I'm so sorry for the late update! A/N and review responses at the end! I do not own Fairy Tail!

Location

'thoughts'

"talking"

Chapter 7

With Gray

"Sorry!" Gray yelled out as he bumped into another civilian.

'Damnit! I really need to watch where I'm going'

After a couple more minutes of running Gray was finally coming up to the guild. Upon arrival he nearly collided with Freed and Evergreen.

"Whoa watch it!" Evergreen yelled at the ice mage as she tried to keep her balance.

"Is everything okay Gray?" Freed asked.

"No. I'm sorry but I need to go talk to Master." Gray said as he hurried inside.

Evergreen and Freed watched the ice mage disappear behind the guild doors then turned and headed towards the library.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Freed said.

Evergreen hummed in agreement.

Inside the guild

"Master!" Gray called out after bursting through the doors.

"What is it my child?" Master Makarov turned to see an out of breath Gray with worry clearly written on his face.

"Natsu was attacked at his home. Whatever or whoever did this, it was intentional. We could sense dark magic residue and trees were burnt down everywhere. His house is almost in ruble." Gray said finally catching his breath. "Erza and Gajeel are still looking around but Erza sent me to tell you what we came across."

Master closed his eyes and rubbed his chin in thought. "Thank you for coming back so quickly and telling me Gray." He opened his eyes and looked at the ice mage. "Since Gajeel and Erza are more than capable of finding clues how about you go check on Lucy and see how she is with Natsu? We don't know whoever is after him and I believe it might be best if you were there as some extra protection."

Gray nodded his head in determination and headed towards the door.

As he made his way towards Lucy's apartment he sighed out loud and ran his hand through his hair.

'What the hell is going on? Just a few days ago we were celebrating Master's birthday and everything seemed to finally be going back to normal since the Grand Magic Games. Now there's dark magic that no one has really heard of and Natsu is a child and Juvia is on a mission—Gah now is not the time to be thinking about Juvia.'

Gray shook his head of all thoughts as he looked up and realized that he was walking in the opposite direction of Lucy's.

"Goddamn it!" He yelled out loud and discarding his shirt in the process, earning some strange looks from the people around him.

He turned and started jogging towards his destination.

Natsu's House (Erza and Gajeel)

As Erza walked towards the entrance of the house Gajeel decided to do a sweep around the perimeter to try and locate a scent.

'Somethin' ain't right here' Gajeel thought. He could feel dark magic radiating from the west side. As he got closer he could barely make out odd shapes engraved on the forest floor. He bent down to get a better look.

'What the hell is—'

"Ooooh whooo, now what do we have here? Are you perhaps a fairy? Do you have wings? Majestic, breathtaking wings that glitter and glisten as beautiful light from the scorched sun shine down upon—"

"Can you shut the fuck up?!" Gajeel growled out, clearly irritated. 'Who tha fuck is this pansy? How did I not notice them before?' Gajeel stood up as he got into a defensive battle stance. A scowl etched on his face as he looked up into the tree and took in the other person's appearance.

It appeared to be a young man with spikey green hair and dark brown eyes. He was dressed in the strangest suit Gajeel had ever seen. Honestly it was hard to look at. The man wore a bright violet blazer, white button up shirt, big red polka dotted neck tie, and bright yellow pants with flames at the bottom going up the sides of each leg. 'He looks like a circus clown. Gihi'

The man didn't seem phased at all from Gajeel's outburst, in fact, the man smirked down at him. 'I wonder, is this the infamous Black Steel Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer? Oooh boss man would be so pleased if I brought him in. The raw power…' He grinned maniacally as he jumped down.

"Now now that's no way to talk to a friend, is it?" The strange man smiled as he asked Gajeel.

"Tch. I don't know who the hell you think you are but you ain't no friend of mine. Why don't you start explainin' what it is you're doing here?" Gajeel growled out through gritted teeth as he clenched his fists, preparing to attack. 'Ugh, not only does he reek but I can sense dark magic radiating off of him'

"My my," The man shook his head and chuckled. "Are all you dragon slayers so aggressive?"

"Oy! Just shutup and answer the damn question!" Gajeel yelled, losing his patience.

"How can I answer if you wish for me not to speak?" The man retorted grinning as he started walking towards Gajeel.

"Another step and I'm gunna knock the shitty grin off your face." Gajeel said menacingly.

The man stopped, still grinning. 'Seems he has a short temper as well' He then sighed and looked at his hand as he started playing with a ring. "I suggest you comply and come with me willingly, if not you'll leave me with no choice then to fight and I highly doubt you'll put up half the fight that fire dragon slayer did. It's a shame he got away." He smirked as he looked up at the now enraged dragon slayer.

Gajeel bent his head slightly, casting a shadow over his eyes. "You…" His red eyes became little slits and scales began to cover his skin as he looked straight at his enemy. "I'm gunna have fun beating the shit outta you"

Gajeel lunged at the man.

"Iron Dragon's Club!"

The man easily dodged it and yelled, "Tenebris gladium daemonem!" He called out a long titanium looking sword out of thin air. The blade itself had a dark sickly green aura around it and a red liquid that looked like blood dripping from the end of the tip.

'What. The. Fuck. Is. That?!'

Gajeel took a step back as soon as he felt the dark magic take form. The man gave a maniacal laugh as he watched Gajeel. He sliced down the debris in his way making it blacken and disintegrate. 'Shit. I don't want to know what happens if he touches me with that but I aint givin in that easy'

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

Gajeel hurled the powerful destructive tornado at his foe in hopes of knocking him back. Unfortunately, before the air started to clear the man came full on charging at the iron dragon slayer with the blade high in the air.

'Fuck'

Gajeel jumped and dodge rolled off to his right. Before he could prepare for another attack he heard, "Dance, my blades!" and watched as an array of swords were sent flying at a rapid speed at his opponent. He looked up to see the one and only Titania in her Heaven's Wheel Armor looking rather infuriated.

The man temporarily disappeared from sight only to reappear unharmed.

Erza landed next to Gajeel, a sword in each hand as she prepared to attack once more. Before either mage could attack dark particles began surrounding the man.

"Hmm? Another Fairy? This one has wings!" His eyes lit up, then he pouted. "What a shame it is though, you have great power but I can tell you don't possess the forgotten magic of dragons. I have no use for you." He looked at his sword and whispered, "Reditum" He then looked up at the sky and back at the two mages hands clasped together. "Seems I must go. I hope we can finish this soon son of the Iron Dragon." He breathed in deeply and his eyes glowed purple. "Evanescunt!" The dark particles circled tightly around him blocking him from sight then completely disappearing along with the man.

Sensing that there was no longer a threat Erza reequipped to her normal armor. She turned to Gajeel who was glaring at the spot where the man once stood, fists clenched and jaw tight.

"He got away…that bastard got away." Gajeel muttered.

"Did he say anything that might be useful?" Erza asked.

Gajeel briefly glanced over at her. "No, not really."

He sighed then gave her a rundown of what happened.

"Did you find anything at the house?" Gajeel questioned the scarlet haired woman.

"Some runes that I think would be best if Freed or perhaps Levy take a closer look at, besides that the inside of the house looked normal and nothing tampered with. I believe it would be best if we head back to the guild and inform master. I don't think that man is going to come back anytime soon." Erza stated.

Gajeel grunted in response and the two mages headed back towards the guild.

A/N

Hello lovely people. I. Am. So. Sorry. Things have been out of control with my sister and nephew flying in then my internet went down and I had to wait 3 days for someone to come out! Ridiculous! That's what I get for living in the mountains. Anyways I should be writing an essay for psychology buuuuuuut I felt really bad about leaving ya'll hanging. There will be some fluff next chapter and probably an update on the research teams! We'll see. I wanted to use a different language for the dark magic and decided to use google translate. (It's Latin) Here are the words and their meanings:

Tenebris gladium daemonem-Dark sword of the demon

Reditum-Return

Evanescunt-Disappear

Review responses (I'll try to keep it short!):

First off, thank you! I love reviews!

Therealdeal10311: Maybe, maybe not. At the moment I'm going to say no. I don't plan on turning anyone else into a child but when I wrote out what I was going to do each chapter welllllll that has changed. Natsu will warm up to the guild members soon, I swear!

Rose Tiger: I know : ( but I needed Natsu to open up and sorta have a mini breakdown

Fanficlove2014: Eeep! I love little Natsu too! He won't be too sad for much longer but they haven't told him that he's actually a grown adult yet….Gihi. Oh Happy, I can't wait to bring him in to the story!

Dark Shining Light: Thank you so much! I love when I find a child Natsu/Lucy story. I've read some good ones and some that are probably never going to be finished : ( I'm ecstatic you like it!

IceMageNinjaTalia: Thank you! I appreciate the support!

I hope I am doing you all justice!

Last but certainly not least…. Isabell784! Ahh! Goodness if I was an anime character I would probably look like Lucy when she gets all embarrassed and freaks out! (Red face, flailing arms, the whole enchilada) Seriously I am honored, thank you! Yes! Freed is amazing! I am caught up with the anime (and the manga) He won't die! He. Can't. Die. It would be blasphemous. Totally against my religion. I wish they showed more of Freed and the ThunderGod Tribe in general. I love Laxus! In all honesty, he would be the one I'd marry. Lmao Gray is ice cold. Catch my drift? Gihi. I have the worst puns. (I adore Gajeel and his stupid laugh) No need to apologize for rambling! It's what I do every time I write an extremely long authors note! I love reading your reviews! Fred out!

I love you guys! Thanks for reading/following/reviewing/favoriting. I'll see you all soon!