Hey guys!
Sorry for the brief hiatus, I'm back and ready to write more for this fanfic! I'm honestly so excited for this one especially since there's so many ideas I have for the GMG arc, the Eclipse arc, and the Tartarus arc. I can't wait for this story to start progressing, it's been a little slow right now but I wanted to establish the background first.
Another thing I hope you guys liked was the interactions between Natsu and the other zodiac spirits. I want to show off their close relationships, so I'm determined to write scenes with each of the 12 spirits :)
Enjoy!
"Mavis, you know something, don't you?"
Natsu gave the blonde a pointed look, and she sighed tiredly. "I think I know where Zeref is, but I told you already - you're not going there any time soon. We both know that you aren't prepared, he is too strong right now."
"For the love of...I'm being rational!" the pink haired spirit whispered heatedly, "I'm the only one who can kill him. He hasn't seen me in years and he definitely doesn't know how much information I have on him - I spend hundreds of years researching Zeref's dark magic! Let me guess...you're a nerd, as usual, so you probably already know about it right?"
The first master of Fairy Tail blushed, and she glared at the youngest Dragneel. "Shut up! So what if I know about his magic? I loved Zeref so much...it hurts to see what's happening to him." her eyes softened and she looked at him fondly, "I've always regarded you as a dear friend even though you're grumpy and irritable, but please just listen to me for once. I know what I'm talking about, you need to actually think here...what's that look for - I'm a strategist you buffoon!"
As they argued back and forth, they didn't notice Makarov watching them with a calculating eye, noting that the two spirits were definitely not lying when they said they were friends. He knew that something was going on, and Natsu's facial expressions were pretty telling of the mood he was in.
The old man wasn't as suspicious with the two when they met the first time, but now, it seemed like Lucy's spirit had been hiding something that was clearly important enough for the Shodai to know...something wasn't adding up.
Unaware of this, the fire dragon slayer kept arguing with Mavis, and he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Saying that there's another way to kill him is nonsense, and you know it! I love Happy and my siblings, you know how deeply I care for them, which is why I'm doing this to protect their future. It won't be long before that idiot brother of mine releases the rest of the demons he made, and after seeing the mages on Earthland, I have no confidence in their ability to take him down."
"Natsu," the blonde said carefully, "I'm going to be honest with you. After our last conversation, I thought about what you said a lot, and it worries me. You keep saying you'll kill Zeref, and you don't seem disturbed about the fact that you will die if that happens. You might not think it's a big deal, but I do! Your life is precious, and the friendships you've formed, the people you have helped...does that all mean nothing to you?"
"Stop. That's...that's not what I meant." The celestial spirit leaned on the railing, looking down at the match that was happening with boredom. "Mavis, I've been alive for almost as long as Zeref, so I know the true nature of the world we live in. People are always spreading their hate and anger, and it continues on and on until it stays forever, corrupting everything in its path. My older brother is despicable in many ways, but I can admit that his ideology is right - the execution is just abysmal."
"I know that," she whispered sadly, "and I understand. Zeref is tired of the world rejecting him, so he is rejecting the world. I want to stop him just as much as you do, but have patience. Running after him right now is going to hurt you more than him, I know it will. After all, Zeref was the one who gave you to Igneel...deep down, you can't bring yourself to actually kill him, can you?"
Natsu scrunched his eyes shut, forcing back the memories of his beloved father. "Igneel was the best thing that happened to me. I...I guess I haven't been thinking straight lately. Zeref makes me so angry that I can't concentrate on anything...just the thought of seeing him makes my blood boil. But the memories of our childhood, the time we spent together...regardless, he's a threat that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible."
Glancing around him quickly, the pink haired spirit realized that it was probably time for him to go. Mavis nodded at him with a warm smile, one that he couldn't help but reciprocate. Though she was stubborn and irritating at times, she was the closest thing he had to an older sister, and even if the first master of Fairy Tail was ridiculously faithful to her guild, he couldn't help but admire her undying loyalty.
Natsu turned around, making his way back to Lucy, but he was stopped by Makarov.
"Yo!" the old man chirped cheerfully, "Where are you going now?"
The celestial spirit wasn't stupid, and he knew that the guild master was trying to glean information off of him. "Back to Lucy-sama. I need to check if she's ok, I don't have much time to stay here anyways. Did you want anything?"
Makarov laughed, subtly ushering Natsu into the hallway where there were no prying ears. "Well," he said grimly, "there's no easy way to say this but...the tag team matches are coming up, which means that it'll be two people from our guild fighting two people from another guild. I guess the King of Fiore was impressed with your skills and he wants Lucy and Gajeel to fight Sting and Rogue."
"You're going to have to repeat that again. They're asking her to do what?" The pink haired spirit crossed his arms as he stared at Makarov with utter disbelief. He was seriously doubting the sanity of the King of Fiore, and it made him more thankful for being a celestial spirit.
"Maybe I should've worded that better...Lucy's name is just put down for technical purposes, so she won't be lifting a finger during the fight. They want her to summon you so that the dragon slayers can fight each other." the old man said quietly, watching as Natsu's eyes narrowed. "I see you've caught on to it as well. It's unheard of to request for a celestial spirit rather than their master, and to top it off, the Magic Council is trying to get more information on your magic."
The dragon slayer was not pleased. "You're smart for an old man, I have to give you that. However...no matter what they try to do, there's no way anyone can find the secrets to my magic. It's a lost art that is only passed down to the fire dragon kings, which I happen to be...that's also a problem."
"What do you mean?" Makarov asked curiously, "Isn't your status as a fire dragon king better for us?"
"Well, objectively yes: I hold more power and knowledge than the dragon slayers on Earthland." Natsu fiddled with his scarf, trying to think of an easy way to word his explanation. "It's complicated, but the bottom line is this: their magic is limited. As the current king, I derive certain abilities from the king before me, which are not safe to use on some snot nosed brats. No matter what magic they use, I can defeat them easily...I've also been alive for thousands of years, my experience is unmatched."
This surprised the guild master, who had originally thought the fire dragon slayer held just a bit more magic than Gajeel and Wendy. "Interesting...so what will you do?"
"I will not do anything. If Lucy-sama summons me and asks me to fight, then I'll do it. I only accept commands from her, I could care less about the king or the Council - neither of them govern me." Natsu smirked at Makarov, who rolled his eyes.
"I should've expected that answer from you," the old man said as he looked back at the match going on, his eyes widening in glee. "I have to go, err...watch the next match - you should come too, the girls are fighting in bikinis!"
Natsu's eye twitched as Makarov giggled like a lecher, prancing away like nothing happened. He walked back to Lucy's room, noting that Erza and Grey were no longer in sight. Peeking inside, he saw that the blonde was still asleep and took that as a sign to go back to the spirit realm.
"Moooo! How are you so good at this game!"
Natsu was currently playing poker with Virgo, Cancer, and Taurus, who was pouting because he lost...again. The dragon slayer couldn't help but laugh at his brother, who was forking over a wad of jewels to Virgo.
"Oni-chan," the pink haired woman asked, "how was hime's performance?"
He sighed heavily, giving Cancer the cards so he could reshuffle the deck. "Not bad. Lucy has come a long way, and under my training regime, she definitely could hold her own in a fight, but there's still a lot of work that needs to be done. To be fair, she does have a handicap - her magic can only be used to summon us, and if Lucy's reserves are dry, then she would be defenseless. The whip you gave her is pretty useful, and that coupled with my staff is a good combination."
"Ebi probably needs a haircut," Cancer mused as he passed the cards out, "next time she summons me, I'll have to fix it for her."
"Mooo!" Taurus said happily, hearts showing in his eyes. "Lucy's nice body makes getting summoned worth it! I would do anything to be in your position aniki, why do you complain about it much?"
Natsu rolled his eyes before picking up his hand (this refers to the cards he got lol, not his literal hand just in case anyone is confused). "You guys should all know that I don't like masters in general, especially after what that foolish woman did to Aries. Celestial mages are all the same: they use our power for their own needs whether we like it or not."
The other three spirits shared a sad look, each having the same thoughts in their head. As their oldest brother, the fire dragon slayer was by nature a protective and loving person, but it only extended to a them and a few others. He had been alive hundreds of years before they came along, and Natsu had many bad experiences with cruel masters who didn't care about their spirits, which gave him an overall bad opinion of celestial mages.
"Aniki," Cancer said hesitantly, "I know why you don't want to trust ebi, and it's ok. Maybe over time you'll see that she's different...there's just something about her that makes me think celestial mages aren't too bad after all."
"We'll see about that...I'm going to start with 20,000 jewels this round." Natsu pulled out a stack of bills, putting it in front of him neatly as he waited for his siblings to offer their bets.
"Call. I'll add 20,000 into the pot too." Virgo replied as she put her money down, "Oni-chan, what makes you think hime is going to treat us badly?"
"Humans are by nature, selfish. It sounds pretty hypocritical considering I am also part human, but remember what I told you guys when we grew up?" the pink haired fireball glanced at Cancer's grumbling in amusement, watching as the crab-like man put down more money. "Igneel made sure I was humble and open-minded, but it comes at a cost. Putting trust in someone is risky because the results aren't certain."
Taurus grumbled in frustration. "Check. Aniki, if that's the case, then why do you trust us?"
It was surprising to see the cow saw something intelligent instead of some gross, perverted comment. Natsu didn't take offense to the question, and instead, he gave them all a fond smile. "Each of you started coming here when I was probably 700 years old, and at that point, I only really trusted Happy and of course, our King. The other spirits didn't like me for being the rare and mysterious 13th zodiac spirit especially since I came before the other 12, so I wasn't exactly well liked."
"Wait," interrupted Virgo, "what do you mean? You're highly respected here nii-san, there isn't a single person who would say that you didn't deserve to be a zodiac spirit."
"I wouldn't expect you all to remember, after all, it was a long time ago." the fire dragon slayer began reminiscing, the game being ignored in favor of listening to his story. "As you know, you guys were all very young when you first came here, and I did my best to protect you from the insults. I guess the other spirits were wary of me because I am E.N.D, and anything I did made them mad. It was really scary for me to tell you all about my past and who I really was...that was the second time I was ever truly afraid."
"Aniki," Cancer murmured, "you know we would never do that. All of us love you more than anything, why did you think we would leave?"
Natsu sighed. "The short answer is that I got used to being left behind. Zeref, my parents, Igneel, all my masters...each of them left me and I was hurting. I would be lying if I said I was fully confident in your answers because I was terrified of what you would think of me. It made me so happy when you called me your older brother, I was overjoyed to have people who looked at me like I was a normal person. That's why I waited till all of you were all old enough to completely understand what I was before spilling the beans about being a half-demon...I was selfish because I didn't want to lose any of you."
A stunned silence ensued, and Taurus huffed playfully, trying to lighten the mood. "Being a half-demon is nothing compared to me - I'm a cow, it really can't get worse than that."
Everyone laughed, and they continued playing their game. At some point, Happy had flown in to find Natsu, resting on his head when he found him. "Natsu," Happy said cutely, "can I have some fish?"
The dragon slayer grunted. "Again? You ask me for food every chance you get, I swear you just use me to eat. Last I checked, there was a bunch of fish at home, did you go there first?"
"Wellll, the thing is, I ate all of the ones at home. Now what do I do?" The blue cat snuggled into his friend's spiky pink hair, ignoring Natsu's protests.
"What!" he yelled in disbelief, "Happy, there was at least 50 fish at home. How the hell did you eat all of it you glutton?"
The two bickered back and forth, and it ended only when Natsu began glowing yellow...again. "Are you kidding me?" he growled as he held on to Happy. "This is the third time...what the hell is Fairy Tail doing?"
Virgo, Taurus, and Cancer weren't fazed, and they bid goodbye to their brother as he disappeared in a flash.
Makarov stood with Gajeel and the combined Fairy Tail A and B team, waiting as Lucy summoned the spirit he was waiting for.
"Gate of the dragon king, I open thee!" the blonde held the key away from her, rubbing her fingers on the smooth scales that decorated its surface. After a bright flash of yellow, Natsu stood in front of her with his arms crossed.
"Lucy-sama," he said neutrally as he bowed, "what can I do for you?"
Internally, the pink haired spirit was pissed. Not much time had passed from the last time he was summoned, and it took everything he had to not show his frustration. To think that Lucy didn't know this even though she had a majority of the zodiac spirits...seriously, what the hell were these Earthland mages doing?
"Natsu!" the blonde smiled happily as she hugged him tightly, "I never got the chance to properly thank you for helping with Minerva. You saved me, I really owe you one."
Natsu's eye twitched at the contact, and Happy caught on to this quickly, patting his friend's head to soothe his temper. He pried her off of him gently, bowing once again. "It was nothing master. Anyways...is there a reason for me being called here so soon?"
She blinked at him in confusion. "What do you mean? It's been five days since I summoned you."
"Yes, it's been five days on Earthland," the fire dragon slayer said as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Time is different in the spirit realm - a couple hours there would be a couple days here. For me, it's only been...three hours since I was last summoned."
Lucy blushed in embarrassment for not knowing this simple fact, and she felt guilty. "Oh...I'm sorry Natsu, I-I didn't know that. I'll try to be more aware next time."
He raised his eyebrows, shrugging indifferently to her apology. "It's fine. I am here to serve you, and I'd rather it be me than my siblings. Judging by the people here...you've called me to fight against the dragon slayers, right?"
"Yes," Makarov said calmly, "Lucy agreed to it. Before you start though, maybe it would be a good idea to get reacquainted with Gajeel? After all, your teamwork is important for the match."
The iron dragon slayer grunted, and he smirked at Natsu. "Looks like we're stuck together...you better not slow me down!"
Grey looked at his fellow guild member like he was a total idiot, and the celestial spirit seemed to share this sentiment as he snorted at his new partner. "Yeah, yeah, whatever...sometimes I wonder why the hell Metalicana didn't eat you. I think that you of all people should know the difference in our power since I am the fire dragon king."
Erza, who was still angry at the way Natsu had manhandled her, butted into the conversation. "Don't underestimate Gajeel...he's one of the best we have. So what if you're a king? Titles mean nothing when true power comes from the heart."
"No," the iron dragon slayer huffed reluctantly, surprising everyone, "you don't get it. Natsu...he's a totally different level compared to the rest of the dragon slayers."
"Anyways...I think you know what to do Gajeel. I trust that I won't have to worry about you, especially after all the training I put you through." Natsu watched as his partner grinned cheekily, throwing an arm around the pink haired spirit.
"Geehee." (OK LOL THIS LOOKS REALLY BAD BUT IDK HOW TO TYPE GAJEELS LITTLE LAUGH LMAO) The iron dragon slayer glanced at his other teammates, who were all dumbfounded by how the two actually looked like...friends?
"Well," Lucy said cheerfully, "at least you guys get along well. The fight should start very soon - Natsu, can I talk to you before that...alone?"
The celestial spirit nodded his head, patting Gajeel's shoulder before they split up. He walked with his master a considerable distance away from her team, waiting for her to begin.
"Thank you for everything Natsu." Lucy smiled at him warmly, and he nodded, his eyes softening at how sincere she was trying to be. "Basically, Yukino - she's a celestial mage in a guild called Sabertooth - tried to give me her zodiac keys."
Now this really was surprising to him. "She...she tried to give them to you? What were her reasons?"
"She said that she wanted all the zodiac spirits to be reunited," the blonde explained, "but she also said it was a 'gateway to change the world.' I refused to take Pisces and Libra because I know more than anyone that the bond between a celestial mage and their spirit is one built on love and trust. Yukino...she was surprised to hear me reject the offer, but she also said that at some point, the keys will come together. What does that mean?"
Natsu was very tense, and he knew exactly what she had meant. Before he died, Igneel had told him about the Eclipse project, which specifically required all the zodiac keys. "Impossible," he whispered, "there's...this can't be happening, how does that girl know about it?"
Lucy blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? What's happening, is something wrong?"
The fire dragon slayer turned his head around, using his enhanced senses to see if anyone was nearby to hear what he was about to say. "Lucy-sama, I need you to listen to me very, very carefully." She looked at his demeanor, noting how serious and angry he was...something was wrong.
"Of course," she said quietly, "what's going on?"
Natsu looked at her grimly. "You must, and I mean it, you must actively protect the zodiac keys. No matter what happens, don't let anyone take them away from you."
"That's something I do every day though," the celestial mage mused, "what am I supposed to do differently?"
"Lucy-sama, I don't want to scare you, but I have a feeling that someone will try to use force to get the keys." An obnoxiously loud voice began announcing the upcoming tag team match, and he knew he didn't have much time to warn her. "If someone tries to take the keys, don't hesitate to summon one of my siblings, or even me. It looks like I have to go now...we can talk about this later if you want."
The blonde nodded, wishing him good luck before returning to the Fairy Tail sector of the stadium. As the pink haired spirit walked to Gajeel, he couldn't help but feel anxiousness build up in his gut - Yukino mentioned all the keys being gathered, and if the Eclipse Gate was opened...it would be catastrophic.
It made no sense as to why she wanted Lucy to have them all, and the only thing that came to mind was that it could've been part of a scheme to get all keys at once - he would need to investigate Sabertooth soon.
With a sigh, Natsu walked into the arena, sharing a brief look with his partner before getting into position.
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