Natsu sat on Acnologia's back, Happy in his lap and Wendy and Carla beside him, Sting, Lector, Rogue and Frosch behind him and Gajeel, Pantherlily and Ailas arguing somewhere in the distance. Natsu was beginning to get annoyed at Gajeel and the two exceeds and was about to lash out at them if they didn't stop.

Why was Natsu and the other Dragon Slayers going out with the exceeds you ask? Well ...


"Natsu, did you get that horrible demon out of here?" Zeref demanded.

"Yes Zeref-Nii, the demon is gone," Natsu sighed, pulling a dead guard that hadn't escaped the castle in time when Zeref's contradiction curse went off.

"Good," Zeref sighs, turning away from the poor, unfortunate dead guard. "I got word from our spy in Fairy Tail -"

"There's a spy in Fairy Tail?" Natsu interrupted, dropping the dead guard disgracefully.

"Yes, there is a spy in Fairy Tail," Zeref sighed, rubbing his temples. "Anyway, they said that King Makarov had sent them to go get a crystal called the Tenrou Jade from an island called Tenrou Island."

"Yeah, so?" Natsu asked, grabbing hold of the dead guard's legs again.

"If they retrieve this jade and crush it onto a blade, that would be able to kill any demon, including you."

Natsu dropped the dead guard again in shock.

"They're trying to kill me?" Natsu asked.

"It seems so yes," Zeref sighed. "The spy said that Princess Erza Scarlet was given the task of killing you because she had faced you once before and survived."

Natsu looked away from his brother, instead focusing on the dead guard (not a good sight but it was better than looking at his brother). Erza was ordered to kill him? He knew that Erza wouldn't do it, not after what they had done together, but if it was to prove herself to her father than Natsu would allow her to kill him. What a better way to die, the face of your love being the only thing you see as you die.

"However I won't let you die again so I'm sending the Flying Dragon Squad to get to Tenrou Island and collect the Tenrou Jade before they do," Zeref says, beginning to walk away. "And if you come in contact with the fairies, deal with them."


"Hey Natsu, are you OK?" Happy asks, noting the far away look on Natsu's face. Natsu jolted out of his thoughts and smiled sadly down at his blue exceed friend.

"I'm fine, just thinking," he admits. It was supposed to be a harmless thing - everyone gets lost in their own thoughts sometimes - so Natsu wasn't expecting the harsh event.

"Natsu's thinking!" Happy yelled in mock horror, summoning his wings and flying into the air, grabbing his face. "The E.N.D. is coming!"

"Gihihi, it's not my E.N.D. that's coming cat," Gajeel snickers.

"Hehe, the world is coming to an E.N.D.," Acnologia laughs.

"Tom cat, Gajeel and Acnologia, stop this worthless chatter," Carla says with her arms crossed.

"Carla, the world is E.N.D.-ing!" Happy sniggers behind a paw. "Have some fish! Please!"

"Tom Cat, I told you before, I'm not interested in fish."

"Carla still won't except my fish! When would this E.N.D?"

"Happy, enough with the E.N.D. jokes!" Natsu snapes.

"Pffft, Natsu is going to E.N.D. us all Rogue," Sting sniggers to his brother.

"Sting, enough, you're not funny," Rogue sighs.

"We're going to E.N.D!" Acnologia, Happy, Gajeel and Sting all announce dramatically.

In a surge of fire Natsu was in his Etherious form, his eyes red and snarling like an animal at the Dragon Slayers, who all begged their exceeds to fly them away, which their exceeds did, leaving Wendy and Carla, who Natsu wasn't angry at, and Acnologia, who couldn't go anywhere because Natsu, Wendy and Carla were on his back (Rogue and Frosch went with Sting and Lector).

"Natsu-San, are you alright?" Wendy asked. Natsu shifted back to his human form and sat down beside Wendy.

"I'm fine now that the jokes have E.N.D.-ed," Natsu grins, not being able to help himself and throw in an E.N.D. joke himself.

"I think we've made it to Tenrou Island," Wendy says, standing up. "Carla."

"Are you sure you want to do this Child?" Carla asked, summoning her wings. "You shouldn't be doing stuff like this."

"Carla, I chose to stay with Natsu-San," Wendy tells her. Carla sighs and flies Wendy towards the island. Natsu shifted into his Etherious form and flew to a random spot on the island.

"'Do you even know where we're going?' my mistress asks in annoyance."

"Lucy, if you can't be bothered to walk by yourself than don't come," Gray scoffs.

"'Gray, put some pants on,' my mistress demands angrily," Hologium says, walking behind them with Lucy inside him. Gray looked down and realised that he was only wearing his boxers. When the hell did he remove his pants?

"Damn, and I was told by a stupid clock!" Gray grunts in annoyance.

"Don't worry Gray-Sama, Juvia picked up your pants for you," Juvia says, holding out Gray's pants to him with hearts in her eyes. Gray, not questioning why Juvia had his pants, took them and put them on.

"We're here now, but where is this jade thing?" Gray asked.

"Try going deeper into the island," a all-too familiar voice says.

They all whirled around and Erza gasped when she saw Natsu sitting on a log, a blue cat sitting beside him with a fish in his paws. Gray narrowed his eyes at Natsu, trying to place where he had seen him before, before realisation got him.

"You're E.N.D!" he yells, getting into his stance to cast a spell.

"No I'm not," Natsu says, crossing his arms and glaring at Gray.

"You are! You look like him, minus the horns, wings and markings all over your body!" Gray shouts. "Ice Make: Floor!"

"Fire Dragon: Roar!"

Gray's and Natsu's attacks hit each other, Natsu's fire breath overpowering Gray's ice, causing steam to rise from where the ice had been a second ago. Natsu had a large grin on his face as he jumped off the log.

"I'm not a demon! I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer!" Natsu announced.

"No, you're a stupid Flame Brain idiot," Gray snaps.

"What did you just call me Ice Princess?"

"I'm a prince, ash for brains!"

"Ice stripper!"

"Flame breath bastard!"

"Perverted Popsicle!"

Natsu and Gray pushed their foreheads together and started throwing insults between each other, their magic threatening to explode out of them. Erza, who was trembling in silent rage, trudged up to them and punched them both on top their heads, sending them crashing into the ground with large, throbbing bumps on their heads.

"Would you two stop fighting!" Erza snapped. She knew that she had to pretend not to know Natsu so she asked, "pinky, tell me your name."

"My hair is salmon, not pink!" Natsu shouted, getting to his feet and rubbing his throbbing head. "My name is Natsu Dragn - Dragion."

Erza wasn't really surprised that Natsu had used that fake name he usually did when sending letters to Erza.

"I'm Erza Scarlet, this is my brother Gray Fullbuster," Erza smiles kindly at him.

Natsu raised his eyebrows at the Ice Make Wizard. "He's your brother? He doesn't even have the same last name as you and he looks nothing like you."

"Actually, Gray was adopted," Erza explained. "His real parents - King Silver and Queen Mika from the Ice Kingdom - were killed when a demon called Deliora attacked. Gray was the only one who survived, and he was found by my father and he took Gray in."

"Ice Kingdom?" Natsu asked, vaguely remembering when Deliora had a tantrum and went out on a destroying spree because Natsu refused to 'play' him once (honestly, Deliora's idea of 'play' was 'destroy'). "So you are an Ice Princess."

"I'm an Ice Prince you stupid Flame Brain!" Gray yelled, causing Erza to smash him in the head.

"Don't yell at Natsu Gray," Erza snapped. "Anyway, this is Lucy Heart - Ashley and this is Juvia Lockster."

"Hehe, you actually do look like that demon E.N.D.," Lucy laughs, looking hard at Natsu. Natsu felt an uneasy feeling towards her for some reason. "This is my Torture Technique thirty one: Studly Bomber!"

Lucy wrapped her legs around Natsu's back from the rear and stretched his arms upwards over his head, causing Natsu to cry out in pain. Lucy had a massive grin on her face as she tortured the boy, enjoying the pain on Natsu's face. Gray smirked at Natsu's discomfort.

"Erza-San, help me!" Natsu screamed, trying to throw Lucy off of him. Erza stepped forward to help him but Gray held her back.

"What are you doing Gray!" Erza snapped.

"Let Lucy have her fun," Gray says, biting back a laugh at Natsu's pained expression. "He does look like E.N.D. and he destroyed everything she loved, so let her do this."

Erza sighed and looked back to the two and realised Natsu was crying. She instantly knew that Natsu was pretending to cry - she remembered him saying that he wanted Natsu Dragion to look weak and pathetic, the complete opposite to himself - but despite that she trudged over to them and pulled Lucy off him.

"Lucy, stop bullying Natsu," Erza snapped. Lucy tched and crossed her arms, turning away with a slight blush coating her cheeks. Erza turned to Natsu and asked, "are you OK?"

"My arms are sore," Natsu grimaced, rubbing his aching arms. "Who exactly is she?"

"I'm Lucy Ashley, formerly known as Princess Lucy Heartfilia of Celestial, home of the Celestial Wizards." Lucy's face contorted in suspicion and she leaned in towards Natsu, hands on her hips. "What Kingdom are you from?"

"Alv ... yeah, Alv," Natsu quickly fixed his mistake, thinking about one of the kingdoms in alliance with Alvarez. Hopefully they wouldn't know about the kingdoms in alliances with Alvarez ...

"Wait, isn't that the one of the dark kingdoms in alliance with Alvarez?" Gray asked.

Shit.

"Well, I was a part of Alv but they banished me for being a traitor to them," Natsu lied. "I escaped before they changed their mind and decide to torture me before executing me."

"And what's with the exceed?" Lucy asked, remembering about Happy. Happy looked up from chewing on another fish and summoned his wings and flew up to her.

"I'm Happy! Natsu's friend!" he exclaimed, holding the fish towards Lucy. "Would you like a fish?"

"Ew, no!" Lucy snapped, causing Happy to cry. Happy flew into Natsu's arms, burrying himself in his vest.

"Natsu, Carla and now Lushie won't accept my fish!" Happy cried.

"Don't worry Happy, Lucy and Carla aren't special enough for your fish," Natsu soothed his feline buddy.

"Hey! Just who do you think you are!" Lucy shouts at Natsu, and to Happy she yelled, "don't call me 'Lushie' you stupid cat!"

"Don't yell at us!" Natsu and Happy cried, hiding behind Erza, trembling. The others didn't notice that Natsu was only pretending. Happy wasn't acting.

"Who knew that this Flame Brain was such a wimp," Gray laughed, petting Natsu's shoulder and causing him to flinch and burry his face in Erza's back. "No wonder Alv banished you!"

"Gray-Sama is so dreamy!" Juvia gushes, grabbing her reddened cheeks with heart-shaped eyes.

"A-are you trying to find the Tenrou Jade?" Natsu asked, looking at Gray from over Erza's shoulder.

"That's right, but we can't tell you why exactly," Gray says, beginning to walk away.

"Juvia and her friends are going to use it to kill E.N.D.," Juvia says, still staring at Gray.

"Juvia, why did you tell them?" Gray snapped.

"Oh no, Juvia upset her Gray-Sama!" Juvia cried, creating a flood. Everyone started screaming as they tried to get away from Juvia's flooding tears, Lucy summoning Hologium to hide in because he floated.

"Juvia, stop flooding the place!" Gray yelled.

Juvia instantly stopped crying at her Gray-Sama's request. Natsu, who had been saved by Happy, indicated to his friend to lower them to the ground.

"I know where the Jade is," Natsu says shyly. "It's in the heart of the island."

"Wait - how do you know this?" Gray asked.

"I went on a mission to collect the jade once and I found it, but I was somehow teleported away from there."

"Take us there Flame Brain!" Gray snapped.

"Don't use that tone with me Ice Prick!"

Erza grabbed Natsu's and Gray's ears and pulled them away from each other, causing them both to cry out in pain. She gestured to Natsu to lead them and he did. Erza wondered if Natsu was trying to deceive them or was actually leading them to the thing that could kill him.