Magnolia (2 months later)

- (Gajeel)-

Gajeel had always looked out for only himself, during his Phantom Lord days he never really got on well with the rest of his guild mates, so when he left his life in Phantom Lord behind and began his Fairy Tail life he found it difficult to express his feelings of concern over the wellbeing of his friends.

It had been two months since Fairy Tail's lovable dragon slayer had returned and for a week the guild had constantly held parties to commemorate the special occasion. Gajeel frowned, it wasn't like he didn't want Natsu back but there was something amiss that he just couldn't put his finger on.

"Oi!" Gajeel looked across the hall to see a certain stripper challenging him to a fight. Gray had been trying to defeat Gajeel ever since Natsu left to get stronger saying 'Flame brain left to go get stronger and your already stronger than him, if I beat you I'll definitely be able to crush him.' Gajeel had immediately agreed to fight him when he heard Gray say that he was stronger than Natsu.

Gray had trained so hard that he was at Gajeel's level after two years of hard training. However once Natsu came back he quickly showed Gray that he still had a ways to go, as he quickly defeated the ice mage once he revealed his identity.

Natsu. He was the reason why Gajeel was being wracked with worry. Dragon slayers have advanced senses so Gajeel was able to smell Natsu when he came into the guild and he knew at once that there was something different about Natsu, his scent and magic had undergone significant changes during his travel. Gajeel didn't know what Natsu had been doing but he began to suspect that Natsu had been around dark magic and it had left prints on his own magic. He had asked Natsu about what he had done during his trip, the dragon slayer simply laughed and told him that he had heard about some sightings of a dragon so he had searched far and wide for his foster father Igneel while improving his magic.

He also claimed to have fought some dark guilds while searching. He said that he found a dragon lacrima but wasn't able to do anything with it. The rest of the guild just smiled and told him that they were happy that his search hadn't been a complete failure. Gajeel had smiled with Natsu and the rest of the guild but he just couldn't shake the feeling that Natsu was keeping some very important secrets from them. Once the party had ended Natsu had decided to rent a room at one of the local inns because his house was messed up. Happy and Lucy had followed him out of the guild recounting tales of their adventures.

Everyone but Gajeel had tearful smiles seeing the three friends talking and laughing with each other like they used to. When Natsu left Lucy and Happy had been broken, to Lucy Natsu was a best friend, he was the one who brought her to Fairy Tail and when he left he took a big piece of her with him. Happy was just as bad, Natsu was his father and he had been with him at all times so he had never learned how to function without Natsu. The two eventually came together to help each other get over Natsu's departure. To see them reunited was heartwarming.

Gajeel was planning on confronting Natsu privately, he needed to get the truth from him in order to restore their relationship to what it once was.

Later that day

*Knock* *knock*. Gajeel was knocking on Lucy's door. He could sense Natsu's presence inside that house so he knew that he would be getting some explanation for Natsu's immense and dark magical power. Natsu opened the door slowly. "Gajeel, what a surprise." Natsu came out. "What are you here for?" Gajeel narrowed his eyes at him, "Cut the shit pinky, what did you do during your trip?" Natsu I'm warning you, I'll report this to the master. Natsu didn't even look fazed by Gajeel's threat.

Natsu closed Lucy's door and smiled. "Fine if you want answers follow me."

Natsu led Gajeel back to his old home. As Gajeel came closer he could see why Natsu chose to rent an inn. The house had begun to rot. There was a hole in the roof, the windows were broken. Natsu looked at his old home and a flicker of sorrow passed over his face. "This used to be my home." Gajeel began to feel bad about having doubts about Natsu. Natsu turned his head away from the damaged home and started to make his way towards the surrounding forest. Gajeel followed Natsu, while Natsu walked Gajeel studied his face wondering what happened to change the happy idiot into this expressionless man.

Natsu suddenly stopped and turned to face Gajeel. "Watch" he said staring at his palm. A tongue of black fire flickered to life on Natsu's palm, "Yeah I've seen you use those flames before what's so special about them." said Gajeel. Natsu smiled at Gajeel's ignorance "When I used these flames for the first time I had always wondered how I came to possess such incredible power, I immediately assumed that it was probably tied to my emotions, then I remembered that I had used such flames before in that battle against the former flame god slayer. I knew that if I found out how I got the power of these flames I would be able to get stronger, so I went to find out the secrets of dragon slayer magic." Natsu paused "During the first three months of my search I turned up with nothing. I eventually went back to all the places that I knew had some connection to dragons, Tenrou Island, a cave where Igneel stayed in and the dragon graveyard underneath the Domus Flau." Natsu said as a smile started growing on his face.

"In the graveyard there is a tablet surrounded by the corpses of three dragons. Only those with dragon slayer magic can read the inscriptions. It says that dragon slayer magic and god slayer magic where both created by the dragons." "The tablet says that while dragon slayers were given the body and lungs of a dragon, only the god slayers had full mastery over a dragon's element." Natsu paused looking at Gajeel.

Gajeel was wide eyed. "Bullshit, real dragon slayers learn their magic from dragons, how can god slayer magic be learned be learned from humans if it was created by dragons." he growled. Natsu shook his head, "You misunderstand dragon slayers have the ability to kill dragon slayers, all god slayer magic does is give the user full control over their element, they don't have the ability to break dragon scales so they can't kill dragons, however those who possess both dragon slayer and god slayer magic have full control of their element and the ability to kill dragons. This is the secret behind Acnologia's power."

"Damn I need a drink, this is all too much." Gajeel said breathing hard. "Wow would have thought that Natsu Dragneel would discover the secret to Acnologia's power." Gajeel said laughing. "Thanks for being real with me Salamander." Gajeel started to head out of the clearing, thinking about how much alcohol he was going to consume.

- (Natsu)-

Natsu watched Gajeel leave the clearing. "Cerastes come out." Natsu watched as his familiar a horned serpent came slithering out of the forest. The serpent was the only being Natsu had ever truly bonded with, his true son, his greatest secret, the snake which he created using the magic he learned from The Book of Zeref.

AN: Sorry for taking so long to update. I'll try to update more often. Please review.