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Beastly Possession	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 26740 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. I make no money, I just do this for my own pleasure.

Chapter List
- 24
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- 26
Disclaimer: I bind Hiro Mashima as a prisoner, because I wish to free Fairy Tail from its restrictions as a shounen manga. I must learn a better binding spell. ^_^

Chapter 25

Prisoner
Later that afternoon, there was a meeting between Makarov, Gajeel, Rogue, and Sting. Outside the little meeting room, the Fairy Tail mages were organizing another thorough sweep of the city in order to root out the feral beast still on the loose. Sting and Rogue had hoped to simply sniff it out, but the smell was so strong all over the city, it was impossible to pinpoint by smell alone. So all of Fairy Tail was scouring the area. As they searched, Sting and Rogue were preparing themselves, not only for a fight with the feral, but also for the healing that had to happen after everything was settled.
However, a more pressing matter was at hand. Natsu was much worse off than any of them thought possible, as if the effects of turning feral were accelerated. This news troubled Makarov, and he suspected the acceleration was partly due to Igneel's scarf. The muffler had held back this coming-of-age for years, and now, like a spring that had been wound tight within him, Natsu's body was spinning out of control far faster than normal.
"Have you inspected Natsu already?" the aged guild master asked the Iron Dragon Slayer.
Grimly, Gajeel scowled as he acknowledged the dire extent of this situation. "Yeah. He smells feral to me, but he keeps insisting he's not. Says the beast also claims its not. The fact that he's consciously aware of the beast's thoughts is a sign that he's damn far gone."
Sting looked worried for the mage he admired so deeply. "Can he be saved?"
Gajeel kept quiet, staring at a cup of mercury and running his finger over his pierced eyebrow, feeling the studs as well as the tension in his brow.
"Gajeel?" Makarov asked sternly.
He sighed, and still his eyes stayed down. "I honestly don't know."
A palpable shiver rippled through the room. Rogue's brow tensed. Sting looked like he had been hit in the gut. Makarov frowned deeper, trying to hide just how much the news pained him.
Sting broke the silence with grim words. "If we have to kill him, I'll do it. I already told him I would."
"I ain't saying that!" Gajeel shouted. "I'll admit, Salamander is far gone. Metalicana taught me this ceremony on the assumption that it could be done within days or weeks of the first signs. Natsu has gone for over a month, and it was artificially triggered in someone who should have been mature already. The effects are happening twice as fast, according to what his teammates have told me. I don't know if this ceremony will even work on someone who is this far with the change. Plus it takes time, which he doesn't have. I'll try it, but if he really is feral right now, that ceremony will kill him."
"What exactly are you going to do?" asked Makarov.
"Che! Hell if I know what it does," Gajeel grumbled.
"It's a merge," Rogue explained in dark tones. "When I had to do the ceremony on Gajeel, that's what I sensed. Within every dragon slayer, we contain a seed of a dragon's instincts buried deep within our subconscious. Normally, this does nothing but make us a bit more aggressive, more possessive, more eager to fight, as well as allow mature dragon slayers to tap into Dragon Force at will."
"With the right training," Sting added in.
"Otherwise," Rogue continued, "we're the basically the same as any normal human. When our hormones change, that buried psyche comes forward, as it does with any normal teenager: aggression, depression, fits of rage, unstable emotions. The difference is, since it's the instinct of a dragon, it's separate from our human instincts. It forms a separate personality based upon the instincts and desires of the dragon slayer himself, but much darker. In the ceremony, the dark personality—the inner beast—is merged with our own personality, blending the two, burying it once more, although we can still sense it. However, if that alternate personality continues to grow and mature, a completely separate entity forms. That personality will develop its own sense of self, its own instincts and desires, separate and often in conflict to the dragon slayer. When that personality fully establishes itself, to the point of overpowering the main instincts, there's nothing to merge. If we were to attempt the ceremony on someone who is fully feral, instead of burying the dark personality, it would be the light personality that sinks. If everything that made the person human vanished so suddenly, the feral beast would have nothing supporting it, not even a subconscious human side, the sense of self would collapse, both personalities would—in a sense—die...and so would the dragon slayer."
Makarov wanted to clear up one bit of confusion. "So, does going feral mean those dark instincts take on their own personality, which then supplant the human instincts?"
"Something like that," Gajeel mumbled.
Rogue nodded. "Feral is a term Gajeel used to describe what could, in theory, happen to a dragon slayer whose personal instincts are completely supplanted by the secondary personality. They would go wild and destructive...feral."
"I use the term because that's what Metalicana called it," Gajeel grumbled. "Apparently, it happened a lot long ago, before the ceremony was invented to suppress the dark instincts. It's part of what happened with Acnologia. He gave in to the dark personality and allowed it to overwhelm him. Made him bloodthirsty. Or that's what Metalicana told me. It was more like a bedtime story. I only vaguely remember it."
Makarov ran his fingers through his mustache. "How will we know if Natsu is feral or not? It seems the smell isn't the deciding factor."
"Apparently not," Gajeel agreed. "Or he's just really good at keeping the other personality in control. You know the person is too far gone when the human side begins to believe the feral's instincts are his own. For instance, maybe Natsu never wanted to mate with Lucy, but the beast decides it does. If he believes he wants to sleep with her when he really didn't originally, then it's too late."
Sting laughed at his example. "Yeah, but who wouldn't want to get in her panties?"
Rogue rolled his eyes at the White Dragon. "Sting..."
"I'm just sayin'! Any man would want to. She's hot!"
"Shit, it's just an example, okay?" Gajeel snapped. "And yeah, Natsu does wanna fuck her. It's easy to smell it on him. Every time she walks by, he gets horny."
"See," Sting pointed. "Even an immature guy like Natsu wants that blonde bombshell in his bed."
"That's not my point," Gajeel shouted. "The beast will stop reacting to Natsu's instincts, start acting purely on its own, and Natsu will begin to think those other instincts are his own."
Rogue tried to answer. "I think the key points are that he'll want to change, he'll desire the same things the inner beast wants, and he'll believe the hatred and homicidal cravings are justified based loosely on his own sense of justice. That is what Sting and I have gathered by talking to survivors from the other cities this feral beast has attacked over the past few months. So long as Natsu can differentiate his desires from the beast's desires, he should, in theory, be curable."
Gajeel gulped some more mercury from his mug, and then wiped his mouth. "From what little we heard when Natsu was brought in, that beast inside him seems to have its own desires, but right now they match Natsu's so well, that synchronization might be buying him some time."
"An instinct to protect Lucy," Makarov stated.
"Do you blame that beast?" Sting smirked. "I wouldn't mind guarding that body either."
Rogue smacked the back of his blond head. "Try to be serious."
"Sorry, sorry," he chuckled.
"So for the moment," Makarov noted, "their instincts are the same."
"Yeah, and makes it damn hard to diagnose him," Gajeel grumbled. "I don't know if he's feral or not, since I've never seen it happen before now. However, the smell is unmistakable once you experience it. Before now, I had only smelled myself when I went through the whole hassle. I was also rather far gone by the time Rogue was brought in. I taught him what to do. I wasn't as bad as Natsu, but my personality was pretty rotten back then, so my other self had done some really horrible things already. We're lucky Natsu's an idiot."
Sting sputtered out a badly concealed laugh at the insult. The others glared over at him. "Sorry," he mumbled, covering his mouth.
"I want to see Natsu for myself," Makarov decided. "Sting, Rogue, you're guests of this guild. Make yourselves at home, but focus on learning this ceremony."
Rogue glared over to Sting. "Which means back to studying."
"It's booooooring!" the White Dragon Slayer whined.
"Too bad," Rogue said stolidly.
Makarov stood, and Gajeel followed him down to the dungeons under the Fairy Tail building. Erza was standing guard, and when the two approached, she went with them.
Makarov grumbled as they descended more stairs, "I never thought I'd have to imprison one of my brats in these dungeons ever again."
"Again?" Gajeel asked.
Makarov said nothing, but his face looked far grimmer. Erza mouthed silently to Gajeel: "Ivan." Gajeel now understood. He knew Makarov's son was excommunicated. So, he had been locked up as well before being kicked out. No wonder Makarov's face looked so bitter.
"How are Laxus and Wendy?" the Master asked Erza.
"Doing well, although Laxus is getting aggressive purely due to being trapped here. We're keeping them far away from Natsu's holding cell with Freed's aroma-barrier set in place so he doesn't affect them. Neither one has changed."
"That's good," Gajeel mumbled. "It means those two are only affected by the smell. Natsu was changing without the smell, right?"
"Yes, he changed a few times on our trip back," Erza told them just as the stairs ended.
In the dungeon, Mira sat on a stool as she took her shift at guard duty. She stood as their group entered the dungeons. "You caught Natsu at a bad time," she warned. They immediately heard a guttural snarl and something crashing in the prison cell.
"Actually, this is perfect timing," Makarov glowered. "I want to see for myself what we're dealing with, and Gajeel can make a better assessment of potential dangers."
The guild master walked forward to the prison door. The cacophony inside died away to just huffing and hissing snarls. In the gloomy shadows, Makarov could see red eyes glowing, some dark beast crouched in the corner, but not much else.
"Natsu?" the old man called in.
A hiss replied, "Slayer not here. Slayer sleep. Lucy!" The beast flew through the small cell and flung himself at the magical bars that held him back. Purple runes sparked as he pounded them. Now Makarov saw the distorted face, the scaly skin, wings, tail, and black claws. It was Natsu, but only barely. "Where's Lucy?" the creature snarled viciously. "Want Lucy. Need Lucy. Where is girlie? Where? Where is she?"
Calmly, Makarov answered, "Lucy is at home."
"Home?" the creature questioned with confusion. "Safe? Lucy safe?"
"She's perfectly fine. She just wanted a hot bath and a nap."
The beast breathed heavily as it seemed to take a moment to understand. "Safe," it whispered, shrinking back and squatting on the ground. "Lucy safe. Clean. Sleep."
Mira hummed as she observed. "The creature within is definitely protective over Lucy. It's much like Natsu, isn't it? Only, more beastly."
"Lucy...sleep. In bed. Clean." Then it smirked with fangs gleaming. "I can clean Lucy. Lick her clean. Lick everything. Fuck her...with tongue." It licked its lips hungrily.
Makarov muttered to himself. "Definitely not like Natsu," he grumbled.
Mira gave a meek shrug. "Well, you never know."
"Want Lucy," the beast huffed, dropping down in tiredness. "Need Lucy. Cold. Need Lucy warmth."
"Is that all you need?" Gajeel asked suspiciously. "Just her? Is that your only desire?"
The red eyes stared ahead blankly for a moment before muttering, "Dragon. Want dragon. Slayer hurting inside. Slayer want another slayer. Want healed. Not what I want, but Slayer wants."
"You don't want to be healed?" asked Makarov.
Those red eyes slowly turned up to him in a narrow glare. "Want freedom. Want soar. Want sky and land and meat...and Lucy."
"Basic survival instincts," Gajeel mumbled. "Food, shelter, sex. Typical wants. What other wants—?"
Erza cut in. "Why Lucy?" she asked with a voice barely suppressing her anger.
Those red eyes looked confused, as if the answer was obvious. "Lucy is mate. Claimed her. Marked her. She's mine."
Makarov walked a little closer to the bars. "If we let Lucy come here, will you let us talk to Natsu?"
The face looked eager. "Lucy here? See Lucy again?"
"Only if you let Natsu come back."
The beast pulled back scowling. "Why? Slayer asleep."
"I won't let her see you unless it's Natsu in control."
"No!" the beast hissed furiously, scuttling back into the cell. "I am Slayer. Slayer is me. We are safe. Let me see Lucy!"
"Not until you let me speak to Natsu."
The creature shook its head, but the face showed that it was considering the offer. "Want Lucy. Not for Slayer. For me. Me! I...want Lucy. She is mine, not Slayer's. Mine!"
Gajeel bit on a knuckle. "That's bad. It's independent sense of self is well developed. We'll need to get this done quickly."
Makarov stepped right up to the prison bars. "Let Natsu come back, and I swear I will let Lucy come to visit."
The creature glared up, red eyes ablaze in spite, but slowly the scarlet glow faded and green eyes shined through. The face loosened up, and Natsu was back.
"Lucy...is safe?" he asked tiredly.
"She's resting at home," Makarov told him.
"I heard," Natsu nodded. "I was...sort of aware."
Gajeel stomped forward now. "Salamander! Don't you fucking change again. I'm serious! One more transformation and you might totally lose it."
Natsu nodded wearily. "Can't promise that, but I'll try to fight it."
"You better!" Gajeel snapped. "Don't you dare be a pussy and give in."
"Right," he muttered. Then Natsu rubbed out his head. "How long was I gone?"
Mira looked at a clock. "About two hours."
Natsu moaned as his whole body felt the drain of transforming. "What about Wendy? Is she safe? Did she make it here okay?"
"Wendy is being held elsewhere," Makarov told him.
Natsu's face drew up. "Do you mean she's locked up, too?"
"We had to," Makarov muttered, hating that they had to do something like this to their youngest member.
Natsu rubbed out pain in his shoulders as the wings shrank back. "She...changed. I remember seeing that." His face tensed up in anger and frustration, and he forced himself to swallow so he could hold back tears of self-hatred. "It was me doing it to her. Sting said I smell like a feral." He looked up at the group on the other side of the bars. "I'm not," he shouted desperately. "Is that why you're all here? Is that why you sent Lucy away? Are you gonna kill me?" he yelled in paranoia.
"Natsu—"
"I'm still me!" he roared. His voice began to growl at the end, and the guttural noise shocked him. Natsu jolted back, startled by his own outburst. He rubbed his head again. A bit of the beast had almost emerged with that shout. "Please, believe me," he whispered. "I'm still me. I'm not feral, although...I can feel...I don't have much time."
"We're going to do the ceremony first thing in the morning," Makarov told him. "Gajeel is training Sting so the three of them can heal you, Laxus, and Wendy at the same time."
"But, the feral?"
Gajeel growled under his breath. "Still out there. Those Sabertooth guys will take care of it."
Natsu pouted. "That kid, he probably felt the same way I feel. You can feel yourself losing control, losing to the creature inside...changing. Confused about what you want, who you even are anymore." He gazed up to Gajeel. "Does he really have to die? Is there really no way to save him?"
The Iron Dragon Slayer folded his arms over his chest. "The ceremony Metalicana taught me only works for someone with a sense of humanity still within them strong enough to keep the beast's own sense of self at bay."
"But I bet he still has a human side."
"Not strong enough. Even when Rogue asked if he wanted to be cured, the feral said no. Your own beast said it wants to be cured only because you want it, but it doesn't want it. That's why I warned you not to transform again. You're seriously on the borderline of losing your human personality. To be honest, I'm not sure if the ceremony will work. It takes a week, and I don't think you have that long."
Hearing that stabbed at Natsu's heart. "It might not work?"
Gajeel's jaw tensed as he thought about what to say. "I'm gonna do my damnedest to make it work, but if not—if you turn feral while in the middle of the ceremony—I might not have a choice but to put the creature down. Do you think you can last a whole week?"
Natsu looked lost as well as a little scared. Slowly, his head shook. "I can barely last three days without losing to it. It's getting worse. Almost every night now. It's happened three times today alone."
"Three times?" Gajeel shouted.
Natsu nodded wearily. "The fight with Sting this morning, smelling the feral when we entered the city, and then just now."
"Shit." Gajeel bit on his knuckle as he growled to himself. "I'm gonna be honest with you, Salamander. I don't think you have more than two days, let alone a week. I planned to start the ceremony in the morning, since I need sleep after running all over the place and fighting that feral, but even if we start it right now...we're probably too late."
Mira gasped with tears in her eyes. Erza's armored fist tightened. Makarov's head dropped. Gajeel had told him all the things that could possibly go wrong. One mistake, one slip, and Natsu could be lost forever.
Natsu let those words simmer in his mind for a moment. "I guess running away from everyone was a stupid move."
"Yeah, it was," Gajeel said bluntly. "We could've healed you weeks ago."
"I just didn't want to hurt anyone. I thought I could regain control on my own." Natsu laughed wryly and shook his head. "Lucy often tells me I'm an idiot. I guess she's right." Then he gazed up at the three. "Can I at least see Lucy before the ceremony? I need to talk to her. There's a lot I need to tell her...just in case."
Makarov looked sympathetic. "I'll send her word, but she wanted a nap."
"That's fine. Whenever she's rested." Natsu curled down again and hugged his knees. "Sorry about this, everyone."
"It ain't your fault, Salamander," Gajeel said gruffly. "It ain't nobody's fault, not even the feral's. It's a natural thing, just brought about a bit unnaturally."
"Do you need anything, Natsu?" asked Makarov.
"Something to drink. Maybe something to clean myself. I smell."
Gajeel snorted. "You fuckin' reek!"
"I'll get some soap and a sponge," Mira offered. "What would you like to drink?"
"Something on fire. I feel really tired," he admitted with a scowl, hating to admit any weakness.
Makarov frowned at seeing how sick Natsu looked, especially in the dim light of the dungeon. "I'll bring Gajeel back early tomorrow morning, Natsu. Get some rest."
"Thanks, old man," he mumbled, and he watched sadly as they turned and left the dungeon.
Erza paused at the door, but she suddenly turned back around. She returned to Natsu's prison cell and glared at him. He eyed her quietly, not too surprised that she looked so angry. He had done a lot of things in the past few weeks that inconvenienced everyone.
The redhead got right to the point. "Did you hurt Lucy?"
Natsu opened his mouth in shock. "Do you mean in the cage? She said she was okay. Oh God, did the beast hurt her?"
"I mean in the past."
He was ready to protest, until he remembered what was now the darkest moment of his life. "I...yeah," he admitted sadly. "But it wasn't me. The beast hurt her."
Erza's eyes narrowed even more. "Did it rape her?"
Natsu felt as if she had just stabbed him with all of her Heaven's Wheel swords: a dozen swords, right to his heart! He covered his face in grief. "It...it had...sex with her," he whispered sickly. "She didn't know it wasn't me until it was too late."
"Then who had sex with her in that cave? You, or the beast?"
"That was just us," he insisted with a raised voice. Erza's eyes glared harder at him. "I'm telling the truth. I didn't hurt her, and I didn't force her, I swear. Lucy forgave me for what the beast did, and she wanted to...to do it." His face dropped down sadly. "I don't know why she loves me after everything that happened." Then he looked up firmly. "But I love her! I want her as my mate."
"Just now, the beast claimed that Lucy was its mate, and that it had claimed and marked her."
"No!" Natsu screamed. His fists fired up and slammed into the floor, cracking the stones underneath him. "I'm not giving her to anyone, not even another piece of myself."
"When we were on the road this morning," she said, "the beast told Lucy it would overpower you, claim her, and..." She paused to search for a more delicate way of putting it. "...vigorously mate with her."
The flames around Natsu's fists leaped higher, and his eyes narrowed. "Like hell I'd let it."
"Then don't lose to it, Natsu," she ordered. "Gajeel said you have two days. You had better last seven! I don't want Lucy to be hurt, and if she lost you, that would hurt her far worse than anything the beast could do. Don't you dare lose to this beast and die on us. If you can do that, I'll consider forgiving you for letting the beast hurt Lucy."
"Do you think I had a choice in that?" he snapped.
Her impassive gaze never faltered. "It was your instincts, right?"
He backed off, and his face drifted aside. She had a point. The beast had only acted on what he already wanted to do. If he had not been secretly infatuated with Lucy, it would have never hurt her.
Erza decided not to accuse him too much. She could see that this issue was tearing Natsu up inside, and she suspected it was the main reason why he ran away in the first place. He was prepared to live all alone out in the wild purely so he would not hurt Lucy again.
"Don't give in to that beast anymore, Natsu. If you think you're going to, just tell me. I'll knock you unconscious. That way, your subconsciousness can't hurt anyone."
"I think I'd rather struggle on my own," he muttered.
"Obey Gajeel, at least this once. Don't cause anyone more trouble. I'll make sure Lucy comes to see you before morning."
"Thank you," he said vacantly. "And Erza, if the worst happens...watch over Lucy for me."
She stomped up to the prison bars and glared through them. "Don't talk like that. Don't you dare even think that way. That's not the Natsu I know."
"Because I'm not the Natsu I was before," he said grimly with a pale and weary face. "I'm not even sure what I was back then, or what I'm becoming now."
"Don't talk that way, Natsu."
"I don't even know what I'll be when this is over."
"You will still be the same fire-breathing idiot we all love," she insisted.
Natsu's eyes weakly lifted up to her, and those narrow eyes practically gleamed emerald in the low light of the prison cell. "Will I?"
That soft voice, so heavy with resignation, worried Erza. Natsu was definitely not himself.
With an exhausted sigh, Natsu collapsed to the ground and stared up vacuously to the ceiling. "I really want to see Lucy."
Erza could hardly help but think that he sounded like a condemned man asking for a dying wish. "I'll bring her. Try to get a nap." She turned to leave, but Erza felt a bad foreboding. She hoped that being with Lucy again would revitalize the dragon slayer's spirit.

End of Chapter 25

A/N: I hope I answered a lot of questions. I realized there is one potential inconsistency, and since someone is going to point it out (I have really smart readers) I'll address it now. When we first meet Balaur (the feral beast), his first words are "Want dragon." Yet when Balaur met Sting and Rogue, he said he doesn't want to be cured. This does not mean Balaur was not feral at the beginning but is now. It just means a little of the human desires were still there, enough to make that request, enough to drive the beast to seek out Magnolia. Balaur wants to be healed, but the beast is getting stronger, silencing his personal desires and taking over complete control little by little. Those human desires might continue to be there, but not strong enough to be dominant. Balaur spends most of his time as a beast, sometimes weeks at a time, with only hours as a human, unlike Natsu who spends days perfectly normal, but changes into a beast for a few hours. However, when Natsu starts to believe the beast's wants and desires are his own, that's when he's lost.
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