Previously, with lucy

"Dead?..." I finally croak out. And I suddenly remember my nightmare. The one where I find all of my friends dead. I keep running and running, but no matter how fast I am, no matter how far I run, I can't save any of them.

After a little time to process what I heard, my mind had cleared a little. "I'm not really sure what to say after hearing that… but I'm sorry. Would you please tell me what happened?" I asked, a little unsure of their response.

"That's not an unreasonable request." Responded a voice quiet but confident. I looked up, and Erza had her hand extended down to me. "Come, Lucy, we will tell you our story."

/ O / O /

In this section of the story, italics will stand for what the kage no tochi Fairy Tail remembers

Seven years ago, in the land of Kage no Tochi

He didn't really remember what happened before, but his memory starts in a small clearing in a green and lushes forest. It's confusing really, what happened after that.

All of a sudden the trees weren't a lively green anymore, the branches didn't extend like living veins, and the bugs didn't sing. The grass wasn't dancing in the wind.

Everything was black.

He saw it all happen. He saw, in seconds, the world die.

For the first moment in his life, he could not sense life itself.

And all of a sudden, there was a man in front of him, no older than him really. And there was no hint of life coming from his body, yet, that man was crying.

He quietly sobbed my name "Natsu".

Not knowing who this man was, I attempted to question how he knew me, when he cried out my name, louder this time "Natsu!"

He then opened his blood red eyes and stared deep into my soul, and screamed "NATSU!"

For a second, my body flinched and I took a step back. There was something terribly wrong with this person… no, this thing.

He screamed my name over and over again, and as he screamed, my body shook with each syllable.

My eyes were wide with fear, my entire body shaking, my legs barely holding myself up. And just when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore, he stopped.

And then I heard it. The footsteps behind me, the heavy panting, the sweet and worried voice calling my name.

My heart stopped as an even greater fear filled with dread overtook me. My heart began hammering in my ears.

When I looked back, I saw Lucy running up to me in torn clothes, body covered in dirt and multiple scratches, hair all disheveled, but beautiful. Indescribably beautiful.

This is the woman I loved.

And she was about to die.

I locked eyes with her, her eyes were big and brown, glimmering in the light, and all I could see in them were me. Any other time I would have been happy about it, but not now.

I heard a large intake of breath, and instantly knew it wasn't Lucy.

I could feel my eyes dilate even further and whipped my head back towards the red eyed living death still in front of me. And finally, with one last shout, he yelled my name as loud as he could, and it combined with demons. Thousands of voices came out of his mouth at once, all yelling my name like a death threat. And that it was.

I saw the black reach my feet.

I saw the black reach past my feet.

And I saw the black move faster than me.

Towards Lucy.

I tried to use my voice, to yell at her to run, to tell her something, to try to protect her somehow.

But all my body allowed me to do was a pathetic leap towards her with my arm outstretched.

I watched as her eyes suddenly filled with fear seeing the deadly blackness rush towards her.

And then she looked at me.

Not to scream 'save me!' not to reach out and take my hand to save herself, but to smile.

She smiled at me, one filled with sunshine and life, and then tossed me her keys. As they landed in my outstretched hand, she mouthed something quickly to me, and instantly fell into a small pile of dust. No *poof* no slowly drifting away while saying final goodbyes. She instantly turned black, and dropped like a rock into pointless dust.

All this happened faster than I could summon my transformation, but it felt like eternity trying to reach her before the darkness did.

I dropped to my knees staring where Lucy was just standing. All was quiet as I slowly and shakily looked down at the pile of dust in front of me.

My eyes were wide with shock, as the first tears escaped my eyes, and created a wet path for the others down my face.

My mouth was hanging open, and I couldn't close it.

I then started screaming.

I screamed out of fear, out of distress, of rage, of utter loss and sadness.

I was hysterical at this point. Mind and body out of control.

I heard the dirt shift behind me, but I couldn't tear my wide, horrified eyes of her.

Or what was left of her.

I was mildly aware of the footsteps getting closer behind me, but didn't care.

I felt a gentle hand atop my head, and automatically thought it was her.

I turned just to see big bloody eyes staring down at me, with a crazed expression.

The man then grasped my hair in a tight fist, and then flung me like a rag doll across the clearing. I landed against a tree and crumpled into a pile at the bottom of it.

And for the first time, he spoke to me.

"AAHA!" he laughed loudly. "SO! How does it feel Natsu Dragneel" he spat out my name like bitter candy. "How does it feel? To see death. To have your MOST important treasure taken right before your very eyes? Tell me, do you feel despair? Do you feel the grief slowly taking over your body?" he laughed hysterically as the still Dragneel lay against the now fallen down tree.

He was lost in the sick pleasure and joy of the moment, that he didn't realize the silent pink haired boy had stood up.

His laughing had stopped suddenly, like he was hit by a magical motor vehicle.

He lowered his head and looked towards the now standing dragon take-over mage.

"Woah woah woah. Wait a minute!" Lucy interrupted. Suddenly, they were back on the train seven years later, in the present day.

Erza in mid breath, currently in story-telling mode, taking on the role of Natsu, while Gajeel was playing the red eyed murderer.

The older Erza was just about to cast her favorite line when Lucy had interrupted her out of confusion.

"K wait a minute." Lucy said with her hand on her forehead trying to take this all in. "why did you say transformation earlier?"

Erza was currently trying to hold herself back from ripping the blonde's head off for ruining her perfect act, so instead Gajeel took it upon himself to answer the confused blonde.

"Why wouldn't we say 'transformation earlier'" he said imitating the blondie. "We're a transformation guild aren't we? Of course you have to be able to perform take-overs to join our guild. And pinky here is in the guild. Now can we get on with this? I'm totally rocking this bad guy roll."

"ALRIGHT WOAH." Lucy explained louder, confused as ever. "You guys are a transformation guild? What the heck is that? You ALL specialize in one magic?"

Everybody was now looking confused at one another. They were whispering among themselves things like 'magic? What's she talking about?' 'haha she believes in magic?'

"Look Lucy" Erza started, getting her attention. "We're not really mages here in Kage no Tochi. Hundreds of years ago, the magic in the world was dispelled. But, some are randomly born with the ability to transform into one thing, and one thing only. Of course there are different levels of transformations. The levels start from the highest being the Guild Master, S-class mages, and then A-D class mages, D-class being the lowest class in the Guild. Some can transform into cats, and others into past warriors when magic was still present in this world, and use their magic, as if they were a reincarnation. Some can transform into strong mythical creatures also. This is where the legendary dragon take overs come in; aka Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy."

Lucy then turned wide eyed towards Natsu, who was standing behind her. "You can turn into an actual Dragon?" she asked quietly too shocked to say anything else. "No." he responded quickly. Still not meeting eyes with her.

"Then…" she began, searching for someone else to explain to her.

Gajeel then cleared his voice, and responded in a gruff voice. "Not quite. In the beginning, we can imitate certain traits of dragons. Such as lungs, eyes, claws, and limbs. Advanced dragon slayers can create wings for themselves. But that is very unheard of, since that requires us to create brand new bones, skin and land the right weight and shape to be able to even dream of flying with them." He explained.

"But" gajeel started again. "although its Unheard of, it not impossible. Pinky over here used to be able to do it once in a while. It was an amazing sight." He said, giving Natsu a look she didn't really understand.

Natsu met gajeel's eyes "yeah, well, doesn't really matter if you can do it or not if you can't use it when you really need it." He snapped, then walked into another box cart slamming the sliding door behind him.

She was going to go after him, when a hand gently grabbed her shoulder. She turned around, and was met with the same brown eyes as hers. Wendy, the same height as herself, looking the same age was standing behind her.

"Lucy-san, I don't mean to be rude, but its best to leave Natsu to himself when he's in one of his moods." She said quietly. Slowly lowering her arm from her shoulder.

She stepped back to let Erza past her, and Erza instead grabbed her hand. "Come" she said "we'll finish the story"

Alrighty folks! So that's it for the latest chapter!

Thanks to the two back to back spares I have in the morinng before classes, I was able to write a new chapter this morning, because FOR ONCE I DID NOT have homework. It's amazing.

I have been watching a lot of anime lately, just finished watching d-gray man for the third time, omg Allen Walker tho. Love him to the ends of the earth.

Well enough blabbering from me XD I'll see you all (hopefully) next chapter! Hope that's soon!

-Your Dragon's Key