Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

Summary: The gates of the underworld had been opened, and with it, came the imminent fall of Ishgar. Having been set loose, the goal of the elite force of the etherious race; Tartaros, lays in the revival of their master and the eventual domination of the continent. The dragon slayers and the mages of earthland find themselves in war to defend their home. Au (no guilds)

"In a demon's story, there's no such thing as mercy,"

Natsu opened his blurry eyes, his pupils struggling to adjust to the light in the room, or rather, the lack thereof. It was dark and he was unable to make anything out of the scope he was in.

'Where…am I?'

He was confused and his body felt tired without even having moved. He was not certain where the fatigue could have come from, he was sure he had been unconscious just a moment ago. Perhaps, the same reason he was tired was why he was unconscious in the first place. Natsu opened his mouth and it felt dry, unbearably so. He licked at his lips, and he tasted something odd. Blood? He frowned to himself and moved to touch his bottom lip to see if it was really busted. He could not though.

His muscles strained to move but try as he might, they would not move freely. He tugged once more and the sound of shackles and ringing metal filled his ears. He did not like the sound, his sensitive ears cringing. His arms were bound but he knew his legs were free, his skin not being able to feel the cool steel against him.

Natsu did not know where he was, or how he got there in the first place. His memory was void of the events of the previous hours and he did not know how far that damage went. The last thing he remembered was being with Wendy-

"Wendy," he rasped out and his hands clenched into fists. Natsu tugged harder but still nothing happened. He tried to melt the metal away, but to his surprise and displeasure, he found that he could not. Confusion laced his features as he furrowed his brow. Melting stuff had never been a problem before so why now? Where the hell was he?

His memory strained in an attempt to grasp the situation at hand, tugging at anything that could have been relevant. The last thing he was absolutely certain of was the fact that he had been with Wendy but that did not seem to fit in with the situation. Natsu frowned as he relaxed his muscles. It hurt to move too much. He heard movement on the outside of whatever prison he was in and he stilled himself. The feet shuffled away and grew silent and he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

He did not understand why he had done so. A reaction he had not been in control of, something his own body knew before his mind did. Natsu allowed himself to lean against the wall, his arms falling to his sides. He could not bring his hands together though, the chains not letting him do such a thing.

"Is he awake?"

Natsu's eyes widened at the sound of the all too familiar voice and his breath quickened. He knew that voice and he knew its owner as well and his stomach dropped, his memory coming back with a vengeance. He remembered now, he remembered it all now. The bloodcurdling screams as his home was invaded. The anguished howls of pain, the mass murdering of his people. He had failed to protect anyone. There had been no contest, just the slaughtering of his kin. The Demons of Tartaros had come and plundered everything within sight, a race of insatiable beings that knew no limits. They held no remorse for their actions and they took pleasure in their deeds.

'Jackal,'

The name was spit out with such distaste, a bile rising up out of Natsu's throat. He loathed his man with every fiber of his being. The door slid open showing the man in his full glory, his tail swishing behind. His smile was smug and his eyes held an evil glint that Natsu immediately disliked. Suddenly, his fear was gone, replaced by his unbridled hate for the person before him. He moved forward and the chains struggled to keep him in place, such was his anger. It was him. Jackal had been the one to come to his home along with one other as they decimated the place. It made Natsu wonder why he was still alive and somewhere in his mind, there was the glimmer of hope that his sister had been kept alive.

"Dragonslayer…" Jackal approached him and looked down upon him. Natsu looked at him closer and noted the scar running down his abdomen. It looked like it hurt and Natsu almost smiled, but the situation did not demand such a response. The circumstances were too dire for it, but that did not stop the thought from forming.

Jackal noted his line of sight and frowned. This guy had just completely ignored him and acted as though he had not existed. The etherious reared his fist back and slammed it into Natsu. The resulting contact set off Jackal's powers and Natsu was sent rearing back by the explosions, his chains nearly ripped off. The wall behind him was cracked and a bit of light seeped through the tiny cracks. Natsu spit out a bit of blood and he laughed, a genuine smile gracing his features.

"I remember… how you got that scar now," Jackal's smirk turned into a grimace and he turned his back on the pinkette.

"Guards… take him to the others, and be as rough as you want with that one," he ordered them.

"But s-sir, that prisoner is…"

"Just do it!"

Natsu raised an eyebrow at their show of hesitance, but his memory was still a bit foggy, even if some things were coming back to him slowly. He still had no clue how he wound up here or why Jackal was so pissed off with him anyway.

The guards approached him cautiously and he smiled at them, showing off his pointy canines and they flinched. So they were afraid of him and he knew he must have done something wrong to them in the past. Magic was not option, seeing as how he could not seem to tap into his powers and his physical strength was still not sufficient. He had to figure out what was going on fast.

.

.

Everything had been silent within the confines of the Tartaros library up till the moment Jacket barged in, his face looking the least bit amused. If anything, he looked positively furious. The other occupant in the room felt his behavior was uncouth.

Seilah looked up from her book, closing it as she did so. Dark eyes focused in on the form of her fellow etherious, studying him with a keen gaze as if to decipher the problem. She pursed her lips as he took a seat from across her, the table in between them. She studied his posture, the slouch of his shoulders and the frown pulling across his usually playful features. Apart from his tantrum, he looked fine minus the scar slashing across his abdomen. That scar… her brow furrowed as looked at it. It was not really scar caused by claws, but rather like something had slashed or burned through him.

"The Dragonslayer did this to you," it was not a question, but a statement of fact. One laced with genuine curiosity. Jackal's eyes flickered up to catch Seilah's when he heard her soft voice. His frown deepened as she mentioned the injury he had acquired in battle.

"It was a cheap shot!" he defended himself. Seilah did not pay much attention to his rather loud outburst. Jackal was always loud anyway.

"It should have healed by now," she told him as she held out her hand and the book returned to its place in the shelf and amongst her massive collection. Seilah turned when she heard the door by the other end of the room open smoothly, a stark contrast to the way Jackal had done it in his uncouth manner.

"Silver," Seilah addressed and the man walked in silently, the room dropping several degrees in temperature. The nodded his head at her before turning his head to Jackal. The other man seemed agitated but Silver had no time for that.

"How much further?" Jackal asked, his impatience showing.

"Only a few more minutes before we reach the base. We're already late by a few hours though and I doubt our master will be pleased by such an occurrence," Silver informed them as Jackal did not bother to hold back his snort.

"He's rarely ever pleased by anything we do," Jackal folded his arms and Seilah said nothing in response to his statement. It held some truth though but encouraging the man would do no good to their cause. Her mind corrected her train of thought. Their cause was never a good one, it was simply the right one.

"We got what he sent us to collect and that's all that matters. We have the dragon slayers and anyone else of interest so he's not going to mind our tardiness," The dark purple-haired female closed her eyes and sat in her seat once more, having almost forgotten about Silver's presence. She held out her hand, and another book flew into her palm. Her fingers delicately flicked the pages of the book as her eyes glinted and Jackal raised his eyebrows at the title of the book.

"A mistress' guidebook to torture?" he read aloud and her eyes flickered to his.

"If you don't mind… I'd like some time to myself," it was barely above a whisper and Jackal felt like she had issued some kind of challenge. He opened his mouth to dispute when Silver's voice cut through the thick silence.

"Jackal… let's go,"

The other man grumbled under his breath and followed Silver out of the room. Once more, the library was filled with silence as the door shut, leaving Seilah to her devices.

.

.

Natsu's eyes struggled to adjust to the blinding light as the guards dragged him across the hallways. He felt pretty pathetic but he tossed that feeling aside in favor of worrying about Wendy. He wondered how she was doing or if she was even alive. Natsu hated to think that way but he had to be realistic for once in his life. His sister needed him.

The guards suddenly stopped and the Dragonslayer looked up to why. His eyes widened when he saw the numerous people in the room, each in a varying state of undress and disorder, their faces showing fear and confusion.

He recognized some of the people in the room but they were not too important. Not as important as-

"Natsu!" a cry rang out and his ears snapped to attention. He knew that voice and he felt relief flood his system, a weight lifting off his shoulders. He moved and the guards did nothing to halt his movement. Natsu's eyes met with Wendy's as her own set of guards let her go. He had never been happier to see her and she felt the same.

Natsu opened his arms and Wendy barreled into him, her face buried into the crook of his neck as she cried out her heart. She felt secure in his embrace and for a moment all of her worries seemed to vanish.

"N-Natsu," she let out and his smile softened.

"It's alright, I got you," he was happy she was okay and that she looked relatively fine when compared to him. She had a few bruises on her but nothing else.

"You look horrible," she stated as she wiped the tears out of her eyes and Natsu chuckled at her bluntness.

"I've been better but don't worry about me alright kiddo," he ruffled her hair and she smiled up at him. The moment was broken when the door slammed shut and the loud bang reverberated in the large room. Natsu suddenly turned serious as he looked back at Wendy. He grabbed her by the shoulders.

"How many hours have I been out?" he asked her with a straight face and she responded with her own look. Hers was quizzical and she almost seemed baffled by his simple question.

"Eh…"

"What?" he had noticed her hesitance and he did not like the feeling settling in his gut. He was not going to like her answer, something told him. "Wendy…"

"Natsu…I hadn't seen you in ten days. That's over two-hundred and forty hours ago,"

"Oh…" he suddenly felt really guilty. He had barely been up for over an hour and he had been worried sick about her. He could not bear to imagine how she must have felt for the past ten days in his absence, thinking he was dead and buried. His hands slipped off her shoulders slowly

"You've been awake long enough right, could you tell me where we are and what's been going on while I was out?" the pinkette asked and his little sister nodded. She was the smart one anyway, something he had no problem admitting to all those who asked.

"I'm not really sure about our location, but I gather that this is sort of like a moving fortress. We're being transported somewhere but I don't know where yet. As for what's going on, that part is a bit complicated. There are three high ranking officers on the ship from what I've seen. The rest are just soldiers. Every day they come in and inspect the prisoners though I'm not certain how the people spend their days. I spend mine in solitary confinement. They said we were important," She told him as she surveyed the room. Natsu followed her line of sight. The people looked broken and he was glad his sister was so resolute. Ten days of isolation. Natsu did not like the current situation. There were two others close by that were as strong, if not stronger than Jackal was. There was also the problem of their powers.

"I've been meaning to ask, but what's up with our magic?" he asked and Wendy shrugged as if it were unimportant. She faced him again. "It has something to do with these," he confused until she turned and pulled up her blue locks of hair to reveal with back of her neck. There was a mark, the symbol in dark coloring. It was an odd shape, one he had never seen before.

"You have one too," she told him and he subconsciously reached for that spot on the back of his neck.

The vessel suddenly halted its movement and the passengers within swayed with it. Wendy held onto Natsu who stood his ground till the shaking seized.

"We're almost there," a chilling voice rang out and all the occupants within the room shifted their gazes up towards the balcony like area. There stood Silver, his gaze impassive with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes looked bored but for the briefest of moments, they flicked to the odd duo and lingered there. Natsu and Wendy noticed but said nothing of it.

"W-Where i-is there?" one brave woman managed to speak up.

"The Cube," he said it like that explained it all. In reality, all he had done was confuse them even more. Whether on purpose or by accident, no one really knew. "You all belong to Tartaros now,"

"That guy froze me," Natsu whispered so only Wendy would hear and her eyes widened a tad bit. Her brother never even felt the cold, him being frozen sounded absurd.

"From here on out we'll have to lay low," Wendy said and Natsu looked like he wanted to disagree with her on it but deep down he knew. He knew that the home he had once known was no more. He could only look toward the future. The past could not be saved from Tartaros nor could the souls of the dead. They would work something out.

"Wendy. Tell me what you remember about ten days ago. Leave nothing out,"

.

.

Authors note: This idea would not leave my head so I just had to write it down. It's two am in the morning and I have no idea where the heck the plot will go. I mean I have the next few chapters planned out but that's about it. So if you find it worth your time, enjoy the prologue.