Chapter 32

Paradise in Rosemary

Natsu

We had made short work of Shô and his Tower of Heaven cronies. He was not at all that difficult and went down in one hit. Gajeel, Lisanna, Happy and I were now running up the stairs ever closer to where we believed Erza and Jellal to be.

As we ran up the stairs, Shô's claims bothered me more and more. He kept claiming that I wasn't who I said I was, and based on Erza's reaction at the Resort, I was afraid that even she believed it. I knew I was her brother, and I had a good feeling that my friends did too, but it was still worrying me.

"Natsu, is there something the matter?" Lisanna asked.

Of course, Lisanna would pick up on my distress. With how long we've known each other it came as no surprise to me.

"It's what Shô has been saying." I told her, deciding it was best to just tell her, "About me not being Erza's brother."

"It's utter crap." Gajeel told me, "You two smell way too similar to not be siblings."

"Nobody believes him." Lisanna assured me.

"I'm worried that Erza does. She just…dismissed me at the Resort without a second thought. Almost like I meant nothing to her."

"There's no way you mean nothing to Erza!" Happy interjected, "You guys are like, super close!"

"If I had to take a guess, she's being manipulated or blackmailed into this whole thing." Gajeel theorized.

"I hope so." I mused. I would rather Erza be forced into working with these people then be doing it of her own free will.

"We'll definitely get her back," Lisanna reassured me, "We're going to take her back to Fairy Tail, and everything is going to go back to normal."

I smiled, "Yeah, definitely."

We finally reached the top of the stairs and came into another large corridor. Like the one before, there were three doorways on the left and right walls, and one doorway directly in front of us. Unlike before though, this corridor was elegantly decorated. There was a large table in the center of the room, pictures hung from the walls, and various expensive looking vases and decorations were scattered about the room in a meaningful manner.

"Is it just me, or is it weird that we haven't gotten too much resistance since we got here?" Lisanna asked.

"Maybe they're just that scared of us?" Happy replied.

I stepped forward and said, "It doesn't matter, we just need to find Erza."

"I'm going to have to ask that you give up, Salamander." Came a new voice.

Out of one of the doorways to our left came a large man with a metal jaw. He had an intimidating figure and looked like he could snap Lisanna, Happy, and I in half if he wanted to. He'd probably have a harder time breaking Gajeel. I recognized him as Simon from the Resort.

"We ain't giving up." Gajeel replied as he cracked his knuckles and stepped forward.

Simon ignored Gajeel's attempt at intimidation. His focus was solely on me as he asked, "I have to ask, why do you care so much about her?"

"Because she's my sister."

I couldn't read Simon at all. He remained stoic, and the bulky metal jaw helped to hide any kind of emotion on his face. From what I could tell, he wasn't mad like Shô was. With Shô, I could feel some kind of anger towards me, but I couldn't feel it with him.

"I wish that was true, Salamander, but even I know that's impossible. Natsu died in the fires that destroyed Rosemary all those years ago."

"Natsu is standing right here." Lisanna replied, "He didn't die."

"And fire can't hurt him!" Happy added, "He just eats it!"

Before anyone could point out to Happy that this was before I met Igneel, Lucy and a much more stylish Loke came running up the stairs behind us.

"Finally, I…" Lucy panted out before stopping mid speech, "What's going on here? Are we in another battle?"

"That's what I want to know!" Gajeel asked, "Why don't we just knock him out and get going?"

Simon took a deep breath, stepped to the side and motioned to the doorway opposite of us, "If you want to go forward go ahead, I know I'm not strong enought to beat you. But if you do go forward, know that Jellal and Erza will stand against you."

Gajeel babbled for a moment before he found the words to say, "Wait, you're really just going to let us go?"

"As I said, I know I don't stand a chance against you."

"And what do you mean Erza will stand against us?" Lucy asked, "Why is she against us?"

"Erza's been in on this since the beginning." Simon explained, "She never truly escaped from the Tower. Jellal's had her on a leash this whole time."

"He's had her on a leash?" Happy asked.

Simon pointed at me, "He hired him to act as Erza's little brother and keep an eye on her."

"That makes no sense." We all told Simon.

"Why would Natsu pretend to be her brother and then betray Jellal?" Lucy asked.

"It'd make more sense for Salamander to just leave." Gajeel added.

"And I was never 'hired' by Jellal!"

I was getting impatient with him and began to heat up. Before I could fly into a rage again, Lisanna grabbed my hand and I instantly cooled down to avoid hurting her. She was right, I needed to keep my cool if I wanted to reach Erza.

"If I had to guess, I'd say you grew attached to Erza. I don't blame you for wanting to protect her." Simon explained, "But let's say you are Erza's brother? How'd you manage to survive an attack that was reported as having no survivors?"

I didn't know why, but for some reason I wanted to continued talking to this man. For whatever reason, it felt important that I prove to him that I wasn't lying.

"Erza told me to hide in the forest when the attack happened. Me and this other girl hid out there until Igneel showed up."

"And Igneel is your dragon parent?" I confirmed that fact for him, "And who was this other girl."

"I don't remember. It was a long time ago. She was too scared of Igneel so she didn't train with us."

"So now there's another person who survived the attack on Rosemary, she didn't train with Igneel, and you don't remember her name? Do I have this right?"

Simon seemed to be getting agitated by my response, and Gajeel facepalmed while muttering, "Stop adding details..."

Before I could continue though, Lucy blurted out, "But that checks out!"

Everyone, myself included, looked at Lucy in confusion.

"What checks out, Master Lucy?" Loke asked her.

"Natsu's story." She informed us, "Back around the time the Magic Council shut down the other Tower's, Siegrain was on a mission to find Jellal. He ended up interviewing a ton of people and I remember he told me about a girl who said she was saved by a dragon!"

"And did she mention anything about a boy leaving with the dragon?" Simon asked her.

"Uh…no, but to be fair I heard this second hand from Siegrain. He might have just not mentioned it."

"Well, I suppose your story is more believable than his."

"Are you serious, come on!" I yelled at him.

Growing impatient, Gajeel extended his arm into a pole and dropped it on my head, mildly hurting me. I growled at Gajeel and faced him. I knew he was there, but my vision was blurry now. I closed my eyes and tried to collect myself when I remembered something.

I opened my eyes and my vision was fully restored, "Gajeel, do that again!"

Without even questioning it, Gajeel bonked me on the head once more.

"Hey, knock that off!" I heard Lisanna cry at Gajeel, though her voice sounded distant.

"What, he ran away." As Gajeel replied to Lisanna, his voice slowly morphed into a deeper, more draconic voice.

"Natsu, are you alright?" Lucy asked distantly. Like Gajeel, her voice morphed into another's voice. This one was more childlike in nature.

Once again, my vision was blurry, much more so this time than before. Gajeel's voice reminded me of Igneel, especially at the end there. 'Ran away' there was something significant about that phrase. Was he referring to me running away from the fires?

"You don't think he's going to burn us alive, do you?" Lucy asked in the little girl's voice.

A chill went down my spine, but I was smiling, nonetheless. I recognized this voice and had a pretty good idea of what she was asking me.

"Igneel's not gonna burn us." I replied, slowly trying to work out my response, "He's…a nice dragon…Kagura."

"Really?" Lucy replied in the little girl's voice.

"Natsu, Igneel isn't here." I heard Lisanna say from quite a distance.

I quickly shook my head from side to side to regain my senses. As I was shaking myself, I was suddenly encased in a fluffy prison. It felt pretty nice.

"Calm down Natsu, you're going to hurt yourself." Lisanna told me and she forced me into her arms.

"I remembered her name." I told Lisanna, "It was Kagura! Her name was Kagura Mina...Mira...Mikazuchi! Haha, Gajeel, you hitting my head helped me remember!"

"Gihihi, I see, a little percussive maintenance." Gajeel replied with a triumphant sneer.

Lisanna let go of me and I could finally see everyone again. Lucy and Lisanna looked concerned, Gajeel looked pleased with himself, Happy had a dumb smile on his face, and Simon looked pissed. The lights around us were slowly fading the darkness. I wasn't all that worried about having to fight in the darkness, until I realized I couldn't smell Simon.

"What did you just say?" He asked, fuming.

"Her name was Kagura Mikazuchi. She escaped from Rosemary with me!" I excitedly shouted at Simon before wincing at the sudden pain in my head. I grabbed and held onto my head where Gajeel hit me.

"You're lying." Simon lowered his voice to a growl as the lighting got even darker.

"I ain't lying." I told him, "We escaped together and found Igneel in the forest."

"If you're trying to play at my emotions, it won't work. Kagura is dead, just like Erza's brother."

Lucy spoke up this time, a hint of realization in her voice, "Do you know Kagura?"

"That's my sister."

The room echoed in silence as we all took in that information. It was like the pieces were just coming together now. I recalled that Kagura also lost family to the attack. She had mentioned having a brother in the past, and I vaguely remembered her saying his name was Simon. It made sense now. Why I felt it was so important to convince Simon.

"That means you were from Rosemary too."

The darkness was growing around us and it was getting difficult to see. Strangely, I was still having a hard time picking up Simon's scent.

"Why do you believe she's dead?" Lucy asked.

"Jellal told me she was dead."

"Did you ever prove it for yourself?"

Lucy's question seemed to effect Simon because the darkness began to fade away a little.

"How do you know he didn't lie to you, to keep you from leaving?"

"J-Jellal wouldn't lie to us!"

"Listen, I don't know this Jellal guy, but he is literally trying to revive the most evil man the world has ever known. Something tells me that it wouldn't be beneath him to lie to get what he wants."

Simon was silent before saying, "If that is true, and Kagura is alive…then that would mean…"

"Do you want to believe that she's dead, or alive?" I asked him.

The light was restored around us. The darkness receded away leaving us in a well-lit room.

"If she is alive, then there's no way I can face her now. Not while I'm supporting a genocidal maniac."

"So, you admit he's insane?" came Gajeel's remark.

"If we're being honest, that's the part I never really agreed with: Reviving Zeref." Simon confessed.

"Then why do you support him?" Happy asked.

"I've got nowhere else to go…these people, they're my family."

"Kagura's out there waiting for you." I told him, "I promise, we'll reunite you with your sister no matter what."

"I'll hold you to that. But first...we have to reunite you with yours."

"You're going to help us?" asked a hopeful Lisanna.

Simon nodded his head, "Don't think this means we're friends though. I still need to confirm this for myself. But if it means stopping the revival of Zeref, you can count me in as an ally."

"Then let's get going!" I shouted as I took a step forward, only to lose my balance and nearly fall to the ground. Fortunately, Lisanna and Lucy were there to catch me.

"Natsu, are you okay?" Lisanna asked.

"I'm fine!" I assured her as I got myself balanced.

"You better be." Simon said, "Jellal hired an assassins guild, Death's Head Caucus."

"Juvia mentioned them." Lucy stated, "We already beat one of them."

"There are two more guarding up ahead. They won't let you through without a fight."

Gajeel cracked his knuckles and stepped forward, "And a fight we will give them."

This wasn't an easy chapter to write. I hope Simon's heel-face turn was convincing enough.

Thank you for reading!

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