Hello! I have put a lot of consideration into the inner workings of this chapter until I proud to say that this one is pretty great. Some exciting things are about to unfold and I think you all are going to like it. I can't say much about it, however, because that would spoil things for you all! Therefore, I will cut this short so that you can go ahead and read it! Enjoy!

Chapter 13: The Disquiet of the Wait

It had only been a week after my fight with Acnologia, the one that almost ended in disaster for me. Even though Zeref was determined for me to stay for the entirety of the healing process, I just didn't care. I told him that I was going to free the Dragon Slayers that had been captured, even if I was still broken. That Dragon wouldn't be anywhere near the Black Eclipse base because he would be out looking for Natsu somewhere. This was something I could do alone, or at least something I could do with Tyger and no one else. However, this meant that I would have to evade my own friends and the enemies.

With bandages covering almost half of my body, I limped out of the capital city. I felt pain radiate from my right ankle, which was partially broken now after being healed, with every single step I took. I wrapped my broken left arm that was covered in thick bandages around my ribcage to force them to stop the pain. The bandaged wrapped around my head to keep a cut on my forehead from bleeding slipped down and I had to push it back up with my other hand. It wasn't until a wall of ice erupted from the ground that I knew I'd been had, startling me just enough that I fell to the ground. I whimpered in pain from the impact and tried to get back up only to fail. I saw black boots appear in my vision before I was hoisted back to my feet, turning my head to see that it was Zeref and he looked angry. His eyes were red as he gazed back at me, throwing my broken arm around his shoulders to keep me balanced and wrapping his other arm around my waist.

"If you think we're just going to let you walk out of here in the condition you're in," I heard Gray say, looking up to see him glaring at me as well, "then you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

"You watch your mouth," I growled, about to launch myself at him if it weren't for Zeref keeping me still. "I have to free them."

"Oh, yeah? And how are you going to do that when you were just limping along really slow? You aren't going to be able to run away if you need to. I guarantee that Black Eclipse has orders to kill you in case you survived."

"Listen to him, Timara," Zeref said as he began to lead me back to the prime minister's mansion. "You're in no shape to even be walking yet. Just let the healers do their jobs for a few weeks more. Then we'll all go after Black Eclipse."

"Yeah, Mara!" she said, flying in front of me and giving me a sad smile. "Once you're feeling better, we'll go fight those bad guys together!"

"Thank you, Ty," I said quietly as Gray came over to help Zeref take me back.

Three weeks later, I was completely healed and as impatient as ever. Gray, Loke, and Zeref took turns making sure I didn't run off until the healers gave the go ahead. I was pacing back and forth in my room with Loke sitting in a chair in the corner, just shaking his head as he watched me. Ty walked over to him and jumped up onto his lap to watch as well.

"Will you stop pacing?" he sighed. "You're starting to drive me crazy."

"Let me out and I will," I said, continuing on and glaring at the floor.

"The healer will be here soon to check on you. I think you can wait until then."

"If I had left here when I had wanted to, I would have freed the other Dragon Slayers by now," I grumbled.

"Yeah, and you'd also be dead," Loke told me sternly. "Then one of us would have to explain to Natsu why you're dead and I have a feeling he won't take it very well."

Before I could come up with some snarky retort, there was a knock at the door and a man in white robes entered. I stopped moving altogether as the healer came in, giving me a smile as he saw me. "Well, I see that we're raring to go today," he said, walking over to me. "Do you have any pain?"

"Yeah, I do and it's called impatience," I said, making the man laugh. "You do realize that I'm going to be leaving today whether or not you say I'm ready, right?"

"I have that under consideration, miss. And I think you're fine to leave now." He grabbed my left arm and squeezed it to feel the bones, giving a small when they didn't feel fractured anymore. He asked me to sit down and lifted my bangs up to check the cut there, which was completely gone now and didn't even scar. Next, he checked my ribs, which still ached a little but were healed, then went to check my right ankle. He checked the bones there and gave me another smile. "Aside from your ribs still being bruised, I give you a clean bill of health and also the clearance to finally leave here. Stay out of trouble!"

I heard Loke mumble something under his breath sarcastically as the healer left. I pulled my dragon coat out from my shadow and put it on quickly, pulling my hood up over my eyes. "Where do you think you're going so soon?" Loke asked just as Gray and Zeref came in the room.

"I have a hunch that I know where their base would be while Acnologia is gone," I said, wiping away the wrinkles on the fabric of my coat and catching Ty when she flew to me.

"You're crazy if you think we're just going to let you leave to do this on your own," Gray said. "Just let us get ready and we'll all go with you."

"I think we should wait, Mara," Ty said to me. "I have a feeling that they'll be helpful to us."

I sighed and nodded, trusting her judgment more than mine. I was led out of the room and down the hall to where Erza was waiting for us with the prime minister of Bellum and his daughter. Both of them gave me a smile while Erza walked over to lift my hood slightly to check how I looked. I gave her a nod and she smiled a little, dropping my hood and turning back to the prime minister.

"It's good to see that you're doing well now," he said. "Gwen and I were worried when we'd heard that you were on your deathbed during the fight and then a week later tried to leave to save some friends of yours."

"I'm sorry to worry you both so," I said, bowing my head slightly to show my respect. "It wasn't my intention."

"Now that Timara is healed completely, I think that it is time for us to go," Erza said.

"Ah, so soon?"

"Yes, it's time. We need to track down Black Eclipse to get our friends back."

I felt a fire burning in my veins from the excitement of getting ready to stop them, shifting my weight from foot to foot, feeling anxious to go. I heard Erza beckon for me to move and I practically ran outside. Once there, I took a big gulp of air and almost took off right then if it hadn't been for Loke grabbing my arm. I growled at him to get him to let me go, but he refused, saying that I needed to wait a little while longer for everyone to at least get out of the building. I sighed and bounced around on my toes impatiently until all of them filtered outside.

"Alright, Timara, you know more about Black Eclipse than any of us do," Erza said as she stood beside me. "Where do you think their base is?"

"The biggest country where they can hide and it would take forever to find them," I said. "They're in the Pergrande Kingdom."

We were about to take off in the direction of the northwest when we heard a noise from the sky. I hissed as I shrunk down to the ground, irrationally thinking that it was the Dragon when I happened to look up. An actual demon flew down on its huge batwings, the black tail and white hair streaming out behind it. I stood back up and watched as the demon landed, its image shifting until it reveal Mirajane.

"Hi, everyone!" she said cheerily, adjusting her red dress that had gotten a little twisted. "I'm glad I finally found you before you left!"

"Mira, what are you doing here?" Erza asked incredulously.

"Since Gildarts came back from his job, the guild master sent me to tell you something important!" Mira said with a smile before walking closer. "The Black Dragon attacked every Legal Guild in Fiore, but everyone survived like we did!"

"How?" Gray asked, looking surprised. I nodded and looked back to Mira, wondering the same thing. The reason Fairy Tail and Sabertooth lived was because of Rogue and I, but things were different with the other guilds.

"Well, Lamia Scale's Jura Neekis used Rock Mountain, Blue Pegasus flew away on Christina before Acnologia's attack thanks to Hibiki Lates used his Archive Magic to see the Dragon approaching, Quatro Cerberus' Rocker made a tunnel to lead them all out of the building, and as for Mermaid Heel… well, we just assumed that Kagura Mikazuchi was paranoid and left before the attack with the rest of her guild."

"What about the smaller guilds?" Lucy asked.

"Acnologia didn't bother with them," Mira explained. "If they were too small to put up a fight like we could, he left them alone."

I became antsy after all the talking and decided right then to sneak off. I figured that they could catch up or something and I'd just get a head start when Zeref grabbed my arm, pulling me back by his side and glaring at me. He leaned down until his lips were next to my ear and whispered, "Don't you dare. I know you and I will hunt you down like a dog if you try."

He kept a tight hold of my arm as the others finished up with talking. Mira was told that she could stay with us for as long as she wanted and we finally headed out. Gray and Zeref walked beside me, pulling me back to their sides when I strayed too far. I growled each and every time, not realizing that I was that much of a flight risk. The entire walk for the day was tense as several fights nearly broke out between us, but we managed to survive until nightfall.

Eleven months later…

I jumped from tree branch to tree branch in a dark forest in the middle of the night, thoughts of freedom swirling in my head as I ran. Erza told me to run along ahead of the group to be a scout while they rested, letting me burn out my excess energy that I had. We had been in the Pergrande Kingdom for a while now, but unfortunately we were fugitives here. The Kingdom of Pergrande had been overthrown by Black Eclipse a year ago, leaving the king to be beheaded to show the citizens their power. Think that perhaps the Dragon Slayers were being held there, Erza had sent me inside to check the dungeons in the castle, but I found nothing to suggest that they had ever been in there. Feeling frustrated, I let out all of the prisoners of war in the dungeon and completely destroyed it. That was when they found me and I defeated a good chunk of their army sized group with a grin on my face.

I stopped suddenly as a one story building appeared in a thicket within the woods. I saw members of Black Eclipse guarding it and I gazed down at it with a frown. I knew Erza wouldn't approve of me going down there, but I just couldn't stop myself as my curiosity soared. Ty finally caught up with me and caught my slow smile as I watched the guards.

"Oh, no, Timara, we can't go in there!" she hissed at me. "Erza will be so angry!"

"We'll be ok if we just sneak inside and take a look around," I whispered to her. "Besides, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

I grabbed her and sank into the shadows, moving along through the darkness and past the guards. I moved down the hallways and searched for any familiar magic energy, but couldn't sense anything. I kept moving down and found a room with a bunch of monitors, three men standing inside the room. At first, I thought they were just monitoring the outside and inside of the building, but when I saw familiar faces on the monitors I was outraged. I blasted them with fists of shadows, knocking them all out instantly and jumped out of the darkness with Ty. I ran over to the monitors and growled, trying to figure out where they could possibly be but nothing worked to tell me what I wanted to know.

"I won't let this stand," I snarled, using the shadows to wipe out the monitors.

I walked back outside, creating shadowy flames to burn down the building as I walked along. I was beyond angry as I took out as many members of Black Eclipse as possible. I walked out of the building as an explosion shook the ground, hearing screams as the dark flames rose. I looked back and saw them running as fast as they could away from me. Even then, they didn't once try to fight me and I was deeply surprised.

I kept walking on into the forest for about ten minutes and was about to leap up into the tree branches when I heard a low growl from behind me. I whipped around to see a figure in a dark coat like mine, their face covered by the hood and I couldn't see who it was. Another deep growl and I knew for sure that this person was male, so I growled back to show I wasn't intimidated. Neither of us moved for the longest time for a few minutes, just growling at each other until we both launched ourselves at each other with the aide of magic. I was much faster, punching at him lightning fast and forcing him to dodge until the punches connected. I heard a roar of anger as he grabbed me and threw me down to the ground, making my ribs creak from the strain and I looked up to see him about to slam his fist into my face. I rolled away and hopped up onto my feet, sweeping his legs out from under him with a grin. He bared his fangs at me and ran full tilt to me, grabbing me by the collar and slamming my back into a tree trunk. My head smacked into the bark and I gasped, watching as stars appeared in my vision but shook my head and ducked to avoid yet another punch to my head. I grabbed him by the arm and twisted around so he was pushed headfirst into the bark of the tree before running a few steps away, turning around and waiting for him to attack me again.

I knew for a fact that I was irritating this person beyond belief by how tricky I was and finally decided that it was time that we put an end to this fight. He tore after me with an irritated yell, one that I thought was extremely familiar somehow, and I ran right at him, avoiding his fist and slamming mine into his stomach. A whooshing noise was heard as his breath rushed from his lungs and I thought I had won when he grabbed me, somehow managing to twist my arm behind my back to hold me still. I whipped myself around and kicked his feet out from under him, but he grabbed me as he fell and pinned me beneath him when we hit the ground. He grabbed my arms as I tried to punch him again and slammed them into the grass so I couldn't fight back anymore. I bared my fangs at him with a snarl when I caught sight of something that made me freeze.

My eyes had now fully adjusted to the darkness and I could see a little under the hood. A part of his coat had been pulled open to reveal a patch of skin from his neck and right shoulder. I gasped when I saw a blue black tattoo there that curled around in swirls, part of it draping down onto his collarbone. What surprised me the most was when I finally realized that it was almost exactly like the one I had and the tattoo seemed to pulse darkly with every flutter of my heart.

"N… Natsu…?" I asked on a whisper, watching as he tensed up and stopped growling. Slowly, I pulled one hand from his grasp and lifted it up to pull back his hood. With a gasp, my suspicious were confirmed as I saw the spiky pink hair and dark eyes that gazed down at me in astonishment once he both listened to me say his name and heard my voice. He did the same as he pulled my hood back to reveal my features, his breath rushing from his lips in surprise.

He placed his hand on my cheek and gently rubbed his thumb against my cheekbone as he whispered, "Timara, how…?"

Words failed me at that point as I felt tears forming, a soft whimper escaping my throat as I looked on at him in amazement. He sat up and gathered me in his arms, making me straddle his waist so he could bury his face in my neck and his scarf that was still wrapped around me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and did the same, breathing in his familiar scent that I had missed for so long as the tears slid down my cheeks. I could feel my neck starting to get wet as he silently cried tears of joy at having found me. I grasped at his coat in an attempt to pull him closer somehow when he pulled away just enough to kiss me hard.

His hands slid down from my back and to my hips to keep me still, kissing me again and making me shiver a little as our tears mingled together. He nipped at my bottom lip and made me gasp slightly, giving him the opportunity to slide his tongue inside my mouth and against my tongue. Even though we were both crying, the kiss was passionate and lasted much longer than any we'd shared before. After a few more minutes, we pulled away and leaned in to touch our foreheads together, panting heavily with small smiles on our faces. I could feel bruises forming from where his fingers dug into my hips and my lips felt swollen from his kisses, but I didn't care one bit as I closed my eyes.

"I hated being gone for all these years," he whispered, wrapping one arm around my waist again and the other stroked my hair. "At one point, I thought it might kill me."

"I know how you feel," I whispered back, sliding my fingers through his spiky hair lazily. "It felt like I was in a haze the entire time. I didn't realize how much I missed you until now."

"I heard a bit of your escapades while I was gone," he said, his hand on my back tracing shapes with his fingers. "I heard something happened while you were in Bellum, but no one really knew why it was you stayed there for so long. What was it?"

I tensed up a bit, pulling my face away from his and making him look at me in confusion. "Natsu, I really don't think you want to hear this story. It's not a pleasant one."

"No, I want to know," he insisted, giving me an earnest look and a small smile. I sighed but obliged, telling him everything that he wanted to know. I told him about the rebels attack the capital city, Acnologia taunting me with the capture of all the other Dragon Slayers, being defeated by the Black Dragon, nearly dying from my injuries, meeting with my parents, and finally the recovery period that seemed to just extend forever. Throughout the whole story, I watched his expression get darker and darker before he buried his face in my neck again. I felt a shudder pass through his body as he held me tightly and for the first time I heard him panting in fear. "I almost lost you and I didn't even know it," he said breathlessly, the shaking slowly getting worse. "What kind of person does that make me?"

"Oh, Natsu, don't beat yourself up over this," I told him sadly. "I just… wasn't strong enough to take Acnologia on by myself. I was arrogant and stubborn, which led to me believing that I could at least hold him off until everyone else woke back up. I was very wrong and almost dying was my punishment. I broke my promise to you that I'd take better care of myself."

"Never again," I heard his muffled words as he held me even tighter. "I will never again let the one I love be hurt like that. I wouldn't be able to survive if you died."

"… Love?" I asked, feeling my brain shut down in surprise at that one word.

He looked up this time, his eyes shining with that emotion I was becoming more and more familiar with. It had been a foreign one to me for the longest time after losing my memories, but now that I could remember bits and pieces it wasn't so strange to me. I had seen this emotion before, even if it was slightly different back in the past.

He kissed my forehead quickly to pull me from my thoughts and said, "Yes, Timara Wyvernia, I love you. I've had feelings for you since you first showed up in Fairy Tail. Even though you refused to let me in back then, I would try to get you to fight me because that was the only time you seemed happy and I would get to see one of your rare smiles. You're my mate and I love you. I won't leave you again."

"I love you, too, Natsu Dragneel," I whispered with wan smile. "I might not have known this so early like you did, but I do now and that's all that matters. I'm sorry about all the pain I put you through and I won't let it happen again either."

With a joyous smile, he hugged me tightly with a laugh. When I wondered where Happy was, I looked up into the tree branches where both Happy and Ty were standing, gazing down at us occasionally as the two of them talked. Eventually, we both stood up and decided to head back to the makeshift camp where everyone was waiting for me to return. Ty and Happy flew along as they carried us, shortening the time it would take for us to walk back. Once we had made it to the outskirts of the camp, I made Ty land and Natsu and I walked into camp.

"Erza, I'm back!" I called to her. "And I brought a hostage with me!"

"Timara, you had strict orders to just scout out the surroundings!" she yelled, bursting out from her tent and freezing in her tracks as she caught sight of the pink haired man beside me. I saw her mouth open and close in shock, completely speechless as Natsu grinned at her.

"Hey, Erza!" he said, looking quite pleased with himself.

With a gasp, she ran at him, putting him in a headlock that was her version of a hug. It was too comical to be jealous for Erza was both blubbering happily that he was back and scolding him loudly for leaving. He patted her awkwardly on the back, both to console her and to get her to stop choking him. He looked to me for help but all I could do was laugh as Happy and Ty tried to separate the two. Finally, the others began to filter out of their tents as they heard the commotion, every one of them standing stock still when they saw who Erza was attacking. She caught sight of everyone else and finally let him go, Natsu gasping for breath and then grinning at the others. With a joyous yell, Lucy ran at him and hugged him, making me let out a low growl that forced Lucy to jump away from him with a sheepish smile.

As Loke, Gray, and Mira walked over to him and started talking with him, Zeref and Ty came over to me. "Now I have the two people that Acnologia wants more than anything," I said, looking over at The Black Wizard.

"I'm sure that he's already heard that you're still alive and wants you as part of his collection as well," Zeref said.

"How do you figure?" Ty asked as she landed on my shoulder.

"Timara is one of the few people who have survived a battle with Acnologia almost unscathed," Zeref told us. "In fact, everyone else that lived to tell the tale lost limbs after the fight, so I'm sure he'll want to find out how she managed it and most likely will torture her more once he gets her."

"Alright, everyone!" I heard Erza say, clapping her hands once to get our attention. "We should get our sleep and then in the morning we head out to search once more. Natsu, we don't have an extra tent for you, so you can either sleep on the ground or—"

"I'll be in Timara's," he said, cutting her off with yet another grin. With an amused laugh, I grabbed him by the coat sleeve and dragged him along to my tent, where we crawled inside and passed out almost instantly, his arm around my waist and my head on his chest.

The next morning, we got up and discussed our next move. I told them about the building I destroyed, the one with the monitors watching the Dragon Slayers they had captured. I told them that they didn't look like they were doing so well and that we needed to find them fast. Natsu said that he had checked other places on his own as well and that building was the second to last one on his list.

As he looked over at me, he said, "The only problem was that someone dressed all in black destroyed the place with black flames. I was so angry that I didn't even bother finding out who it was, thinking irrationally that perhaps the Dragon Slayers had been in there and that someone just killed them all. Then after we fought, I discovered that it was actually Timara." He reached over and grabbed my hand, sliding his fingers between mine and squeezing my hand tightly. He then looked back up and said, "There's one more place I haven't checked yet and I overheard it in the castle of the capital city just before the dungeon was destroyed."

"That was me as well," I said with a small smile. "I didn't find the Dragon Slayers there either, so I figured why not let out their prisoners of war and then destroy the dungeon after to show my displeasure."

"I don't think you understand how much of a troublemaker this girl is," Erza sighed, just shaking her head with a smile. "I had to have people watch her constantly because first moment she's alone, she's ended up either destroying things or fighting people. I don't know how many fights she's gotten into with Black Eclipse anymore. I'm pretty sure that Gray and Loke are quite tired of her."

"Yes," they both said simultaneously, then Gray said, "A week after she was badly injured in the fight against Acnologia, she tried to leave to go to the Pergrande Kingdom. She thought she could limp all the way there."

"We then had to drag her back and keep watch for three weeks until she was completely healed," Zeref said with a smile. "She's definitely kept us on our toes."

"One more question before I tell you about the last place the other Dragon Slayers might be," Natsu said, a serious expression on his face as he looked at everyone. I saw him shaking almost imperceptibly as he held onto my hand tighter. "Just where were you all while she was fighting with Acnologia? Why didn't you fight by her side so she wouldn't have died?"

"Natsu," I said, squeezing his hand to make him look at me. I could see anger blazing in his dark eyes as he turned to me. "A wizard in Black Eclipse is very adept at using Sleep Magic and cast it on the whole city except for Ty and me. That wizard kept them unconscious for a day and the only one who was unaffected by it was Zeref. He was the one who found me after the battle and helped Ty carry me back into the inner walls of the city. There was nothing they could do, so don't blame them."

He didn't look happy about it but he nodded, calming down just a bit. He gazed back at the rest of the group and said, "Alright then, here's what I know. There's a mountain not far from here and it's hollow. I guess the locals said that it used to be a volcano back in the day, but now it's inactive and shows no signs of ever erupting again. Inside the volcano itself, there's supposedly a huge building and the only way to get inside is to sneak into a secret tunnel."

"Why can't we just climb up the outside of the volcano?" Gray asked.

"Getting up the mountainside is easy, but going back down once you get to the top is difficult," Natsu explained. "Not only that, but they'll probably have guards posted on the roof just in case someone is stupid enough to drop down into the volcano like that. I say we send someone to sneak into the tunnel, go into the building itself, and cause as much chaos as possible that no one looks twice at our group rushing in." That was when Natsu looked back at me with a smirk. "So, Timara, are you up for a little fun?"

Slowly, an evil little grin spread across my face and I said, "Oh, you just made my day."