Erik Cobra fought back the tears building up inside of him as he looked at the photo in his hand. It was taken about three years ago on a very special day. When he, his wife Kianna, and their two children were spending the day together at the park. The four of them started the day with a picnic lunch followed by a game of tag and building their own kite which his kids spent hours flying in the air. When dusk came around they sat together underneath a tree to take a family photo so that they would remember that perfect day forever. And remember that day he would for it was the very last time he would ever be happy.

A week after that day a teenager had ransacked his car, using it to sell illegal drugs. Erik reported him but because he was a "Child" the court decided to go easy on him by just giving him parole. Instinct told Erik that the thug was more dangerous and ill willed than the authorities believed but no one listened to him. Then the horrible young man got revenge by shooting both his wife and children when she had picked them up from school. That loss destroyed Erik's respect for the law and he sought out his own revenge. He hunted down the teenager and killed him in cold blood.

After that he began to enforce his own law and justice. Hunting down criminals and killing them, becoming a very dangerous vigilante. He said that he was doing what the police were afraid to do and that was to remove crime permanently. This of course led to most people believing him to be insane and he was wanted by the police in several states for murder but he didn't care about that. All he cared about was avenging the family that had been cruelly taken from him.

The only person who shared Erik's beliefs was his best friend from college Macbeth Uchiyama who like Erik, had suffered tragedy from the law failings protect him. He had grown up being abused by his foster father but because he was the mayor, no one would bring forth any evidence to support the abuse claim. Macbeth finally escaped his so called father when he attended college where he majored in science and robotics thus making him the perfect person to build all of Erik's weapons and tracking devices. Although Macbeth usually more more reasonable than his partner was.

"Erik." Macbeth said knocking on the door. "Can I come in?"

Erik hid the picture and answered the door.

"What is it Macbeth?"

"Have you watched the news lately?"

"No. Why?"

"Well apparently there's a wild animal on the loose. It recently attacked two people, put em in the hospital."

"What? Is this some escapee from the zoo?"

"That's what the cops think but others are saying it's a man. A psycho who's using an animal attack as a cover."

"What gave them that idea?"

"Probably the disappearance of that college student."

"What disappearance?"

"It only happened recently but a woman reported her nephew being missing and he disappeared almost as soon as that dangerous animal showed up. Some suspect that he was kidnapped by whatever or whoever attacked those people. And since animals don't typically commitment abduction, they think it has to be a person. Should we look into it?"

"Probably. I doubt the police are going to be any help. I'll go find this thing, you stay here and see if you can dig up any information."

"Okay but be careful Erik. Remember that you're a wanted man. Be discreet."

...

It wasn't until Natsu felt ice cold water being poured on to his face, that he finally regained consciousness. He coughed and hack for about five minutes before he looked for the source of where the water came from. It came from a canteen that was held in the hand of Jellal who now stood over him.

"Jellal?" He said.

"Here. Put this back on." He handed Natsu his mask. "Be grateful that I'm the one who found you like this instead of the police or God forbid the press."

"What are you doing here?" Natsu asked as his slipped the mask back over his face.

"My Titania correctly deduced that you would need some help in dealing with your friend's recent condition. So she called me and she tried to call you but you didn't respond so I went out to find you myself." Jellal looked over the area, taking note of the blood stained grass, paw prints in the dirt, and claw marks on the trees. "I think I can guess what happened here. You ran into your friend."

"No way! Was that thing really Gray?"

"Judging by what Erza has told me, yes."

"Oh God. What the hell happened to him? I mean I know what happened but I just...I just can't believe that was him. He was so vicious and crazy. He was...He was an animal."

"Exactly. He's an animal now. He thinks, feels, and behaves like one which is why you need my help."

"Your help? Why would I need your help?"

"Three reasons. Reason number one, first time you went against your friend he knocked you out cold. Second reason you're emotionally attached to him and it might impair your judgement on how to deal with him. And third reason you probably don't know the first thing about the species he's merged with."

"And you do?"

"Yes because unlike you I grew up in the wild. I have studied hundreds of creatures and learned their basic nature."

"But you don't know anything about Gray."

"That's where you come in. You know the man but I know the animal. If a shred of his humanity is still in there we can use it to our advantage. Though right now there's no telling if he has retained any humanity."

"So what do we do now?"

"Now we track him. Tigers are nocturnal beasts so he won't stop to rest til morning and tonight he'll be hunting for substance."

"Substance?"

"Food. The average tiger consumes ten to twenty-five pounds of prey a day. He'll be very hungry tonight." Jellal bent down and looked over the paw prints. "He's headed West, probably toward that zoo where you two fought me."

"Why would he go there?"

"He's most likely following the scent of deer, elephant, and boar. Any type of meat source that's familiar to a tiger. We better move quickly."

"You're not going to hurt him are you?"

"I'll only do what's necessary."

"That's not reassuring."

"Well what did you expect? He almost killed you, remember? Now I'll try to ensure that he comes out of this alive but I can't make any promises. We don't even know if he's human mind is still active. For all we know, whatever remains the man is long gone by now."

"Don't say that!" Natsu demanded desperately. "He's not gone! I know he's still in there! We just have to find him and cure him!"

Jellal said no more after that. He would only think the worst if it came to that. He couldn't risk upsetting Natsu to the point that he would interfere in capturing the target.

"Let's get going." Jellal said. "He's fast so we have to be faster."

And off they went to the zoo.