Chapter 7: Dragon Elements
Being the person Natsu was he found it difficult to hear those words from his own family. Igneel had always been encouraging, and understanding, so the sheer disappointment in his grandfather's voice cut straight through to Natsu's very core.
"With out the intent to kill, you will never beat these opponents Natsu." Igneel leaned against a large boulder with a disapproving look on his face. Natsu cursed under his breath as he jumped high in the air dodging the water from his opponent's attack. "Water is your weakness, Natsu especially as a fire mage. If you can't absorb his power then the training ends here." Natsu's temper flared as he watched the grand blue dragon raise her head to the sky ready to strike once more. Her sleek body coated itself in the condensed water from the clouds above her head, and she shined with the blue light of her magic.
Natsu had been working to damn hard for everything to stop here, he wouldn't allow it. He needed to come up with a way to beat her, just like he had for every other opponent so far.
Elemental training was excessively draining, and his body was already sluggish from the strain of consuming elements other than his own. In the first few months that he and Igneel had spent going over the basics Natsu had learned that he would be going through a special training involving all of the elements. Fire, Lightning, earth, water, wind, frost, spirit and iron, Natsu was expected to master them all.
Natsu had agreed with out complaint, the information about the Door of the Damned had made Natsu realize that he might be the only one capable of taking on an opponent that was able to absorb other elements just like he could. He needed to do anything possible to raise the probability of their success against such a lethal enemy.
Igneel had explained that Natsu was a very special type of Dragon, with a very unique ability that only Igneel and Draco's mates had been able to master. Ignacia had been a fire dragon just like Igneel, but in her case she was also a master of many other elements, they had called her the Ethereal Fire Dragon because of her skills. Adelaide had been a Celestial dragon who was able to master a magic that no one wanted to speak about, but he got the feeling that it was what allowed her to seal the Door of the Damned. From the stories that Igneel had told him, that simple act had cost her all her power, and eventually killed her.
Natsu had been proud that he had inherited such a trait from the grand mother that he had never gotten to meet, but the sadness in Igneel's voice as he talked about her awakened the pain in Natsu's own heart. He wished secretly that he could have at least gotten the time to get to know such an amazing creature, but he knew that the time for that was long past. It was time for Natsu to grow up and realize that everything dies. He could expect something like what had happened with Lissanna to ever happen again. Natsu and Igneel had lost so much of their family already, Natsu refused to lose anyone else, not by blood and not by common bonds. He was old enough to know that war meant death, but everything he was doing was to keep that from happening. Fairy Tail was his adoptive family no matter what way you looked at it, he had grown up there, and he would protect them with his very life.
Natsu had vowed to get stronger, to protect everything he held dear, and now was time to make good on his promises.
Igneel looked toward the sky, which was obscured with dark clouds, he hurried his young charge to get under some shelter before the skies had a chance to open up on them. Igneel was grateful to find a cave large enough for the both of them, they truly needed to rest. The journey across the continent was wearing the old dragon thin, and his young charge was getting to a point where he couldn't learn much more from his wisdom.
"Natsu do you remember the story of the great dragon wars?" Igneel asked the pink haired boy before him. Natsu laughed lightly as he nodded his head.
"How could I forget something as exciting as that story Igneel." The great dragon sighed as he settled down in the shelter that was serving as their home while it continued to pour.
"There is a part that I left out, I lost a lot of friends and brothers in those wars. One of my best friends lost his mate, she sacrificed herself to put an end to the dark dragon's evil ways." Igneel looked out across the field a sad smile on his face. "There were many brave dragons that lost their lives in those battles, and we have been fighting to honor her sacrifice ever since. Natsu you must always remember that the lives of your comrades are the most important, you must remember that you have to protect them with your own hands. The stronger you become the better you can protect those you care about." Natsu leaned against the stomach of the great dragon watching the rain as well. For such a young boy he seemed to mull over the dragon's words very seriously.
"I am strong Igneel, I'm the son of a Dragon." Natsu smiled warmly as he closed his eyes. "You can count on me, I'm going to make you proud one day, just you watch me!" Natsu folded his arms behind his head satisfied in his response.
"Confidence is a wonderful tool son, it can push you further than you ever thought you could. Natsu just remember that you need to have to power to back those words up, or people will end up getting hurt." Igneel released a massive yawn stretching his tired limbs.
"You were the hero of the war, Igneel, and as your son it is my duty to uphold the honor of our family! I will do what ever I need to do so long as I reach my final goal." Natsu turned to look his grandfather in the face. Their dark eyes met and Natsu grinned as wide as possible.
"Natsu, never lose that spirit of yours, I can tell that it'll get you out of a bunch of sticky situations." Igneel smiled before laying his head down to rest for the night.
"It's a promise!" Natsu leaned back against Igneel with a contented grin.
Natsu jumped to the left, narrowly avoiding the blast of water that cut the tree behind him in half. Water was the most difficult to handle out of all the elements, he had to absorb the magic that actually laced the water, not the water itself. After the first ten minutes he had realized that the water was being manipulated rather that created by the dragon, and he had been taking his time to figure out how to separated the two so that he didn't drown himself in the process of consuming the water dragon's magic. He was angry with himself for taking this long with a fight, and hearing his grandfather's clear disappointment.
Natsu was close to being finished his elemental training, and he would be damned if this was the last stop, not after all the work he had already put into this. Natsu was sure that if he didn't master this training fully that he would be leaving the others vulnerable, and that went against everything he believed in. He was going to be the one protecting his family no matter the cost. He had already survived so much, and he had come so far, there was no way he was going to let a little water douse his flames now. Not when he had master almost all of the other elements.
Lightning had come easiest next to Natsu's own fire, for no other reason than he was used to the feel. It had only taken him a week to fully get the hang of it, being his first element at true Dragon Force he felt slightly proud of his accomplishment. He had told himself that maybe he should thank Laxus later for the training in the mountains, because it had really helped him in the long run. The Earth dragon that Igneel had summoned hadn't been much of a challenge either, because his attacks were obvious. Natsu had easily been able to find his weaknessed and the plants he used were extremely fragile, and the consumption part was as easy as shoveling in a large garden salad into his mouth.
The wind dragon though he was an impressive size had not been much of a challenge, because Natsu was so used to Wendy's magic. The soft white feathery looking dragon had used a common breath attack that Natsu was very familiar with. He had finished with him in a matter of minutes verse the days and weeks he had spent with the others. The thought crossed his mind that the element of wind was not a battle oriented magic, he didn't feel like he could use to cause the damage that his flames or his newly acquired lightning would.
The only other one that had give him real problems had been the frost dragon. Natsu had been expecting some form of solid ice attacks that would be simple to just bite down on, like Gray's Ice Make magic. But what he received instead was snow and ice laced fog. It wasn't like fighting Gray at all, and that irritated the fire mage. Honestly Natsu still wasn't sure how he was able to defeat that particular dragon, all he knew was that he had some how managed to do it on pure instinct.
After several months Natsu was finally able to master each of the elements that Igneel set him up against. He was filled with confidence and pride, and there wasn't anything that was going to stand in his way now. The only road blocks left after this water dragon were spirit and iron, he was already pretty confident that he could take down the Iron dragon, but he knew absolutely nothing about the Celestial Dragons, he was looking forward to having an opponent that would keep him on his toes once more though.
Concentration was one thing that Natsu had learned through out the whole experience, and he found that it got easier to predict his opponent's moves the longer they fought. Natsu was no tactician, but when push came to shove he was brilliant in the heat of the moment. Suddenly it hit him, with a smile Natsu lit flames under his feet and launched himself in the air, he hope that this would work, he hadn't tried it yet, but he needed to do something and fast.
"Frost dragon's frozen river!" Natsu watched the water that the other dragon had been manipulating freeze over, inch by inch, until she was nothing bit a big dragon pop. Natsu could see the shine of blue magic glowing around the heavy mass before it fell to the ground. He inhaled the remainder of the magic and allowed his body to grow used to the new form of magic potential. He had structured his internal container to house each element separately, it took a lot of concentration, but he was able to house enough of each so that his body was becoming used to it. Natsu could feel his magical potential increase with every new element he consumed.
"That was amazing!" Natsu turned to see the owner of the feminine voice, and was pleased to see it was who he had thought, it might be.
"Yo, Lucy!" Natsu allowed his flames to sputter and die out, bringing him back down to the ground. Lucy ran over and wrapped her arms around her husband with a bright smile. "What are you doing here? I thought you needed to train." Natsu shift so that Lucy wasn't putting weight against his bruised ribs.
"You need a spirit dragon." Igneel answered calmly. "Draco is the only one of his breed left." Lucy's face fell for a moment. She had been told that story a while ago, but she didn't want it to get in the way of seeing her husband for the first time in so many months.
"I think they have earned some time off." Draco nudged Igneel in the side playfully. "I mean they are still young you know." Draco chuckled as Lucy squealed happily.
"I guess a few days couldn't hurt." Igneel conceded giving her a soft smile.
"Igneel, Mama says you are going tell me something about that boy." A small girl with bright brown eyes bounded happily, her hands held tightly behind her back. She smiled up at the tall man with brilliant red hair, waiting for him to answer.
"Ah yes, I wanted to tell you that he has nearly completed his first track of magic training, he has also started martial arts training last week." Igneel came down to her level patting her head as he spoke. The small blonde pouted as her eyes glazed with tears.
"I would be almost finished if stupid Laxus didn't kept trying to make me look bad." The small blonde crossed her arms over her chest as she tapped her foot impatiently. "Plus isn't the dragon boy older than me? How am I supposed to catch up when he had a head start! It's not fair!" Lucy pursed her lips as she turned her gaze to the ground.
"Lu it's time to work on swords!" A blonde boy hollers from the fenced off training area.
"Igneel will you come watch?" The small blonde beamed as she saw him nod that he would in fact be observing. Lucy ran toward her cousin with a bright smile. "What are the rules today, Laxus?" Lucy grabbed a sword that was nearly taller than she was, she had only just graduated from using the practice swords a over week before, and Lucy felt her excitement nearly bubble over.
"Well these are real swords so I don't think it would be good to do our normal first hit rule. At least not for your first few sparring rounds with the real thing." Laxus leaned against the weapons rack, scratching his head.
"I know how about we make a sumo ring!" Lucy squeaked as she ran her sword on the ground around their training ground. "The first to get pushed back out of the circle loses!" Igneel chuckled at the enthusiastic blonde who was so eager to fight.
"Alright, but you aren't allowed to use those Spirit boxes to teleport me out of the circle." Laxus pointed an accusing finger in her direction. "That will be considered cheating and I will win by default if you do." Lucy frowned as she knew that it had been her plan from the beginning.
"But Master says to use everything we have to fight!" Lucy protested in a high pitched voice, stamping her foot angrily.
"Master also says that you need to learn to fight with out using your magic!" Laxus stuck his tongue out at his younger cousin. "Or are you going to give up training with me and Bastion now?" Lucy's hair nearly stood up on end.
"Never! I want to beat you fair and square any way!" Lucy grudgingly agreed to the terms of the match, and they shook hands.
"They are rather good. You're in for a show today Igneel." Makarov stated as he jumped up on a fence that outlined this portion of the property. Igneel looked over at the small mage with a wary smile.
"She is a pip squeak, I can't see her lasting more than five minutes against Laxus." The sound of scraping metal brought their attention back to the dirt training ground. Lucy held her sword poised in the air, holding back the strike of her older cousin's blade. Slowly she took a few steps back, leading Laxus with her as he struck the sword down in a flurry of spark.
"She may be small but she has a fiery spirit that gives her amazing strength. And she is smart. If she inherits her mother's beauty I would say she'll be a major heart breaker when she is all grown." Makarov commented as he watched Lucy push her full weight against her weapon, she side stepped positioning her right foot and ankle around Laxus's left. she raised the hilt of her sword and brought it down on the small of his back pulling her entangled leg back forcing Laxus to fall forward on his face. Laxus landed with half his body across the drawn boundary line.
"She used herself as a diversion to get him close enough to the edge so that she could knock him out in a single blow." Igneel was rather impressed as he watched Lucy jump around happily waving her sword in the air.
"I beat you, I beat you!" She chanted with a bright smile.
"Lucky shot." Laxus grumbled as he rubbed the small of his back with pain and embarassment written across his face.
Lucy and Natsu took the time they were given to explore the area a little. After a while they found a lake that looked mostly deserted. They settled against a tree just content to be near the other for a short time.
"How is your training going?" Natsu asked fighting back his heavy eyelids. Lucy sighed relaxing against the heat of her husbands body.
"Draco is tough, but I guess we are progressing well. I didn't expect him to have an actual house, you know with being a dragon and all, but it seems he prefers to stay in human form to handle his precious books. It's been nice to sleep in a real bed every night before getting into my lessons." Lucy giggled to herself. "I almost wish I could steal Levy so she could go through them with me. Draco said that he sent her a nice chunk of the collection though. I bet she is enjoying herself, or I hope she is at least." Lucy looked up at the cloudless sky. "It's kind of nice to be doing more intellectual studies and less physical training for once." Natsu didn't miss the slight sadness that ran across her face. "How about you, that move was amazing!" Natsu laughed as he remembered the move he had accomplished by sheer luck.
"I was having a hard time with the water so I made it into something I'm used to dealing with. The Frost dragon had powers that make Gray's ice look like child's play, but I guess have so much experience with his magic made it slightly easier to come up with my own moves. Maybe Gray is good for something after all." Natsu folded his arms behind his head before sprawling out on the lush grass. "I can't wait to see his face when I whip that attack out the next time we fight. I bet he'll be so shocked that he faints like a girl!" He grinned widely as he watched a flock of white birds fly over head. "It's been to long you know, I'm so ready to head home. Back to our place." Natsu closed his eyes taking in a deep breath, he truly wished that when they did go home that things would be calm for a short while at least.
"I bet I've still got months worth of work on my end. Even though I'm working hard every day it seems that Draco always comes up with something else I can improve on." Lucy laid next to him on the grass using her bag as a pillow. "Can you believe we've been here for almost a year already?" She looked at his peaceful sleeping face out of the corner of her eye with a small smile. "I bet you've been working yourself into the ground like usual. You deserve to rest things are going to get rough again soon." She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek before drifting off herself.
"Igneel why are you here?" Lucy's eyes filled with tears, knowing full well what his answer would be.
"Your Master has been attacked, they are looking for information, we need to get you somewhere safe." Igneel said with a serious expression.
"I'm not ready to leave, I don't have my power under control yet! I nearly killed someone Igneel!" The blonde cried out desperately.
"I know Lucy, we are going to handle that soon. Right now what we need to worry about is making sure you and Natsu can progress without the threat of assassins." The small blonde looked into his pitch black emotionless eyes, as if pleading for his to just keep her with him. Igneel knew that nothing he could say would call her now, as nothing had calmed Natsu before he had left. "It's almost time Lucy, your mother is going to seal away your powers so you can't hurt anyone, the seal will be broken when you are ready to use them again." Igneel patted the young girl on the head lightly, offering what little comfort he could.
"What about Natsu? Where is Natsu?" Lucy was becoming frantic as she imagined the boy she had slowly fallen for being left alone out in the wilderness, were they going to seal his powers too? How could they do this to them?
"He won't remember anything about you, I've already sealed his memories. He won't know how to use anything having to do with his dragon half and everything having to do with your family will was completely suppressed. You won't remember anything about him either, nor who you are right now. It's better this way, the fates will lead you to each other when the time is right." Lucy wrapped her small arms around the dragon's leg, shaking in frustration and sheer terror of the unknown.
"I don't want to forget!" She whined, tears streaming freely down her face.
"To be safe, you must forget. You won't be Lucy Dreyer anymore, child, and it will be best to lock that Lucy away inside of you till the time comes where she can return to this world." Lucy didn't understand what he meant, but it didn't make much difference to her. Lucy's mother was fading fast, and there was nothing that little Lucy could do to save her. Laxus and Grampa were still there, but they would both be leaving soon. She would be alone, with out even the stories of Natsu to keep her sane, she would be deprived of her pleasant daydreams, along with her terrible nightmares.
"Lucy we will all be together again one day there is no reason to be sad." Makarov cooed from the chair beside his daughter's bed. "Natsu will be at Fairy Tail with Laxus and me. I will look after him until you find your way there." Lucy ran at her grandfather with eyes shining.
"Grampa I don't want to leave you! I don't want to forget! I'll be a good girl I swear, please just take me with you!" Lucy was silenced by a bright golden light. She collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. If a heart breaking could be heard, the sound in the room would have been deafening, as they watched Lucy's tears run freely as she doubled over in pain.
"Stay strong, Lucy. Follow your heart. Remember to never apologize for who you are and be proud of the life you live." Layla sat up a little higher and placed the magic on her daughter again, a total of twelve times. "Igneel, I don't have enough magic left to make the last seal." Layla coughed, bright red blood dripping from her paling lips. "Take care of them." She whispered leaning back and closing her eyes. The room fell silent as Igneel placed his hand on the young girls forehead, sealing away anything that Layla had missed.
"I will take her to Judo." Makarov said sadly looking at his family, Laxus came over and picked little Lucy up in his arms.
"Gramps, do we really have to leave her with that creep? We don't even know if he'll let her go!" Laxus kept his eyes fixed on Lucy's face.
"To keep her safe that is what needs to be done. Lucy will still be Lucy, and her heart will find it's way back to us." Makarov answered sadly keeping the tears that filled his own eyes out of view from the others in the room.
"I've taken care of Natsu before I came here. I left him in the East forest of Magnolia he should be waking up soon, and he will have realized that I'm gone." Igneel walked over to the bed and gently brushed Layla's hair out of her face. "She doesn't have long left, you should get going."
"Natsu." Lucy poked him in the ribs, after the fourth time she called his name. It was hard to tell time in a place like this, but she knew that they had been gone for more than two days already. The idea of heading back wasn't the most pleasant, she wanted to spend more time like this. Just the two of them peacefully enjoying each other. Two nights of being able to hold one another was only acting as a bandage for what she really needed.
"Urgh" Natsu rolled to the other side, trying to ignore the poke that set his still bruised ribs on fire.
"Come on I wanna talk before we have to head back." Natsu stretched with a low growl, looking at the sad expression on her face.
"Has it been that long already?" Lucy nodded her head in reply. Natsu pushed himself up on his elbows letting out a long yawn. "What did you wanna talk about?" He turned to see her cheeks flush bright red. Natsu was momentarily confused, Lucy hadn't been embarrassed about much of anything since they had gotten married, so this was a tad bit strange. He let her take her time as he watched her expressions change for embarrassed to fearful then finally to determined.
"Well, Levy and I had been talking a while back, you know about the both of us getting married so close together." Lucy trailed off.
"And?" Natsu brushed his hand through his wild hair nervously.
"Well, um we were thinking, well wouldn't it be nice if we all had kids around the same time?" Lucy asked in a low voice, covering her face with her hands. Natsu stared at her blankly for a few moments processing what she was trying to say.
"RIGHT NOW?" Natsu fell backward once the message came through, his nervous system was sent into over drive as he saw her peek out from behind her hands. Her face was bright red, her eyes wide with slight shock.
"Not right this minute! We still have so much fighting to do. I was just thinking that maybe the idea of it being a possibility might help us get through this a little easier. You know the idea of starting our own little family. Maybe being normal for once and not having to deal with the whole worlds fate resting in our laps. I wanna at least think that maybe when this is all over you want to do that." It was Natsu's turn to blush, and he searched his mind for a response to her proposition.
"You really are a Weirdo Lucy." He sighed, which cause her to glare at him intensely. "If that is what you want than I don't see why not, so long as we aren't putting you in danger I have no argument. When this is all over we can get a real house and what not, for little ones." He looked away for a moment. "Do you think you could handle a baby and taking on all of the master's duties at the same time?" Lucy laughed at his question, she had honestly been trying not to think about taking over for her grand father, at least not yet.
"I had an idea about that, I'm going to talk to Laxus and Grampa about it when we head home." She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. "We need to head back soon, Draco doesn't like to be kept waiting. It makes him severely grumpy." Natsu kissed the top of her head, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I think he can wait a little longer." Lucy giggled as Natsu pushed her down on her back, trailing hot kisses along her skin.
"I guess it can't be helped." Lucy said breathlessly.
A/N:: SOOOO I tried something a little different with this chapter... What do you think? Did was the flow ok? . I wanted to give a little insight into the relationships they all had before the two were sealed. WELL, I hope you liked it! we are getting close to everyone coming back together!
