Hiya, everybody! Thank you to all who have stuck around since the beginning, it is great! This chapter has some (possibly a lot) of action in it! There's a lot of excitement and I hope you love it as much as I do! Enjoy!


Chapter 9: Secrets

There was a pulling sensation as the blood poured from my hand and solidified into a sword. With the tiger beside me growling fiercely, I bared my bloody fangs and launched myself forward as Ty took the group behind us. A barrage of bullets were sent flying at me and I slashed them in half with the sword before I was right in front of them, striking them all and sending them into the wall hard. They groaned in pain and I turned around to see Ty taking down her group easily with her lethal claws. Once they were down, she bounded over to me and we ran off along the hallway.

"We need to find the wizard behind the Light Magic!" I told Ty, feeling a bit lightheaded from all the blood needed to keep the sword in its form.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep up this form without some shadows," Tyger said, panting as she loped beside me. There was another explosion that rocked the building and this time we managed to stay on our feet. We reached a window and saw smoke billowing up from what must be the first floor. I watched as flames leapt up high past the window and I knew Natsu had found us.

I skidded to a halt when I saw the Light Magic flicker before fading entirely. Natsu must have found him and defeated him, I thought happily as my Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic soared through my veins. Ty roared in joy and I saw her fur twitch. I sensed the leader hiding somewhere near the top floor when the whole building shuddered.

"Maybe we should leave, Mara," Tyger said worriedly. "I don't want the building to collapse on us."

"We need to interrogate the leader first," I told her. "He's on the top floor and there's some information we need to get."

"Climb on then! We'll get there faster!" she said as she bent down for me.

I got on her back and barely had time to hang on before she was off and running. She jumped onto the landing in the stairway and jumped to another, moving like a tiger-colored blur as we made it to the top floor. With a snarl when we stepped out of the stairs and saw others from Black Eclipse waiting for us, I hopped off her back and we walked side by side until we stopped ten feet away.

"So you've managed to escape!" the leader said with an evil grin. "Was it because of the intruders who forced their way into the building?"

"No, it was thanks to my partner that I got out," I said as I set my hand down on Ty's back. "I just want to know something. Acnologia is the one who gives your Dark Guild orders, isn't he?"

"I see that you've done your research," he said as two others stepped forward to stand beside him, setting their hands on his shoulders.

"Does he give you those orders through your dreams?" I asked with a growl.

"How else would he do that? He can't exactly appear before us since he's a huge dragon."

The building shook even more and I lost my concentration on the sword, the blood liquefying once more and splashing onto the floor. I hissed as I felt the lightheadedness wash over me, wobbling as the building shook so hard that it sent us all to the floor. Once the shuddering building stopped for a few seconds, we stood up and I used the shadows to create a bandage around my hand to stop the blood from flowing freely. I watched as the leader laughed hysterically as he was surrounded by a red glow before winking out of existence with the other two men.

"No!" I yelled with rage.

I felt a strange time stop moment where I could sense what was about to happen and I turned around to tackle Tyger to the ground, making us both slide back to the wall beside the stairs. She yowled in surprise, about to ask me what I thought I was doing when the building heaved and something solid shot through the floor where we had been standing. I looked back and saw that it was a huge clear crystal that seemed to glow with an otherworldly light. It kept moving up to the roof and then a voice could be heard in the stairway.

"Timara!" I heard them yell as the building was rocked with more crystals shooting out of the floor. The crystals formed a barrier around us both and blocked any form of exit. Tyger hissed and I hugged her, burying my face into her fur for a few seconds before looking back up. I looked up past the crystals and saw Happy hovering there near the ceiling before flying to the opening of the staircase.

"Natsu, they're on the top floor!" he yelled.

I tried to blast a hole in the crystals with my shadows, but it didn't even leave a scratch. I heard two sets of running feet coming up the stairs and could vaguely see two shapes through the crystals. I was surprised when the crystals blocking our way out seemed to just shift and form a hole big enough for us to get out. Ty leapt out of the hole and a surprised yell was heard so I jumped out behind her. I saw Natsu about to attack her when I hopped in front of her.

"Is that a tiger?" Rogue asked, looking pale as she growled at him.

"It's just Ty!" I said, throwing out my arms to block any attacks at her.

"Since when can Ty turn into an actual tiger?" Happy asked me.

"Since now," Tyger said.

Natsu looked at me seriously, assessing whatever damage I may have had. "Are you alright?"

"A bit bloody, but I can explain that."

He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me a bit closer to look at my hand. He tore off the black bandages and gasped in surprise when he saw the fang marks. Now that there was nothing covering it, it started to bleed heavily before I could make more bandages from the shadows. Before I could protest, he had me over his shoulder and was carrying me down the stairs. I called to Ty and she followed us down the stairs beside Rogue, who had Happy and Frosch flying above him. I felt the building shudder again and Natsu picked up the pace. He started to take the stairs two at a time and we reached the ground floor just in time for the building to heave again and start to collapse. I saw a huge crystal that shot up through the ceiling and it cracked with the weight of the building coming down on it as the ground floor was covered in flames. We rushed outside just in time as the whole building came down around us.

"What was that?" I yelled, squirming in an attempt to get free from Natsu's grip.

"That's a good question since I didn't see where the crystals even came from," Rogue said.

Natsu set me down hurriedly and glared at me. "Why are there bite marks on your hand?"

"Listen, I couldn't use my Dragon Slayer Magic at all," I explained. "I didn't know what else to do and I remembered that my dad had the ability to use Blood Magic. I inherited that ability as well and I was desperate enough to use it."

"Father always said that Blood Magic was only to be used as a last resort!" Rogue said.

"It was used as a last resort!" I yelled furiously. "Ty and I were going to be attacked and she wouldn't have been able to take them all on by herself!" I heard Ty groan from fatigue before shifting back to her normal form as a kitten. I picked her up and held her as she fell asleep in my arms. "Now, will someone explain where the crystals came from?"

They both shrugged their shoulders but I could see that Natsu was hiding something. I narrowed my eyes at him for a few seconds but let him keep his secret for now until we found time to be alone. Then I could demand he tell me what he's hiding. They told me instead what happened after I had been taken. Natsu had managed to wake up long enough to see them carrying away my limp body and then once he had his energy back, he woke Rogue and the two cats before they tracked my scent to a building not far from the mountain. They then lay siege to the building and tried to locate me.

"You didn't exactly make things easy," Rogue told me. "We found the floor you were being held on, only to find that you had broken out. My sister, always a fighter…"

"And I will continue to be until my last breath," I said with a grin. I happened to look down to see blood covering the tank top and sighed. I knew it was from after I had bitten myself and it still didn't make me very happy. I spit out the blood that still covered the inside of my mouth and wiped my lips and chin with the back of my hand. "Let's just head back to Sabertooth for now."

The flight back was uneventful, neither one of us speaking to each other since we were all tired from the day's events. Dawn had just broken over the sky by the time we reached the building outside of Rogue's guild. My breath whistled from between my teeth when Ty accidentally kicked my injured hand and I saw black spots in my vision for a few seconds before I blinked them away. Natsu led me inside, one arm around my shoulders in case I wobbled and fell as Happy flew over to Wendy to ask her to heal me. She ran over and took off my bandage, then used her healing magic to take care of the bites. If she suspected that it was my doing, she didn't show it as she gave me a smile and went back to talking with Lucy and Carla. I saw a man I hadn't seen in a long time standing behind Lucy and he gave me a friendly wave. With a smile, I shrugged off Natsu's arm and walked over to him.

"Hey there, Timara," he said with a grin, giving me a quick hug before releasing me. "You're still just as pretty as I remember you to be."

"Hi, Loke," I laughed, reaching up to muss his hair. Looking at the suit and much longer hair, I said, "You look a lot different from what I remember though."

"Well, this is my Celestial Spirit form," he told me. "I'm the one known as Leo, the leader of the 12 Golden Zodiac Keys."

"That's great!" I exclaimed, happy for him. He'd been a friend of mine ever since I had first shown up at Fairy Tail as a child. He never seemed vexed by my silence and isolation, forcing his sunny disposition on me at any chance he got just to keep me sociable. In fact, he was the only one to find out that I was a Dragon Slayer before I revealed my secret to the whole guild a couple weeks ago. I hugged him once more before saying, "But I didn't realize you could be out of the Spirit World for so long."

"I can if I use my own power. That's how I'm out here right now without Lucy needing to call me," he explained as I let go, leaning over to kiss my cheek like he always did. "I missed you when you turned into an S-Class Wizard and took all those jobs that kept you away for so long. You could have at least taken me along with you."

"But then you never would have met Lucy and become part of her team," I reminded him. "Things worked out in the end."

He nodded and then seemed to gaze at something behind me before saying, "Oh, great. Here comes trouble."

Without needing to know what he was referring to, a familiar figure with pink hair was in front of me and slammed his fist into Loke's face. He was sent flying and slammed into the opposite wall, making cracks like a spider web spread out around him before he hit the ground. He looked up, blood dripping from his nose before he stood and glared at the Fire Dragon Slayer. Natsu was about to go after him again when I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back, only to have my feet begin to slide with the force of Natsu's will to get to Loke.

"Stop it, Natsu!" I yelled as everyone turned back to look at us. "Loke is my friend and you're not going to hurt him again!"

Almost as if he didn't hear a word I said, Natsu growled, "Don't touch Timara like that again." Before either of us could say something to him, he turned around, grabbed me by the upper arm, and dragged me along with him as he walked off. Ty woke up and flew out of my arms to go play with Happy, which I was thankful for because I didn't want her caught in the middle of what might go down.

I was led down a bunch of hallways, immediately getting lost until we finally stopped in the darkest hallway. I was about to ask him why we were here when he pushed me against a wall and kissed me, pushing his tongue into my mouth and sliding it along mine. I shivered, the sensations driving me crazy as he kissed me deeply. I heard a satisfied growl rumble in his throat and he picked me up to keep me pinned there as I wrapped my legs around his waist. He pulled away to trail kisses along my jaw, nipping the skin occasionally just to get another shiver from me. Another tremor went through my body as he reached my neck, sucking lightly there and making me clutch his shoulders tightly. I felt his fangs brush the skin at the juncture of my neck and right shoulder and soft moan escaped my lips, my eyes closing halfway in bliss. I didn't really know what he was planning until he sank his fangs there between my neck and shoulder and I trembled in his hold as it felt like liquid fire was pouring into my veins. I gasped in shock as he kept hold with his teeth, growling lightly at me whenever I tried to pull away. As soon as I felt a warm tingle from my head down to my toes that slowly dissipated, he pulled his fangs free and swallowed my blood, giving me a contented grin before walking off and leaving me there to lean heavily against the wall as I wondered what that was all about.

It took me a long time before I could convince myself that it was time to move, so I walked along the hallways completely lost. Thankfully, I heard voices approaching and I tracked them until I found Gajeel and Pantherlily talking to each other. They both looked up at me, the cat looking at me curiously as the Iron Dragon Slayer began to laugh, hunching over with his mirth.

"I fail to see what's so funny," I said, looking over at his cat for help and he only shrugged.

"I was wondering when Natsu would do that," Gajeel said in between laughs, finally stopping long enough to catch his breath.

"Do what?" I asked him.

"You mean to tell me that you just let him do that without him explaining or asking you if he could?" he said, starting to laugh again.

"Tell me right now or I swear I'll—"

He cut me off with a slight glare, his laughter now gone. "No need for threats. It's not very polite."

"And neither are you, now spill."

He gave me a grin before saying, "I like you. I can see why Natsu likes you so much as well. You're feisty." When I gave him a look that suggested I would start throwing punches soon, he told me what I wanted to know. "Natsu bit you. Dragons will bite their mates to ward off unwanted attention and to show that they are together. The marks stay there until the day that one of them dies. In other words, that mark on your neck is going to prove that you belong to Natsu and it won't come off for a long time."

"Not if I go ahead and kill him for this," I growled. I was about to walk away to hunt down a certain pink haired individual when Gajeel stopped me.

"I hope you bit him back," he said to my back since I had already turned away from him. "If not, you're going to be wildly jealous about every little thing that pops up."

Cursing under my breath, I walked off in the opposite direction, not even caring now about being lost. As I uttered just about every profanity under the sun, I wished that Skiadrum had said something about this sort of thing. I would have been nice to know not to let another Dragon Slayer bite you lest you're tied to him for as long as either of you live. It was unbelievable how rotten a mood I was in and finally I decided to track down the person who put me in this predicament. I sniffed the air and smirked when I found his scent, following it all the way to the main room where almost everyone was gathered. I paused long enough to check and see if he was here, but didn't spot him. I was about to move to the door that led outside when Rogue and Sting walked over to me. When they stopped a couple feet away and sniffed the air before narrowing their eyes, I inwardly groaned because I knew they could smell my blood that still dripped from the bite. Rogue grabbed me by the arm and forcefully turned me, both Dragon Slayers growling angrily as they caught sight of the bite mark.

"I'm going to kill him," Rogue snarled and I had never seen him look so mad before, not even when we were kids.

"I'll help," Sting said and they both ran out of the building itself.

"Yeah, that's great," I mumbled under my breath. "Way to not ask me what happened and just assume the worst."

"But isn't that what really happened?" I heard my Tyger ask me sarcastically as she flew around my head.

"That's not the point here," I said with a sigh, walking out of the building with Ty in tow.

I could already hear the fighting taking place the moment I stepped foot outside and I followed it to the top of the hill, looking down at to see Rogue and Sting attack Natsu, who almost looked bored as he fended them off easily. He had a grin on his face as he fought back, only making the other two Dragon Slayers mad and they fought harder. I looked over to the side to see Lector and Frosch cheering on their partners as Happy flew above them to cheer on Natsu.

"Boys…" I heard Ty mutter to herself and I laughed. I couldn't agree with her more.

I heard a yell as the two fighting Natsu were sent flying, sliding into the dirt and looking beyond angry. "How dare you bite my sister and claim her as yours!" Rogue snarled, glaring furiously at him. "You had no right to do that!"

"You didn't even ask her!" Sting yelled. "You just bit her so that you wouldn't have to deal with anyone else hitting on her! That's just low!" Turning to Rogue, he said, "When we get back, I'll bite over his mark. It's soon enough that it will nullify it."

"If you do that, I will rip you limb from limb," Natsu growled, glaring fiercely.

At this point, I was trembling in fury as I watched, so unbelievably outraged that these men thought that they could control the outcome of my life. The shadows began to congeal around me, Ty having to hop down before she was covered with them as well. Bones snapped and popped as my form shifted with the pull of the darkness, yet another place within my mind snapping open in the process. It was as if I kept learning more and more from them when in times of need. I happened to see Ty turning back into a tiger again and I let out a roar, startling them all as Ty leapt down to tackle Rogue and Sting to the ground. I felt wings snap open from my back, towering over all of them easily as I bared my fangs. I lowered my head down to them, stretching my now long neck to be eye level with the tiny creatures below me.

"How dare you all think that it is ok to fight on my behalf," I growled, the shadows all around shuddering with every word. "I ought to destroy you all."

"Timara, don't you think this is a little out of hand?" Rogue asked me as Ty let them up, walking over to me proudly with her tail whipping back and forth behind her.

"Shut up!" I snarled, conjuring shadowy tape to stick to his mouth. I glared down at Natsu, who looked a bit nervous now, and said, "You are a jealous idiot. I can't believe you bit me for such a stupid reason."

"But look at your shoulder now," he said sheepishly, looking everywhere but at me. "It looks pretty cool."

I craned my neck to see, just between my neck and shoulder, was a crimson tattoo of sorts that seemed to flicker like a fire, bright red against my black scales. I looked back at him with a low growl rumbling from my throat and said, "That doesn't change the fact that you did it without my permission."

"You can bite me back if you want," he mumbled, still refusing to look me in the eyes.

"That's not the point, Natsu. And as for you," I said, turning my head back to the other Dragon Slayers, more specifically Sting, "no one else will be biting me ever again. If you try, I will tear out your throat out with my teeth and watch you bleed out."

I stood up to my full height as Ty jumped up onto my back, a strong downbeat of my wings sending us airborne and I flew in the direction of the nearest lake. With my vast wings, it only took about ten minutes to get there, the land flying by fast below us. Landing heavily since I wasn't used to my new form yet, I walked over to the lake to look at myself. A multitude of onyx scales covered me from head to tail, sharp and lethal talons tipping my feet so I could rend anything in half. I looked at my head and saw crimson eyes that glowed, no visible irises or pupils to be seen. I had two black horns extending back that curved slightly away from my skull and I was surprised how similar I looked to Skiadrum, as if I had really been his daughter. My body was leaner than his stocky, muscled body and my wings had scales along the front part where wing attached to spine. The spikes along my back were smaller than Skiadrum's as well. With a huff, I laid down beside the lake, dipping my toes into the water and settling my wings flat against my spine.

"You look cool, Mara!" Ty said as she lay beside me, staying in her tiger form so I could see her.

"Thanks, Ty," I told her, nudging her with my nose. "You look pretty cool as well."

A deep purr could be heard coming from her and I chuckled, looking out across the water in contentment. I watched until the sun began to set and I could see a dark spot in the sky that was coming closer, sighing when I just knew that it was Natsu and Happy. When they landed nearby, Ty got up and growled at them until I told her to go play with Happy. She shifted back into her normal form and then played air tag with Happy, flying around the lake and chasing each other. I turned my head in the direction that Natsu was standing, refusing to lay my head down at eye level with him.

"Can we talk?" he asked me, not moving from his spot until he knew it was ok. When the only response he got from me was a brief nod, he sighed and continued on. "Look, I'm sorry I marked you. It was wrong of me to do so without asking you first. Now will you please turn back into a human so we can actually talk? It's strange speaking to a dragon again when they're all gone."

With another sigh, I did as he asked, letting the shadows blow away with the breeze and bones snapping back into place to allow me my human form. I sat down in the grass and stuck my legs into the water as Natsu walked over to sit beside me. I gazed down at my reflection, seeing the bite had healed thanks to being a dragon and now was flickering fire tattoo.

"Gajeel told me that if I don't bite you, I'll end up going on a jealous rampage," I said quietly, watching as Natsu's reflection smirked.

"You, go on a rampage? I can't see that happening." When I smacked his shoulder, he just laughed. "Like I told you before, you can bite me, too, if you want."

"But how do I know if that's what I really want?" I asked him, finally looking away from the water and staring at him instead. "You know you're tied to me for as long as we both live, right?"

"I know that and that's partially why I did it," he told me, reaching over to grab my hand and slipping his fingers between mine. "I like the thought of being mated with you."

Half of me agreed with his words, liking the thought of us being mates as well, while the other half was still outraged by his actions. I knew what I was going to do and I was definitely not going to turn into a jealous monster over the littlest things if I could help it. I pulled my feet out of the water and moved closer to him, making him blush a bit when I straddled his hips. When he tried to ask me what I was doing, I silenced him with a kiss. We stayed like that for a while before I pulled away, making him growl since he didn't approve of how short it was. He wrapped his arms around my waist to keep me in place as I leaned in towards his neck, moving aside his scarf and licking at the same spot that he bit me. He quivered slightly in anticipation just before I sank my fangs into his skin, the coppery taste of his blood slowly filling my mouth. Since I was already so close to him, he took it as the perfect opportunity to lick at the tattoo on my neck, sending chills down my spine as I fought to stay still. After a bit, I pulled my fangs free and swallowed the blood in my mouth, licking away the few drops on his neck so that they didn't get on his scarf and then placing a bandage made from shadows over my mark for now.

He lay back on the grass, pulling me with him, and then traced his fingers up and down my spine lazily. He kissed me leisurely before lying back and closed his eyes, enjoying the dying sunlight like a housecat would. I lay my head on his chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeats. I could see just a tiny piece of the tattoo and laughed a little when I noticed that the flickers of light from it corresponded with every beat of his heart. I then closed my eyes as well and debated on a nap when I finally remembered something that bothered me.

"Natsu," I said hesitantly, feeling him stir slightly beneath me, "do you know how the crystals appeared back in the building that belonged to Black Eclipse?" I felt him tense up and I was now sure that he was hiding something. "I swear to you that I won't tell anyone, just like you kept my secrets for me. Just trust me."

"I do trust you," he said quietly, sounding torn. "But I made a promise to someone that I wouldn't tell anyone about it."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"It was a dying wish," he said simply.

"Natsu, please," I begged, looking up at him and pouting a little. The torn expression was now prominent as he debated on what he should do, finally sighing and giving in.

"Alright, but you have to swear not to tell a soul about this, not even Ty or Happy."

"I swear I won't tell," I said, both confused and surprised about the fact that he hadn't even told his own partner about this.

"Her name was Diamantina," he said, looking up at the sky, "and she was Igneel's mate when I was a child. She was the one to teach me Crystal Dragon Slayer Magic." A stunned silence seemed to fall over us both as I just openly gaped at him in shock. It's one thing to be taught Dragon Slayer Magic from one dragon, but from two? That was unheard of. I was mulling this over in my head when he started speaking again. "She didn't want to teach me this at first, saying that it was hard enough learning Dragon Slayer Magic in the first place. But I showed a lot of progress and determination and finally wore her down. She said that she'd teach me it if I learned how to create with her magic first before learning attacks."

"Kind of like how I was trying to teach you all in the beginning," I said with a smile, watching as his face lit up from my comment.

"Yeah, just like that actually. I had the hardest time learning it because it wasn't as easy as it looked. Finally, I managed to get the hang of the concept and that's how I'm not too bad at it nowadays."

"What happened to Diamantina?" I asked him.

I saw sorrow flash through his eyes before he suppressed it. "I guess she was already very sick before Igneel found me as a baby. As soon as she taught me everything she could, she decided that it was the perfect time to die. When Igneel and I came back from a joyride that he took me on through the sky, we found her just about to pass on. I ran to her and she made me promise to keep it a secret from everyone before she died."

"At least she got to see you both before she passed," I whispered, laying my head on his chest once more in an attempt to comfort him.

"I know, but it just… hurts," he whispered back, rubbing my back absentmindedly. "She was like a mother to me. A very strict one, but still like a mother. I think she would have been somewhat ok with me telling my mate about this."

We both then decided that it was as good a time as any to leave and head back to the building we were all staying at. We called to Ty and Happy, growing my wings as they approached and then we took off. It was night when we arrived back at Sabertooth and Natsu was back to his carefree self, none of the sadness from earlier showing as we headed back inside. To avoid nightmares again, he slept next to me in my room and we all fell asleep quickly after sprawling out under the covers.


I must give credit where it's due in this chapter! Special thanks to sapphire dragon slayer alex for the crystal dragon ideas and the magic to go with it, also the idea for the bitey scenes for them to become a mated pair. Good job, my friend, and thank you! :)