Just when it seemed like there was no hope for Natalia as Sonder had her pinned down, Gajeel arrived just in time and saved her. Gajeel walked over to Natalia and helped her up.

"You okay?" Gajeel asked. Natalia couldn't hold back the tears of joy in her eyes. She believed someone in the guild would arrive to save her and Gajeel answered her cries. "What are you crying about?"

"Sorry." Natalia said as she tried to get her to stop crying.

"You don't need to worry. Everyone else should be on their way here soon." Gajeel said. Natalia took comfort in that, but she spotted trouble.

"Behind you!" Natalia said. Sonder pulled out his sword and was aiming to slice Gajeel right down the middle.

"How dare you hit me like that?! This will teach you not to meddle in my affairs!" Sonder said. He swung down his sword on Gajeel, but it bend and became completely useless the moment it hit Gajeel. "What?! My sword! How did that happen?! He doesn't even have a cut." Gajeel turned to him and had a dark look on his face.

"You should know better than to use a metal sword against an iron dragon." Gajeel said. He grabbed a hold of the disfigured sword and started munching on it.

"You're eating my sword?!" Sonder said.

"The shape doesn't matter. It still has some good taste." Gajeel said.

"Are you all monster?! How the hell did you even get past Rod? There's no way he could have let you through." Sonder said.

"What about Natsu? Is he unharmed or what?" Natalia asked.

"Salamander? He was still fighting that other guy when I last saw him. Salamander was able to hold him down for me to make it through." Gajeel said.

"Well, you shouldn't have any problem with Sonder." Natalia said. "He's the weakest member of this unit. He might be in charge, but he only got to where he is because he had so much money."

"You've got to be kidding me." Gajeel said. "Oh well. At least I got at least one good fight out of these guys." He popped his knuckles and Sonder was starting to get scared. "So are you ready to die like a man or what?" Natalia is safe now and this conflict is really safe to say that it's over.

….

Natsu

"Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu breathed out his breath attack, but Rod was able to avoid that attack as well. Natsu went in to try and give a good clean hit at him, but Rod blocked that attack as well.

"Just give it up. It's obvious that I overpower you." Rod said.

"That doesn't matter to me. All that matters is that I keep my friends safe." Natsu said as he ignited some flames around his fist and caused an explosion. Both of them jumped out of it and continued to face each other. Ever since Natsu learned of Rod's true intentions of why he became a part of all this, he wants to beat Rod even more now than ever.

"Is that the best you can do?" Rod questioned. "Do you honestly think you have a chance against me? I'm actually the strongest fighter in all of E.R.7. I could have been leader if I wanted to. The only reason I gave it to Sonder was because it was too much of a hassle for me."

"Do I look like I care about any of that?!" Natsu shouted as he charged at Rod again. Natsu kept trying to get a good hit in, but Rod was avoiding, blocking, and deflecting all of his attacks.

"You keep saying how you want to protect the people you consider your friends." Rod said. "Does it really mean that much to you that you would take on someone you can't win against?"

"Of course it does. I go to any lengths if it means I can save my friends." Natsu said. "I'm not leaving this place until I beat you and save Natalia." He kept trying to attack him, but Rod was able to kick Natsu and pushed him back some more. No matter how good of a fighter Natsu is, Rod seems to be even better.

"Your friends really mean that much to you?" Rod said and started to laugh.

"I seemed to have missed the joke. What are you chuckling about over there?" Natsu said.

"I'm just thinking." Rod said and looked Natsu right in the eyes when he said this. "What would happen if I kill everyone one of your friends?" That ignited a strong spark in Natsu. "Who exactly do you consider a friend in that guild of yours?"

"I consider everyone there my friend. That's how Fairy Tail is. If you think I'm going to let you anywhere near them, you better think again." Natsu said.

"So let me ask, do you want to save Natalia or do you want to go and save everyone. Is it one life or a hundred lives that you will lose?" Rod questioned.

"What the hell are you even talking about?!" Natsu shouted as he was getting more and more agitated by this whole talk.

"If I choose to let you go, who would you go save?" Rod said with a psychotic look on his face. "Your friends mean so much to you that I actually want to see your expression when they're taken away."

"I would save them all, you bastard!" Natsu said.

"I've seen many people like you, but none with such optimism as you." Rod said. "You obviously don't seem to understand how the world really works. Maybe some despair will have you understand. You can go save one side of your friends or Natalia, but you can't have it both ways."

"Shows what you know!" Natsu shouted. "I believe in each one of my friends. They're beating your friends as we speak if they haven't already and Gajeel is saving Natalia."

"How foolish can one person be? You really think you can save them all?" Rod said. "You can't expect everything to go how you want it too. Life just doesn't work like that. You can't expect to be happy all the time either because there's as much sorrow in the world as there is joy. So I'm giving you a choice to prove that lesson. Save your friends that you came with or only save Natalia. Whichever one you choose, I'll kill the other"

"This isn't some game, you lunatic!" Natsu said as he went to attack him. "I will never make a choice like that when the clear option is to take you down!"

"So you would rather kill yourself and have all your friends join you in the afterlife?" Rod said.

"That's not going to happen!" Natsu shouted as he was about to strike Rod.

"It will for it's obvious that you can't beat me!" Rod shouted as he was about to strike Natsu himself. Both of them having colliding ideals and the stronger resolve will be the one to determine the victor of this fight.

…

The Platform

Sonder was all alone now. It was just him with Gajeel and Natalia on the platform and he had nothing to fight with. All Sonder could really do is shake in fear.

"I'm a nice guy. So I'll give you a choice." Gajeel said. "You can just turn yourself in and get arrested or you can actually put up a fight."

"You….You stay away from me." Sonder said. Gajeel seemed to know his answer as he took a step forward.

"Gajeel!" It was faint, but Gajeel heard a voice coming from behind him. Gajeel turned around to see where it was coming from.

"What's wrong?" Natalia asked.

"I thought I heard someone calling my name." Gajeel said. He continued to look around and he saw caught it. He looked at the top of the tower and could see someone standing up there.

"What is it?" Natalia said as he looked in his direction. It was a little far and hard to see, but Gajeel tried to see who was standing up there.

"Is that….Wendy?" Gajeel said. Standing at the top was Wendy and she had a small sack in her hands. Everyone else was at the top of the tower after they managed to defeat all the others of E.R.7.

"Wendy, is Natalia really there?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah. I can see her and Gajeel has her." Wendy said.

"Who would have thought he be her knight in shining armor?" Laxus said.

"Okay, Wendy. You know what to do." Gray said.

"Right. I can do this. I have to." Wendy said. She held the sack back and used some of her power around it. "Gajeel, I've got something for you!" With the aid of her dragon slayer magic, Wendy through it as hard as she could. The bag went flying through the air and it landed on the platform and was close to Gajeel.

"What's this?" Gajeel said. He grabbed it and opened up to see what was inside. "Sweet! It's all five of the keys that will unlock your cuffs."

"What?! Are you serious?!" Natalia said.

"Say what?!" Sonder said as he heard that as well.

"Nice throw, Wendy." Gray said.

"You did great." Erza said.

"Thank you, but I wouldn't have thought about this if it weren't for Gray." Wendy said.

"That was pretty smart of you to have Wendy use her dragon slayer magic to get the keys over to Natalia." Lucy said.

"Of course it was because he can do anything!" Juvia said.

"We're just lucky Natalia didn't leave yet." Gray said. "I knew Carla was hurt and Happy didn't have much power left to keep him flying. Since Wendy's powers use wind, I figured all she had to do was throw it at a high enough position."

"How can this be?! Are you telling me that everyone was actually beaten?!" Sonder said as he couldn't believe something like that would happen.

"Let's see." Gajeel said as he tried the keys one by one on Natalia's cuffs until he got the one that unlocked her cuffs. Natalia could finally move her arms and use her magic. "You doing a lot better."

"Much. Especially after this." Natalia said as she got back on her feet and held her hand to Sonder and he was starting to get scared. "Hand Vines!" Vines grew out right from under Sonder and wrapped around him with them having hands. "Slap!" The vines slapped Sonder around like a drumroll.

"Woo! That's handy." Gajeel joked.

"I've been waiting to do that for a while now." Natalia said. "Care to add the finishing blow?"

"Sure." Gajeel said as he readied himself. "Iron Dragon Club!" Gajeel stretched out his arm as it turned into a club and it slammed hard against Sonder. Sonder was pushed down to the edge of the platform and was knocked on his boat with him out cold. "Man. That's a letdown for a guy in such big and bad organization."

"That's that!" Erza said.

"We did it! Natalia is safe!" Juvia said and everyone was happy about that, but Happy and Lucy suddenly realized something.

"Wait! What about Natsu? He had a head start on Gajeel!" Lucy said.

"That's right. He was still fighting that other guy when I left him." Natsu said. Natalia soon realized the same thing herself.

"You can relax now. You're finally free." Gajeel said.

"That's not it." Natalia said. "Gajele, you said that Natsu was still fighting Rod the last time you saw him, right?"

"Yeah. Why?" Gajeel said.

"Rod is the most powerful and the most deadly out of anyone here." Natalia said. "We've got to go back and try and help him." Before any of them even had the chance, an explosion in the fortress went off in the back and part of the wall was blown off. "What was that?"

"Salamander by my guess." Gajeel said. Natalia hurried over to the end of the platform to see what was going on. She waited for the smoke to clear and tried to see what was going on. She saw one person standing, but the other was against the ground and Natalia couldn't believe who the one on the ground was.

"Natsu!" Natalia shouted. Rod stood over what appeared to be a defeated Natsu. Has Natsu actually lost?