A.N.
Okay so everybody knows I've been getting good feedback on this story and I haven't decided how long it will be. This story does contain spoilers so read the manga up to the chp. 436 before reading or don't read if you don't want it to be spoiled. You have been warned so if you read after the warning well you can't complain unless you think it's a bad chapter.
"Natsu?"
"Sayla?"
The two stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity not even snapping out of the daze to remember that the satellite canon etherion was slowly making its way overhead.
Meanwhile outside
"Everyone continue to put you energy into the defence wizards!" a random brown haired wizard shouted. Master Makarov was one of the many defensive wizards standing around the Tartarus floating guild, he was casting he most powerful light magic defence spell while other mages from around Fiore channelling their magic through him so that he and the other wizard could create a barrier to contain the explosion that would be caused by etherion.
The ghost hovered beside Makarov calmly as she knew she was only visible to those who had the guild insignia. The first master of Fairytail was focusing hers powers through Makarov boosting the power of his defence magic to something similar to fairy sphere. "First will this really be enough to contain etherion?" Makarov question, she could tell there was fear in his words.
"I can offer no words of comfort sixth all I can tell you to do is to believe in your fellow wizards." She said her face unchanging the entire time showing no emotion. Voices were silent the entire time, no wizard dare to speak unless necessary afraid they'd break one another's concentration. All that could be heard was the wind blowing through a ruined city that was once magnolia and the magic satellite canon positioning itself overhead.
This was their last ditch effort as the council members were dead the jurisdiction fell upon the wizard saints, even the four heavenly kings made an appearance via projections. It was simple contain the etherion blast to take out Tartarus or be wiped out with them. Any members of Fairytail that had been captured had gotten out thanks Natsu and Gray, the guild member left in the guild was Salamander himself and the others were growing restless wondering where he was.
Back inside the Tartarus guild
The two continued there daze until Natsu started to take slow steps forward toward the girl in front of him who he knew was the demon child he befriended all those years ago. Finally snapping out of her daze Sayla saw the pink haired boy in front of her slowly make his way forward, his body was tense and his hair shadowed his eyes and she slowly began to think to herself.
"No why now of all the places to find why here, he must know what I've done already…" she was snapped from her train of thought when she felt a pair of arms wrap around, and heard a weak raspy voice say "I found, I finally found you." She looked up into Natsu's eyes looking in the onyx orbs only see tears streaming down his face while he bit his lip. His Facial expression and tears were not one of sadness but sheer joy.
It was then she started to push him away much to his surprise but even more to her own when he pulled he back into the hug and started to speak "I don't care about what you did after we were separated, everyone has their sins me included. You're not alone I've taken life as well, it is okay you were just led down the wrong path."
Sayla couldn't believe that he could read her so easily that he knew she was afraid to admit what she had done in there time apart. "But it's because of me your guild was destroyed I even hurt your friends." Tears started escaping her eyes waiting to hear harsh worlds filled with hate to be thrown at her but nothing came.
"Well you were just following orders and the guild was due its annual reconstruction, besides if Igneel hadn't been so stubborn you could have come with me and joined the guild." Natsu replied through his tears flashing his signature toothy grin. "He's still as kind as he was back then." Sayla thought before totally breaking down falling on to her knees sobbing uncontrollably while repeating how sorry she was.
Despite the fact of her entire life being composed of being called a demon she knew that was not the case for Natsu. In his eyes he saw as he did Mirajane, she had her normal beautiful kind side and then she had a powerful demonic side like one of Mira's take-over forms.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I just needed to get by until you found me." She said as she sobbed into the crook of his neck while he ran his hand through her silky black hair as he comforted her it was then they started to feel large shockwaves. "What's happening?" she inquired. Natsu looked skyward in horror as he realised what he had been forgetting "Fuck I completely forgot about etherion!" he shouted the horror of the reality still growing.
"What do…" but before Sayla could finish the canon launched engulf them and Tartarus' guild in the blue sacred light, the ultimate magic of destruction known as etherion. Outside the wizards were struggling to contain the blast, even with Mavis vermillion who managed to stop a breath attack from Acnologia at found that etherion was more powerful than expected.
Before the light engulfed them Natsu had thoughts racing through his mind like lightning "no we can't die here, not now we just found each other…there has to be something I can… wait the two of heaven…but this ah fuck it it's worth a shot!" he screamed mentally as the blast slowly engulfed them all Sayla could feel pain before the inevitable end she knew was coming. It may not have been how she wanted her life to end, but she couldn't really complain after finally being reunited with Natsu and finding out he immediately forgave her for her past crimes and accepted her once again.
However never came she opened her eyes to the craziest sight she'd ever seen, the ultimate magic of destruction the sacred light etherion was passing right by them and any that would have hit them was being absorbed by Natsu. He had thrown his body over the top of hers to shield her from the blast as a last ditch effort. But what shocked her most was that he was still alive, in tremendous amounts of pain yes but alive.
Her sight was then drawn to the intricate strange yet demonic black markings that formed their way along his chest to his lower torso. His hair slowly turned a blood crimson colour along with his eyes, the power he now radiated was enormous and was practically leaking out of him in a dark crimson flame like aura but it didn't burn Sayla to her surprise.
Etherion was still firing and most of the guild had crumbled away bar the lowest level, unable to contain his power any further Natsu again pointed his head skyward unleashing the most powerful breath attack he had ever used it made the one against Hades look pathetic but that was because of the limitless amounts of magic power he absorbed. The roar itself was defining and so powerful it dispersed the etherion blast as well as destroying the barrier surrounding the guild.
All the surrounding wizards were astonished all except one, Mavis Vermillion was not astonished no she was frightened this power was familiar "this power it's too similar to his, yet different all the same, it can't be!" The first master of Fairytail sweated nervously not uttering a single word until the disturbing power vanished leaving only two figures in the rubble of the guild that now lay across the earth. All rushed to their aid but stopped when they saw Sayla recognising her as one of the Nine Demon Gates.
Erza Scarlet then ex-quipped a katana and was going bring it down upon the unconscious demon but before she could a massive shock wave sent her back only to be caught by Makarovs titan hand. "What the hell hit?!" she shouted out looking towards the source which shocked her. She saw Natsu kneeling on the ground, he was in serious pain and the heat around the area started rising.
"Natsu what are you doing why did you stop me?" Scarlet's voice boomed. Shakily Natsu got up now showing everyone his new look. His upper body was exposed due to his jacket literally disintegrating revealing the demon black demon markings that ran diagonally across his chest,(imagine Laxus' tattoo just more demonic) he was covered in cuts and bruises but none of this is what scared Natsu's friends, what scared them was that his hair and eyes were a blood red colour and from what his guild mates felt his power was now as great as when he goes into Lightning flame dragon mode but they could clearly see that there was no lightning of any form surrounding his Body.
All remained quiet for a few seconds until Natsu exhaled followed by saying "sorry Erza, I won't let you kill my friend, you'll have to go through me first..." he stopped to smirk before finishing his sentence "That is if you're stupid enough." A second passed, then 10 after finally a minute he received the torrent of yells he expected "what are you prattling about boy…It's not manly to befriend the enemy while at war…Natsu get away from her this instant!"
The shouts continued all except two had joined, they weren't sure what two think. "Hey Mira-nee how do you feel about this?" the youngest Strauss sibling asked. Mira had an emotionless face but just shrugged her shoulders the solid line present on her face turning into a smile "well I don't have much to think about, you know better than anyone how he is Lisanna" the two sisters smiled at each other not caring that Natsu was defending the same demon who captured the youngest Strauss, forced Elfman to blow up the Fairytail guild hall and almost beat Mira to a pulp.
Just then Gray Fullbuster stood forward bearing the markings of his newly acquired devil-slayer magic. Natsu step aside I won't let a single demon leave Magnolia alive, don't think you can stop me after I defeated the Guy that beat Laxus" He said with a serious expression although the last part was said smugly. Natsu was ready to literally leave nothing left of the ice wizard after threatening the person he had been looking for most of his life, as he quit looking for Igneel ages ago and turned those to searches for Sayla pulling them off as Igneel hunts.
"Wow how arrogant can you possible by, that guy never beat Laxus, he poisoned him do you honestly think you could consume that much anti-ethernano and still be breathing afterwards, I doubt so snow fairy" Was Natsu's reply. Gray was now seriously pissed, "doesn't matter if you get in my way she is still going to die.
Gray then rushed forward with an ice demon's zeroth long sword and continued to bring it down towards Sayla's head at lightning speed. However instead of connecting with her head Gray found his entire body connecting into a somewhat still intact wall which he crashed through curtesy of a left hook from the Dragonslayer. Everyone stood in awe as the watched Natsu as he effortlessly knocked Gray through the adjacent wall.
Upon hearing the crash through the wall Sayla started to wake "what happened, Natsu where are you?" Natsu knelt down beside her and helped her up. "It is okay, Tartarus, Mard Gear and the rest of the demons have been taken down but Zeref managed to escape." Natsu held her up allowing her to use his arm for support as he saw her legs tremble slightly, the trembling only worsened when Gray popped back out of the rubble with Erza and Lucy beside him.
"Natsu explain yourself now!" an angry Erza roared, "Why should I have to explain myself to you?" He retorted "That's enough Natsu please explain what's going on" Makarov asked the once pink haired dragonslayer. Natsu looked over to the man he considered to be his grandfather and saw Mavis Vermillion behind him, her expression was stern but possessed a degree of worry etched throughout it.
"Fine then," he sighed in defeat. Natsu then explained how before he met everybody in Fairytail that he knew Sayla and that she was his first real friend even if only for a couple of days, how Igneel separated them and that being the reason he didn't open up to anybody in the guild afraid that they be taken away by some unknown force, he said this part while looking towards Lisanna. After about a further twenty minutes of explaining he finished up by saying that he wanted Makarov to allow Sayla into Fairytail once it was rebuilt.
"Natsu are you crazy we don't know how many people she's killed" Lucy shouted at her best friend, this statement caused a frown to form upon Sayla face which made Natsu's contort in anger "he's going to say it isn't I know he will" thought Lisanna. Lucy continued her rant causing others to mumble things like she can't be a part Fairytail; she's a demon and a murderer however everyone was silenced by Natsu right then and there. "SHUT UP!" he roared as he shot flames from his mouth into the sky.
"I don't care if she's a demon, so what if she's murdered people so have I" he stated calmly. Everyone was silent they didn't want to believe that the Natsu Dragneel of Fairy was capable of Murder. "Hey ash for brain quit spouting lies, there's…" but Gray never finished when he saw the hard as steel look on Natsu's face. "Sorry but I have, but they deserved it because of what they did, while some of them may have been dark guild members a few were accidents because I accidently activated my Dragon Force.
"If you can't see me in the same way anymore I fully understand and will respect if you wish for me to leave the guild." Everyone was shocked even Sayla, nobody could look at the Salamander in the same way, Master Makarov had tears streaming from his eyes at his self-proclaimed child's confession. Nobody spoke until the three Strauss siblings walked up to Natsu with tears in their eyes but smiles on their faces.
"Don't worry Natsu we will always see you for who you are, the very heart of Fairytail and the reason why our family is still together…" Mira started with her sweet voice "you're a man of legendary proportions; you helped me and Nee-chan get over our sorrow and grief and helped us become stronger…" Elfman continued. "You are and always will be my best friend; you brought me back to my family our family and my happiest memories are always when I was with you so please don't go I love you.
Natsu smiled at the teary eyed Strauss family, Sayla moved away to give him a moment as he pulled them into a hug "Mira thank-you for being there for me this entire time, Elfman you're the manliest man I know so get stronger and protect everyone bro and Lisanna, thank-you for being there for me in the beginning, you persevered so much I just caved in, thanks to you I was able to open up to the guild and I love you too." He finished giving Lisanna a quick kiss but leaving and walking away.
He then turned back to the Strauss family smiled and said "guys thanks for being the first real family I've had in years, while everyone at the guild is family I still felt more a part of a family with you so thank-you. The entire surrounding guild wizards were in an emotional state all of the crying, Sabertooth, Mermaid Heel, Lamia scale, Blue Pegasus, Quattro Puppy and Fairytail. Every single wizard was crying but none more so than the Strauss family of Fairytail.
As he erased his guildmark he was about to walk away when the Master of Fairytail called out "My dear boy where will you go?" the teary eyed guildmaster managed to say as he bid farewell to one of his beloved children. Natsu didn't turn to answer, his voice turned dark and serious "to pay a certain black wizard a visit…My brother Zeref."
Okay hope you enjoyed the chapter and just so you now the fight between the dragons took place earlier than it did in the manga in my story, also Igneel tells Natsu about Zeref being his brother just so you now I will probably come back to that for the next chapter and sorry it took me this long to update computer crashed and was only able to retrieve half of the story and the story that and the amount of work I have to do.
