Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, Tiamat is loosely based on Tiamat from Forgotten Realms which Belongs to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The traits of the chromatic dragons have been altered to match the dragon slayers in the Fairy Tail Universe.

Chapter 13: New Skills

Gray squeezed Natsu's hand before letting it go as they made their way downstairs. He wasn't ready to have everyone know what had happened between them yet, for now it belonged only to the two of them and Makarov. He needed to go to his apartment to pack his bag for the upcoming job request. He left Natsu at the bar and whispered that he would return soon. He left the guild quickly, eager to go on a job for the first time since Natsu had been captured. Now that he was outside he allowed his face to show the happiness he had been careful to hide while in the guild.

Inside the guild, Mira was looking at Natsu an idea forming in her head.

"Natsu, do you remember what I taught you about transformation magic?"

"Yeah?", he said wondering what the take over mage was getting at.

"Maybe you should use it until you guys get out of Magnolia. We don't know who's looking for you and no offense, but you kind of stand out."

He thought about it carefully. Could he still do it? He tried to transform into Mira. He closed his eyes and created a picture of Mira in his mind. Once he had it he tried to imagine that picture on his own body. He allowed his magic power to build up and then he released it. He opened his eyes and looked at Mira.

"How did I do?", he asked the take over mage.

"Not bad at all!", she handed him a mirror and he saw Mira's face reflected back at him. "We're going to need to work on your voice, though. You still sound like you and that won't fool anybody." She worked with him, teaching him how to change his voice as part of the transformation. He was a quick study and she was soon happy with his progress.

"Now, visualize the clothes you want to be wearing and place them on your image."

After a few tries he managed to switch his own clothes for Mira's purple dress. Erza and Wendy clapped at his progress while Lucy tried not to look jealous. Even though she had been the one who had wanted to learn transformation magic she'd had no luck when she had tried it.

"Very impressive Natsu, I didn't know you could do that.", Erza told him proudly, "Mira doesn't go on missions though. I think she would stand out as well." She tried to think of who could work. She thought they were on the right track with it being a female as it would draw less attention than another male.

Natsu was pleased that he had been able to perform the difficult magic. He released the transformation and looked around the guild. He noticed the absence of a certain blue haired water mage and his eyes lit up with mischief at the thought of the prank he was going to play on his mate. He loved the sound of that.

He closed his eyes and tried to create a picture of Juvia in his mind, it was harder since she was not in the guild and he had not seen very much of her in the last month. He thought of the color of her eyes and the length of her hair, of her features, what he knew of her body as well as the placement of her guild mark. He thought of the tone of her voice and the clothes that she wore. He put all of these things together in his mind and then he tried to imagine them on his own body. He let his magic power build up and then he released it. He opened his eyes slowly and looked in the mirror that Mira had lent him. Juvia stared back at him.

Mira looked at him proudly. Gajeel walked up to him and looked him up and down. "When did you learn to do that?", he asked, a hint of both admiration and jealousy evident in his voice.

"A few weeks before I was captured. Mira was going to teach Lucy, and Happy and I tagged along.", Natsu looked at the Iron Dragon Slayer uncomfortably, "Listen, about earlier..."

"Don't worry about it, I shouldn't have pushed you.", Gajeel waved away his apology, "Did you get things sorted out with Fullbuster?"

Natsu/Juvia blushed and nodded. "We're not telling anyone yet, though." Gajeel clapped the Salamander on his back. "Congratulations!"

He walked to the bar and got himself a drink, he looked for a good seat and sat down to wait. Natsu/Juvia went and sat with him since that is where Juvia would normally sit. They were both trying hard not to laugh but failing as they waited for Gray to return and Levy looked at them with an affectionate smile. It was nice to see them gettting along. They soon got bored and started arm wrestling. Gajeel was thankful that everyone in the guild knew that it was really Natsu he was wrestling. He would never be able to live it down if people thought Juvia was giving him that much trouble. They both immediately stopped as they smelled the ice mage nearing the guild. Gajeel let out a "Gihi!" in anticipation while Natsu/Juvia said "Showtime!" He worked himself into character. The guild watched to see how it played out. This was going to be good!

Natsu/Juvia accosted Gray as soon as he walked into the guild with his mission bag. She immediately wrapped her arms tightly around him and said "Gray-sama, you're back! Juvia has missed you so much!" Natsu/Juvia tried to transform his eyes into hearts but could not manage it. Gray tried to disentangle himself from the water mage. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Natsu while their relationship was so new. He was having more trouble than usual getting away from her. He really didn't remember her being this strong before.

"Come my beloved, let's have a drink together and stare into each other's eyes." Natsu/Juvia grabbed Gray's hand roughly and started dragging him towards the bar. Gray stopped her and said "Juvia, let go of me. I've told you before. I don't see you that way." He could feel everyone's eyes on him demanding that he give in to her advances. He looked uncomfortable and Natsu/Juvia couldn't take it anymore. He tried to stay in character but he couldn't help laughing at his mate's discomfort and when he did his laugh came out his own. Gray looked at her in confusion as he tried to find Natsu.

"Let go of my beloved, you impostor!" an angry water mage yelled from the newly opened guild doors. When the impostor refused to do so she attacked her with a water whip. Juvia/Natsu transformed back, let go of Gray's hand, and blocked her attack although he still got drenched with her water. He promptly covered his body in fire and dried off.

"Stop Juvia, I give.", Natsu informed her still laughing, raising his arms in surrender. "It was just a prank!" Gajeel laughed so hard at seeing the Salamander looking like a drowned rat, he almost fell out of his chair. The members of Fairy Tail were relieved to see Natsu acting more like himself and they felt that maybe he would be okay after all. Gray did not look amused and Juvia was a little confused at seeing herself as her own love-rival for a moment but in the end even she was happy to see the fire mage act a little more like himself.

"If you ever do that to me again, I will hand you over to Tiamat myself.", Gray growled at Natsu but the twinkle in his eyes let the fire mage know that he did not mean it. Gray was happy to see his mate acting more like himself than he had in the last month. He agreed that it was a good idea for Natsu to use transformation magic while they were traveling. They briefly debated on who he should change into and settled on Cana. Natsu told Happy to fly with either Lucy or Gray until they left Magnolia. The team left the guild once both Cana and Mira were satisfied with Natsu's transformation. They left in good spirits and they did not feel the eyes that watched them attentively as they left for Warrod's house.

xxx

Igneel had used some of his magic to create an illusion of a volcanic wasteland for them to live and train in. He was resting in a large cave watching the boy practice. He was becoming stronger every day and that allowed him to hold his child like form for days at a time. The resemblance to Natsu was so strong that it would sometimes make Igneel ache with longing for his son. He had taken to calling him Kai.

Kai's training was progressing very well. As to be expected from a being that was a half god he had a very good grasp on magic. He just needed help learning how to channel his magic to the right parts of his body for the different spells. He already had a very powerful roar, in a few weeks it would probably be stronger than Igneel's.

No matter how strong he became as long as Kai lived in Natsu's body he would remain potential and Igneel was curious if Natsu might be able to tap into Kai's potential as an additional power source when his own magical container was low.

He was a very curious child and he asked a lot of questions. He was very curious about his mother and he was getting frustrated with Igneel's continued refusal to talk about her. Igneel did not want to influence his thinking because he knew that could backfire on him very easily. Instead he taught Kai about good and evil. He taught him about love and family and every other good thing he could think of to try to give him a good foundation to rely on for when he would inevitably meet his mother.

Igneel knew that his time with Kai would be limited and he tried to make the most of it. He was teaching him every spell he knew. Tiamat was going to come back soon and claim him and use him to trap Natsu into staying with her. He would too, Natsu would do anything to protect his son. Of that, Igneel had no doubt.

"Grandfather, can we ever talk to Father?", Kai asked. He figured if he could communicate with his father maybe he would tell him about his mother.

"I've only been able to speak to him a few times but it was very hard to do and he did not realize that he was talking to me. He thought he was remembering or dreaming. That's enough for today, let's get some rest."

Kai stopped his practice and ran over to the dragon. This was his favorite part of the day, he cuddled up against Igneel's warmth and listened to the dragon's snores. He thought about what Igneel had said and reached out with his mind. He called out to his father but received only silence in return. He focused on what he could feel of his father's mind. He saw something that looked like thin whitish threads floating around everywhere. He tried to follow one up to it's source. He saw his father as a little boy, with a little white haired girl taking care of an egg. He wondered if that was his mother. He watched them for a while, he saw the egg hatch into a little blue winged cat. He continued watching the images until his father cried over the death of the little girl. 'No, that could not be my mother.', he thought sadly.

He followed another thread and watched his father meet a little black haired boy with blue eyes similar to his. They played and fought together and he couldn't tell whether they liked or hated each other. They spent a lot of time together though. This was getting him nowhere.

He followed thread after thread greedily learning everything he could about his father and his friends. He explored different areas trying to get to memories that were closer to the present, the ones more likely to lead to his mother. After a while he found an area of threads that were floating off on their own away from the others, almost like they didn't want to be found. These threads were a different color, they were an angry red and they throbbed, almost as if they were alive. He looked at them and he was filled with a sense of dread. He waffled over whether he wanted to follow them or not. He chose to explore them at a later time and returned to the other area.

He needed to find something soon before Igneel woke up. He didn't know why but he instinctively knew his grandfather wouldn't approve of what he was doing. There had to be a reason why Igneel didn't want to tell him about her himself. He followed his instincts and focused all of his power on thinking about what he wanted to learn. When he released it a thread started to glow brighter than the others. He followed it excitedly. This must be the right one! His father was walking around a city when his red haired friend approached him. He watched with interest as the images appeared before him.

When Igneel awoke Kai was nowhere to be seen. He expanded his dragon senses and searched for the boy. He heard him in the distance and left his cave to find him. Kai was punching a mountain over and over. Tears were streaming down his face as he continued to pummel the rock.

"What's wrong, Kai?", Igneel asked with concern.

"You should have told me.", Kai said in between sobs, "She's a monster."

"What did you do?"

"I found a way into Father's memories."

Igneel sighed. "You shouldn't have done that. We live here, but we should respect his privacy. Come here little one." Kai reluctantly came to him and Igneel started talking. "She wasn't always terrible you know. She loved me and at one time, I actually loved her too. She was smart and beautiful, but she wasn't naturally kind. She tried for me for a while but when humans started killing her dragons she lost any compassion she ever had. When she asked me to be her mate she was already too far gone and I had to reject her even though I knew it would only make her worse. When she found out that I trained humans to be dragon slayers she never forgave me. She was banished not long after. I have hope that she might still change."

"How can you say that after what she did to Father?"

"You can never lose hope Kai. Hope is the reason that I am here inside my son 400 years in the future. Maybe you will be the reason for her to change. Don't give up on her yet. She might surprise you."

Kai thought about everything he had seen and decided his mother had given up on hope a long time ago. If she hated humans so much why would she even create a child with one? Maybe Igneel was right about her but the hurt of his creation was too fresh in his mind. For now, he would think of the black haired boy as his mother. He had his eyes after all and he was pretty sure his father loved him.