Manga spoilers ahead... heavy manga spoilers ahead.

E.N.D. Rises: Natsu's Return

Chapter 9:

Broken

"Why? Why is my life like this? When it ends, I'm brought and when I live, it's taken from me. Why must this be my life? Can't I just live my life? Can't I be... normal?"

"Why would you want to be normal?"

"So that I can rest... finally,"

"No... you want to be normal because you're afraid... afraid of being yourself,"

"Afraid? My only fear is continuing this paradoxical existence. I either want to be put to rest and allowed to stay at rest or I want to live and keep living. I can't do that unless I'm normal,"

"Stop lying to yourself. You're afraid of being abnormal. Ever since we were little, we've been strange. We were sick during a time when no one knew what it was or how to treat us. Then we were a demon determined to scorch the earth. After that, we were a Dragon Slayer and a member of Fairy Tail. Then we reverted back to our demon-self. Now we're here and we don't know who we are anymore,"

"We?"

"Natsu... please remember yourself,"

Zeref and Lisanna ran towards the chaos in search of Natsu as facility staff members ran away from it. The words "demon" and "monster" were yelled in fear when it was they who had awoken the creature. Zeref combusted open the door and they looked inside to see Natsu standing on the far side of the room with fire encasing him. On the ground before him was the head researcher with the facility director laying on the ground off to the side.

"C-C-Come now, Project 001, you don't want to do this," the head researcher stammered.

"Wait a minute... I recognize that man..." Zeref said, thinking back to the last time "I believe he calls himself... Brain. He caused much pain in this world that I took notice and he's never regretted it,"

Lisanna cried out in horror, "Natsu!"

The enraged Dragon Slayer reeled his fist back as golden flames encased it. Brain cowered on the ground until he felt his alternate self arising. Zero was thirsting for destruction. Natsu roared as he was about to bring the flames onto him when everything suddenly stopped. His joined fists were prevented from striking downwards by Zeref, who had jumped in the way and had grabbed hold. The flames of Dragon Force went out for that moment as he looked to see his brother had taken the force of the blow.

"N-Natsu... you'll regret... taking his life," the former Black Wizard coughed as his brother's strength pushed him into the ground "C'mon, let's go back to Fairy Tail... you've got people waiting for you... Natsu,"

"Zeref..."

"Yes... Big Brother Zef is appealing to us to stop our attack,"

"Attack? Why am I... we... attacking?"

"These people caused us pain. Don't you agree they should pay with pain?"

"No! They'll pay, they'll pay for the rest of their lives in a prison! But pain won't reverse pain... hurting them won't heal us!"

"But this is what we've always done. It's better than running like we have been,"

"We ran because people would have been hurt if we didn't. I don't regret it! And now... now we've got friends,"

"Friends who expect you to be somebody else. They haven't accepted the new you and want your past self back. You're merely a doll, a body for their friend to inhabit,"

"SHUT-UP! Fairy Tail wants to help me remember for me, not for them. I want to remember me for them and not for me. And even if I never regain my memories... I KNOW WE'LL STILL BE FRIENDS!"

"Hmm... speaking in the singular now, I see? Interesting,"

"Who are you?"

"Oh, me? I'm just that little voice in your head that says 'do it',"

Seeing the opportunity, Brain placed his hand on the wall and created a Self-Destruction Circle. He'd destroy this building but there were plenty of facility buildings to continue his work in. With his attacker distracted, Brain took the opportunity to slip away undetected. Natsu's fangs were still sharpened and his skin was still covered in scales but as his eyes returned to normal, so did the rest of him. He collapsed forward and Zeref caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Come on, little brother, it's time we get you home," he said, gently.

"Uh... what's that?" Lisanna asked.

Zeref turned around to see the magic circle on the wall. Instantly, he knew what it was.

"We've gotta move, NOW!" he exclaimed and put his arm around his brother to support him.

They started towards the exit when the Self-Destruction Circle activated. In that moment, Natsu summoned his strength and put both Lisanna and Zeref in headlocks. He pushed them to the ground but before they could ask why, the building blew up. The world around them was filled with red and black as bricks crumbled down and the building fell to pieces. Lisanna felt Natsu's arm around her as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her heart raced as everything began to slow down. She opened her eyes and sat up. Everything around them was decimated except for the area they were laying in.

"Natsu! Zeref!" Lisanna yelled and looked down at the Dragneel brothers beside her "We're... we're alive!"

Zeref sat up and felt his forehead. Blood was running down the side of his head but he ignored it to check his brother. Natsu lay on the ground and they rolled him over onto his back. His wounds were open and fresh injuries leaked his murky red blood.

"Natsu!" Zeref exclaimed "Stupid idiot! What did you do?"

"The area around us... it's undamaged. Natsu... did you protect us?" Lisanna asked.

He remained silent with his eyes half-closed. He clenched his fists and shivered as he gritted his teeth. Natsu groaned as he tried to sit up but dropped back down. His overgrown hair hung in his face and the ash from the explosion was washed away as tears ran from his eyes.

"Natsu?" Zeref asked, gently "You okay? Say something,"

"I- you- here- who- I- where-" he cut off his own sentences "Pain- me- who- where- why- here- how-"

He continued to mutter the beginning of sentences only to forget about them. With broken spirits, Zeref pulled Natsu onto his back to carry and they began heading away from the destroyed facility.

They walked through the desert land for about seven hours before being found. It took a while for Zeref's tracking lacrima to locate them apparently because of the great distance between it and the receiver. They were treated for their injuries and Zeref was allowed to stay in the same hospital as Natsu until he was fully healed. Natsu on the other hand, was in a far worse state than ever before. He stopped muttering the beginnings of sentences after falling asleep but started again as soon as someone asked him something.

"What is it, Porlyusica?" Lucy asked "What's wrong with him now?"

The Fairy Tail mages stood around Natsu's hospital room as the pink-haired boy lay in bed. They all stared at the medicine woman for an answer but she just looked over medical notes.

"Brain damage... his mind is broken," she said, curtly "It seems he remembers something only to forget it a second later. This is happening with all of his memories so his concept of self is warped. If he remembers something happy, he becomes happy only to forget what made him happy in the first place and then that memory's replaced with something sad, for example, so he becomes sad but doesn't even know what it's like being happy. It's a painful condition that he doesn't even realize he has. He's due for treatment but don't get your hopes up. Pesky humans, always throwing your lives away..."

Porlyusica walked out and left the broken Natsu to his friends.

"If his memories are continuously being remembered and forgotten then his mind is constantly changing too, right?" Gajeel asked.

"Yeah..." sighed Gray.

"Who?"

"Are?"

"You?"

"Who?"

"Are?"

"You?"

"Who?"

"Are?"

"You?"

"Who- are- you-" Natsu muttered "Help..."

The Fairy Tail mages looked to him. That was almost a clear sentence. Maybe that meant he was more aware than they thought.

"I- you- where- me- why- how- I-" he continued to stammer.

Tears began to run down his face as he looked up at the ceiling, muttering different things. His black eyes became foggy and his sight blurred. If he was crying then he had to be conscious enough to know the pain he was in but if his mind was too broken for that... his soul. It was his soul that was crying.

Lisanna sat on the edge of the hospital bed and took his hand. His body began jerking around in reaction to her touch but she kept a tight grip on him until he calmed down. Natsu lay on the bed, tears running down his face as his mind continuously changed between memories. Lisanna felt tears pricking her deep blue eyes and she covered her face with her hands. She let out a loud sob and tears began to stream down her face. Mirajane and Elfman went to her side and held her close as she cried.

Seeing Lisanna's broken heart, Juvia took Gray's hand and held onto him tightly. He pulled her into a reassuring hug and held her close. Erza resolved to visit Jellal and begin talking about their wedding arrangements. When somebody loves someone, they shouldn't neglect the time they have with worries and fears. If they loved them, they'd be with them while they could. Lisanna waited to tell Natsu about her feelings and now she'd lost him... again!

Zeref was sat in the windowsill and had witnessed them all. He had bandages around his wrists from the shackles, one around his head, another around his ankle from where the tracking lacrima had rubbed and even more wrapped tightly around his waist. He looked over at his brother with a sad smile.

"They'll be coming back for him," Zeref said, quietly "If they intend to obtain unlimited power then they'll need an unlimited container for it. To gain both, they'll be coming here,"

"Here as in Magnolia? Why?" Lucy asked.

Everyone turned to the former Black Wizard as he turned to look out the window.

"There's only one unlimited power and that's Fairy Heart. They probably plan on destroying her sleeping body to release it. Then they'll need Natsu to contain its power. Those experiments... they were probably hoping either to remove his IMC to make it an external magic container or to figure out how to make their own IMC's limitless," Zeref explained "I figured it all out after the facility building blew and we were walking off,"

Fairy Tail looked away. Makarov had told them the secret of Lumen Histoire and Fairy Heart shortly after the Tartaros War was over following Natsu's death. They didn't know how Mavis's body became Fairy Heart or Zeref's history with her but they knew they couldn't let it fall into the wrong hands (or anyone's hands, for that matter).

"How do you know about Fairy Heart?" Erza asked as her clenched fists shook "Tell us!"

Zeref looked at her with a blank expression before turning away again.

"I had a hand in its creation..." he said "Over one-hundred years ago... I stole Mavis's life,"

You want deets go read chapter 449 of the manga.