Me is back :)

Heres the update.

Chapter 2

Erza jumped over the gap between the rooftops, forever chasing after the two black dots in the distance. She grinded her teeth in frustration as the dots became smaller and smaller, and before long had completely vanished into the horizon. She breathed heavily and slowed down to a halt, grasping tightly at the gash that had opened over her thigh. She had received that when trying to fight off one of the two people that had just escaped her chase, and with that injury he had managed to effectively reduce her chances of being able to catch them.

Natsu ran up behind Erza in concern and crouched beside her.

"Let me see." He said, lifting her skirt and looking at the wound over her lateral right thigh.

"Damn it. It looks poisoned." Natsu gasped as he scratched over the wound trying to rub off the greenish black material that seemed to be mixed in with the blood, at which Erza squirmed in pain.

"I can still go. Help me up Natsu," Erza said, grabbing his hand and trying to pull herself up, but Natsu let go of her hand and stood up alone.

"No way. You'll stay here and contact Polyurischia through your lacrima. Ask her to send help over for you." He commanded.

Erza looked at him, feeling happier knowing that he cared about her as much, but she had a mission to finish. Two unknown mages had broken into the citadel of Gathering of Guilds that morning and had stolen sensitive documents about the strategies and plans of the Guilds alliance to defeat Zeref. The two had been extremely fast and strong as well, being able to defeat Erza in swordplay and landing a poisoned gash over her thigh, making Erza think that they weren't typical mages, rather demons created by Zeref.

Erza had asked Natsu to stay away as he had been instructed by Polyurischia to not take part in combat missions since his psychology had been disturbed since Igneel's passing, making him more liable to make unreasonable decisions. But Erza was really glad that Natsu had sneaked along with her anyway without her notice, not because he was a big help in the mission. She was happy just because he had come along. His presence made her happier.

"What about the spies?" Erza asked Natsu as she watched him take off his scarf and fold it. She watched in wonder as Natsu crouched back down and tightened the scarf around her thigh firmly yet gently. Erza felt a relieving heat creep up her body as soon as the scarf made contact with her skin.

"This has Igneel's scales in it." Natsu replied as he made sure the scarf was not too tight and not too loose. "They help with pain and also work against all kinds of poison. This is the next best thing to Polyurischia is she isn't here herself. And as for the spies,"

Natsu looked at Erza. "I don't care about them. I will not have you gravely injured just because some asshole didn't protect the guild documents properly."

Erza couldn't help but smile at his words and behaviour. Now she was even more glad that he had come along, because his adorable antics for a moment made her forget about the very important mission that she was at the risk of failing. She knew how important Igneel was to that man, and he had been taking extra care of that scarf since Igneel had left the world as it was the last memento of the great fire dragon left with him. The fact that he was able to part with the scarf for her sake was moving for her. It were moments like these day and day again which made her realise how deeply and intensely she was in love with this man.

She grabbed his hand. "Thank you, Natsu. I appreciate it, but… those documents are important. They may mean the difference between victory and defeat for all of us."

Natsu looked in the direction where the spies had vanished to.

Erza continued. "I want us to win this war. I pray every night that we win. So that… i can spend a peaceful and meaningful life… with you, after all this is done."

Natsu looked back at Erza. Erza could see in his eyes that he wanted the same as she did. Erza had known that Natsu wasn't too keen on fighting in the war. He had even suggested that he and Erza run far far away and live with each other. Maybe since Igneel had left him, he couldn't find a proper reason to fight anymore. But Erza couldn't have that. She knew that the Natsu she knew would always put his friends before himself. She knew that the real Natsu would not run away from a war for his own sake, and he would stay and fight even at the cost of his own life. That was the Natsu she knew. That was the man she loved. So she had made it a point to have Natsu stay and fight alongside her in the war, in hopes that he will remember what kind of a person he used to be before life played that terrible joke on him.

Erza continued, sincerely looking at him in his dark charcoal eyes. "I don't want to run away, Natsu. I want to stay here and fight. I want to fight beside you. I don't want the two of us to run away to build a life together. I want us to stay right here, and fight for our future. You and me."

Natsu stared at her, calculating her words. He then nodded at her.

"Fair enough."

He squeezed her hand slightly, and then let it go. He stood up and squeezed his hands, blasting a flurry of fire outwards from his body. Erza watched in surprise as she started to realise what he was upto. She suddenly felt her heart sinking.

"No, Natsu. I didn't mean that!" She pressed. She knew he was about to go fight the spies himself. She wasn't afraid that he would lose. She was afraid that, if given a chance to fight in the fragile state that he was in, he would rather lose himself.

"I am fine now, let me get up and we can catch them together." She lied, trying to put pressure on her legs but feeling an incredible sting over her thigh. It had started to ache more than before.

"Natsu, please." Erza requested as a last resort.

But Natsu had made his mind up, and there was no shaking him now. At that moment, Erza saw herself looking at Natsu as the man he used to be. Hard-headed and stubborn, the kind of amazing man he once used to be. But she didn't want him to be the old Natsu right now. She wanted him to let her be with him rather than go and fight alone only because she was injured.

"Natsu, you don't have to use dragon force to catch them. Polyurischia has warned you explicitly to not transform. It can put stress on your mental health. Please don't do this."

Natus turned to his right. He was already pissed at the swordsmen amongst the two spies for having attacked Erza with the lethal poison, but Erza's words just now turned his latent anger into bloodlust. He could not forgive that man for almost having killed Erza. He needed to pay.

"Since you mentioned that winning this war means you and I will be together forever, let me show these pet dogs of Zeref what's coming for them in the war."

Erza watched as intense heat cloaked Natsu's figure. Flame burst from his body, and with each burst, a patch of his skin turned into scaly dragon hide, growing spikes and horns all over his body. His arms and legs became much more muscular and thick, his torso strong and tougher than steel, and half of his face fearsome and reptilian.

The consequent bursts of red hot flames caused Erza to look away, and when she looked back, she saw that he had reached his final transformation. He had grown massive dragon wings out his back, and his entire body had transformed completely, except for the left half of his face. Even though Erza felt slightly afraid of what he was going to do, she couldn't help but feel awed and impressed at the sheer amount of raw power that he was exuding at that moment. Natsu had already surpassed Laxus and herself even in his base form, but now with the dragon force transformation complete, Erza knew that he was probably as strong as Gildarts. But that was another reason for concern. Dragon Force was an experimental magic, extremely stressful on the user and highly unstable. The user was prone to completely lose their minds and go berserk, even risking a complete and permanent transformation into a dragon. The half of his face that hadn't transformed was a testimony that he still hadn't lost control, but Erza was fearful of when that could change.

She slowly reached for his dragon hand and fished her fingers in between his sharp claws, more confident than anything that his flames wouldn't hurt her, and she was right. Natsu looked at her with his half transformed face as he felt her soft touch tugging at his arm.

She looked up at him, fear and angst in her eyes, and requested dearly. "Please Natsu. Don't do anything rash. I… don't want you losing yourself in hatred and anger. I know what happened to Igneel has really disturbed you. I can't say I can fill the space that was left by him, but I will try my hardest. I will do my best to take your pain away and bring you as much happiness as I can. So please, return to me once you finish this. Don't… don't give in to the temptation of evil."

Erza knew that there was no changing his mind after he had made it up, and even though she was afraid of the hundreds of things that could go wrong with him, one thing she was extremely happy about was that Natsu was for once after so long, acting like his old determined and selfless self.

Natsu smiled with only the human half of his face, as the dragonified half didn't move much.

"Hold on to that scarf." He said. Then he faced front again and flung himself forward at mach speed, so fast that Erza wasn't even able to follow his swift figure as he rocketed past her.

Erza watched as the ball of fire quickly took flight, determined and passionate. Through the layers and layers of pride and faith she had in that man, deep inside was a sincere worry that he doesn't do anything rash to himself. She anxiously squeezed her fists.

'Take care, Natsu.'

Natsu felt rejuvenated as he flew at insane speeds through the sky, flapping his dragon wings powerfully. He hadn't felt this free and open in a very long time, as he hadn't been able to transform in a very long time. He didn't really care about what others said when they claimed it was dangerous if he transformed, but when Erza had made him make a promise to it, he couldn't refuse her. But now since she was okay with it, he felt amazing having transformed.

"You little pests." He grumbled confidently as he zoomed through the skies. "You think being Zeref's demons gives you a lot of power huh? I'll show you what a dragon can do."

As he rushed past sceneries and buildings and hills and trees, he could see the two spies in the distance now, hopping along rooftops, miles away from where Erza had stopped following them. Even though Natsu felt nothing but distaste and annoyance for those two, he had to give it to them. They were fast.

He planted himself over the ground right in front of them, the sheer raw power causing a massive explosion when his strong dragon feet landed in the dirt, a loud noise and shock waves emanating around him followed afterwards. As the dirt and the smoke settled, the spies that had been thrown away by the massive explosion right in front of them that had happened out of nowhere, slowly got up and needed a moment before their dazed minds could come back to the present.

Natsu had a good look at them. One was a man, black spiky hair and a pair of dark pants that ended in ankle length boots, and a bare chest. He carried a massive sword on his back, and Natsu realised he was the one that had poisoned Erza. Natsu looked at his companion, who was a short haired girl with a long jacket and a dark red skirt, black eyeliners and a dark lipstick to match. If they hadn't been Zeref's demons, they could have been in a punk metal band with lots of followers.

Natsu flapped his wings powerfully, sending fiery shockwaves around, and raised his hands up in a combative stance.

"Alright punks. Relinquish what documents you have stolen from the citadel of Guilds. Or I will beat them out of you. Both are equally fun for me." He growled in his deeper dragon voice.

The spies looked at each other and nonchalantly produced a backpack that they zipped open and and turned upside down, flushing all the contents outside. Natsu looked at the dozens of papers that flew out, and realised that they were completely blank. He looked up at the spies in confusion.

"The hell are you playing at?" He inquired angrily.

"The documents weren't our mission. You were." The girl said.

"My master." The man said as he got down on his knees and lowered his head to Natsu, followed by the girl doing the same.

Natsu narrowed his eyes, not knowing what kind of trickery they were going at against him. What was he supposed to do? He felt that it would have been much more satisfying to beat them up if they had attacked him first, but they were here making fun of him, or so he thought.

"What?" Natsu said.

The man amongst the two brought out a small throwing knife that he brought close to his face and flicked his tongue at its tip. Before Natsu could understand what that man was getting at, he flicked the throwing knife at Natsu, which got embedded in Natsu's left shoulder.

Natsu looked at the knife in amusement as he had thought that such small piercing weapons couldn't pierce his thick dragon hide, but yet here he was. He then realised that these were creatures that had come out of Zeref's book, a magician whose powers were still completely unknown to Natsu, and that would explain why that knife had managed to injure him. Natsu made it a point to be a little more careful.

He pulled the knife out and crushed it with his bare dragonified hands, eviscerating the pieces into thin air with his heat. He squeezed his fists and surged an intense amount of heat through them.

"This ends here, you clowns." He growled.

He then opened his right fist and shot a fierce fireball through it at the man, who evaporated in an instant, with nothing left of him on the ground he was sitting on a mere few seconds ago.

Natsu then looked at the girl who had seen everything but all she could do was smile through her dark lips and white teeth, not showing even a hint of aggression to try and avenge her companion. Natsu put away her weird behaviour from his mind, and just approached her and grabbed her by her neck. He lifted her feet above in the air, owing to his increased height due to his transformation.

He watched in confusion as the girl's eyes proceeded to fill up with tears that rolled down her face and onto his wrist, and went out with a sizzle. She looked glad about something.

"Welcome back, Etherious." She mumbled to him.

Natsu narrowed his eyes in confusion. He had been trying to ignore a lot of their weird behaviour, chalking it up to them being born out of a book and having bad spells that wrote them, like a badly coded video game, but as much as he ignored them, they kept getting weirder. He shook his head in a final attempt to look past their behaviour as it was going to be their last anyways. He proceeded to blast another jet of fire through the arm that held the girl, bringing her to the same fate as the man.

After he was done with the two adversaries, he looked down at the mass of empty papers stolen from the citadel and he put fire to them too just to be sure that even if there was something sensitive in them, it was gone for good as well. In his dragon force form, his fires became all consuming, which would mean nothing was left after something was put to fire by him.

He took flight again and passed through the same places he had gotten there to reach Erza. As soon as he got there, he turned off the magic tap that fed magic energy to his force transformation skill, which readily turned off the jets of fire that were exuding from his body, but the dragonified parts of his body including his wings would take a while to go away. As he approached Erza, he felt his face returning back to normal.

Erza slowly got up as she saw Natsu approaching, a bright smile plastered on her face as she could tell that Natsu had finished the job. She extended her arms and held forward Natsu's scarf in them which had done a great job at healing her and had gotten rid of the poison completely. Natsu smiled too and he extended his dragon arm to receive back his scarf.

"You did it." Erza said happily.

Natsu nodded, returning the smile. "It's done. Let's head back—"

Natsu suddenly slumped over and collapsed to the floor, unmoving. Erza's eyes widened suddenly in shock as all the glee that was inside her was suddenly flushed away and was replaced by fright and concern. Ignoring her thigh that still hurt, she ran up to Natsu and turned him over so that his face was facing upwards, and shook his body and slapped his face to try and bring him back to consciousness.

"N-Natsu! Wake up! Natsu!" She begged.

She had no idea what had suddenly happened to him. Usually if he had exerted himself though practicing his transformation, he would just suddenly lose the transformation and return to his base form but never collapse unconscious like this. Was it really because of his transformation sapping all his energy or was it something else? She knew for a fact that this wasn't normal. Did something happen to him while fighting the demons? What if this was something grave? What if… he would never wake up? That thought filled her eyes with tears.

As she tried to shake him back to try and get any form of response out of him, she managed to notice a deep gash over his shoulder that had turned black and she could see the blackness moving around it as if it were a group of worms traveling beneath his skin. She examined it properly and could tell that he was hit with a throwing knife. She tried to touch the black spot over his shoulder but as soon as she did, she was met with a horrible head piercing headache that forced her to let go of the wound immediately.

"Oh my God…" She mumbled in horror as she realised what that black smudge was. As much as she could tell, it was a demonic curse probably put on Natsu by one of the spies he had been fighting.

"Natsu!" Erza cried, shaking his lifeless body that was promptly going cold.

"Natsu, wake up! Please Natsu respond!"

"Natsu… Natsu… Can you hear me?"

Natsu could hear a voice from somewhere beyond that black and dark world that he woke up in. For a moment that voice resembled Erza, but it quickly morphed into a calm and young masculine voice. Something about that voice felt… familiar. Like it was someone he had known for a long time. For hundreds of years.

"Do you remember our parents? Our father? He was a woodcutter. Salmon haired, just like you? And mother, with her beautiful eyes and black long hair? Like mine? Do you… remember me?"

Natsu turned around and around in that empty world but nothing seemed to be anything other than just a blinding shade of blackness. Darker than black. He tried to extend his hand and grabbed at the air, but he caught nothing other than emptiness. Sole voices echoed around, kids running and groups of men and women chattering. Shouts, cries, fires, battlefields. He remembered them to be the same voices that he used to hear in the temple.

"Who are you? Show your face!" Natsu cried in confusion and anger. He could tell whoever this voice was knew a lot more about Natsu than he himself. His father? Mother? Natsu never knew he even had parents apart from Igneel. Igneel used to joke that Natsu came from an egg, but Natsu didn't really care to actually find out about his parents. He didn't care at that time either. He just wanted whoever this was to leave him alone in peace. He needed to get back to Erza.

"So… you don't remember anything. It's alright. It's been… ages. But you soon will. It's time you came back to your real family. To me."

Erza sat by Natsu's bed inside the guild resting quarters. Apart from some hand and leg movements, Natsu hadn't really budged much. Erza rubbed her eyes as she hadn't been able to sleep properly in days through which Natsu had been comatose. She couldn't help but feel deeply afraid and broken, thinking that he was slowly slipping away from her. That he was leaving her behind. That she would never get to see him again. Never feel his strong arms tightening around her in an embrace again. Never feel his comforting and loving warmth. If she could do anything at all, she would do it to turn back time and not let him go after the mages all alone. It was all her fault.

Polyurischia stood by the door of the resting quarters, staring at Erza's back as the redhead frequently doused a piece of cloth in water and rubbed it over Natsu's body. The witch doctor was really surprised that Erza could hold off sleep for that long. Polyurischia was used to doing it in her medical practice, but to see Erza doing it really testified to her how deeply she cared for Natsu. She couldn't help but smile at the beauty of their relationship that she was getting to witness before her.

As for Natsu, things weren't as cheerful. He definitely was hit with a curse, but what, Polyurischia had no clue about. Zeref was still an extremely mysterious figure in their world, being able to write magic into a book and produce demons out of thin air was a magic she didn't even know existed. She could only imagine how advanced he was in magic. His power truly was terrifying and otherworldly. She shifted anxiously in her standing position as she thought about it. Rumours said that for doing some corrupted deed about a six hundred years ago and playing with the laws of nature as known and followed by the world by performing some sort of necromancy, Zeref was punished and cursed by the God of War and Destruction, Ankhseram. And it was said that Ankhseram was the only figure that Zeref feared, which would explain why that God had become such a revered figure in the war coming up against the spriggan.

Polyurischia was brought out of her ponderings as she heard Natsu moan softly. She quickly looked ahead and saw that Erza had been alerted of Natsu's awakening as well, and was standing over his bed, all her tiredness gone to the winds. Polyurischia stepped forward to try and help him as she watched Erza try to pull Natsu up on his bed with his hand.

"Careful Natsu, your body must still be fragile after that poison–"

The doctor's words were cut off as she barely dodged a whole bed that was flung at her.

She turned around to look at the bed that flew through several walls in the guild building and was embedded deep in the farthest wall as it lost momentum. She widened her eyes in shock as she couldn't believe that Natsu had just tried to attack her. She looked back and saw Natsu completely up on both his feet, shivering and shaking all over, some of his medical dressings coming off while others sticking to his gravely injured body, soaked in blood. What was more shocking was that Natsu had grabbed Erza by her throat and had lifted her in the air, feet above the ground.

"Natsu… What are you doing? It's me, Erza…" she managed to mumble through her choked throat. After a while, Erza lost consciousness and fell limp to the ground.

Polyurischia stared at Natsu as fear, an emotion she probably hadn't felt in a long time crept up her body. She couldn't explain the source. Was it what he was doing? That couldn't be because she had seen more violent things in her life. What could it be that was so supernaturally terrifying and disturbing about the situation she was in? Then she realised it.

Natsu opened both his eyes. While one of them was normal, although looked completely drained of life and light, the other one was exceptionally dark and black, as if just a void in his face and nothing more. As Polyurischia kept watching in sheer panic and horror that she realised was being created in her because of the horribly dark and troublesome aura that Natsu was emanating at the moment, something inside his black eye moved, and blood trickled out of that eye and ran down the side of his face.

The witch doctor knew what that eye was.

"He… he has a Hole." She spoke to no one in particular.

"A what?" She heard Laxus's voice from beside her, and looked to her right. She saw Laxus and Mirajane, and many other mages that filled up the room after the commotion of that bed that had gone flying. Gajeel, Wendy, Levy, Juvia and Gray were some of the last ones to fill in and gasp in uncertainty and shock as they saw Natsu looking much different than usual. His eye was the most characteristic difference there, but also the wound over his shoulder had a black material coming out of it, like roots of a plant spreading over his body.

Polyurischia looked back at Natsu, particularly at that eye that she had just mentioned as being a 'Hole', just looking at which caused her to feel severe panic and fear of unknown origins, and squirm in nausea and disgust the likes of which she had never felt before.

This wasn't Natsu. What was standing in front of them was… something entirely else. Something evil. Something demonic and maniacal. Out of this world.

"A Hole is… what we call his left eye." She continued, looking away from his eyes and shutting her own in fear. "A demon eye. Pure high level demons have eyes like that that give them insane amounts of power, but at the cost of sacrificing their own blood, that these eyes constantly feed on."

Mirajane couldn't grasp properly at what she was hearing. Polyurischia had first told them that Natsu had been cursed by the creatures of Zeref's book, which she and probably a lot more mages of the guild thought was the reason for his condition right now, but now she was hinting that Natsu was a pure demon? It didn't make sense to her. She looked at Natsu again, and thought of speaking to him. The Natsu she knew would never hurt her.

"Natsu?" She asked softly, slowly stepping forward, pushing away Laxus's hand that he extended in front of her to keep her from going near. "Can you hear me Natsu? It's me, Mirajane. You used to call me your elder sister when we were little. It's your sister. I deeply care about you. We all do. We all really love you, Natsu. I love you. Do you recognise me?"

Natsu's body kept shivering and shaking strangely through the entire charade that had happened in front of him. He locked his 'Hole' eye at Mirajane, as the other one seemed completely dead and didn't seem to move at all, as if only the black eye controlled him.

He smiled a wide smile, wider than anyone in the room could imagine a human's facial musculature could possibly allow, and raised his hand and pointed at the group of mages without particularly using any of his fingers that were bent at weird angles, almost as if broken.

"Krossar bing hrolekchek colosar." Natsu whisphered, reciting some lines from the book of Zeref. Only Polyurischia and Levi were able to recognise that language given their extensive bookish research on Zeref.

Natsu then laughed and blinked furiously. "That is Etherean for your end is near."

I wanted to see this event to the end in this chapter, but it was getting too long. I'll get the next one out fast. Faster than how fast Natsu chased after them demonic demons.