A Dragon From Heaven's Tower

Chapter 1

A Lacrima and Hope

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Magic"

Flashback

Location / Date / Time Skip

December 15 X774

Tower of Heaven

Natsu was chipping away at the wall in front of him. All around him, other children were doing the same. Masked guards walked behind them to make sure they were doing what they were suppose to.

"Gah!" Natsu looked over to see small girl with white hair collapse from exhaustion, unable swing her pick axe anymore.

"No resting on the job!" One slaver raised his whip and swung.

"Ahh!" The girl cried in pain as the whip struck her young flesh.

Natsu looked away, but flinched every time he heard the skin and whip connect. He swung his axe into the stone, trying to rid himself of the guilt he felt for not helping. It's not that he didn't want to, it's that he was too scared to do anything.

His axe got stuck in the wall, and Natsu, worried for his own skin, quickly tried to pull it out. A few tugs later, he pulled the point out, but he noticed something glowing in the wall.

Looking around to make sure no one was watching him, he approached the wall and began rubbing wall to get a better look at. A few seconds later, a decent sized, bright red crystal fell onto the ground.

"Hey, pinkie!" Natsu panicked as he slowly looked over his shoulder. The guard had noticed that Natsu had stopped working. "Who said you got any breaks?!" The slaver raised his whip and began whipping him.

"Ahh!" Natsu curled up as the whip struck his flesh, hugging the crystal underneath him. Suddenly, the whipping stopped.

"Ahh!" A new voice cried out in pain. Natsu looked up and saw the same girl from before, standing in front of him with her arms wide, taking the whips for him.

"So you haven't gotten enough, you little bitch?" The slaver asked still striking the girl. "This is boring." The slaver then shoved the girl out of the way and went back to whipping Natsu.

While this was going on, none of them noticed the small glow emitted by the crystal.

"Dude, stop it." Another slaver grabbed the firsts wrist. "They're done for today." He looked down at the two children. "Now, we're gonna have to let these two heal up before we have them work again." The two then began to walk away.

Natsu began to rise from his knees only to have a hand offered to him by the same girl. "You okay?" She asked.

"Why?" Natsu asked as took the hand. The girl had a confused look on her face. "Why did you do that for me?"

"Cause I know that if you weren't scared, you would have done the same for me." The girl answered. "I'm Sorano. What's your name?"

"N-Natsu." He told Sorano.

Sorano looked over his shoulder. "What were you doing over there?"

Natsu turned around and bent over. "I was digging when my axe got stuck in something. I pulled it out and noticed a glow coming from the wall. I brushed way some of the dust and I found this." He turned to face her, holding the small crystal in his hand.

"Wow, it's beautiful." The crystal reflected perfectly off her purple eyes.

"Yeah, it is." Natsu said rubbing the back of his head. "I wanna keep it, but I'm scared of what the guards will do to me if they find it on me."

"Well, I found some leftover string from the rafters they had us built the other day." Sorano said, tracing a circle in the dirt with her foot. "Wanna sneak into my cage and let me turn it into a necklace?"

"Thank you." Natsu told her with a smile. With that agreement, the two began to walk to their cage.

Sorano's Cage

The two entered the cage that Sorano was forced to call home.

"I know it's not much, but I call it home." Sorano told Natsu.

"Honestly, it looks the same as mine." Natsu told her. While Natsu looked around the room, Sorano moved some stones around. She found the string she was looking for, but when she reached for it, something touched her hand.

"Wahh!" Sorano ran from the string and wrapped her arms around Natsu.

"What's wrong?" Natsu asked. Sorano pointed over to string. Natsu could make out of her mumbles "something touched me". Natsu walked over to the string, and noticed a small red snake. "Come on, no ones gonna hurt you." The snake slowly slithered onto his hand and raised its head. "That's a good girl." He told the snake, scratching its chin.

"Wh-what is it?" Sorano asked, slowly approaching Natsu.

Natsu turned to her with the snake in his hand. "It's just a little snake." He told her as the snake raised its head to Sorano. "Pet her, she's not scary."

Sorano nervously scratched its head, as the snake gave as best a smile as it could. She smiled as Natsu raised the snake to his face. "You need a name. I know, how about Cubelios?" The snake approached his head and began licking his face. "You like that name, don't you?"

Sorano smiled at her friend as she grabbed the string behind them. "Can I see your crystal?"

Natsu nodded and pulled the crystal out of his pants. Sorano took the shining jewel and tied the string around the tallest part. "Could you turn around for a second?" Natsu turned around and Sorano tied the string around his neck.

As he tucked the new necklace under his rags, Natsu turned around and gave a smile of genuine happiness, something he hadn't done since he entered this tower. Cubelios saw this and wrapped around Sorano's hand and then Natsu's. Both had a slight blush on their faces.

"Well, what do we have here?" Both looked over to the door and their eyes went wide in horror. A guard had come to do bed checks and caught them. "Pinkie's not suppose to be in here! Let's go!" He grabbed Natsu by the hair and began dragging him away.

"Leave him alone!" Sorano ran up to the slaver only to be kicked away.

"Best say your good byes, cause you two are never gonna see each other again!" The slaver told them as he and Natsu began to fade into the night.

Natsu looked in horror at the slaver and heard Sorano starting to cry. Natsu began to squirm in the slavers grasp. "I'll find you, Sorano! Even if it takes a hundred years, I promise we'll see each other again!"

"Shut up!" The slaver shouted as he tied the whip around Natsu's neck.

Sorano stared at the sky from the floor as tears fell from her eyes. 'I wanna disappear, into the sky, like an angel.'

March 26 X776

Natsu's Cell

The rebellion had failed, Jellal had taken over and he still hadn't found Sorano.

Natsu sat in his room, petting Cubelios, the only friend that he still knew was alive. He raised the finger that his pet was on so he could look the snake in the eye. 'I wish I could talk to you.'

He lowered his friend onto his knee and pulled out the necklace Sorano made for him. 'Sorano, where are you?' He thought as he stared at the crystal.

"Where did you get that?!" Natsu panicked as a new voice questioned him. He looked up to face a dark skin man with silver hair. He was wearing an open coat and fur lined pants, and was carrying a staff topped by a skull holding a green orb in its mouth. Beside him, Jellal was staring at him.

"He asked you a question." Jellal said as he raised his hand. Black lightning shot out of his fingers tips and struck Natsu, who cried out in pain.

"That's enough, Jellal." The man told the child, who stopped the spell. "Please, answer me."

"I-I found it." Natsu gasped out. "I was digging around a few years ago and it fell out of the wall."

"Do you know what you have around your neck?" Natsu shook his head. The man raised his hand and Natsu worried he would be hurt again. Instead, he felt the gentle touch of a hand on his shoulder. "You have found a dragon lacrima, one of the rarest magical items in all of the world. It hold tremendous power. You're just who I am looking for."

Natsu looked up in confusion as the man turned to Jellal. "I'll be taking this one with me."

The cell door opened slowly and the man held his hand out to Natsu. "My name is Brain. Come with me and you will never have to be this scared again."

Natsu took the hand and rose to his feet. He was happy that he was going to leave this nightmare behind him, but a feeling of guilt pinged his head.

"I-I can't." Brain looked at him with a rased eyebrow. "I have friend here and I, I won't leave her behind!"

'Loyal to a fault.' Brain thought to himself. 'Just what I need. He's the perfect pawn.' "Tell you what, why don't we take your friend with us? I'm sure she can be trained in magic as well."

"Deal." Natsu shook Brain's hand with vigor.

"May I ask for both your name and your friends?" Brain said with no emotion on his face.

"I'm Natsu. Her name is Sorano." Natsu told Brain as Cubelios slithered onto his shoulder. "And this is Cubelios."

Brian turned from the his new recruit to Jellal. "Go fetch this Sorano. I have something to do for this Natsu."

Jellal rolled his eyes before he walked down the hall to get this 'Sorano'. Natsu wanted to go with him but Brain stopped him.

"There is something I must do first." Brain said, causing Natsu to raise an eyebrow. "In order of you to use that lacrima, I must infuse it into your body. The longer we wait, the less powerful it will be. Two years have already passed since you found it, so it may become useless at any second. If that happens, I'll have no use for you and your friend."

Natsu's eyes went wide in fear. He want both him and Sorano to leave this place. He lowered his head, knowing what he had to say. "Please, fuse it with me, now."

'Perfect pawn.' Brain smiled as he channeled his magic into his hand. With blinding speed, he slammed his open palm into Natsu's chest. The magic passed from his hand through the lacrima, into Natsu. Soon, the lacrima glowed as it started to sink into Natsu's chest. Natsu cried in pain as the power of the lacrima was infused into him. At least ten minutes of pure agonizing pain later, Brain pulled his hand away as Natsu collapsed to his hands and knees, panting heavily.

"Well, how do you feel?" Brain asked, hoping that his lie didn't turn out to be true.

Slowly, Natsu rose to his feet and Brain could see physical changes to the small child. His ears were sharper, his canines grew to a point and his eyes turned into slits. He raised his hand and could feel the power coursing through him.

"Natsu!" Said child looked over to his left and a smile grace his face. Running towards him was Sorano, tears in her eyes. Behind her was Jellal walking at a slow pace. When she reached him, she wrapped her arms around him and began to cry. "I-I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Don't worry." Natsu told her stroking her hair. "I told you I'd find you." He pushed her away so he could look her in the eye. "Listen, this man was gonna take me away from here. I'd never see this tower again. But I couldn't just leave you here. So I managed to convince him to take you with us."

Tears returned to his friends face as she smiled at him. "Thank you!"

"Ahem." Brain coughed, catching the attention of the two children. "I hate to brake up this tender moment, but our time here is up." He raised his staff and created a swirling portal in the wall. "Step through here, and your new life begin." He then step through the portal himself.

"You ready?" Natsu asked his friend as Cubelios wrapped around his wrist. His answer was a nod and they walk through the portal, side by side, hand in hand.

Here we go. The original story idea came from Natsu is Awsome, I just tweaked it a little bit. No need to worry, you will not have to wait for the Oración Seis Arc for more of this story.