Hi. Thanks for clicking on this. I will try to update regularly. Also, since this is my own take on how the story should have ended with the main characters in focus, particularly Natsu, I will change up some cannon on the process. It isn't AU, but some things might be different. Just to tell you beforehand. Thanks.


Chapter 1


The chilly wind caressed his face making his hair unruly again, which combed back in place with his hand. He looked up at the dark clouds forming over the land of Magnolia, indicating the arrival of winter. Soon, another gust of wind planted snow particles over his face, and the horizon where the sun was staring to appear behind the far away cliffs was promptly curtained by snowy fog.

Natsu heard squeaking by his side, and turned to see a squirrel a few feet away from where he was sitting. The squirrel stared at him intently, changing its position from leaning forward to standing straight, sniffing at the air. Natsu gently extended his open palm toward the squirrel and pulsed a wave of warm energy through it. Some ice crystals that landed over his fingers melted, and the squirrel cautiously approached when it felt the warmth in his palm. After sniffing at the finger, it gently climbed up his palm and coiled snugly over it.

Natsu smiled. He felt comforted by the animal's presence, just as much as the animal felt from his.

"Atleast you accept me…"

Natsu brought his palm in and planted the squirrel gently over his lap.

"Natsu."

The squirrel sprung up at the voice, looked around and then slid away from Natsu and jumped behind some bushes nearby.

Natsu turned his head around to find Erza standing a few meters away, tracking the bush where the squirrel had run to.

"You know better than to let animals get near. They could be listening. We are at war, after all."

Natsu sighed and looked ahead again. "I know..."

Erza stared at his back, feeling sorry for having to be stern with him like that. She knew what he was going through, but she cared too much for him to not let him be at a disadvantage in the battles ahead just because the enemy had gathered any intel on his magic. His past reckless behaviour of causing a scene with his antics didn't really help him much. She walked up and slumped on the sheet of snow next to him. She felt a chill run down her spine from the bleek winds that enchanted the edge of that hill that he was sitting on. She wondered why he was so comfortable in the chill, but soon realised that he probably never felt cold.

She slid her arms around his and planted her head against his shoulder, sighing as she shared his comforting heat.

"A little warmer, please."

Natsu smiled and did as she said.

"Perfect." Erza smiled.

Moments passed by as the couple sat over the hill, pondering vacant thoughts. Erza was thinking about the man next to her, the guy she was deeply in love with and was together with for a few years now, but she knew that he was thinking about something else entirely. She had watched Natsu get more and more sullen over the years ever since Igneel had passed. Even though she had always acted annoyed and berated him for his carefree behaviour in the past, she was really missing the old Natsu now. His heat had gotten rougher and less bright as well. Why other dragon slayers hadn't fallen under the weather like he did, she wasn't sure of the exact reason. All she knew was that Natsu was special. She was content knowing just that for an answer as to why he was affected differently.

"Would you like to rest your head over my lap? You haven't done that in a while now."

"Mmhn…" Natsu mumbled in response, deep in foreign mulling.

Erza stared at his profile worriedly for a while, after which she grabbed his head and gently pulled it down, planting his cheeks over her lap.

"There we go. Better?"

Natsu stayed quiet for a while, then he jolted from the middle of his thoughts and smiled insincerely at Erza.

"Yeah… better."

Erza knew that he wasn't being truthful and he didn't really care for any physical comfort right now. The thoughts inside his head were too heavy for him to detach himself from them for a long time. In addition to his obviously deteriorating mental wellness after Igneel's passing, what had happened inside the temple was also contributing to the sorrow that he might be feeling right now.

Erza bit her lip anxiously and ran her fingers over Natsu's hair, herself pondering the reason for why it was happening only to Natsu. She looked up and at the rising sun behind the snowy clouds. For the upcoming battle against Zeref and Alvarez, the guild had been making regular trips to the temple of Ankhseram, the God of war and destruction. They had been praying for success in combat and warfare, each mage individually lighting the bizarre black candles that are said to contain the blood of Ankhseram himself. The offering from each of the mages had been successful and the candles were lit, except for Natsu's. No matter how many times he had tried to put the candles aflame each time they had visited the temple, it would not catch fire. The grand priest at the temple suggested that Natsu was unfit for Ankhseram's blessing, which is something so peculiar they had never seen it before as Ankhseram presided over war and bloodshed and never denied his blessings to someone who was willing to slay in his name.

"Let's… head back inside." Erza picked her words carefully. "Let's try again. I am sure the other times were a coincidence. The candles will light this time." She looked down at his face which stared at the horizon and gently caressed his long hair.

"Hmm…" Natsu sighed.

Lately, he had been similarly mumbling in response to conversations more and more rather than giving his typical overly confident senseless phrases containing baseless claims of easy victory, and Erza really felt the growing void from the absence of the latter concerning. His persistent high spirits was something that she had come to dearly admire, and the lack of it was really worrying for her.

She felt annoyed for a short second, and pulled him up and sat down to face him. "Natsu, why are you so neurotic about this silly God anyways? You know that you don't need his blessings to fight a war. Why do you even care about what anyone else thinks?"

Natsu stared at her blankly, but not because he was at a loss for an answer. It was because he was probably deep in thoughts and didn't really pay attention to her question much.

Erza waited for a response and she shook him slightly after not getting one. "Natsu, this doesn't mean anything anyways. It's just a custom. You are the same strong, just, brave and frighteningly powerful dragon slayer that you always were, even if this pesky God doesn't bless you. You don't need him. If I am ever in danger in the battles we are about to fight, the only person I will think of that can show up out of nowhere and save my life will be you, just like you've always done."

Natsu looked like he registered some of what Erza said this time. He grabbed her hand off his shoulder and held it between them. He absently played with it for a while, before mustering to answer. "It's… not that. Even though Igneel had abandoned me, I always knew he was alive somewhere, watching over me. I didn't need anyone else that I could count on to keep me going. He was enough, just like he had always been. My only parent. But ever since he is gone I feel… empty. Maybe I had hoped this Ankhseram would be able to fill that void. But that didn't happen. Whenever I was alone in the battlefield, I always felt that Igneel was beside me the whole time. That gave me courage. But now…"

Erza grabbed his head and looked him in the eyes. "He is still with you. He is you, Natsu. Every ember of your fire, whether it's to burn a town down or just to provide a little squirrel some warmth in the cold, Igneel is always with you. He is living and breathing through you. He could leave peacefully knowing that he had left a very big and the most important part of himself behind to carry out his will of justice and triumph over evil. You. He is still alive. Here."

She put her hand over his chest. Natsu looked down at it, and then looked back at Erza. Erza smiled slightly. Natsu could have sworn he saw a tear roll down her eye but he couldn't make sure as she quickly closed the gap between their faces to press her lips against his. He jolted back a little from the surprise, but soon sat still. He didn't know if Erza kissed him to actually kiss him or to just hide her tears away.

"Ahem."

Erza pulled away from Natsu quickly when she heard that. They both looked back towards the temple, and saw Laxus standing a few feet away from them, his hands hidden within his long fur coat, watching them.

"Natsu." He said. "There are some people that want to see you inside the temple. Makarov has called for you."

Natsu stared at Laxus pondering what the matter could be while Erza stared glanced at Natsu to gauge his reaction. She was slightly happy to see him at least curious about this. Maybe he hadn't lost interest in everything.

"Ah Natsu." Makarov said as Natsu entered the temple, followed by Erza and Laxus.

The other mages stood around inside the massive temple hall, occupying different spaces and talking amongst each other in groups. The temple was made out of a black and mysterious shiny stone, pillars jutting out of the floor and climbing high up to the ceiling far away. Temple priests stood around the massive hall, some holding spears and swords, and dressed in black armour; these were the warrior priests of Ankhseram who had pledged to fight in the upcoming war against The Spriggan prince. The other priests were dressed in black robes that stood around eerily lit flames, these were ritual priests that presided over temple customs.

An old man, tall and muscular, who was a ritual priest but looked like he had been in his fair share of ruthless battles as a retired warrior of Ankhseram in the past, the same one who had coined that Ankhseram wasn't keen on blessing Natsu for some reason and had left a sour taste of himself in Natsu, came forward.

"Young Master Natsu, we have some visitors from a temple far away. Over there."

Natsu looked to where he had shook his head, and saw a group of cloaked people standing in one corner of the temple hall, engaged in conversations with other black cloaked priests of Ankhseram. These people were dressed in all white, almost glowing in the darkness of the temple hall. Some wore armour and carried weapons. The group looked exactly like an inverse of the black priests of Ankhseram. Some stole glances at Natsu from a distance, obviously talking about him, but Natsu couldn't make out their faces. All he could tell was amongst the group there was one woman who seemed much more interested in Natsu than the rest, constantly turned to look at him through her hidden face.

"What is happening?" Erza asked with an obvious hint of protectiveness toward Natsu. "Who are they?"

"We shall speak of that later. They are friendly, and have our best interests at heart." The old man said. "Master Natsu, these visitors would uh… like to see you try to light the candles here."

Erza frowned. "Is it a spectacle? Natsu doesn't like to do it. That should be that–"

"Erza. Let him do it." Makarov intervened. "This is to help Natsu."

"Natsu, please try again. I know it feels dejecting when it doesn't happen, but these people are here for this very reason. They will help you with this." Mirajane said. She was another person who was more obviously worried about Natsu, like Erza was.

Natsu glimpsed at an unlit candle at the edge of a long pedestal crowned with rows of lit ones. The hall consisted of thousands and thousands of candles that had been lit by civilians and warriors alike, since time immemorial, even as long as thousands of years, who had sought Ankhseram's blessings. They were long gone, but their ancient candles still burnt to this day. The pedestal in front of Natsu was the one that his guild had lit, and while everyone had successfully lit theirs, Natsu couldn't do it even after repeated visits to the temple since the past month.

"I…" Natsu started to mumble in denial.

"Natsu. Do it for me. Please." Makarov said.

Natsu quietly stared at Makarov, not being able to turn down a request like that. He had too much respect for Makarov and he couldn't really deny him asking. Makarov knew that and felt bad for having to resort to tricking him like that, but it was a necessary push.

Natsu took a deep breath. The sensation when the candle would extinguish was unpleasant at best. More than the feeling of rejection and non-belongingness that he felt being singled out again and again amongst his crew mates, there was an eerie physical pain that he had to endure when the candle wouldn't catch fire and he was 'rejected' by Ankhseram. The priests had not mentioned anything about this to him before. In the moments of pain that would follow each time, he would also hear cries and moans of people and howling of wolves and neighing of horses that no one else would hear, and in the past he had once also been presented with visions of war and bloodshed and massive ancient battlefields associated with bouts of sharp headache when the candle he tried to light would go out.

Natsu had never told this to anyone. He didn't know if this was typical of people who were rejected, which was a question no one could answer anyways since virtually no one had ever been rejected by this God. A part of him knew these visions and painful experiences weren't normal, even if someone was rejected by this God. But he had made it a point to never reveal it to anyone and just endure.

He had to endure it once again, he thought as he approached his candle quietly. He couldn't really deny a request by Makarov, who was like a second parent to Natsu after Igneel. Mirajane caressed his shoulder as he walked past, whispering that it would be okay. Gray patted his back lightly as well, and some other guild members drew their attention to him from their whispered chattering.

He stood in front of the candle, grabbed the blade that was presented to him by a priestess, and pricked his finger with it and drew some blood. He hovered the bloody edge of the blade over a candle that was already lit next to his; it was Erza's if he remembered correctly, and pulled back when the black stone blade caught fire. A string of migraines shot up his brow as soon as the blade caught fire, and he could again hear moans and shrieks from somewhere in the temple, but knowing it was not real he ignored it, however difficult it was. He frowned as the headache reached splitting levels of disturbing, but kept his composure and prepared to light his candle with the blade.

Somewhere behind him, the woman in the white cloak eyed him curiously. She could tell he was experiencing things that he couldn't explain as soon as the blade was lit. She whispered something into the ear of the white cloaked armoured man next to her.

Natsu sighed as he approached the candle wick with the blade. As soon as he touched the flame the wick, he felt another annoying blast of bodily pain throughout that he endured by clenching his teeth and fists. As the fire lingered around the wick, he felt nauseous and his vision blurred, and he was again lost in the rafts of the eerie things that he would hear and see. Amidst the noise, he could make out a baby's cry, animals screeching, explosions, men yelling on a battlefield, clanking of hundreds of swords at once, visions of bloodshed and destruction.

He clenched his teeth and pulled the burning blade back as he had put it to the wick long enough for it to have caught fire. The noises and visions he was having left him as soon as the wick wasn't in contact with the fire anymore, but it was also revealed that it hadn't caught fire at all.

Natsu watched it in despair and paddled through another series of feelings of dejectedness and rejection as some remaining smoke continued to leave the heated candle wick, but fire was nowhere to be seen. Natsu sighed and returned the blade to the priestess who promptly put it out. Erza walked up to Natsu and pulled him back away from the candle, and led him outside the temple, eyeing Makarov and the old priest crossly. Mirajane and Gray followed them outside. Everyone stayed quiet for a while watching as Natsu left the premises, and then returned back to their conversations, albeit probably more directed at Natsu and what had just happened recently.

Amongst the resumed mutterings inside the black hall, the white cloaked priestess had probably seen something in the happenings just now that no one else had seen.

"That was interesting…" She muttered, and then her and her armored escort walked upto the old priest to speak.


Thanks for reading. Expect updates soon. Also, do tell me if any fun was had while reading this. Have a great day.