AN: Because break is over for me, from this point on I will try to update weekly, but because of the amount of school work, this could change. But reviews are always nice, so keep them coming!
And thank you to all those who reviewed my last few chapters, it keeps me motivated
Jogging towards the campsite, Natsu carried an unconscious Makarov on his back; it has been rather quiet for some time now, and while Natsu does enjoy peace and quiet once and a while, there was something incredibly wrong, not a single wild animal was in sight;
"Natsu!" a voice called from the distance, looking up he saw Happy flying towards them,
"Happy!" He shouted in glee, "is Wendy with you? Gramps needs medical attention" Happy nodded,
"follow me!" Natsu sighed in relief and chased after his friend. Soon he ran into an opening and met up with the Sky Maiden,
"Natsu-san!" Wendy cried out, Natsu placed Makarov gently on the ground; Wendy quickly went to work, her hands started glowing light green and began healing Makarov's injuries.
"did you manage to warn everyone else?" Natsu asked, Wendy shook her head,
"the camp seems to be abandoned" Lily explained, "there was even traces of a battle occurring"
"then the others should be somewhere on this island, with Grimore Heart running freely on the island, they could be fighting them, our only chances of finding them would be to listen for traces of a fight going on" Natsu explained,
"Natsu, when did you get so smart?" Happy asked,
"Happy! Don't ruin the moment" Natsu exclaimed, "and I've always been this smart"
"we don't have time to joke around" Carla scolded, "and Natsu's right, we should follow the sound of fighting otherwise we'll only be going around in a wild goose chase"; there was suddenly a smell in the air, causing Natsu to start sniffing around,
"what's wrong Natsu?" Happy asked,
"this smell is very familiar" he explained still sniffing around, "you guys stay here, I will be right back" with that he ran off.
Running through the forest, the smell was getting stronger and stronger, however because he was so focused on the smell he didn't even realize the edge in front of him; falling face flat he managed to grab onto a large leaf and use it as a cushion; what he didn't expect was that a simple leaf could also be considered as transportation, with his motion sickness kicking in, he was completely helpless. Falling further down the path only worsened the condition. After what seem like an eternity did he finally hit the bottom; crashing face first into the dirt, he quickly stood up trying to act as if nothing had happened. The source of the smell was close, he looked around when suddenly he sensed a pulse of magic coming from beneath him, jumping away a large tree sprouted from beneath the earth; and there it was, a woman sitting calmly on top of a tree branch looking down at him, he took another sniff of the air and confirmed it,
"so we meet again Natsu Dragneel" she said,
"so you're the one" he said, but raised a brow, "you like to cross dress or something?" the woman didn't really know how to respond to that,
"that was a disguise…" was her response,
"sure, whatever you say" Natsu said, "so who are you anyways?"
"my name is Ultear Milkovich one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory"
"is that so… in that case tell me" he pointed to the fallen body of Zeref who was rested on the tree trunk behind him, "what do you want him for"
"oh? Are you curious?"
"Kind of; but if you're going to rant about it then you can keep it to yourself" he took a closer look at Ultear, completely ignoring what the Grimore Heart Mage had to say; his eyes widened at the similarities she had with a certain woman from his past; images started flashing in his head, one particular image stood out from the rest, it was a memory of three kids, one was a young girl with short dark purple hair, the other had long golden blonde hair and the only boy of the trio possessed wild scarlet red hair; shaking his mind clear, he did manage to make out specific key words of Ultear's blabbering, Ultimate World of Magic and Zeref's Seal; all of which he has heard of a thousand times before, he only concluded that their intension was to revive Zeref's power and build a world that would wipe out all humans who could not use magic therefore creating what those fools called the Ultimate World of Magic; he chuckled to himself, he's heard of such a plan many times already but he knew full well that such an attempt would be impossible. His fists ignited into a brilliant orange flame,
"I have no idea what you were blabbering about, however what I do know is that you people attacked our guild and for that I will not forgive you" Ultear smirked,
"Then I think it is time I pay you back for what you did to me that time" an orb formed from her arm and danced around her; she flung it towards Natsu who easily dodged it, but was not expecting it to come flying back, hitting him clean on the back; staggering from the attack he pounced back onto his feat and charged up the tree, Ultear threw the orb in his direction once more and in response Natsu punched the object shattering it into tiny pieces, however the pieces suddenly reformed and only massed more orbs, now attacking from all directions Natsu jumped of the trunk and avoided the many attacks, dodging left and right he punched any orb that he couldn't dodge, however this only made things more difficult for him as they continued to multiply. Therefore, he jumped back and took in a deep breath,
"Fire Dragons Roar!" he breathed out a powerful jet of flames that consumed the mass of floating orbs, incinerating them completely, his eyes widened however as they just reshaped once more.
"my magic is the Time Arc, a lost magic that allows me to manipulate the time of an organic or inorganic item" Ultear explained, "you destroy it, I can just restore it"
Natsu responded by blasting a pillar of flames towards Ultear who dodged it by jumping off the branch she was sitting on, and was now standing face to face with the Dragon Slayer, "then all I need to do is defeat you" he charged towards Ultear ignoring all attacks being thrown in his direction, he threw out his fist, however was completely taken by surprise when he punched someone completely different, the man he attacked was huge and overweight but looked rather muscular, he has shaggy black hair and chalk white skin; Natsu stopped in his tracks and looked around,
"eh, Lucy what are you doing here" he asked as the girl who looked like was out of breath,
"Natsu!" Lucy called out in fright, "we have to stop them; they are trying to revive Zeref and bring an end to the world!"
"I know" Natsu then gave her his trademark grin "but all I need to do is beat them up right"
"I don't know about that, but it would help..." Lucy replied and was astonished but not surprised by Natsu's simple mind,
"Kain!" Ultear called out, grabbing the huge mans attention, "you keep them occupied; I need to bring Zeref back to Master"
"understood" he said, he turned to the duo pulling out a small doll and blocked their path to Ultear who carried Zeref on her back running off. Natsu stared at the man in front of him, a bored expression covering his features,
"Lucy stay back" he instructed,
"be careful, he uses that doll to attack his opponents" Lucy informed the Dragon Slayer, at this Natsu couldn't help but grin and laugh out loud,
"aren't you a little too old to be playing with dolls?" he asked, the man called Kain, looked at him in shock and completely insulted,
"how dare you insult me, just because of that I will show you the full power of Mr. Cursey!" he shouted out,
"you even named it?" Natsu commented, Lucy stood behind him in shock unsure at how she should react to his comments,
"you are seriously ticking me off!" Kain shouted, with that he pulled out what looks like a string of long golden blond hair, and attached it to the doll; Lucy looked completely surprised as she recognized it as her own hair,
"hey… you aren't seriously thinking of…" but she didn't get to finish as her own body started to move on her own and attack Natsu from behind; once again taken by surprise he was punched in the face,
"what are you doing Lucy!" he called out,
"I can't help it, my body is moving on its own!" she cried back, Natsu looked towards Kain and saw how he was moving the doll which mimicked Lucy's movements,
"I see… very interesting" he dodged Lucy's kick and jumped up vaulting over her head, igniting the soles of his feet he launched himself towards Kain and delivered a very fast kick towards the man's stomach who cried out unexpectedly, taking this opportunity Natsu grabbed hold of the doll and threw it in Lucy's direction who caught it,
"don't lose it" he said to the girl and turned back to the large man, "now that you don't have that doll you won't be able to use your magic" he said in triumphant, however Kain started to laugh as he recovered from the attack, he pulled out a second doll, at this Natsu face faulted,
"fool, I always keep a spare with me at all times" this time he plucked his own hair and attached it to the dolls head, and with a single snap he transformed the dolls material into iron causing his own body to also turn iron, Kain then started to charge forward and attacked Natsu;
"your annoying me" the Dragon Slayer said with a very sinister tone, and with one punch he sent the Grimore Heart mage flying off into the distance.
Lucy stared in awe at how easily the Dragon Slayer defeated the dark mage,
"That was amazing Natsu!" Lucy cried out, and started jumping up and down in victory, but suddenly cried out in pain, Natsu rushed to her side,
"what happened?" Natsu asked,
"I think I may have sprained my ankle" she responded, Natsu knelt down on two feet,
"get on my back, I'll bring you to Wendy and the others; she can take a look at that ankle" hesitant at first but later climbed onto his back, the Dragon Slayer stood up carrying the Celestial mage and raced off towards the small group.
Happy was standing by Wendy as she healed Makarov, the blue exceed had a look filled with worry, but as Wendy stepped back with a smile did the blue cat finally sigh in relief knowing that the Master was going to be okay,
"the Master should be fine now, it should only be a matter of time before he wakes" Wendy said, the other two exceed also sighed in relief, there was a minute of silence before the only female cat stepped forward
"Wendy" Carla said catching the young girls attention, "what happened back there, you weren't yourself" Wendy bit the bottom of her lip, she knew this was coming and still had no idea whether or not to reveal things to her friend, but in the end she had to make a choice,
"it's complicated" she started, "but I will try my best to explain" she looked at the three exceed with a very serious face,
"the truth is, I am not exactly human" the others jumped in surprise,
"but you look human" Happy claimed, Wendy shook her head,
"this is only my human form, not my true form" she explained, Carla looked almost frightened to ask but went ahead and did so,
"then what is your true form?" Wendy looked up at the twilight sky, before looking back down at the three cats,
"I am the Sky Dragon".