Natsu POV

Food as far as the eye could see. Mountains of food, with extra spicy sauce. There was even a range of flames from different sources for me to try out!
I was truly in heaven.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Happy, my cat, flying towards me. He seemed to be way bigger than usual… or had I shrunk?
I didn't care; there was food to be eaten.
Strange, shiny food that didn't seem to smell of anything…

"Natsu! Where's Lucy?" the blue cat asked, his voice seeming far away.
I smiled lazily at him, about to answer, when the mountains of food started turning black. My heart rate increased as the black mass started condensing into a monster.

"Natsu!" I heard a voice call behind me. Lucy's voice.
I turned around, only to see the monster had got to her before I could. What was happening? Why were my movements so slow?
I noticed bodies of other people on the ground… Gray, Lisanna, Levy, Loke, Erza, Gajeel. Oh god, they looked dead… where they dead? Lucy and I seemed to be the only conscious ones…
Panic rose in me as I saw deep, bleeding gashes running down Lucy's side. Her face was contorted in pain as the monster approached her again…

No…

"Lucy!" I shouted, letting the fire inside me come out.
But my body refused to produce any flames. I tried again and again, panicking, the floor moving underneath me frantically as the monster approached my best friend in slow motion…

"STAY AWAY FROM ME! I KNOW YOU'RE A MAGE!"

I woke with a start, instinctively staying quiet as I took in my surroundings.
I started to calm down as I realised that it was just another nightmare. But the monster… it was real. That had happened in real life.
But I had drawn its attention away from Lucy in real life, I remembered with relief.

With my fire.
Well, shit.
At least I apologised to her beforehand. Maybe she wouldn't hate me too much.

But hadn't I just been woken up by someone screaming bloody murder about a mage being present?
Opening my eyes just enough to see through my eyelashes, I saw everyone gathered around a hysterical Lisanna. Everyone except Loke, who also turned out to be a mage, and had the guts to attack the monster before I did.
My urge to fight him tripled.

Well if he was gone, then the mage they were referring to was me… my guess was that Loke was now going into hiding to prevent himself from being caught.

"I WILL NEVER BE FRIENDS WITH MAGES! THEY DO HORRIBLE THINGS TO PEOPLE!"

Ouch.
This was my cue to leave, then. It probably wouldn't be safe to go back to where Wendy was.
Ugh, this was so unfair! Years of dumb luck protecting me from revealing my magic to the wrong people and then this dumb monster had to ruin it all!

With everyone's attention on Lisanna, I took one last look at them and made a quiet exit. It was fun while it lasted, I guess. At least Lucy was still alive.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It didn't take long for me to pack up all my things, get Happy and go. After all, it would only be a matter of time before the Royal Guard would be after me.

Happy, my lone companion, kept throwing me worried looks as I headed towards the forest nearby. I really didn't have it in me to smile and brush off the situation, so he would just have to deal with my moody silence for now. Probably for a long time after today, as well.
It took every ounce of my self-control to keep walking away from my friends.

I had just reached the edge of the forest when a voice couldn't bear to face, but also secretly really wanted to hear, called out to me.

"Natsu!" she shouted, reminding me of how she had called my name in the nightmare.
Attempting to shove the images out of my head, I started walking faster, away from her. Why on earth would she be following me, anyway?
"Natsu Dragneel, you stop this instant!" she demanded. What was she thinking? Didn't she listen to the news? She should be afraid of me!

I found myself unable to keep walking, though.
Checking that Happy's wings were retracted (I didn't want him getting caught up in the mess), I turned back to face her.
I should have kept walking. What if the last expression I saw on the face was fear… of me?

Her facial expression was definitely not what I expected.
She was livid. No fear. None at all. She was in more of a rage than the first time we met, when I laughed at her for getting stuck in that window. What made it worse is that she seemed to be completely unaware of her blood-stained clothes and bandages.
I was more wary of her in that moment than I had ever been of Erza, and that was saying something. Wait, why am I the one that's afraid here?

I stayed still in a dazed state as she approached me, pulling back her hand.
Her slap wasn't hard. It was half-assed, barely making a mark on my face. It succeeded in bringing me back to reality, though.
"YOU WERE LEAVING?" she screamed in my face.

"Luce…" I started panicking when I noticed the tears in her eyes. She was sad…?

"AFTER TELLING ME NOT TO LEAVE, YOU'RE JUST GOING TO GET UP AND GO, JUST LIKE THAT? WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING?" she balled up her fists, lightly hitting me on the chest.

It dawned on me that she was correct. I hadn't even thought about it like that. Wasn't I just doing the same thing to her and everyone else that my dad had done to me?
The circumstances were different, though.

"Luce, I'm sorry, but you don't understand. I'm a mage. I can't-"
"I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS. YOU DON'T JUST DITCH PEOPLE LIKE THAT, IDIOT. NOT AFTER SAVING THEIR LIFE." She interrupted, staring me down.

I felt relief rushing through me. Enough to make me light-headed. Was there a chance I could actually stay…?
"You're not afraid of me." I confirmed.

Lucy rolled her eyes, smiling as she wiped her tears away.
"Hmm, I don't know. Can I ask a friend whether or not I'm afraid of magic?" she asked innocently, flashing that coy smile she adopts when she's messing with someone.
What sort of request was that anyway? I narrowed my eyes, not knowing where this was leading.

I almost took a step back when she reached into her bra.
Was I being punked? What the hell was going on?
She eventually took her hand out of her bra, a key grasped tightly in it. What was with her and keys, anyway?
"Open, gate of Crux!" she shouted, waving her key in mid-air.

This time, I actually did take a step back. Several. The gold flash of light made my instincts go haywire. What the fuck just happened?
My vision cleared, and I thought I was dreaming again when I saw a giant metal cross with an old man's face carved into it.
Lucy ignored the frantic questioning look I shot at her, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Crux, can you tell me if I should be afraid of magic?" Lucy politely asked the piece of metal.
I jumped when the face on the cross started moving. It morphed into a slightly grumpy sleeping face, drool dripping from its mouth.
I was dreaming. No, I wasn't. This was real life.

The only way of making something appear from nothing was…
Magic.

LUCY WAS A MAGE? A thousand lightbulbs went off in my head.
"Lucy, you-"

"Shhhh!" she stopped me, grinning as she noticed my epiphany. "Crux is thinking, you have to wait and stay quiet!" I could tell she was just about stopping herself from bursting with laughter.
"But Luce-"
"no shhhh!" she was giggling now as she covered my mouth. I pouted, debating whether I should lick her hand. Why wouldn't she just let me ask the damn question already?

"Lucy" the cross awoke, speaking in a voice full of wisdom. "There is no reason for you to be afraid of magic. You yourself are a celestial mage and it is illogical to be afraid of yourself. Recent sources stating that mages are able to put curses on people have no citations, and therefore there is not sufficient evidence to suggest they speak the truth. Does that answer your question, Lucy?" the cross finished, bowing.
"Yes, thank you crux. You were very helpful, as usual. Gate closure!" Lucy called, waving her key in the air again. The cross disappeared, having answered my burning question as well as Lucy's.

Warmth spread throughout me as I realised what this meant. I knew other mages, but nobody who was my age. I would be able to tell Lucy everything now, knowing that she was in the same boat as me. She might even tell me what happened at the train station when we first met…

"That's so awesome." I commented after a few seconds of silence, staring at the place where the cross used to be. Her magic allowed her to bring people out of keys? I didn't even know magic could do that.

Lucy POV

"That's so awesome." His awed smile lit up his face. Good, I never wanted to see him looking all melancholy ever again. It didn't suit him at all.

I blushed at his compliment, not bothering to hide it as I realised how lucky I was to have caught him before he left. Dumb luck, I guess.
"Your flames are pretty amazing too, you know" I told him.

"You liiiiiiike each other" a voice that wasn't Natsu's drawled behind me.
I spun around on high alert, cursing the fact that my guard had dropped. My eyes darted around at high speed, not finding the source.
I heard Natsu snort at my panicked reaction. His hand came from behind me, tucking itself under my chin as it pushed my line of sight upwards.

I don't even know why I was so surprised to see what I did, especially after what I had witnessed today. My eyes widened and I stepped back, accidentally bumping into the amused idiot behind me.
Happy, his cat, had wings. He was flying.
Maybe I actually did have a concussion?

"Lucy, this is Happy, who is actually an exceed. He's basically a cat that can use magic." He beamed at me.
"I can finally talk around the weirdo!" the blue cat sang as he flew circles around us in glee.
After taking a few moments to get over my initial shock, I couldn't help but break down in hysterical laughter. I must admit, I was glad to know Natsu wasn't some odd cat whisperer. And I finally knew just how he got into my room in the fourth floor! It all made sense now…
After calming down, I stuck my hand out to Happy for him to shake. Oddly enough, the action didn't seem weird to me, considering it was to a cat.
"Glad to finally meet you, Happy." I said.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

After explaining the fact that nearly everyone else in the detention was a mage, our conversation drifted towards his magic.
"So you used magic to set that trash can alight?" I asked Natsu as we walked back to the classroom.
"Yep!" he grinned. The idiot actually looked proud of himself.

"Wait… what about the fire on Monday? Was that you too?" the thought had only occurred to me now.
"Yeah, that was my bad. I was running track and was way ahead of the others when the pollen started messing with my nose. I sneezed and uh… yeah."
I laughed. "You sneeze fire?"
"Mhmm. Couldn't eat it in time either because people were starting to catch up and they would have seen." He replied nonchalantly.

I stopped walking completely. "YOU EAT FIRE?" how was this guy even human?
He stopped walking with me, grinning as he nodded.
I instantly started looking through my pockets. I was bound to have a lighter in here somewhere… yes!
Bringing out the lighter, I lit it, challenging the boy to prove his claim.
I watched in awe as he opened his mouth, drawing the small flame towards it like a magnet. It was weird to see fire touching someone's skin without burning it.
"And you say I'm the weirdo" I teased, carrying on our walk towards the classroom.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"OI SALAMANDER! WHO RAISED YOU?" was all we were greeted with when we got back to the destructed room. Gajeel really had a way with words, I thought sarcastically.
"What's it to you?" Natsu retorted. I remembered that this was most likely a tricky topic for him; not the sort of thing he'd want to talk about to a whole crowd of people.

"Tch, never mind" the Iron dragon slayer growled as we joined the circle of people congratulating me on finding Natsu. They also took an immediate liking to Happy after a rather… theatrical introduction on his part.

My train of thought took a wild turn, though. Both Gajeel's and Natsu's parents disappeared, right? Gajeel probably just wanted to know whether Natsu's parent was a dragon…
Dragons in the books I read all breathed fire…

"Natsu, is your dad a dragon?" I asked, cringing when Natsu, along with everyone else, turned their heads in silence to stare at me.
"Y-yeah. How…?" he stuttered, his eyes widening.
I smiled at him, nodding towards Gajeel. "You two have a lot to talk about, then."

A few seconds later, I was sweatdropping at how fast their conversation turned from discussing when their dads disappeared into fighting over whose dragon was stronger.
Averting my attention away from the two impulsive hot heads, I decided to ask the question that had been plaguing my mind for a while now.
"Does anyone have any idea what that monster was, then?" I asked.
"Erza said she knows, but she wanted to wait for everyone to get here so she would only have to explain once." Levy replied.

"And now that you and Natsu have arrived, I will start." Erza continued in a solemn voice. I looked at her, worried. I got the impression this was something she didn't want to talk about, but the resolve on her face was absolute.
Natsu and Gajeel had stopped their fighting in order to listen, sensing that an important revelation was about to take place.

Erza took a deep breath before starting.
"This may come as a shock to some of you but I am an escapee from a magic concentration camp. As far as I know, I am the only one who has ever accomplished such a feat; however I refuse to pretend I didn't have help. A lot of people- friends- played a part in getting me out of that place. Many were supposed to escape that day, but I was the only one who did."

There was a chorus of gasps from her audience, but we didn't dare interrupt. I could hear the guilt in her voice; the heartbreaking tone reminding me of Loke's when he was describing his close calls with the concentration camps.

Erza… She was still technically a child, for god's sake! How many other children have witnessed the horror of those concentration camps?
I couldn't have even guessed she had gone through something so horrible. She was so strong, recalling all of this without shedding a single tear. Her eyes were watery and I felt like hugging her and telling her to let it all out. I needed to allow her to finish her explanation first, though.

"I was in there from a young age and escaped two years ago. I will not give details of the conditions-" she visibly shuddered, "but I will tell you of the work they do there. Magic is harvested, in a way, and used to power weapons. While I was there, the weapons were poor and barely functional; the technology was faulty and underdeveloped. Knowing their plans were failing was the only consolation us mages had…"

Tears were now falling from my face. The reality was terrifying. Did she mean that…

"That monster is a weapon of theirs. A weapon designed specifically to target people who use magic to defend themselves. And it seems that it has now been perfected. Mages will defend themselves, either getting killed or found out and arrested in the process." Erza finished.

There was complete and utter silence as everyone took in the information. I didn't even bother looking at everyone's faces to see how they were taking the news. It was a huge punch in the gut for all of us. We would all be in terrible danger from now on…

"So that's how you knew how to kill it?" Gajeel eventually broke the deafening silence.
"Yes, I had a chance to observe them when they were testing them out-" she stopped herself, her eyes giving away the fact that she was bringing up bad memories. "Their weak points are their eyes." She continued.

"But… it went straight for Lucy, who wasn't even using magic. Why didn't it attack Loke?" Natsu asked.
Oh right, he didn't know about Loke yet. I decided that I might as well kill two birds with one stone by calling the lion spirit out. It occurred to me that he may want to ask Erza some questions about who she met in the concentration camp.

"That should answer your question." I said after Natsu had composed himself from the shock of seeing Loke appear out of nowhere.
"Erza, if you want me to stop asking about it, then please let me know." I approached the scarlet-haired girl, taking her hand. "Can you name the friends you made in the concentration camp?" I asked softly.

What if she knew Loke's old master?

She smiled sadly at me and I returned it, glad that she wasn't taking offense into my prying.
"They were my dear friends; I do not mind honouring their memories at all." She said, finally allowing a single tear to fall. "There was Sho, Wally, Millianna, Simon, J- Jellal" her voice cracked and I squeezed her hand to comfort her. "And Rob, who was like our father figure" she smiled slightly, about to continue when Loke's breath hitched.

"R-Rob?" he asked, drawing Erza's attention.
So, my hunch was correct, then. This was the best I could do for the troubled spirit at the moment; hopefully Erza could update him on how Loke's old master was doing.
I prayed that she would have good news.

"Yes, Rob." She replied; I could see her connecting the dots in her head. "Were you one of the spirits he was always on about?" she asked, her eyes widening.
Loke didn't even bother to answer her as he started bombarding her with a series of questions regarding his old master's wellbeing.

Erza waited for him to finish before smiling kindly and replying, "He was still going strong the last time I saw him. He would be glad to know you were faring well also."
Loke was shedding happy tears at this point, making me beam. The next best thing to getting Rob out of that place would be the knowledge that he was still alive and kicking.

Erza's expression, however, turned dark before she continued. "I'm afraid that I have not had contact with him for two years, however, so I cannot give a recent update. I don't know if he's still alive… if any of my friends are still alive…" she whispered. "I have visited their families in secrecy and not received any other news." Her voice was small as she looked down, her eyes watering again.

"You would know" we jumped when we heard Gray's voice suddenly entering the conversation.
"What does Gray mean?" Juvia asked him. I had almost forgotten about everyone else in the room…
"I mean, the families would know if someone in the camp died. If they haven't heard anything, they're still alive." Gray's voice was colder than his magic.
"And you know this because..?" Natsu asked. There was no hint of a challenge in his voice, which is the tone he usually used when speaking to Gray. No, Natsu sounded serious. Concerned, even.

Gray's eyes stayed on the floor. He seemed to be having an internal battle with himself, and I was glad when Juvia put a hand on his shoulder to offer him comfort.
"My mentor, Ur, died in a concentration camp a few years ago. My adoptive siblings and I received her ashes with a letter to break the news." He stated without emotion.

My tears started to fall again as I took in what he was saying. People died. People were murdered in those places. There was barely any consideration for the families, and I couldn't fathom what Gray had gone though at the time.
Everyone had a backstory, huh.

"Gray…" Juvia whispered.
The boy just shook his head; a clear sign that he would say no more about it.
"It happened a long time ago." He said, prompting us to drop the subject.

"So… what now? What do we do?" Levy asked, taking Gray's hint and drawing attention to herself.
Good question. Our conversation had gone way off topic, but at the back of our minds was the blaring truth that this probably wouldn't be the only attack we would have to deal with.

"You guys train to fight those things, of course." Gildarts was the one to answer, the confidence in his voice triggering something in us all.
It was almost like he was trying to turn this situation into an adventure.
This situation could result in lifetime imprisonment or death, and was going to be the most difficult things any of us would ever have to go through.

So why did I feel a small sense of excitement amongst all my other negative emotions?

"Sounds like fun! I'm all fired up!" Natsu shouted, setting himself on fire.
Despite myself, I felt a smile crawling onto my face. Fighting alongside him definitely sounded fun. The slight smiles on everyone else's face at Natsu's outburst told me they were thinking the same thing.

I guess there was something about facing a life or death situation which really bought people together.

"Right so urm… hospital now?" Gildarts asked, giving me a weird look.
Oh, right. I was still covered in my own blood. I gave a weak laugh and nodded, suddenly exhausted and feeling the full force of my injuries.

A/N: you may have already guessed but I'm a total sucker for tragic backstories. That's probably why I like anime so much... I mean, does anyone in the entire Fairy Tail cast (apart from Asuka) actually have a mother who's alive? So tragic, if you ask me.

VIPluvFT: waaaay ahead of you. sort of. They're gonna have to form some sort of club in order to train, right?

Guest: I do plan on future Nalu and Gajevy and some other ships but I definitely want to establish stronger friendships first. If it's any consolation, I won't drag it out as much as Hiro Mashima does! Stay tuned, the ships will have their moments

Thank you to all my reviewers, followers and favouriters!

-usnoozulose