Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 131 - A Demon, A Dragon, A Man

Once upon a time, there was a little boy in a mountain village who lived with his loving mother, father, and older brother.

Once upon a time, there was a boy raised by a dragon, who found a new family in the wizard guild Fairy Tail.

Once upon a time, there was Natsu Dragneel.

Then, and now, came the Etherious Natsu Dragneel.

And he was dying.

***

Most of the time, Natsu's dreams were of the strangest things. Sometimes, his old jobs would stack on top of each other in a mad jumble of Lucy being in place of Lisanna or Erza, and then things would blow up, and he always, always got into fights with Gray, Gildarts, and Laxus. Not to worry, he often won. Even against Gildarts!

His dreams were always action-packed, too. Not the boring jobs where they had to make a delivery or help clear out a bit of forestry, it was the fun ones where he got to knock some heads, light things on fire, and eat a ton of snacks. And there were never trains.

This dream, or whatever he stood in, was totally different. It was a cave. A long, long tunnel he'd been walking down since...

Since the fight.

The fight he remembered every bit of.

Every look of fear, every attack, every move, everything. He saw Gray, Erza, Wendy, Carla, and Lucy as clearly as he had before Zeref sucked him into that forest. Zeref, his older brother, the one who brought him back from the dead.

Natsu first arrived in the tunnel at the entrance, where, behind him, was a dark void that tried to suck him back. He heard his friends' voices there, on the other side, talking. Crying. As much as he wanted to go back, he didn't like how the void felt. It was cold, and smothered the flames he could conjure.

But the tunnel was warm. Long, dark, lonely, but warm. His flames thrived in the tunnel. He started walking down, slow at first, while the darkness tried to creep up on him or suck him back inside. Eventually, its pull loosened, and he walked free.

It felt endless and was boring. He tried to use his imagination to summon other things or people, but it didn't work; it was as if the tunnel itself was keeping out all of his other thoughts. It was forcing him to focus.

Ugh.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Some stuff did penetrate the stone walls, did make their way into his head: thoughts. Memories.

He swore he heard the echoing laugh he knew as a child.

Baylan Dragneel, his father.

He swore he heard the boisterous and awful singing he knew as a child.

Nika Dragneel, his mother.

A man with pink hair, a woman with black hair. Both full of smiles, full of life. He remembered his father's scolding and mother's quaint, quiet discipline, as well as his father's loud forgiveness and mother's softer disappointment at him and Zeref's occasional brawls.

He remembered the village, like the baker with the delicious bread, the butcher that Baylan was friends with, and even that wizard who came to town every now and then. Natsu didn't know his name. Zeref, he remembered, was obsessed with him. Even then, he was famously good at magic. Everyone around the village hailed him as a natural. Natsu? Not so much.

And then it all ended. His memories of life with his parents came to an abrupt halt. As he walked and sorted through his memories, he realized that what came next was being in the forest and starting private lessons with Igneel. Not about magic, or fighting, but about how to talk, how to draw, how to eat beyond hunting. Magic lessons didn't start for some time, and shortly after that, the entire group came together.