A/N: Look at me! I'm two days early! Anyway, here is my author note for today. Since I update less frequently, there will be more of these. If you hate them...sorry about that, you can feel free to skip. Anyhow, I wanted to mention that I have a second story that is titled 'Natsu's Last Straw' so if you haven't read that, be sure to check it out. Next, I have a question for the other authors of this site. Are your stat tracker graphs broken? Mine isn't updating, and whenever I try to look at them, I just get an error. My favorite part about posting stories is reading reviews and seeing how many people are looking at them, so it's frustrating to me that I can't view the stat tracker. I love writing these stories of course, but it feels great to know that people with no ulterior motives enjoy things that I write. Lastly, I wanted to make a quick announcement about the future of this story. This may come as a surprise, and it is kind of an unavoidable spoiler, but I feel like I need to point this out. The seven-year time skip will NOT happen in my story. That's right, the ages people are now will stay relatively the same. I believe my story will take place over a year or two, but while I will do a Tenrou arc, different things will happen which will lead to no time skip. The other thing is that E.N.D will not make an appearance in this story as Natsu, though I may use him in the future. Zeref in this story is not Natsu's brother and the two have no family relation to each other. I refuse to spoil anything, but Zeref serves a unique purpose in this story. If you pay close attention, you may be able to figure it out, but no I have not directly stated it nor given any major hints. To end off this note, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll see you again when the next one comes out!

~Ad Vitam, Ad Mortem~

"Come on, Natsu! You have got to get off or you'll have to ride it again!" Mira scolded lightly.

"Just...kill...me…" Natsu groaned back, crawling slowly out of the train.

Mira rolled her eyes, and dragged him off of his self-proclaimed 'number one rival' whom he swore to defeat 'in a fiery supernova of epic proportions.' "Do I need to use Levy's trick again? It may not be what I intended, but it certainly-"

"Nope! I'm doing perfectly fine, Jane!" he responded quickly, somehow immediately standing up. "I'll even take your stuff for you, so if you could never speak of that again, that would be wonderful."

"Hmmm…" Mira pondered, teasingly. "I suppose that would be ok, but what would you do for me in return?"

"Hold that thought a moment," Natsu interrupted, turning around and staring suspiciously at the train station. "I think something's wrong."

"What do you mean by that?"

"The town's quieter than it should be. It's not silent, but everyone is speaking in whispers. I can barely make any of the words out, but the tone sounds like...well...pity."
"Do you think something happened?" she questioned, worriedly.

"I don't know, but we should hurry up and find out."

The two raced towards the guildhall, and as they came into view, they finally saw it.

"Our guild hall!" Mira gasped. Natsu started to growl, a low, threatening, rumbling sound from deep in his throat as he gazed upon his home in anger.

"Let's go. Now. If anyone was hurt, there'll be hell to pay. So help me if anyone so much as touched them-"

"It's Fairy Tail, I'm sure they'll be fine," Mira reassured him. In reality, she was just as worried if not more so than he was, but someone needed to calm down the raging dragon that was terrifying the few pedestrians walking around town nearby. 'Please...Elfman...Lisanna...everyone...please be ok…'

The two raced full speed to the guild and got to the front of it. "Erza! Lisanna! Master! Is anyone there!" Natsu shouted.

"Lisanna!" Mira yelled excitedly, as the short white-haired barmaid emerged from the building. "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"No one was hurt, don't worry, Mira," Lisanna said, patting her back.

"Thank goodness…" she whispered, releasing her sister.

"So...he shows his colors, eh? That little brat…" Natsu mumbled, looking at the damage. The entire guild was in shambles, giant iron rods and pillars stuck through the walls and ceiling, the door ripped off its hinges, and the windows shattered to pieces.

"How do you already know?" Lisanna asked her, rather surprised. The guild had a pretty good idea of what happened, but there was no direct evidence.

"It was Metallicana's brat, no doubt about it," Natsu sighed. "I'll fix that punk eventually. I've never actually met the kid, but Metallicana was 'friends' with Draco, so I heard a lot about that metal headed dragon. If Black Steel is anything like his dad, he's gonna be a hard one to reign in."

"What's with the air quotes around friends?" Mira asked.

"Pretty much the same as you and Erza when I first got here…"

"Oh…"

"I don't smell blood, so am I correct to assume he struck when no one was here?" Natsu asked the youngest Strauss.

"As clever as always!" Lisanna chirped, nodding at his question. "Though I'm surprised you haven't caught another scent yet."

"Oh, did we get a new member? Interesting. It's probably because of all the damage, I can't really smell any of you all that well right now. Dust, metal, and wood is really all I can get."

"Hmm...you'll have to see when we get down there," Lisanna smiled at him, much to Mira's confusion. "Let's go, everyone's downstairs."

Mira and Natsu glanced briefly at each other before shrugging and following her into the ruins and down the stairs into the basement.

"So we're set up down here?" Mira asked as she began to descend.

"Yup!" Lisanna chirped back as they walked down. They made it about halfway when Natsu stopped and his eyes grew huge.

'It...no...it can't be…' he thought to himself, as a single tear slid down his cheek.

"Natsu? Why'd you stop?" Mira asked, turning around giving him a perplexed look. "Are you ok? Why are you crying?"

"Give him a second, Mira. It's a surprise," Lisanna told her, as she dragged her sister down the steps.

"Lisanna~! Hey! Stop dragging me! What's wrong with Natsu?" she whined, as her little sister took her hand and forced her down the steps.

'She knows...that means…it has to be, I'd know that scent anywhere…' Tears continued to pour down his face as he slowly walked down the stairs. All eyes were on him as he reached the bottom.

"I-it's really you…" he whispered hoarsely, stripping off his cloak. "I-I...how...are you?" For once, the master of words, the ever rambling dragon slayer was at a loss. He couldn't speak and he could hardly breathe. Standing across the room staring at him with her dainty hands over her mouth and tears pouring down her face was his long lost favorite pseudo-sister from Rösch...Treya herself.

"Natsu...it's really you…" she whispered back. "Natsu!"

"Treya!" As if in sync, they just ran at each other and gave a fierce hug, words ceasing to come as they just cried into each other. Natsu towered over her by at least a head, but they fit perfectly as a reunited brother and sister should. "You're back...alive…"

"I'm finally home…" she whispered. "Wherever your family is, that's where home is. Do you remember?"

"Of course I do…" he whispered back.

Flashback

It was now Natsu's third week in Rösch, and he had befriended everyone at the orphanage. Well...almost everyone. Treya was still a bit scared of him, but at least she wasn't hiding as much anymore. Natsu was a bit nervous around her himself because he didn't really want to make people uncomfortable. Other people being uncomfortable was one of the only things that made him uncomfortable, though he didn't always really notice.

Fortunately, that was all about to change, when Natsu decided to head back to his room in the early afternoon to write a bit in his journal. He kept writing in it every day, though he tried to be as private about it as he could. When Natsu arrived at the outside of the door, he heard soft whimpers from the other side. Slowly opening the door, he caught sight of little Treya hugging her pillow and crying, while the scent of saltwater slowly permeated throughout the room.

"Treya? Are you ok?" he asked cautiously, approaching her slowly.

"N-Natsu!" she exclaimed, surprised and nervous at his sudden arrival.

He could tell that she was trying to come up with something to say, but couldn't. She seemed nervous that it was just the two of them, but that was covered up by sorrow. Unsure of what to do, Natsu decided to do exactly what Igneel did to him when he was sad.

"Just let it out…" he whispered to her, after sitting next to her and pulling her into a hug. "Let everything out and it will all feel better."

Treya's eyes widened in shock. She felt the warmth of his fire and somehow for the first time in years, she felt safe. That as long as he was there, nothing could go wrong. And so, the dam broke. She collapsed into his arms, bawling into his chest as he slowly stroked her back letting her get it all out.

After about ten minutes, she pulled away; her eyes red and puffy. "T-thank y-you…" she mumbled.

He gave a small grin in response. "Of course. Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong? Igneel always told me that it's better to talk about what makes you feel sad, that way you don't have to deal with it alone."

"O-oh...o-ok…" she stuttered shyly. "I-I just miss my momma..."

"Oh…" he whispered, allowing her to go on.

"When I was really little, a bunch of bad people were in charge of our town. Momma was always really scared. One day, a bunch of people came to try to save us and Momma took me and ran to the forest. We ran into one of the bad men that always took things from momma...he used to come into our house and beat momma for no reason…" she said, her tears starting again. Natsu's heart was breaking at her story, as all he could do was keep holding her as she told the story. "Momma told me to run away and not to look back, but the people that came to save us told me that she died...the bad man killed her."

"I'm so sorry, Treya...that's terrible…" he whispered.

"But that was my home, and now...now I'm just an orphan!" she bawled. "And no one loves me, and I'm all alone!"

"That's not true, Treya…" he said, slowly rubbing her back. "You have all of us. You have Cindy and Parker, Ma and Ashley. And you have me."

"You really think so?" she sniffled.

"Of course! We're like one big family!" he grinned. "Ashley is like our responsible big sister, and Ma is our momma. Cindy is the excited sister and Parker's the annoying little brother!"

Treya giggled. "Don't be mean to Parker, Natsu!"

"And you're our adorable little sister that we love to bits!" he grinned, as she giggled some more.

"Does that mean you're our big brother?" she questioned.

"I'd love it if you thought that."

"I think you make a great big brother…"

"Thanks, Treya. It's nice to have a big family, don't you think?"

"Yeah…"

"You know what Igneel used to tell me was the best part about having a family? He said that the best part was always having someone by your side, so you never have to be alone. He said that as long as you have a family, you have a place you belong and a place to return to, because wherever your family is is your home."

"I wish I could've met Igneel."

"I would have loved that…"

Flashback End

They stood there hugging for several minutes, forgetting the world around them, just glad to finally see each other again. Eventually, though, Treya pulled back slightly and smiled at him.

"You look just as feral as I remember you being."

"And you still cry over nothing," Natsu replied happily.

"Oh, because you're not crying," she scoffed.

"I hate to interrupt your reunion," Gray started. "But now that Natsu and Mira are back, shouldn't we try to do something in retaliation? They attacked our guildhall! We can't just let them get away with that!"
"As I told you before, Gray," Makarov replied with a heavy sigh. "No one was hurt. If they are so cowardly as to not face us directly, what reason have we to go to war, which, need I remind you, is against the rules of the council! We could be shut down as a guild!"

"Master is right, Gray," Natsu added, pointing Treya to a table to wait for him, to which she happily heads over and sits down. "My guess is they did this in an attempt to get us to attack them anyway. I don't know if they're after something or if they're just jealous and want our guild shut down, but for right now, attacking them is the worst possible decision we could make. So help me if they hurt any of my family…" he growled, as his words went from reasonable and wise to bloodthirsty and venomous, "hell itself won't stop a raging dragon. Who knows...a crown might need to be reborn…"

Makarov paled at that, and both Erza and Mira shifted uncomfortably as Natsu sat down next to Treya, who, while perplexed, patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"What was-" Gray started.
"Whoops! I gotta hit the can!" Makarov announced and toddled over to the restroom.

"Uh, is anyone else-"
"Problem, Gray?" Erza asked threateningly.

"No, ma'am!"

"Good!"

After whatever that was, the crowd dispersed and went about their everyday business. Mira took her place back with her sister at the bar, Erza finished her cake, and Natsu decided to catch up with his long lost little sister.

"So I want to start," he said, looking straight at her. "How are you here? How did you survive? Don't get me wrong, I haven't been this happy in...I don't think there was a last time, but how?"

"They didn't kill me," she told him. "They tried, but I ran away and they couldn't catch up. I would have died anyway, but luckily a family found me in the woods and nursed me back to health."

"What happened?"
"After...Ashley died…" she breathed heavily. Even after all this time, it was a hard story to tell, and Natsu just rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. "You froze, and I got scared...and just ran away. I was so angry at myself for so long. If I hadn't run away, I could have helped you all...I-I was s-so sure you'd all died!"

"Shh…It's ok. You did the best thing you could. If you hadn't, you wouldn't be here right now, right?"

"I-I guess. Are you sure that you aren't even a little angry at me?" she asked between sniffles and tears.

"How on earthland could I be angry at you? If you hadn't run away, I would never have gotten to see you again."

"Thank you…" she whispered. "You're the best big brother I've ever had."

"I'd better be, since you haven't had any others," he said chuckling, as she giggled. "Is that why it took you so long to come find me?"

"Yeah, I thought you were dead…" she muttered.

"Well, I guess I can't fault you for that...I was pretty under the radar."

"No kidding! If it weren't for Happy, I still wouldn't have guessed it was you! 'Mysterious Dual Salamander!'" she teased.

"In fairness, it wasn't my choice," he defended. "The whole 'under the radar' thing definitely was, for reasons I'll tell you later, but the nickname was a coincidence."

"What trouble have you caused this time, Natsu!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Oh, sure you don't! Just like you weren't causing trouble when you put a rabbit's head on Parker's pillow!"

"That was hilarious and you know it!"

"IT WAS TERRIFYING!"

The two carried on for hours, several other members of the guild, joining them for brief introductions and stories about Natsu, which included Mira, Erza, Lisanna, Lucy, Levy, and Loke, although he was just there to try to get a date with Treya. Let's just say Loke won't be going on a date for a while and move on. It was around dinner time when Natsu excused himself briefly to speak with Makarov about something.

"Master, I have a suggestion for you."

"And what is that, my boy?"

"I think we should leave here in groups for the near future. Who knows what Phantom Lord was really after, and if it's one of our members, better safe than sorry."
"Hmmm…I suppose that would be wise," Makarov nodded in agreement. "Go ahead and suggest it, but I can't force anything since this is in their private lives."

"Very well, master. Thank you."

"Thank you, my boy. A good suggestion; always a good thing to watch out for your family members."

Natsu smiled and jumped up to the second level to get a vantage point to announce from. "EVERYONE, LISTEN UP!" he roared, silencing the guildhall since Natsu rarely raised his voice like that. "Due to the recent incident with Phantom Lord, master and I have both agreed that it would be wise to stay in groups while at home and while traveling for the near future. I would recommend groups of three to six people, seeing as two people isn't quite large enough, and seven seems rather excessive. Be sure to discuss sleeping and travel arrangements accordingly if you plan to adhere to this advice. That is all."

A cheer rang out, including a drunken unintelligible shout from Cana, a roar about manly men protecting their family being super manly from Elfman, and a reassurance that all his women would be protected by Loke. Natsu jumped down and rejoined Treya.

"So where have you been staying?" he asked her.

"Lisanna offered me Mira's room, but since she's back I'm not sure. I was planning on leaving tonight anyway, so I should be able to afford-"

"That settles it."
"That settles what?"

"You're living with me until I can either buy you a place to live or you can."

"Natsu, you really don't need to-"

"Nope, no arguments," he silenced her by covering her mouth with his hand. "You are staying in the guest room of my house, which I just happened to have added recently, and that is final. I would buy you a place tomorrow...but the council kind of took the last of my jewels in a fine…"

"Oh good grief, Natsu!" she groaned and scolded him about following rules properly. "With that being said, are you really sure about this? I don't mind staying in a hotel until I can find a job."

"It's not that I don't mind, it's that I insist upon it. I will not have my sister staying in a hotel when she can stay with me. Besides, I can get you a job. You can work here."

"Natsu, I don't know magic. And before you offer, I have no plans to become a mage either. I don't really have good experiences with magic."

"I know that. I was going to suggest you work with Mira and Lisanna as a waitress. Isn't that what you were doing before?"

"I guess I could do that for a little while," she replied, pondering the suggestion. "But are you sure about that? Everyone else here is a mage, I don't want you to make an exception just for me. It's not like I won't see you ever if I work somewhere else, you know."
"Of course I know that. The thing about Fairy Tail is everyone in it is a family. It's not about the strong or the weak, it's about being together and being there for one another. And apparently, as I've just learned, it's about figuring out if fairies have tails or not."
"Of course this is where you'd end up," she giggled. "Ok, softie. You win. I'll stay with you and if they let me, I'll work here for a bit."

"So where do you want your guild mark?" Mira asked, approaching the duo with a stamp in hand.

"Don't I have to do an interview or something? And how did you know I wanted to join anyway?" Treya asked incredulously.

"Nope! Fairy Tail is a family, we don't really turn away members. And of course you were going to join, you're Natsu's sister! Like he'd let you go anywhere else!" she giggled.

"You have a point there, Jane," Natsu nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I guess. I'll take it on the back of my right hand, please."

"Here you go!" she exclaimed happily, pressing the stamp to the back of her hand, revealing a dark purple stamp.

"How come mine is purple?" she asked, inspecting it. "Is it random or something?"

"Nope!" Mira exclaimed, walking away, deciding to leave the explanation to Natsu.

"So are you gonna tell me why it's purple?" she asked Natsu.
"I don't know exactly, but supposedly, the mark is a color that represents someone that has affected you deeply in the past or someone that will affect you deeply in the future. So, mine is red for Draco, or at least I think so."

"And Mira's is white for you," Treya nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose that's possible, but I think it's more likely that it's for her siblings."

"You can deny it all you want, it's definitely for you. And maybe your red mark is for a pretty knight that I saw earlier. Aren't you the lady killer, Natsu?" she teased.

"Did you spend this whole time being corrupted by Lisanna?"

"I may have, but then again, I might have always been this way."

Natsu sighed and muttered something about difficult women. "Alright, well it's getting late, so let's get a posse together and go back to my place. You can get your stuff from the Strauss' place tomorrow morning, I'll have Happy fly you there if need be. Speaking of, where did he go?"

"Aye, sir!" Happy called, flying in from the kitchen. "Mira gave me a fish!"

"Of course she did…" he sighed and went to gather a group together, leaving the cat and female combo to wait for him. The group ended up being Natsu, Treya, Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy. He offered to bring Mira too, who clearly wanted to come, but had to stay with her siblings to make sure their group was large enough. Erza gave quite the victorious smirk when Mira glared over.

"Alright everyone, ready to go?" Natsu said, donning his cloak.

"Do you really wear that everywhere you go?" Treya asked.

"I do. I don't really like people knowing who I am, so if you could either speak quietly, since you know I'll hear you, or refrain from saying my name, I'd appreciate it a lot."

"Sure thing, 'Mysterious Dual Salamander,'" she teased.

"You're just jealous that I have an amazing nickname!"

"Sure she is, lizard breath," Gray said. "Can we go already?"

"You will appreciate that Natsu invited you to be in our group, Gray…" Erza declared, glaring at the now spooked ice mage.

"I'm sure he is, Erza. Snow queen is just afraid to say it."

"Thanks for inviting me too!" Lucy chirped up. 'Though I don't really know if I should be glad or terrified to be in this group…'

"No problem at all, Lucy. Happy seems to have taken quite a liking to teasing you, so I figured I'd give him that opportunity."

"Aye, sir! Loopy is so fun to tease! But she's really heavy!" Happy declared.

"Natsu! Don't encourage him!" Treya scolded. "And Happy you be nice to Lucy. I'm sure she's done nothing to warrant your relentless teasing."

"Aye…" Happy said dejectedly.

"Alright, with that out of the way, onwards!" Natsu announced, leading his pack off towards the wilderness where his home awaited.

While not a large upgrade, Natsu had some improvements made to his miniscule cottage in the woods. He now had two stories; the main level containing a kitchen, the main room, a half-bathroom, and a library/office, and a second floor which had three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, one of which was in the master bedroom, and a handful of closets. It was by no means a mansion, but it was definitely roomier than the last place he had. Many of his trophies were left in boxes scattered about the living room, stacked in various sections, but all the rooms had furniture and other essentials.

"Natsu Drakeneel! How are you still such a slob!" Treya scolded, looking at the copious amounts of boxes in the room.

"I'm not a slob! I just had this renovated over the past few days! This is my first time here!" Natsu defended. "I still have to unpack everything, but I'll do that another day since you guys are all here, so make yourselves at home. Treya you can have one of the spare bedrooms, Erza and Lucy you two can take another one, and Gray can take the couch."

"Why do they get bedrooms?" Gray complained, plopping down on the couch. "At least it's comfortable…"

"Problem, Gray?" Erza said, glaring at the ice mage.

"Oh, lighten up Erza," Natsu chastised, ruffling her hair a bit. "Because they're women, Gray, and I do not feel like receiving another lecture from Mira if she finds out I had one of them sleeping on the couch."

Gray thought about responding, but wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

"So what's in all the boxes?" Lucy asked, as she walked around inspecting everything.

"I'll take a guess and say 90% of it is your horde, isn't it?" Treya teased.

"It's not a horde! They're trophies!" Natsu defended again.

"All this time and you haven't changed one bit," Treya sighed, smiling to herself.

"Of course I've changed! What, did you expect a dragon to not keep treasures?"

"You're not a dragon, Natsu…"

"Anyway…" Lucy interrupted awkwardly. "This is a nice place. Thanks again for letting me stay here."

"As I said before, it's fine. Far better we stay in groups anyway. It's safer that way, and I have the space. Here, I'll take you guys up to your rooms."
Natsu took the group upstairs and led the duo of the scarlet knight and the blonde celestial mage up to their shared room, and Treya to hers. After that, he dug around finding a pillow and blanket for the ice mage and chucked it at him, earning a grumble of protest with a hint of appreciation in there somewhere. He gave an amused look and headed back to his room, though Happy had decided to sleep with Treya for today.

'I should be ecstatic right now. I have my favorite little sister back, Mira and Erza don't hate me, and the guild seems to be doing well, despite Phantom's aggression...I can't figure out why I have this terrible feeling…' Natsu thought to himself as he settled into bed to sleep.

The next morning, like usual, Natsu arose with the sun. He decided to make breakfast, so after a quick shower and change of clothes, he headed downstairs. After rummaging through the fridge for a bit, he heard soft footsteps coming down the stairs and a quiet yawn.

"Well, you're up early," Natsu commented, not turning to look since he knew who it was by scent and sound alone.

"Well, it's not every day you find out your big brother is still alive after thinking he was dead for so many years," Treya replied, walking over to the kitchen. "Besides, I worked at a diner. Morning shifts could get pretty early since our big rushes were for breakfast and brunch."

"I guess that makes sense," he nodded in agreement. "I still can't believe you're here. And look at you! You're all grown up now! I remember the terrified little girl who slept next to me when she was scared. Ah, memories…"

"Natsu!" she scolded with a light blush. "We were little kids! Of course I grew up a little bit!"

"I know, it sucks doesn't it? Anyway, how do you like your eggs?"

The two continued to make idle chatter, talking about their lives in between their last meeting, but Treya noticed Natsu was relatively private about most of it. She told herself that she'd make sure to dig answers out of him later, but for now, his company was enough.

The rest of the house arose slowly, largely from their quiet chatter and the smell of breakfast, and eventually, everyone was up and ready to head to the guild.

"Alright, onwards!" Natsu announced, leading the way back towards town. Unfortunately for him, he would be in for a rude awakening.

The group of five mages and a flying blue cat, who sat on Treya's head, walked through town, though it was very unnerving. Everyone was watching them and whispering to each other.

"Something happened," Natsu growled lightly, worried about the idle chatter. "I can hear it. Things like 'do you think they know?' and 'how terrible!' Not only that...but I smell blood."

"Follow it. We must find out what happened," Erza ordered, receiving a nod from the alert slayer.

"This is really bad, I know the scent now. HURRY!" he yelled, sprinting ahead. Soon the group arrived at the grisly sight of the Magnolia cherry blossom tree. "Damn you, Phantom…"

"LEVY!" Lucy screamed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"Oh my god," Treya gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Erza and Gray didn't speak, but both were enraged at the sight of their comrades. Happy was crying in Treya's arms.

On the tree was Team Shadowgear, Levy McGarden, Sarusuke, who went by the name of Jet, and Droy were all strung up with iron in a pose of crucifixion. Luckily, they weren't nailed to it but simply cuffed. They were covered in scrapes, cuts, and bruises, their clothes tattered and torn. On all three of their stomachs were the logo of Phantom Lord painted in a dark purple ink.

"Happy, go to the guild and make sure anyone in there gets here quickly. Gray and Lucy help me tend to these three. Erza, find Makarov, he needs to know about this," Natsu ordered. He received nods and affirmatives from everyone as they rushed out to do their respective tasks.

"What about me?" Treya asked, still shocked at the sight of the three badly damaged mages.
"I don't want you involved with this, Treya. For now, you can help us take care of these three, but you're not a mage. I can't risk you going anywhere without the protection of those I trust the most."

"I'm not helpless, you know."

"This is different, Treya. Please...I just got you back…" Natsu said sadly, as he continued to lower the three mages to the ground. Lucy ran off to find bandages and medical supplies, while Gray made several piles of ice to try and reduce some of their swelling. Natsu made sure they were all as comfortable as possible and oversaw Lucy and Treya's treatment of the wounds. Within twenty minutes, the entire guild was there, and Makarov began to walk through the crowd followed by Erza.

His anger was palpable as his body shook with rage. The staff that the short old man carried around shattered in his grip as he looked at his guild with fury. "I can tolerate the damage of our home...Buildings can be rebuilt, and objects can be repurchased...But I WILL NOT tolerate harm coming to my children! Phantom Lord wants war, WAR SHALL COME TO THEM!" Makarov roared to the crowd.

"Master," Natsu interrupted. "They want us to attack them. They are near begging for it. Regardless of the fact that this very well could be, and more than likely is, nothing but a trap, this is a war that must be fought. However, I will not be accompanying you on the front lines."

"WHAT?"
"YOU'RE ONE OF OUR STRONGEST MAGES!"

"Natsu, what are you talking about?" Mira asked him, as the crowd continued to shout disagreements.

"Jane...I know I told you he was dead, but perhaps it's time he came back to life to sing a little song…"

"Natsu...you're going to-" she started.

"Yes," he finished, staring at the sky. "SILENCE! You will all be fine. I expect greatness because I know you are capable of greatness. May the fury of a dragon rage through your blood and fight with the power of an untamed flame. I have business to attend to, but I will be with you in a way...It's time the crown doth rear his head once more…"

As confused as they were, Makarov cut off their questions with his own inspirational speech, which got a loud cheer from the crowd. They all followed Makarov to storm the Phantom Lord guildhall in a war that would shake Fiore as two of the top three guilds battled for supremacy. Natsu stayed behind with Treya, Lucy, Happy, and, by his request, Mira.
"Lucy and Treya, you two help Jane get Shadowgear back to the infirmary at the guild. As a favor to me, Jane, please protect Treya...I don't think I could take it if anything happened to her again…"

"Don't worry, Natsu...Everything will be fine…" she replied, giving the fire mage a hug.

"Don't let anything happen to you or Lucy either. If anything goes wrong, Happy will fly Treya away so you can protect yourselves. I can't lose anyone else…"
Mira gave a smile before turning towards the unconscious mages.

"Natsu, where are you going? And what were you talking about?" Treya asked as Natsu continued to walk away from the group.

"In time, Treya, you shall learn the power of a dragon. For now, the crown that hath fallen upon the blood-soaked earth shall take its place anew...To burn in fury and rage…"

"Wait! Natsu! I still don't understand when you talk like that!" Treya shouted after him. "Dammit, Natsu!"
"It's probably better if you don't know yet, Treya…" Mira told her sadly.

"I don't think I'll ever understand that guy…" Lucy said, sighing.

"One of these days, big brother will sit down and tell me all the trouble he's no doubt gotten into over the years." Treya rubbed her face in frustration.

"I'll help!" Mira told her with a giggle. "Now, let's get these three back to the guild, while our big scary dragon cleans up the mess."

"Oh, Mavis...What is he gonna do?" Treya whined.

Meanwhile - Phantom Lord

"Mission accomplished, Master," a gruff voice spoke. "I made sure to leave the fairies whose wings I plucked with an extra surprise...Dragons like to mark their prey first, gihi."
"Well done, Black Steel," another voice responded, giving a wicked smile. "I already sent the other two to pick up their target. Once the fairies get here, we'll make sure to enact our plan. Aria will deal with their pathetic excuse for a master, and you can take care of the Salamander. Once the cowards start running back to their trash heap of a guild, we can enact phase two for our second target."

"Sounds fun, gihi. There's only enough room in the skies for one dragon, Salamander...Looks like I'll clip the wings of a fairy and a dragon in one fell swoop."