Chapter 28

Welcome to Paradise

Flashback – Natsu

I stood in a burning building, crying in terror as smoke enveloped me. I was coughing and could hardly breathe as Erza ran into the room, grabbed me by the hand, and pulled me with her. We ran through our childhood home, our second childhood home, and came out onto the street. It was the same story for all the other houses. Everything was lit aflame; it was absolute chaos. Every once in a while, we would see strange men in masks pulling children from their screaming parents. Erza didn't let me watch for long to see what happened next.

"Hide in the forest!" she ordered, "I'll meet up with you there."

I fought with her to come with me, but she said we'd both get caught if we went together. I didn't quite understand, but I listened to her anyways and ran towards the forest. As I darted through the town, I avoided looking at the houses and the people lying on the ground. I was about halfway to the forest when I heard the soft sobbing of a little girl. I looked over to the side of a house and saw a black-haired girl curled up in a ball crying. I quickly debated in my head what I should do and ran over to the girl.

"Come with me!" I said, trying not to burst out into tears myself.

I held my hand out for the girl and she took it. Together we ran towards the forest where we hid together. Erza never did return. It was just the two of us trying to survive in the forest.

Some time passed, a day or two, and we were still hiding in the woods. That was when we happened into an open field. While in this field, a red dragon descended upon us. Both me and the girl looked up in horror at the dragon, and the girl ran off. I screamed out for her, but she disappeared into the forest.

"Worry not, I know where she is." The dragon said in a calming voice, "Where are your parents, young child?"

Flashback End – Natsu

I was startled awake by the rough rocking of the boat. I jolted up from Lisanna's lap to find myself in a small cabin. I was breathing heavily and looked around frantically. Around me was a small kitchenette and stairs leading up to the deck. In the room was just me, Lisanna, and Happy.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Lisanna asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder, "You look really anxious."

"Yeah, I just…I had a nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." I replied automatically.

"Are you sure?" Lisanna stared into my eyes with concern. She knew me well enough to know it was more than just a nightmare to get me this worked up.

"…I dreamt about the day I lost Erza."

"Natsu…" Lisanna pulled me in for a hug, "We're going to get her back. I promise."

"I know…" I paused for a moment before continuing, "She didn't talk about it much at the guild, but she told me stories about her time there."

"I remember, that's where she lost her eye wasn't it?"

I nodded my head. This was a fact I didn't find out about until much later. If you looked today, you wouldn't even be able to tell she lost her eye, but when she first arrived at Fairy Tail she only had one functioning eye. Porlyusica, Fairy Tail's resident apothecary, was able to transplant an artificial eye for her. She had pretty much recovered from the procedure by the time I joined Fairy Tail.

"Yeah, she said she lost it in the revolt." I informed her, "That wasn't even the only thing she lost there. There was an older man, his name was Rob. Apparently, he used to be a Fairy Tail mage, but he retired and was kidnapped to work on the Tower. He took care of her, told her when they got out, he'd take her to Fairy Tail."

"What happened to him?"

"He died. He told Erza to flee to Fairy Tail. That Gramps and the guild would protect her."

"And we will." Came Gray's voice from the stairs leading up onto the deck.

Behind Gray was Lucy, Loke, and Gajeel. I saw the determined expressions on all their faces, though Gray and Loke were noticeably more determined tahn Gajeel.

"But we need to know everything we can about this Tower." Loke added, "For all intents and purposes, this is an S-Class mission."

I got serious saying, "It's a tower that was being built to revive the Black Wizard Zeref. Supposedly, seven years ago the magic council shut down all work on the towers. I have no idea why one is still active."

"Hold on, towers?" Lucy chimed in, "As in there are multiple towers?"

"There were six." I informed her, "The magic council personally took care to destroy all of them."

"So maybe there were seven?" Gajeel guessed.

"We could always ask Wally." Gray added.

"That's probably a bad idea. I'm already skeptical about him leading us to the Tower." Lisanna confessed.

"Well, that's actually what we came down to tell you about." Loke said, "We can see the Tower on the horizon."

I stood up from my seat and instantly a wave of motion sickness overtook me, and I fell to the floor. I groaned at the floor as I muttered, "I hate boats."

"I was wondering why you weren't getting sick." Lisanna said as she rubbed my back.

"Hey, why doesn't Gajeel get motion sickness?" Happy piped up.

I looked up to see Gajeel fold him arms, "I do, it just isn't as bad for me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to sit down."

Gajeel proceeded to walk back up the stairs. I sat up and tried to follow him up on deck as well. The fresh air might help. Lisanna and Loke helped me up the stairs, bringing me out into the cold night air. In the distance I could vaguely make out the silhouette of a tower. It looked like there were lights on it too.

"How much longer?" I asked.

Juvia was standing at the wheel and called back to me saying, "This is as close as Juvia can get us. There's too much security, we would never get in."

Juvia proceeded to hand Gray binoculars. Gray peered through them and confirmed Juvia's statement.

"Are there any other ways in?" Lucy asked.

We all looked over to Wally who was tied, with iron, to a chair next to Juvia. He was grinning knowingly, "Yeah, there is a stealthy way in. But you'd never reach it."

"And why's that?" Gajeel asked, sitting on a chair next to him.

"It's underwater."

"Oh, that's fine, Juvia can get us in." Gajeel replied nonchalantly.

Juvia looked over to Gajeel with an annoyed expression, "Are you just going to nominate Juvia for everything?"

"I can't help it if you have all the skills we need."

"Aquarius might be able to help with that too." Loke added.

"I can transform into a fish." Lisanna replied.

"Mmm, Fish." Happy added, salivating from the mouth.

Lisanna slapped Happy on the back of the head, "Knock it off. That's just...gross."

"What?"

Gajeel began laughing.

"What!?"

"Alright, how do we get in!" I yelled as I leaned over the edge of the boat, trying to not vomit overboard.

"It'll be easier if I show you." Wally explained.

Gray began to say, "We are not," but I cut him off.

"Fine, but don't try anything funny."

"Natsu, are you sure?" Gray asked, "He could be tricking us."

"What's he gonna do, take us somewhere dangerous?" I pointed out towards the Tower of Heaven, "We're already there."

"Salamander's got a point. At this point, the only way for him to get one up on us is to take us to the Tower."

I turned around and gave Gajeel a thumbs up before quickly pivoting back towards the sea. I groaned over the railing as everyone else fell to silence.

"So then, it's decided. Wally will lead us through this underwater passage?" Loke asked.

"Don't blame me if you regret it." Wally warned us.

"Well then, guess we better get started!" Loke cried out as he pushed Lucy overboard into the water!

With a splash, Lucy landed in the water. Her now soaked form broke the water's surface and she shouted up to us, "Loke!"

I hoisted myself up by the railing and jumped in after Lucy. The others followed in soon after. Lisanna transformed mid-jump into her partial-fish take-over. She looked like a beautiful mermaid with a blue tail.

"Open, Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!" Lucy stabbed Aquarius's key down into the water. In a flash of light, another mermaid appeared before us.

"What do you want, Lucy?" Aquarius asked irritably.

"We need some help traveling underwater."

Siegrain

I was knelt in the middle of the room at the top of the tower. My hands were bound by a magic-sealing block. The room was pretty much empty except for the staircase leading down, the pedestal right next to me, and a throne where a man who looked just like me was sitting. The only major difference between us, was that the tattoo on his face was on the right side, whereas mine was on the left. I knew this man to Jellal, my twin brother. Standing next to him was the woman I never expected to be supporting him, Erza Scarlet.

"Why? What do you hope to accomplish by this?"

Jellal smiled at me, while Erza kept a stoic face.

"Simple, we're going to revive Zeref." Jellal explained, "To do that, we need a sacrifice. I estimated that the sacrifice would have to be a strong as say, a Ten Wizard Saint to accomplish such a feat."

"But why me, your own brother?"

Jellal chuckled at me, "Well, we need more than just a sacrifice. You, being a member of the magic council, have some perks which we could take advantage of."

I raised an eyebrow at that but didn't get to question him any further. Jellal leaned over to the side of his chair and pulled up an old looking book. I read the cover of it and a chill ran down my spine. It read "Book of Zeref: Lullaby". He handed the book to Erza.

"This wasn't easy to get." He muttered, "But it's the second requirement for the resurrection of Zeref. Erza, if you will?"

Erza walked over to me with the book.

"Erza, you don't have to do this!"

"…Yes, I do." Erza replied, a hint of hesitation in her voice.

She proceeded to place the book on the pedestal and placed her hand on it. Magic welled up from it and wrapped around the book. The magic proceeded to travel down the pedestal into the area I was kneeling in, lighting it up and revealing a magic circle. I grunted as a dull pain wracked my body. My vision began to grow blurry as I felt my mind transport somewhere else.

Flashback – Siegrain

I found myself looking up at a black-haired boy wearing a black robe with a white toga wrapped around him. He stared right at me with emotionless eyes.

"So, Zeref, what's this one supposed to do?" came a female voice.

I tried to look in the direction of the voice but found I couldn't. All I could make out was something red about this person.

"Kill." The black-haired boy, Zeref, replied, "It's a flute whose melody will kill whoever hears it."

"Interesting…" the female mused, "Will it be able to kill a dragon?"

"This one isn't like your brother." Zeref explained, "It's made from an inanimate object. It's more of a test run then anything. I don't think it'll be strong enough to kill more than a human."

"Including us?"

"The other Etherious should be immune to it. We should be immune as well, and possibly Maika and Achnologia."

The woman stepped further into view as my vision grew blurry. The woman's figure morphed a bit into the figure of Erza Scarlet.

Flashback End - Siegrain

For a moment I thought that woman really was Erza, but as I became aware of my surroundings, I realized I was pulled back into the present. Erza stood in front of me looking a little concerned.

"Is he okay?" She asked, craning her head to Jellal.

"I would say he just experienced one of Lullaby's memories. Which means the two are now linked together."

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