Sorry about the story Pantherlily tells in this. Couldn't be creative enough to think up a good story. Anyway enjoy the chapter, probably be the last this year, haven't decided yet
Frwt: no, Jellal won't be in this story. I can't fit him into this story that would actually make sense. But if he does appear it'll be a cameo
"Good job with destroying the Celestial Kingdom," Zeref praises from his throne, the Spriggan Twelve standing beside him, six on each side. Gajeel, Pantherlily, Natsu and Acnologia stood in front of him, Gajeel's clothes torn from his fight with Pantherlily. The exceeds had gone back to their rightful Dragon Slayers, except for Happy, who was sitting on Zeref's lap and chewing a raw blue fish, and Ailas, who was sitting on Zeref's shoulder. It seemed that Zeref, despite being the vilast wizard to have ever walked the earth, has a soft spot for cats.
"Gihihi, it was nothing really," Gajeel laughed. Acnologia and Natsu groaned at Gajeel's laugh. "I even got me-self a cat."
"He's a Fairy Tail's magic warfare unit captain," Zeref says with narrowed eyes at Pantherlily. "How're you sure that he's not here as a spy."
"Are you doubting my cat-finding skills?" Gajeel demanded, hugging Pantherlily to him protectively much to Pantherlily's despair. "Lily won't ever betray me! Won't you Lily?"
"Lily?" Zeref and Pantherlily questioned.
"Well, Pantherlily is too much of a handful," Gajeel says sheepishly.
"Emperor Spriggan," Pantherlily says, turning to the Black Wizard. "If it's to prove that I'm loyal to you now I'll tell you something I've never told anyone. I used to be loyal to Queen Shagotte of Extalia, the homeland of the exceed race where I was one of her right hand men. Than I was challenged by King Makarov to a fight, which I excepted. King Makarov beat me in the fight so I became loyal to him. And then Gajeel challenged me to a fight and I excepted and as you already know he beat me and now I'm loyal to him."
"So what you're saying is you have no true loyalties anywhere except for people who beat you in a fight?" Zeref asked. Pantherlily nodded in agreement.
"Does that mean if I challange you to a fight and I win you'll become loyal to me?" Natsu asked in interest. Gajeel crushed Pantherlily to his chest again and growled at Natsu.
"Stay away from my cat Salamander! You already have one!"
"No one will replace Happy! I just said that to stir you up Tin Head!"
"Would you two stop fighting!" Acnologia shouted. The Fire and Iron Dragon Slayers turned to the Chaos Dragon Slayer and gave him a Fire Dragon: Iron Fist and Iron Dragon: Hard Fist to each of his cheeks, sending him crashing into the roof, dust and debris flying down as the Fire and Iron Dragon Slayers continued to argue.
A vein throbbed in Zeref's temple as he brushed dirt and bits of debris off his toga before shouting at the top of his lungs, "NATSU AND GAJEEL, WOULD YOU TWO STOP FIGHTING FOR ONCE!"
Natsu and Gajeel froze mid punch and turned around slowly to face the emperor, sweat dropping, their eyes wide in fear and their faces going pale. "A-aye."
"I'm sorry if I startled you Happy," Zeref says gently to the blue feline on his lap, scratching Happy behind the ear which made Happy appear to be a real cat as he leaned in to it. Wait, was Happy purring? "Pantherlily, would you like to become one of the Spriggan Twelve?"
"I'll be delighted to," Pantherlily says, bowing slightly. Gajeel's mouth dropped open.
"Good," Zeref turned to a dark skinned man standing to his left. "Ajeel, show Pantherlily around the palace."
"Yes your highness," Ajeel bows. He leads the small panther-like exceed out of the throne room, his voice echoing, "a cat in the Spriggan Twelve? Sweet!"
"You do realise it's now the Spriggan Thirteen!" Natsu yelled at him, his voice echoing the word 'thirteen' off the walls. "Shit, does that mean I need a new member of my Natsu Twelve? Goddammit!"
"What the hell is your Natsu Twelve?" Acnologia asked. This was the first time he had heard of it. Natsu turned to the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse.
"Mard Geer, Jackal, Kyôka, Sayla, Tempester, Franmalth, Lamy - don't know why I made her one though - Sting, Rogue, Wendy, Gajeel and Happy."
"Why wasn't I aware you had your own shield?" Acnologia demanded.
"They're not legit, Natsu made them because he wanted a group like me," Zeref says. "They're pointless. They're just Tartoras - they'll do anything for Natsu because he's the guild master - and the Flying Dragon Squad - except for you of course - and Happy is Natsu's best friend. If you want someone to be your thirteenth why don't you make it Igneel, Natsu?"
"That's a great idea!" Natsu shouted, turning around and jumping out of the window. A vein throbbed in Invel's temple.
"Use a door like a regular person!"
"Invel, telling the young prince to use the door like a regular person is like telling Acnologia to give up his beer," Brandish sighs.
"I'll never give up my beer!"
"That's my point."
Natsu had originally gone to Dragon Valley where the dragons were kept to stop them from destroying the palace when Igneel and Metalicana got into one of their many fights like Natsu and Gajeel did. You know what they say, like father like son. Or in this case like dragon like dragon slayer. The only dragons that were in Dragon Valley were Natsu's dragon Igneel, Gajeel's dragon Metalicana, Wendy's dragon Grandine and Sting and Rogue's dragons Weisslogia and Skiadrum. Natsu admited that he wanted to put Acnologia there every now and then when the dragon in human form annoyed him. Which was every day.
Now Natsu had a new plan that went far from his Natsu Twelve. He decided that he wanted to see Erza again. He admitted his feelings to her so why not see her? He couldn't exactly go and see her at Fairy Tail. They needed a place to see each other in secret. And he knew a good place that was close to Fairy Tail and Natsu could get there in a short amount of time. First he only needed to tell Erza about that place.
Natsu couldn't get Igneel to go there because Fairy Tail would panic when a giant dragon landed in their courtyard, and he couldn't exactly send Happy because he didn't want to risk Happy being discovered and inprisoned. No, he needed someone small enough and someone who couldn't be seen that Natsu trusted. And he had the very person. Or thing, or whatever it was.
Natsu loosened his scarf and pulled it off and pulled off the dark green and red pendant that was attached to his neck. He put the scarf back on and threw the pendant into the air, holding his palm up towards it and formed a magic circle. The pendant transformed into a small creature that looked like a small dragon standing on its hind legs with dark green scales, a red underbelly, small yellow dragon wings on its back and blunt baby horns on its head. It was the only demon that Natsu made when he tried to make demons better than his brother's but ended up making a baby dragon. Instead of being turned into a book like Zeref's demons, Natsu's demon turned into a pendant.
"Rier, can I trust you with a message?" Natsu asked, kneeling in front of the dragon-like demon.
"It depends on what kind of message it is," Rier says. "I'm not giving someone a kiss."
"I'm not going to get you to kiss someone, sheesh," Natsu rolled his eyes. "I just need you to give someone a piece of paper, that's all."
"A piece of paper is all?" Rier asked. "What a bore."
"Would you stop rhyming!" Natsu snapped. What did he do wrong in Rier's creation to make the demon talk in rhymes? That was even more annoying than Gajeel's and Metalicana's laugh. Yes, Metalica had the 'gihihi' laugh. Where do you think Gajeel got it from?
"Where is the message going master?" Rier asked. "Rier can get there faster."
And he talked in third person like Mard Geer did. Natsu didn't create Mard Geer but he wrote the third person thing in his book as a joke but soon regretted it when he created Rier and figured that his first and only creation talked in third person.
"Fairy Tail," Natsu whispered, pulling a piece of parchment out of his pocket that he swiped from Gajeel when he wasn't looking to see what he was writing, which turned out to be song lyrics about someone named Levy. He scribbled some words on the parchment and rolled it up tight and gave it to Rier who crushed it under his claws when he took it. Stupid demon could only destroy things. "Give it to Princess Erza Scarlet. And if you tell anyone about this I'll rip your spine out of your ass, make Lamy regenerate you in the regeneration lab and then pull your brains out of your nose."
"Aye!" Rier says, saluting and flapping his wings, becoming airborne. "Watch as Rier disappears in the blink of an eye!"
Rier flapped his wings once and disappearing. The one good thing that Natsu did with creating Rier was that he gave him a curse too after he discovered the use of them. Rier's curse was to turn invisible and he used it to his advantage most of the time. Once Rier had gotten out of control with his pranks and Zeref had demanded that Natsu keep him in pendant form and only turn him back to normal when necessary. Of course Natsu had protested - Rier was only having fun, Natsu had insisted - but when Rier had banned together with the other Etherious to prank Zeref and Natsu, Natsu had not hesitated to turn him into a pendant and the other Etherious had spent some time in their book form for a century and a half.
Natsu went to Dragon Valley to do what he originally was going to do.
Erza sat on her bed in her room back at the Fairy Tail palace in her Heart Kreuz Armour, eating a strawberry cake as she watched a program on the TV lacrima in her room when all of a sudden a green and red blur shot into her room, crashing into her strawberry cake and causing her to shriek in surprise.
"Mmm, Strawberry," a demonic voice chuckled, emerging from the pile of parchment it had gotten tangled in with cake on its face. It looked like a baby dragon with a roll of parchment in its claws.
"What are you doing here?" Erza demanded, re-quipping a sword and pointing it at the baby dragon creature threateningly.
"Are you Princess Erza Scarlet?" the baby dragon creature asked, eyeing the sword wearily.
"What's your business with me?"
"I have a message from my creater," the baby dragon says, flying towards Erza and held out its claws with the parchment in it. Erza sent the sword back to the realm she kept her armour and weapons in and hesitantly took the parchment and unrolled it.
Erza,
Come to Demon Forest west of Magnolia tonight at midnight. Make sure you're alone and bring Rier with you. With him the demons of the forest won't attack you, even if they do attack you I know you'll be able to take them but it saves you from using Magic Enegy.
P.S. don't let your guard down in front of Rier. He's a master prankster
P.P.S. Re-quip into something that people won't recognise you. I'll do the same.
P.P.P.S. make a new name for yourself. I'm doing that too.
~Natsu
A meeting with Natsu at midnight? Didn't that sound romantic! Even the secret messenger and the secret message was romantic, even though Natsu hadn't spelt 'energy' right. Did Zeref not teach his demons to read and write?
"You have to stay with me until then, don't you?" Erza asked Rier.
"Don't you worry Mistress!" Rier says, holding it's clawed hand up in the air. "Rier can turn invisible! So don't stress!"
Why was the baby dragon talking in rhymes? Did Zeref give all his demons strange quirks? Never mind that Erza had to search through all her armour to find one she thought was fitting for her meeting with Natsu.
