"Hey, what happened?" Acnologia asked as Natsu walked up to him, an emotionless expression plastered on his face. Blood was all over his face, mostly on his chin and down his neck, his salmon hair casting a shadow over his eyes where a blood red hue illuminated from his eyes, giving a more chilling appearance to his demonic features. Whatever happened in the castle must have caused Natsu to shut off his humanity. Shit, it took forever for Natsu to get his humanity back.
"I bit the princess and drained her enough to kill her," Natsu says, his voice lacking emotion. A shiver went down Acnologia's spin as he watched the demon walk away with a slow and calm pace.
"So she's dead?" Acnologia asked. He shifted back into his human form and stretched his aching back, hearing it pop.
"Not exactly," Natsu replies. No, all traces of Natsu was gone. This was E.N.D., the emotionless part of Natsu. The part of Natsu that scared Acnologia like hell because he knew Natsu could rip his head off and laugh about it like it was nothing. The only person who could control Natsu when he was like this was Zeref, and Zeref only. Really, the only person that Natsu really listened to was Zeref.
"Oh, she's a demon now," Acnologia realised. He smirked when he got an idea. "That means you can control her because you're her sire! Zeref would probably reward me for coming up with that awesome idea!" There was nothing Acnologia loved more than destroying kingdoms was Zeref's rewards. They were the opposite to his punishments.
Acnologia shrieked when a tennis ball shaped demon fireball just barely missed him, singeing the corner of his hair. Acnologia stared at Natsu in shock, steam rising from Natsu's left hand. He walked towards Acnologia and grabbed his neck, throwing him into the wall behind him. If Acnologia wasn't immortal he would have died from the impact of hitting the wall, the building shattering to the ground and leaving a dust cloud above it. Instead Acnologia knew his spine would be broken. Damn, he needed to create fear from the humans so that he could heal his broken spine (A/N: since there's nothing about what Acnologia's element is I'm making him a Chaos Dragon Slayer who feeds emotions created by chaos) since the humans would be scared due to the chaos he was creating.
"I hope I haven't missed out on any of the fun," a new voice says with that-all-too-familiar annoying laugh. Acnologia looked up to see Gajeel standing on the opposite building from them, holding a struggling woman under his arm and munching some iron bolts. He jumped in front of Acnologia and dumped the woman in front of him, who looked up at him in fear, her slender form trembling. Gajeel swung a set of silver keys around his finger as he stared down at the trembling woman. "This woman is scared shitless. She should be a hefty meal."
Acnologia smirked and sucked a blue white cloud that wafted off the woman into his mouth, healing his spine in the process. The woman fainted in fear, slumping on the ground as Acnologia stood up, stretching his back.
"Thanks for the meal," he says, turning away from the younger Dragon Slayer. "Where's that shitty little bratty demon?"
"He went that way," Gajeel answered, pointing somewhere off in the distance. They took a step forward but they were attacked by a scarlet blur, Gajeel turning his arm into an iron sword and blocking the sword that was flying out of the air. Princess Erza Scarlet held the sword, her wild hair blowing back from the impact of the swords hitting each other. She had two scars on her face from Natsu's claws.
"Gihihihi, the Warrior Princess has arrived," Gajeel laughed, pulling his sword-arm away from Erza's sword. "If you and Flame Head had a draw in your fight than you must be a worthy opponent. Gihihihi, I'm going to enjoy this!"
"Hey Tin Head, enough with that annoying laughter of yours," Acnologia snapped, flicking Gajeel's temple hard. "Listen to your senior!"
"You're over four hundred years old," Gajeel pointed out as he turned his sword-arm into a chainsaw-arm. "You're way above senior."
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"
Gajeel went to attack Erza but his attack was parried by a giant black cat that looked like a panther. Gajeel and Erza stared at the giant cat in shock.
"Panterlily, what are you doing here?" Erza demanded.
"Allow me to take care of this tin head and old man, Princess," Pantherlily says.
"WHO'RE YOU CALLING OLD MAN, CAT?!"
"But Pantherlily ..." Erza started to say, only to have Pantherlily interrupt her.
"Go find Princess Lucy," he says, swinging his sword at Gajeel who jumped out of the way. "King Jude told us to bring her to Fairy Tail."
Erza nodded and ran off in the direction of the castle, Re-quipping into her Flight Armour to get there faster. Gajeel smirked at Pantherlily as he got an idea.
"Let's make a deal!" Gajeel states, turning his arm back to normal and pointing at Pantherlily who tilted his head to the side in question.
"What kind of deal?" Pantherlily asked.
"If you win this fight I'll drag old man and Flame Head back to Alvarez and make them not destroy a Kingdom for six months!"
"And if you win this fight?" Pantherlily asked, not liking where this was going. Whatever it was he was going to make sure he won.
"You'll become my cat!" Gajeel laughs. "With you my cat would be better than Flame Head's, Little Sky Girl's, Shadow Man's, Holy Spirit's and Old Man's worthless cats!"
"Hey! Ailas is not worthless!" Acnologia protested, defending his black exceed buddy.
"OK, deal," Pantherlily says, pointing his sword at Gajeel. To stop becoming this Dragon Slayer's cat he must win!
"Princess Lucy!" Erza yelled, bursting into the upstairs room in the castle. She froze when she saw the prostrate princess lying in a puddle of blood, two puncture wounds visible on her collarbone. Erza ran towards the blonde haired girl and gently pulled her up into a sitting position, staring hard at the girl's face.
Lucy groaned in pain before her eyes fluttered open, light brown looking up into dark brown. Lucy's eyes fluttered shut again, her breathing heavy before her eyes flew open again, her hand feeling her still-bleeding neck.
"H-h-he bit me," Lucy studdered, looking at her hand. "He bit me."
"Who bit you?" Erza asked, frowning.
"The Demon Prince," Lucy whispered. All of a sudden a coughing fit wracked her chest, black-red blood flying out of her mouth and splattering all over the floor. Erza's eyes widened at the sight but wrapped her arms around the Celestial Wizard Princess as she continued to cough up the red-black blood. This blood resembled Natsu's blood. It was demon blood.
"W-what's h-happening?" Lucy rasped as more and more blood flew out of her mouth.
"I-I think that your body is rejecting the demon transformation," Erza says, eyes wide.
"No, that's not it," a voice says.
"A-A-Alistor?" Lucy stuttered.
"Queen Layla asked me to protect Princess Lucy and I did," Alistor says. "My spell that I cast on you is pushing the demon blood out of you, turning you back into a human. It was your mother's last wish for you to he human, not a demon."
"B-but you're still here," Lucy stuttered. "That means that my mother's still alive, right?"
Alistor sighed, looking away from Lucy.
"Queen Layla gave me an order that I had to complete with her dead or alive," Alistor sighs. His body started to go transparent. Lucy's eyes widen when she saw that, tears and demon blood falling down her cheeks. Erza looked from the Celestial Spirit to the Celestial Wizard. She didn't know what was going on but Lucy did.
"Lucy -"
"NO!" Lucy screamed, getting to her feet and running to Alistor. She tried to wrap her arms around Alistor but her arms went straight through the Spirit's body. "SHE CAN'T BE GONE! TELL ME YOU ONLY BROKE YOUR CONTRACT WITH HER!"
Instantly Erza realised what was going on. Alistor's body was disappearing, heading back to the Celestial World. Rather Alistor and Queen Layla had broken their contract together or the Queen was no longer on this earth.
"Princess Lucy, Queen Layla had a message for you," Alistor says, his voice laced with sadness. "She said 'goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean I'll miss you until we meet again. Trust your friends, they will heal your heart and make you stronger.'"
Alistor's body disappeared, going back to the Celestial World, his contract broken with the death of the Celestial Wizard he was contracted with like Layla's other spirits. Lucy fell to her knees, uncontrollable tears falling down her pink cheeks and sobs wracking her chest. Tears welled at the corner of Erza's eyes as she watched Lucy cry for her mother and her father, not even knowing the fate of her father.
Erza stood up and re-quipped into her Flame Empress Armour, setting out to find a certain pink haired fire demon.
She found Natsu in the forest around Celestial, sitting in a tree and playing a haunting tune with a flute. The tune was laced with Natsu's emotions, anger, sadness and something that sounded like regret, something that Natsu was not familiar with. Ever since he met the princess of Fairy Tail he had been feeling different things. Not a moment ago he had been an emotionless demon he was famous for but when he saw a woman with red hair he had thought about Erza which instantly got his emotions to come back.
"Natsu," Erza's voice speaks over the haunting tune, causing Natsu to look towards her. He instantly stopped playing the flute and looked away from her, a faint fire dancing in his pupils.
"What do you want?" he whispered. Erza stepped closer to the tree, not breaking her gaze at the salmon haired demon.
"Have you got no mercy whatsoever?" Erza demanded. "To attack this Kingdom, kill their Queen and leave their daughter heartbroken?"
"The blonde haired princess? She's a demon now, she won't have any feelings in the time being," Natsu muttered.
"That's were you're wrong," Erza says. Natsu looked over at her in confusion as she went on, "her mother sent a Celestial Spirit to protect her. She's not a demon Natsu. She's a regular human girl."
Natsu sighed with relief, hinting Erza to the fact that he felt regret towards biting the girl. Natsu stroked the wood of the flute. The top was shaped like a skull with three eyes, two where the eyes usually were and one on its forehead.
"This is Lullaby," Natsu says. "It's a demon, like me. Its curse is that if someone plays it death would only come. My brother and I are the only ones who can play it without killing anyone."
"You're telling me this why?"
"Because I can play it to give you some beautiful music to listen to but I can also play it to kill you." Natsu jumped out of the tree and landed in front of Erza as graceful as a cat. "But I don't want to."
"You're telling me that you don't mind killing nearly everyone in a Kingdom, biting a girl and almost leaving her a demon but you don't want to play an instrument to kill one person?" Erza questioned. "Why?"
Natsu didn't answer, instead changed the subject.
"Did you know that Lullaby and another demon named Deliora are my brother's very first creations but aren't like the other Etherious?" Natsu asked, looking up at Erza with his onyx eyes. "Even though they're his first creations they are the weakest of us. Do you know what else is weird? I'm his last creation and I'm the strongest of us. How ironic."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lullaby asks, sounding annoyed.
"It just means that Zeref-Nii had trouble creating demons at first but got better and better the more he made," Natsu says. "Lullaby was his first creation and Deliora was his second and Deliora is stronger than Lullaby -"
"That ugly faced bastard beast is not stronger than me!" Lullaby protested. Natsu sighed.
"And the thing is they hate each other," Natsu states. He closes his eyes and looks up to the sky as if he could find answers up there. "Out of all the Etherious Lullaby has been with me the most. Deliora only wants to destroy kingdoms with me but ends up destroying kingdoms with Acknowledger instead; Mard Geer only wants to please me and not be friends with me; Jackal is loyal to me but refuses to be my dog; Sayla and Kyôka only want to have a threesome with me; and don't get me started on the others."
"You're making it sound like you're lonely," Erza states sadly.
"Really, the only friends that I have are Igneel, who is more a father to me, and Happy, who's more like a son to me." Natsu laughed at nothing in particular before looking over at Erza. "You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this, aren't you? The reason is because I want you to understand."
Natsu walked towards Erza and took her hand, caressing her knuckles with his thumb.
"I may not seem like it and my reputation may say otherwise but I have emotions Erza," Natsu sighs. "Unlike the other Etherious who were made from pure ether and nothing else I had once been human and died as a young child. I don't remember my passed life but Zeref-Nii said I was killed by dragon embers along with my parents. But Zeref-Nii ressurected me as an Etherious, meaning that I'm half human. Most Etherious don't look human even though they're not in their Etherious form except for me, and me being a ressurected Etherious is the reason for that."
"Natsu?"
"The truth is for four hundred years I've acted cold and cruel with this firey attitude to hide my loneliness at being too human than demon," Natsu sighed. "I've been like that for four hundred years until I met you. The truth is you make me feel human. You were the first one to not look at me in fear. And that gave me a new feeling."
"What feeling?"
"This."
Natsu leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. It wasn't a passionate kiss like the one on the battle field in Fairy Tail but a sweet, gentle kiss that every first kiss is like. Natsu's hands tangling in her hair, Erza's hands gently gripping his face as she kissed back with the same gentleness, this is the kind of kiss that would cause anyone's heart to melt.
"They liiiiiiike each other."
Erza and Natsu pulled apart and Natsu grabbed the floating flute that had been watching them and threw it into a tree.
"Shut the hell up Lullaby! I've should have never let you hang out with Happy!"
Omake 1
The Dragneels meet Acnologia
Summary: Zeref loses a newly revived Natsu and sets out to find him and meets Acnologia in the process. Using Acnologia's Dragon Slayer nose like a blood hound they try and find Natsu.
Great, just great. Zeref only took his eyes off of his little brother for five seconds and Natsu disappeared from his sight. Natsu had only been revived for five minutes and now he was gone.
Zeref had taken his eyes off of Natsu to scold Lullaby (who was in his giant form) and Deliora, who had been fighting yet again, only to turn back to the regeneration pod to find it empty. Let's just say more people died than usual that day when Zeref panicked.
"Jackal! Mard Geer! Sayla! Kyôka!" Zeref yelled, said demons running into the room straight away at Zeref's panicked voice. "I need you all to try and find Natsu!"
"Yes sir!" they all saluted before running out of the basement of the place they were staying in at the moment.
"What about us Lord Zeref?" Lullaby and Deliora asked, their hands wrapped around each other's necks. Zeref sighed and held his hands out towards the demons, a black magic circle appearing. Deliora and Lullaby both shrunk and changed shaped, two books clattering to the floor. Zeref picked the books up and stuck them into a bookshelf which was his version of the 'Naughty Corner'.
"You two can do nothing, I don't trust you not to get into a fight over who found Natsu first and cause him to wander off again," Zeref sighed.
He left to go find Natsu too.
It had almost been five hours since Natsu wandered off on his own. It had been twenty one years since Natsu had died and the landscape had changed a lot since then. Zeref didn't even know if Natsu remembered his past life.
"Natsu!" Zeref called and stopped. What if Natsu heard him but didn't know that Zeref was calling him? Zeref had only said Natsu's name to him once and Natsu had still been in a drowsy state. Zeref thought he hadn't panicked so much in his life!
Of course he wasn't worried about someone finding Natsu and trying to kill him - they would be the ones to die, not Natsu - but he was worried that someone else would find him and decide to take him for themselves and Zeref would never see him again. He would not feel sorry for killing that person if that was the case.
"Natsu!" Zeref called again for good measure. He stopped when he heard a groan come from the riverbank he was walking along.
Zeref, hoping it was Natsu, practically ran over there, only to be disappointed. It wasn't Natsu but a man a little older than Zeref a blue-black mane and hard eyes. Empty beer bottles surround him. Zeref guessed he had a huge night and was now paying for it.
"Would you shut up, I'm trying to sleep," the man groaned, rolling over onto his stomach and looking up at Zeref. "Who's this Natsu anyway? Surely it ain't me."
"My little brother," Zeref says, turning away from the hang-over suffering man. "He wondered off five hours ago and I can't find him."
"Five hours ago? I don't think he's alive," hang-over man says with a groan.
"No, he can't die. He's a demon," Zeref tells him.
"And I'm a dragon," hangover guy says, getting to his feet and stumbling over slightly.
"No, he's really a demon." Zeref was beginning to get annoyed at this guy.
"No, I'm really a dragon," hangover guy says, yawning.
"Who are you?" Zeref asks.
"The name's Acnologia," the man says, rubbing his temples. "Who are you?"
"Zeref," Zeref answers. "Wait - are you that Dragon Slayer guy who can turn into a dragon?"
"That's me," Acnologia groans. "Wait - are you that Black Wizard who's cursed and is immortal and gave birth to tens of thousands of demons?"
"That's me and I've only made eight - well, nine now - demons and I didn't 'give birth' to them. I'm a man for gods sake." Zeref suddenly had an idea. "Hold on, don't you Dragon Slayers have a strong sense of smell?"
"Yeah, so?"
Zeref pulled a white, scaly scarf out of his robes and held it out to Acnologia who took it in confusion.
"This is Natsu's scarf. He treasured it more than himself. Use that to get his scent and help me find him."
"What am I, a blood hound?"
"I'll do anything you ask me to do if you find him," Zeref smirks.
Acnologia took a long sniff of the scarf and started sniffing the air. "That way," he says, pointing in the distance and walking up the riverbank. Acnologia walked up to a tree with a giant hole in it where Natsu was asleep, curled up. Zeref smiled warmly and pulled him out of the tree gently, waking Natsu instantly.
"Eh?" Natsu mumbled, rubbing his eyes and looking up at Zeref. "Zewef Dwagkneel or whatever your name was?"
"Close, Zeref Dragneel and you can just call me Zeref-Nii," Zeref laughed. He turned and realised Acnologia was staring hard at Natsu.
"Who're you?" Natsu yawned.
"He's so cute!" Acnologia gushed and winced at his hangover. "Urg, my names Acnologia."
"Ach-Ak-noll-"
"Acnologia."
"Acno-lodger?"
"Acnologia."
"Apollogia."
"Acnologia. Where did you get 'Apollogia' from?"
"Ack-noll-luigi-ah."
"Acnologia."
"Acknowledger?"
"IT'S ACNOLOGIA YOU BRAT!"
"Acnologia," Zeref says darkly, a dark aura forming around him. "Don't ever let me hear you talk to Natsu that way ever again."
Acnologia sweat dropped at Zeref's deadly glare.
"A-aye."
Natsu giggled at Acnologia's expression towards the black wizard.
"Acknowledger is a fraidy cat!"
Acnologia really didn't like this kid.
