Hey Guys,

Signed here. This chapter will start the ball rolling with what the bad guys are trying to do. We will also begin to see some more hints on what to expect between some of the other Fairy Tail characters.

As always, hope you enjoy!

- Singed.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

Lucy watched the next morning as Natsu swallowed his breakfast whole. He was in a good mood, but that was mostly because of how he'd been awoken. Lucy had decided that he needed a proper thank you and he'd been more than glad to accept. It was strange. Most women who were this pregnant probably felt unbelievably unattractive, but Natsu was so insistent in his attentions that Lucy felt almost more beautiful carrying his child than she had before.

Smiling gently at her mate, she stood and carried their plates to the sink. He'd caught the smile and followed her to the sink to hug her from behind. "I'm glad to see you so happy this morning, Luce."

"Hmmm," she answered, washing the last dish. "I am."

"Did it have anything to do with this morning's wake-up call," he asked kissing her ear.

"A little," she replied, drying her hands, "but it has more to do with the fact that I'm in love with you and that you go out of your way to make me feel special."

"Did I ever make you not feel special, Lucy?" He'd turned her around and gazed seriously into her eyes.

"At times. I mean, there was that time you disappeared for a year and left me behind." Natsu grimaced. Over the years, Lucy had finally given him the full extent of the hurt that one action had caused. He'd been mortified when he'd finally understood and had even cried into her shoulder, apologizing over and over again.

"I'm sorry, Lucy."

"Natsu, how many times do I have to tell you? I forgave you long ago. What I meant to say was that many women don't feel very attractive this pregnant. I'm just glad that you obviously find me attractive."

Natsu smiled and reached for her, bringing her closer to him. "Lucy, trust me, there would never be any time in my life that I would find you unattractive."

"Hmm," she replied again, and kissed his nose. He repaid by kissing her soundly when Happy came flying through the window.

"Natsu! Lucy! You have to get to the guild hall, quick!"

"Why, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Happy cried, but obviously excited. "Something has happened! A good something!"

Natsu ran at breakneck speed through the city of Magnolia, carrying Lucy. She screamed the entire way, protesting. She wanted to be put down but Natsu was far too excited to listen.

"No way! I want to know what's going on!" Lucy just sighed in annoyance and hoped that all this bouncing wasn't going to make her sick. When they arrived at the guildhall, it was crowded with all the members and towns people gawking. The most surprising addition to the crowd were reporters. They were used to seeing a few from the magazines that focused on wizards and sorcerers, but many appeared to be from actual newspapers.

"Let us through," Natsu yelled pushing in to see what everyone was staring at. Gajeel, Levy, and Gavey were all standing in the center of the circle. Gajeel was beaming, Levy was smiling but seemed a little shocked, and their son Gavey was doing dragon slayer magic.

"Natsu! Come over here and congratulate me!" Gajeel roared. Levy looked up as Lucy and Natsu approached. Levy stood and grabbed her friend's hand leading her to a slightly calmer table as Natsu watched in fascination as Gavey did a small version of iron dragon fist.

"Levy, what happened?"

"I'm not sure Lucy," she sighed. "I mean, I know that magic can be passed through bloodlines, obviously. But, I thought dragon slayer magic had to be learned from an actual dragon or gained through a special lacrima, not passed down. Gajeel even said as much when I first became pregnant. Yet, last night Gavey watched his father train like usual and started copying his moves. It was cute, that is until his arm actually extended slightly and turned into iron. Gajeel nearly fainted, he was so happy."

Lucy listened with shock and nodded. She had asked Natsu once if his magic could be passed down and he'd said something similar. In all honesty, dragon slayer magic being hereditary didn't really make sense. "Yeah, I mean look at Erza. If anyone should have had dragon slayer magic it should have been her." Levy nodded as Natsu rushed over.

"Lucy! Do you see that! If Gajeel's kid can do that, then ours will be freaking awesome!" Lucy just smiled and shook her head.

"Natsu, there is no guarantee that our child will be a dragon slayer. It could be a celestial mage." Lucy was a bit miffed. Celestial spirit magic was hereditary and so she'd secretly been happy to hear that if her children did inherit magic, it would be her kind.

"Oh sure, you can have one too, but I want at least five of mine," he raced off as Gavey called to his uncle Natsu. Lucy paled at the idea of having five more children. While she wasn't against having a large family, at least in theory, five more pregnancies was a no go.

"Hey, you got lucky," Levy said, sighing. "When Gav did that little trick last night, Gajeel immediately started planning for an entire platoon." Lucy laughed as Wendy was brought forward by Erza. Levy explained that Wendy was going to use some of her magic to determine why on Earth this had become an inheritance magic.

The day was spent with Wendy and Levy interviewing all the dragon slayers and then Wendy preforming some kind of scanning magic. Lucy was helping Mira with feeding all the extra mouths. Sting and Rogue had showed up with the news and even Eric decided to be social, although he still hardly spoke to anyone but Kinana. Lucy was exhausted by the end of the day. So she sat as she watched Natsu converse with all the other dragon slayers as they waited for Levy and Wendy to come to their conclusions. Even Laxus was there, although he barely said anything.

Mira laughed as the dragon slayers fidgeted. "It's all so adorable."

"What is Mira?"

"Well, Gajeel and Natsu have their mates, and Eric and Kinana are obviously going to be getting together soon. He just has to pop the question, silly man. But with this new development, if it isn't a fluke, will definitely cause the remaining dragon slayers to increase their searches." Lucy could see Mira's point. The idea of passing on their powers to the next generation was attractive and she realized that this was probably going to be another contest amongst them.

Once again Lucy noticed Mira's stare directed to Laxus's back, but she hid it well as Kinana came in to take her shift. Eric perked up when she arrived and walked over. Suddenly, Juvia came walking in looking haunted.

"Juvia! What's wrong!" Juvia had climbed onto a stool next to Lucy and rain started to fall.

"Gray's going to kill me."

"What? Why?"

Juvia looked up at Lucy and then glanced around her to make sure that no one else was listening. Then, leaning over she began to whisper. "I ran into Wendy this morning, before all this started. I asked her how my test results were and she informed me that I am indeed … pregnant."

"Ahhh!" Lucy squealed in delight. Natsu and all the other dragon slayers, everyone actually, turned to look at her. Lucy blushed in embarrassment as Natsu shot her a smile before everyone turned back to their conversations.

"Lucy," Juvia seethed, "this isn't something to be happy about. I've been so careful with the magic charms and the potions. Then, the one time the charm fell off and I didn't notice…" Juvia closed her eyes in shame and hit her head on the counter. Lucy, on instinct, turned to see Gray watching them with concern. He could tell something was bothering Juvia and he stood from his table and excused himself from his conversation with Max.

"You'll have to tell him sometime, Juvia." Lucy said.

"But when? And how?! He'll be so angry. He won't love me anymore."

"Who won't?" Gray asked, being close enough to over hear the last part.

"Gray!" Juvia said, standing, obviously flustered.

"Juvia, what's going on?" Juvia began to fidget. Gray's eyes darkened and he stepped closer. "Seriously Juvia, talk to me. You've been acting weird all day."

"Gray, I…" They were interrupted by a loud yelled of excitement from the dragon slayers. Natsu raced over and grabbed Lucy off her stool, swinging her around and then hugging her fiercely.

"Wendy says it's genetic now! We have no idea why this is but even those with dragon slaying lacrimas will be able to pass down their powers. This means that any child we have has a seventy-five percent chance of being a dragon slayer."

Lucy laughed with him and she shook her head. "Did you understand any of that?" She asked knowing that he was probably parroting what he'd just heard.

"The important part, like that fact that our baby could be a fire dragon slayer!" Lucy paled a little, but she'd put up with Natsu for years without death. What was one more?

"Hey that's exciting man," Gray said, by way of congratulating him. "I guess when Juvia and I finally start having some then we'll have to train him or her up fast to compete with yours. After all, they'll be a few years behind."

Natsu looked confused at Gray and then at Juvia. He stepped forward and took a long sniff and sneezed. Gray looked horrified and Lucy began to realize Natsu's confusion. He knew Juvia was pregnant. "Why?" He finally asked. "Does she carry her children longer than nine months?"

"What?" Gray asked flabbergasted. Juvia almost fainted and Gray had to catch her.

Lucy took Natsu's arm and whispered, "He doesn't know yet."

"Why not?"

"She just found out today and hasn't had a chance to tell him."

"Oooohhh," Natsu said turning to a now very confused and very concerned Gray. "Well, hey man, talk to you later." Natsu grabbed Lucy and began to drag her out of the guild hall.

"What! Natsu, get back here! You almost killed my wife! I'm going to kill you!" Natsu ignored him until he was sucker punched from the back. They hadn't really had a good brawl in a long time so Lucy allowed it to continue as she took a seat by the bar to watch. As Lucy grew bored with the fight, she started people watching. She noticed that Kinana and Eric were speaking together rather secretly while Laxus and Mira were pretending to not notice each other.

Finally, the sound of the fight died and Natsu marched forward to collect her. He was bruised and had a bloody nose, but that was about it. He actually seemed happy even with all the wounds and Lucy allowed him to lead her from the guild.

"Okay Luce," Natsu said as soon as they were clear. "I'd say six months is old enough to start training, right?"

"Natsu! You are not going to train our child at such a young age! Most children don't start showing their magical powers until their two anyway. That's why none of us knew until now that Gavey was an iron dragon slayer."

"Sure sure, I know that. But you know, if I start to train them at six months they'll at least know that right movements before they can actually do them." Lucy sighed and allowed Natsu to make his plans. He was honestly at his cutest when he was like this.

Number One sat back after reading his report to his underlings and let it all sink in.

"This turn of events couldn't have been better," Number Two said, proud of his success.

"Yeah. After the master screwed up so enormously for us, it's a dream come true that your biological manipulation magic would work and the dragon slayers would begin reproducing themselves." Number Three replied.

"True, our original plan to use the dragon slayer's mates to control them was perhaps a little to stretched. However, if we can steal the children at a young enough age and raise them to be our puppets then we'll have an army of dragon slayers soon enough." Number Two confirmed.

"Don't get to hasty," Number One rebuked, "we need more data. I have a feeling that this unique magic will cause us some issues. For instance, according to Number Five," a collective sneer for Julius's beat down a few days previous was made by the other members, "Levy had to breast feed. Gavey refused to take a bottle and she even tried to get a wet nurse when she wanted to go back on the field, to no avail. I think that the young dragon slayers are completely dependent on their mothers until they are weened. Perhaps the magic alters the milk somehow. I think, when we kidnap the children, we'll have to take the mothers with them."

"But, that's suicide! The dragon slayers will come in force! We've just taken their mates and their children!" Number Six exclaimed jumping up.

"Relax. There is still plenty of time to deal with them. Besides, now that the dragon slayers know, they'll be hunting their mates with new vigor. Let's wait until Levy has given birth and hope that a few new dragon slayers have claimed their mates by then." Number One soothed.

"That doesn't mean they'll reproduce on our timeline." Number Six defended.

"Well," Number Four said to gain their attention, "we can always help that along." She held up a bottle and the five dark members smiled. A new plan was forming.