Before we start this miserable chapter, I wanted to let you know that today is my birthday! As my present to you, we get to see Natsu's descent into insanity. :) Enjoy!


He wasn't sure how long it had been since he had first woken up in the cell. Maybe a month, maybe a year. His brain was constantly muddled. But the pain…

He was in constant agony. They tortured him constantly; sucking away his magic, whipping him mercilessly, beating him.

He coughed up blood as he curled into a ball. They were beating it again. It was in so much pain… He couldn't hold back its scream any longer. He cried out as they beat him more furiously than before. Why? was all it could wonder.

"Enough," Nazar said. Natsu's gasps for air were shallow and painful. There were at least three ribs broken. Nazar knelt in front of Natsu and took his face in his pincer-like grip. "How are you feeling, Animal?" Natsu stared dully at the man before defiantly closing his eyes. Nazar backhanded him hard before ordering another whipping. Natsu's heart sank. Whippings were the worst. They never gave him anything to bite on, so he could only scream. He usually passed out by the tenth lash, though.

There was someone, though, who was kind to him. It confused him, because she was a member of this dark guild. She treated his wounds, stitching up the worse of the whips lashes. She was so kind to it…

Though Natsu didn't know it, four years had gone by since his capture. The woman continued to help him, sneaking bits of food to him every now and then, since they were starving him, and water. He never thought that he would be so glad to see water before in its life.

Natsu raised his head as he heard footsteps. He was so tired… but hadn't he been beaten like an hour ago? The door to his cell shook as it was unlocked. His eyes widened in surprise when the woman who had been helping him - Jada, was her name - was dragged in by a couple guards. Nazar flanked them.

"So, Jada, you thought you could get away with helping the little Animal behind my back?"

"It was unnecessary cruelty." He smacked her.

"Leave her alone," Natsu croaked. Nazar turned to look at him.

"And what are you going to do about it, Animal?" He looked at Nazar, dread filling his chest as he uttered the dreadful words.

"Punish me instead." Jada looked at him in horror.

"No!"

"So defensive," Nazar mocked. "Are you actually asking for punishment?" Natsu swallowed and nodded.

"Please leave her alone."

"Please leave her alone what?" Nazar prodded. Natsu nearly choked on the words.

"Please, leave her alone… Master."

The man chuckled. "How amusing. Despite being held here for such a long time, you still feel this way about people… Kill her."

"No!" Natsu screamed. It was too late. Her face twisted in pain as a blade came out of her chest. "No" he whispered, tears filling his eyes.

His mental state rapidly went downhill from there. All he ever felt was pain, inside and out. It couldn't take it anymore. It just let them beat it. They tortured it until its voice was gone from screaming. It forget Jada, and everything before its life in this hell. It forgot Fairy Tail… It forgot Igneel… It forgot everything but pain.


It watched the people who rescued it. Somehow they felt familiar, yet it couldn't remember ever seeing them before. They called it a weird name… 'Natsu'. Why? Had that been its name before it had been put in its dark cell? It wasn't sure.

But they fed it. And it was warm. For the first time in its memory, its wounds healed completely. Nearly three months after he had been rescued, it wasn't able to count its ribs anymore.

The girl with red hair, the girl with gold hair, and the man who was always losing his clothes - it didn't blame him, clothes were annoying, but nice - were always with it. When the blue cat had presented a scaly scarf to him with a bright smile on his face, it could feel something stirring within its memories. Excited, it dug inside, but the tighter it held on to the flicker, the more it slipped away. Its face had fallen as it lost the flicker of memory. It felt even worse when it saw its constant companions' faces fall as well.

It could communicate a little now. It was able to tell them when it was hungry, or thirsty. At first, it hadn't said anything for fear of punishment, but they had encouraged him to tell them. It was also able to talk idly a little. It learned new words every day.


Lisanna watched Natsu as he struggled to say more words. She tried to ignore the pang in her heart upon seeing her best friend reduced to this state. Natsu had always been so lively, and now he was afraid to talk to them for fear of what they might do. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered where they had found him. A dark, cold cell. He had been denied the most basic things a human needed for seven years, and this was what it had done to him. Then she noticed Natsu staring at her sadly. He understood that something was missing, and was trying to hard to find it.

One thing Natsu had hated was to see his nakama cry. He still hated it, though he showed it differently now. Now, he would watch the upset person with concern and more than a little fear, wondering what was wrong and how he could fix it.

"Sad?" he asked her hesitantly. Lisanna wiped her tears away.

"A little," she admitted. "But it's ok." She could have laughed right then as he gave her a look that he had given her so often before.

"Smile," he said softly, gesturing to her face. "You… smile." It was a mixture of a command and statement.

"Ok," she said. "Smile." Last month, they had reached another milestone with him. He had allowed them to cut his hair and beard off. Before, he wouldn't let them come within five meters of him while holding scissors or a razor. He looked at little better now. Natsu would spend as much time as he could outside. His pupils remained unnaturally large, and he would often shield his face from the sun. But Lisanna would never forget the delighted sounds he made when he touched fresh grass for the first time in seven years.

He wore the scarf constantly, hiding some of the vicious scars on his neck. It was hard to see any of the scars, now, because of the jeans and sweater he wore constantly. Natsu wouldn't let anyone near him when he wasn't wearing his clothes. After much coaxing, Gray managed to convince him that he wouldn't hurt him. As a result, Gray was one of the few people Natsu would willingly turn his back on.

Gray was talking to Natsu, crouching in front of him. There had been a few rules that Natsu had set in order to get close to him. Both hands had to be in plain sight and empty of anything that could be used as a weapon. Eye contact at all times unless he broke it first. And above all - don't touch his back. Gray had received enough trust from the Dragon Slayer to bypass the last rule, which meant that he was the only one able to look at Natsu's back, which wasn't healing properly from all of the whippings he had gotten.

"How is it?" Erza asked Gray quietly as he looked at Natsu's bare back. The dark look on his face had her worried. She couldn't let her emotions show on her face, which Natsu's eyes were fixated. She felt a pang in her chest at the fear in them.

"Bad," Gray muttered. "Infection has set in." It took a little coaxing to let Erza look at his back, though the ice wizard had to be between them. Erza felt sick when she saw Natsu's back. The last time she saw it was when he had first been rescued, covered in blood. But now…

There were more scars than she cared to count, but at least fifteen of them were swollen, oozing pus, and an ugly greenish color. Erza had seen how his face would tense in pain whenever he stood or sat, but she had no idea that it was this bad. All of the torture over the years must have numbed his body to the pain.

"We need to take him to Porlyusica," Erza said. Natsu gasped as Gray gently pressed a cloth against the infected wounds. A groan escaped his clenched teeth. Gray was shaking his head.

"Porlyusica is scary. The last thing we need is for her to terrify him again."

"I'll talk to the ma- Makarov." Natsu had been terrified when he overheard them call Makarov the master. No one wanted a repeat of that. Erza could still remember the terror on his face as he huddled in a corner, lashing out with a knife if anyone got too close. Thankfully, Natsu didn't catch her slip and focused tightly on the wall.

As she left, Natsu let out a long, aching moan of pain that ripped her heart to shreds.


If it's any consolation, I was really mad at myself for writing this chapter. Review as my birthday present!