The five dragons with their friends flew by helicopter back to Magnolia now that it's been covered by a black cloud. They may have had their doubts, but not anymore. They flew over the city, but the dark clouds covered most of the streets.

"There doesn't seem to be a soul in sight." Erza said as they had all looked.

"This place is kind of spooky. Where is everyone?" Meldy asked.

"We better find a place to land. It might be safe for us to land somewhere without those black clouds." Ultear said. Natsu stepped forward and pointed to a place.

"Land down near that house. There's something I need to check." Natsu said. Ultear didn't get it, but he did what he suggested. When the chopper was coming down, it caught the attention of a man with a white jacket with dark blue hair and a mustache.

"Who could that be?" All of them walked out and he spotted Natsu. "Natsu, is that you?"

"Macao!" Natsu called out.

"Did you say Natsu?"

"Look who's here." All of them looked at the house with a man and his wife with their daughter dressed like cow-folks and a young teen that was dressed almost like Natsu. The teen and the little girl ran up to him

"Romeo!" Natsu said. "Good to see you again. Asuka! I think you've grown since the last time I saw you."

"I'm so happy to see you again." Asuka said.

"Glad to see you. We haven't seen you around lately." The man said.

"Alzack, great to see you again. Bisca, how you've been doing?" Natsu said.

"Great. It's good to see a familiar face with the weird stuff that's been going on." Bisca said.

"Natsu, you know all these people?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah." Natsu said. "I use to hang around here a lot. Macao helped looked out for me when I was a kid and Romeo looks up to me like I'm a big brother."

"Having you as a brother must be a nightmare." Gray said.

"Be nice. Now is not the time to be fighting among each other." Erza said.

"It's great to see you again, Natsu. However, you picked a lousy time for a visit." Macao said.

"I can see what's going on. It's pretty quiet around here." Natsu said and that caused the grownups to get a little distraught.

"That's because the cloud has taken everyone." Macao said. With the enemy anywhere, everyone moved inside and talked about how the entire city became deserted. "It was so strange. Just after that little earthquake we had, this black cloud came out of the ground."

"What's weirder is that anyone inside it just disappeared." Bisca said.

"We were safe since that fog didn't come here, but we stopped by your guild as well." Alzack said. "There wasn't a trace of anyone there. We can't find anyone anywhere."

"You mean they all just vanished and that was that?" Laxus said.

"It's the darkness." Erza said. "Everyone must be held prisoner by our enemies. Probably trapped in some sort of limbo. Who knows what they have planned with them."

"And I'm willing to bet that the only way we can save everyone one is if we beat these guys." Erik said.

"What are you all talking about?" Alzack asked.

"It's a long story, but the bottom line is that the fate of the world is at risk and we're the only ones that can save it." Natsu said. "I get if that's hard to understand, but you've got to believe us. We're going to need all the help and support we can get."

"I believe you Natsu. Given everything that has happened and you never gave me reason not to." Macao said.

"Well, if you all are going to save the world, you can't do it on an empty stomach." Bisca said as she offered to make dinner. While dinner was being made, Natsu was trying to make the most of a situation for the kids as he was playing with Asuka on a swing with Romeo hanging back.

"So Natsu, are you like a superhero and you're going to beat the bad guys?" Asuka asked.

"I guess that's one way of putting it." Natsu said.

"Sounds like it's going to be some sort of fun." Romeo said. "Taking on evil is a huge responsibility. You sure you can handle it?"

"Are you kidding? They won't know what hit them." Natsu said. Lucy stepped outside and was happy to see some smiles in this dark time.

"All of you sound like you're having fun." Lucy said. Romeo was able to notice the way Natsu and Lucy were looking at each other.

"Asuka….why don't we see if you're Mommy needs help with dinner. She's cooking for a lot of people." Romeo said.

"Yeah!" Asuka cheered as the two of them went back inside. Natsu took a seat on the ground and Lucy sat next to him.

"You seem really close to that Romeo and his father." Lucy said.

"Yeah." Natsu said. "The truth is….I lost my real parents when I was pretty young. Makarov was the one who brought me to Fairy Tail and watched over me, but it was Macao who helped took care of me."

"Oh! I'm sorry." Lucy said. "I know the feeling. I lost my Mom when I was pretty young, but I never had anyone like Macao or Makarov like you did." He didn't show it, but Lucy could see this was starting to get to Natsu as he was slowly losing his family. She reached over and placed her hand on his to let him know he's not alone.

"Dinner's ready." Ultear called out. She looked and saw the moment between them. "Natsu, get your girlfriend in here." They both looked down and saw they were still holding his hands and they both backed away from each other with their faces red.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Natsu said and they all went inside. All of them went inside and helped themselves to the meal.

"The food is great, Bisca." Erza said.

"Thank you. So what exactly is the plan you guys have?" Bisca said. "How are you going to beat these dark ones?"

"We just need to beat them. How much simpler can it be?" Natsu said.

"Things are never that easy." Gray said. All of them didn't really want to talk about it. Right now, they just want to enjoy the peace they had, but that didn't last long. Lightning struck down and smashed the windows.

"What was that?" Wendy asked.

"Look!" Meldy said as she pointed outside. They all looked and saw someone in black clothing with purple markings.

"Who are you?" Natsu asked. The hood of the man fell off and revealed to be an old man with long hair and long beard with an eyepatch over his right eye.

"Sorry to interrupt. You may call me Hades. I hold the mark of the vulture." He held up his right arm and showed a glowing vulture mark. "I heard that five of the dragons have returned. We servants of darkness have only one way of saying hello." He held up his duel disk and ready for action.

"You want a duel? Bring it!" Natsu said.

"Natsu, no!" Ultear said. "Remember what Jellal said. If he summons an Underworld Lord, everyone here could be absorbed."

"Our marks will help, but it's too risky if we can't save everyone." Laxus said. "We need to lure him away from here."

"I get it." Natsu said and stepped forward. "If you want a duel, follow me."

"Lead the way. It matters not where I destroy you." Hades said. Natsu grabbed his deck and duel disk.

"I'm coming with you. Don't try to talk me out of this." Lucy said.

"Fine. Just stay close to me." Natsu said. While the two of them lead Hades away, Romeo and Asuka were willing to go to and they weren't aware how dangerous it was.

"Asuka, let's go help Natsu beat the bad guys." Romeo said and Asuka was happy to do so.

…

Natsu

Natsu was able to lead Hades far enough away. With the rest of the city deserted, Natsu didn't need to worry about any souls being lost.

"Are you ready to meet your end?" Hades asked.

"Let's do this." Natsu said as they both activated their duel disks.

"Duel!" Both of them said. At that moment, something like purple flames surrounded them and stretched for city blocks in the same form as Hades' mark.

"What is this?" Natsu said. He also noticed his mark was starting to glow.

"Oh no. This must be the energy field that Jellal told us about." Lucy said. "The one that makes damage real has people absorbed by the Underworld Lord."

….

The House

All the marks of the dragons started glowing. When they did, they took it as a sign that the duel was about to start and they all could feel Natsu.

"The duel is starting." Laxus said.

"I can even feel Natsu. It's like I'm standing right with him." Wendy said. Bisca looked around and noticed Romeo and Asuka were missing.

"Romeo and Asuka! Where are they?" Bisca said and everyone started to panic. Macao and Alzack stepped outside and saw the light of the duel. They assumed that's where the kids are.

"Oh no!" Macao said as the two of them headed towards there to save their kids.

….

The Duel

"Be careful, Natsu." Lucy said.

"He doesn't' scare me. I'll start!" Natsu said as he drew his card. "I summon Fire Dragon Winger in defense mode." His wingman came on the field with 1000def points. "I place one card facedown and end my turn."

"You'll have to do better than that." Hades said as he drew his card. "I activate the field spell, Grimoire Field." The entire field was surrounded by a magic circle in runes.

"This just keeps getting creepier." Natsu said.

"You don't need to be afraid….yet." Hades said. "All this does is allow both of us to special summon a Grimoire monster if one is normal summoned. I summon Grimoire Spider in attack mode." A black spider with a demon's face on its back came up with 300atk points. "Thanks to my field spell, I can summon Grimoire Ghoul." A small ghoul with one large eye came on the field and had 600atk points. "Next comes Grimoire Ghoul's special ability. If I have a fiend in my hand, I can summon it. Though, if it's a level five or higher, I must still make the sacrifices. I sacrifice Grimoire Ghoul and Spider to summon Grimoire Fiend King!" Both monsters were gone and out came a furry fiend with horns and dressed like dark loyalty with 2400atk points.

"Good thing I out grew the boogeyman when I was little." Natsu said.

"You should be afraid." Hades said. "I activate Fiend King's ability. By sending the top card in my deck to the graveyard, I can destroy one monster on the field." He sent that card to the grave and the fiend shot out dark hands and crushed Winger.

"Oh no! Now Natsu is defenseless!" Lucy said.

"That means that you are wide open for a direct attack!" Hades said. "Attack with Nightmare Fury!" The monster shot out and blasted Natsu with his life points dropping to 1600.

"No! He lost more than half of his life points!" Lucy said and Natsu actually winced in pain.

"Jellal wasn't kidding. That actually hurt." Natsu said as he tried to stand back up.

"The worst is yet to come. I place one face-down and end my turn." Hades said.

….

Romeo

Romeo and Asuka ran through the city. They were trying to look for Natsu and Lucy, but the outline looked like fire and they were trying to avoid it.

"Let's try this way." Romeo said as he ran into a building and up the stairs, but Asuka kept running through the streets.

…..

Natsu

"It's my turn!" Natsu said. "I activate my trap, Relit. Relit allows me to bring back a fire attribute monster." Fire Dragon Winger rose back on the field with 1000atk points. "Next, I activate Refueled Ammo. By sending any cards in my hand, I can draw any card I want. The condition is that they have something in common with the cards I put back. I send Fireball Dragon and Fire Dragon Sword Horn back to my deck." He did that and drew two new cards. "Since they were both fire attribute, I can draw Fire Dragon Iron Fist and Talon. Next, I'm activating Fire Fusion! This allows me to fusion summon any fire attribute monster."

"Fusion summon!?" Hades said.

"I fuse Fire Dragon Iron Fist, Talon, and Winger!" Natsu said as the three merged together. "I fusion summon Fire Dragon Slayer!" A dragon-designed armor warrior with wings and a flaming sword came on the field and had 3000atk points.

"3000atk points?! That's more like it!" Lucy said.

"Fire Dragon Slayer, destroy his fiend with Flaming Elimination!" Natsu said. His warrior flew up and slashed down on Fiend King and destroyed it with Hades' life points dropped to 3400.

"Grimoire Fiend King has another ability. When he's destroyed, the monster that destroyed it is switched in defense mode and it has to stay that way." Hades said and the warrior went to defense mode with 2200def points.

"Aw man. He made one of my best useless." Natsu said.

"Natsu!" Natsu and Lucy looked behind them and saw Asuka was there.

"No." Natsu said.

"Oh dear. What is she doing here?" Lucy said. "Asuka, get out of here. It's too dangerous."

"It's too late for her." Hades said as he formed another line and had her trapped. "I activate Alter of the Underworld!" A large temple with four torches at the top unlit. "Now during my standby phase, for every monster that's in defense mode, it gains one dark flame counter. When all four of the torches are lit, I will be able to summon an Underworld Lord."

"An Underworld Lord! That's what Jellal warned us about!" Lucy said. "If he summons it, Asuka could be lost forever."

"Try as you might, but you won't be able to stop it." Hades said. "I suggest you prepare yourself for your defeat."

'I can't lose to him. I have to figure out how to stop him before he summons that Underworld Lord.' Natsu thought. 'That's the only way I can save Asuka….and maybe myself.'

To Be continued….