Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

Time is the Path to Strength	By : Repiece Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 47111 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 12
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 21
- 22
- 23
Chapter 22: Natsu and The Tower of Heaven

“I'm home.” Natsu called out as he let out a yawn. He walked into his home and was immediately tackled, sending him crashing to the floor. “Ow...what the...?” He groaned and lifted his head to see Mirajane on his chest. “M-Mira...?”

“I'm so glad...you're okay...” He heard her whisper as she gripped his vest tightly. “When you didn't come back yesterday...I thought...I thought something happened...”

“I'm sorry...I wanted to call, but I don't even know if this place has a phone or something...” He told her. She lifted her head and smiled at him.

“It's okay...” She leaned forward and kissed him softly.

“Wah!” Mirajane pulled away from the kiss and looked up to see Happy with his eyes widened in shock at what he just witnessed. “N-N-Natsu and Mira...Natsu and Mira...Natsu and Mira....” He repeated as Mirajane giggled at the Exceed and Natsu felt himself panic a bit. “I...I...I have to tell everyone...” He started to slowly turn around and was about to make a dash toward the guild, but Natsu quickly grabbed his tail, stopping him.

“Hold up, Happy! Let me explain this!” Natsu told him, but all he could hear from his best friend was his and Mirajane's name. Natsu sighed. He felt Mirajane get off of him and walk toward Happy. She picked him up and turned to face him. She smiled down at him.

“Come on, Happy...let's go to the kitchen...we'll explain everything there over a nice warm breakfast...” Happy then finally said something else besides Natsu or Mirajane.

“Will there be fish?” He asked as Natsu sweat dropped at his question.

“Of course.” She smiled warmly at him.

“Yay! Then let's go!” Happy cheered as Mirajane giggled at his excitement. She gave Natsu a smile before walking toward the kitchen. Natsu smiled back and thought of how a great mother she could be and suddenly blushed.

'What the hell am I thinking?' He put his hands on his head. He sighed and closed the door. He then followed the two into the kitchen and when his eyes saw the food he was amazed. “Sugoi...” His mouth watered over the scent of the delicious food.

“Isn't this great Natsu?!” Happy told his best friend as he chowed down on his fish.

“It sure does!” He exclaimed and sat down in the chair and started eating. “Sugoi...it's so good.” He cried in bliss.

“I'm glad you like it, Natsu, Happy.” Mirajane smiled at the two.

“Yeah, it's really good Mira! Did you buy all of the stuff to make this?” Natsu asked.

“Some of it, but most of the ingredients I found around the kitchen. I'm surprised that you kept everything so orderly. It was really easy to find everything.”

“Really? That's good...” He chuckled. 'Weird...I don't remember buying anything or organizing anything...must have been him then...that guy...I can never understand what goes on in that head of his...' He frowned. He shrugged and went back to eating.

“So...why did Mira kiss you Natsu?” Natsu slightly choked on his food at the sudden question. He knew he was going to ask eventually, but he never thought he was going to ask while he had food in his mouth. Once he stopped choking, he turned his head to look at his best friend.

“Don't ask questions like that when I'm eating?” He yelled.

“Aye! So, why?” He asked again. Natsu slightly blushed and Happy couldn't help but smirk at his best friend.

“W-Well...you see...umm...”

“Oh yeah, why were you here anyway, Mira?” Happy asked. Mirajane smiled at him.

“That's because I'm going to live here from now on.” She told him.

“Eh? Why?” Happy asked.

“Isn't it obvious? If you're in love, you want to be as close as possible to the person you love and how close can one get than by living with that person.” Mirajane responded as she smiled warmly at Natsu. The Dragon Slayer only blushed at her words.

“Eh? You love Natsu?” Happy asked in shock.

“Yep!”

“Oi, Happy. You sounded surprise by that?” Natsu narrowed his eyes.

“Because it is!”

“What!? I'm lovable!”

“Aye! I can't wait to tell everyone at the guild! It should be funny seeing all their shocked faces.” He laughed at the thought.

“Wait a minute Happy...please don't tell anyone!” Natsu told him.

“Hmm? Why?”

“It would best if we don't tell them for now, Happy. Otherwise, Natsu might get killed.” She answered.

'So I'm really am going to get killed!' Natsu cringed.

“Oh...I see...but it sure would be funny to see that!”

“What kind of friend are you?” Natsu shouted.

“Your best friend!” Happy exclaimed. Natsu sighed.

“Just please don't tell anyone.” He asked again while clasping his hands together.

“Hmm...” Happy thought about it.

“Tell you what, Happy.” Mirajane spoke. “If you promise to keep all this a secret, I promise to make you any type of fish meal you want.”

“Really!?” She nodded her head.

“Okay then! I promise!” Happy exclaimed as Mirajane offered him another fish.

'That was too easy.' Natsu sweat dropped. He sighed and then looked at Mirajane who was smiling at him. He smiled back before returning to his breakfast.

The three finished their meal and Natsu let out a sigh of relief as his belly grew from all the wonderful fish he ate. Natsu helped Mirajane with the dishes as he used his flames to cool down the dishes she washed. “Thank you for your help, Natsu.” She thanked him as she finished with the last dish and handed it to him.

“I should be the one thanking you, Mira. I didn't think convincing Happy to keep everything a secret so easily.”

She giggled. “It was nothing.”

“So, should we head over to the guild?” He asked. She nodded and they turned around and saw that Happy was taking a nap on the table.

“He fell asleep.” Natsu sweat dropped.

“Natsu...”

“Hmm? What is-” He couldn't finish as he suddenly felt Mirajane's lips on his. She moaned into the kiss as she pressed herself against his chest. He felt his back hit against the sink behind him. He was surprised by the sudden kiss, but slowly closed his eyes and started to kiss her back. He wrapped his arms around her waist. Mirajane wrapped her arms around his neck as the two made out in the kitchen with Happy sleeping on the table in front of them.

Mirajane broke the kiss and smiled at the person she loved. “You're getting better.” She told him.

“R-Really?” Natsu asked with a slight blush.

“Mm.” She responded and leaned her head against his chest. The two just stayed in each others embrace as the only sound heard was the sounds of one happy Exceed snoring away.

“Hey Mira...”

“What is it?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Hai.”

“Why do you love me?”

“Huh?” He heard her as she looked up at him.

“Ah, sorry. You don't have to answer if you don't want to...” He apologized.

“No...” Mirajane smiled. “I love you because of who you are. You're always there to cheer everyone up and make the guild lively. You're strong and always put everyone else before yourself. Slowly, you became one of the reasons why I always wanted to go to the guild. I always wanted to see what kind of crazy things you would do for the day. When you were gone I...I...missed you...a lot. I didn't know why, but I felt like you went away because of what happened to Lisanna and it was my fault.” Natsu made a slight noise in surprise. “When you came back, those thoughts were completely erased. You weren't angry at me nor did you resent me. You came back stronger and I guess that's when I started to have feelings for you. Maybe...even when we were kids.”

“Mira...” Natsu stared down at her in awe. She pulled away from his chest and smiled at him. She leaned up and kissed him. She giggled.

“Ne, Natsu...Happy is asleep...” Mirajane whispered seductively.

“Yeah...so?” Natsu asked, tilting his head slightly to the side in confusion. Mira giggled at his confusion and grabbed his hand.

“Come on...let's head upstairs...” She added.

“Huh? But aren't we supposed to head to the guild?” Natsu asked confused as he started to follow her.

“Oh Natsu...you don't get it, do you?” She giggled at how clueless he was. “Besides, it's not like they are waiting for us.”

“Wait...what don't I get?” He asked. Mira smiled and leaned toward his ear and whispered something to him. Natsu's eyes widened and he felt his cheeks get warm. “N-Now!?”

“You don't want to?” She pouted in disappointment.

“Ah! It's not that I don't want to...but...” He replied flustered.

“Hehehe...come on.” She pulled him again. Natsu looked behind him to see that Happy was still asleep. He looked back at Mira. He sighed, but then grinned and picked her up bridal style. She gasped, but then giggled as she kissed him, while he headed up the stairs toward his bedroom.

[I WAS CONTEMPLATING WHETHER TO HAVE A LEMON SCENE HERE OR JUST HINT AT IT, BUT WHAT THE HELL WHO DOESN'T LIKE A GOOD LEMON! IF YOU WANT TO READ IT, GO TO MY OTHER ACCOUNTS AT AFF OR YOURFANFICTION! THE LINKS ARE AT MY PROFILE PAGE!]

Natsu and Mirajane crashed onto the bed as they continued to kiss. Natsu started to lower his kisses down her neck and onto her collar bone. She let out a moan. Natsu then raised his hand and grabbed one of her breasts, making her squeal. He gave her breast a squeezed and it caused her to moan. He kissed her again. They both used their tongues to fight it out for dominance, but Natsu had the advantage as Mirajane became weak after a few more squeezes on her breasts.

“Mira...” Natsu whispered her name against her lips. She felt her lips tingle at the touch of his breath and she smiled at him. She leaned up and kissed him before moving him down to the bed and herself on top of him. She pulled from the kiss and sat on his waist. She smiled at him him before she lowered the straps of her dress down off her shoulders and revealing her breasts to him. Natsu blushed at the sight of her mounds. He raised his hands and grabbed them both. Mira let out a moan at the feeling of his hands on her breasts again, missing such sensation since their first time.

“Ahhh...Natsu...” She moaned as he squeezed her breasts and moved them in a circular motion. The warmth feeling of his magic emitting from his hands made this normal sexual gesture reach a whole new different level. She couldn't wait to have him inside of her again. She could feel his throbbing member in his pants against her wet womanhood and to her it felt as if it wanted him just as badly as she did herself. Soon enough, the pleasure she was receiving from Natsu on her breasts wasn't enough. “Natsu...I need you...now...” She moaned out as Natsu blushed and he nodded his head in understanding and lowered his hands.. She smiled at him and then lifted herself up slightly. She moved her hands down to his pants and looked for the one thing she needed the most at the moment.

“Ugh...” Natsu groaned as he felt her delicate hands touch his shaft and pull it out of his pants. Mirajane felt herself blush at the feeling of his penis in her hand and slowly moved her hand up and down on it. She heard Natsu groan and smiled. She positioned herself just above his penis and moved her panties slightly to the side with her other hand. She closed her eyes as she felt the tip of his erection touch her. It sent a chill up her spine. She wanted more. She slowly lowered herself down, letting out moans of pleasure as did so, until the tip hit against her womb. “Mira...” Natsu moaned as he could feel her walls wrap around his shaft tightly.

“Natsu...” She moaned as well getting used his shaft inside her again. Just as she thought, she really missed being connected with Natsu like this. Natsu couldn't help but placed his hands on her waist and hold them tightly there. He groaned at the feeling of her wet and tight pussy against his penis and felt like he could explode with pleasure at that moment. He opened one eye to look at her and saw the expression of pleasure on her face. She didn't move for a while and wondered what was wrong, but when she started moving up, he let out a moan.

“Mira...” She lowered back down and felt pleasure all over her body. She repeated her actions again and did so slowly at first. She placed her hands on his chest to keep her from falling down toward his chest in case she became to weak to hold herself up. Natsu gripped her waist tightly as he began to push upward when Mirajane started to go faster.

“Natsu...ahhhh....” She screamed in ecstasy. Natsu sat up and wrapped his arms around Mirajane's body and then kissed her. Mirajane's hands softly landed on his chest during the kiss as Natsu continued to thrust inside her. When she pulled away she locked eyes with with him. Natsu saw the eyes full of love from the woman he was having sex with and it made him go faster. When she noticed his thrusts were getting faster, she closed her eyes tightly and arched her back. Her breasts were pushed into Natsu's face and he placed his mouth over one of them in the process. “Ahhhh....” Mirajane screamed at the warm feeling of his mouth over her breast. Natsu's hands roamed down her backside and back to her waist. Mirajane wrapped her legs around him and pressed herself closer to the warmth that Natsu emitted from his body thanks to his magic.

“Mira...” Natsu groaned a she let go of her breast with a pop. He could feel his climax approaching. “That feeling....it's coming again...” He told her while he thrust upward.

“Me too...” She replied raising her hands to his cheeks. “Let's cum together...” She told him and he nodded his head. They kissed each other and their movements became faster as their climaxes were fast approaching. With one final thrust, Natsu and Mirajane both simultaneously hit their orgasms. Natsu spilled his seed inside of her as Mirajane's cum spilled down his shaft toward his pants. The two kept their mouths linked together as they rode out their climaxes.

When they settled down, the pulled away from the kiss and panted. Mirajane rested her head on Natsu's chest as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. She could hear the sound of his fast beating heart in her ear and she smiled. “Mira...” He whispered.

“Natsu...” She replied. “That was amazing...”

“Yeah...” He agreed as their breathing was slowly returning. The two stayed the way they were for a while longer before Mirajane lifted her head up and looked at Natsu with a warm smile. She then leaned up and kissed him passionately.

“Natsu! Mira! Where did you go!?” Their eyes widened in shock at the sound of Happy's voice and they quickly separated and hurried to get dressed. Natsu noticed that his pants were drenched with Mirajane's cum and quickly ran toward his spare clothing. Mirajane watched in amusement as Natsu rambled through his clothing as she lifted the straps of her dress back to her shoulders. When Natsu finally found a clean pair of pants, he quickly changed, not bothering to care that he took them off while Mirajane was in the room. Mirajane grabbed the sheets on the bed and wiped away any signs of their sexual intercourse off of her body as Natsu went over to the door. He looked at Mirajane and she gave him a smile and a nod to tell him that she was ready.

Natsu opened the door and walked over to the stairs to see Happy walking around looking for the two. “Oi Happy! What's wrong?” Natsu asked as he pretended to casually walk down the stairs as if he didn't just have sex.

“Oh Natsu! I was wondering where you and Mira went! Where is Mira?” He asked looking around for her.

“She's upstairs.” He told him, pointing a finger behind him.

“Oh! I thought you went to the guild without me. I thought that would have been very mean for you two to do, even if it would have been a joke!” He pouted.

“Hahaha! Come on, we wouldn't do that.” Natsu laughed.

“I should head first.” Mirajane told the two as she walked up from behind Natsu.

“Huh? Why?” Happy asked.

“Well, since we want to keep the fact that I live here now a secret, it would be suspicious if everyone saw us together.” Mirajane explained to him, smiling at him.

“Oh, that makes sense!”

“Yep! Just make sure to keep this a secret and if you do, I'll make you something very good for dinner.” She told him with a wink.

“Aye!” Mirajane giggled and looked at Natsu.

“Well, I'll see you two at the guild.” She started walking toward the door and waved at them before closing it.

“So, what do we do now?” Happy asked.

“I don't know...I guess we could see the other parts of the house.” Natsu suggested.

“Aye!”

Natsu let out a yawn as he felt extremely tired. Not only did he not get enough sleep last night, he was tired from the coitus he had with Mirajane a couple of minutes ago. Now he was heading toward the guild, with Happy walking next to him, singing some sort of song about fish.

When they arrived at the guild, he saw Lucy sitting at a table by herself with a small frown on her face. He raised an eyebrow and walked over to her. “Yo Luce! Is everything alright?” Lucy jumped in surprise at the sound of his voice and looked at him.

“Oh...Natsu...no everything is fine...” She told him, looking down at the table with a frown. He knew she was lying. She was definitely still troubled by the whole Loke thing. He sighed and took a seat next to her. Happy too sat down in between them.

“Come on Luce...talk to me...I know something's bothering you...we're here to help you, right Happy?”

“Aye! What's wrong, Lucy?” Happy agreed.

Lucy looked at the two and sighed. “It's about Loke...I met him back at Balsam.” She began. Natsu motioned her to continue. “He told me...that he didn't have much time left...I couldn't believe what I was hearing...but then I found out that it was just a joke...can you believe that jerk?” She ended with a raise of her voice.

“I see...” Natsu responded. “Have you talked to him since then?” Natsu asked.

“N-No...I...I haven't seen him since then...” Lucy responded.

“Hey!” The three turned their heads to see several women confronting Mirajane at the temporary bar. “Where is Loke?

“Yeah! Where is he?”

“He broke with em last night! Why?”

“Me too!”

“Yeah me too!”

“We demand to know where he is!”

“Umm...I'm sorry but I haven't seen Loke for some time...” Mirajane gave them a crooked smile.

“I know I bet he found someone from the guild!”

“Who is she?”

“Tell us!”

“Ummm....” Mirajane wasn't sure what to do. She glanced over at Natsu and from what he could see in her eyes, she needed his help. Natsu wasn't sure what he can do, but seeing Mirajane needing some help, he couldn't refuse her. He got up and walk over to the girls.

“Oi! Leave Mira alone! She doesn't know where Loke and neither do any of us! So, just get out and-” He didn't finish as the girls all glares at him before pounding him into the dirt comically.

“Natsu is in trouble...” Happy stated as he grabbed a small fish from his bag and began biting on it.

“Should we help him?” Lucy asked.

“Nah, he should be fine.”

“Don't talk to us like that you unattractive man!”

“Tell us where Loke is, damn it!” The women all screamed at him while kicking him. Eventually, the women stopped and started pestering the other guild members on Loke's whereabouts. Mirajane, Lucy and Happy all ran toward him as he slightly twitched at being stomped at.

“Natsu...are you okay?” Lucy asked.

“Huh...yeah...I'm fine...” He responded sitting up and rubbing his head. “Who thought they were so vicious...”

“I'm sorry, Natsu.” Mirajane apologized, giving him a soft smile.

“It's okay, Mira. It wasn't your fault.” He told her. He then turned toward Happy. “By the way buddy, why didn't you help me?” He narrowed his eyes at him.

“I'm a cat.”

“What kind of reasoning is that?”

“If I helped they would be all over me because of how cute I am.” He explained.

“You...” He growled. He sighed and then looked at Lucy to see her looking down at the ground with a frown. He couldn't stand seeing her like this, but what could he do. He couldn't just tell her the truth about Loke. That would cause all sorts of trouble. What could he do? “Hey Lucy...why don't you go look for Loke?”

“Huh? B-But I don't know where he is...” She responded. “...and why should I...after he played such a cruel joke...”

“Are you sure it was a joke?” He asked.

“Huh?”

“I don't know what that guy is planning, but why would he say something like that just as a joke.” Natsu told her. “If you ask me, that's something you don't joke about.” Lucy stared at Natsu in awe before she had an idea.

“Thanks Natsu, I think I know a way to find him!” She told him and then ran off.

“Ah! Wait for me, Lucy!” Happy called out to her and followed after her. Natsu watched the two with a smile but then sighed.

“Man...I'm so tired...”

“Oh...gomen...” Mirajane blushed. Natsu hearing her, started waving his hands in front of him with a slight tint on his cheek.

“Ah, no not that! It's just that, I didn't sleep well lat night.”

“Oh...gomen...why didn't you say so...then we wouldn't have done that...” She whispered to him, frowning a bit in guilt.

“Ah! It's not your fault.” Natsu told her. “It's not like...I didn't want to do it...” He whispered with a flustered face. Mirajane smiled warmly at him. She wanted to just hug and kiss Natsu, but seeing as they were in the guild and in front of the others, she stopped herself.

“Oi, what the hell are you doing on the floor?” Natsu looked up to see his rival Gray looking down at him.

“Nothing.” Natsu replied standing up. He helped Mirajane up as well.

“Natsu got beat up by a group of girls...” Gray heard someone from another table say.

“Oh? I see...so you were beat up by a group of girls...such a weakling...” Gray mocked him.

“Shut up! You don't know what happened.” Natsu defended himself.

“Oh....you still got beat up...” Gray tried to suppress a chuckle.

“You want to go, pervert!”

“Who are you calling a pervert!?” Both glared at each other. Mirajane giggled at them before she walked back to the bar.

“Natsu.”

“Huh?” The two turned their heads to glare at the person who interrupted their glare contest. They stopped when they saw that it was the Master.

“Oh...what's up, Old Man?”

“How was your meeting?” He asked.

“Oh...nothing much...they just wanted me to be one of the Ten Wizard Saints...” Everyone froze in place at his announcement and gawked at Natsu. Even Mirajane was surprised by this. “What?”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Gray shouted in his ear.

“Don't yell at my ear, damn it!” Natsu yelled back.

“Why would they pick you to be one of the Ten Wizard Saints?” Gray continued.

“It's because I beat up that Jose guy, alright! They needed someone to fill in his spot as soon as possible and since I defeated him they wanted me to be one of them.” He explained.

“Impressive...to think the Magic Council would do that. So...what was your answer?” Everyone stared at Natsu.

“I said fuck no!” Everyone's jaw dropped at his answer. Mirajane was the only who giggled as she saw this as a Natsu type response.

“Why would you say that to the Magic Council?” Makarov yelled at him.

“Because I didn't want to be a Wizard Saint and deal with all that crap.” Natsu explained. “I want to be able to go on jobs like a normal mage without reporting to the Magic Council with all that stupid technical stuff.” He explained.

Makarov was just too shocked to do anything. He knew Natsu was a knucklehead, but this was on a whole new different level. He could understand why he didn't want to be a Wizard Saint, but he could have just said no. He sighed. “You really are one of a kind.”

“Oh...thanks, Old Man.” Natsu grinned.

“That wasn't a compliment!” Makarov yelled at him before sighing again. “Well, it's not like I can change your mind.” He told him. “Now then, on to another matter...let's talk about making you an S Class Mage.”

“Oh yeah...I kind of forgot about that...” He chuckled. Makarov's eyebrow slightly twitched at his idiocy, but calmed himself down. “Anyway...since we normally don't promote anyone unless they pass the the exam, you are a different case. The only way I could think of is by having a ceremony. Now, when this ceremony will take place is a different matter. Since the guild is being rebuilt at the moment, we can't have the ceremony. So, as part of the grand opening of our new home, we will also have the ceremony. How about that?”

“Sounds good to me! How will this ceremony go anyway?” Natsu asked.

“Walk with me and I'll tell you everything.” Makarov told him and Natsu nodded his head.

“Yosh!” Natsu followed Makarov as the two walked side by side and away from the guild.

“Are you okay, Lucy?” Happy asked as he looked up at her as he stood on her bed next to her.

“I...I don't know...” She replied. “I just have this bad feeling...like something bad is going to happen...even though I slapped Loke...I just get this feeling that he wasn't joking...so...I want to know more about Loke and I'm hoping Grandpa-Crux can help someway.” She raised her head to look at the Celestial Spirit floating across the bed. “Please, can you investigate for me an Celestial Spirit Mage that Loke may have been involved with?”

“Fuuu...Fuu...Fuuu...” Grandpa-Crux moaned.

“Lucy...I think he fell asleep...” Happy told her.

“No...he's just searching...” Lucy replied moving toward the other end of her bed.

“Huh!? No way! He has to be asleep!” Happy yelled back.

“Grandpa-Crux knows everything that goes on in both the Celestial Spirit World and the Human World. With his help, I think I can find out about Loke.” Suddenly, Grandpa-Crux let out a loud roar that frightened Happy as he hid behind Lucy's arm. “Did you find something!?” She asked.

“Hum...Lucy-sama...I can't be too precise since this is a matter of the Spirit World, but the Celestial Spirit Mage that Mr. Loke has been in contact with is Miss Kalian Lilica.” He answered.

“Huh? Kalian Lilica!” Lucy screamed in shock.

“You know her, Lucy?” Happy asked.

“She was a famous Celestial Spirit Mage who was very beautiful and was on the cover of Sorcerer Magazine!” Lucy explained. “However, I heard she died on a mission a few years ago.”

“Then she must have been part of a guild, right?”

“Yeah, I think it was the Blue Pegasus. Then...what did she have to do with Loke?”

“I'm afraid that is all I can tell you, Lucy-sama...” Grandpa-Cruz told her as he dropped his head. “Fuu~”

“He says that but it looks like he's searching again.” Happy stated.

“No...he's asleep.”

“EHHH!?”

Lucy ignored Happy's scream as she tried to find some reason to how Loke and Kalian were connected. The worried and strange feeling she had earlier came back and it became worse.

“Lucy! Big Trouble!” Lucy screamed as Gray suddenly slid into her room. “Loke left Fairy Tail!”

“What!?” They both screamed.

“But why!?” Lucy asked jumping off her bed.

“Nobody knows! Everyone is out looking for him!” Gray responded. “That guy...he's been acting all strange lately...”

Lucy then figured it out. “Could it be...”

“Huh?” Gray watched as started to run out of her apartment. “Oi Lucy! Where do you plan to go look for him!?”

Natsu let out a yawn. “Oh man am I tired...” He whined as he rubbed his eyes. He wasn't sure why it took so long talking to Makarov about the entire ceremony thing, but it did and the next thing he knew, the entire day was gone.

“Loke!” He heard someone scream and looked to his right to see Erza running. He then remembered that tonight was the night that Lucy helped Loke return to the Spirit World. The only problem was was that he wasn't sure where she went to do such a thing. Shrugging it off, he decided to just pretend like he didn't know anything and search for him. He was about to go to Erza when he noticed blond colored hair at the corner of his eyes. He turned and saw Lucy running somewhere. He furrowed his eyebrows and decided to follow her.

When he saw her stop, he hid behind a rock and then peaked his head out to see what was going on. He saw Loke and narrowed his eyes at him. He saw them talking to each other, Lucy mostly doing the shouting. Natsu waited patiently. Loke then collapsed. He wasn't sure why he collapsed, but didn't move from his spot. He then saw something happen to his hands, followed by Lucy hugging him. He wasn't sure why, but he slightly gasped at the hug. 'Weird...oh well it's probably nothing...' He then continued watching the two. Suddenly, he felt strong magical energy forming around the two. The water from the waterfall started thrashing round violently and the ground slightly shook. 'Wow...who would have thought this happened...'

Suddenly the water rose and started coming together like a whirlpool in the air in front of Lucy and Loke. When it dispersed, a large figured appeared, one Natsu recognized as the Celestial Spirit King. “What are you doing here!?” He heard Loke scream. Natsu didn't move and just watched to see how it all will play out. Natsu was amazed at how Lucy was determined to save Loke. She even stood up against the large spirit, the king no less, was amazing. He couldn't help but smile at her.

Eventually, Lucy was able to convince the Spirit King to let Loke return to the Spirit World. Lucy was glad she was able to help Loke as he left behind his key for her. Lucy smiled down at the key and let out a sigh of relief knowing that everything was going to be fine. Natsu walked out of his hiding spot and started walking toward her. Lucy didn't notice Natsu until he stopped just behind her. She turned her head and looked up at his grinning face. “N-Natsu...w-what are you...?”

“Yo Lucy! That was awesome!” Natsu told her.

“Huh?”

“You know...how you stood up to that big guy...” He raised his arms to emphasize the largeness of the Spirit King.

“Y-You saw all that...huh?” She asked and he nodded his head. “How did you know where to find me?”

“When I finished talking to the Old Man about my S Class Ceremony, I heard Erza and the others were looking for Loke so I thought I would help, but then I saw you and figured you might have known where he was and so I followed you. Sorry if that sounded a bit wrong.” He told her. Lucy shook her head with a smile.

“No...it's okay...I'm just glad everything is fine now.” She told him.

“Yeah, you did good, Luce.” Lucy couldn't help but blush a little at the praise she received.

“Thank you, Natsu.” She felt her entire warm up a little.

“No problem. Let's head back, you must be exhausted.” He said, kneeling down to her.

“Yeah...but I can't move...I guess I must have exhausted a lot of my magic...” She chuckled.

“Yosh!” She looked at him and watched as he turned around, got down on one knee and then offered her a ride on his back. At the gesture, she blushed a very deep shade of red.

“W-What are you doing!?” She stuttered.

“Hmm? You said you couldn't move so I'm offering you a ride.” He told her with a small tilt of the head.

“Y-Yeah...but....” She started fidgeting to go along with her flustered face. He wasn't sure why she hesitated.

“What's wrong?” He asked.

Lucy couldn't answer that as her voice suddenly disappeared. She never felt so embarrassed in her life before. Her face was red, her cheeks felt like they were on fire and her heart beat against her chest so hard it felt like it was trying to escape her body. 'W-What should I do...? Should I...do it? But it's so embarrassing....but if I don't then I might not get another chance like this...oh wait what am I saying? This is so frustrating!' Lucy fought with her inner voice who told her to do it. She didn't know what to do, but she knew as each second went by that her inner voice was telling her to get on Natsu's back and give her a piggy back ride back to her apartment.

“Luce...?” Natsu called out to her. She didn't respond and so he called her name again. “Luce!”

“Huh!? W-What!?” She screamed in surprise and looked at him.

“Are you okay?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Oh yeah...I'm fine...” She replied with small waves of her hand a reddened cheeks.

“Oh...so are you coming or what?” He asked again and turned around.

“Um...” She bit her bottom lip and decided to just go with it. “A-Alright...” She crawled toward him and then onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let out a small gasp as she felt his hands on her legs before lifting her up along with himself.

“Yosh! Let's go!” He said and then started walking back to Magnolia.

Lucy could feel the warmth Natsu's entire body emitted and found it to be soothing. In fact, it felt so good that it was making her sleepy. She tried her best to stay awake, but it really was difficult for her. Natsu felt Lucy's head act weird on his back and turned his head to see what was wrong. When he saw what it was, he smiled and turned back around. She was trying hard to not fall asleep on his back, but just from looking at her, he could tell she was losing to sleep. “Arigatou...Natsu...” He made a noise in surprise at her voice and turned his head to see her sound asleep. He smiled at her and just continued walking toward her apartment.

When he entered her apartment, he made his way toward her bed and gently laid her down on her bed. Grabbing her sheets, he put them over her and smiled down at her. He didn't know it at first but he was staring at her with his smile still on his face. When he finally realized it, he shook his head. 'Damn...what the hell is wrong with me?' He wondered. 'First back at the inn and now here...damn it...' He sighed and looked at Lucy one more time before heading toward the door. He softly closed the door behind him and out of her apartment.

Before he could go back home and go to sleep, he caught up with the others and told them that Lucy found Loke and she would have Loke apologize to everyone. After everyone went home, so did Natsu. He yawned a she opened the door to his home and as soon as he did, he could smell the sweet aroma of food coming from the kitchen. He entered the kitchen and saw Mirajane putting on the finishing touches on the dinner she prepared for the three. Happy was watching with drool in his mouth as he couldn't wait to dig in. When Mirajane noticed Natsu, she put on a big smile and welcomed him back home.

“Welcome home, Natsu! You just came right on time! I just finished dinner!” Natsu looked at the food in awe.

“Sugoi! This looks so good!” She giggled at his response.

“Thank you Natsu. You two can go ahead and start eating. I'll go wash my hands.” She told them and as soon as Happy heard her, he started eating any dish that had even a piece of fish in it. Once he took a bite out of one, his expression changed one to delight.

“Soooo goooood....” He moaned. “I'm so glad Mira is staying here!” Natsu smiled at his best friend and he too started eating. His mouth watered at the sensational taste.

“You're right Happy! It is gooood!” He agreed and Mirajane smiled at the man she loved.

“I'm so glad you like it Natsu.” She replied, placing her hand son her cheeks, feeling the warmth of her blush. She too then sat down and began enjoying dinner with the two. After all the food was eaten, Happy was sleeping soundly on the table like he did in the morning. Mirajane smiled at the blue flying cat and made her way toward the sink and placed the dishes in it. Natsu helped and when all the dishes were in the sink, he felt the lack of sleep slowly deprive him of his energy. Having a nice warm meal can also do that to a guy. Mirajane noticed this and smiled at Natsu. “Come on Natsu...let's head to sleep.”

“Yeah...” He yawned in response and went over to pick up Happy. The two walked up the stairs, Happy in Natsu's arms, and first walked over to Happy's room. Natsu placed him on his little bed and tucked him in. Mirajane couldn't help but think about how it looked like they were mother and father putting their son to sleep. Such thoughts made her feel all warm and giddy inside. Did she eventually want to have children, of course she did. What kind of woman wouldn't want to experience being a mother? However, she was still too young for such a responsibility and she knew that Natsu wouldn't want to be a father either. It was just too soon for them. Luckily for the both of them, Mirajane knew the magic spell that prevented pregnancy, so there was no chance of her getting pregnant anytime soon. “Ready to go?” Natsu asked her as she nodded her head. They walked out of the room and closed the door silently behind him.

“I'll be right back Natsu...I'm going to go change...” She told him and he nodded his head. He walked with her until his room and then watched as she walked over to her room and entered it. He yawned again and entered his room. He immediately went over to his body, fell on it and closed his eyes. A little while later, he heard the sound of his door opening. He knew who it was, so he kept his eyes closed. “You must be really tired...Natsu.”

“Yeah...” He responded quietly. “After everything I had to go through today, I'm beat.”

Mirajane giggled. “I'm sure you are. Then let me sing you something to help you get to sleep.” Natsu moaned softly and Mirajane took this as a yes. She opened her mouth and began singing. (I won't put the lyrics because of this whole thing about fics with songs in them getting deleted, but the name of the song is Tabidatsu Mono he)

When Mirajane finished, she looked down at Natsu and heard him snoring. She smiled and leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead. She crawled over to the other side and laid her down on the pillow. She smiled at Natsu. “Good night, Natsu.” She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep as well.

“What!? You were a Celestial Spirit!” Gray shouted as the gang were shocked at the truth, except for Lucy, Natsu, Happy and Mirajane, Natsu telling the latter two about what happened with Loke during dinner.

“Yep! That's pretty much it.” Loke scratched the back of his head.

“Damn...I never noticed it at all...” Gray grumbled.

“Yeah well...sorry about that.” Loke apologized.

“What kind of spirit are you?” Happy asked.

“He's the Lion Celestial Spirit.” Lucy answered for him.

“Huh? Lion!” Happy shouted in awe. “That means you're like a grown up cat!”

“That's right!” Loke smiled at him.

“No it doesn't!” Lucy shouted.

“Uwaaa! That's so cool!” Happy looked at him in amazement.

“Anyway, so what's going to happen now?” Gray asked.

“Unfortunately, I can't go back to the old days anymore. Now that Lucy is my owner I have to go back to the Spirit World and only appear when Lucy is in danger as her knight in shining armor.” He told him and then walked over to Lucy. He suddenly picked her up making her blush in embarrassment. “Speaking of which, let's go talk about our plans for the future.”

“Ahhh! Put me down!” Lucy screamed as she thrashed around in his arms. Loke smiled at her, but did as she asked and put her down. Lucy sighed and crossed her arms with a slight blush on her cheeks. She wandered her eyes over to Natsu to see if he had any reaction to what happened, but saw that he was grinning at her and waved his hand at her. This made her frown in disappointment.

“Ah! That reminds me!” Loke suddenly said and searched his back pockets. He then took out what looked like to be pieces of paper and handed them to Lucy. “Here.”

“What are these?” She asked, inspecting them.

“Well since I can't spend time in the human world for long like I used to, I've got these tickets for a resort that I had originally planned to take with some of my girlfriends, but you guys have really helped me out so I wanted to give them to you.” He pushed his glasses up with his finger and gave a small wink to Lucy. “You should go and have a good time.”

“The beach!” Lucy screamed in excitement.

“Whoa! I never stayed at such a fancy hotel like this before!” Gray exclaimed as he stared at his ticket in awe.

Natsu stared at his ticket with a frown. 'Erza...I won't let Zeref do anything to Jellal...you can count on it...' He told himself and smirked.

“I already gave one to Erza, so have fun!” Loke told them before he disappeared back to the Spirit World.

“Yay!” Happy cheered as he too was excited about the trip.

“Why are you guys just standing around? If you want to hitch a ride, feel free to hop on...” Erza spoke as she arrived with a wagon of her belongings.

“What's with all that stuff!?” Gray and Lucy screamed as they saw the wagon. Natsu smiled and then walked over to the bar to tell Mirajane where he was going.

“Huh? A resort?” Mirajane asked as Natsu nodded.

“Yeah, Loke gave us tickets so we're going to go to the resort to relax.” He told her.

“Oh, I see. Then have fun!” Mirajane told him.

“Are you sure you're going to be okay?” He asked and she nodded her head.

“Of course! I'm sure nothing can go wrong if you had a little fun.” She giggled.

'Hehehehe...boy are you wrong...' He mentally chuckled. “Alright then! I'll see you when I get back.” He told her and she nodded her head. He ran off to meet with the others as they failed to notice his presence disappearing. Mirajane waved at him as she watched his retreating back. She smiled to herself and went back to tending the bar. As she walked past a mug, she failed to notice the little crack that suddenly appeared.

Team Natsu arrived at the resort and instantly went to the beach to enjoy the sun. They swam and even played games. By the time they decided to head back to the hotel, the sun was setting. Erza smiled to herself as she sun bathe on the balcony of her room. 'Today was really fun...I'm glad...' Erza thought as she sighed into her seat. Suddenly memories of her past began to plague her mind like a virus. She sat up abruptly and felt her heart racing inside her chest. She placed a hand to her chest and took deep breaths to settle down. When she succeeded she frowned and stared at the floor. She put a hand to her forehead and sighed. “It was just a dream...” She said to herself. She looked up and noticed that it was already dark. “I must have nodded off...”

“Erza.” She gasped and jumped off the seat, preparing to battle whatever dumb ass decided to sneak up on her. She settled down when she Natsu standing at the door.

“Natsu...what are you doing here?” She asked, surprised.

“I wanted to see if you were okay.” He told her a she approached her slowly.

“What? Of course I'm alright.” She responded crossing her arms. Natsu only stared at her. She felt his gaze on her and it made her a little uncomfortable. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Sorry...it's just that...”

“What?” Erza asked as she slowly started walking toward him. She stopped just in front of him. Before Natsu could say anything else, the door suddenly opened.

“Hey Erza!” Lucy exclaimed. “Oh and Natsu...what are you doing here?” She asked the Dragon Slayer.

“Oh nothing...what's up?” He asked, scratching the back of his head. Erza eyed him suspiciously before changing into her armor.

“There is a casino downstairs and I thought we should all go down there and play some games.” Lucy answered. “Gray and Happy already went downstairs.”

“I see...well I'm not really a gamble and I don't condone it...but I guess it's okay to let loose once in a while.” Erza replied as she changed to a purple dress.

“Yeah! Seems like fun!” Natsu agreed. He walked toward the door and started making his way downstairs. Erza followed as Lucy decided to get dressed as well and headed to he room before joining the others.

Natsu and the others enjoyed their time playing some of the games that the hotel provided for them. However, Natsu was more concerned on keeping an eye out for any of Erza's old friends as they were going to kidnap Erza. Natsu looked forward to see him and Happy already at another game. He smiled as he watched Happy try to shoot one of the moving targets with a fake gun.

“Are you sure you can afford to spend your time...playing games?” Natsu's eyes widened at the familiar voice and slowly turned his head to see the hooded man behind him. Before Natsu could even react, the man's fist connected with his face, sending him flying through the game, through some slots and into the wall at the other end of the room.

“Natsu!” Happy cried out and then turned to growl at the man who attacked him. The hooded man smirked down at him before putting a finger to his lips and then started to fade away. Happy blinked in confusion as his body was no longer there. Happy wasn't sure what happened, but he forget about the attacker and grew wings to fly over to his best friend. “Natsu!”

The sound of others screaming at what just happened caused Era, Lucy, Gray and Juvia, who followed the group stand up and look over to the dust cloud at the other end of the room. “What happened?” Gray asked as he stood up from his seat. Suddenly, a large shadow cast over his and Juvia's body. He slowly started to turn his head when a hand smacked Juvia away from Gray. “Juvia!” He called out out and then glared at the attacker. “Who the fuck are you?”

“You're Gray, I presume? Where is Erza?” The man asked.

“Hey! What do you think happened?” Lucy asked as she and Erza rose up from their seats to look at the dust cloud.

“How about we play another game...this time...with our lives?” Both Erza and Lucy turned around to see five cards with a letter on them and put together spelled death. Erza looked up to see who the card dealer was and her eyes widened as she recognized the face of someone she once knew. “How about it, Erza-neesan?”

“S-Sho...” Erza stuttered in disbelief.

“It's been a while, Nee-san.” The young man said as Lucy turned her head back and forth between them.

“Sho...you...you were safe...?” She tried to put on a smile, but the man narrowed his eyes at her.

“Safe?”

“No...I just meant that...” Her voice wavered as Lucy couldn't believe she was looking at a side of Erza she never saw before.

“It has been a while, hasn't Erza?” Erza turned her head and her eyes widened as she saw another old friend.

“W-Wally...” Erza stuttered his name as well. He tipped his cube shaped hat before pointing a block shaped gun at her and Lucy.

“Erza...what's going on? Who are they?” Lucy asked, furrowing her eyebrows at the two. Suddenly, the lights went dark as both female members of Team Natsu. “What's going on now? A black out?” Lucy asked as she looked around, but saw nothing but darkness. Then the lights came back on. “The lights are back...” Lucy stated, but noticed that something was off. The people who were around them were gone. When she looked down, she saw cards on the floor and her eyes widened when she saw the same people who disappeared inside them. “What? How are they inside the cards?”

“Oh...don't you know that anything is possible with magic?” Sho smirked as some cards feel from his hands. Erza's eyes widened as she saw some of the people that were trapped inside trying desperately to get out.

“Y-You learned magic?”

“I'm not the only one...” Erza's eyes widened as she looked over at Wally and he smirked as well.

“Ahhh!” Lucy screamed as a rope wrapped around her neck and body. Erza turned around at her scream.

“Lucy!”

“What is this?” She asked, struggling to remove the rope. She was suddenly pulled backwards and hit against the bar.

“Meow! Super strong, ne?” Erza's eyes widened again as she saw another old friend.

“M-Millianna!? You can use magic too?”

“Long time no so Eru-chan!” Millianna exclaimed.

“Let her go, Millianna! Lucy's my friend!” Erza yelled at her.

“Friend?” She asked, putting a finger to her chin.

“Weren't we your friends, Nee-san?” Sho asked her.

'These people...are her friends?' Lucy wondered a she felt the whip tighten around her body.

“Ah...yeah...” Erza answered, her voice wavering again.

“That is...until you betrayed us.” He told her venomously. Erza's closed her eyes tightly as she wrapped her arms around herself as memories of her younger days as a slave resurfaced in her mind. Just remembering those days made her feel weak. The hateful memories of herself and the others in that tower made her feel as if millions of small insects were crawling up her leg. She wanted to suppress those painful memories so much, but she knew no matter what, she would always remember those days, the faces of her friends and the face of one blue haired boy.

“Come on now Sho. Don't ruffle her feathers too much...” Wally spoke as he walked up to Erza, lowering his gun down to his side. “Dandy men know how to maintain their composure...all though I must say you turned out to be quite a looker there...” He smirked and took a drag of his cigar.

“No need to be awestruck...” Another voice was heard and then out of nowhere a large man appeared. “Once that guy gets his mitts on you, anyone would be able to use magic...right, Erza?” The large man looked up to eye her. Erza's eyes widened.

“S-Simon...” Millianna dropped Lucy to the floor as the rope tightened around her.

“Erza! Whoa re these guys? Why is he calling you, Nee-san?” Lucy asked despite her condition.

“He's not really my brother...they're my former nakama.” She told her.

“Nakama! But I thought you were in Fairy Tail since you were a little girl?” Lucy screamed in shock.

“This was before then...” She bit her bottom lip. “...but why are you all here?”

“We came to bring you back...” Wally told her.

“Meow.”

“Let's go back, Nee-san...” Sho told her as Erza clenched her fists.

“If you continue to insist...” Wally began and then pointed his gun at Lucy who shrieked in horror.

“Stop! I'm begging you!” She screamed. Wally smirked as his arm suddenly appeared behind her and he pulled the trigger. Erza gasped as she felt something hit her back. She didn't know what it was, but she suddenly started feeling drowsy. She then fell asleep as Simon caught the falling Erza.

“Erza!” Lucy screamed.

“Calm down...it's just my sleeping bullet.” Wally told her.

“Capture complete...let's get going.” Simon told the others and they nodded their heads.

“Hey wait! Where are you going with Erza?” Lucy shouted as she tried to break free.

“Meow.” Millianna meowed as she made a circle motion with her finger and the rope tightened to the point that Lucy couldn't move anymore.

“Ahhh!” She screamed in pain.

“Another five minutes...and you'll be cat food...” Millianna told her as she started to walk away.

“Millianna...tie up Erza...” Sho told her and she saluted.

“Meow! On it!” She replied and wrapped her rope around Erza.

Sho smiled as tears started forming in the corner of his eyes. “Nee-san...you're finally coming back...to the Tower of Paradise...I bet Jellal will be smiling ear to ear...”

Lucy struggled to get out of the ropes as the mages who kidnap Erza were no longer in her sight. “Damn it...” Lucy cursed. She heard her keys hit the floor and took this opportunity to try and call out her Celestial Spirits. “Cancer! Open the....Gate!” She called out, but nothing happened. “W-What? Cancer!” She tried again, but it still didn't work. “W-Why...Taurus, Loke! Anyone!” She called out, but still nothing. She cringed at how much tighter the rope has gotten and it seemed to get only tighter the more she moved. 'Damn it...'

Suddenly, a shadow cast over her and he opened her eyes to see who it was. She grinned as she recognized the pink locks. “Natsu...” He knelt down and lit his finger with his flame and burned through the rope. Once he was able to free Lucy, he helped her up to her feet. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Where is Erza?” He asked.

Lucy frowned and lowered her head. “They took her.”

“Don't worry about it, Lucy. We'll get her back. Happy went to go see how Gray is doing. Come on, let's go meet up with them.” He told her and she nodded her head in agreement. They ran off to find Gray and Happy and when they did, they saw Happy crying over what looked like broken ice.

“I...I broke Gray...” Happy cried.

“Eeeehhh!” Lucy screamed in shock.

“It's alright...Gray-sama is in Juvia's body...” The three turned their heads to see water rising and Juvia appearing. Gray came out of the water as he panted for air.

“I-In the body...” Lucy blushed a bit.

“Yes in my body...not yours...” Juvia glared at her as Lucy tried to calm her down.

“I remember...seeing you make a double of me when it became dark...” Gray told her as he started taking off her shirt.

“Hai! To avoid being discovered by the enemy, Juvia protect Gray-sama with water...” Juvia exclaimed as put her hand son her cheeks and became flustered.

“Yeah...too bad it wasn't necessary...you let him get away...” Gray told her which made her face falter to that of shock. Happy let out a cry as he flew toward Gray and hugged him.

“WAAAAH! I THOUGHT I BROKE YOU!”

“What? Calm down Happy...I'm fine...” Gray told him as he tried prying the Exceed off of him. When he was finally able to get Happy off of him, he looked up to see one member missing. “Where is Erza?”

“She was...” Lucy frowned and lowered her head again.

“She was taken by those guys who attacked us, right?” Natsu asked and she nodded her head.

“What!? Why?” Gray exclaimed.

“She said they were her old nakama...but I just don't get why they would kidnap her? None of this makes sense.” Lucy explained.

'I know...but...why did he show up here? I know Zeref wants me to fight him, but to think he would make Jellal show up here...' Natsu scowled as he placed a hand to his cheek in the spot that he was hit by Jellal.

“Damn...so do we know where they took her?” Gray asked.

“Yeah...I know...I can smell Erza...” The others became silent at his statement. “What?”

“Creep...”

“What was that pervert?”

“Don't call me that! Then stop saying you smell a person like that, it just seems wrong!”

“Says the guy who strips!”

“Enough!” Lucy screamed and the two stopped fighting to look at her. “Just show us the way, Natsu.” Lucy told him.

“Right...come on.” The team nodded and started following Natsu out of the hotel.

After sailing aimlessly for hours, the group were now staring up at a large tower, that from where they stood looked like it had no top. “Such a tall tower...” Lucy looked up in awe.

“Aye...”

“Yeah...” Gray agreed as the team waited for Juvia to return to see if there was any entrance to the tower underwater. Natsu stared up at the tower, but for a different reason. He could sense his magic. That evil dark magic that made him sick to his stomach. The same magic that killed all of his friends. However, this time he wasn't going to let that happen.

“Juvia has found an entrance.” Juvia spoke as she resurfaced.

“Really!? That's great!” Gray exclaimed.

“Gray-sama complimented me not you.” Juvia said to Lucy as she sweat dropped.

“R-Right...”

“It's a bit of a swim, but if you can hold your breaths for at least ten minutes, you should be fine.” She told them.

“Aa, no problem.” Both Gray and Natsu responded.

“No it isn't!” Lucy and Happy yelled.

“Then, take these.” Juvia created bubbles of air like she did in their previous adventure.

“Oh, perfect!” Lucy exclaimed and took one to put it over her head. The others did the same and then dived into the water. When they resurfaced, they arrived in the basement of the tower. Lucy started to twist her wet clothing to remove the water as the others looked around. “Erza and Happy must be somewhere here.”

“Aye!”

“Hey, who are you?” The team all froze in place as they looked up to see guards spotting them.

“Ah crap...even after we snuck in...” Gray cursed.

“Hold it right the-” One of the guards began, but stopped when Natsu suddenly punched the scaffolding they were standing on, causing it to collapse. His flames then started to circle around the area, engulfing any guards that were unfortunate to get caught. The others blinked in surprise at his actions.

“Looks like we won't be able to sneak around anymore.” He told them. “Come on, let's go.” They all stayed in place for a few seconds before shaking off their shock and ran after Natsu, attacking any guards that stood in their way. 'I have to get to Jellal...I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about something...' Natsu thought as he punched a guard away as Lucy fought off some more guards with her spirits. Juvia and Gray did the same. Happy flew up to the air to give them an aerial view of battle field and warn them if any guards wanted to do some sort of sneak attack. He also fended off a few.

When they managed to defeat them all, a door opened up and they all looked up. “That door just opened...”

“Yeah...I'm sure they are telling us to come up...” Natsu said. “Let's go!” They all agreed and started climbing up the ladder.

When they entered the floor above them, they saw that it was empty. “Looks like no one is here.” Happy stated.

“Yeah...but don't let your guard down...” Natsu told them.

“He's right...” Juvia agreed. “This door opened itself, right? Someone must have done somewhere in the tower. It's possible that we may have been detected a while ago.”

'Of course we were...' Natsu thought as he sat down and started to meditate. 'I have to build up my magic...'

“Oi, flame brain! This isn't no time to do that meditation crap!” Gray shouted at him. Natsu didn't respond, which made him growl in anger. “You...”

“By the way, Lucy...what's with the clothing?” Happy asked.

“Oh this...I asked Cancer to bring me some clothes from the Celestial Spirit plane. It was going to be hard to move with wet clothes so I changed.” Lucy told him as she spun around to show off her clothing.

“Found them! The intruders!” They turned their heads to see more guards heading in their direction.

“Damn these guys are persistent!” Gray scowled.

“Uwaaah!” Their eyes widened in shock as the guards were all being attacked by someone from behind them.

“It's Erza!” Happy exclaimed in joy as Erza defeated all the guards. She heard Happy's voice and turned her head to look at the group in shock.

“You're okay!” Lucy exclaimed in joy a swell.

“W-What....what are you guys...doing here?”

“Why? It's to rescue you!” Gray told her.

“Go back.” She suddenly said making everyone gasp.

“W-What?”

“You guys...shouldn't be here...”

“What are you saying, Erza?” Lucy asked her in disbelief.

“Just shut up and leave...” She raised her sword and pointed her sword at her. “Please...” They were shocked to see Erza like this. Her entire body was shaking as if she was afraid of something. They never saw her like this. They didn't like it.

“No...we can't do that! We can't leave without you!” Lucy fired.

“Please!” Erza screamed. “Just...go back...I'll handle everything...this is my fight...i don't want to involve you guys any further...”

“Sorry...but we're already gotten involved...” Gray told her. Erza didn't say anything and just stood in the same spot. Her scarlet colored hair hid her face from their views.

“Erza...just what exactly is this tower...and who is this Jellal person?” Lucy asked. She didn't say anything. “It's okay if you don't want to tell us...but...those guys said you were they're comrade...but we're your friends now...and...we'll always be there for you...” Lucy smiled warmly at the woman who she idolized.

“G-Go back...” Erza repeated, but this time with a shaky voice.

“Oh man, this really isn't like you at all. Why don't you just stop with all this bull shit and tell us to go with you like you always do. We will help you no matter what, Erza. It's okay to be scared once in a while.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. When he did, she looked up and his eyes widened as she saw tears in her eye. “E-Erza...”

“Erza...” Happy frowned.

“I'm sorry...” She apologized and wiped the tears away. “This fight...whether we win or lose...I'm going to be gone from the public...”

“Oi, what the hell does that mean?” Gray asked.

“This is my fate...this is something only I can do...” She clenched her sword tightly.

“Don't give me that fate crap...” Everyone gasped as they turned around to see Natsu on his feet, glaring at her. “I don't want to hear anything about this is so called 'it being your fate' or 'destiny'. I don't want to hear you say anything as if you plan on dying here...I'm going to help you whether you like it or not...if you want to stop me then go ahead and try...I'm heading to the top of the tower to meet this Jellal guy...and then I'll kick his ass...” Erza's eyes widened at his words and for some reason, froze in place as he walked past her and headed toward the stairs.

“Wait for me, Natsu!” Happy grew wings and flew after him.

“Oi!” Gray called out after him. “That guy...”

Erza suddenly collapsed to her knees. “Erza!” Lucy screamed as she ran over to her. Lucy looked at Erza to see if she was okay, but saw that she was crying again. “Erza...”

'Why...why am I crying? Why is it that I feel this way?' Erza wondered. 'Natsu...why are you doing this? Natsu...please...don't die on me...' Erza wiped her tears away and stood up.

“Erza...” Lucy looked at her in worry.

“I'm okay...since I'm here...I might as well tell you about this place...”

“It seems the Salamander has ran off without his friends...what should we do about him, Jellal-sama?”

“Simple...show him the way to the top...”

“But Jellal-sama...”

“I said do it!”

“R-Right...”

Natsu ran as fast as he could. 'I have to get to Jellal as fast as I can...' Natsu thought and continued to think that as he ran up the stairs. He no longer heard Happy's voice as he was running way too fast for his friend to catch up to him. He couldn't let his friend get involved. As he reached the top of the stairs, he entered a room and saw instantly that he was already ta the top. 'What the...? I'm sure I couldn't have gotten up here that fast...'

“Welcome...Natsu...” Natsu's eyes widened and he gasped as he turned his head to see Jellal looking at him through his hooded cloak.

“You...” He growled as Zeref appeared behind Jellal.

'It is time...Natsu...' Zeref told him. 'Let me see how strong you have become...'

“How did I get here so quickly...something isn't right...”

“I see you noticed that...” Jellal spoke. “Don't worry, nothing happened...I just made it sure that you and I meet up here as quickly as we can so that we can begin our fight...” He took off his hooded cloak to reveal himself. Zeref appeared once again behind Jellal.

“I see...so you couldn't wait either...” Natsu smirked as he ignited his fists.

“Of course...” Jellal smirked as both of them disappeared before punching each others fists in the middle of the room.

“But I don't know who to believe anymore!!” Sho cried as he grabbed his hair and clenched it tightly. After telling the others about what happened, Sho and Simon appeared.

“I know it's hard to accept everything right now. But let me just say a a few words. In these eight years...I never forgot about you guys. I couldn't do anything...I was too weak...I'm sorry.” She apologized and pulled him to a hug.

“But you're ready now, right?” Simon asked her. She looked up at him and nodded her head, showing him a determined expression on her face. Simon smiled. “I've been waiting for this day. Now that all of these powerful mages are gathered in one place.”

“Powerful mages?” Lucy whispered. 'Am I included?'

“We'll fight Jellal....with our combined strength!” They all nodded their head in agreement. “By the way, where is the Salamander?” They all looked at each other and suddenly remembered what he said.

“Oh no!” Erza panicked. “He went up to fight-” She couldn't finish that sentence as a loud boom and very violent shaking erupted through the tower.

“W-What is this?” Lucy asked, trying to keep her balance.

“This magic...” Erza realized. “Natsu...is fighting Jellal...”

“Ehhhh!?”

To Be Continued...

Author Notes: I'm sorry for ending it there, but I just want the next chapter to be about Natsu's fight with Jellal/Zeref. I'm going to be excited writing that chapter so hopefully I can get it out with 1-2 weeks. On another note, I know I promised to write two chapters before the anniversary, but stuff happened like my computer completely getting destroyed and it was a while before I got a new one. Also school began so I was preoccupied with that also.

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY FOR TIME IS THE PATH TO STRENGTH!!!

I want to thank everyone who has been behind my story since the beginning and hope you continue reading as I don't plan on stopping writing possibly my most successful fanfiction to date. Thank you all!

Ja Ne!
- 21
- 22
- 23
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Time is the Path to Strength