Natsu sat quietly in the back of the Eisenwald guildhall while the rest of his guildmates celebrated. Nobody dared go over to the pink haired Dragon Slayer to celebrate with him. They feared what he might do if they tried to get too familiar with him. His first week with the guild he had nearly beaten three members to death when they had mistakenly singled him out as someone weak that they could pick on. The guild had received news that Kageyama had finally found Zeref's demon flute, Lullaby, and were now planning all the evil acts they would commit with it finally being in their possession. He thought to himself 'I wonder if these idiots actually believe they'll pull off something this big. There's no way the guild masters they're targeting won't sniff this out and crush them.'

His musings were interrupted when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder and he looked up to see Erigor, Eisenwalds ace, standing next to him. "I know what you're thinking Natsu." He said, "This plan is perfect, we don't have to take those bastards head on and we can kill them all in one fell swoop, and with the guild masters out of the way, none of the guilds will oppose us when we take over this region." The pink haired man snorted and replied "Yeah right, you know how much of a loudmouth Kageyama is, he's probably spewing our plan to anyone who'll listen." Erigor stroked the scythe strapped to his back and chuckled evilly, "No he isn't, he knows exactly what he's in for if he breathes of word of this to anyone." And with that he walked away to begin preparations for the final phase of his plan.

Natsu looked back over the guildhall and sighed thinking, 'Well it looks like I'd better go pack, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a new guild when the dust from this little adventure settles.' And with that thought he went to his room located at the top of one of the towers of Eisenwalds headquarters. Natsu knew that they wouldn't move out for a day or so, and since he really didn't have anything to pack, he threw himself down onto his bed and started ruminating on the whereabouts of Igneel, knowing that he wouldn't really get anywhere with it but needing something to occupy his mind. He thought about the day seven years ago when he'd woken up to an empty cave, and the following years of fruitless searching. He'd drifted through a succession of dark guilds looking for any clues about where the fire dragon could have gone but never found anything. He didn't think of himself as evil like most of the people in dark guilds, he just knew that being in a dark guild allowed him to pursue all avenues of inquiry to find Igneel, many of which wouldn't be approved of by the Magic Council. He had tried to limit the suffering he caused, never going to far as to kill anybody, but he hadn't gone easy on anybody he thought might be able to give him information. He'd slowly gained a reputation as The Salamander, the fiery man who would destroy his enemies without mercy in his search for the fire dragon.

He frowned as he slowly drifted off to sleep, thinking about all the destruction he had caused throughout the years, only for that destruction to yield no results. He didn't mind the fact that he had destroyed homes and livelihoods, he was willing to do whatever it took to find Igneel, and to him, that was the most efficient method available. He fell asleep with the thought, 'I'll never find him this way. I need a new angle to look at things.'

The next day he woke up at the crack of dawn, knowing that Erigor would want to move out soon. He got dressed in his usual black trousers and gold trimmed black vest, and wrapped the white scaled scarf, one of the two items he treasured most, around his neck. He packed the rest of his few belongings in a small backpack: an extra set of clothes, 5000 jewels, and a wanted poster of himself. He smiled when he put the poster in, thinking to himself that one day he'd find a way to get to be rid of the need to do the things that got him on the poster in the first place. He turned lastly to his other prized possession, a katana hanging above the foot of his bed. He pulled it down and slid it lovingly out of its sheath, watching the light of the new sun reflect off of the shiny obsidian blade. It had been a present from Igneel, to commemorate his mastery of the basic Dragon Slayer techniques. He remembered what Igneel had said to him when he presented the grinning boy with the katana.

"I forged this myself in the heart of a volcano, nothing will break this blade and it will never fail you in battle. With it you will be able to unleash the greatest of Flame Dragon Slayer techniques to destroy your foes."

Natsu sheathed the sword and then settled it on his body with the hilt just sticking up over his right shoulder and the sheath slanting across his back stopping just above his left hip, tightening the strap across his chest so that it didn't bounce around. He put the backpack on over that and left the room fully intending never to return.

He sauntered down to the main hall of the guild and found that he was the first one there. Soon however the hall started filling up with people. Natsu nonchalantly ate a breakfast consisting of nothing but rice and a little bit of burnt bacon. He thought to himself 'I'll be glad to be done with these bastards, the cook can't cook worth a damn but everyone else is too lazy to do anything about it.' His breakfast was interrupted however, when Erigor entered the hall and yelled "Alright you lot, today's the day we get back at those legal bastards who stole our freedom from us, we're going to take lullaby and stomp on the flies that have been in the way of us for so long. Let's go!"

The dark guild cheered and rushed to follow their ace as he strode out of the compound. Natsu sighed and stood up from his unfinished breakfast and realized that he was the only one left in the hall. He hurried to catch up as he muttered to himself "It's probably a good thing that I'm not finishing that, less to barf up when we get on the god damn train."

A few hours later he stood with the rest of Eisenwald as panicked civilians screamed and scrambled to get off the train and out of sight of the laughing dark guild. Erigor yelled at the crowd "Everyone off! Eisenwald is taking over this train, take your luggage and flee, anyone who resists will be killed". As soon as the train emptied the dark guild began to embark on the train. Natsu held back and noticed that Kageyama had stepped off the train and was walking up to Erigor. They exchanged a few words and a look of pure rage flashed across Erigors face at something Kageyama said, and he punched him in the head. Natsu sidled over and heard Erigor snarl "How could you let those fairy flies see Lullaby, and then let them get away without a scratch." Kageyama groaned in pain as he replied "But it's not like the plan is blown, even if they noticed they couldn't stop us now." Erigor smiled coldly and said "That's the only reason you still have your life Kageyama, remember that, now get your sorry ass off the ground and onto the train." As Kageyama attempted to do exactly that, Erigor walked over to Natsu and said "I think we're going to set a trap at Oshibana station for those fairy flies." Natsu grunted and replied "I don't give a damn what you do, let's just get this train ride over with."

The train rumbled down the tracks to Oshibana station, but nobody in the dark guild appreciated the beautiful scenery as it flew by, least of all Natsu. This had nothing to do with the fact that most dark guild members didn't give a damn about scenery. It had everything to do with the fact that the Dragon Slayer was flat on his back in one of the compartments trying not to barf up his breakfast. He heard the compartment door open and somebody give a loud laugh "Look guys, the mighty dragon slayer still gets motion sickness on transportation." Natsu heard many more laughs coming from outside the compartment. He looked up and saw the face of Dabo, one of the three he had beaten up his first week in the guild. Natsu snarled "Say that to me when we get off this train, I think it's time I beat your ass again." He heard Dabo give a pained whimper as he remembered what Natsu had done to him last time, and he watched as Dabo retreated from the compartment and slammed the door shut. After what seemed like an eternity Natsu was able to drift off to sleep.

When he awoke the train had stopped, and he couldn't hear anybody moving about on it. He sat up and could hear from voices outside the train in the station. A female voice was shouting "So you're Erigor I take it. What are you scoundrels after! What is your plan for Lullaby?"

He heard Erigors cold laugh and reply "You don't know? What's here a train station?"

The same female voice from before yelled in a shocked tone "You plan on broadcasting Lullaby?"

"I wonder how many thousands of onlookers are gathered around here? If you increase the volume, Lullaby will reverberate throughout the entire city, the melody of death. It's a purge. I'm purging those fools who guard their own rights without even knowing that there are those who've had those same rights taken away."

A different female voice, higher pitched than the first, back at him "You won't get your rights back by doing something like that! Weren't you thrown out of the guild league because you had already done a bunch of evil stuff?"

Natsu could almost see the crazed smile on Erigor's face as he replied "We don't want our rights back now, what we want is power! Those with power can wipe the past clean and rule the future. Everything is going according to my plan, you fairy flies have flown right into my trap."

Natsu finally looked out the window and saw the people that Erigor was addressing. He was shocked when he only saw four people facing down the entire guild, three of them women. The first was a determined looking woman wearing an chestplate with the Heart Kreuz emblem on it and a blue skirt. What really struck about her however was her hair, which was a shocking scarlet color. He couldn't help saying out loud "Damn, that is a hot woman". The second girl had blond hair and was dressed in a short blue skirt and orange tank top with a whip at her side. The last girl was dressed in tight black leather shorts and crop top, and had long white hair running down her back. The man with them had black spiky hair and was dressed in green trousers and a long white coat.

He was shocked to hear the blonde girl call out "This is Fairy Tail's strongest team, you'd better prepare yourself!" and thought to himself, 'So this is Fairy Tail, the strongest legal guild in Fiore.

He watched Erigor float up into the air with a laugh saying "I'm leaving the rest to you guys, show these fairy flies what dark guild is capable of." Wind swirled around him and he disappeared" Seeing this he redhead shouted, "Gray! Mira! Follow him and don't let him broadcast the flute!" The man and the woman with white hair nodded and ran off in pursuit, leaving the redhead and blonde to face the entire guild by themselves. Kageyama and another one of the stronger dark mages, Rayule, leapt to pursue the departing Fairies and the others let them go.

He could hear some of the Eisenwald mages chuckling and saying to the Fairy Tail mages "Two girls, what do you think you can do to us, we're going to pluck your wings you fairy flies." The blonde looked scared at this and seemed as if she wanted to run away, but the redheads scowl only got deeper. She summoned a sword to her hand and pointed it at the dark mages saying "One more insult about Fairy Tail and I can't guarantee that you'll live to see tomorrow."

The dark mages took it as a challenge, pulling out their own swords and charging while screaming "That ain't nothing we haven't seen, we've got plenty of our own magic swords!" The redhead stepped forward and they converged on her, when they were in range she swung her sword twice, breaking Eisenwald swords and throwing back the dark mages with the power of her strikes.

With this, she charged another group of dark mages and gave a shout, cutting through them as easily as if they were practice dummies. Other mages ran up and yelled "Take some of this", holding out their hands and shooting beams of light at the Fairy Tail mage. The beams impacted throwing up smoke and dust, but the redhead had leapt high into the air to avoid the magic. While in the air she held her hands up and magic circles formed, her sword disappeared and was replaced by a long spear. When she landed she rushed another group, swinging the spear around with ease and knocking the dark mages aside. She stopped then and the spear disappeared, it was replaced by two swords, one in each hand. As she rushed to attack another group Natsu thought to himself, 'Damn she's good I've never seen anybody requip weapons that fast.'

As he watched, the blonde girl finally decided to get in on the action. She pulled a golden key off of her belt loop and shouted, "Gate of the crab, I open thee. Cancer!" Natsu chuckled as he watched the celestial spirit rush through a crowd of dark mages, giving them all haircuts and breaking their weapons, utterly destroying their will to fight.

Both the fairy tail women stepped back to catch their breaths and saw that there were still many dark mages in front of them. The redhead said "This is a pain… I'm going to wipe them all out!" Suddenly a magic circle formed beneath and she was lifted up into the air. She was surrounded with light and when the light dissipated she was wearing new armor. This armor was a long skirt of silver plates, a chest piece that left most of her stomach and chest exposed, and silver wings that appeared to be made out of sword blades.

Natsu stared at this and then smiled to himself, finally recognizing the scarlet haired mage. 'So this is the mighty Erza Scarlet, the Fairy Queen Titania.' He watched as swords appeared in the air behind her and floated in a circle around her. "Dance, my blades" she said, as they began spinning faster and faster. She made a motion, shouted "Circle Sword!" and her blades flew towards the Eisenwald mages and knocked them unconscious to a man.

Natsu looked around and said to himself "Well, I guess this is where I'll make my entrance, better late than never, right?" He chuckled and quickly moved out of the compartment, found the door, and stepped off the train.

The Titania, who had requiped back into her original armor, scowled when she saw him get off the train. She requiped her sword into her right hand and growled "So there was another one of you hiding on the train"

Natsu laughed at this and said, "Not hiding, I just didn't want to fight with the trash you just cleaned up."

The scarlet haired mages scowl deepened and she replied "I see, you may not have wanted to fight with them, but you'll be defeated all the same!" With this she charged him with lightning quick speed and attempted to punch him in the stomach with her left hand but he caught it, feeling the cold metal of her gauntlet give a little with the force of the punch as it smacked into his palm.

He grinned at the look of surprise on her face when he caught her punch, he quickly grabbed her other wrist so she couldn't stab him and leaned in towards her ear.

"You'll have to get serious if you want to beat me" he whispered with a smile.

She ripped herself out of his grip and jumped back, with a look of complete fury on her face. Natsu stood there with a grin on his face and waited for her to come at him again. Suddenly, a look of surprise flitted across her face and she said "I recognize you; Natsu Dragneel, The Salamander!"

Natsu bowed when she said his title, "At your service, My lady Titania. I recognized you as well."

Natsu came up from his bow and said "It's been a while since I truly stretched my legs against a strong opponent, this could be fun if I had time to fight."

"Are you going to run away, I didn't know the Salamander was a coward as well as a criminal."

He smirked at her, "Not at all, I'm just going to leave this station before Erigor springs his trap."

Erza suddenly got a worried look on her face, "What trap, tell me now!"

"Now now, where would be the fun in that. I may be leaving this shitheap of a guild, but I'm not going to cross Erigor when I do, he's actually strong enough to be a worry to me."

The Fairy got a curious look on her face at this statement. "Why would you leave your guild?"

Natsu sighed at having to explain it but went ahead anyways. "I don't want to be around when they get their asses kicked like they just did. Erigor's plan is idiotic and is going to get him destroyed. Frankly, I prefer not to draw attention to myself by killing the top guild masters in the region."

Erza looked like she had been hit in the head with a hammer as she asked "Is he planning to attack the meeting of guild masters with Lullaby?"

"Why yes, as a matter of fact he is. But if you'll excuse me, this is my time to exit."

Natsu turned and started to walk towards the exit, hoping that the Fairy Tail mages would forget about him and rush off to save their guild master. However, before he had made it a few steps he felt a breath of air behind him and dove forward, rolling away as the Titania swung her sword into the space formerly occupied by his neck.

Natsu turned back to her with an angry look, "What was that for? I told you the whole master plan so that you could run off to save your little guild master, and you take a swing at my back?"

Erza gave him a steady look and replied "I cannot let you escape Salamander; I will beat you here, and then go defeat Erigor."

Natsu laughed, "The thing is, you don't have the time to fight me, by the time it was over it would be too late."

"What do you mean, Clover Town is very far away from here" Erza said.

"It doesn't matter, in a few minutes Erigor will have made it impossible to leave this station with his Wind Wall. It won't matter if you beat me. By the time you get out of the wind wall he will have already carried out his attack."

Natsu watched the horror dawn on Erza's face as she realized the implications of what he had said. "Now you see that you'll have to let me go if you want to catch up to Erigor, this seems like quite a dilemma you're in now." He could clearly see that Erza was struggling to come to a decision. He watched her slowly lower her sword as she came to the decision that warning her Master and defeating the Erigor took priority over the Salamander. Natsu frowned as he had a thought, and then sighed, knowing that he was probably about to make a really stupid decision, but feeling the familiar rush of adrenaline that stupid decisions sometimes bring.

"Listen, I actually do want to fight you, so I'm going to propose a deal. I'll come with you to help stop Erigor from playing Lullaby, hell; I've wanted to take a crack at that haughty bastard for a while now. You give me your word as a Fairy Tail mage that after we're finished with him, you'll fight me, one on one, with no interference from your friends. If I win, I walk away and you never saw me. If you win, well, you've beaten The Salamander, that's a pretty big feat."

He watched as Erza processed his plan. "How do I know that you won't stab us in the back and run away."

He smirked at this and said, "It's insulting that you think I would break a deal, I do have a code of honor, it's just a little bit different than yours. By the way, tick tock, you're time is running out."

He saw a vein pulse in her forehead as she tried to control her anger. She drew in a deep breath and said, "Very well, lead on Salamander."