Sorry to keep you all waiting. I have an important announcement though. Despite what I said in the beginning of the story, I have decided to add another character from the DxD Universe. I won't say who right now, but they will be fully introduced later in the story. Also, if you want to check on my progress with the next chapter, you can go to my profile to see where I'm at.

Carry on.

Chapter 8: Akeno's Choice

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or High School DxD. The former is owned by Hiro Mashima and the latter is owned by Ichiei Ishibumi.

Part of the forest was now demolished after the battle between Natsu and Akeno. Small craters littered the field with multiple cracks in the ground. The scent of smoldering grass filled the air. Akeno was now panting heavily on her knees after her last attack. She finally got a chance to recover from unleashing those two powerful moves right after taking a lot of damage. She sensed no movement from Natsu who was now a good distance away. There was a trail of broken trees leading to where he landed after he was struck by the Halberd. After she caught her breath, she slowly got back on her feet.

"That last attack should have done it, but his endurance it way above normal. I better make sure." Akeno said out loud. She was about to fly over there when a soft voice caught her attention.

"Why are you doing this?" Akeno could hear the voice clearly with her enhanced hearing. She turned her head to the left and was horrified to see an injured Wendy on the ground a few feet away.

Her pink pajamas were tattered and her body was covered in burn marks from the lightning. She was only struck once by the multiple bolt attack, but her body was much more fragile than Natsu's. Her body was so paralyzed by the pain that she couldn't move from where she was at.

"Oh no. Are you okay!" Akeno asked as she quickly made her over to Wendy. She bent down and laid her hand on her head. She was panicking because she didn't want any bystanders to get hurt during the battle. That's why she led Natsu into the forest. She felt even worse that it was just a little girl.

"Why are you trying to kill my brother?" Wendy asked ignoring Akeno's question. Tears were falling from her eyes at the image of Natsu being struck by multiple bolts of lightning and being impaled by that Halberd. She felt even worse that she distracted him which let him get struck full force.

Akeno let out a gasp. "You're his sister?" she came upon the realization.

"Please don't do this...He's my only true family... You can't take him away from me. Wendy said in between sobs.

Akeno was speechless. When she saw Wendy crying in pain and sadness on the ground, it was like looking in a mirror. She saw a younger version of herself as all the memories of her sufferings came back to her. Even so, she forced those aside and stood back up. Dragging this out would only make things worse.

"I have no choice...Forgive me." Akeno said while holding back her tears. She sprouted her lightning wings and started making her way over to Natsu.

"NNNOOOOOO!" Wendy screamed out. She tried to inch her way after her, but she was slowly fading into unconsciousness. She was close to passing out from the pain.

Akeno followed the trail of broken trees to find Natsu smashed into a large boulder. He was passed out covered in rubble from the boulder. Blood was all over his right shoulder where the Halberd struck him. He now had a painful looking gash where it had pierced him.

Akeno slowly landed in front of him and examined his body. She brought her fingers to his wrist to check his pulse. She was right; he was only unconscious. Luckily, he got struck in the shoulder which prevented the lightning from getting to his heart. Unfortunately, Akeno still planned to see the mission through.

"Your high tolerance for my lightning is unbelievable. You put up a great fight, but this is where it ends."

She started charging her right hand up to form one of her lightning claws. The lightning crackled around her arm down to her hand forming sharp nails of purple lightning. She wore a blank face as she looked down at his battered body. She intended to plunge her claw into his chest and electrocute his beating heart.

She brought her arm back slowly and prepared to fire her arm...But nothing happened.

Her body stood motionless with her arm ready to strike. She stood like that like for another minute before the attack dissipated.

"Why?"

"Why can't I do this?"

"This is what I want...Right?"

Akeno was at a loss on what to do. She wanted to please her father, but his words were replaying in his mind.

"I hate to see people cry."

"You can always atone for what you have done!"

"You're lying to yourself."

'Why would he say those things to someone trying to kill him?' Akeno wondered. 'It is it because of the fear I showed during our last battle.'

This was strange to Akeno because she's barely had anyone show concern for her. Ultear and Meredy have been there for here and of course her father, Master Hades has asked of her well-being. Though, the way Natsu talked to her was completely different. The more she thought about, the more she started to believe what Natsu was saying to her before. When Natsu spoke, he sounded concerned about her actual well-being, but when her father spoke, he sounded concerned about her usefulness to him.

'Am I really just some soldier in his army? Am I no different than anyone else in the guild?' Akeno slowly started to realize.'

Back when she first ran into Grimoire Heart, Master Hades said how her dragon slaying magic could be of use to him. He had an elite group of mages that used lost magic, and dragon slayer magic is one of them. Was that the only reason he stopped Zancrow from killing her?

'I've done everything I could to serve him well for 6 years, but he would still threaten to kick me out of the guild after one failure. What sort of father would do that to his adopted daughter?'

Akeno stared at the badly injured boy in front of her intently. 'He was right. Nothing has changed...But things are going to now.'

With that, she walked up to Natsu and grabbed a hold of him. She was about to use her lightning teleportation when she remembered something else.

She ripped off a piece of her clothing to bandage the wound to his right shoulder temporarily. Her clothes were already tattered and burnt from fighting with him. Then, she started dragging him back to the area they were fighting in. She tried to carry him, but she was still weak from battle. When she returned, she found Wendy in the spot she left her now unconscious.

'She probably passed out from the pain.' Akeno thought.

She placed a hand on Wendy's head and smiled at her.

"Don't worry little one. Both you and your brother will be alright." Akeno said to an unconscious Wendy.

She had both hands on the two dragon slayers as she concentrated. Purple lightning spread throughout the three of them as they faded away in a flash of bright purple radiance.

It turns out that it was not just the three of them out in the woods at night. They were unaware that a man had been watching them from far away. He has been there observing the battle from the start.

"Her lightning magic and fighting style has improved, but she still hasn't unlocked her full potential. The fire mage may have lost, but he handled her well and it seems she got lucky at the end. It's interesting even after all that she didn't kill him. Perhaps there is hope for her after all." The man spoke. He then started walking off seeing as how he lost their location.

Natsu slowly opened his eyes now awaking from his unconscious state. He was trying to figure out what had happened. He was laying on his side in a small room with lanterns lighting the area. He was laying on the floor, but there was something soft below his head. It was dark outside, but the sun was slowly creeping over the horizon.

'What the hell happened?' Natsu wondered. 'Am I alive...How long was I out...Wait a second?'

"Wendy!" He shouted his little sister's name upon remembering that she gotten hurt during the battle. He would have jumped up, but his body was extremely sore and he had lost all feeling in his right arm.

"Don't worry. She's alright." A familiar voice said in a reassuring tone.

Natsu turned onto his back and was surprised to see Akeno's face right above him. He was also surprised to see her smiling at him in a friendly manner.

"Akeno? But I thought you...wait what I am laying on?! Natsu said curious as to why Akeno was so close to him.

"My lap." She responded nonchalantly.

"Huh?!" Natsu was shocked and embarrassed at the same time. The last thing he remembered was her attempting to kill him and now she was acting all friendly towards him.

'Maybe I am dead.' Natsu thought as he was blushing madly. Akeno giggled at how embarrassed he was.

"Are you comfy." she asked.

"Um...yeah...I am." He replied nervously at a loss for words.

'What am I saying?!' Natsu screamed in his head.

"What the hell happened while I was out?! The last thing I remembered was you hurling that spear of lightning at me and now this."

"Don't worry. I will explain everything, but first you should drink this." Akeno said picking up a small vile of blue liquid. "This should help ease your pain until you can get proper treatment." Akeno said

She lifted his head up with her right hand and used her other to put the vile to his mouth. He was hesitant at first, but realized what would the point of killing him after the whole time he was unconscious. He drank the medicine and she laid his head back on her lap.

"First off, your sister is alright. She's didn't get hit too badly by that attack. She's over there in the corner resting."

Natsu looked where she was pointing and saw Wendy resting on the floor with a soft cushion under her head. He was very relieved to see that she wasn't injured too badly.

"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean for her to get hit by my attack. I can tell you mean a lot to her by the way she speaks of you."

"All that matters is that she's alright. Where are we exactly? I'm still really confused." Natsu replied.

"You have the right to be. I teleported the three of us to this abandoned shrine in Magnolia where I left my things. I would have taken you to the hospital, but I can't be seen out in the open for too long and I really wanted to speak to you.

Natsu noticed that she had changed out of her tattered clothes and was wearing an identical shrine maiden outfit.

"When I found you unconscious I still intended to kill you. I was about to strike you, but I found myself motionless. I realized that everything you said about my guild master was true. I feel like I've known it for a while, but just kept denying it to avoid the emotional damage.

Natsu's face got serious. "I see. If you don't mind, how close were you with your guild master."

Akeno frowned lightly. "He saved my life and took me into Grimoire Heart after my dragon, Ramos left me. He said would act as a father to me, but he also said he was interested in my dragon slayer magic. He had me train constantly to grow my power to serve the guild.

Natsu frowned. "I understand why you were so defensive before. It's not easy to accept this after believing him to be your father for so long.

"I know. He just wanted me for my power. He's just been labeling himself as my father this all time to guilt me into staying in his guild. It's honestly the only thing keeping me there with all of the suffering I have endured.

Natsu's eyes widened. "There's something I've been wanting to know for a while now." Akeno looked at him with curiosity.

"Why were you so terrified when I attacked you the first time we fought?"

Akeno didn't say anything and just looked away from him with a sad expression. She turned back to him and lifted his head off of her lap. Natsu slowly sat himself up as Akeno stood up and turned around facing away from him again. Natsu started blushing again as he watched her start to slip off the top of her shrine maiden outfit.

'Why is she stripping?!' Natsu panicked internally. When her back was revealed, his mouth widened at what he saw.

There was a thick black mark going diagonally across her back. It looked like it had been burned into her skin leaving a scar.

"I didn't do that did I?" Natsu asked slowly realizing where she was going with this.

No. It was another fire mage. The master may have been cruel to me at times, but he rarely ever brought his hand to me...He had someone else for that.

Natsu's grew an angry look on his face.

"His name was Zancrow. He's a fire god-slayer within our guild. Master had me train with him to challenge me more." Akeno cringed as she began remembering. "He abused me every time we trained. He would keep attacking me again and again until I collapsed and enjoyed every moment of it.

Flashback,

Akeno was lying in a small crater in large valley surrounded by rock formations. Her whole body was covered in bruises and burns.

"Come on you little shit. I ain't done with you yet." Zancrow said standing in front of her without a scratch on him.

"Please...That's...Enough." Akeno replied weakly with her body aching all over.

Zancrow walked over to her and stomped his foot into her back.

"AH!" Akeno yelped in pain.

"I said no talking back bitch! You wanna get stronger don't ya? Then, you gotta learn how to take a beating. I have to waste my time training your sorry ass so you can at least let me have some fun. Now be a good little punching bag.

"You're a fucking monster." She said while gritting her teeth in pain.

"Your words mean nothing to me. Now what haven't I tried yet?" Zancrow pondered. "I got it!"

"Flame God's Scythe"

Zancrow molded his black flames into a giant scythe.

"Let's see if you can scream louder for me."

Zancrow slashed At Akeno's back with the flame scythe making a deep cut into her skin.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Akeno screamed in agony as blood splattered over her and the flames burned on her open wound.

"Now that's more like it!"

End Flashback,

If Natsu were any angrier, steam would be coming out of his mouth. Dark guild or not no one deserved that kind of abuse. Nothing pissed Natsu off more than a person mistreating their own guildmates.

"I don't expect people to follow my morale code, but what he did to you is fucked up. Assholes like him don't deserve to have magic. He ain't no mage; he's a sociopath playing with a lighter." Natsu said in an enraged tone

Akeno gasped and turned around to face him with tears in her eyes. She was surprised how furious he was for her well-being. It's like what happened a few hours ago didn't apply to him anymore.

Natsu tried to calm down upon seeing her saddened face. "So when I attacked you with fire magic, you started relieving those traumatic memories."

"Hmhm." Akeno clarified. "It's like my mind was picturing him instead of you. I was so caught up in the moment that I forgot who I was fighting. It only made me want to kill you more. Then, I thought if I could beat you I could be rid of my fear and finally beat Zancrow. I thought it would make me stronger, but it didn't feel right."

Natsu stared at her with interest.

"You two may use similar magic, but you're nowhere near similar in character. I couldn't stop thinking about you after we fought. You're so caring, passionate, and genuine. You showed concern for me when you could have finished me off. How could I kill you when you chose not to kill me?"

Natsu was surprised at how much he meant to her. It was obvious that people barely ever showed concern for her.

"I'm sorry for the pain I caused you and your sister. You shouldn't show concern for a person like me. I've done terrible things during my time working for Grimoire Heart.

"There's no way you're convincing me you're a bad person" Natsu raised his voice.

Akeno was taken aback by his loud response. "You just got mixed up with the wrong people. Even after all the abuse you been through, you still valued the lives of me and my sister. That's good enough to me. I will show concern for anyone who is suffering as much as you are." Natsu told her firmly.

Tears started falling from Akeno's eyes again, but this time she was smiling. Then, she did the unexpected.

She ran up to Natsu and tackled him to the ground into a big hug. She had completely forgotten about the injuries Natsu already had. Luckily the medicine had numbed most of the pain.

Even so, Natsu cringed at the hug tackle Akeno gave him.

'Good thing, I can't feel anything in my right shoulder.' Natsu thought. His eyes widened when he noticed that her top was still off and there wasn't a strap attached to her back.

'Is she not wearing a bra under there?!' Natsu panicked in his thoughts. 'Wait I'm not wearing my vest either...That means her bare chest is...rubbing against my bare chest...keep it together Natsu."

"Um...Akeno. You fffeeling alright?" Natsu asked nervously getting all flustered at the thought of being in close contact with her bare mounds.

"You can stop worrying about me. Everything you said was perfect." Akeno got off of Natsu and gazed down on him adoringly while straddling him. Natsu was trying his best to focus on her face and not look down. He was actually becoming entranced by the way she was looking at him.

The sun had finally come up and light was flooding into the room of the shrine shining on him and Akeno. The bright sun revealed Akeno's goddess-like appearance with her deep violet eyes and a smile of genuine happiness. Natsu had never observed her in-depth and honestly he was stunned by her beauty.

"Thank you for everything you said. I'm not gonna let my master kick me out because I'm going to leave there on my own terms. I'm going to find my own path and not let me people control me anymore. I promise." Akeno said sincerely.

"That's great and I'm really proud of you, but you could use please cover up your...um...things?" Natsu asked.

Akeno gave him a confused look. "My what?" She obviously didn't know what he is was talking about.

'Do I have to spell it out for her?!' Natsu thought.

"I mean...you're...hanging out...in this area." Natsu pointed at his chest trying his best to explain it to her

Akeno looked down and remembered what she did earlier.

"Oh, you mean my breasts. Don't worry. It doesn't bother me if you see them. You wanna get a closer view." She said that last part more seductively.

'WHAT IS HAPPENING?! GIRLS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT!' Natsu screamed in his head. 'Wendy, feel free to stay unconscious would ya.'

"No thanks. I would rather you cover up. It's really distracting." His face could be mistaken for Erza's scarlet hair as he was looking off to the side away from here.

Akeno giggled again at his embarrassment. "Oh my. You're such a gentleman. If you insist."

She got off of Natsu and slipped her top back over allowing the red to fade from Natsu's face.

"Anyway. I should probably drop you at the hospital to get your wounds treated."

"Sounds good, but will you be okay?" Natsu asked concerning her physical state.

"Don't worry, my wounds aren't as serious and I have someone to heal me up back at my guild." Akeno reassured him.

Natsu smiled warmly. "I'm happy to hear there's at least one person in your guild looking out for you."

"Yeah, I'm lucky to have her...Hey...Can you promise me something?

"What is it?" Natsu asked curiously.

"Promise me that you will always support your sister. She needs a kind and strong person like you as her guide. I know that she will turn out great and live a happy life with you by her side. She's a lucky girl."

Natsu smiled his toothy grin at her. "You got it! I will always be there for her and protect her the best I can." He said with determination.

"I'm glad...Oh! Don't take this the wrong way. This isn't a final goodbye. I plan to see you again real soon." Akeno said with a sly smirk.

'Why do I have mixed feelings about this?' Natsu mused.

Things have now been resolved between the two. Now things can get interesting between them. Who was the mysterious figure watching them? What will become of Akeno now? All will be answered in due time.

Review Responses:

ValinNight: You can stop worrying now.

DarkPlasmaDragon: I would actually be a lightning dragon slayer. I've always thought lightning was the coolest ability. My strongest attack would be "Thunder Cracker", the move I made up in this story. Not sure about a catchphrase though.

fangs of death: Thanks. You were a little off this time mate. She still needs to get stronger.

NatsutoDragneel: This chapter should answer your question.

See you guys next time!