Shattered (Fairy Tail)

14: Snake

Natsu's P.O.V

I swirled around looking behind me. Right behind me was a familiar face. It was a tall male with black hair that reached down to his ears. His hair was greasy and his bright silver eyes glowed in the night.  I reconized him, even without the Sabertooth guild mark peeking out from under his cloak.

"Snake!" I yelled jumping up and smiling at him. It took all of my will power not to hug him, but I have to remember the one thing about Snake. He hates hugs. Besides I'm still a little mad at him, but that doesn't matter. He was back and I get to see my old friend. 

"Good to see you again Dragon." He said bowing his head. "So you made your way to Mangolia." I said. Last time I had seen Snake we were in Demon Hawk together. It was just by pure luck that Snake and his master was out when Fairy Tail arrived to the guild. We were pretty good friends considering he he was the only other male in all of the Demon Hawk slaves. 

"Yeah. Turns out these marks that Master crossed out was guild marks. We're part of other guilds." I told him. 

"I've figured that out too. All of the guilds are indebted to Fairy Tail for raising awareness of Demon Hawk. The whole slave trade has been uprooted and we are all being sent home." Snake spoke. Then he showed me his guild mark, also crossed out with large fleshy scars. The Sabertooth guild mark was dark blue, but the pink scars kind of caught your attentions. His last statement made my smile fade. Home. I have no home. I always belonged at Demon Hawk. That is just where I need to be.

"Dragon. I understand your pain." Snake said coming closer and touching my left temple. "Out of all of us, you were the one. They needed you to submit, Demon Hawk acheived their goal by  torturing you the most. Right now, your mind is breaking under the pressure. You don't understand why the world is acting the way they are."

I nodded and then clenched my hands into fists. He knows. No one else can explain what I feel but Snake. He's had a talent of understanding minds from the very first time I met him. He could always guess exactly what I was thinking. Sometimes it was pretty handy to have a friend who you don't actually need to explain anything to. 

"You know Dragon." Snake states poking his own temple.  "I feel it too. The need to return to Demon Hawk. The need to return to the beginning of training. Both of us have this feeling and I doubt it's a coincidence."

"No one understands me here. They all tell me who I am, what I was. It's scary. I'm scared Snake." I didn't mean to, but tears flowed from my face. Salty tears came down and I sniffed. Snake rolled him eyes but then sighed in sympathy. He understands that I don't like any of this. 

"Pull yourself together Dragon." I wiped my eyes knowing what he meant. "Tears are forbidden when you graduate from training." It's been a long time since I had shed any tears, but he was right. I can't fall apart now. I can't let my emotions take over. 

"What do we do Snake?"

"We leave. Let's go back to Demon Hawk together. Meet me back here tonight."

"What about Fairy Tail?" I asked. 

"Fairy Tail? You mean the guild that got us out. That's the guild you were in?" He asked. I nodded. Snake shook his head and crossed his arms. "For some reason that makes a lot of sense. You might not be that way now, but when you first came to Demon Hawk you certainly acted like a Fairy Tail member. Breaking everything and screaming about."

"I was?" Snake nodded. 

"Yes. Your not that person anymore though. Demon Hawk changes us, and that is why we must go back. We could live by ourselves in the Demon Hawk guild. All of us victims could meet up and have our own little society. We could see all of our friends again." Snake said. 

"Sounds like it would be fun." I sighed and looked to the sky. He followed my gaze. I knew that he knows. I knew that he would have been grumpy about it too. It just gave me comfort to know that I'm trying to live by her ways. That's the only thing that I can think of at this point to honor her, but by going back I'm doing the opposite of what she wanted. 

"We're going against Kitten's wishes doing this." I said. Snake groaned.

"Dragon you know as well as I that -"

"I know." I interrupted. "Kitten is gone, and I will never see her again. It's because of me." I looked down sadly. The roof was the only thing that I was seeing. Snake is right as usual, but I can't just turn around and go against Kitten. I gave her a promise. 

"You were on some crazy shit back then. You can't blame yourself for what happened." He told me. I nodded but I didn't agree with him. I couldn't agree. I know its my fault. Everyone told me it was my fault and I should have been stronger. If I would have fought a little harder she would still be here. 

"Are you going to come with me or not?" Snake said. 

"Yeah. I'm going to go." I told him. 

"See you tonight Dragon." After that, Snake jumped up and jumped off the roof before going away. I watched the horrisson as Snake disappeared from my view. He jumped from house to house before he was completely out of sight. I was alone on Lucy's roof. For now anyways.

Lucy's P.O.V

I was at the guild now. Team Natsu circled around me as I explained the situation.  I have an idea but i'm not sure if it would work. I need Natsu to get back to normal, but the process is taking way to long. I thought he would be better after all of this, but he stopped making improvement. I need to do something. 

"I think Natsu is losing trust in me." I said. "Maybe we should all do something together with him. It would boost our trust and maybe bring him out a little. Like a job or something like that." It was the only thing I could think of. Natsu loved missioned. Maybe he still does. 

"Lucy. . . Natsu doesn't use his magic. That limits our options." Erza stated. "I know you want to get him to trust you but we don't want anyone to get hurt. Fairy Tail really isn't famous for having low key easy job requests either."

"Maybe we should just give him time. He went through a lot after all." Gray said. I looked over to him in shock. Gray was being wise, but he must have a motive for talking like this. Gray would never be the one to think about this logically.

"Wow Gray. I didn't realise you cared so much." Happy pointed out. Gray grumbled and then crossed his arms. I guess he's not going to give his opinion any more. Gray's pride has now been hurt so I doubt he would actually speak anymore. 

"He said something about the stars. He wouldn't tell me why but he likes to just sit for hours staring at the stars." I said. I was giving the group this information for two reasons. One to maybe link it to some understanding, but more because that way they know the condition of Natsu at this point. 

"That could give us idea on what to do." Erza stated. I hadn't noticed it but Happy had seemed to get a little upset. My guess by everybodies reactions that nobody else noticed it until Happy stood and began to walk away from the conversation. 

"Happy. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see Natsu. All of you sound like your trying to come up with this big plan, but the truth is it's all pointless. All that matters is that we are there for Natsu. If he doesn't remember us then we will just be his friends as he is now. It's not that hard to figure out." At that tears were dripping from his eyes. Then he flew out of the guild crying. I felt bad for Happy. I've been so focused on Natsu that I never considered that just maybe he was struggling. Natsu was Happy's caretaker. Where even has he been staying lately?

"Poor Happy."

------------------

Word Count: 1460