their lair just to get a glimpse of the frail looking teen who was causing such shock waves through the entire country. Wispers of his cause attracted villians, young and old, to his feet as they clamoured to join Zeref, eagerly thowing aside what they had previously held so dear. Even heroes, one hired to take Zeref down, abandoned the Council in favour of his doctrine. Heroes like the 'Scarlet Dispair' and 'The Fire Dragon', joined, one of whom stayed long enough to become Natsu's teacher.
As Zeref's empire grew so did his power, but he never, not even for a moment, stop loving and caring for Natsu. He could remember fondly all the time Zeref had taken off work to see Natsu's progress, or just to spend time with him.
So it understandably broke Zerefs heart when Natsu died.
Zeref never did speak much of the time he was dead, only telling Natsu that he had trained with Ankhserism until he was strong enough to bring him back.
Zeref had grown distant in the year they spent apart, every bit as loving as before but...different. It wasn't until the death of Igneel that Natsu had begun to see how far Zeref had slipped and just what he had lost. On that cold day Natsu had learned more from two single words on a tombstone than he'd been able to get out of Zeref for a year.
Mavis Vermillion...
Natsu would have liked to meet her.