Chapter 14: Despair that Transcends Even Time

"What do you mean the future?! How would you know that?!" Lucy freaked out.

"Ice make: Shield!" Gray set up a shield to protect them from the attacks of the cult group. "Let's ask questions later, and fight back!"

"Right! Open gate of the Bull, Taurus!" Lucy summoned her celestial spirit.

"Mooo! My most precious boobs are in trouble again?!" Taurus claimed as he swung his axe around at his enemies.

'Why is this happening?' Natsu thought as he punched out some cultists. 'I know I'm not imagining things. These are the same type of people from the assault against Zeref. Are they capable of time travel? Or were they always here in this time?'

They were never really strong. They just had numbers, thats all. Back in his time, the entire Fairytail guild, along with Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale, as well as all the other guilds, led an assault team against an army of Zeref Worshippers. There were so many of them, even the really strong guilds got tired after a while. Eventually Fairytail was given an opening to charge into the Tower of Din-where they heard Zeref had been in hiding. Why an army was here, no one knew.

Leading the giant army of Zeref Worshippers were several leaders who were, by far, not weak. Their names, were Jelian, Mesdalo, and Diratul. Diratul, was a completely deranged psychopath, its no wonder he followed Zeref: all he loved to see was destruction and hell. It had been up to Natsu to defeat the lunatic. The only reason he was able to kill him was because he was given a chance to attack him while he fought with Gajeel and Wendy. With a sudden surge of power, Diratul had been burned to ashes. That's what he believed anyway...

-Flashback, eight years in the future (Author laughs, Ironic isn't it?)-

The tower was falling apart from the guilds' battle against the army that called itself the Zerefian Army. Huh, how quaint.

In front of Natsu was Diratul, the maniac. He possessed great power, that he could tell by being in his even muttering a word, Diratul rushed at Natsu with his fists ready to strike. His right fist made contact with Natsu's arm which he raised in quick defense. 'My arm, its burning?!'He thought as a searing pain shot through his right arm. Natsu jumped to a safe distance back to observe his arm.

There was no change. Nothing. His arm looked as if it had never been hit.

"What the hell?" Natsu cursed. "What kind of magic do you use?"

"Hahahah! Beautiful isn't it? It's called, Collapsing Magic!" Diratul spoke proudly. "In other words, my magic causes anything I chhose to fall apart with every touch I make!"

"That, will be tough to deal with." Natsu ignoring the pain, got into a fighting stance whilst engulfing his fists with flames. "But even so, for Fairy Tail's victory, I will fight!"

The battle was long. With every passing second, Natsu could feel his body slowly stopping and resisting his control. At one point he couldnt move, and fell to the floor, Diratul laughing in his face.

"Hahaha! That's it then?! That's too bad, I wanted to play with you a little more!" He got close to Natsu and pressed down on his head with his shoe. "Now, how about we end this? Collapsing Magic: Diminish!" He said with his right fist having a yellow aura surrounding it.

"Iron dragon's Demon Poles!" Said a familiar voice as multiple spears of metal were fired at Diratul, causing him to stop his attack and evade the spell.

"Natsu-san! Are you ok?" Said Wendy running towards Natsu while Gajeel stood between them and Diratul. Wendy quickly began using her healing magic on Natsu. "Your body is really hurt but i can fix you up!" She told him reassuringly.

"Arigatou, Wendy." Said a weak Natsu.

"Now you've gone and done it. You just had to interfere didn't you?" Diratul commented with a bored face.

"Sorry, it's a bad habit." Gajeel said grinning, ready for a fight.

"Then get ready for some delicious pain!" He charged towards Gajeel as he prepared his spell. "Collapsing magic: Break!" He missed and hit the spot where Gajeel was standing. The area where he made contact was left with a wide gaping hole.

"Watch out Gajeel! His magic makes your body weaken if it hits!" Natsu warned him.

"Figures." The iron dragonslayer said. "Iron Dragon's Sword!"

"Break!" Diratul put an arm up to block the chainsaw like blade. Gajeel made a sound in surprise at seeing his iron extension fall to pieces. He saw a strange glow traveling up his arm and immediately discarded it and regrew it to prevent damage.

"Tsk, that's some pretty annoying magic you got there." He said with scowl.

"Why thank you, I'm quite proud to have this magic so that i could watch people like you suffer." Diratul grinned darkly.

Wendy's hands stopped emanating a green glow, he supposed there was nothing more she could do. "There, you're all fixed up Natsu-san." She said with a genuine smile on her face.

"You're the best Wendy!" He flexed his arm as he could once more use it correctly. An orange mark that had been left on his forearm, due to Diratul's Collapsing magic, had now been completely erased.

"I-it's nothing N-Natsu." The young dragonslayer said as she blushed.

"Alright, even Gajeel won't be able to handle this guy on his own. So, how about we go help him out? Whaddya say Wendy?" A grin spread out throughout his face as he spoke. Wendy's own cute smile broke out, "Hai! I'll give it my best!" Whenever she was around him, something would change. She felt...complete, as if he filled a hole within the soul. And she didnt mind it, she loved it.

"Heh! That's what i wanted to hear! Alright, HERE WE GO!" And they both charged at Diratul, aiming for victory.

...

Now here they were, Duratul's body ,or remains, was nowhere to be found. Gajeel was very tired of constantly dumping magic power in order to not risk falling apart by his enemy's magic. Natsu was completely drained of magic himself, he was breathing very harshly not by exhaustion, but by hate. Why? Well, one look at Wendy would give anyone an answer.

Wendy was on the side of the battlefield, unmoving. She was unfortunate to have been struck by Diratul's Break. Her fragile body couldnt handle the power of his attack and violently spasmed as she internally broke down. When this happened, Natsu quickly ran at her, full speed. He kept asking her if she was alright, even though she obviously wasn't, he just couldn't accept that this was happening right before his eyes. She never answered him, it seemed that her voice was one of the first to break. Tears spilled from her eyes like a waterfall. She could barely do anything in her last moments. Except, she mustered as much of a smile as she could and lifted a weak hand up to his cheek.

Her eyes, though full of pain, told him everything she wanted to say. They said, "I don't blame you. I'm glad you're the last thing i was able to see. I'm glad i joined Fairytail, I had a lot of fun!" And with that her eyes lost the remaining amount of life they had.

With a roar, and hatred coursing through his existence, he made his flames grow to its maximum strength and resumed his fight.

...

Gajeel felt anger for the fallen Dragonslayer. He held respect for her bravery and courage in battle. However, as he tried to feel anger, he felt...nothing. It was as if his anger instantly left him and went somewhere else...

" Come on Salamander, let's head back to meet up with the rest of the group so we can end this. After that, we'll make a proper funeral for the girl." Gajeel said as he began walking away, trying not to look at her corpse while Natsu carried her, his face shadowed with visible streams of tears. He felt so angry all he could do was cry, but not in sadness but in anger at himself and his enemy. He couldn't stop having horrid thoughts, couldn't stop being angry; it was as if Wendy took a part of his soul with her death. He hated this feeling.

Wendy deserved a beautiful funeral, one with feathers like Grandine's wings. And a statue with her standing shyly. It would of been marvellous!

It's a shame the funeral never happened.

-Flashback end-

Forgetting about bad memories, "Lucy, Gray! I'm going to go find Erza! I'll clear anyone i come across! Alright?" Natsu ran into the crowd and flame-fisted anyone who was within his reach as he headed for a higher floor.

"You didn't even let us answer!" Lucy yelled at her long gone ally. "Oh fine! But you so owe us for this! Open gate of the Crab, Cancer!"

Rushing up through the upper floors, Natsu noticed another difference. Where were Erza's friends? Sho, Wally, Meliana, and Simon were no where to be found.

'No, no...this isn't right!' Natsu uppercutted a surprised cultist that came from the stairway leading to the next floor. He stopped as a familiar scent hit his nose.'This scent...could it be?'

As he ran towards an opening with light pouring through it. Before he could make it though, he felt rumbling throughout the tower, and a bright light coursed throughout the place as he shielded his eyes.

When he reopened them, he saw that the black material that the tower was constructed of had been turned into a light blue colored crystal. It had absorbed Etherion.

He rushed to the top as quickly as he could. And the first thing he saw was unbelievable if not impossible.

xxxXXXXXxxxXxXXXxXXXXxxxXXXXXX

The whole place grew bright as Gray and the others were fighting.

"Nani?! What the hell is happening?!" Gray shouted.

"Juvia does not believe it is safe to be here anymore. This tower has become magically unstable." Juvia commented as they observed the blue crystals around them.

"But what about Natsu and Erza?" Lucy asked.

"Don't worry about them. Natsu isn't the ace of our guild for nothing. He'll save Erza." Gray responded to her question. "But right now, let's get out of here."

The group of Fairytail Mages ran out of the tower and leaving the Cult Mages behind and heading straight for the ocean.

xxxXxXXXxXxxxxxXXxXxXxxxxXxXX

"U-Ultear?!" Natsu exclaimed unbelievably. His old friend Ultear was strapped to an Etherion Crystal, binded by magic-sealing chains. She was unconcious, and terribly wounded. To her side, stood the Trio of Jelian, Mesdalo, and...Diratul! He couldn't believe it, but he was still alive!

"Well look who it is!" Diratul exclaimed. "Salamander's here! You've kept us waiting you wretched dragon trash." He spat.

Natsu got a better look at him as he neared, Half of his face was burned, almost unrecognizable. "Y-you..!"

"You're going to pay what you did to me! Now, how about we get started!"

A/N: Finally here, to where an original story commences! This is where his true past gets unveiled!

-ATNF