Got a comment to answer before we begin!

Thicc-Chungs- The Natza fluff that I am currently showing is more platonic than anything. She's deeply worried about Natsu more than anything. Especially after she just witnessed him have a psychotic episode for the first time, which will only get worse now. She hasn't even begun to think of her feelings about Natsu. So don't worry, he's not being rushed into another relationship. I'll give ya a hint, go back to chapter one and read the top once more, who do you think screams his name? Hint, not Lucy. Hope that cleared things up.

Roll24k- Trust me I am not at all trying to argue with Lucy Vs Erza. They both have pros, they both have cons in terms of their characters. I guess the way I talked about Lucy would say I don't like her as a character. I do like her, she's smart, resourceful, strong magical potential, quick on her feet. It was more in the beginning she was kinda ditzy in my opinion with trying to sexualize her body to the shop keeper to try to get Plue for a better price. Those are more of her dumb moments, but the times she's smart trumps those. She has amazing moments in the show compared to Erza who is walking plot armor, I mean broken legs, arms and she takes out a damn meteor and a dragon on top of it? Come on now. The only fights that didn't really have plot armor was Jellal, and Kagura. That's my issue with Erza as a character. Lucy doesn't have many issues at all, except excessive fan service but I guess that doesn't really take away from her character. I don't bash any character really, except butt jiggle gang, those were the cringest villains that ever came into the show. The rest of the characters I love mostly. Just Natsu and Erza are up there for me, but it doesn't mean I knock Lucy. She's a great character in her own right, especially 100 year quest. Anyway, you're welcome for responding. I want my readers to know I am reading them, and acknowledging their presence. Thank you for your comment :)

Onto the story!

A week had long since passed when Lucy broke up with Natsu. To say he wasn't the same was a complete understatement. The Natsu, who was full of life, raring to go on the next mission to knock some heads in for the joy of battle, was gone. While he recovered in the infirmary, Erza visited him every second of the day. But... he barely said a word to her, which confused the knight. She had taken notice of Lucy's absence from the guild.

She remembered talking to Mira about Natsu when, out of the corner of her eye, Erza saw Lucy sprint out of the guild with tears. When she was about to give chase to the blond, a blood curdling scream came from the infirmary, which froze the whole guild still. Without another doubt, she, Mira, Gray, and Makarov bee lined it to the second floor as fast as they could. The sight they were left with made their blood run cold. Natsu was screaming to the top of his lungs, clawing as hard and deep as he could against his chest with tears running down his right eye.

The image still haunts her to this day. Luckily, she was able to bring him back to reality, but no sooner she did, he lost consciousness. Makarov demanded they keep an eye on him, and Erza was the first to volunteer. She wasn't leaving Natsu's side again. He was fragile, mentally, and emotionally, and the clear sign of his episode was more than proof to state it.

But when he was finally cleared to go home, Erza offered to stay with him for the time being. But any hope she had he'd accept it was quickly crushed. Natsu was... different, just taking a look into his eye. There wasn't a fire, there wasn't happiness, there was... nothing. A never-ending abyss of pain, sadness, and anger within his onyx orb. He didn't smile. He didn't give them his toothy grin, which was a staple to him.

Even when he was cleared to leave, a brawl was currently taking place in the guild like most days it did. A chair had flown in the wrong direction, smacking Natsu down onto the ground. Everyone froze to see who they hit and the terrifying red aura that poured off of Erza. Needless to say, there was a mountain of groaning bodies when she was done with all of them. But what scared them most is his reaction. He slowly stood up, not bothering to wipe the bloody nose the flying chair had caused.

The sight was unnerving, to say the least, as he slowly dragged his body to the exit, passing Gray, who tried to stop the slayer. Happy even tried following him, but he was told to stay there at the guild against his dismay. When Natsu left, everyone looked at each other, unsure what to say. What could they say? The person who walked out of the guild wasn't Natsu... it was someone else.

Gray didn't know what to think of his rivals' behavior. He just went through the most painful near death experience. Was he traumatized? Depressed? Angry his pride had taken such a heavy blow? Who was to know what was going through Natsu's mind. He took a glance over towards Erza, his eyes widening when he saw the tears in her eyes. Like Natsu, he hates to see the knight cry. Erza was a strong warrior. Stoic, brave, and filled with conviction for her comrades. But just maybe... being weak wasn't a bad idea at the moment. He felt hopeless on what to do for Natsu, but he did know they had to do something soon before something happened.

Wendy was lost on what was going on with someone who she viewed as an older brother. She wanted desperately to help him, but she was helpless like everyone else. Carla looked towards the door with a frown when suddenly a throbbing pain surged from her head as a vision appeared before her very own eyes. It was blurry at first, but it cleared up to see Natsu at the edge of the cliff. It was evident he was crying, blood running down his hands, his body covered in bruises and cuts. He took one more step, plummeting to the bottom before she gasped sharply, alerting Wendy, who looked down at her with a concerned look. "Carla, what's wrong? Did you get a vision?" She asked with fearful eyes, knowing every time the feline had a vision, it spied nothing good.

"I... I don't know Wendy," she pressed a paw to her head with wide eyes. 'No... It couldn't of been Natsu I saw. It... It had to be someone else!'

'Natsu...' Happy stared towards the guild's entrance, his heart throbbing for his foster father. Natsu would tell him anything that was bothering the slayer, but why not now? He, Erza, Wendy, Gray and even Carla intended to find out. Before it's too late.

Natsu slowly walked along the cobblestone path to his home, his shoulders slumped down completely as the blood that ran down his nose had finally stopped, leaving his vest covered in the metallic liquid. People gave him strange looks, but he paid them no mind. His lifeless eye pointed in one direction, and it wasn't his home. He stopped for a moment to look at the sign in front. 'Natsu Happy' usually that sign would make him smile, even grin knowing he shared a home with his foster son. "Happy..." he muttered, gently grazing his bloodied hand along the sign before he continued to walk with no place in mind.

"So, this is what the famous Fairy Tail mage, Salamander, Natsu Dragneel is left as. A hollow broken shell, how pathetic."

Natsu froze in his tracks, whipping his head in every direction of the eery whisper that sounded like it was right next to him. "W-whos there?! Show yourself, before I pound ya!"

"You, the pathetic Natsu Dragneel will do nothing. Look at yourself, covered in your own blood with one eye. No wonder that blond broke up with you."

The dragon slayer continued to turn in every which way with a weak growl. "Where are you?!"

"And they call you dense for good reason. I'm nowhere, but I'm somewhere in that far corner of your head boy."

"M-my mind?" Natsu asked with wide eyes, clutching onto his head tightly, clenching his eye closed. "No, your not real! I-im just delirious, yeah that's it!"

"Come up with any excuse you can Natsu, but I'm here to stay. The only release you get from me is when you're dead and buried, but will you even get that I wonder~"

"G-get out of my head!" A flame ignited in his palm as he slammed his fist into a tree, making it splinter in half with a crack.

"It seems I've touched a nerve. No wonder that slut left you. I bet she's with someone right now, forgetting you even exist!"

"SHUT UP!" Natsu smacked the top of his head repeatedly, roaring to the top of his lungs. "Your not real, your not real!" He clenched his fists tightly over his skull, gritting his teeth as he could hear the shadow laugh in amusement.

"I wonder where that Lucy is right now? Certainly not thinking about you. Why don't you do us all a favor and die already? Use a splintered branch and slit your throat. You'll be free, free of the pain, free of the heart ache. DO IT!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" He roared, sending his fist into the ground as it cracked under pressure with a small crater. "You know nothing of Lucy, NONE! She cares about me, I know she does!"

"Then why did she break up with you? Someone who "cares and loves you" wouldn't do that and you know I'm right."

Natsu dug his palms into the grass with wide eyes. "N-no.. she loves me and I know she does! S-she does... I swear..." tears streamed down his cheek as dark clouds loomed over the sky, thunder and lightning cracking across the sky. "You don't know me, you don't know Lucy and you don't know my friends!"

"Friends? You're nothing but a hindrance to them and you know it. Especially Erza, she'd be glad to be rid of you, and your pathetic moping over a dumb blond!"

Something snapped inside Natsu as he punched the ground once more, standing up from the muddy ground. He walked forward, flames igniting his fists brightly in the darkness of the raging storm. Rain pelted his body as his flames grew brighter, and brighter, completely making the rain drops evaporate. "Why? why... WHY?!" He screamed to the top of his lungs before slamming his fist into another trunk of a tree, shattering it as it fell over onto the ground.

"Isn't it obvious why? She got rid of you like everyone else will."

Another punch was sent into tree as Natsu's flames began to grow in intensity and power.

"Gray is probably sick of you. Wishing you'd drop dead."

Blood spattered out from his knuckles as he punched another tree repeatedly.

"Erza sees you as a liability."

Another tree cracked under the pressure of his fist, coating the trunk in the blood that flew from his hands.

"Everyone wants you gone."

Natsu punched the tree again.

"Makarov shouldn't of found you in that forest."

And Again.

"Igneel wishes he never cared for you."

And again.

"Zeref wishes he never created a pathetic demon!"

Natsu didn't stop. It was like a pattern, back and forth, fist after fist smashing into the tree trunk with such ferocity, his eye becoming a yellow slit. His knuckles bled profusely off of his hands, coating the trees, the grass, anywhere his fist led, blood followed. Tears streamed down his eye like a never ending waterfall that mixed with the rain that pelted his skin.

"Kill yourself Natsu."

The speed of his fists grew. Even if the tree broke, he still continued to relentlessly pelt the tree, roaring to the top of his lungs against the thunder that boomed over his hoarse voice.

"Do it."

His knuckles were completely bruised, blood profusely leaking from the self inflicted cuts he gave, his skin peeling off after each strike enough if you looked closely enough, bone was slowly being revealed.

"DO IT!"

"GRAHHHHHH!!!" Natsu let out the loudest roar he possibly could, stretching the length of his vocal chords to a point of his throat burning. His fist connected with another tree, sending it uprooted from the ground, flying into the woods. He stopped, dropping to his knees as the metallic liquid off of his hands, leaked into the earth below his feet. "W-why... Lucy..."

Everthing was growing darker, his eye lid growing heavy. With one last glance at the destruction he had caused. His body tilted forward, his skull cracking off a tree trunk as he slumped into the muddy ground, unconscious, unmoving.

Blood coated the ground around his body as the rain slowly washed away the pain of his heart.

Of everything while even if he was in the void. The shadow's laughter was ever so present, delighted at the number one fact.

Natsu Dragneel was losing his mind.

So it begins, the slow ascension into madness. So I know a lot of you are probably confused on who this shadow is, so let me explain to the best of my ability. The "Shadow" as I call it is a manifestation of his depression when Lucy broke up with him. For Natsu, a break up was more than something to just get over like most can. Natsu is slowly losing his self, his morality, his very own mind Is coming apart at the seams and this shadow is pushing him further and further. Think of it like how we view depression, and that some with severe mental health issues experience that little voice in their head that pushes them to begin to believe what it says over what other people say. That's what this shadow is, except to Natsu it's like a dark entity inside his head, spewing all of these horrid lies, but at the state he's in. He's going to believe every word slowly but shortly till it's too late.

Horrible explanation probably, but I guess what I'm saying is to Natsu his life has ended. The world that he wanted so badly together with Lucy has crashed into pieces around him. And with the whole thing of what happened on the mission, he's been broken entirely. That's where this story is gonna start taking it's severe dark turn. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and like always. I'll see you all in the next one. Later :)