Hey Guys, what's up? Thank you for the feedback guys! I appreciate it a lot. I got a few suggestions and I agree with the fair part of them. 25NaMi, special thanks to you, you're awesome. Anyway, a few also pointed out that I totally killed Jose. Yeah, I did. I mean, to be fair, what Makarov does in canon wasn't much better. I would rather die like he did in this than be left as basically a husk. Anyway, on with that chapter!


Natsu walked into the guild from the forest. It had been two days since Phantom Lord had attacked, one since the giant motile mech hall had been removed and the council had yet to send any form of messenger. Natsu walked to the construction that would soon be the guild hall, only to find Makarov talking to a green frog thing. Natsu made out part of the conversation, something about wizard saints but decided not to eavesdrop in case it was something important. Natsu walked over to the piles of wood and metal and got to helping around the guild. He had immense physical capabilities, so why not? It was about an hour before anything happened. Natsu was walking around the guild, having gotten as much done as he could. He wasn't exactly an expert in construction, so after a bit, he would have become more a burden than anything.

Natsu hopped down from a little ledge he had made and walked over to where the bar would be. Makarov and the frog thing walked up to him as soon as they finished talking.

"Natsu Dragneel, you are wanted for a council session. You and Makarov Dreyar as well as one S-class chaperon will accompany you to the council buildings in Crocus," the frog croaked out, "You will be provided with room and board until the Council has come to a decision."

"Can I refuse?" Natsu asked, the frog stared at him incredulously.

"Natsu, you haven't been here for long, but a summons from the Council cannot be ignored. I may not like the council but they wield considerable power over Fiore," Makarov said.

"Oh, can I at least choose who I want to go with me?" Natsu asked.

"I suppose so, if your master allows it," the frog said. Natsu looked at Makarov who nodded.

"Mirajane Stauss," Natsu said. Makarov chuckled.

"Notify the mage and appear before the council in two days," the frog said before hopping off.

Makarov said he would handle Mira and meet Natsu in the train station a few hours later. Natsu walked off and did whatever. They boarded the train and talked for a bit. Natsu and co arrived in Crocus the day of the meeting, so they let immediately. A platoon of rune nights (Natsu was pretty sure that that had been what Erza called them) escorted them, and they entered the large chambers of the council building and waited for it to start. Natsu looked at the room, taking in the giant ceilings, raised council seats and the area they were sitting in. Natsu noted the elevated seats, seeing the council had some brains, trying to make the people in positions of power seem like just that. Powerful.

It was a few minutes before everyone had found their seats and Natsu had gotten a feel for most of the people there. Natsu had felt the poorly concealed magic power of one or two individuals, the second of which dwarfing everyone else in the room. Natsu looked over to Mira, who despite being insanely powerful, was struggling a little bit. Correction, lot bit. Natsu tapped her hand for a second to get her attention.

"Hey, calm down, it's all good," Natsu said to Mira who gulped before relaxing a bit.

"Okay, we got this. We could take them, yeah?" she asked jokingly, trying to cover up how uncomfortable and scared she was.

"Of course," Natsu grinned, "I kill dragons, I don't think anyone here is going to stop me."

"This council session will now commence," a booming voice came from the center of the room. Makarov leaned over subtly and whispered the name Gran Doma. He must have been the one talking.

"Natsu Dragneel, please stand," the voice, now identified as Gran Doma, spoke, "Most of you are unaware of why this session has been called at such notice."

A few murmurs spread through the room. One or two people had noted the absence of Jose Porla at the beginning of the session. The murmurs got louder as a few people pointed it out. Eventually, there was a dull roar.

"SILENCE!" Gran Doma, the chairman, yelled, "As most of you have now noticed, Jose Porla is no longer with us, both in attendance and in the realm of the living. It was brought to our attention that he has been killed by a mage. Drowned, was it, Mr. Dragneel?"

"Yeah," Natsu said as he leaned his chair back on two legs. A few members of the council were angry at the so-called show of insolence to both the council and a wizard saint. Natsu couldn't give less of a shit.

"Quiet, all of you! It was also brought to our attention that he was trying to destroy one guild, and kill the people in it, chiefly Wizard Saint, Makarov Dreyar. It was only with the intervention of Natsu Dragneel here that he is still with us."

Again, the murmurs started up and became more of a yell this time. There were shouts of good riddance, and shouts that he should have destroyed Fairy Tail. None however said anything about the murder of Makarov or the other people. Maybe they weren't bad people at heart.

"Silence, you will speak when called on unless given express permission," Doma said annoyed, "Moving back to the topic at hand. We are currently down one Saint. I see it fair to instate Mr. Dragneel as the newest Saint as he was the one who defeated Saint Porla. Objections?"

"I agree, on one condition of course," a man said in the back. He had medium-length, wavy and spiked orange hair, a scar over his nose, and wore white, black, and red robes, "I must say he does seem quite weak in comparison to the last saint we let in. I think that we should at least have a test of strength, something to prove that he is saint material if you would?"

"You raise a good point. Any objections," Gran Doma asked. Nobody said a word, "Then we shall commence with a test of magic power and then a vote. If you pass, you will become a saint."

Natsu scratched the back of his head, "Why exactly would I want to become a saint anyway?"

Makarov's jaw nearly dropped as the court room erupted into chaos. It took a few minutes before the chairman could calm everyone down and bring everything under control. The chairman cleared his throat, "Saints are paid a salary and have special privileges that other mages do not."

"How am I being tested then?"

"A test of magic power, perhaps?" one of the other saints asked.

"Agreed, magic power should be enough to determine how strong he is. Do we have a Magic Power Finder on hand?"

"We don't need one," God Serena said, "The ten, currently nine Wizard Saints should be enough. After all, we're the ones who get to decide if he is in at the end, I say you let us compare his power to ours. If he can match one of us, then he's in. If he can match the destructive power or simply power of one saint, he's in."

The other council members looked around. Eventually they turned their eyes to Gran Doma. He didn't say anything, so they turned to the other Wizard saints. Nobody said anything.

"God Serena's plan it is then," Gran Doma spoke, "We will take this test outside, it is too stifling in this room for such a test."

Upon arriving outside, everyone stared at Natsu, waiting. Natsu thought for a second, it wasn't going to hurt, plus he needed a word with God Serena. Issue was that he only seemed to respect power and having the title of the strongest mage in the country wasn't exactly helping either.

"How long is this gonna last? And which saint do I have to beat?" Natsu asked.

"Any of them you can, Kid," God Serena said, "If one saint will step up and volunteer?"

Nobody really moved so Natsu stood around awkwardly. Finally, the last wizard saint stepped up, supposedly the one who was last.

Natsu groaned seeing the cocky look on the tenth, now ninth saint's face. If Natsu wasn't mistaken, and he rarely was, he was about twenty-five and seemed quite overconfident. Natsu stepped into the ring, casually stepping through the barrier that separated the battlefield from everything else. That way, nothing would be destroyed, hopefully. Natsu watched the other man step into the ring and looking over to the chairman. With the ring of a silver bell, they were off. Nobody moved.

Natsu looked at his opponent who stared boredly at the salmon headed Slayer. Natsu realized he'd have to make the first move as it was his test. Natsu slowly started walking, quickly igniting his fists. Natsu used his magic and pushed himself through the air, far more slowly than he could even if he was running. The other man still stood there, running his hand through his blond hair. Natsu closed the gap, rushing forward and sending a quick straight towards his face. Natsu got a good look at him, his opponents face unwavering. Natsu's fist hit the wall behind the man as his opponent was suddenly on the other side of the field.

Teleporting Natsu figured. Couldn't have been speed because there would be a trace of it with done wind or dust. Natsu quickly spun and surveyed the land around him. Nothing of note, the ninth was standing in the other side of the field still standing boredly. Natsu groaned. One of these people, trying to out maneuver him using speed or quick travel. Of course, Natsu couldn't really show the true power to anyone otherwise he would have been made first already. Natsu stood still, taking in information. How would he do this without appearing too much stronger? Natsu chuckled to himself before taking off, quite literally.

He was closer to a rocket than human to the human eye. The man barely had time to react as Natsu all but appeared in front of him and swung his foot with his body as the center of the kick. The man had just barely brought his hands to to form a sloppy guard. The ninth was sent into the ground, his body folding like a twig with him up to his knees in the ground. The ground cracked underneath him but he managed to stand back up, stepping back out of the small hole he was in. Natsu pushed off of his forearms and flipped back. Natsu mentally noted that his arms were blackened.

So he had body magic? Okay, that would make the harder. Natsu grinned before tossing his head back and roaring. Natsu looked at his opponent who suddenly disappeared only to reappear in front it Natsu. Natsu quickly backpedaled, twisting his body back. Natsu almost had his back against the floor as he dodged. Natsu felt cold steel drag across his skin. He felt it brush against his chin as the slice appeared to move from his face to chest and legs. Natsu planted his hands into the ground and pushed up, angling his feet and legs to push the ninth off of him. Natsu sent him flying up into the ceiling. He grinned before feeling a punch hit him square in the face. Natsu let himself to flying, as his body snapped backwards like a switchblade.

The Ninth immediately started to stand still, straightening his body as he watched Natsu. Natsu waited, letting himself continue to fly back, though his momentum was coming to an end. Natsu waited and saw a telltale flash of bright light and immediately curled his body into itself and tucked into a roll. A fist came down where his head would have been, leaving a small crater in the ground. Natsu untucked and flipped his body. He immediately went stiffened his torso but bent his legs. He thrust his legs out into something akin to a dropkick and planted his feet firmly into the mans face.

The man shot off like a rocket. Natsu quickly planted an arm down and spun himself letting a small ring of fire fly out from his other hand which was outstretched. The ring of fire covered the arena, almost in an explosive way. Dust got thrown up as air rushed in to fill the now searing hot air causing something close to a vacuum. Nobody could hear a thing, except Natsu of course as sand and dust from the arena slowly began to get picked up. While he could hear, he still couldn't see because even the best of eyes can't see through solid matter.

Natsu waited for a few seconds and noticed no immediate retaliation. So Natsu's idea of how the magic worked was good. The ninth wasn't specialized in teleportation magic, rather body magic. Expert teleportation mages were able to transport themselves instantly at any time they wanted wherever they wanted even if they couldn't see, assuming they had magic energy left. The ninth was obviously not as he always had to stiffen and stop moving which was detrimental. It would explain why he had to wait, and why he hadn't counterattacked when Natsu sent the burst of flame.

Natsu grinned and flashed forward and practically appeared before the man. Natsu gave him a quick chop to the neck and ran back to where he was. He tossed some dust into his hair and wiped some free dirt along his face and clothes, creating a few small rips in them as he went. Hopefully that would give everyone the idea that they had been fighting while in the dust. Natsu flopped down and waited for the dust to clear. When that was done, Natsu stood up and bent over, pretending to be out of breath while. Of course, Natsu knew it wouldn't fool anyone worth their salt though they didn't seem to be paying attention to the battle.

Natsu looked outside the barrier and saw one orange headed man with a scar on his nose flirting with one platinum blonde. Natsu shook his head to clear his thoughts and cleared his throat. Several heads turned as he did so. If God Serena had noticed or cared, he made no indication of it. Natsu quietly growled and took a step towards the barrier. Mira saw this and shook her head before going back to her animated conversation with the first god of Ishgar. Natsu continued on, walking straight up to the barrier and almost shattering it when he came within ten feet of it. The barrier was completely destroyed the moment he was within nine feet as the pieces broke down into small cubes and fell around the ground. If all heads weren't on him before, they certainly were now.

"So, "Natsu spoke tersely, "Am I in or were you too busy trying to chase some tail?"

"Bold words from a weak mage. Besides, I wouldn't consider it chasing if she came to me," the first god spoke. While his tone was calm, his demeanor was anything but peaceful. He exuded enough power to uproot some of the closer trees. Obviously, he seemed upset.

"Nice try though I know well enough when another dragon slayer tries to… encroach," Natsu said, leaning in just a bit and smirking, "I'd be careful if I were you."

"Your threats are cute. But dragons huh? I'm nothing like those beasts, but still, what a fantastic delusion. I wouldn't call it encroaching as it was never yours in the first place. After all, why would anyone want to choose…" he said giving Natsu a quick glance up and down before giving him a meaningful look.

"Sorry bud but I don't swing that way," Natsu asked. The man in front of him seethed, "Besides, if you're so confident, why don't you let Mirajane choose? After all, even with all the power you have, it's meaningless if it can't get you any perks because you see, I'm somewhat confused."

"And why would that be?"

"I though fuckboys were able to, ya know, fuck," Natsu said evenly before cracking a wide grin.

"You little shit," he growled taking several steps forward. Natsu wasn't worried.

"I wanna try and see it from your perspective but I don't think it's possible for me to get my head that far up my ass," Natsu said.

If there wasn't going to be a fight before, there certainly was now. See, dragon slayers take blows to their pride, even if from the most idiotic insults. Natsu didn't have to say much, or anything really to rile the second gen slayer. Natsu growled and stepped forward, matching steps with the first God of ishgar. They stood at roughly the same height, with Natsu's spikey hair though, he looked around a half foot taller. Natsu grinned as God Serena rapidly increased his magic power. Natsu waited for a second and waited. His smile got wider and wider as the amount of power slowly stopped climbing.

Natsu laughed before walking towards the man opposite of him and clapping him on the shoulder, "Is that it?"

Natsu grinned as the other man's eyes widened almost comically as people began to struggle to stand. Even he was having a hard time staying upright. The amount of pressure was incredible. The pinkette easily stood, crossing his arms as he grinned, "I do hope I'm not embarrassing you? What? Nothing to say?"

Natsu watched as the man's eyes flicked over to his friend and master. Natsu really did hope that he wasn't thinking what he thought he was. The man ahead of him was proud. Too proud for his own good and as soon as the first punch was thrown, the fight was over. A fissure split the ground heading straight for his master and the girl next to him. Even if it had been headed for Natsu, the outcome would have been the same. Nobody saw the salmon headed slayer move but they did see their First God of Ishgar slump over and cough up blood. Natsu grinned a bit as he walked over to the half conscious man ahead of him. Natsu easily picked him up by the hair and smiled as he tossed the man to the floor. His smile was not a true indicator of his mood. In fact, he was boiling with rage. It was a good thing he respected the old man enough not to rip him apart. Mirajane had passed out due to the pressure and she would definitely not been able to avoid the the first "gods" attack. Natsu figured that the unconscious man must have focused a lot of pressure on her as she'd been handling it fine before.

Natsu glanced around as he picked up Mira, "I trust this meeting is over?"

There was no reply, and Natsu knew what it meant, "Master, I think it is time to go, no?"

"Agreed child," Makarov said peacefully. They both took a bit longer to walk out because Natsu would be damned if he disturbed Mira.


"Natsu. You need to tell me the truth. How strong are you?" Makarov asked out of the blue whence they arrived back at the rooms in Crocus. Natsu had put Mira in bed and gone down for a drink with Makarov. They sat in a decent bar, nestled in the corner of a small street. It was fairly high quality given where it was situated. Natsu and Makarov sat towards the back, huddled in a small corner.

Natsu laughed, "That's a good question. How much do you want to know? What that power was, or how strong I am normally?"

"Everything I suppose," Makarov said evenly. Natsu could see the questions bouncing around the old mans head.

"That will take a while, most certainly. But if that is what you need, I suppose you are the one who has to sit through the entire story," Natsu said, "Listen to what I say, no interruptions. In actuality, I'm nearly five times older than you, which honestly means I shouldn't be calling you Old Man, but ehh, who cares? Either way, I'm some four hundred and thirty-six years old. My true physical body is nearly eighty. There are two reasons for this. One, all dragon slayers in this day and age are at least two hundred. I Just happen to be the second oldest, and the only person to know why the dragons disappeared.

I will not tell you why they did or what the deal with that is as it is between me and the dragon council and nobody else. If you were to get their confirmation then I'll tell you but as of now, it is not enough. The second reason for my physical body being over eighty, is that my brother, who you most likely know of, as left as an orphan. The entire family, including me was killed by a dragon. Acnologia to be precise.

My brother was away at the time, managing to completely avoid everything that had happened, leaving the only him. The rest of my family and I died. He was left on his own, so he enrolled in magic school. Then he used death magic to try and bring me back to life. And eventually, he did. And because of his tampering's in the sacred Law of Ankhseram, he was cursed to be immortal. In this time, he tried to raise me after successfully bringing me back to life as E.N.D. He met Igneel after a while and they raised me.

After a while, he had to leave as his power became too great, and in an effort to purge himself of the sins and curses, he created the etherious, or unleashed them on the world rather. They had been created in an effort to kill him and bring me back to life. I was the last, and the strongest. You know him as Zeref. Zeref Dragneel. One day he's going to be the one who will help me kill Acnologia, and I will be the one to free him from the curse.

As for my power… I was trained by the strongest dragons in the council. I am considered the ultimate dragon slayer. I have done things no other slayer has. And thus, I could nearly match Igneel's strength all those years ago. While the other slayers got trained for four to seven years, I was trained for far more than that. Twelve or so years I think.

I might be able to stand up to Igneel now, but I don't really know. I know for a fact, Igneel could level the country if he felt like it. So could I. As for the power you just saw… I won't go into perfect detail, but that saint tried to attack me, but more importantly, my friends. That state of power is only temporary, but may be triggered, but not for oneself. It must be triggered by the dragon's kin. They can't use it unless their family is in danger, serious danger. I know for a fact, that in that instance, I could beat every dragon to have ever lived, and yet, only for that instance. That is as much as I will tell you. I'm going to head to bed, night Old Man."

Natsu walked up the stairs glancing around as he went. His head was spinning ever so slightly. Natsu pulled out the key to one of the two rooms they had been given because apparently the Magic Council was too cheap to give them one for every person. Natsu somewhat blindly stumbled into the room and passed out upon hitting the nearest soft object, the sofa. Natsu glanced around at the white space around him, knowing he was in his mind once more. A horned version of himself appeared from nowhere in a swirl of black flames. He had black markings over one of his eyes.

"Hello again. What do you want this time?" Natsu asked. This was hardly the first time he'd been contacted by his etherious self.

"Get the book. Before we both die. That is all," E.N.D. said, "well one more thing actually. Fix the issue. Only the one."

"Glad we can agree on something I guess," Natsu said before vanishing. Natsu awoke with a slight start, nearly slamming his face into the one leaning over him. It took Natsu a few seconds to register the white hair and blue eyed individual standing in front of him. Natsu stuttered for a moment, completely lost before realizing what must have happened. He had just passed out last night.

"Hello Mirajane, how's your morning?" Natsu asked.

"Pretty good. Why are you in my room?" Mirajane asked.

"Straight to the point. Well, I kinda passed out last night. I just opened one of the rooms and flopped down on the nearest thing I could find," Natsu said.

"Lucky us it wasn't the bed," Mira muttered darkly. Natsu couldn't tell if she was angry or sad.

"Yeah…? Um Mira, do you wanna grab a bite to eat?" Natsu asked.

Mira cheered up slightly before shaking her head, "Yeah of course, do we want to get Master up?"

"He's not here anymore apparently," Natsu said, sniffing the air, "We should probably check the room."

Natsu and Mira did just so and found a note saying that Makarov was going back to the guild to meet up with one of the now ex-councilmen, Yajima.

"Okay well that solves that, yeah?" Mira asked, "Let's go eat now."

"Yeah, I'm starved," Natsu said, "Where do you want to go?"

"Not sure. There are a lot of good places, though. I come to Crocus fairly often. What are you in the mood for?" Mirajane asked.

"Let's say something hearty? I feel like a good large meal would do me some good, yeah?" Natsu laughed patting his stomach.

"Eh, I don't think so. I happen to quite like how you look most of the time," Mira said somewhat sheepishly.

"Do you now? You might have to explain it to me," Natsu laughed. Human beauty standards were still strange to him, though he did seem to have some very basic innate understanding of it. He did, after all, think that his best friend was quite attractive.

"Well, you're ever so slightly taller than me, you're pretty well muscled but not overly so to the point that it's annoying like Elfman, and the fact that you're fairly pleasing to the eyes helps a lot, especially when you are in normal clothes," Mira said, listing things off on her fingers.

Natsu laughed, "You're being quite open about this, aren't you?"

"I mean well yeah, my entire job is about being open about just about everything. I don't really have all that many inhibitions, plus there isn't anything against people saying these things. Most people go on to say more than what I normally do," Mira said as she rubbed the back of her head, "It's not really that weird."

"I guess," Natsu said, "What exactly is your job?"

"Sorcerer's Weekly model. Best in the business," Mira laughed.

"Right," Natsu said, scratching his head in confusion, "Model. For sure."

"Long story short I do photo shoots for people to look at," Mirajane said easily, "Do you guys have anything like that?"

Natsu laughed, "Not that I can think of. We have no use for them. Dragons really only mate once and it's for life."

"That's both kinda sad and kind of amazing. What happens if that mate rejects them, or if the mate dies," Mira asked curiously.

"If we get rejected, it's possible to move on, though more often than not, they get rejected and end up dying. It's far more common in dragon slayers than dragons though. It's because there aren't that many other dragon slayers, I could estimate there are about fifty slayers left in the country of nearly three-hundred million. Only seven of them are dragon slayers. There are only seven dragon slayers left in this country, eight if you count Acnologia who was once a slayer.

For a dragon slayer, we're not entirely human anymore so it makes it harder to find a mate with regular people. There is one exception though. That is if you didn't get trained by a true dragon. They have a lacrima with dragon power put in them and they gain the power from that. But back to the rest of us, using myself as an example, if I get rejected by my mate, or would be mate, I would either die or continue to live but without as much power. When a dragon or dragon slayer gets a mate, they gain a significant boost in power, to protect the mate. If the mate is thrown into danger, they can tap into that power which would otherwise lay dormant," Natsu said, wondering if he was leaving out anything, "Oh and we don't exactly mate with dragons so we're limited to humans."

"Do you know who your mate is yet?" Mira asked curiously. S

Natsu's eyes flashed up for a second before he shook his head, salmon locks of hair shadowing his eyes, "I'm not sure but I don't think so."

"That's too bad, maybe you'll find one in the future. I'd like to meet her," Mira said unknowingly sending a sense of dread through Natsu. He couldn't tell her yet. Hell, he wasn't even sure himself. Maybe another month?

"Yeah! That'd be fun. Wonder what she'd think of you," Natsu wondered, "Now, where are we going?"

"I know just the place," Mira said.