Natsu let out an angry bellow as he disappeared into the gathering of Fires.

Irene let out a shriek, grabbing the attention of the Fires attacking the barrier.

Ignia cackled, "Even though he failed to break the barrier, he still netted us our catch! AFTER HER!"

Irene weaved her way through the Fires. Even though she was out of practice, she was still good at what she does.

"Irene!" Belserion cried, slamming into a Fire and pushing them away from her, "You need to get back inside!"

"They'll break the barrier and burn down everything and everyone inside. I have to fight for the people!" Irene insisted. "It's me they want, so I have to fight!"

"We can handle them, I promise! The barrier isn't going anywhere!" he stated. "You have to trust me."

"And you have to trust me. I am a Queen, and my job is to protect my people! I failed once, and I refuse to fail twice!"

"Then we do this together, like always," Belserion said. "We should go after Igneel. We take him out, and the others will fall."

"Sounds like a plan," Irene said.

"When we're together, not even the Fires can stop us!" Belserion shouted as he charged, with her close by his side.

Natsu growled, then went to charge after them, only for Laxus to slam into him, "You!"

He turned, only for Wendy to block his path, "You have a lot to answer for!"

"Way too damn much," Sting kicked him, sending him flailing around in an attempt to right himself. Looking up, he spotted the six of his ex-siblings surrounding him.

"I don't have to explain anything to you guys! We're supposed to be friends. Siblings! What's going on here that you can't understand?!" Natsu demanded. "Even Erik admitted that I was in the right!"

"No, I said you weren't lying," Erik stated. "I didn't say you were right."

"Same thing! You heard what I know! You know what Irene did!"

"And I also heard her truth: that she wasn't even there," Erik shot back. "She's being framed, Natsu!"

"You don't have any evidence to prove that!" Natsu snapped. "Are all of you just lying to protect her?! I know what I saw, and everything she did to me and my family ends today!" he flared his wings as fire magic shot out of his body, sending the other six either flying back to escape it, or burning them and sending them falling.

"It isn't just Irene who's suffering! Look around you!" Gajeel stated. "Do you not feel any remorse for the others who are dying because of this pointless attack?! Aceron's dead because of you!"

Natsu flinched, then grimaced and growled to himself, before raising his head, "Then he should've stayed out of the WAY!" he roared, with fire shooting from his mouth, striking Gajeel's wings and sending him hurtling towards the ground.

Wendy charged towards him, claws poised to strike. Unfortunately, Natsu was better prepared for it, and latched his talons into hers and threw her body into Sting's as the White tried to charge him next.

Rogue engulfed him in shadows, only for Natsu to use his flames to burn them, and him, away.

Erik shot poison from his jaws, which Natsu responded with his own fire breath. The two attacks struggled against each other for a short moment before Natsu's magic won out, shooting towards Erik's mouth and burning it.

Laxus charged, grabbing Natsu's talons with his own as the two wrestled. He sank his fangs into Natsu's neck, breaking the metal band that held his lacrima. Natsu shot at, and bit him in an attempt to get him off once he realized. Laxus responded by sending electricity through the Fire Prince's body.

Zeref shot past, sinking his fangs and claws onto Laxus's back and forcibly yanking him off, before launching the younger Dragon towards the barrier. While he passed through it harmlessly, he landed on one of the buildings not-so-harmlessly. The Lightning groaned in pain as broken pieces of the building pierced into his back.

Erik attempted to charge again, only for Ignia to shoot from the smoky haze around them and latch onto his tail, throwing him around like a ragdoll, before throwing him.

Natsu flew up to hover with his brothers. While he could likely handle the other six on his own–with only Laxus being able to match him–having his brothers tipped the scales in his favor.

xXxOxXx

Lucy ran through the town, weaving her way through the panicking hordes of citizens.

"Gray? GRAY!" she called. She violently flinched when someone crashed into her. Fortunately, it was just the guy she was looking for.

"God, you gave me a heart attack.." she huffed and wheezed, trying to compose herself.

"Sorry," he said. "It's fucking insane out there.."

"I think Natsu's a part of it.." Lucy admitted. Gray sputtered, "What."

"I thought I saw him in a crowd before. I don't know what to do.." she said. "This is all so horrible.. What do we do if they break through?"

"We don't let that happen is what we do! I'm not about to let the Dragons fight those bastards alone," Gray hissed. "We need to find Erza! The three of us can help make a difference."

"Erza?"

"Yeah. She'll keep us in the air. It's not safe to be on the ground with how much they're burning everything."

"The sky isn't much better. It's dark with smoke and there are Fires everywhere," Lucy sighed, crossing her arms.

"Still better than the ground. Anybody trapped on the ground is guaranteed to die," Gray said. "We have a chance and we have to take it. Let's go!" he took off. She followed close behind.

"Layla gave you the keys she uses, right?" he asked as they ran.

"Yeah! She gave me Aquarius and Capricorn, and dad gave me the key for Sagittarius!" she answered.

"Good! Who are you going with?"

"Well, Sagittarius would be our best bet. I can't summon Aquarius without water and Capricorn is pretty limited to melee attacks as opposed to ranged. I can also use the Star Dress mom taught me to help him with shooting. What about you?"

"I learned Ice Make in our magic classes. I can use it to make ranged weapons, and Fires don't like ice if Natsu was any indication."

"Sounds like a plan! Sort of.. I hope this works.." she admitted.

"It's a chance we have to take. Erza!" he opened the armory. "Erza, are you in there?"

The Sage Princess stood, covered in armor, with a helmet in her talon. Just staring at it. "I'm here," she said, not looking up at them.

"Take us out there," Gray said. Her head shot up to look down at them, "Absolutely not! Humans can't fight Dragons!"

"We can damn well try. This is our home and we have to fight for it!" Lucy said.

"Even if it could lead to you guys dying?" she asked.

"It's a risk we are well aware of and willing to take," Gray promised.

Erza slowly nodded, "I trust you," she said, then put the helmet on. "Climb on," she crouched. Once Gray and Lucy were on her back, she charged out and took off running.

"Whoa," Lucy wrapped her arms around Gray.

Erza launched into the air just before reaching the barrier, shooting into the fray.

"Let's try to find Natsu!" Gray said. "Dealing with a Prince could send a message to the others!"

"I don't like the idea of fighting him," Lucy admitted.

"We won't if we don't have to," Erza said. "If we can get through to him, then him joining our side could shake the rest of the Fires."

"Just don't expect it to be easy," Gray warned.

"We don't," Lucy said. "Who knows what the Fires have been feeding him over the past seven years."

Both of them yelped when Erza suddenly swerved, avoiding Erik as the Poison was thrown their way.

"That's not good!" Gray gasped.

"Yeah, it is!" Lucy said. "Not the being thrown part, but that's Erik! The others came back for us!" she said.

"At least we have a better chance now!" Erik flew back up, shooting past Erza. They quickly realized what he was doing when they spotted Ignia. The Poison was using his smaller size to his advantage in order to harass the older Fire.

"You blasted little rat!" Ignia snarled, snapping his jaws in a wild attempt to grab Erik.

Lightning shot Ignia from behind, causing him to cry out and duck into the smoke to hide. Laxus unhesitantly chased after him.

"Natsu!" Erza shouted, "Stop this! Please!"

"Not until we get what we want!" he shouted back. She ducked into the smoke to avoid the flame shooting her way.

"Yeah, this isn't going to be easy!" Gray said.

"Let's deal with the other two! The others can get through to Natsu without us, but we need to keep the others off their backs!"

"I agree!" Erza tilted, flying around and ramming into Zeref's side. He hurtled out of the sky, landing against the barrier with a loud thunk.

"Sage Princess!" he hissed.

"It only seems fitting that we partake in our parents' one-sided feud," Erza said.

"One-sided?!" he launched towards her, she ducked out of his way.

"There's one down! What do we do about the bigger one with the scarred face?" Lucy asked.

Her question was immediately answered when Jellal flew up in front of them, forcing Erza to slow to avoid ramming into him, "Leave him to me!"

"Be careful!" Erza called after him.

"Get back here! You can't run forever!" Zeref shouted. "You also can't hide from me in the smoke!"

"We're not trying to!" Gray stood, using his magic to summon a large, hand-held cannon braced on his shoulder. "Eat my Ice Cannon!" he shouted as he fired it. Zeref blasted the shot with flames, melting it and rendering it harmless.

"So much for that!" Lucy commented.

"Don't worry! There's more where that came from!" Gray stated.

Natsu growled as he watched, but turned his gaze on Sting and Rogue, "What do you hope to gain from this? Letting a murderer get away with it?"

"We're not arguing with you on this further," Sting said. "You've got yourself convinced and we can't fix that. All we can do is stop you."

"So be prepared to watch your Kingdom fall!" Rogue said, and the two charged him.

The three flew around each other, snapping jaws, swiping claws, and shooting elements.

Despite their advantage in numbers, Natsu was still a Royal with more training than they had, allowing him to come out on top and throw the two of them to the ground. He hovered overhead, waiting for them to get back up, and when they didn't, he moved on.

"Sting and Rogue are down!" Laxus announced. "Someone go down there and help- AGHHH!"

"Laxus?!" Wendy called. She spotted the Lightning in the jaws of Ignia, thrashing. Ignia landed and wrestled Laxus into the ground, keeping him pinned until the Lightning stopped moving.

"Zeref! Knock those idiots out of the sky, would you?!" he called up his brother.

"What does it look like I'm trying to do?!" Zeref hissed back.

Wendy chased after them, then dove towards Zeref, latching her claws into his back. The Fire Prince let out a pained shriek and started thrashing in an attempt to get her off.

He let himself drop to the ground, before slamming her into it and ripping her claws out of his back.

"Wendy!" Gajeel called, then tried to dive for her. A blast of fire from Ignia cut him off, causing him to crash land.

"Now for that poisonous rat," Ignia said. "Zeref, find him!"

"I'm busy! Can't you do things yourself?!" Zeref argued. Ignia growled, then yelped in pain as Erik landed on his back, shooting poison into his system. Ignia thrashed and jumped around, trying to snap his jaws on the Poison.

"You useless lizards! You should've just stayed home with your pathetic Prince!" Ignia snarled.

Natsu slammed into Erik, sending him tumbling head over tail across the ground.

"And that's the last of them. I'm sorry, you guys, but it really didn't have to come to this," Natsu said. He glanced aside, watching as Ignia took off to get back into the fight.

"You really should've just stayed out of the way," Natsu hovered up into the air overhead, then inhaled deeply, summoning as much magic as possible, then shot a large eruption of flame down towards his ex-siblings.

"NO!" Lucy screamed as she watched. Gray pulled her closer to him to hide her eyes from the carnage.

Erza grimaced, feeling her eyes well up with tears. Six of her closest friends, just gone in one attack.

Killed by Natsu, of all Dragons. She honestly couldn't believe it.

"What;s going on..?" Gray asked. Erza's head shot up, and she looked down again. The flames Natsu fired were dancing around strangely, as if being manipulated.

And judging by Natsu's expression, he wasn't the one doing it.

The flames suddenly shot outward in every direction and faded away.

And standing in the middle of the group–who were still alive and unharmed fortunately–was Emri.