Summary:Sometimes the line between waking and dreaming seems all too thin.

Author's Note: Natsu-centric. Contains Nalu, Jerza, Gajevy, and some Gruvia. Beta read by the amazing Snogfairy.

The sudden appearance of a stone cavern shouldn't have phased him by now, but his fingers flexed agitatedly at the lack of Lucy's warm grip. Maybe doors were part of the problem? It seemed like he ended up somewhere else every time he went through one. He rubbed at his arm, scowling over the nasty stabbing pain that radiated up to his shoulder.

He heard his father coming long before the dragon slunk into view. The scent of animal blood carried strongly along with the particular reptilian musk. "Ah! You're awake! I was quite worried when you fell unconscious in the snow, so I brought you some food."

Igneel held the deer carcass by its two hind legs and blew a precise stream of fire at it. Blood was replaced by the tantalizing smell of roasted venison in an instant, and Natsu found himself cracking a small smile as he remembered the early days of being fed nearly incinerated wildlife until the dragon got the hang of cooking for his human charge. "Thanks…"

"Have something to eat and rest more," Igneel cajoled, tearing a generous piece off the carcass and offering it to the wizard. "You still look weakened."

Natsu took the hunk of meat but hesitated. "I really need to see Grandeeney. I feel like this is getting worse."

"We will," his father replied, watching him closely, "but eat something first. You need to rebuild your strength."

With a sigh, the dragon slayer bit into the meat with his sharp teeth. The moment he swallowed, his stomach clenched in protest and the nausea returned with alarming aggression. Natsu doubled over, one hand clamped to his mouth, and he felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead.

"Crap," he mumbled through his fingers, eyes squeezing shut as more pain shot through his body accompanied by a violent wave of dizziness. "W-what…" Staggering slightly, he decided it was better to control how he dropped to the ground than to fall on his face.

The soft, cushy surface he landed on was startling. His hands gripped a plush comforter, and he immediately recognized Lucy's mattress. "Oh, geez! You shouldn't be on your feet so soon!" the stellar wizard scolded. Her bare footsteps hurried over to his side. "Take it easy, okay?"

"S-sorry…" He smelled the ginger and lemon laced tea that she set down the bedside table before the mattress dipped under her weight. "How…?"

"You passed out cold just a few feet from the guildhall," she answered, hand rubbing calming circles on his back. "Gajeel carried you here."

"You scared us!" Happy complained. "Again!"

Natsu cracked an eye to glance at the exceed and drew his knees up towards his rolling stomach. "Sorry, buddy." He felt like his entire body had fallen asleep and was now being assaulted by the dreadful prickling as his circulation returned.

"You don't look so good," Happy informed him after crawling up to sit at his side. "Are you sick?"

How was he supposed to answer that? The dragon slayer swallowed hard, still feeling the queasy turn of his belly. "I think I might be…"

"Here. Try drinking some of this." Lucy passed him the warm cup of tea, and he sipped carefully at it. Unlike the meat, the ginger seemed to actually calm his nausea. "Better?"

Natsu let his eyes slide closed again, savoring the heat of the drink and the settling of his disobedient stomach. "Yeah, it's helping."

"Good!" The pink haired wizard jerked at the sound of Igneel's bombastic voice, finding himself abruptly clutching air where his teacup had been. The fire pit at the entrance was blazing bright enough to dazzle his eyes. "I thought a bit of nice fire might do you some good. Why don't you try to get some sleep now?"

"I want to see Porlyusica - er, Grandeeney. Actually, either of them." At the dragon's halting expression, Natsu persisted. "I don't think I'm actually getting any rest. I keep passing out and stuff, but it doesn't feel that way to me. I'm just… bouncing between… wherever."

"Hrnnn…" Igneel still looked unconvinced. "I certainly smell something off with you, but…"

Wobbling to his feet, the dragon slayer kept pleading his case. "Whatever this is isn't getting any better. I think it's actually getting worse. The longer we wait -"

"Okay, okay." Lucy had her hands up in surrender, and Natsu felt a disorienting wave of vertigo nearly knock him off feet. The sudden shift had happened with his eyes open this time. Any heat he'd had in his body drained away to be replaced by a numbing dread.

Happy frowned at him from where he was nestled in the comforter. "Do you really think that Porlyusica can help?"

Shivering, the fire eater said, "I sure hope so, I don't know what else to do at this point. Everything keeps -"

"Are you sure you're feeding him enough? The boy just looks so thin!" Natsu blinked in confusion and jumped when a claw the length of his forearm prodded him gently in the stomach. "Honestly, Igneel, you need to make sure he eats a balanced diet. Lots of fruits and vegetables."

The fire wizard stared at the unfamiliar dragon in front of him. Her body was covered in white, downy feathers, but it didn't make her look any less formidable. That gaze was shrewd and calculating.

Igneel let out an exasperated sigh. "We didn't come here so you could criticize his nutrition, Grandeeney. This is serious."

Her lamp-like eyes reflected the waning light filtering through the trees, and she suddenly regarded the human with great care. "I can see that. It just happened again, didn't it?" The last was directed squarely at Natsu.

"Yeah," he breathed, rubbing his palm on his face. "I was just talking to Lucy in her room, and now I'm here. Am I… Am I just losing it?"

"Before you start doubting your sanity, let me take a look at you. Just stay still for a moment," the sky dragon instructed, huge fingers brushing over him. The soft feathers tickled ever so slightly, and her blue stare darted all over his body. She finally retreated with a reverberating and thoughtful hum. "Something happened to him. Something… dark."

Natsu flinched, feeling more of the irritating prickle snaking down his spine. "W-what?"

"This all started after he got into a scuffle with a dark wizard." Igneel held out a small round object, and Natsu recognized it immediately. "The other mage used this on him -"

"That! I know that!" the dragon slayer exclaimed as Grandeeney carefully plucked the object up. "The guy in the fight -"

His father nodded, a little tug pulling the edges of his maw down. "I just said that."

Shaking his head, Natsu made an abortive gesture. "Not that fight. The one I actually remember. It was on a job with my guild team, and the guy we were hunting used that thing. I kinda… jumped on him because I thought I could stop it before…"

"Interesting." Turning the sphere over in her enormous palm, Grandeeney glanced back at Natsu. "So you remember a fight from your past, but nothing beyond that?"

"Yes!" It was almost a relief to have someone state it so plainly. "I got hit with some energy from that thing. That's it."

Igneel tilted his head towards the orb. "Do you recognize that? I can smell him on it, but I wasn't sure what it was."

"Zeref," Grandeeney confirmed. "This is one of his toys. And yes, I do recognize it. It's one of his less vile creations, but also one of the more potentially dangerous."

"Zeref," Natsu echoed, finally connecting why the energy had felt so familiar. It was the same as the black wave of power on Tenrou. "What did it do to me? Can you fix it?" he asked anxiously, eyes ticking between the sky dragon and the object in her hand. Could this really be the source of all the chaos he was experiencing?

"To your first question, this item has the very rare and powerful ability to split a person's perception along a nexus point. It feeds off the magical energy of the one who uses it, leaving them temporarily drained at the end, but the effects are amplified and extended for those with greater power. Normally it gives the user a glimpse of different possible futures based on their choices at a specific juncture. In your case, however…" She paused and studied the pink haired human. "It seems the dividing point happened in your past, and now you are living two separate futures concurrently."

"Wait. That means I'm not crazy. Lucy and Igneel… I wasn't just hallucinating all this?" He wanted to be relieved, he really did, but the revelations did nothing to thaw that block of disquiet in his chest. Anything made by Zeref was bad news.

"Definitely not," Grandeeney state. "The fractured perception you are experiencing is completely in line with accounts of this thing being used. I should stress that these two timelines only really exist for you."

Natsu rubbed the back of his neck in frustrating. "So what does that mean? How do I fix this?"

The two dragons exchanged a meaningful glance that did nothing to ease his anxiety. Grandeeney said, "In normal circumstances, the user simply experiences the different variations of their future and snaps back to their starting point. No one else sees what they have, and there is no obvious change. You, on the other hand, are stuck at a point after the split. You may need to choose which of these futures you want to inhabit."