Natsu laid on his back, breathing heavily with his severely wounded body, staring into the sky. He closed his eyes to try and recall the events that just transpired.
XxFlashbackxX
"Rouge!" Natsu roared as he road on the back of Atlas, nosediving into Rouge's dragon.
"Natsu!" future Rouge also shouted as he flew skyward on his dragon.
Natsu's body was completely engulfed in Atlas' fire while Rouge's dragon started had a swirl of Shadow and Light elements. The two dragons collided. It ended in a second. Natsu leaped off of Atlas' back right after the collison, Rouge also jumped towards him. But Natsu was faster. While still surrounded by flames, he flew into Rouge going roughly 100mph thanks to Atlas' speed. He landed a single solid punch right in the gut of rouge, sending him flying in the opposite direction.
With Rouge out of commsion, the Shadow and Light elements his dragon absorbed dissipated, allowing Atlas to easily knock him aside. At that note however, Natsu also lost consciousness and fell towards the ground.
XxEnd FlashbackxX
With his memories back, Natsu struggled to lift his body up. He was dizzy and everything looked like a Haze. He noticed a large 'red' source in the sky that he figured was Atlas.
"...tsu!"
his ears slowly started working again and tried to pick up the direction of the sound.
"Natsu!"
He turned around to see climbing over a broken wall.
When he tried to stand up, he felt a pain in his leg and fell down again, grasping it.
Lucy ran up to him. "Natsu! Are you alright?!" she asked. Natsu nodded. "Yeah, I think so... My leg just hurts..."
Lucy looked at him completely baffled. He was covered in cuts and bruises, plus he had one hell of a black eye... But his leg hurt.
"Idiot! You should be worried about more than just your leg!" she growled
Natsu scratched the back of his head. "Heh, well I don't think I broke anything so its fine!"
Lucy sighed "I'm glad you won though..."
Natsu grinned "Well of course! There's no way I'd lose to someone like him!"
He then looked at her more seriously. "So how was everyone else? I'm sure they beat their dragons too!" Natsu said confidently!
Lucy smiled "Well kinda... After you beat Rouge, the mind control wore off and the dragons flew away..."
"Ah..." He actually wasn't expecting that. "Well whatever, we still won in the end!" he said while looking up at the sky again.
"Natsu..." Lucy mumbled
"Yeah?" He asked then looked at he to see she was on the verge of crying.
"Huh? H-hey! Lucy! What's wrong?! We won!" he said trying to cheer her up.
She sniffled "Natsu... G-Gray..."
Natsu's eyes widened "Gray?! Gray what?!" He then grabbed Lucy's shoulders. "What happened to Gray?!" he accidentally shouted without realizing it.
Her eyes looked dead as she finished what she was saying.
"H-he.. Died.. Natsu..." she stuttered out then pressed her face against his shoulder as tears fell out.
Natsu couldn't even think, much less cry at the moment. He couldn't believe what he just heard!
"G-..Gray is dead?! No way! That can't happen, its not allowed to!"
The world stopped for him. The pain he experienced from his fight made its presence, along with the shock he just heard. He couldn't take it so he collapsed.
Still in tears, she felt Natsu's body waver and fall to the ground. She quickly looked at him. He was still breathing, but it didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon...
Natsu's eyes shot open as he quickly lifted himself up. He was confused at first but realized he was in his bed.
He turned and got out of bed. When he did, he felt a spark of pain go through his left leg. It was then that he noticed that he was almost entirely wrapped in bandages. He got up anyway, the pain wasn't that terrible and he wanted to know what happened after he passed out.
He opened his door to go outside. Nowhere to go but the guild..." he thought as he began walking.
He stood in front of the guild's gates. He took a long breath then pushed the doors open.
Everyone was there, literally everyone.
"Natsu!" Happy came crashing into Natsu's face
"H-Happy!? What are you doing?!" Natsu grabbed Happy by his legs to try and rip him off, but his hold on Natsu's hair was too tight.
"Natsu's awake!"
"About time"
"Took ya long enough, idiot"
He finally got Happy off him, the looked at the guild as they all gathered around him in all their injured glory, grinning.
"Uhh.. How long was I out?" he asked, judging by the comments, it seemed to be a while
"Three Weeks" Erza said while pushing her way through the crowed.
She was bandaged up as well, specifically her left leg.
"Th-Three weeks?!" Natsu was shocked. Did the fight with Rouge really take that much out of him?!
Erza nodded "You where really injured so we tended to your wounds then put you in your house. Happy watched you most of the time.
"Aye!" Happy interjected while jumping out of Natsu's hands.
Natsu glanced around the guild. He saw everyone... But...
"Wh.. Where's Gray...?" he mumbled
Erza's looked towards the ground, as did most of the others in the guild.
Natsu stared at her intently, looking for an answer.
"We're sorry Natsu..." was what he heard.
"Wha.. What?" Natsu asked, hoping it wasn't true.
Erza looked at Natsu "We didn't know when you'd wake up.. So we had his funeral last week..."
Natsu didn't know what to say or do, if there even was something to say or do.
"Dammit!" He roared as he slammed his fire fist into a table he was standing next to. He easily destroyed it to nothing but scrap wood.
Normally Erza would have scolded him, but this was justified... He had a right to be angry...
Natsu kept clenching his fist...
One week passed after that. For the most part the guild started to go back to normal. There where fights here and there, Cana also went back to drinking, Mirajane kept a smile on her face as she served over the counter, while the Master was stuck doing paper work all week.
Then came a loud 'BANG' outside in one of the sparring fields. The entire guild came rushing out to see what it was, including the Master.
What the saw was unbelievable... At least it would have been if not for the Dragon War the just fought.
The flaming dragon known as Atlas was standing in their sparring field with Natsu.
Most of the guild was intimidated and took a few steps back, others got into a stance, ready to fight. But that all ended when Natsu turned around and gave them a big grin. "Hey guys, whats up?"
Those words took all the built up tension out of the moment. Erza let out a sigh.
"Natsu, what's going on here?" Master Makarov asked.
Natsu scratched the back of his head. "Ah well... I'm gonna go search for Igneel some more"
The guild was pretty shocked.
"I.. I see..." mumbled Makarov
"Yeah, Atlas also wants to find Igneel so I decided to go along with him." Natsu said while looking up at Atlas
"Do you think you'll find him?" Erza asked with a plain face
Natsu looked at her. "Hmm... not sure.. But this is the first time I have a chance to do a real search instead of just going on guesses or rumors."
Erza nodded.
"Uhm.. But low long will you be gone?" Lucy asked
"Not sure.. But it'll probably be a while..." He looked a little sad at that but he quickly took it back and grinned.
"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it!"
Happy then flew on his shoulder.
"Aye!" Happy yelled
"Err.. Sorry Happy, but you can't come..." Natsu told his partner
"HUH?!"
The entire guild gasped. Natsu doesn't go anywhere without Happy!
Happy looked more shocked than anyone.
Natsu laughed. "Sorry, it's not that I don't want you to come... Its just if you road on Atlas, you'll be burned to a crisp..."
It was true, there was no way Happy could ride Atlas or keep up with his speed...
Happy looked down, sad at the realization.
"Don't worry, like I said.. I'll be back in no time!" Natsu said while pumping his fist.
"A..ye..." Happy said weakly.
"I wish you luck, Natsu..." Erza said
Natsu nodded.
"Bye Natsu..." Wendy said as she popped herself out of the crowed.
"Cya Wendy.. You too Lucy..." he told them
He then jumped up and landed on Atlas' head
The fire swirled around him, it actually felt very comfortable.
"Took you long enough..." Atlas mumbled as he swung his wings up
"I wanted to say goodbye properly" He told him as he waved goodbye to his guild-mates
"Whatever..." Atlas growled as he flew up in the sky then into the distance.
And just like that, Natsu was gone...
"Tch..." an annoyed Gajeel made as he walked away from the scene.
Everyone else stood there for a while. Mostly at the sky, that was until they saw the giant burn mark Atlas made on the grass as he took off.
Erza slammed her fists together. "I'm gonna kill that idiot when he gets back!" he yelled
The rest of the guild just sighed.. it was gonna get really quiet around here...
Author Note:
This 1st chapter was a little darker than I'd hoped... But what do you do when someone dies? Anyway, it'll lighten up a lot next chapter