Chapter Text
The only thing Natsu could do was stare.
Things had gone so wrong so fast, one minute him and the rest of his team were invited to some crazy party island, then the next Erza gets captured and taken to some weird tower.
And the guy in charge of this was apparently a former friend of Erza's named Jellal who went crazy and is now trying to revive Zeref.
He tried to fight the guy, but Jellal was honestly really strong, so Natsu decided to destroy his precious little tower.
Then that plan failed too, because the bastard decided to use some crazy powerful spell to try and kill him. Then Erza stepped in front of him ready to sacrifice herself.
He remembered his heart stopping in that moment, thinking that the person who he considered his big sister, the person he looked up to more than anything was about to die.
Then Simon stepped in front of Erza taking the full force of the spell himself and then dying shortly after.
Natsu didn't know Simon that well, but from the brief talks he had with the man, he seemed like a nice guy and he cared about Erza.
That's why it was so sad to see him go.
Erza screams and cries were so loud, it was giving him a headache. He had never seen Erza like this, until now, if you asked him before this whole dumpster fire, he'd have laughed at the thought of Erza crying. She always seemed to be so tough and didn't seem like she'd ever shed tears.
She was holding Simon's body, begging him to come back, all the while that sick freak Jellal had the gull to laugh.
It made him angry.
Natsu had been angry before, hell most of his friends would even claim that anger was his default emotion. But he had never felt it like this. Not even when Lisanna died and he went on that rampage in the forest, it was mostly out of grief than anger.
He felt like he was burning from the inside out, a strange feeling given that he eats fire on the daily. It felt so hot, like a fire threatening to burn everything to ash. He knew what this was, but this was the first time he actually experienced it.
This was hate.
He hated this stupid tower, he hated the people who kidnapped and hurt Erza and most importantly he hated Jellal. The man behind all of her suffering, the man who was supposed to be her friend, but caused her all this pain.
He was going to kill him.
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"Hahahahahah!!! Oh Simon you poor fool!" Jellal mocked as he sneered at the corpse of his former friend, not seeming to care that Erza was in holding it, "Did you really think you could be the hero? Well you're wrong! The only thing you did was change the order in which I kill you al-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!"
Jellal's tirade was cut off instantly want Natsu socked him right in the jaw.
Honestly that punch was so hard, that Jellal was in shock his jaw didn't just come off.
He crashed hard into one of the Ether pillars and crumpled to the floor clutching his jaw in agony. While it might not have been broken or knocked off, it most certainly felt like it was dislocated.
Natsu didn't seem to care as he was heaving and clenching his teeth so hard, the dragon slayer was surprised it didn't crack.
"Natsu?" He heard Erza whimper from behind him. He hated how broken she sounded, how small her voice was. This wasn't the Erza he knew and she was only like this because of the bastard in front of him.
His bloodlust grew, he wasn't going to just murder this shitstain, he was going to make him suffer.
Deep within his own mind, Natsu could hear what sounded like his own voice, though it was garbled and deep. Still the voice egged him on, insisting this is the only right way forward.
Natsu listened to it.
Both Jellal and Erza watched in confusion and a bit of fear as thick, black smoke started coming off of Natsu.
The smoke started to grow in size as deep growls started reverberating from Natsu.
Suddenly his hands started twitch wildly and cracks were heard. It looked like....his fingers were growing longer.
So were his his nails, which were extremely short, now grew to the point where they could be mistaken for claws.
Natsu's teeth started to increase in length as well, becoming sharper and his growls grew more animalistic
Suddenly, black, smokey scales started appearing on his arm. Covering his hand, all the way up to his elbow.
The last change had been his eyes, the sclera around it had become black. His iris changed from it's dark green, to a sickly yellow and then his pupil which was in the form of a slit had changed to a little dot in the center of the iris.
As all this was happening the smoke that was coming off of Natsu started to take shape.
What looked like a monstrous demon took shape within the smoke, somehow able to have glowing red eyes and a sinister smile as it stared at Jellal, who watched, mouth agape in horror.
'What in the hell is this?!' The man thought frantically, 'This isn't Dragon Slayer Magic! It's something malicious, bloodthirsty.....evil.'
Jellal's train of thought was cut off when the smoke and the large demon instantly disappeared, leaving only Natsu who had his head down.
Before the blue haired mage could even open his mouth, Natsu appeared right in front of him, right fist reared back.
Jellal didn't have time to defend himself before Natsu's demonic hand sunk deep into his gut. He felt his ribs break at the connection.
The Heavenly body mage coughed up some blood, but couldn't even create some distance as Natsu's left fist connected with his jaw sending him flying into the roof of the tower
Jellal coughed up some more blood as he fell back down to the ground, but didn't have time to use his meteor spell to get away as Natsu literally teleported right in front of him, about to deliver a kick to the side of his head.
Jellal just barely brough his hand up to try and block the blow, however this seemed to fail as he literally felt his bones shatter upon impact and was sent flying further down into the tower.
Natsu dropped to the ground, eyes still firmly locked on to where Jellal was, much like a predator watching his prey. He wasted no time in going after him, once he heard the man crash into the ground below.
All the while Erza just watched in horror, she had never seen this side of Natsu before....it was frightening and something that didn't seem like her loveable idiot of a little brother at all.
Steeling her resolve, Erza gave Simon one last look before she ran after the two, hopefully to stop Natsu from doing something he regrets.
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Jellal groaned upon landing on the cold hard Ether. He was in a world of hurt, even though Natsu only got three hits off on him, it felt like he had just gone through the worst beating of his life. His right hand was most definitely broken, he couldn't feel a thing
But still he couldn't give up, not when he was so close to reviving Lord Zeref! To creating a world of true Freedom!
He was once again cut off when Natsu landed in front of him, his yellow eyes not leaving the man's face.
Jellal didn't even wait for him to make a move, immediately casting his meteor spell to fly away.
'I can win, all I just have to do is not let him grab me!' Jellal thought zooming around the tower.
Occasionally during his zooming he'd try to land some hits in on Natsu.
While those hits themselves were successful, it didn't seem like they actually did anything to him, if anything it seemed to annoy the hell out of the pink haired man? (Jellal wasn't sure if he was human at this point).
Eventually Natsu got tired of this game, so he took in a deep breath and let out a roar. Out of his mouth came a stream of huge black fire.
Jellal tried to outrun it, but he couldn't and was hit dead on.
It burned.
It burned like nothing he'd ever felt before. He could feel his skin tearing, it sizzling and bubbling from the heat.
This wasn't like before, when he had been hit with Natsu's fire, this was something different. Before it didn't really burn all that much, now it felt like he was inside an oven.
Eventually the fire disappeared and Jellal fell to the floor, his clothes burn to tatters and his skin covered in read, angry burns. On his upper arms, it seemed that the skin had been completely burnt off, leaving only the muscle fibers to be seen.
He barely managed to look up at Natsu who was slowly approaching him, almost like he was savoring the pain Jellal seemed to be in.
"What....in....the hell.....are...you?" Jellal grounded out, his voice raspy.
For the first time, since Natsu underwent that transformation, he stopped. It was almost as if he were thinking, before he gave Jellal a death glare and a low growl reverberated from the depths within Natsu's chest.
"Your END."
That was all Natsu said before he speed blitzed Jellal, decking him once again in the jaw. This time, he felt it break.
His head smacked against the stone and he almost blacked out, but Natsu delivering a left hook to his cheek kept him awake.
Natsu kept up the assault, punch after punch, making sure Jellal stayed awake to fell everything.
By the time Natsu was done, Jellal was a bloody, wheezing mess.
Natsu stared coldly at him, before he raised his hand up and a small ball of black fire appeared in it.
"Die."
Just as Natsu was about to deliver the finishing blow....
"NATSU!!"
He froze, the fire ball sizzling out, back into his hand. Turning around, his saw an out of breath Erza.
"Erza?"
The redhead shivered at the growl in his voice, but nonetheless she continued, "Natsu....you need to calm down...don't kill him."
That seemed to shock the dragon slayer, his features contorting into a sneer, "Why? After everything he did to you and all your other friends! Why should he live? Especially after he killed Simon?!"
Erza remained unfazed, taking a deep breath before opening her mouth, "Because that isn't what they wanted, this isn't what Simon would want." She slowly stepped closer to him, "This isn't what I want. What I want is for Jellal to face justice and pay for his crimes, killing him wouldn't be that."
Natsu seemed to be conflicted, holding his head in his hands. Erza gently patted him on the head, "More importantly, this isn't who you are Natsu. I've known you since we were kids, you've always been so kind.....you're a good person....not a killer."
Slowly but surely, the scales on his hands receded beneath his skin, his fingers turned back to normal. His teeth went back to their usual size and his eyes returned to their original color and structure.
Natsu blinked once, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed right on to Erza, who caught him.
She gave a small smile as she heard him snoring, "You reckless idiot." She muttered, holding on to him tightly.