Damnation

While it had been a fierce streams of battles, the Seven Kin of Purgatory were finally defeated after Gray and Ultear engaged in battle, and the latter was defeated. Ultear was currently limping away weakly from her fight, not sure where exactly she was going.

"Ultear!" The black-haired woman looked up to see a beaten Meredy hurrying up to her.

"Meredy," Ultear said softly, as the pink-haired girl approached her.

"I lost," Meredy said softly, "And I couldn't find Zeref." Half of that was also true for Ultear, the only difference that she did find Zeref.

"Don't worry," Ultear said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Its not you're fault, you did your best. If anything, we may have underestimated the guild."

"But what are we going to do now?" Meredy asked, "What can we do now?" Ultear wasn't sure how to answer that. There weren't that many options at their disposal at the time.

"I'm not sure," Ultear said, smiling at her adopted daughter, "But I'm sure we can figure something out."

"You don't fully know what to do?" a familiar voice said, "No surprise there." The two females looked up towards them was a similarly familiar man with wild blonde hair.

"Zancrow!" Ultear said, "You're alright."

"So you failed to find Zeref?" Zancrow sneered, "I guess I should've expected it from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Meredy asked, glaring at her guild mate.

"How stupid do you think I am?"

"You really want an answer?" Ultear sneered right back.

"I could always tell," Zancrow said, smiling his usual manic smile, "You were planning to betray us from the start!" Ultear tried not to flinch at that; it was true she was planning on taking Zeref for herself and Meredy, but she thought it had been kept a secret.

"How can you…," Meredy began.

"You are no longer part of Grimoire Heart!" Zancrow suddenly declared, as he released a cloud of black fire at his "guild mates". Ultear managed to push Meredy out of the way just in time, but she got blasted away.

"Ultear!" Meredy cried, as she tried to go to Ultear, only to have to avoid another blast of black fire.

"You won't take Zeref from us!" Zancrow snapped, as flames gathered in his hands, "I'll deal with you all!" Unlike Ultear, he had enough time to recover some of his magic power.

"You can't take Zeref!" Meredy said, "He's our future! He's Ultear's future!" As Ultear listened to that, she clenched her teeth, and stared at the ground.

"Ha ha ha!" Zancrow cackled, "What do you care about Ultear's future? Because she's your mom?"

"I…"

"You're so called 'mother' was the one who destroyed your home!" Zancrow declared. Suddenly, the only sound was of the rain dripping onto the ground, as Meredy stared at Ultear and Zancrow. Ultear didn't bother trying to deny it, as she continued stared at the ground in shame.

"Ultear?" Meredy said, as she looked at Ultear, who couldn't meet her eyes.

"Now why don't you just be good girls and die now!" Zancrow said as he brought his ignited hands up. That was when a new presence appeared, one that was down right smothering.

"Once again, you invoke the need a need without a true grasp on it."

"Is that…," Zancrow muttered. The dark mages turned to see Zeref slowly emerging from the tree line, his face cloaked in shadows.

"Lord Zeref!" Ultear said. While both Meredy and Zancrow knelt, Ultear didn't, remembering what had happened to her earlier. She supposed she was slightly thankful that the blonde girl wasn't with him this time, but she recognized this aura from him all too well.

"I didn't want any of this," Zeref said slowly, his eyes hidden, "I would have been content to simply remain on this island with Mavis, hidden away from the world." He then looked up at the dark mages, who could only stare into the Black Mage's pulsing red eyes.

"But you had to trespass in your cravings to take that which cannot be taken." That was when the air turned as hard as stone. Even Zancrow began to shake at that.

"You're just like all the others," Zeref hissed, "You seek power and prestige without understanding the consequences of it. Then let you're ignorance be your undoing." He then brought his hands up into a circle. A swirl of dark energy suddenly gathered around Zancrow's feet.

"The hell?" Zancrow said as he stood up. Zeref then spoke only one word:

"Damnation." Zancrow didn't even have time to speak, as a pillar of dark magic sprung up from beneath Zeref. When it faded, Ultear and Meredy could only stare in horror as Zancrow fell to the ground, dead.

"Such is the punishment for trifling in affairs one does not truly understand," Zeref hissed, before turning to leave. However, as he did, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as he looked into the distance, as if he could sense something.

"Acnologia," he murmured. Both women were surprised by the mention of that though, they couldn't remember what exactly he meant by that. Zeref's whole body suddenly slouched down.

"I'm sorry Mavis," he said, as his face turned solemn, "This is my fault; I need to go." This left both Ultear and Meredy alone, still reeling from what they had just seen. Though no one noticed him, Mest had been tracking the members of Grimoire Heart, and was behind a tree, listening. Dread fell over his face as he listened to it.

"Did he really say…," he muttered.

(at the camp)

Most of the guild had gathered at the camp, to figure out what to do next. The rain was really coming down, as was the lightning.

"Wow," Lucy said, "I thought only Juvia could make rain like this." There was another bolt of lightning and sound of thunder. As it did, Pantherlily covered his head, shaking slightly.

"Are you okay Lily?" Carla asked.

"Yes!" Lily hissed.

"Are you scared of lightning?" Happy asked.

"No!" Neither of his fellow exceeds were fooled, however.

"I guess there's something cute about you after," Happy said with a smile, as Carla snickered, much to Lily's embarrassment.

"Alright!" Natsu suddenly said, as everyone looked at him, as he declared, "I'm going after Hades, anyone want to join me?"

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Lucy asked, "Especially considering your condition."

"What're you talking about?"

"Seriously, you can't tell me you haven't noticed. Look at yourself," Lucy said, gesturing, "You're becoming more and more reptilian." Natsu looked at his body, and noticed she was right. The scales that had originally been concentrated on his left had spread gradually.

"So what?" Nat's asked.

"'So what'?" Lucy demanded, "You think gradually turning into a dragon is something completely normal?" Natsu open his mouth.

"Don't answer that," Lucy said, holding up her hand.

"Well, it doesn't matter," Natsu answered, holding up his wing, "We still need to beat Hades! So, is anyone going to come?"

"We'll come too!" Happy said, floating up next to Lucy.

"No way!" Natsu said to Lucy, "I'm not letting you come!" Lucy sighed, as she rubbed her forehead. When all's said and done, she had a feeling that Natsu would be going no even if he had a tail, so it was probably pointless to try and stop him.

"We're a team, Natsu!" Lucy eventually said, "Anywhere you go, I go!"

"I'm going too!" Wendy said.

"Wendy!" Carla and Natsu said together.

"We're all beaten up enough as is," Wendy answered, "You're definitely going to need some support."

"We're going to come too!" Happy declared for the exceeds.

"The rest of us will stay here," Freed said, "I'll work on some barrier runes we can use."

"You guys better be careful," Levy said.

"Don't we always?" Lucy asked with a wink, and with that, the team struck out to get Hades. As they were running, they were intercepted by Erza and Gray, with the latter supporting the former.

"What're you guys doing now?" Erza asked.

"We're going to take down Hades, what else?" Natsu answered.

"What else, indeed," Erza said with a grin.

(at the Grimoire Heart ship)

Hades took a breath as he stood up from his seat, and stared out the window of his ship.

"Very well then," he said, "I guess its time I finally joined the fray."

Note: Sorry this chapter wasn't my best. It took some planning to make certain details of this chapter, especially as we come up to the battle with Hades, and I was on a bit of a crunch. Its worth noting that there is going to be a pretty major difference in the battle with Hades, which you'll have to wait and see.

Something worth saying is that while I had some updates planned, I'm going on a big trip to Scandinavia with my family. On the one hand, I'm going to spend quite a large amount of time on a plane, without much to do, so hopefully I can get some work done then. Also, I set up a account, but no I'm not going to ask people to donate yet, not until I get into a greater swing of writing. Also, I'm trying to get as much done as I can now, because while I did just graduate, I intend on joining the Navy, so that'll pretty severely stifle my progress.

Be sure to review.

So we're counting down to the last ten chapters of Fairy Tail. For the record, what happened in the last chapter is obviously not the end, because you can always count on the main protagonist beating the main antagonist (if you've read the chapter, you know what I'm talking about). Besides, again, there are still ten chapters to go, so unless those ten chapters are going to be about Natsu and Lucy making love, there is still a lot to happen.