After the END

Chapter 5: Dragon Slayers

Gray's P.O.V.

"I'm sorry." is all he says. He tries to straighten his legs but flinches from the pain since there is a pretty decent size hole in his leg, which I caused... "Wendy heal him, I'll get levy to release the cuffs." I say as I turn towards the stairwell. "No wait!" Natsu yells out. "Don't release me from these cuffs, without them E.N.D. can use his powers, although he doesn't really have a lot left..." He mumbles at the end but we can all hear him.

"Natsu I need to heal your wound." Wendy says. Natsu gives her a weak smile, "Thanks Wendy but I don't deserve this, I don't deserve any of this." He says with a few tears in his eyes. We look at him confused not understanding where he is coming from. "I hurt you! I hurt all of you with my own hands! Why did you guys let me back in the guild, why are you even talking to me?!" He yells at us. "It wasn't you Natsu!" Lucy yells at him. "E.N.D. was controlling your body, we know you couldn't do anything!" She finishes. "But I should have been able to do something! I wasn't strong enough, if only I was stronger like Guildarts, then none of you would have gotten hurt." He says tears streaming down his face. "Strength and power wouldn't have helped you in this battle Natsu. E.N.D. was inside you right? You can't punch something that's in you. The only thing that you could have fought him off with was your will power and I don't know anyone else in the world who has half as much as you do. To top it off you fought this battle alone Natsu. I don't know how you fought him off for so long but you did, and when he did take over your body you still fought right?" Erza says to Natsu. "Of course I did but-" "Then there was nothing else you could have done, and everyone here realizes that, so please stop blaming yourself." Lucy says cutting Natsu off.

Natsu doesn't say anything but then he suddenly looks towards my direction, "Why are you allowing me to live right now?" He asks me. I stare at with a shocked and horrified expression that he would even ask a question like that. "Your whole purpose is to kill me one day right?" he asks me. "Natsu I could never kill you, you are my family and best friend. And besides you are suffering just as much because of that demon!" I yell at him getting angry at both him and myself. He doesn't say anything as he barriers his head in-between his legs as we start to hear sniffling and muffled sobs. "Natsu we have never blamed you for hurting us, the only thing we were mad at you was for erasing our memories, but we understood why you did it and we accepted it and got over it. We will do the same thing with these memories of yours. Natsu you can't keep trying to take everything on alone, so please talk to us." Lucy pleads with Natsu.

Natsu doesn't say anything but after about a minute he slowly nods. We all release a breath of relief as a small smile forms on all of our faces. "But before I tell you guys anything I need to talk to the other dragon slayers." He says. "Alright I'll run up and get Gajeel and Laxus." I say. "No, just the first and third generation dragon slayers." Natsu says cutting me off. "A-Alright." I say confused. As I turn around to go up the stairs I hear Lucy shout Natsu's name.

I quickly turn around and see Natsu still sitting on the floor but his are eyes closed and his body is completely limp. "What happened?" I ask becoming distressed. "Ugh jeez he just wouldn't give up, but he finally put his guard down." E.N.D. says. I glare at the demon and clench my jaw knowing that that thing is inside Natsu. "Let's just leave him." I say. "Aw so soon?" He says. None of us say anything as we walk out of the cell and lock it. "Hey! Come on!" We hear E.N.D. yell as we walk up the stairs.

When we get back up to the main floor we shut and lock the door that leads to the basement. "So what is going on?" Mirajane asks me as everyone else is answering the other guild members. "It's like what the demon said earlier, E.N.D. won the fight for Natsu's body in the Celestial Spirit World, he couldn't fight the demon because he was scared to face us after hurting us and because of his old memories." I say. "The memories before Igneel right? Do you know anything about them?" Mirajane asks. "No, but Natsu agreed to talk about it, but first he needs to talk to the dragon slayers, but only the first and third generation ones." "Sting and Rogue?" Mirajane asks. "Yah. Can I use the communication lacrama?" I ask. "Of course." She says and pulls out the device. I nod in thanks as I call Sting.

"Hey! Oh hey Gray." Sting says. "Hey, is Rogue with you?" I ask. "Yah, in fact we are our on way to Fairy Tail. Someone accidently sent a Fairy Tail request to Sabertooth, I tried to call it in earlier but no one was answering." Sting says. "Yah sorry everything is pretty hectic over here. Speaking of which when you get here Natsu says that he wants to talk to you and Rogue." I inform him. Sting stops walking as he looks at me intensely through the lacrama. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asks. "What do you mean? Natsu wan-" I stop talking as I realize a very important fact, we never told anyone outside of Fairy Tail that Natsu is alive.

When Natsu came back we partied for 4 days straight. When everything died down we started to get worried that the magic council will try to take Natsu away again, so we thought it would be best not to say anything to anyone outside of Fairy Tail, but I completely forgot about that. "U-Um, listen just come to the guild, I will explain everything." I say after a moment of silence. "You better!" Sting says now angry and then hanging up the communication lacrama. I run my hand through my hair thinking how I'm going to explain this. "Great..." I mumble to myself.

Fifteen minutes later Sting and Rogue walk through the guild's doors. Rogue looking confused and Sting looking pissed as hell. Rogue goes up to Mira to give her the job request while Sting comes marching right up to me. "Talk!" Sting demands, he probably would have been holding the collar of my shirt but I guess I striped it off earlier. "U-Um I think it is better to just show you." I say. "Fine." Sting says. "What are we doing?" Rogue asks. "Follow me." I say as I head towards the door that leads down to the basement. I unlock the door as a catch a quick glance back at a confused Sting and Rogue.

We walk down the stairs and I move to the side as they reach the basement. They walk down and see the cell with Natsu chained up inside. "Natsu!" both Sting and Rogue yell. "What the hell is going on!" Sting yells at me. "Oh goody more guests." E.N.D. says. "Natsu?" Rogue asks. "Are you kidding me! I have to explain this again! Hi, E.N.D. here, not Natsu, but yes Natsu is still in here, and no I can't tell you anything else because if I do I think my head will explode from your stupidity!" E.N.D. yells yanking at the chains at the end of his spiel. "GAHHH!" E.N.D. yells. "And it seems Natsu wants to talk to you." The demon says annoyed.

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A/N- Woohoo I updated within the month and this is a longer chapter than usual! 

I hope you guys already know this but MAJOR SPOILERS, especially for the upcoming chapters!!!!!

Anyways please vote and comment because I would love your feedback.