Time After Time

Everything hurt. Natsu's arms hurt, his legs hurt, and as he looked at the wreckage of the guild that he had called home, Natsu's heart hurt as well. To think, thirty minutes ago everything was going well.

Then Acnologia had appeared. Now all of Natsu's friends were dead. The pink-haired dragon slayer managed to drag himself to his feet and start looking for survivors, but it was starting to seem futile. "Master," Natsu sobbed, as he passed the body of the former guild master, Makarov. "And Erza. Mira. Even Laxus." As he reached the body of Fairy Tail's youngest dragon slayer, Wendy, Natsu collapsed into tears. "Why!" he screamed. "Why did this have to happen? If only I was stronger." Through his sobbing, the dragon slayer thought he heard a faint tapping sound. Is that… footsteps? Natsu's heart leapt, believing that there was at least one more survivor. His excitement quickly turned to rage when he saw who the footsteps belonged to.

"What are you doing here?" Natsu growled.

"I came here to talk to you, Natsu," was the calm reply.

"Well you can talk to my fist." The pink-haired teen rose and tried to run towards the dark mage in front of him, but instead collapsed to the ground. "Dammit! Whatever, just go ahead and kill me, Zeref."

The young-looking mage raised an eyebrow. "Giving up? I expected more from you Salamander."

Natsu simply rolled over onto his back, looking up at the sky. "What's it matter anyway? Everyone else is dead."

"Do you want to save them?"

"What?"

"I can send you back. Do you want to save them?"

"You can travel through time now?"

"I can do things you wouldn't believe. But you haven't answered my question."

"Why would you wanna help me?"

"I wouldn't. I want to help myself." Zeref began walking towards the fallen dragon slayer. "You see, Even my Death Magic is unable to kill Acnologia. Only a dragon slayer could do so."

Natsu struggled to sit up as the dark mage approached. "Why would you even want him dead? You did create him after all."

Zeref smirked. "That's not really of any concern to you," he replied. "I want Acnologia dead, and looking around here I'm assuming you do as well." Zeref now stood in front of Natsu. "You aren't strong enough to kill him, and I can give you time to gain that strength," the dark mage continued, offering his hand to the pink-haired young man. "So what do you say Natsu, do we have a deal?"

Why does it feel like I'm making a deal with the devil here? Natsu thought to himself. Then again, it's not like I have anything left to lose. I don't have any other options either. He then began to raise his hand. I just know somehow I'm going to end up regretting this. His hand met Zeref's in a weak handshake, then he felt magic power stirring up around him. "Good choice Natsu," Zeref said over the roar of energy around them. "Try to do better this time around." Then Natsu felt himself pulled away as the world faded to black.

Natsu awoke to a gentle rocking and the sound of waves crashing against something. As he regained his bearings, the dragon slayer began to feel sick. "Oh come on," he groaned. "Don't tell me I'm on a boat!" He then heard a voice in his head say; That's exactly where you are actually. Natsu jumped. "What the? Zeref! where are you?" I'm in your head. Well, not really. Where I am is a secret, just know that I'm talking to you telepathically. "Whatever. Why am I, urggh, on a boat?" Because I refuse to be partners with someone who can be stopped by the rocking of a ship. "Well how is this helping?" Natsu asked while struggling to his feet. "Where is this thing headed anyway?" Natsu could almost hear the laughter in the dark mage's voice when he spoke. Nowhere.

What. Natsu blinked. "What the hell do you mean we're not going anywhere?!" Natsu yelled before clutching his stomach and collapsing. You're going to have to steer it yourself. The dragon slayer sighed. How am I supposed to do that? Natsu then began looking around. He was on the upper deck of a large wooden ship. The deck was empty except for a few crates, a flight of stairs that lead to the lower level, and a steering wheel. "Fine then," Natsu said as he crawled towards the steering wheel. "I can make this thing move with magic, right?" You can, but I wouldn't suggest you do it now. "Yeah, well last time I listened to one of your suggestions I ended up lost at sea." Have it your way then.

The dragon slayer struggled to his feet, using the steering wheel as leverage. He then paused. Wait, how do I power this thing? I would say use an SE-plug, but with that pathetic weakness of yours, you probably don't have one. "That doesn't help me at all. Could you stop mocking me and—" another wave crashed against the ship, knocking Natsu off balance and causing him to spin the steering wheel as he fell. Zeref suppressed a chuckle as the boat almost capsized before returning to its level position.

Do you understand now why I said it's a bad idea? "Not really," Natsu replied, stumbling to his feet once again. Figures the dark mage thought to himself. Fine then, if you really want to, just grab the steering wheel and channel your magic power into your hands and the ship will start moving. "Ok." Natsu planted his hands on the steering wheel and began to focus his magic. "Wait, which way am I supposed to be going?" Honestly, it doesn't matter, Zeref replied nonchalantly. Thanks Natsu thought. That tells me exactly nothing. "What do you mean by that?" Natsu asked the evil voice in his head. It doesn't matter because sooner or later…

"Sooner or later what?"

Wait for it…

"Wait for wha—" Natsu was interrupted once again by a wave. Once again he lost his balance, and once again, he spun the steering wheel on his way down. This time, however, the momentum of the boat caused it to begin to capsize.

As he was hanging onto the railing for dear life, the pink-haired dragon slayer heard laughter inside of his head. Wait for that, Zeref said between laughs. Natsu opened his mouth to reply when the boat tipped over further. You really might want to do something about that. "Yeah yeah, I got it," Natsu said as he pulled his fist back. He can't be thinking what I think he is Zeref thought. Then again, he really is that dumb. Natsu, that's a really bad idea. "Well I don't have any better ones," was the dragon slayer's reply as he released his hold on the railing. As he fell towards the center of the ship, flames began to gather around his fist. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

As he watched Natsu blast a hole in the middle of the boat, two thoughts were going through Zeref's mind. First, he thought well he is handling his motion sickness at the moment, so I guess this counts as progress. The second thought was a revelation that came just a little too late. I should have chosen Gajeel for this instead.