AN: Thank you Goku275, NinjaFang1331, InstinctMW, AliceCullen3, Wadeparker, Farzalou, LilBoiaSenpai, and Xerzo LotCN.
Farzalou, I believe that the idea of E.N.D. as a separate entity is because Natsu does not recall anything from when E.N.D. is active or exhibit any of his personality during those times. As I'm typing this, though, it occurs to me that E.N.D. sounds more like a computer program. It performs a single task mechanically (i.e. kill Zeref), with no regard to anything else. I keep remembering this story about a robot being told to make as many toothpicks as possible. It cut down every last tree to do so, killing all of humanity in the process (or something like that). The robot was not evil, it just did not care about anything aside from its task. I suppose E.N.D. may be like that, only attacking people like Dimaria because they're in the way of killing Zeref. Also, your English is fine.
LilBoiaSenpai, I make no promises about sparing Irene. I have not planned out her fate yet (or any of the Spriggan 12, for that matter).
Anyway, that's all I have to say. Enjoy the chapter!
"Sorry, but Lector and I couldn't find anyone at the former chairman's house," apologized Sting. "Didn't pick up any scents either."
During their flight to Crawford's house, Natsu and Happy used their Communications Lacrima to inform the rest of the guild about Natsu's suspicions. However, nobody had heard from the duo since then, leading Macao to send Sting and Lector to Crawford's place. After finding nothing, Sting and Lector had returned to the guild hall.
"What could've happened there?" grumbled Minerva. "How did they all disappear?"
"I hope they're okay," said Yukino. "They couldn't have all been defeated, right?"
"Not to mention that we lost contact with Rogue and Frosch," added Warren.
"What about the groups from other guilds who went to check on council members?" asked Max.
"They're all reporting that there's no action," answered Laki. "I wonder why Tartaros suddenly stopped their attacks."
"Ugh!" exclaimed Macao, tired of being several steps behind Tartaros. "If only we knew where Tartaros is hiding!"
"We found it!" shouted Happy as he flew through the window in cat form, battered and dizzy. "We found their main guild hall!"
"Happy, mya!" exclaimed Millianna and Blaze, who had recovered from the battle with Tempester. They were both relieved that the Exceed was safe, but also worried that Natsu wasn't with him.
Running out of Magic Power, Happy's wings disappeared and he crashed into the ground, rolling forward a few feet before coming to a stop. The Exceed laid there for a moment before shooting to his feet, suddenly full of vigor.
"Orga and Rufus got captured!" shouted Happy. "The former chairman is a traitor! And even Natsu is! And I!"
"Stop," ordered Minerva as she bent over and covered Happy's mouth with her hand to cut off his blubbering. "Now, calm down and tell us what happened."
"Okay," replied Happy, less panicked. "Natsu tracked Orga and Rufus's scents to…"
Happy spent the next several minutes explaining his and Natsu's experiences in Cube. It shocked and disheartened everyone to hear that their guild master, currently Fairy Tail's strongest member, had been captured.
Luckily Sting rallied them all by declaring that it took three of Tartaros's best, the third performing a surprise attack during Natsu's fight with the second, to even capture the dragon slayer. This soothed everybody's fears, though the mobile nature of Tartaros's base left them uncertain of its current location.
As the Fairies pondered what to do next, another of their own staggered into the guild hall.
"Rogue!" exclaimed Jet.
"Are you alright?" questioned Macao.
"Where's Frosch?" asked Droy.
"Frosch was captured," responded Rogue, his voice hollow. This elicited several gasps. "We were too late to save former Councilor Yuri. I was… I was right there with them, but…"
"What!?" shouted Blaze, rage bubbling over. "You just let one of those demons take Frosch, mya!? Did you even try to save them!? How could you let your friend down like that!?"
Millianna grabbed her daughter and cut off Blaze's tirade. "Erza Blaze Dragneel, that's enough! I know you're upset that your father's been captured, but you can't take it out on Rogue! He feels bad enough without you blaming him for what happened!"
As Millianna scolded her child, Yukino tried to comfort Rogue. "It's not your fault. And once we figure out where Tartaros's base is, we can rescue Frosch."
"Sorry," responded Rogue, walking away from the group of Fairies. "I need to rest."
As he left, Minerva watch the Shadow Dragon Slayer with narrowing eyes.
Mard sat on his throne, Book of E.N.D. in hand, gazing at the frozen human before him. It was hard to imagine that such a hotheaded, sentimental idiot could also be Zeref's greatest demon. Then again, Natsu Dragneel was powerful enough to fight several of the Nine Demon Gates in a single day. Human or not, the host held immense power.
Mard's lip curled into a smile. Soon, he would fulfill the secret desire written into every Etherious by their creator. Between E.N.D.'s power and his own Memento Mori Curse, the immortal Zeref would finally die!
Rummmmble!
Cube shook, stirred by the removal of the wards that were sealing Face.
"It seems like whoever had the last key just died," stated Silver, who was present to unfreeze E.N.D.'s host.
The revival process required his host to experience strong negative emotions, so the human being conscious was a necessity. To prevent any complications, magic-nullifying cuffs had been placed on the host as he was being transported.
"Release your spell partially, enough so that he can suffer," Mard commanded Silver, who immediately complied. Aside from his legs, Natsu unfroze, groaning and clutching his head. After a moment, he stopped, noticing that his headache was gone, his hands were cuffed, and he was in a different place.
"…The hell?" said Natsu, looking around. Upon spotting Mard, his eyes narrowed. "Are you Tartaros's guild master!? Because I'm here to kick his ass into the next century!"
"No," replied Mard. "I am simply watching over Tartaros until our Master E.N.D. returns. You see, unlike the rest of us Etherious, who Master Zeref created entirely from Ethernano, Master E.N.D. exists dormant within a human host. In fact, our acquisition of Face was part of our plan to awaken him."
"What does a magic erasing bomb have to do with waking up your boss?" asked Natsu, not seeing how the two were related.
"In order to awaken Master E.N.D., we need to use his book to fill his host with Curse Power," responded Mard. "Even then, he will not be at full power. A massive amount of negative emotions will be necessary to fuel his Curse Power, such as that produced by the widespread loss of magic. And with all of Face's seals removed, nothing can stop us."
"Did you seriously just bring me here to gloat?" snarked Natsu. However, rather than get annoyed, Mard chuckled.
"I brought you here…" began Mard, grinning cruelly. "…because you are Master E.N.D.'s host. Etherious Natsu Dragneel."
Shiiing. Shiiing. Shiiing.
Rogue sat alone in the guild hall's storage room, kneeling before an explosive Lacrima that would annihilate Fairy Tail. It killed him, but he had betrayed his guild and become Seilah's puppet to save Frosch's life.
"At least I will receive the proper punishment for my treachery," thought the dragon slayer, resigned.
As Rogue was thinking about his impending forced-kamikaze, Minerva walked into the room. It seemed off to her that Rogue would just sit idly by instead of trying to rescue Frosch, so she followed him to demand answers. "Rogue, why are you acting so strangely? Wait… what's that Lacrima?"
"Stay back!" shouted Rogue, his body uncontrollably lunging at Minerva. Caught off guard, she was unable to dodge as he pinned her to the floor. "Don't interfere! Don't interfere! Don't interfere!"
As she struggled to break free, Minerva was able to get a better look at the Lacrima. To her shock, she recognized what it was. "A bomb!?"
"Crumble!" said Rogue. "Crumble, Fairy Tail!"
"…That's impossible," rejected Natsu after a brief pause. "E.N.D.'s been around for ages. He's the demon not even Igneel could kill! I'm not E.N.D.!"
"I have a theory, but there is no point in telling you," responded Mard. "In just a few short minutes, Master E.N.D. shall awaken. Observe."
Mard gestured to a screen. Natsu looked at it and saw Fairy Tail's guild hall.
"Seilah of the Nine Demon Gates used her Curse Power to take control of one of your subordinates, the Shadow Dragon Slayer. He has brought an explosive into your guild hall, one that will wipe your guild from existence any second now."
"You monster!" shouted Natsu, furious. "Your plan won't work. My comrades will—"
BOOOM!
At that moment, a massive explosion tore apart the guild hall, leaving nothing but rubble. Natsu gaped at the destruction in horror. Mard looked at the dragon slayer in triumph. Silver watched with a frown, unable to act (Keyes had restricted his freedom after the attempt to kill E.N.D.'s host).
"No," muttered Natsu numbly. Pain, despair, and hatred swelled within him as he processed the fact that, yet again, he had lost his precious family members. He didn't even notice as Mard opened the Book of E.N.D. and fed his Curse Power into it.
A darkness, long dormant, began to grow within Natsu and transform his body. Pain permeated every cell of dragon slayer, causing him to writhe in agony. Without noticing, he destroyed the ice and cuffs binding him.
E.N.D. was awakening.
At the same time, a conversation took place in Tartaros's laboratory between a reborn Tempester, a reborn Jackal, and a lower-ranked Etherious named Lamy.
"The host was crazy powerful!" praised Jackal. "I can't imagine how strong Master E.N.D. himself is! Though, if I see that blue cat, I'm going to crush him for what he did!"
"Your angry face is so hot!" exclaimed Lamy, happy to be surrounded by attractive men. "It makes me come back to life! And I can't wait to see how hot Master E.N.D. is when he comes back to life!"
"Eugh!" shouted Jackal. "You're so annoying!"
"Who are they?" asked Tempester, pointing to two human men in giant test tube as he ignored the antics of his guildmates.
"Oh, I forgot!" said Lamy with a 'tee hee.' "They're members of the guild that E.N.D.'s host belonged to. Their names are Rufus and Orga. Kyôka decided to have them remade into demons."
Lamy pressed herself against the tube containing Orga, grinning widely. "Fa fa fa! Two more hotties for the guild! We only had enough demon genes to flood this one's body for now, but I don't care! He's so muscular and handsome! Fa fa fa! And I'll make him even hotter!"
As she spoke, Jackal and Tempester left out of disgust. Unfortunately, this meant that they were gone when Orga's eyes shot opened, something that shocked Lamy. Before she could react, though, the god slayer destroyed the tube containing him with a burst of lightning.
"Eee!" screeched Lamy. "Wh-what!? What is this!?"
"Demons can't enter temples, since they're the domain of gods," stated Orga. "And, as a Lightning God Slayer, my body is a temple!"
Orga released two more bolts of lightning, one knocking Lamy out and the other breaking the tube that contained Rufus. The bardic man, now free, groaned as he regained consciousness. "Ugh, I remember Crawford drugging us and bringing us to Tartaros's base. What is this room, and why were we in glass tubes?"
"They put us in some sort of lab," explained Orga. "I heard them mention something about turning us into demons. They started with me, and I was thankfully immune due to my god slayer magic. Now, are you ready to wreak some havoc on Tartaros's home?"
"They harmed our comrades," replied Rufus, now fully awake and ready for battle. "I would never forget it if I didn't."
"Well then… let's smite these demons!"
"Excellent work, Seilah" praised Kyôka, as she, Seilah, and Franmalth watched Fairy Tail's guild hall explode from Cube's control room. "Thanks to you, Mard will be able to awaken Master E.N.D. sooner than planned."
The three Etherious were excited to finally meet their leader. The only reason that every demon wasn't there to watch E.N.D.'s revival was because they were carrying out Mard's plan. Nobody wanted to disobey orders and make a bad impression on Master E.N.D.
"Hm?" went Franmalth, noticing an alert on one of the room's monitors. "I'm picking up a number of magical readings…"
As he spoke, a grunt ran into the room with urgent news. "It's terrible! We've confirmed two flying objects heading toward the Cube! Also, the humans that Crawford brought have escaped and are attacking anyone they come across!"
"Seilah, you and I will take care of the prisoners," directed Kyôka, unfazed by these complications. Four humans would not be enough to stop Tartaros's plan. "Franmalth, you handle the surviving Fairies."
With that, Kyôka and Seilah left. Franmalth decided to bring up the Under-Cube image. To his shock, the 'flying objects' were two winged cats, one of whom was carrying a woman.
"Whaa!?" exclaimed Franmalth, flabbergasted. "Wait, I recognize the one carrying that woman! He's from Fairy Tail…"
As Franmalth looked at the three Fairies, he realized that he also recognized the woman. After Tartaros discovered the identity of E.N.D.'s host, they performed a cursory investigation into the guild he led. They were nothing of note, not since a disaster several years ago. However, Franmalth decided to learn the appearances of the guild's S-Class Mages so that he could absorb their souls if the opportunity arose.
That woman was Minerva Orland. She used Territory magic, which could manipulate space. This was bad.
"She might have stored some of her guildmates in her Territory before the explosion!" shouted Franmalth. He turned toward the grunt who had warned of Minerva and co.'s approach. "Establish defensive lines! Activate the Under-Cube's gravitational field! Set the Front, Rear, and Side Cubes to Battle Condition One! Let none approach the Top Cube!"
As the grunt ran off to deliver his orders, Franmalth hoped that this complication wouldn't ruin everything. Sadly, demons have no gods they can pray to.
Omake
Mard didn't understand exactly how a teenage human could be E.N.D.'s host. More questions were raised when research into the host's past established that he was raised by a dragon who disappeared one day, despite how dragons haven't been sighted for centuries.
Mard did have a theory, though. He suspected that the host actually grew up several hundred years ago, raised by a dragon like he said. One day, however, E.N.D. must have awoken. The Master must have gotten into a fight with the human's dragon parent. While E.N.D. doubtlessly won, he likely received heavy injuries in the process.
These wounds must have forced E.N.D. and the human to go dormant for centuries, the human ultimately waking up with his memories too fractured to realize what had occurred. Meanwhile, E.N.D. remained asleep due to a lack of power.
Now, though, Mard would supply Master E.N.D. with the energy needed to end his slumber.
AN: the Omake is something I wrote because I figured that the members of Tartaros would wonder how a young human could be their centuries old master. That being said, the idea that E.N.D. activated, Natsu killed Igneel, then they slept for 400 years to recover does seem like it could make for an interesting story. If anybody reading this agrees and wants to write that, then I insist that you do! (I'm too busy with this story to do so myself.)
Also, I skipped Crawford stealing Jellal's key and being killed because it was exactly like canon. Bye!