Author's Notes

Sorry for the long delay in posting this chapter. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don't forget to review.

Lullaby

Shiki and Arcueid woke up around noon the next day. They had a heavy brunch (Arcueid of course was doing most of the eating). Then they decided to head back to Fairy Tail. They walked slowly towards the station. By now it had become afternoon. At the station they noticed a huge crowd. They went near the crowd.

"What happened here?" Shiki asked a man nearby.

"A few mages from a dark guild have taken over the station. Some of the Rune Knights and a few Mages went in about a quarter of an hour before. But we have had no news from any of them."

"Shall we go and see?"

"Sure, why not?" Arcueid replied in her usual nonchalant manner.

They head towards the station. As they were about to enter it, a red haired girl came out on to the second floor balcony. She had a megaphone in one of her hands.

"Everyone, Get out of here, a dark guild has taken over the station and they are planning to use a forbidden magic that will kill anyone who hears it." she said instantly.

Pandemonium spread throughout the crowd as soon as they heard this. No one doubted the red haired girl's word. Not even Shiki and Arcueid. Her tone made it clear that she was telling the truth. But their reaction was quite the opposite to that of her words. While the others were running away from the station, they were making their way through the crowd towards the station. The red haired girl glared at them. She looked as if she was about to say something, but before she could open her mouth, a hurricane sprung up behind her. It covered the entire station like a blanket. A man materialized next to the girl and pushed her inside the hurricane.

"My winds are like blades. You can enter it but once you are inside you can't escape. The winds will slice you to pieces. Now I will let you fairies stay here while I take care of your Masters." Saying this he flew away.

"That guy, he was the one the girl was warning about, wasn't he?,," Arcueid asked seriously.

"Yes, it seems to be so. He even had something which looked like a flute."

"So he is going to play that flute and cause genocide. We should stop him." Arcueid said.

"And how do you plan on stopping him. He is no longer anywhere here. Don't you remember he flew away after he erected the wind wall and trapped the girl inside."

"Heh heh heh. Don't worry about that." Arcueid told Shiki with a sly grin which made Shiki nervous.

In the blink of an eye, she lifted Shiki up and jumped from the ground twenty feet high onto the roof of a nearby building. She continued to jump form one roof to the next while carrying Shiki bridal style in her arms.

"Hey put me down." Shiki complained to Arcueid.

"Sorry, but I cannot do that, Shiki. You yourself said it yesterday. You can't travel as fast as me so I have to carry you like this if we have to catch that guy."

"No, I refuse to be carried this way." Shiki told her.

"Geez Shiki, if I put you down now, that guy will kill a lot of people. Do you want that to happen." Arcueid asked him. The gravity of her words struck him.

"No, keep going." Shiki told her resignedly.

They kept moving in a constant direction keeping the rails to their right.

"Hey Arcueid how do you know that we are going in the right direction." Shiki asked her after some time.

"It is faint but there is a slight trace of him in the air."

"I didn't know that you could sniff out people." Shiki replied, a smile playing on his lips despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Neither did I. The air here and the Earth are infused with magic. It is probably what's improving my senses. Unlike the polluted Earth back home, this is filled with life."

"So have you developed any other powers."

"None that I have noticed." She replied

They continue to jump in silence broken only by the occasional footfalls of Arcueid. Suddenly they hear a screeching noise from behind them, slowly becoming louder. Arcueid pauses to look back. In the distant sky, they see a small dot rapidly increasing in size.

Happy and Natsu flew over both of them at supersonic speed. Arcueid had to bend herself under the sheer pressure of the buffeting winds.

"Wasn't that-"

"Yes it was Natsu flying with the help of Happy. He might also be chasing that person we met before." Shiki told her.

"Then let's hurry, Natsu might need our help." Saying this she began to move again with even more gusto than before.

Natsu was really angry at Erigor.

"Damn him. How dare he think of hurting Gramps and the other Masters. I will surely beat the crap out of him."

His musings were interrupted by Happy.

"You know Natsu, I think I saw Arcueid and Shiki back there."

"Are you sure. I don't think that those two would be in such a desolate place like this."

"Yeah you are right. I must have mistaken somebody else for them."

They fly in silence for a few more minutes when they are able to see Erigor ahead.

"Come on, Happy there he is." Natsu shouted.

In a burst of speed, Happy quickly catches up with Erigor and Natsu punches him before he has time to register surprise. He is dislodged from his wind perch and stumbles down. Before he hits the ground however, he manages to pick himself up.

"Annoying brat, do you really think that you can stop me."

"Yes and I am going to make you pay for trying to hurt Gramps." Natsu said while igniting his hands.

"My wind shall put out your puny flames. They don't call me the soul reaper for nothing." Erigor said summoning forth his wind.

With a shout Natsu flies with Happy to hit Erigor at extreme speed. Erigor barely has time to even set up a shield before Natsu crashes into him. Erigor is thrown away for the second time in as many minutes. Without giving him any time to recover, Natsu continues to pound. All Erigor can do is block his furious onslaught. "Fire Dragon's Claw" Natsu shouts while coming to hit Erigor. But before he could connect Happy's wings give out, causing them both to crash on to the railroad.

"It looks like your pet has reached its limit. You can't fly any longer."

"Happy is not my pet. He is my friend and I do not need him to defeat you."

"Fire Dragon's Wing Slash" Natsu roared and charged at Erigor. But this time his speed was greatly reduced and Erigor was easily able to evade his magic. Erigor came behind Natsu and attacked him, "Wind Blade" Natsu was hurt but he managed to prevent some serious damage from being done.

"You are not going to defeat me." Natsu yelled.

"Silly boy, don't you get it. There is no way your flames can beat me at that level. I can easily beat you."

"Get ready for my strongest move. 'Fire Dragon's Roar'" saying that he sends a torrent of flames towards Erigor.

"I'll show you why they call me the Soul Reaper." "Storm Mail"

A torrent of wind surrounded Erigor and gusts of wind began blowing from him. Natsu's attack struck him but he was not hurt even in the least.

"Fire Dragon's Claw" Natsu attacked him again but as before his attack had no effect on Erigor. Moreover , Natsu seemed to be hurt by that attack.

"What happened, I was the one that hit you. Why did I get hurt?"

"Now do you realize how futile your attempt is? My Storm Mail does not only act as armour and negate your attack but it also hurts you if you come in contact with it. It is like absolute armour."

Erigor raises his hand from within the Storm Mail and says "Storm Bringer".

A blast of wind erupts from his hand and smashes straight into Natsu. He is thrown backwards and he smashes into the wall cracking it.

Natsu groans in pain. He stands shakily. Erigor looks at him from his storm mail.

"You, sure, are persistent. Just give up at once." Erigor tells him slamming him again against the cliff

Natsu again manages to get up only to be thrown away by Erigor.

"Fine, you forced me to do this 'Grand Punishment'."

A giant torrent of wind cascaded onto Natsu badly hurting him. Natsu managed to get up, barely.

"You and all the other members of the Light Guilds are the same, weaklings who do not know their position. You all ought to be killed like the pest you are." Erigor told him

"No one, No one tells anything bad about Fairy Tail." Natsu replied angrily.

His flames picked up power and began to burn more fiercely. The heat of the flames began to alter the movements of the winds. Happy noticed this and was able to figure out the reason for the change in Natsu's strength.

'Natsu's flames are charged by his emotions, if I anger him further, his flames would become more powerful' Happy thought

"Hey Natsu, I think you should just quit. Let Erza handle this guy. Anyway you can't defeat him."

"What did you say Happy."

"I said, maybe you should stop fighting him. Even Gray is stronger than you, you know."

"Argh" Natsu said getting very angry.

"Storm Bringer" Erigor said sending a torrent of flames at Natsu.

"Would you please keep quiet." Natsu shouted off and punched the incoming winds with his flaming hands, completely and totally shattering the attack.

"What the-" Erigor has time to exclaim before Natsu is on him. He begins to punch him only to be blocked by his storm mail.

"your attacks are futile against my ultimate defence."

Natsu didn't reply, instead focused on attacking him "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn" He exclaimed. Flames covered his body propelling him forwards, towards Erigor at breakneck speeds. Erigor's storm mail intercepted the attack.

"your attacks are futile." He repeated himself.

But this time Natsu managed to break through his storm mail and send him crashing through the cliff wall. After the dust cleared Erigor was found to be unconscious.

Erza, Gray and Lucy were driving alongside the rails trying to catch up with Natsu.

"That idiot had to go and leave us behind, hadn't he." Gray complained.

"Damn it, I am driving at this speed and still no sign of any of them. Natsu, you better defeat Erigor because I have used up all of my energy to drive this vehicle. I do not think that I have the energy to defeat Erigor." Erza muttered to herself under her breath.

"Why did we have to bring this guy along?" Lucy complained pointing to a person sitting on the seat of the carriage.

The said person replied "Yes why did you save me? If you think that you are going to use me as a bargaining chip, forget about it. Erigor does not care for anyone but himself."

"If you have a death wish, Kageyama, just say it, but you should know that not everything has to be solved by life and death."

Kageyama kept quiet after that. He resigned himself to watch their progress through the dusty road.

After some time they could see a place completely trashed in the distance.

"Natsu" all of them exclaimed at the same time.

Erza put her last remaining energy into the cart and drove towards the place.

Natsu got up after defeating Erigor.

"What did you say Happy, I can't defeat Erigor. Well I have done it, see." He said pointing to Erigor's unconscious form.

"I don't remember saying that." Happy replied in complete innocence.

"What, you were the one who-"Natsu was cut off by a sudden landing beside him. He turned quickly anticipating another attacker but was surprised to see who it was.

"Arcueid, Shiki. What are you doing here?" Natsu exclaimed.

"We were chasing that guy you took down, impressive fight by the way." Arcueid complemented Natsu.

"See, I told you I saw them down below us." Happy exclaims.

"Now that this guy is taken care of, let's destroy the flute." Shiki said removing his glasses.

He took a step forward only to be cut off from the flute by a carriage which had appeared out of nowhere.

"Stay back if you don't want to die." Erza said pointing a sword at Shiki.

"Wait Erza" Gray called out from inside the carriage. "They are not our enemies. They are the newest members of Fairy Tail."

"They are members of Fairy Tail." Erza exclaimed unable to believe it.

Shiki and Arcueid show her their Guild stamp. Upon seeing it, she believed them.

"My name is Shiki, Shiki Tohno and this is-"

"Arcueid, Arcueid Brunestud. it's a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is Erza. Nice to meet you too" saying this she glanced at the fallen Erigor and Natsu standing nearby.

"So Natsu you managed to defeat him, well done. Now let's take care of Lullaby once and for all."

She had barely said this when the carriage behind them raced off. They could see Kageyama driving it and in his one hand he was holding the Lullaby.

"Erigor might have failed in his task but I shall complete it by killing all of the guild masters." saying this , he headed off to where the guild masters were having their regular guild meeting.

"Shit, I completely forgot about him." Erza said slapping her forehead in frustration.

"I never thought he would do such a thing after we saved his life." Lucy remarked.

"He can't go fast in that state" Erza replied.

"What do you mean?" Shiki asked.

"The carriage is driven by magic, and in his weakened state, he does not have enough magic to drive it quite fast. Anyway the meeting hall is quite near if we chase him, we should be able to catch up with him."

"Let's go after him or else he may harm the guild masters." Gray said and they all started to chase him. Arcueid dashed away and Happy carried Natsu. The rest unfortunately were stuck having to chase them on foot.

Kageyama drives the carriage towards the guild masters meeting hall. He stops the carriage outside and gets down. Suddenly he is aware that he is not alone. He looks around and sees a silhouette of a dwarf old man. He quietly approaches it and sees Makarov reading the sorcerers magazine. A twig snaps under his leg and Makarov glances over at him.

"Oh you caught me reading this. Well the guild meeting was too boring so I came out here to enjoy this book in peace." Makarov says sheepishly.

"I don't care, old man." Kageyama says under his breath while out loud he says "Shall I play a beautiful music for you?"

"Why not, I always like to hear some nice music." Makarov replies.

Kageyama brings the flute to his lips and is about to play when he is reminded of Lucy and Gray and the conversation they had aboard the carriage. He pauses.

Natsu and Arcueid arrive behind a cluster of trees. They see Kageyama with his lips on the flute, about to play it to Makarov. They are about to jump in and fight Kageyama when a hand stalls them. They look around to see a fat man raising his hand.

"Wait; let me see how this will play out." The man said.

"Master Bob" Natsu asked confused.

"Ah Natsu, look how big and strong you have become" Master Bob.

"So the other guild masters knew about this all along."

They all turn back to see Erza and the other walking towards them. Lucy was panting heavily but other than that everyone seemed to be fine.

"Yes, we knew about The Dark guilds plan all along but Makarov wanted to play along in his own way. I have complete confidence in him." Another man came from behind and told the assembled group.

"..." All of them are left speechless.

"I... I can't... I can't do it." Kageyama said.

"Humans by nature are weak creature. To overcome this weakness we create guilds, unite and fight for our friends. It is our bonds with our friends which gives us the strength to fight and overcome all difficulty. Playing that flute won't change anything." Makarov told him.

"..."

"Drop the flute and go. You can start over again and this time perhaps you won't make the same mistakes again." Makarov told him kindly

The others watched this scene in silence behind the foliage. Slowly, hesitantly Kageyama brought his hand down and dropped the flute on the ground.

"I surrender." He told.

The fairy Tail members rushed in and hugged Makarov. The other guild Masters were also jubilant.

"Don't worry son, this is the right path to take." Makarov comforted Kageyama.

"Fu fu fu, I thought I could count on you humans, to use me to kill somebody but it seems I have to do it myself."

Everyone looked around for the source of that voice but there was nothing. Suddenly the Lullaby stood up erect where it had fallen and began to grow, until it had become a huge demon. Nearly ten times the size of the guild hall.

It sent out its hand and flattened a part of the wood.

"Ha ha ha, I will destroy all the humans on this planet starting from you."

He looked down at the assembled people who were gazing at the demon. He raised his hand and punched at the ground effectively cracking it.

"We have an important thing to attend to, so we will leave this demon up to you youngsters." saying this Makarov and the other guild masters walk away.

"Oh yeah, I'm all fired up." Natsu commented igniting his hands.

"Requip, Purgatory Armour" Erza summoned her armour.

"Ice Make" Gray got ready for a fight as well.

Without a word, as if they had practised it, all three of them attacked the demon at the same time.

"Fire dragon's Wing slash." Natsu destroyed half of its left leg. Erza smashed her mace on the other leg of the demon and brought it down as well.

"Ice Make Holy rain" Gray caused ice shards to fall from the sky damaging most of its body.

"It is time to wrap things up. Fire dragon's Roar" Natsu send out flames which engulfed the entire demon.

"Flame empress armour" Erza changed her armour again and used Natsu's flames to power her own attack.

"Ice Make arrows" Gray attacked the monster with many arrows.

At last the demon was almost destroyed. The demon laughed. It began to regenerate its body parts and within a minute the demon was whole again.

"Don't you know what happens to a tree you cut down, it grows back," saying this he sent out energy blasts from his mouth. Natsu and the other were able to dodge it. Shiki managed to kill an energy blast before it could hurt him. But one energy blast was headed straight for Lucy. Lucy could only stare at it in shock.

"Lucy" Natsu called out, but he was too far away to do anything.

Just before the energy blast hit, Arcueid appeared in front of Lucy and deflected the blast with the back of her hands.

"No one, No one hurts my friends." Arcueid angrily says and attacks Lullaby. She uses her claws and sends shockwaves through his leg causing it to crumple instantly. Natsu eager to join the fight attacks Lullaby with Fire Dragon's Talons severing his other leg. Gray and Erza also help out in the attack. But any damage that they do is almost instantly recovered by Lullaby.

"Geez guess this is going nowhere."

"what do you mean?" Erza shouted out angrily "What are you doing over there instead of helping us."

"Try to get him on his knees." Shiki told Erza ignoring her remark.

Erza was miffed but she used her Heaven's Wheel armour and took down both its legs and brought it down. Instantly it began healing. But before it could do that Shiki climbed on Lullaby's leg and with inhuman speed ascended his torso.

"What do you think you are doing you mongrel?" Lullaby asked him.

"He ignored it and brought out his knife."

"You think that knife is going to hurt me." Lullaby asked incredulously.

"You think that knife is going to hurt it?" Erza also said incredulously. All others stared at Shiki in disbelief except for Arcueid, who knew what he was capable of.

"Suffer for your insolence."

Lullaby brought his hand up and sends it flying towards Shiki. Arcueid knew that Shiki would not have another chance to strike if he dodged it. Hence she threw herself onto Lullaby and took the attack head on. She was sent flying by the sheer power of the attack and crashed into a tree bringing it down with her.

Shiki saw Arcueid getting hit but he could not stop now when he was so close.

"NOW DIE"

Lullaby, this time sent out energy blasts from its mouth. In a burst of speed, Shiki ran and poked his knife into the side of its abdomen, exactly where its 'death' was. Instantly the Energy Blasts disappeared.

"What happened-"Lullaby was cut short when he felt the energy leaving his legs. He fell onto the ground in a giant heap sending out a cloud of dust. Shiki jumped out of his body while Lullaby disappeared leaving only a broken flute in its place.

"What was that?" Erza asked in amazement.

"That was a knife that could hurt it." Shiki said answering Erza's question.

That brought her out of her daze.

"Where is Arcueid?" Shiki asked.

"She is right here." Natsu's voice came from nearby.

Shiki looked around to see Natsu and Lucy helping Arcueid to stand up.

"She is quite amazing," Lucy exclaimed in amazement "even after taking a direct hit like that, there is barely a scratch on her. She must have the constitution of a troll to survive that."

"Excellent, great work. You youngsters are indeed fabulous. You took down that demon on your own; because of you, we didn't have to get our hands dirty." The guild masters said returning to the spot.

Only then did they see the state of the guild meeting hall.

"What the-"some of them exclaimed, most of them were speechless and Makarov was crying. The guild meeting hall was completely flattened, not a single wall remained intact.

Within a few moments, surprise and what little admiration they had, changed to anger.

"Our hall is completely destroyed. You are going to pay for it." When they look for the Fairy Tail mages, they don't find anyone. In the distance they can see Makarov and the others fleeing.

"Why are we running away? They were saying something to us." Arcueid asked

"Oh we do this all the time. Destroy something and then run away," Natsu said, with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Stupid fools." Makarov mutters to himself.

They make it back to the guild hall without much of an incident. As soon as they entered, all of them pass out in the guild hall itself.

Author's Notes

Again sorry for the long wait but milk spilled on my keyboard. As a result of which I now have to type using the on screen keyboard.

I am also looking for a Beta reader.

I am thinking of re-editing some of the previous chapters. They seem to be filled with mistakes.

Finally don't forget to review.