Chapter Twenty-Five

X371: Heartfilia

The sounds of battle had been raging across the countryside for three days. Rumours had spread as fast as the hellfire that burned down the forests around their towns.

'It's a Dragon!' they'd said. It was hard to miss the truly gigantic deep vermilion flying reptile that set the sky ablaze while it fought.

'What could survive fighting a Dragon for three days?' that was the question that had caused the presence of the Celestial mage currently pounding her way through a thick line of trees. The speed at which she'd been going had been making it hard enough to breathe, it was only made worse by the rising heat that surrounded her. At least she was going the right way.

Knowing what their master had been planning, many Celestial Spirits had tried to come to her aid, but this was something that she had to do alone, she couldn't risk any of them being caught in the crossfire, they'd never survive it. To stop them from trying to come through on their own, she'd been using her magic to actively block them, holding them all in the Celestial realm.

She burst through into the clearing just in time to see the Dragon unleash a truly devastating roar at its enemy. The ground around the attack had all been turned into char.

The fire burned out as quickly as it had been made, revealing a young man no older than twenty, his body adorned with impossibly lean muscle. His features looked like they were trying to convey nothing short of being irate at the Dragon's attacks, but the eyes, the eyes were narrow and misshapen, glowing so vibrantly that it was almost as though they were gateways to endless voids filled with fire. There were two small horns as dark as pure obsidian, jutting out amongst a mess of spiky salmon-pink hair.

"Enough!" The woman shouted as loud as her lungs would allow, hoping that her voice would be heard in their personal theatre of war.

Both combatants wearily acknowledged her, though in reality, neither of them had taken their focus away from the other.

"Enough." She said again, her voice adamant. She hadn't slowed her pace, instead moving between them with her arms held high. "Please, listen to me Dragon, I know who this is, something is wrong with him." She said, her eyes conveying pure desperation.

"I am Igneel, the Fire Dragon King!" He roared, his voice causing the ground beneath her feet to quake, "and I can see very well that something is wrong, no Human is this monstrously strong!" He added.

She'd listened to his words but the whole time she had been looking at the man who simply eyed her in a curious light.

"Will you give me a chance to try and coax him back from this darkness that has overcome him?" She asked, looking up at Igneel.

He grumbled slightly but then nodded, "Very well, but be cautious, little Human." He told her with as much of a neutral look as she expected a Dragon could be capable of.

Thick rivulets of sweat rolled down her body from the heat which was only getting worse with each step she took.

"Can you tell me your name?" She asked when she'd gotten within arms reach of him. Though hesitant at first, she did reach forward to try and touch him. He'd flinched, taking a step backwards.

She'd felt the smallest sensation of a pinprick touch her finger before the pain disappeared. Looking at down, she saw that the tip of her index finger was black, burnt so quickly that the nerve endings had already died and been void of sensation.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help," she tried again in the sweetest voice she could muster.

"My name is Anna. Anna Heartfilia, I'm a Celestial mage," she explained, lifting a hand to show him the glints of celestial magic that flowed around her arm. It was beautiful, even to a creature of death and destruction such as he.

"Do you know what your name is?" She asked, trying again to reach out, this time succeeding. A soft hand gently brushed against the rough crimson scales of his cheek.

The moment they connected, everything changed, the blanket of fire that had been erratically jumping around was gone. The darkness in his eyes fell to reveal deep onyx eyes that would have been indistinguishable from the horns atop his head but they too had receded, revealing the man he was before.

"An… Na?" His voice was coarse, raw from the volume of fire that he'd been throwing out over the past few days.

"That's right, can you tell me your name?" She beamed, delighted that he'd been pulled back from the darkness within.

"Nat-su," he said slowly, unsure of himself for a moment.

"Yes, your name is Natsu Dragneel." She confirmed, stroking the side of his face. It was slight, but she could feel him lean into it.

"Dragneel," Igneel murmured, "Perhaps destiny is at play," he said.

"What are you planning?" Anna asked, looking at the Dragon King over her shoulder.

"Do you know why you are so resistant to fire, young one?" Igneel asked, peering down as he came over with thunderous steps. "It is because you are a Dragon. Now, you will come with me and learn to control your strength, understood?" He boomed.

"Igneel?" Anna asked, not letting Natsu obey the Dragon, not just yet.

"He will learn to accept what he is, on his own terms. It will take the strength of a Dragon to stop that thing inside, I know what I'm doing, little Human." Igneel told her, a spat of fire shooting out of his nostrils to accentuate parts of his speech.

"Go on Natsu, you'll be safe with him," she urged, watching the weariness in his eyes as he slowly approached the Dragon that only moments prior, had been fighting in a ferocious display of strength.

"I will come and make sure that you're alright, I promise," she told him giving him one last reassuring look before Igneel had taken to the skies, heading back towards the mountains.

Over by the edge of the clearing, two almost identical visions of the man now flying away with Igneel watched in silence. One being the instance of the Dragon, the other the Demon.

"You have always ruined my fun," E.N.D. sneered quietly as they watched, sharing a dream for the first time since Natsu could remember. He'd been experiencing it first-hand until that point, why had it changed now, just as they were beginning to rouse?

"The time is coming, I'll be seeing you again soon," Anna spoke, slowly turning on her heels until she was looking directly at them.

"Both of you," she held a warm smile and a look of complete sincerity.

"This isn't a dream," E.N.D. spoke, looking around at their surroundings in alarm. Neither he nor Natsu had any control over their subconscious, an experience neither of them had held before this.

"Anna?" Natsu stumbled forward, running towards her. Surely that was too good to be true.

"Natsu?" She asked, the image fading. "Natsu? Wake up Natsu, we're here." Her voice changed with every word until it was indistinguishable from that of Mira.

He jerked up, his body full of panic. What the hell was that? Was E.N.D. playing tricks on him? If so, why was he too so confused?

"Did you have a nightmare?" She asked, her sweet voice already serving to calm him.

"It was a dream, or rather, a memory, except at the very end, something changed, it was different from how I remembered it, and it just felt so real…" he said, ending with a deep sigh, wiping a small sheen of sweat away from his forehead, "I guess 'nightmare' describes it best." He agreed at last.

"Well we're here, let's go and have a wander around to take your mind off of it." The silver-haired mage told him, leading the way off the train and into Crocus.

He followed without any argument, here he was at her mercy, a thing that she knew and intended to take full advantage of, without a shadow of a doubt.

And it excited him.

A/N: Ooh.