"Do you seriously have to go?" Natsu, a young adult who just turned 19, whined watching his dad button his dress shirt sleeves as he done many nights.Igneel's dark eyes twinkled in amusement at his son's childish behavior. His once red hair darken with age and only recently showed sign of gray hairs that threaten to reveal themselves from the slicked back hairstyle. His tan skin wasn't as firm as his son's is, but now were slowly wrinkling around his eye, forehead, and mouth. "Now boy, don't start with me. I have business as do you.""Buisness? Me? With who?" The pinkette asked lazily laying himself on his dad's made bed."I need you to start looking into universities son. Organization or not, you will be an educated man of some buisness degree or what not. Everything I taught you over the years will come in handy." He chuckled seeing Natsu's face twist in disgust. Natsu graduated only a year ago from high school with his friends."Why? It's not like it'll be useful to me. I'm gonna run a guild some day!""When I'm ten feet in the ground you will." Igneel grunted adjusting his belt then slipping his shoes on. "But here I am alive and kicking.""As long as I'm alive and well, you need to do something with your life. Like getting a degree and working hard." The older man sighed and went to sit himself on his bed. "I started Dragon Lord out of nothing. My parents had died when I was only nine leaving me orphaned and to defend myself from the world. Even with that tragedy, I excelled in my studies all through high school." Natsu sat himself up when he saw his dad smiling down at the grow. "I couldn't go to college. I couldn't find aid to help me either. I thought I would go to school, make an honest living, find a wife and live happily. It was through the streets that kept me alive after I had to leave hallway houses when I wasn't a ward of the country. It was through the streets did I become the fierce man people talk so highly about. As well as how I slowly made a group and came to this point.""Geez old man." Natsu smiled up at his dad who chuckled."I aged so much because your my son. Imagine if I had two of you, I'd be a prune." Igneel swung his arm around Natsu's neck bringing him close enough to mess up his hair."Watch it!" The young man laughed happily.Igneel released him and stood up grabbing a jacket that was larger then Ihis form then drape it over his shoulders. "I got to get going or I'll be late. I trust you to not burn my house down.""Sure thing." Natsu snickered walking out the room with his dad.After saying their goodbyes at the front door, Natsu shut the door and locked it. He went about his evening snacking on whatever was in the fridge and flipping through channels, idly looking through the many catalogs his dad gave him about schools, messing around with his friends on the phone then headed off to bed when eleven struck knowing when morning came he'd see his dad at the kitchen table with the morning paper and hot cup of coffee greeting him with a smile that made his face wrinkle. When his head hit the pillow he was out like a light.In the early hour of the morning, Natsu woke up to rapid pounding and the door bell pressed continuously. He groaned pulling himself out of his bed. He examined the time to be four in the morning, an unusual hour for anyone to come around. Natsu trudged down the halls of his empty home and twisted open the front door. To his surprise he was greeted by his nose pierced friend with long unruly hair and another man who was similar to his friend but had shorter hair. Metalicana Redfox. He seen him before in his father's guild hall being one of the rowdy ones."Good morning Gajeel and uh Metalicana. What are you guys doing here? It's too early.""Natsu get some shoes on and come with us. Its- It's urgent." Gajeel said with his eyes glancing up at his friend only for a moment then looked else where."Uh yeah okay?" Natsu said rubbing sleep from his eyes to alert himself then grabbed his sneakers he left beside the door and tugging them on. He walked out the house in his sweatpants and t shirt locking the door after him. He followed the father son duo to their vehicle but was unsure what brought them to him. Especially Gajeel since. He had known his friend's father being in the guild for Metalicana was a founding father of it. As far as he knew Gajeel knew nothing of Dragon Lord but suspect now, that his father talked about it.Natsu watched as they drove out the Dragneel residence and into the silent streets that barely had people. When they turned a few corners, the pinkette scrunched his nose up in thought. "Uh Metalicana?" He was unsure what to say."Natsu, I'm taking you to the guild hall. Just sit tight till we get their." Metalicana said as Igneel would have spoke to him when things got hard in life.Natsu's thoughts immediately circulated around his father and why he had to go to the guild instead of being called on his cell phone. It didn't take much longer until they reached their destination. Metalicana parked in the parking lot and Gajeel immediately jumped out the car telling Natsu to come out. The trio walked briskly to the building with Natsu's heart racing.When they got through the doors, Natsu saw all his father's men with solemn faces. They were either seated at the row of tables or stood against the walls drinking their hearts out. Gajeel's dad instructed Natsu to keep following him to the back where he saw a handful of people crowding the door. Natsu looked back to see Gajeel staying behind at the entrance staring hard at the ground. Metalicana push through the crowd to allow Natsu through. Natsu walked slowly further into the room as Metalicana told him to but stopped a foot away with his eyes widening.A woman about his father's age with aging pink hair turned her head slightly away from the cot she stood over. "You must be Igneel's son huh? Almost a splitting image of him when he was younger.""What's going on?" Natsu asked unsure of anything now."I am Porlyusica. I am a underground doctor of sorts." She began to say turning to face him fully. "And I'm very sorry to say that.." She paused casting her eyes to the ground and side stepping a bit for him to see. "That I done everything I could."Natsu's looked away from her face to the cot to pale in horror. Igneel Dragneel laid on the cot with his slicked back red hair fanned out, his eyes were closed from exhaustion with bruises and scratched littering his face, his shirt was torn open to reveal many scars as well as a white bandage taped where his belly button should be, nothing about him appeared to be the same person that left hours earlier. The pinkette walked slowly to the cot till he fell to his knees beside his dad. The slow rising of his chest didn't put him to ease. "W-what happen?" He asked in disbelief. "He only had buisness." Buisness in term of his dad's organization meant bribing or building relationships with more officials with power."Igneel got ambushed on his way back with no one around. We could only suspect that that rising guild, Sabertooth, caused this." Porlyusica said sadly. "He was stabbed deeply in the abdomen where I can not stitch. The wound is deep enough to have torn through muscle where the bleeding can't be stopped. He lost a lot of blood being moved here.""Dad." Natsu said in a low whisper hoping to hear Igneel greet him or see his dark eyes smile at him. The young adult grabbed his dad's hand and begin to sob and sob. He sob harder when he felt his dad squeeze his hand but released it just as fast. Porlyusica kept her lips in a tight line looking away. Metalicana moved guild members who were looking on away from the doorway. Nothing could be heard in the earlier hour of the morning except the cries of pain.