When Worlds Collide

Chapter 38

"Six wishes." Natsu said when they landed. "I don't know what I'm going to do with them. I want them to be good, I don't want to waste them. What would you wish for Happy?"

"An endless supply of fish."

"Figures." He rolled his eyes. "What about you Gildarts? What would you wish for?"

"Me?" Gildarts said surprised. "You're asking me for advice?"

"It's not against the rules, is it?"

"No, it's just that no one's ever done it before. At least not that I can remember."

"Well would you wish for money? Power?"

"Kid I live in a lamp. What am I going to do with money and power?" He said. "But if you really want to know what I want most, I want to become human again."

"You'd want to give up immortality and endless magic?"

"That immortality and endless magic comes at a price that in my opinion is far too high to pay. It cost me my freedom, my memories, anything related to my old life. Zeref was wise but he still made mistakes and making me a genie was one of them. I'm not angry with him though, he didn't mean any harm and he didn't understand what it meant. He didn't know I'd been torn away from my human life, he didn't know my will would be forever dictated by whoever holds that lamp, and he didn't know that turning me into a genie would cause me to lose everything."

"Oh Gildarts that's terrible." Natsu said sympathetically.

"The worst part of it all is even though I can't remember, deep in my heart, I know that I had someone who loved me. A family. In my dreams I'd see a beautiful woman and a child calling out to me with smiling faces and loving arms. For so many years I tried to search my mind to find out who they were and what they meant to me. But I just couldn't. If I could just find them, just remember them, sucha thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasuresin all the world."

"I know exactly how that feels." Natsu said, thinking of how to this day, would give anything in the world just to see his parents one more time. "Isn't there any way for that to happen?"

"The only way out if is my master wishes me free. Then I'd regain my human form and my human life. But let's face it, no one is ever going to do that. Who would give up the chance to have a wish granting slave?"

"I would."

"Yeah right."

"No I'm serious. I'll use five wishes for myself and use the last wish to set you free. You have my word."

"The word of a thief?" Gildarts said dubiously.

"My word is the only thing I've got."

"It's true." Happy added. "In all the years I've known Natsu, he's never once broken a promise."

"I don't know." Gildarts said, still skeptically. "You're not pulling on my chain?"

"No. I swear. That last wish is all yours." He held out his hand to make it official.

For a moment Gildarts was still skeptical. He wasn't a fool, he knew that no human on earth was completely immune to greed. Himself included when he was human. But Natsu did have honest gleam in his eye, so maybe he could be trust worthy.

"Alright." Gildarts said shaking his hand. "So let's get started, what is it that you want most?"

"Food!" Happy volunteered. "Wish for food! Wish that we'll never go hungry again! That's literally our biggest problem!"

"Happy we can always find food to feed ourselves in someway. These wishes should be for something we'd never be able to get no matter how hard we tried."