Both the mage and dragon couldn't do anything but blink repeatedly at Natsu's outburst. Sure, they were expecting some sort of reaction from him but not exactly this one. Fortunately for them, Natsu decided to explain why he was so unhappy.

"What were you two thinking sealing me in that book? Stealing my memories and power like this. Pretty sure you took a good portion of my mind with it too, leaving me quite dumb. Not to mention it hurts like hell!" the Etherious explained, somewhat calming down.

"Uh…sorry, I guess. Although, in our defense, we did have some good reasons for doing so." Zeref calmly but awkwardly replied.

Natsu simply sighed and sat down on the cave's ground. "Fine, let's hear it."

The Fire Dragon King and Black Wizard followed suit. However, even though Natsu expected his brother to start explaining, he got surprised when it was his foster father who started talking. "So, as you may know, you are not the only Etherious, and the other Etherious earned themselves quite the reputation. So when I heard about a demon far more powerful than all the others, I decided I had to find and destroy him. Nevertheless, when I did find you…I couldn't bring myself to do it. You were nothing like the monster that the rumors portrayed but you were turning into one because of your demonic nature. So your brother and I came up with a plan. Firstly, I would spread the word that I wasn't able to kill you because you were too strong."

At this point the older Dragneel decided to continue the explanation. "While I would seal your power and memories in a book in order to revert you back to a child, and then left you in Igneel's care to raise as his son and heir. We did this for a number of reasons. First, it would give you enough experience with compassion and mercy to allow you to resist your demon instincts for death and destruction. Second, learning his magic would make you considerably stronger which would in turn give you the opportunity to rid the world of both Acnologia and me." Natsu emitted an audible growl at that but didn't interrupt. "However, we then conceived a better plan. The first step was for Igneel to convince four other dragons to take on a child same as he did. Then, each of the dragons would hide their soul inside of their respective child and all of you would be sent approximately 400 years into the future courtesy of the Eclipse Gate, an invention of mine."

"Okay but what makes this plan better? What would be the benefit of hiding your souls inside of us and sending us off into the future?" Natsu asked mainly to Igneel.

"It had two benefits. It would allow us to replenish our strength to the point where we could take care of Acnologia ourselves thanks to the higher concentration of Ethernano. Moreover, we would create antibodies to stop dragonification." the dragon replied.

"Dragonification? What's that?" his son questioned.

"It's the curse that comes with Dragon Slayer Magic. When a Dragon Slayer overuses their magic, they go through this process which turns them into dragons, exactly like what happened to Acnologia." Igneel answered.

Natsu didn't know what was the most shocking to him. The borderline insane plan they had come up with, dragonification, or the fact that Acnologia used to be human. But he decided to put all of these thoughts aside for now. He could guess that his father and brother abandoned their plan because of the dreams he had been having but what he couldn't work out is what they would do next.

"So, what now? This idea is obviously out the window, did you guys have a backup plan or something?"

At this point, the other two beings in the cave sort of look awkwardly at each other and Natsu sweat dropped. "Well, we were kind of hoping you would go along with it." Zeref admitted.

'You mean to tell me that after stealing my past and power and making me part of their scheme without even informing me, they just expect me to act as if this was all my idea or something? Still, they do have a point. Acnologia needs to be dealt with. I mean even demons don't want to destroy the whole world. Besides, I don't have the means to do it on my own.' the younger Dragneel thought.

After sighing, Natsu finally consented. "Fine, I'll do it, so long as you never try to pull a stunt like that again."

Both of them felt relieved at hearing that, although it was short-lived in Zeref's case. "Even then there's a problem. I designed the Eclipse Gate for magical beings, I doubt it would work properly if at all on an Etherious." he said thoughtfully.

"Yes, changes are my Dragon Soul Technique will face a similar issue, and even if it didn't, I'd have no idea how to create antibodies for a human/demon." the Fire Dragon King added.

"Well that's just great." the Dragon Slayer responded sarcastically.

"What's worse is we don't exactly have a lot of time to work on these issues." Zeref remarked.

"Then don't." Natsu said, gaining a surprised look from his father and brother. "I'm a demon remember? I don't age, I'll just take the long way around and live these 400 years instead of skipping them."

"What about the dragonification?" Igneel asked.

"Why did you intend to stop dragonification to begin with?" his son countered.

"To let our children live normal lives."

"Yeah well, I think we all know it's a lost cause in my case so what difference does it make?"

"Y-You mean you don't care about turning into a dragon?" his father asked incredulously.

"Look at it my way. I'm already the only human/Etherious hybrid in existence. Therefore, becoming a dragon too wouldn't change much." Natsu responded with a small hint of sadness in his voice.

Truth be told, Natsu didn't feel like a freak but he didn't feel lonely every now and then. The feeling that no one was like him nor will ever be tended to be depressing but he didn't complain because if he wasn't different he's still be…well dead. Regardless, it was decided that things would go as planned: the other four dragons would use the Dragon Soul Technique to get in the body of their respective child who will then be sent through the Eclipse Gate in approximately two years, Natsu, on his side, would continue training and preparing for the day when he would need to lead the other Dragon Slayers against Acnologia. However, because Igneel had his soul stolen from him by the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, he didn't have 400 years to live. Heck, he didn't even have 100. While the Fire Dragon King was okay with that, his son wasn't so the dragon and Black Wizard devised yet another plan for Natsu: when Igneel dies, Zeref will find Natsu so that he does not have to grieve alone.

Year X400

It had been a little less than two years since Natsu got "restored" and a lot had changed.

Firstly, Natsu's outfit had evolved. He had kept his crimson red shirt but now wore black pants tucked in black boots along with a black coat with red trim left open. In addition, he wore a white scaly scarf made of Igneel's own scales.

Secondly, he had met the other Dragon Slayers and their foster parents. There were two reasons for that: so that he'd be able to recognize them later on and learn about them, and also to keep them busy while the dragons were discussing…important stuff. During this time, Natsu had developed a close relationship with one of them: Wendy Marvell. Now, he didn't have anything against any of the other three but each one of them had his own way of annoying Natsu: Gajeel wouldn't stop challenging him, Sting had this way of bugging him by going on and on about how he was going to surpass him, and Rogue was kind of creepy by just standing there observing everyone and never saying a word. Wendy, on the other hand, was perhaps the kindest person he had ever met which Natsu had come to respect as one of the greatest qualities in existence. Indeed, Natsu saw the world as a cold, mean place full of deceit and greed, and therefore considered kindness to be one of the hardest qualities to have. That being said, Wendy was also quite shy and fearful and it took him some time to break her shell but once he had she warmed up to him, looking at him with admiration and a form of love comparable to what Natsu felt towards Zeref.

Finally, Natsu had started to train a lot more and had grown considerably in power because of it to the point where his dragonification had begun. Nonetheless, because of his double nature, the process was fairly slow and he only had developed a few scales here and there that he could easily hide under his clothes.

Right now, the five dragons and their children were gathered in a field with Gajeel, Sting and Rogue sleeping on the soft grass and Wendy sleeping while leaning on Natsu's shoulder. As for Natsu, he was wide awake but wasn't paying much attention to anything that was going on around him except when directly called upon. This went on for an hour or two until the dragons decided to part ways, at which point Metalicana, Weisslogia, and Skiadrum simply picked their Dragon Slayer off of the ground and flew away. At the same time, Natsu gently picked Wendy up as to not wake her up and handed her over to Grandeeney. He then fully expected the Sky Dragon to fly away like the others had, so he was a bit surprised when instead she initiated a conversation with him.

"Wendy has grown very fond of you know? She asks almost every day when she will get to see you again." she rhetorically asked.

"Yeah, I have to admit, I too have become quite attached to her." he responded wistfully, thinking that they will soon be separated for a long time.

"Which is why I have a favor to ask of you." Grandeeney said with a lot of seriousness.

"A favor?" Natsu repeated, puzzled.

"Indeed, you see, not only is Wendy extremely young and a Sky Dragon Slayer, but she also hasn't had much training in offensive spells which means her chances of survival alone in the wild are almost non-existent. That is why I would like you to look over her for me in 400 years." the Sky Dragon requested.

"Alright, I'll do it." the Fire Dragon Slayer agreed without hesitation. He had no idea how he would find her in the future but he did want her to be safe.

"Thank you." the female dragon said with a fond smile before taking off.

Natsu sighed as he found himself with yet another unique and complicated task that he had no idea how to accomplish. From the corner of his eye he caught the mischievous smirk plastered on his foster father's face. "Not a word." he growled.