Distantly, Natsu was aware of Happy crossing himself, muttering prayers to gods he didn't believe in, aware of Happy grabbing for his arm, trying to pull him back, away from Zeref. Natsu couldn't go, though. He couldn't take his eyes off his brother, who wore the same thing he did the night he visited Natsu on Fiore's ship. The night he died. He was transported back to the morgue, where Zeref's body lay on the slab, mostly made of ice. His throat burned with bile, but his body wouldn't follow through with the command. Natsu was paralyzed.

Zeref stumbled uneasily. He looked as ill and disoriented as Natsu felt. He looked like he did when he woke from the Black Fever he'd contacted when he was twelve, after a week of fevered sleep. His eyes were blown wide, and his skin was sickly pale.

Zeref gaped around like he'd been thrown from one fantasy into the next, staring at the dragon before him with the eyes of the child who'd had his life stolen by them. He stumbled back. Roused, Natsu jarred forward to capture his brother around the shoulders, preventing him from falling. He seemed thinner, to Natsu, and cold. But solid. Gods. Zeref was really here.

"What…" Zeref trailed off, swallowed, as he took in the carnage and the threat, and Natsu behind him, Lucy, who weaved and fell on the scorched earth, either unconscious or dead, Natsu couldn't tell.

What indeed.

Eileen recovered faster than Natsu or Zeref to Zeref's sudden appearance and lunged in with her teeth bared. The force of her claws hitting the earth churned up sandy soil and destroyed trees.

Natsu threw himself to the ground with Zeref, narrowly avoiding being cut in two by teeth that were at least as large as he was.

He was counting his blessings when he heard Happy yell. He flung himself over and saw Eileen swiping her clawed hands across the ground, reaching for Happy instead. She snagged him up as easily as a child plucking a dandelion. The force of it made his head snap back. Natsu wanted to close his eyes but was too afraid of what would happen if he did.

"Happy! Happy!" As though screaming his name would make Eileen see things his way and release him.

The dragon slid her head Natsu's way; he could hear her scales grinding together as she moved, screeching like stones in an earthquake. She looked at him and he knew this was no longer just politics. It was personal. He'd affronted Eileen on a level he hadn't ever meant to, and for reasons he couldn't yet understand.

She narrowed her eyes and lifted Happy up. Happy pushed against her claws weakly, writhing, screaming, struggling to break her hold without any effect.

She's going to bite him in two, Natsu thought with dull panic when Happy was fifty metres from her mouth. She's going to tear him apart as though he's nothing and there won't be anything left to even bury, he thought when the space closed to five.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he stood and summoned the last of his strength, targeting Eileen's face, he hadn't enough power to beat a dragon, surely, but when his fire spread out from him, it was threaded with shadows.

The spell hit Eileen and tore a few of the scales from her neck, sending them careening to the ground like pieces of hail. When they hit, they dug into the earth, blades buried in dirt. Blood dribbled down Eileen's long neck, stinking, steaming.

The dragon roared and shook the remaining trees and the ground beneath Natsu's feet. He stumbled back but didn't go down. Thin, pale hands took him by the shoulders and supported him. Zeref's smell invaded his nose, all his senses. Natsu again almost fell to his knees. He didn't think he'd ever be in Zeref's presence again. He thought his brother was on the slab in the mortuary, ruined. He thought… he thought he was alone in this world.

"We need to attack the eyes," Zeref commanded in his ear. He'd shaken off the shock of appearing amid a battle and had gathered his wits. With his renewed calmness, Natsu found his own.

Trees and grass still smouldered amongst the battlefield. Natsu called those fires to him, let them swirl around his person, fueling his own, until soon, he was ablaze in their glory, breathing the flames, eating the flames, almost drowning in the firestorm.

At the sight of the fire, Eileen's demeanor changed, got more serious, if that was a possibility. She dropped Happy from her claws. Happy hit the ground limply but didn't stay there, scrambling to his feet and racing out of Eileen's range just as soon as he was able. He hobbled a little, hurt.

Natsu felt Zeref's magic spike, and then again, peaking at dangerous levels that coated the countryside in a malignant fog. It was always difficult to withstand his magical outbursts, but Natsu found this one particularly toxic. He might have fallen beneath its oppressiveness if he didn't have his own fires to hold him up.

In his periphery, he saw Happy was gathering Lucy in his arms and together, they were stumbling away from the toxic magic and the burning and decaying forest, away from the danger.

"Are you ready?" Zeref had to yell to be heard over the crackling flames and the groaning earth.

Natsu found himself without breath. He could only nod. When his fires belled out, Zeref's darkness enshrouded them. Like storms on the horizon, they hit Eileen and lit up the sky, plunged it into darkness, and then again.

Eileen roared out magic and split the countryside in two. It would have taken Zeref with it, but Natsu again flung himself at his brother and they hit the ground together, just below the attack. Natsu's back burned with its force. The pain was as sharp as a knife and then it was gone, numb instead. He figured he was hurt and hurt badly. Once the numbness took over, it was like he was floating.

"One more time," Zeref said in his ear. Natsu labored to focus on him. His brother was struggling out from beneath Natsu, and then holding him up. "One more time, Natsu."

Natsu blinked his bleary eyes. He was seeing double. Two Zeref's, two Eileen's, two ruined countrysides and countless dead. So many gone.

"One more time," Zeref repeated.

Natsu blinked and the world came back into focus. Eileen swung her head back and forth. Her eyes had been burned out. She was blind. Not helpless, though. At the sound of Zeref's voice, she narrowed in on their position and snapped her razor teeth, barely missing Zeref by a foot.

"Once more." Zeref squeezed Natsu's bicep hard enough it shocked him back into reality. His body was like a live wire, everything hurt and anything touching it set it off. He breathed in desperate breaths and dug his fingers into the dirt.

Once more, Natsu thought.

With Zeref's help, he got shakily to his feet.

Despite her blindness, Eileen seemed to know exactly where to look for them. She lifted her foot and brought it down. Zeref used his magic to push it aside, throwing her off balance. She stumbled back, and then over, exposing her belly.

Once more, Natsu mantraed. Once more.

Fire funneled toward him. His head spun, pounded, spun, pounded. His vision constricted. Zeref still had hold of his arm, anchoring him in this one spot when he felt like he wanted to blow away.

Zeref's magic abutted Natsu's own, making a storm, violent and black. When it targeted Eileen, it hit her in the belly and tore through the thinner scales there.

The last thing Natsu remembered before the blackness crept across his eyes was the rank smell of deep body blood and gore.

A/N: ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER. And the chapter's even shorter than the last. Omg. I'm sorry. Okay. But I've started writing the last chapter and it will not take so long to come out.

Still be safe. Still ly. Thank you so much for your reviews; I'm still horribly shit at getting back to them. I'm sorry. But know I love them.

-Freyja