Alright, follow-up's coming! Last chapter introduced a pretty nice concept. Someone was kind enough to give me some ideas or suggestions surrounding it, we'll see how it goes. Tenrou's probably gonna go down in this one, don't quote me on that though. I know what I wanna get done, when it needs to get done, that's about it... :P Again, I guess we'll see what we end up with.
'Hold on, what's that?' Ultear observed the body walking before her. She saw something dripping out of the scorch marks that were on Natsu's body. It seemed like some fire, it was purple.
'That's weird, I don't remember Zeref using fire. Better stay close and get to know more about this.' She planned. Natsu kept walking forward. Only subconsciously he knew where he was going. Everyone informed each other about the dark mages' infiltration of the island and decided to return to camp.
"Master!" The group of mages ran towards Makarov, much to his surprise.
"W-What are you doing here? Is it over? Has one of the teams won?" He asked in a confused state.
"N-No.. There were ... Dark mages." Gajeel caught his breath while trying to explain the situation.
"They're damn powerful and seem to be part of a dark guild named 'Grimoire Heart'" Freed added on top of that. The name echoed through Makarov's mind, his shocked expression worried the guild. Meanwhile Mirajane, Erza and Gildarts had returned as well.
"This guild is not to be taken lightly, we're speaking of one of the strongest dark guilds out there! I'm gonna have to call the S-class examss off, we're leaving the island!" The mages gasped, hearing the sudden decision by their master.
"Sorry, Makarov. I don't think they're having any of that." Gildarts looked around him, seeing the persistant looks on many faces.
"We've beaten a couple already, we can fight them!" Gray yelled out.
"We don't know much about the enemy but their average strength, and it is something we can overcome." Freed joined Gray.
"A man doesn't run like a coward, a man stays to fight!" Elfman shouted at the top of his lungs, making some people sweat drop at the 'manly' statement.
"As much as I hate to oppose you, master. I think they're right, we can face the enemy." No one expected Erza to join their side as well.
"Damn these brats, why do they need a master if they're gonna ignore him anyways?" Makarov silently asked himself.
"Fine then, have it your way! The new trial is to beat the dark guild that's opposing us!" Makarov declared, recieving cheers from around him.
"But you will have to fight by yourself, I won't aid you in battle." Makarov added with a gloomy expression.
"You got nothing to worry about." Bickslow reassured him.
"Does everybody now know of this?" Makarov wanted to make sure everyone was present and aware of this.
"Has anyone seen Natsu?" Mirajane was the first to notice his absence. They all looked around for the fire mage, without noticing any sight of him.
"God knows what the brat's been doing, I want him here now! Gajeel, Wendy, sniff him out! Mirajane, Bickslow, Freed, get a clear sight from above. Everyone else, get searching!" Makarov ordered around. If there was someone they couldn't afford to be caught off-guard, it was Natsu. The guild immediatly spread in groups of five. Some went alone, some went along with two others. Mirajane was worried sick while flying high above the treetops. Especially with all that had happened, who knew what condition he could be in right now? Gajeel was the first one to find a trace. He crouched, noticing some purple flames on the ground.
"Salamander..." He huffed when he sniffed the fire, he proceeded to follow the trail.
"We're getting close to someone, I can feel it." Violet warned them of the presence she noticed. They immediatly scanned the area, noticing a dim blue light in the distance.
"There!" Violet immediatly made Natsu aware as she sprinted towards the blue flame.
"Violet, it has been a long time. So you have deemed him worthy of your appearance? Does he seem that trustworthy to you?" The blue flame spoke with a slightly agitated voice.
"Now, now. Don't be so grumpy, Blue. In fact, Natsu's probably the guy we've been waiting on for so many years. If I trust anyone, it's him." Natsu was surprised by the amount of faith the spectral spirit had in him. He thought of how much terrible things these spirits could've gone through, and made it his goal to be the best host they could've wished for.
"Is that so? Well, anyways, I know why you're here. If you trust him so much, I'll help. We need to get rid of Grim's filth before it gets out of control." Blue grew to the shape of a mascular man. He could probably face Elfman in armwrestling, by the looks of it. He was bald and had a stern appearance.
"Grim?" Natsu asked.
"He's the spirit of the dark flames. He's the one I don't get along with too well." Violet explained to him, making her disliking of the spirit obvious in her expression.
"I really hope Violet's right about you, Natsu. From what I've seen, you can be a bit too reckless. But you definitely don't lack will power, I know that much." Natsu didn't know how he should take this from Blue, was this good or bad?
"Don't worry, it's nothing personal. Blue's always like that, all grumpy and stuff." A cheerful Violet woke him from his thoughts, Natsu threw his grin at her.
"Anyways, we better get moving. The rest is still out there, and we definitely need them." Blue stated as he stared in a direction before they all started moving again.
'And now there's some ice forming on his fingertips? This is really weird, and where is he going?' Ultear noticed the change in Natsu's appearance, it was only slight, but it was there. The bloody eyes still aimlessly stared forward, moving into a direction near the camp of Fairy Tail. Above them was Mirajane, looking around for her mate. When she looked down, she was delighted to see the pink hair. She immediatly descended, coming from the back.
"Na-" She almost screamed until she was grabbed by a strong pair of hands into the bushes.
"MMMMh.. Gajeel!" She struggled until she noticed who it was that held her. The iron dragon slayer released her when she calmed down.
"There's something off about Salamander. He's not himself, you can't let him know we're here yet... And try to avoid her." Gajeel whispered as he pointed towards a nearby bush, Mirajane noticed Ultear moving alongside of it. When she nodded, they silently crawled forward. She was still worried about Natsu, but she knew that if she let that get the better of her, it would only endanger the fire mage. The set amount of time had passed, and the group of mages was now reassembling in the camp they had set up.
"Any progress?" Gildarts asked them all, they shook their heads.
"Where're Gajeel and Mira at?" He noticed they weren't present.
"They might be on his tra-" Erza started, but was silenced by the sudden roar echoing throughout the sky.
"W-Was that..."
"A dragon." Wendy finished the whispers as she knew full well what the beasts sounded like.
'Him again...' Gildarts thought silently, he knew what dragon was coming and became extremely worried about the guild memebers.
"First a dark guild and now him again? I'm sorry, but I don't think we can take a dragon on while having to defend against a dark guild this powerful." Makarov sighed towards the guild members.
"But we've got Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel. Three dragon slayers are enough to take down a dragon fore sure!" Elfman argumented.
"Trust me on this one, this dragon is not one we want to mess with." Gildarts stepped forward.
"It nearly killed me once." This brought shock to many of the mages as they got to see the result of Gildarts' near death experience.
"I'm afraid Gildarts is right, some of you have seen it when Natsu became king of the fire dragons. We have to get out of here before it arrives, I'm not losing any of you!" Makarov ordered as he moved towards the beach. He wanted to prepare the boat.
"I feel his excitement annoying me already..." Blue stated.
"Huh?"
"He means Spark, the lightning flame." Violet explained their interaction.
"Oh, so they don't like each other?" Natsu asked her.
"Good old Sparky's a little ... overexcited ... about everything. It gets on more than just Blue's nerves." She nervously explained.
"Right." Natsu grinned at her, she had no idea why.
"What's wrong?" She asked him.
"Eh, if I'd tell you, it'd get repetitive." Natsu left her question unanswered.
"Aw c'mon, don't be like that!" She pouted, it looked pretty adorable.
"I feel like I should be the one thanking you for being so nice to me." Natsu smiled upwards, keeping up his pace. She looked down, Violet wasn't very good at taking so much praise.
"There's a time and place for everything..." Blue started, peeking both their curiosity.
"Just now now!" He yelled at them, both noticed the sound of laughter and looked over to his side.
"Oh man, Blue's still keeping everyone in check, I see. Yo, Natsu! Been with you for a while now, the name's Spark. Nice to finally meet ya in person!" The yellow flame jumped up in the form of a slender young man, similar to Natsu. Spark even had a similar grin.
"Even Violet's here, the most recent addition." He noticed her.
"Addition? Excuse me, I remember whooping your ass last time!" She retorted.
"Only because you're using those cheap ass tactics of yours, we can get a rematch any time." Spark growled at her.
"I'd love to see that, but I'm favoring Violet on that one." Natsu meddled. Violet smiled brightly at him, and left Spark slightly upset.
"W-But, Natsu. I've been with you much longer than her." He cried out.
"You're both agile, and you beat her when it comes to physical strength. But you and I both know what she's got going for her, and I don't think you can beat that. Heck, I couldn't. I'm glad I'm on her side." Violet was happy with the support she recieved from Natsu, she wanted to stick her tongue out to Spark if only it wouldn't make her seem so immature.
"Honestly, the three of you annoy me." Blue facepalmed.
"You're no fun, Blue." Spark countered.
"It isn't always about fun, we gotta get moving." He suggested, making them all nod and move in search of the final flame they'd need.
"Hold on, you see that?" Mirajane whispered to Gajeel. She was pointing at Natsu's arms, who were now sending out a jolt of electricity every once in a while.
"The hell's going on with him?" Gajeel muttered.
"Let's just stay on his trail." He told her. They proceeded to follow him, until eventually there were no more bushes and they watched him stare over the open sea. What they then saw astounded them, a giant black dragon closed in on them. Halting before Natsu in the sea. Mirajane and Gajeel recognized it from their trip to the land of the fire dragons. Acnologia was now standing before Natsu.
"So, we meet again. I had hoped to see if you've grown any stronger. I promise you that I'd go all out next time we'd meet." The black dragon spoke, until the noticed something off about the person standing before him.
"You seem different from before..." He muttered, until Natsu's body was replaced by black flames.
"Oh, I see. You've met him, then." Acnologia understood what happened the moment he saw those flames.
"Well, that should make for a fun fight." The black dragon immediatly charged at him. Natsu's speed was surprising to him as he headbutted the sand with a heavy impact.
"Yup, a fun fight it will be." He looked up to see Natsu stomp on his head, he then ran up to Acnologia's back.
"Apolocalyptic spine!" Spikes appeared out of the scales which nearly impaled Natsu, however he swiftly dodged all of them. He decided to take the battle into the air and flew up high. From a far away distance Makarov noticed the dragon engage in battle with what seemed to be Natsu. He immediatly let go of everything he was dong and ran over to the fight, followed by his guild.
"Looks like hell's breaking loose out there..." Spark commented on the outside situation.
"Yeah, we need to get this over with fast. Blaze shouldn't be too far, I can sense his arrogance" Blue agreed.
"Can't you ever sense something positive about someone?" A glare from the tall spirit quickly shit Natsu up.
"He's just toying with you, don't be such a pushover." Spark gently punched Natsu's shoulders.
"So anyways, Blaze is the crimson flame then?" Natsu asked them.
"Sure is, you should know. He's been with you all your life. Quite arrogant, he is. Proud in everything he does. Kind of like your dad, Igneel. You'll notice some resemblences, I'm sure." The lightning flame replied.
"Why is it that when you guys talk about me, 'Arrogance' is the first thing I hear?" They looked over to see a crimson red flame.
"Because that's your 'best' quality, or at least the most obvious one..." Spark replied.
"Aren't we talkative, sparky. I see you've all shown him yourselves, I guess I'll do the same then." Blaze took a very familiar form the Natsu. A tall man who seemed to be in his twenties now made his appearance. His hair was blazing down to his shoulders.
'He looks a lot like Igneel when he pretended to be human.' Natsu remembered his training by his foster parent in disguise.
"I suspected this form would be familiar to you, Igneel used it to approach you once before." Blaze noticed Natsu's expression of recognition.
"Now that we're all together, we better move to Igneel and get this going." Blue suggested.
"Right." Violet nodded.
"Gotcha." Spark spoke.
"I can't remember the last time we were all together... Let's do it." Blaze sounded nostalgic.
"Thanks, all of you." They all turned to face Natsu.
"Hey, thanks to you we get to live a not so miserable life. I'd like to maintain that, thank you very much." The crimson spirit told him.
"Yeah, you should get that in your head already. We're all grateful to you for not being a complete asshole like many of us have been with already." Spark added.
"C'mon now, we gotta get moving." Violet pulled Natsu's arm along with her as they ran for Igneel.
"Is that.. Natsu?" Makarov asked aloud as he arrived at the scenery. Mirajane and Gajeel jumped out of the bushes and joined the crowd.
"What the hell are those flames? Did Natsu just get some new ones, again?" Gray questioned.
"No, they don't feel like it.. They feel too dark for that." Gildarts replied. Above them Natsu was flying around with a giant dragon on his tail.
"I didn't think it was like you to run away from a fight, Dragneel." Acnologia yelled at him. Natsu came to a stop and kicked the black dragon's head down. After he lost his balance, Natsu grabbed the dragon's tail and swung it into a random direction. Acnologia was tossed away from the island, getting irritated by Natsu's attack pattern.
"Apocalyptic Warrior: Darkness of Protection!" Acnologia had shown this spell before, he gained much higher resistance as his scales became thicker and acted a lot more like armor. His tail became a spiked battleaxe and three small pairs of horns grew on his head.
"You've seen this one before, so how will you deal with it this time?" The dragon asked Natsu. The black demon charged and employed the same strategy as he had before, aim for the head. Before Natsu could make contact he was smashed down by the tail of the dragon, then caught by his talons and thrown up again. Acnologia then caught him in his mouth and attempted to eat him. As he closed his mouth, the black fire blasted it right back open. Acnologia now noticed from the red eyes that he was having a tough time. Charging again, they closed the distance in between each other. This time, Natsu's fiery black flames spread across Acnologia's body when they made contact. The dragon could feel pain arise at a fast rate. Eventually his armor was torn apart and his body was engulfed in the dark fire.
"Natsu might be winning now, but we gotta help him!" Mirajane yelled as she moved in, most members agreed as they charged ahead. Ultear noticed their movements from the bushes and decided the act, she had to keep them from who she presumed to be Zeref.
"Ice Make: Rosen Krone!" With that, heavy roses and spiked branches made from ice were summoned and charged at the group of Fairy Tail mages. Most managed to turn around in time and either dodge or block, but Makarov and Mirajane were launched into the sea.
"Master, Mira!"
Natsu escaped Acnologia's body and went in for an uppercut, but before this could happen...
"So you managed to gather them all, good." Igneel noticed their arrival.
"We've got no time to lose, let's try to get Rebuke going." Spark came down to business, which was unusual for him. With a nod of Igneel, they all sat down cross-legged in a circle. They were slowly releasing their magic energy and pooring it into the center, which was the flame that always lighted Igneel's face when Natsu came to visit and was now poisoned black. Slowly but surely the black was lighting up, turning from black into dark shades of Gray. This kept going until eventually the flame erupted in a bright gold.
While Natsu's black, fiery body charged in for another attack, a bright light suddenly erupted from his chest. A loud scream could be heard. Acnologia took this oppertunity to slam Natsu down to the island with his tail. The guild watched Natsu crash down before them. When they looked above them they saw the dragon charging up a massive amoung of energy. Their eyes widened as they saw the incoming roar. Mirajane and Makarov got to the surface just in time to see the entire island blasted into oblivion by Acnologia's roar.
Holy crap that was a long chappy. While writing this, I kind of got excited for a Natsu X Violet ship thingy. I don't know if you guys think I should keep it strictly NaMi, or would allow this as long as it wouldn't intercept with their original relationship, or get a harem going or something. Idk, let me know what you guys think because the idea sounds quite exciting to me :)
