Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail, Rave Master, and Eden's Zero are all owned by Hiro Mashima. Please support the official release.

Chapter 18: Spit Out My Natsu

(Que Fairy Tail OP)

Lucy and Simon with Gray a bit behind to take care of some minions picked up the pace when they could feel intense heat from down the hall. The Demon Slayer ran with more vigor in her legs driven by the scent of Natsu. When they neared the end of the hall, they found themselves in a vast chamber of cages hanging from chains from the ceiling.

There were crashes and rattles of broken iron across the room. Natsu was jumping from cage to cage his flames burning bright, but he didn't look like he was on the winning side. His opponent was much faster wearing a rocket pack and smashing with brute force sending the Dragon Slayer brutally with his impressive build.

But what really threw Lucy off was the fact that the man Natsu was fighting had the head of an owl.

"Who - the fuck - is that?!" exclaimed Lucy.

Simon, who was petrified on the spot, broke from his trance. "Th-That's Hoocaloo, one of the assassins from Trinity Raven. He's a professional killer. Natsu doesn't stand a chance."

"Hmm." said Hoocaloo, noticing the two newcomers, "Ah, two more villains for me to place justice upon them. Hoo-hoo."

'Yeah, I draw the line at fucking talking owls.' thought Lucy, having enough crap to deal with.

Seeing Natsu all beaten and Hoocaloo standing there all smug was fueling the furious flames within Lucy. Only Simon's strong hand stopped Lucy from jumping into the fray.

"No, you can't fight that thing." warned Simon, "I'll get us out of here."

Simon used Dark Moment and the whole room sank into pitch-black darkness. Lucy, Happy, and Natsu were trapped in the pitch-black, dark abyss. All sense they had was the echoing voice of Simon, but also...

"Your shadow cannot escape justice, hoo-hoo."

There was a loud crack, and the spell dissolved. Happy and the slayers just got their eyesight back in time to see Simon flying from Hoocaloo was and into a wall. HE had a nasty bruise on his cheek, and possibly a broken jaw. Either way he wasn't getting back up.

"Salamander," said birdbrain, "word is you and your guild cause nothing but destruction in your path. For justice, I shall bring your punishment."

'Can this guy shut-'

Lucy was interrupted from her thoughts when she felt a heavy blow literally rocket into her stomach from a punch. She coughed up saliva and her breath while crashing into a wall above them. Natsu grimaced at the sudden attack quickly turning into hot fury.

"Hey your fight is with me." roared Natsu, jetting dragon fire from his feet, "Leave m- Lucy out of this."

Unfortunately, Hoocaloo's rocket-aided speed far surpassed Natsu's. He maneuvered behind the Dragon Slayer and slammed into his back. Natsu endured through the pain just in time to hook his hand on a chain before falling into the dark depths.

"Have you not heard of the atrocities of the Northern Devil?" said Hoocaloo, "She has killed many in her path across the continent. No dark guild was spared. Her punishment by the hands of justice is long overdue."

"I beg to differ, birdbrain." growled Natsu, the flames on his hands roaring with a primal fury that sent a shiver down Hoocaloo's spine. "Where you see a murderer - I see someone who is very precious to me. Someone that is a part of my heart that I can't ever replace. So if you hurt her - I'll turn you into ashes."

Happy had one thought from that dialogue. Scary.

But Lucy had a million thoughts going on through her head. He must've been saying those things because he assumed she was already knocked out. Every word from Natsu's speech made her heart sing. Her primal instincts were screaming to her that she has found the one. The one she could share her heart with.

'He must feel the same way I do.' thought Lucy, 'I promise Natsu I'll let you know as well.'

"Bold words, but they will never-"

Hoocaloo was cut off by a flaming kick courtesy of Lucy. Natsu watched in amazement of her speed. She was on the other side of the room a literal second ago. A dreaded thought came to his head.

'D-Did she hear everything I said?' thought Natsu.

"You really need to shut the fuck up, birdbrain." said Lucy, slamming her fists together and ignited them in gold flames and the symbol of a demon glowed before her, "And fuck off from Natsu. Fire Demon's Killer Fist."

Lucy blinked the distance between Hoocaloo and herself and landed a bone-shattering punch to his face. As he was hurled uncontrollably, Lucy gave a glance to Natsu who got the message with a smirk.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack."

While Hoocaloo was out of his bearings, Natsu bashed him more with wings of fire. Lucy used her speed to get behind the man and thrust a kick into his back to send him back upward. Natsu barely followed up and only had enough time to redirect birdbrain into a cage with a kick.

"I can't believe you were getting trashed by this slowpoke." Lucy taunted, "You're so slow."

Instead of getting annoyed, Natsu flashed his signature grin and the heat of his flames intensified. "Whatever but I say let's turn up the heat."

"That I can get behind." Lucy cried, raging her own fires in response.

Simon watched in astonishment as the very heat of the two slayers together were melting the chains and cages of the chamber. He was confident that a Dragon Slayer and a Demon Slayer were strong enough to defeat Jellal when pushed, but he never imagined they could unleash such heated destruction. He couldn't see humans but instead a demon and a dragon stood in Lucy and Natsu's place.

'Incredible.' thought Simon, 'If one of them powers up, the other one is pushed to go higher and vice versa. How could their magic power be synced up like this on an instinctual level?'

"I'm fired up now." The fire slayers roared.

Lucy was the first to move, or rather disappear from Hoocaloo's line of sight.

"Fire Demon's Killer Fist."

She reappeared behind and punched him in the back again. This time her fist dug into the rocket pack and exploded on impact. As Hoocaloo was being careened from the explosion, Natsu dashed up with a flaming fist. Where he lacked speed with Lucy, he made up with raw power as his fist landed with the crack of a firing cannon. His punch acted like a toss to Lucy who punched him back. They continued their little game till they became a dome of golden and crimson blurs darting back and forth while Hoocaloo was continuously ravaged between them.

Yet, Hoocaloo wasn't showing any signs of giving up, which may have been impossible to know via the owl head. However, the last time Lucy kicked him back to Natsu, Hoocaloo endured as much as he could to direct his head to Natsu. All eyes widened when Hoocaloo's jaw expanded ten times its size.

"If I can't defeat you two together," said Hoocaloo, "then I'll just eat one of you."

To Lucy's horrot, Hoocaloo used the velocity of her kick to forcefully engulf Natsu into his mouth. His arm shot out and twirled him around a chain to land on a cage. Already, he could feel the immense power of the Dragon Slayer rushing into his own body just from the taste alone. Just one more swallow into his gullet and he shall have this power forever.

'Your power will be mine Salamander.' thought Hoocaloo, 'Then your girlfriend is next.'

A stray hand grabbed onto Hoocaloo's arm. The foreign contact made him pause in swallowing Natsu and he looked down to find furious pink eyes staring back at him. Before he could retort, a clap of shock rang through the chamber and Hoocaloo found to his horror Lucy's other fist, burning in golden hellfire, lodged into his gut and in Natsu's path to his stomach.

"Spit - him - out!" Lucy snarled.

"Wha-"

"Wrong answer." roared Lucy, creating the visage of a very angry demon behind her. Between every word she said, she mercilessly punched Hoocaloo in the gut. "Spit - out - my - Natsu!"

A rage-induced Killer Fist later Hoocaloo coughed out Natsu in pain and doubled back. He found himself covered in bodily fluids and quickly dried it off with an increase in heat and a shake. Lucy's eyes glinted with relief and teary-eyed worry before bringing herself back to the situation. The two slayers slowly accosted Hoocaloo, golden and crimson fires flaring behind them. They looked more like monsters with the fires literally giving way to their path.

"That was really fucking gross!" Natsu roared. He grabbed Hoocaloo before punching him away. Lucy and Natsu jumped in the air and their guts allowed a fire to rage in size.

"Fire Demon's-"

"Fire Dragon's-"

"-Rage/Roar."

Lucy and Natsu spewed a wall of fire. Before crashing down on the owl man, the two jets of fire twisted together and created a bright blue fire in their mix. The twister of fire crashed down on Hoocaloo with a bang and forced him down into the dark depths of the chamber where a soft crash was heard from the very bottom.

'These two,' thought Simon, staring at these monsters with wide eyes, 'are going to fuck up this world.'

Gray arrived only to miss the fun.

'Damn fire-breathers taking all the fun.' Gray whined in his head.


(Time-Skip)

Simon, Natsu, and Lucy were walking up the steps spiraling around the tower. Gray went his own way to the tower and had Happy with him in case they needed to take the boat. Juvia had rendezvous with Millianna and Wally and are flushing out the rest of the dark wizards or getting those unwilling to help to the boats. There was no word of Cynthia, but Lucy had a sneaky suspicion she was having the time of her life.

"I beg of you two," Simon said, "you have to help Erza fight Jellal. He's far stronger than she thinks."

"Not happening." Natsu stated.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Simon exclaimed disbelief being filthy on his face.

Simon took Natsu by his scarf and rammed him into a wall. He had impressive strength to cause the wall to crack, but Natsu didn't seem to feel it.

"You call yourself her friend but you refuse to help her!?" Simon accused with venom in his voice.

Despite the danger in Simon's attitude, Natsu did not waver in fear and kept a serious face.

"This is her fight." said Natsu, "She wants to handle it on her own. She'd never forgive me if I wanted to butt into her business."

Lucy agreed. "You have to have more faith in Erza. She's grown over years, getting so strong and not just physically. She can handle this."

"How could you just say that?!" Simon spat.

Simon's anger subsided and he let Natsu down. He turned around, his saddened face directed to the ground.

"There's no way, absolutely no way Erza can win against Jellal." said Simon, "It's not because she doesn't have the magic power, far from it. Despite everything Jellal has done, I have no doubt Erza still wants to save Jellal. In her heart, she will always see the boy who gave everyone hope and fought for her. He'll use that memory to wipe the floor with Erza. And in a few minutes the Etherion will blast down and annihilate the entire tower. If you know her how much as you say you do, then you know what she is planning."

Lucy frowned. "Natsu, maybe he is right. No matter how strong a wizard is, even the strongest are rendered weak to attacks to the mind. Erza may just break down the moment she fights Jellal."

"When the blast comes," Simon concluded, "Erza will sacrifice her life along with Jellal's."

"You should've said that to begin with!" Natsu exclaimed, powering up as flames danced at his feet, "Let's go Lucy and get to Erza."

"Right!" Lucy said, fire rocketing from her feet, "Yet again I have to stop Erza from doing something this stupid."

The two slayers flew off the side of the tower. The jets of fire roared through the air and sent them at breakneck speeds. Left behind to recover from his wounds, Simon was greeted with the image yet again of a dragon and a demon on a path to bring ruin.

Yeah, there was no way Jellal was going to survive.

His mirage was broken when in a very real blinding light came crashing down from the heavens themselves. The clouds parted so Simon could see the Etherion fire down its unmatched magical blast onto the tower. In his mind, Simon made his last thoughts before his 'death'.

'We didn't make it in time.' thought Simon, 'Hopefully in the next world I'll get to tell you how I felt, Erza.'

In another part of the tower, Cynthia paused in her torture of the so-callled Hunter to look out the window to the blinding light of Etherion. Instead of fear, there was a look of curiosity on her face like that of a child.

'Pretty light.' thought Cynthia.


(After the blast...)

No one in the tower found themselves in the afterlife. They were instead lying in tower of lacrima brimming with untold magic. Lucy and Natsu hastily got to their feet, but their adrenaline rushed into overdrive when they heard the cry of a familiar voice.

"Did you hear-"

"Of course I did." Lucy snapped, her demon skin encompassing her whole body, "Let's go burn this Jellal."

In less than a minute, Lucy and Natsu reached the summit of the tower to find two people. One of them was of course Erza in a flame-patterned battle skirt with bandages around her chest. The other was a man with blue hair and a red tattoo around his right eye.

"That must be Jellal." Lucy whispered to Natsu, "You go get Erza while I go from the other side."

Natsu nodded quickly. When he set his mind to it, the pyromaniac was an astounding in any given situation seeing how quiet he was getting Erza. Lucy quickly scrambled around the summit lowering her head below the crystals till she was on the other side with Jellal in kicking distance. She poked her head out one last time to make sure Natsu could see her, then whispered so quietly only slayers could hear.

"Let's do this." Lucy signaled.

Natsu quietly got to Erza and pried her out of the lacrima. Jellal glanced back to see Natsu flashing a grin at him.

The way that Natsu was holding Erza made Lucy feel a slight bit of jealousy for a moment before she pushed it down.

"Erza's an important member of our family." Natsu stated, "None of us will let you touch her."

"N-Natsu!" exclaimed Erza, "You have to get out of here."

"C'mon, we ain't leaving." said Natsu.

Jellal quirked an eyebrow. "'We'?"

"Fire Demon's Kick."

Jellal dashed away with Meteor to avoid a wave of hellfire made from a kick. The harsh flames managed to graze his cheek, sending a burning wave through his body for just a second. Lucy made her appearance crouching into her fighting stance and facing down Jellal.

"Ah, so the Northern Devil and Salamander grace me with their presence." said Jellal in a calm manner.

"You would be smart to heed our words." Lucy snarled, covering herself in golden fire, "If you can't do the fighting, then we'll do it for you. That's what family is for."

"H-He's too powerful." said Erza, failing to conceal the fear in her voice, "Besides, you don't know anything about him."

"Who says we have to know him to beat him?" Natsu replied.

"Please," Erza sobbed, tears streaming down her left eye, "just do as I ask. I beg-"

Lucy dashed to Erza with speed that made Jellal's eyes widened and dealt a quick punch to her gut, effectively knocking Titannia out. Natsu's stern look didn't drop; he was thinking of doing the same thing. The Demon Slayer turned slightly to Jellal, her face masked in shadow.

"How cruel." Jellal commented, "You claim to be her family, but you openly strike her down just like that."

(Que Sad Fairy Tail Theme)

"I had to." said Lucy with a heavy voice, her flames dancing around her, "She was crying. Erza has already shed enough tears, and her voice - it was filled with so much fear. The kind of fear when you're faced with the very thing that destroyed your life. That took everything you cared for away. Now Erza has a family where she can laugh, cheer, and make precious memories. She was afraid that you would take away that again. But it won't happen."

"Erza shouldn't be seen like that." Natsu added, dragon fire burning around in tangent with Lucy, "We in the guild look up to her as a strong warrior. She inspires us. And when she wakes up from this nightmare, I want her to feel like her old self again."

The two fire slayers snapped their eyes upon Jellal, and the wizard saint couldn't help but wince under their combined gaze. It felt like two monsters bearing down on him for murder. Their infernos spread around them and onto the floor, literally creating a hellzone.

"You want to try and take away her life again," they roared, "then we - will - end you!"


It's been a while yeah, and no as much as I would want. It's just that everyone loves Roses of the Death Goddess so much. It already has nearly 200 followers and it only has 19 chapters.

Up next is Chapter 19: Mastered Dragonforce.

Stay in touch. Please, please leave a review.