Hello again, and thanks for reading! I have another chapter ready to roll out, and I hope you like it!

A quiet, peaceful scene was unfolding in a forest clearing, on the other side of Fiore. Deer were frolicing, birds were chirping, and sunshine played around with the various small creatures moving about, all without a care in the world. Looking up, a squirrel had noticed a quite big object falling towards the ground. Said object crashed into the clearing, sending the animals scattering, and leaving a small house-sized crater in the ground. Climbing up out of this crater, fairly scathed, was Natsu.

He looked worse for the wear, and the crash didn't seem to even phase him. Pulling himself up off the ground, he began walking through the forest hoping to find some clues if he was headed in the direction he was intending to. His sense of smell helped, but could only take him so far. He had been here before long ago, but being away from here too long left him felling like he was going through uncharted territory. Many hours passed before he reached any type of settlement, making small snacks of the fruit trees he passed along the way. he finally reached a small village, the first thing he did was go to the nearest person.

"Excuse me?" He said to what seemed like a blacksmith, "I'm wondering... I've been travelling for a while, and I think I got lost somewhere. What town is this?" The blacksmith looked at Natsu and replied. "Oh this town? Mediala."

"Mediala? Wow... This place hasn't changed much since I last visited."

"Yeah, this place has always been a quiet and small village. When was the last time you saw this place?"

"Er... Six years ago." Natsu replied. Was ot really that long? It seemed more like thirty years. He hardly remembered this place, but he stil knew it was here. Speaking of which, it means he had gotten even closer to his destination than he originally believed. Now it was only about an hour away from him, a relatively short walk through the forest. He was snapped out of these thoughts by the blacksmith, who was trying to get his attention. "Ten years? Wow. So where you headed to?" Natsu thought about what he was doing. Should he really do this? Or is it better for him to continue on his path? Deciding for himself, he set onto a path hidden by the other side of the forest, continuing his journey as planned.

"I'm going to visit my father!" He yelled back, truthfully.

Wendy did the best she could with Grey's injuries. There wasn't much she could do. Most of his skin was damaged beyond repair, and at least half his body would take weeks , if not months, to heal. 'Grandeeny, I wonder if you could do this without any trouble. I hate to say so, but I doubt it.' Porlyusica walked into the small room, stepping over to a tired Sky Dragon Slayer. "Wendy, you've done enough. You probably need to tell his friends about his status.

"Porlyusica, do you think you are ab-"

"No." The healer interjected, "And get out. I hate humans."

It only took a shohrt walk fown a hall and a flight of stairs, and she arrived at the main room of Fairy Tail. The room grew silent as she entered. Next thing she knew, she was surrounded by Erza, Lucy, and Happy, each of them asking of Grey's status. "He's going to make it." She said, quieting the group, "But he won't wake for a while. I'd say sometime between five to seven weeks." Everyone one looked grim at this statement. "But... There is something I will need to inform you of. His magic will be severely depleted when he wakes... And..." Wendy paused. "... He'll be bedridden for the rest of his life." Everyone looked in shock. "His legs are too damaged to even think of walking again, he'll never be able to complete a decent job in his entire life. I wish I could do more, but... it was a miracle to get his skin growing back, and if O did anymore, his body might become dependant on my healing."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked. Wendy replied, "If I keep healing him, his body will stop registering the need to heal itself. Even a scrape won't be able to heal itself because the body will get used to somethi.g else doing the work for it. He needs time, thats all we can give him now.

Natsu stood beside a medium sized river running through the thick forest. He remembered this place. 'Well, I am going back to Father's place. I might as well look presentable.'He stripped to his underwear, and walked into the river, letting it go up to his chest. He shivered. Now he definitely knew this place. "Just as cold as ever..." He commented to himself. Pulling the clothes into the river, he began washing them off in the water, letting the dirt from all of his traveling float off, away from him. Dunking his head under the river, he let himself float on his stomach. He wondered to himself. Was it really right to do this? He knew father would accept him into his home, he promised that, but what of father's comments about him?

When he was a child, he always strove for father to complement him in any way. It didn't matter why, but it was always his goal to at least get three good remarks every two weeks. It may sound easy, but Father was hardly ever proud of his son. In fact, until he left the house for Fairy Tail, he never realized how nuch he was treated as a pet more than a son.

But still, Father took good care of him, he didn't see why now would be any different. Sighing, he got out of the water, and breathed fire onto his clothing, to dry them, putting them on, he straightened his hair out to its normal appearance, and made his way towards his old home.

"Home" being used very lightly; the place looked like a fort more than anything. He still remembered this place, although he never had that many notable memories, this had occupied the majority of his childhood, after Igneel left. Although he considered Igneel his true father, this one he called by that title from habit. These two were polar opposites. As he passed the front gate, he could feel the heat leave him. That was always the nature of this place; cold and unforgiving. But for some strange reason, he felt he could always like this place, no matter its atmosphere. Hell, when he was younger, he did everything humanly possible to show that he was ready to fight tooth and nail for the protection of this property. He stopped in the courtyard, closed his eyes and looked up, remembering how he used to be.

'Heh! Now I remember how I used to be around this place. I used to act like a mini-Erza with this place, always making sure it was well guarded. Of course, with all of Father's "questionable" buisness tansactions, someone needed to definitely ramp up security. There was even one day where we had five unrelated attacks!' He was drawn short of his remembrance by a bump of what felt like a gun in the middle of his back.

"State your name and purpose here. If you don't have a purpose, then I advise you turn around and leave." Natsu chuckled at this voice. "Gorin, is that you?" The gun was removed from Natsu's back. "How do you know my name?" Natsu ignored his question. "So does that mean Lillim and Maziko still live here, as well?"

Gorin was starting to worry. "Alright, you have to be a spy. State who you came from and I might just let you live."

"So then that means that Lillim and Maziko are patrolling outside if you're walking on the grounds..." Natsu sighed. "Then tell me..." He paused, and spun around, facing Gorin. He casted a glare that would have easily made any person die on the spot. "How could I have made myself so obvious to find, and yet I passed absolutely no one on my way here?"

Now that Natsu had a clear view of Gorin, he could see how much he changed within the past nine years. He had grown much taller and more defined. His long black hair had been traded for a short shaved look now, and his thick leather armor easily passed the title "badass" clearly. But for now, this very large man was shacking in his boots. "N-n-Natsu? Is th-that... You?" Before he could even respond, Natsu found himself in a bear hug. "Natsu-san! I can't believe you're back! Just wait till I tell the others when their shift ends!" Natsu wasn't sure how to reply. He thought Gorin's reaction would be completely different. Why... "Well, sure, you made my life hell when we were both here, but I mean... Man! I didn't think you'd come back! I was starting to worry that we wouldn't see the "World's Scariest Twelve Year Old" ever again?" Natsu looked at him questionably, "Starting to worry?"

Yeah! Lillim always had premonitions of you returning, and they just recently stopped... Wait... Of course! You coming back made them stop! Duh!" Natsu gave a small smile. He forgot about Lillim and her psychic powers. And as much as he wanted to stay here and talk to Gorin, he knew he had a more pressing matter to attend to. That, and he didn't want stay reminded that he managed to slip by so easily. If he hadn't stopped in the courtyard, Gorin might not have caught him at all. "Gorin, I need to see Father. Is he in the main room, as usual?"

Gorin stiffened slightly, well noted by Natsu. "Yes, he is." Natsu gave him a thank you, and asked, "You still hate him, don't you?" Gorin responded, "Well... No. I mean, yes, I'm really grateful for alk the things he gave us. Food, shelter, education, everything that a royal person could get easily, he gave to us. And I can't thank him enough. Hell, if he died by someone's hand, I'd go to the ends of the earth to avenge him. But, he's just so cold, you know. Just... Think of you, Natsu. He would always manipulate you, whispering words into your ear of a bleak world with no good in it. And you believed every word!"

"And?" Natsu didn't like where this conversation was going. Natsu knew fully well he was being controlled by Father. But so what? Natsu was found and raised by him. He had full right to do whatever he wanted to Natsu. Gorin continued, "Well, I'm not going to say that I hate him. But he's too cold for my liking." Natsu looked back at Gorin, "I can't say I don't blame you, but at least this means I don't have to worry about those insane murder plots you used to plan for him." Gorin gave a laugh at that statement, "You know, I never really got how he always managed to avoid them." Natsu told him, "I told him beforehand."

Natsu swore Gorin's eyes were going to pop out of their sockets. "WHAT? That was you?" It was Natsu's turn to laugh. "Who else?"

"Seven weeks..." Lucy echoed. That was how bad it was? "Natsu... You'd better stay gone... If I see you again, there will be hell to pay..." Juvia chimed in, "Juvia concurs! We should hurry and find him so we can pay him back for Grey-sama's condition! This was greeted with nods from the other members. Having a guild mate injured was one thing, but an actual traitor... That was an entirely different matter. Gajeel left. He didn't like this. When he got up, the room was getting loruder and louder, and even louder with threats for Natsu's head. Gajeel wondered to himself. 'What happened to this guild? Wasn't his supposed to be the happy-go-lucky group?' Gajeel would have kept walking, if someone hadn't spoke up.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" The normally cheery voice quieted the entire crowd. Gajeel turned around to see Happy, floating in the middle of the room, above everybody. "What the hell is wrong with you people? I though we were always the guild that stood for fair justice! Is this Fairy Tail, because it sure looks like I walked into a cheerier looking Phantom Lord!" But the exceed didn't stop there. "When I left Natsu and Grey, it was because Natsu had saved two children and needed me to find their parents! What kind of person would do that, only to betray his friends?" A random voice came from the crowd, "And what about him not trying to visit Grey, or that he said it was his fault?" Happy didn't take too long with replying to that question. "You know Natsu, of course he would blame himself if he was right there when Grey was hurt! How could he not blame himself? And with all of the death glares you threw at him whenever he got near the guild, I don't blame him for thinking that you wouldn't even let Natsu NEAR him!"

After a moment of silence, Levi appeared out of a corner. "...Guys?..." Everyone looked at her. She gulped. She absolutely hated being the center of attention. "Er... Grey has something... to say..." A lot of people looked confused at this statement. Gajeel asked, "What are you talking about?" Levi hesitantly responded. Well, because you are all arguing I kinda... Took matters into my own hands... I used a modified projection lacrima, and..." She looked over her shoulder. "Grey! You can come out now!"

Everyone was looking in shock. Before them was... A perfectly fine Grey? "Well... This is an akward moment." Grey said with uncertanty. No one moved. "Oh, relax, I'm just a projection of myself. I'm still in a coma. Wow, I looked bad." He looked around. Where's Natsu? Is he off on a mission? I would have expected him to make some sort of cheesy comment by now."

"You what?" Grey said, surprised. "Why the hell would you guys do that? And where the hell is Makarov? I've got a faw words to say to him." Erza stood up, ready to reply. "Natsu betrayed his guild, and Makarov has been in a three week long meeting. He won't be back until next Friday after this week." Grey's eyes widened. "Betrayed his guild? How?" Elfmann yelled, "He sacrificed his manlyness and chose to burn you to a crisp, that's why!" Grey thought for a second "... But that's not what happened..."

If Natsu thought he couldn't have felt any colder, he was wrong the moment he stepped into the building's large Main Room. Stone walls, the wooden furniture, all with a thin line of carpet leading to a large chair at the end of the room. In this chair was a tall figure; thin, white, and very well dressed, just like any wealthy buisness man should be dressed like. He was reading a book. Natsu walked before the man, and kneeled before him. This man, Vekel Ajax, was the man Natsu called Father. "You've returned." He noted. "I wasn't sure if you were going to. Rise. You look pathetic kneeling to me." Natsu stood fully up, making sure to keep his back straight, and his chin high. He still wanted to make a good impresson. "Father..." He began, but was cut off by Vekel. "Let me guess, I was right. You let someone get seriously hurt." Natsu nodded, hanging his head in shame. "I told you that you'd hurt someone, you should have came back sooner. Don't worry, I'll let you live here again, on two conditions." Natsu nodded. "What are they?"

"One: You continue your guarding duties as you used to do in this house," Natsu could live with that. "...and Two: You must tell me right now what happened that made you decide to return."

That one, maybe not so much. But at this moment, he didn't really have much of a choice. "Fine. Here goes..."

It was a simple mission, right? Find the water mage, capture the water mage, bring her back, the end, right? Not so much. By the time the full squad arrived at the small village she was supposed to have been sighted at, a horde of water-molded monsters had already overrun the city; the mage ran into the forest. While Erza and Lucy were to defend what was left of the city, Natsu, Grey and Happy were to chase after the corrupt mage. It wasn't long before the three came across the clearing. Aechtuwo (strange name, yes) was in the middle, waiting for them. She said nothing, instead began shooting jets of scalding water toward the two. Grey simplay chose his stance and yelled, "Ice make: shield!" However, it wasn't two seconds before it was melted, scalding the two, until Natsu's fire breath evaporated the jets. As if on cue, two small children hiding behind some trees, watching, tripped on each other, and fell to the ground, in plain sight.

With a new targett in mind, the water mage rose her hands, and attempted to shoot the burning streams at the kids. Grey leapt into action, tackling her to the ground, yelling at Natsu. "Go!" He didn't meed to be told twice. Scooping up the five year olds, he ran into the forest, Happy close behind. He suddenly stopped. "Happy, Grey's not gonna make by himself. Can you carry these kids to their parents?" "Aye!"

Running back to the clearing alone, Natsu stubled across a scene he'd rather not want to see again. Grey was standing, but locked into place by what seemed like a pressurized water cast. The corrupt mage was above him, abd for once, she spoke. "Water art: Typhoon!" Natsu watched as the steaming water raced to it's target. "No!" He yelled, "Fire Dragon Roar!" He spat out his attack, but what happened next, nobody could prepare for. "Water arts: Transform: Kerosene and Tar." Natsu's eyes widened. He did his best to stop the flame, but by then it was too late. 'Dammit! I can't eat my own flames!' It didn't take lonf for the fire to reach the deadly mixture. It lit, and continued it's course, full speed ahead, zeroing on Grey.

So? Was it good? Please leave a review ti tell me, it's greatly appreciated. I want people's opinion on if this is good or not. Thanks for Reading!