9

Confront

Seconds after Natsu discovered everything about Kyuki, he ran to her house. Even though it's still hard for him (and master Makarov himself) to believe, he doesn't have any choice.

His mind goes on flashbacks when he ran as fast as he could to Kyuki's house.

"But you've said Kyuki had left the dark guild she used to work at?!"

"She did left. But any guilds' seals will never got erased," answers Makarov, "just like the guild's member natural personality and mentality. And if she's still weak, darkness will consume her easily."

"How could she do all that? I mean, Charle said she got hold a very powerful lacrima of darkness that contains so many darkness elements from so many varied sources; making her very strong and kind of undefeatable." Erza says, while preparing her armors, "could she had been lying for this whole time?"

"She used all of the darkness that had consumed Natsu before. Dark elements from Natsu's scarf. I've told her to take away the dark elements and put it somewhere safe before destroying it, but apparently she's not strong enough to defy the darkness that used to be an important part in her life after directly contacted with it."

"This is awful."

"But it's still in the future – we still can stop it!" screams Natsu – "I won't let that thing destroys and hurt anyone ever again!"

"Natsu, but-"

"I don't care, I'm going!"

Natsu grits his teeth in anger. Did he just had been used all of this time? Or did it really because Kyuki's weak state against darkness?

Ah, I don't care! I need to stop it all because it happens!

Natsu keep running and running until he arrives at that familiar house at the top of the hill, that used to be his living place during few months ago.

But now, that familiar house had burnt down.

"Shit.."

Natsu walks through the rubbles underneath his feet, under the burnt columns and the destroyed roof. But that place is a mess; total mess, that Natsu couldn't find anything that useful. No signs of Kyuki's whereabouts. The house is already destroyed.

"Where the hell is she?"

"You're looking for me?"

Natsu turns around, to the source of the voice.

And there's Kyuki; standing up, staring at him, still with her sharp red eyes and usual cocky smile.

But this time, she's kind of different. Her physical appearance reminds Natsu of his appearance for the last three months. Dark, heavy-lidded eyes with eyebags. Dark aura that flows around her body.

She looks just like Natsu three months ago; when Natsu came to her place for the rehabilitation from the darkness that over-consuming him.

"You…." Natsu grits his teeth in anger, "what did you do?"

"On my way to kill Fiore. To avenge my master's death, and my guild's destruction that was caused by the council." Answers Kyuki, "I never thought you will know about my plan. From where? How could you know about it?"

Natsu hisses angrily, his feet starts taking steps towards the blonde girl.

"I won't let you. I came to you to erase that darkness because it brought nothing good. Those shits are not meant to be used again for any purposes – like what you're about to do! Avenge is nothing good, you're not supposed to do this!"

"You're a guild member. You know loyalty. This is my act of loyalty; why are you saying that this is 'nothing good'?

"You don't know how does it feels when your home got destroyed and your family got killed, right? You don't know how does it feels when nobody takes your side,right? You don't know how does it feels when you lost your subject of loyalty, right?

"You're not answering. Of course, you know nothing," Kyuki answers, while taking steps backwards – suddenly takes something out of her back.

The dark lacrima.

She rubs it softly and mumbles few words Natsu can't catch, and all of the sudden, the ground shakes heavily and the skies turns dark. Lightning starts appearing everywhere, burning the high trees.

Natsu understand what's happening when he starts seeing hands popping out from the ground, digging their way out from the ground.

Ghouls.

It starts.

"Kyuki, what the f-"

"You know, I've been eyeing on that blonde girl that you treasure so much," says Kyuki, while playing her dark lacrima, "she actually have all the celestial spirits' keys? A fasttrack to conquer celestial world, huh? Conquer celestial world and set it dark, just like how Master wished… set every parts of the world into darkness…"

The lacrima starts showing a reflection of a girl that Natsu will recognize anywhere, anytime.

"You bitch- don't you dare to lay your hands on her!" screams Natsu in anger, only responded with Kyuki's cocky smile.

Suddenly, really huge lightning struck the ground, right in front of Natsu – almost burning him alive if he didn't dodge in time. When the blinding lights disappears, right in front of Natsu, thousand of corpses are standing; ready to attack him.

"I'm off to Magnolia, baby. Thanks for your help. Just say that this is the price you need to pay, since it's your Master who killed mine." Says Kyuki, and suddenly vanishes to the air – turns into a mist.

She's a complete demon right now. Darkness almost consumes her as a whole; too many darkness inside her, that her human body couldn't handle.

"Fuck-" hisses Natsu angrily, his eyes diverts from one group of corpses to another group. Attacking and destroying these corpses seems like the only way, and Natsu starts throwing his fire onto those corpses that should've been dead.

Yet, after so many times Natsu let out his roar and dragon slaying techniques, after so many times he throws his fire towards the zombies, the zombies' numbers are not decreasing. They keep coming on; rising up from the ground. Approaching, groping, biting, pulling, punching.

S-Shit..

Natsu let out another roar and burns those corpses again, but they keep coming back – standing up with their burnt faces and bodies. They only fall, then rise again.

It's tiring. It's exhausting. His energy almost ran out – but they're still coming.

Natsu steps back to prepare for another roar, but he trips and fall – while those zombies keeps approaching and tries to consume him.

While gathering all the energy he still has, Natsu was taking a deep breath for another roar when all of the sudden, a loud voice of metal swinging in the air echoes through the hills, and the heads of the zombies starts falling off to the ground.

W-What-

Another voice of metal swings, along with cold, freezing wind envelopes the hill while Natsu tries to get back on his feet. And when he already stands up on both of his feet, he blinks in disbelief.

In front of him – Erza and Gray, with their metal and ice swords, slaying the heads of the zombies with a quick pace, exterminating the mass of disgusting creatures. Broken heads are falling to the ground, followed with its bodies.

"Natsu!" Happy screams while flying, "let's go! Kyuki almost reaches Magnolia!"

"Oi, idiot! I thought it's a basic knowledge that the only way to kill zombies is by chopping off their heads?!" Gray screams, "if you're burning them but not on their heads, it's you who will die! You better thankful that we were able to catch up with you!"

"We'll handle these disgusting corpses," answers Erza while chopping the zombies' necks, "Go back to Magnolia, Natsu. Chase her!"

Still with an overwhelmed feelings after being saved by his friends, Natsu nods, and quickly run to Happy, letting him got carried by Happy back to Magnolia.

Kyuki needs to be finished. Before she can touch anything. Before she can touch anyone.

Before she can touch Lucy.