Chapter Forty-Six
X374: Something More?
Red and blue flames clashed throughout the valley that had been the home to not only Natsu but also the Dragon Slayer called Acnologia.
It had been a while since he had arrived, following Natsu's trail back to where he and Igneel lived peacefully, training their days away.
Ever since that day, Natsu and Acnologia had become training partners, learning and strengthening their magic together.
Having someone else of a similar strength to train with had been an incredible turning point for Natsu, bolstering his mastery over the Dragon Slayer magic tenfold.
Igneel now considered the both of them to be at the top of their world when it came to their strength and power, the speed that they were increasing was mind-blowing.
"Focus!" Igneel bellowed, anger rising within as he watched the two of them in their daily routine. It had been two weeks straight since Acnologia had developed an irritating pattern, one that was preventing him from progressing.
"Enough! Come," he ordered the two of them. They hadn't stopped immediately but they had wound themselves down, halting after a few more seconds before the pair came to Igneel's call.
"Acnologia, do you know what I am going to say?" He asked calmly, trying his best not to lose his temper.
"That I'm not guarding against his kick, but Igneel, how can I guard against something that almost literally comes out of nowhere!?" Acnologia argued.
"It isn't about the kick, or the punches and swipes that precede and follow it. The reason you haven't been able to counter it is because you haven't figured out what the source of the kick is. Whenever we reach this point in training, you get hit, hard." Igneel explained.
"I don't understand, what's there to figure out? I'm fighting a technical genius." Acnologia huffed.
"Natsu, what made you perform that kick?" The Dragon King asked, turning his gaze upon his son.
"What… What do you mean, what made me perform that kick? Nothing made me do it, I just did it. I don't get the question." Natsu tilted his head to the side.
"A technical genius? Perhaps," Igneel shrugged slightly, "He fights on pure instinct. It isn't about whether or not he's faster or stronger, the difference in speed between the two of you is practically nonexistent. The thing that sets you worlds apart is that you are actively thinking and trying to figure him out. When you do this, your body can only move as fast as your mind, his body can move faster because his head is clear. Do you understand?"
"Ah, he's better than me because he's an idiot? Got it," Acnologia smirked, folding his arms.
"In an extraordinarily skewed manner of speaking, I suppose. Now, go again, keep your minds clear and fight on instinct, that will determine the winner today." Igneel ushered them, waving them back down into the valley where their ferocious battle continued.
At the edge of the valley, not all that far from where this exchange had happened, the two aspects of the older Dragon Slayer watched, waiting for the rest of the events to unfold.
"I wonder if we're being subjugated to these fever dreams by the same person who used time magic on me when I fought against Erza," Natsu said, lying on the grass, resting a hand against his head.
E.N.D. stood impassive, watching through an iron gaze as the two Dragon Slayers fought.
"If that were the case, then the time mage would have known about our connection to not only Zeref but also Acnologia and the Heartfilia woman." The Etherious replied.
"Yeah…" Natsu strayed off, "Which in turn means that if this was a direct product of that time user, then that same mage is being puppeteered by Zeref as he's the only person who knows that aside from us." He added quickly.
"I doubt he would go to such lengths for so little gain. What is to be had by warning us that he is coming?" E.N.D. asked.
"What would anyone have to gain from us seeing this? We both know that these aren't just dreams, and there's more here than simply memories that we witnessed directly, there are things in these dreams that neither of us knew. Someone is orchestrating this." The Dragon Slayer yawned.
"This began shortly after you gave the Heartfilia girl some power to save that idiot who got himself banished." E.N.D. spared Natsu a glance, looking down at him pointedly.
"And?" Natsu asked. A single quizzically raised brow sat on his otherwise bored face.
"What if this was always part of the plan? The Heartfilia woman planted these memories alongside that wretched key, and only when you helped the girl did it activate, after all these years." E.N.D. reasoned.
"Anna," Natsu smiled fondly, "Gods, what a woman. I hate the fact that she died seeing me lose myself." His smile faded to a heart-aching frown.
"I hate the fact that her last action was to pull me into the Celestial realm." E.N.D. said with a sour face, "I was almost free and in control and then she managed to outplay me once again."
"What a woman," Natsu grinned, enjoying the look of disgust on E.N.D's face.
"Yes, she would have been pleased to see what you've become if she wasn't so hilariously deceased," E.N.D. told him with a fierce glare.
"Do not push your luck," Natsu warned him, showing one of the very few times that he was ever serious, "You forget that I know how to find your physical body. Insult Anna or any of the women that I…" he paused for no longer than a second.
"-any of them, and I will cross over to that place and flay you down to the soul." He added, matching the glare.
"What is this place?" They both spun around, watching in surprise as Erza emerged from the lining of the forest.
"What the fuck?" Natsu asked, looking at E.N.D. who flickered and disappeared before the Fairy Queen had seen him.
"How-"
"Natsu!" Erza whispered, freezing in place, "There's a Dragon!" She added, whispering in the hopes that she'd go unnoticed by the tremendous beast.
"Are you… Are you real?" The Dragon Slayer stood, reaching out to touch her face. She gently placed a hand over his, her eyes still watching the Fire Dragon by the foot of the mountain.
"Why would you think I'm not real?" She asked, finally looking at him.
"Because none of this is real," he said without missing a beat, "This is a dream, my dream. Well, no, it's not a dream, it's a memory. I've been seeing a lot of them recently. I don't understand how you are in my head though." He explained, watching her fondly.
"Maybe it's because of the new mark you gave me… Where are we?" She asked, watching the fight in the valley.
"This was my home. That Dragon is my father, Igneel. The two of us lived here alone for a few years after Anna managed to stop Igneel from destroying me when I wasn't myself. That's me down there training with another Dragon Slayer, I would probably have only been a few years older than you are now." he told her casually.
"Wait a second, ignore that for a moment, I need to know that you're really here and not just my imagination." He told her, "Tell me something that I wouldn't already know,"
She thought about it for a moment before a small smile crossed her lips, "There is a word that perfectly describes how I feel about you, and while I'm not ready to say it out loud, I realized what it was when I saw you fall from the sky after pulling me from the Tower of Heaven." She grabbed his hand, pulling it away from her face but intertwining their fingers.
"You were willing to sacrifice your immortal life to save mine, that was when I knew what you meant to me." She told him, her usually steely eyes as soft as silk as she looked up at him.
"Sometimes words are better left unsaid." He gave her his own warm smile.
He'd been about to pull her towards him to kiss her but the world shifted around them, the image fading before a new one replaced it.
"It's a different memory, don't worry, nothing in any of these can affect you, we're just stuck watching it from an outside perspective until we wake." He explained, feeling her hands tighten onto him.
The sky had turned black, the only light source was from a small fire in the middle of a clearing in the trees.
The two Dragon Slayers sat around it, enjoying the warmth in the dead of night.
"How does it feel, knowing that in an advancing world full of Dragons and Slayers, we stand at the peak alongside Irene?" Acnologia had asked him.
Erza watched Natsu from the corner of her eye, his expression had gone completely neutral. Whatever this memory was, it wasn't a fond one.
"None of that matters," the young Dragon Slayer had answered, absently flicking parts of the fire with his inherent control over the element.
"We've mastered Dragon Slayer magic, to the point that we've stopped ageing and our true forms are hulking flying dreadnoughts. The Queen is irrelevant, she was only interested in my other power." He'd added.
"You're unusually cold today," Acnologia huffed.
"Are you leaving us?" The young Natsu asked, raising his eyes towards the Black Dragon.
Acnologia grimaced, simply looking at his fellow Slayer.
"I have to," he said at last, "I made it clear why I came here, now that we've achieved everything we wanted, my only goal now is to return to Dragnoff and destroy her for what she did to me."
"She's in the past, you and I, we're in the present, here and now." Natsu stood up, kicking a few rocks as he paced.
"Then come with me," Acnologia came face to face with the young Fire Dragon. "We can take down Irene and kill any others that stand in our way. You and me," he said placing a hand on Natsu's shoulder.
He frowned, feeling how deep those words were, "I can't," he shook his head with a sad sigh, "That's not a good path for me to walk, and I won't leave Igneel and Anna behind,"
"They don't approve of what I must do, but you… You're different, you and I are the only ones of our kind, the only ones who hold this calibre of power. We're immortal, we can watch over this world, just you and me." Acnologia told him, desperate to sway his resolve.
If he could only get Natsu to understand how important it was that they destroy Irene and her throne of lies.
"I can't… And I won't. I'm sorry, but if you're certain, then you'll do this without me. They need me here to train the next generation of Dragon Slayers for war when Belserion strikes," Natsu told him, turning his gaze away upon seeing the hurt in Acnologia's eyes.
Acnologia took a few steps back, "They're training more Dragon Slayers? Do they not think that you and I are enough? We could slaughter every single Dragon under Irene's command!" Acnologia yelled.
"We don't want to go to war, we don't want needless bloodshed. You and I could destroy everything, we could rule this world with disgusting ease, but none of us want that, we only ever wanted peace! A new generation of Dragon Slayers raised with compassion and love will mean the difference between peace and death." Natsu argued back, standing his ground
They held a tense stare down, silence reigning over them before Acnologia broke it, "I'm leaving at sun up, you have until then to change your mind. I don't expect much, just promise me that you'll think about it." He said, disappearing into the darkness.
The memory faded, leaving only Natsu and Erza standing there. She didn't know what to say. She could see the hurt in his eyes, the heartache from what had and had not been said in his memory.
"Natsu," she whispered, cupping his face. He felt dizzy while his eyes adjusted to new surroundings. They'd woken up, with Erza still holding his cheek.
"I won't leave you, and I meant what I said in there. You mean a lot to me, and the others." She whispered, pressing her soft lips against his.
He nuzzled down into the crook of her neck, warmth radiating out from his body as the two fell into a blissful sleep once again.
A/N: This was fun to write, I wasn't originally going to have Erza in there, but it worked quite well. This was more to cement the relationship with Acnologia. The next two chapters are already finished as well, so I'll probably end up putting those up sooner than normal. There are only five more of these X-Chapters, but would you like to have some other notable past events written about as well? Review?