Chapter Fifty-Nine

Natsu's Nirvana

Immense streams of raw energy pulsed out from Jellal, forcing Cobra to squint as he tried to hone his senses to combat the wind and magical pressure.

Before he'd managed to do anything else about it, he watched in stunned silence, mount agape as Erza Scarlet strode past him, completely unphased by his presence.

The only reason he knew that she'd seen him was the fact that she'd given him a fleeting instance of eye contact before deciding that he was of no consequence to her.

She calmly walked past, unperturbed by the volume of magic emanating from the former Wizard Saint.

"Jellal," she said, brandishing a single sword with a grip that was fuelled with rage, hurt, and a long-gone emotion that she'd held for the man.

"I must admit, I'm surprised that you've managed to reign in that walking avatar of destruction. I hit him with everything I had, but I'm still willing to bet that it wasn't enough to put him down, was it?"

"No," Erza shook her head, "He's physically fine, pretty much totally undamaged," she confirmed, casting a glance at the sword in her hand before her eyes returned to Jellal, focused and determined.

"Ah," Jellal mused with a click of the tongue, "He's begun to crack, hasn't he? I suppose that means you're here for one very simple reason," he said.

"Do you have any idea, any at all, of what he has locked away within himself? This path you've forced him to walk down has begun to break down the walls of that cage," she explained.

"So you're here to face me so that he doesn't get the chance to, or, possibly you fear his exposure to Nirvana?" Jellal cocked a brow. There was a glint of celestial energy that crackled between his fingers. It served as a solid reminder that there was some crossover in domains between his magic and Lucy's.

"You have already taken so much from me," Erza grimaced, "I won't let you take him as well," she said, falling into stance, blade ready to strike at the moment she saw him respond.

"You truly love him, don't you? Erza Scarlet, the Knight, in love with the Dragon… It almost feels like some sort of hilariously ill-fated fairy tale, if you pardon my pun," Jellal donned a malicious grin from seeing Erza's reaction.

"Obviously," Cobra announced as he walked up beside Erza, "You don't have to have my powers to know the answer to that, I mean, damn, her heart beats about a thousand times a second whenever you mention that utter menace's name," he added casually.

Erza remained completely silent, only increasing her grip on the sword.

"But, you should know that whatever your plans are, the badman himself is coming right toward us, I can practically feel his wrath from here," Cobra told them, glancing over his shoulder with genuine worry working its way across his features.

"I've already put him down and out before, I'll simply do it again, and again until he no longer has the motivation to receive meteors in the face," Jellal shrugged.

"I didn't say the Salamander was coming, I said the badman, I mean that I can hear that little voice inside his head commanding the Dragon Slayer himself. Something is coming, and it is angry," Cobra had turned back to Nirvana, realizing that now might be his only chance while Jellal had his hands full with not only Erza, but the oncoming rage that followed Natsu Dragneel.

"What do you suppose might happen,-" a new voice reached their ears, "If he were to find three opponents here waiting for him? Three opponents and a dead lover?" Brain asked as he pushed through the woods from the same direction that Cobra had been previously hiding.

Erza spun on her heels, requipping into her clear heart armour, swords splayed at shoulder length, one pointed at Jellal, the other between Brain and Cobra.

"I admit, the three of you might be a bit too much for just me, so it comes down to keeping you at bay long enough for Natsu to get here," she told them, her adamantine determination shining once again in her eyes.

"It matters not what the destructive child does, he will not be able to stop Nirvana's power, so spew your empty threats all you like, it changes nothing," Brain glared, finally breaching his calm demeanour.

"You've only seen Natsu, and despite what you may think, he is always in control and holding back, no matter what. You cannot hope to survive against a power like his when there are no restraints, that is what will happen if you succeed in activating Nirvana," she explained.

"Excellent, I look forward to it," Brain smiled deviously, "Cobra, make sure she dies here,"

Before the Dragon Slayer of the Oracion Seis could move, he heard the twitching of Jellal's muscles, his heart had given him away.

Cobra could hear almost everything, even Jellal's intent, but even so, he hadn't expected the Heavenly Body mage to move so dizzyingly fast.

"Meteor!" The spell was cast and his body pulsed with flashing celestial light as he ricocheted off of half a dozen trees before slamming a knee into Cobra's back, sending him crashing into the dirt.

"I will be the one to take their lives, not some second-rate dark wizards, you will not lay a finger on Erza Scarlett, and you don't have the power to scratch the Dragon, so I can't let you make him more unstable by killing her before I can take care of him," Jellal said, powering up and shooting past to attack Brain head on.

They clashed in a magnificent shower of magic that threw sparks everywhere.

Erza wasted no time, she rushed in and struck out at Cobra, a flash of her blades leaving two dozen afterimages behind her.

As she'd expected, she turned to see that Cobra had managed to avoid every single one of them. She wasn't as fast as Jellal in his meteor mode, Cobra could keep up with what he already knew was going to happen with her.

"Brain, we're running out of time, the Salamander is almost here, I don't even know how he's moving so fast, it's putting Racer to shame!" Cobra shouted over his shoulder before pulling his talon-tipped hands out of his pockets, ready to have a second round with Erza.

"Erza, can you hear me!?" Hibiki from the Blue Pegasus squad spoke directly into her head.

"Erza, you have to get away from Nirvana, Natsu has totally lost it, he's going to destroy all of it, you have to run!" he pleaded desperately.

"Brain, I can't hear his movements anymore!" Cobra yelled in worry, looking around frantically to try and see where the problem was.

Erza shirked back, pulling both blades into a guard. She stood facing Cobra, behind him Brain and Jellal were having a fairly matched battle, slowly inching closer and closer to the edges of Nirvana.

"Then we cannot waste any more time, kill her quickly!" Brain ordered, parrying Jellal with a fearsome magic counter that sent him careening back into the forest.

The leader of the Oracion Seis then joined Cobra as the two prepared to strike Erza in tandem.

She raised her guard, instinctively backing up. She wasn't sure what it was that had caused her to falter, but despite facing off against stronger opponents, and far worse odds, her breath hitched and a chilling sweat rolled down her back.

Her instincts had gone into overdrive but she couldn't see what was causing the frenzy of her senses.

Half a second had passed before the Dragon sigil upon her chest burned fiercely. Then it dawned on her.

Just as Brain and Cobra had rushed forward to attack, and Jellal had burst through the forest, enshrouded by his meteor magic, seemingly making a break to strike Erza down for himself; a human-sized comet struck the ground with so much force that it felt like time had slowed to a halt as all four of them had been thrown up from the shockwave.

Erza only briefly saw the blur of movement as Natsu pushed through Cobra and Brain, a fist firmly struck out into each of their abdomens, taking them to the ground with vicious efficiency.

The next thing anyone realized was that Natsu had clasped a talon-tipped hand around Jellal's throat and kicked away from the ground, sailing through the air with a magnificent trail of vibrant blood-red fire as they soared towards Nirvana's grand stone structure.

"Brain, this is bad!" Cobra coughed up blood, the snake by his side trying to slither across his shoulders, darting around his body erratically.

"Nirvana, awaken!" Brain bellowed as loud as his almost collapsed lungs could deliver. "Reveal your true form!" Brain ordered as he poured magic into his command.

They watched as Natsu slammed into the side of the structure, forcing Jellal's body into the stone.

An enormous barrier of heavenly body magic barely kept the Dragon's flames from devouring Jellal.

From where Erza watched, wide-eyed near the edge of the forest, it was like staring into the heart of an angry volcano.

"Every breath you take is an insult to me, you've accrued quite the debt and now you must pay!" He brought his fist down in one clean motion, the razor-sharp talons cleanly ripping through flesh like it was nothing.

The last thing they saw was the spray of blood that burst out between them before Nirvana had gone into its final stage and the backlight tripled, swallowing the both of them whole.

"Natsu!" Erza screamed. Her body had moved on its own, rushing last Brain and Cobra, indifferent to both of them. Her mission was singular, to recover Natsu before he lost himself to the darkness forever.

She managed to clamber up one of the humongous stone legs as the structure rose higher and higher into the sky.

"Erza, what's going on!?" Hibiki demanded.

"I don't know!" She yelled back, forcing her swords into the stone and climbing up as though they were rock picks.

"Natsu was here, he caught Jellal but I couldn't see… I don't know what has happened, but he was in the middle of it all when Nirvana fully activated." She explained.

"Erza, if he's been affected by it, you have to get out of there, we can't stay anywhere near here, it isn't safe!" Hibiki told her.

"I won't just leave him!" Erza shot back, fury wrought throughout her at the concept.

"That's what Gray and Lucy said as well," Hibiki sighed in defeat, "They're making their way up Nirvana as well. I'm regrouping with Jura, Lyon and Sherry," Hibiki sounded exhausted, he'd been fighting just as much as the rest.

"What?" Erza asked in surprise.

"We have a job to do, remember? If you Fairy Tail guys can handle Natsu, we can focus on taking down Nirvana, for good. It's a terrible plan, but it's the best one we have at the moment," He answered. She could almost feel a nonchalant shrug on his end.

Her focus and guard had been utterly shattered when she'd seen Cobra homing in on her. The snake that was once wrapped around his legs and shoulder was now large enough to ride as it glided through the skies on great leathery wings.

"Not good," she cursed, gritting her teeth. She used one sword to sustain her hold, the other she swung in a wild arc that managed to fend off the poisonous attack.

"You are not doing that to me twice in one day!" She yelled defiantly, her glare enough to cause Cobra to flinch.

"It's no use, Titania of Fairy Tail. I can hear every move you're going to make before you think about making them," he bragged.

"The Salamander is one of the so few exceptions who have been able to get past my hearing, but now that he seems to be taken out of the picture, nothing is stopping me from taking all of you out now!" He bellowed, pulling around on the flying serpent for another fly-by.

"Ice-Make Lance!" The spear of ice had shot past Cobra, missing the man by inches, but missing nonetheless.

Gray ricocheted around the various stone surfaces as he pounced from faux ice ledges that appeared beneath his feet, crumbling into ice chips the moment he left them.

"Celestial Dragon;" upon hearing Lucy's voice, both Erza and Cobra immediately looked towards the skies, watching as she descended within Happy's arms.

The swirling mass of Celestial energy was something that couldn't be underestimated.

"Roar!" The funnelling breath attack missed but it had caused enough disruption to Cobra's balance that both he and the serpent careened sideways and lost their way in the air, fumbling around some ways out of where Nirvana was taking its heavy stone steps.

"Did you stop him?" Lucy asked as she and Gray both landed on the same flat ledged alcove that Erza pulled herself onto.

She silently shook her head, looking grim. "That thing dropped from the sky, threw Brain and Cobra to the ground in the blink of an eye and then forced Jellal into the side of Nirvana. He might have just killed Jella when Nirvana activated, I couldn't properly see," Erza explained, her tone dark.

"Natsu," Gray whispered, feeling the deeply disturbing rumble that ran through their feet with every step that Nirvana took.

"Where's Wendy?" Erza asked.

"Healing Jura, the guy really took a beating. He did well though, not sure Natsu would have fared all that much better against them." Gray answered quickly.

"Either way, we need to- watch out!" Gray tried to push them aside, to cast an ice shield over the small alcove, but the poison attack from the freshly resurfaced Cobra had eaten through it within an instant.

"You're all a poor matchup for this kind of poison, enjoy an agonising death choking on your own liquidised organs," Cobra snarled,

"Poison Dragon; Roar!" the attack had been cast, coming towards them like a red mist.

Not far away from the core of Nirvana's stone structure, Natsu lay in a crude coffin of broken rubble, no light entered or escaped his stone entombment.

His heart was barely beating, his mind firmly elsewhere after being displaced by Nirvana's hyper-reversal magic.

It was a long overdue conversation that the two aspects of Natsu Dragneel had needed for quite some time.

The world around them looked much the same as their home in the valley with Igneel, except this time, there was nothing besides the two of them.

This was no dream, it was purely for their benefit.

"No quips? No quick wit or intellectual jabs?" E.N.D asked, his deep voice not half as infuriating to Natsu as it normally was.

"No," he answered honestly, "I am…" the Dragon trailed off, casting his glance down the valley, briefly thinking back to Igneel, Anna, and Acnologia.

"I am so very tired. I'm tired of fighting you, I'm tired of this mission against Zeref, all of it, everything that the dynamic between you and I encapsulates."

"So?" E.N.D. cocked his head to the side.

"Let me have one single lifetime, just the one, then you and I, together, will find Zeref and end it all," Natsu told him.

"One lifetime… With them," E.N.D. alluded to the three female mages of Fairy Tail.

"Mmhmm," Natsu nodded quickly.

"Zeref is finally making his move, you do not have a lifetime's worth before we will be faced with him, and what then?"

"Then we do what must be done. I will stop fighting you." Natsu said with a shrug.

"These words mean nothing to me, and it is all senseless conditional statements," E.N.D. flared, his anger rising quickly.

"Then we make a contract between us, one that covers everything. You will give me this single lifetime, no intentionally trying to force your way out and nothing at all that will hurt those that we care about," Natsu told him adamantly.

"And in return, when the time comes, when we face Zeref, you will not stand in my way, we will use everything at our disposal to fulfil our purpose?" E.N.D almost sounded unsure of whether or not this was a trap.

"So long as it doesn't endanger them… Yes." Natsu confirmed, holding out his hand.

"I agree," E.N.D. took his hand. Neither of them smiled, but they were both in resolute agreement. This was the best way forward.

E.N.D. would give him this life, and they would no longer fight, but once it was over, the Etherious would reign and they would find Zeref and end things once and for all.

For the first time since their creation, and largely due to Nirvana's hyper-reversal magic forcing them to face their unbalance, they were working alongside one another.

Off of the end of Nirvana's grand stone structure, Cobra's poisoned roar flew through the air towards Erza, Gray, and Lucy, none of them having any defence against that kind of attack.

"Meteor!"

Blinding light shot through Cobra's attack, eviscerating the poison trails. He doubled back on himself, flying erratically and with no clear pattern before he slammed right across the serpent and Cobra, sending the Poison Dragon Slayer falling into the forest below.

Gray, Erza, and Lucy all fell into defensive stances when Jellal came to a gentle stop atop the same alcove they were standing in.

"The voices in my head," Jellal began slowly, "He took them all away, as well as a piece of me," he said slowly, pulling away one side of his robe to reveal a disfigured and burned patch of skin where Natsu had plunged his fist through Jellal's chest.

"How are you even alive after that!?" Erza stared, but never lowered her swords. She knew all too well what kind of reassuring and disarming trickery Jellal had been capable of.

"I saw everything, in that moment when Natsu put his hand across my heart. He was going to rip it out, but Nirvana's magic did something that I never thought it was capable of," he said, looking down at the horrific wound.

"I saw everything inside his head, every single thing. I know exactly who Natsu Dragneel really is, and I know who he's been waiting for all these years. I'd been blindly following a madman's plan to revive the Dark Lord, but…" Jellal trailed off, seeing recognition in Lucy's eyes.

He wasn't sure how she could possibly understand, but he could see clearly that she could.

"But you can't revive what isn't dead, is that what you were going to say?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"He said that very thing to me twice, once at the tower of Heaven, and again not even an hour ago. Do you, his friends and loved ones, do you understand exactly what it is that he is still living for?" Jellal questioned darkly.

"Does this mean that you're not still trying to sacrifice Erza?" Gray asked, the ice in his hands growing more frigid with each passing second.

Jellal lowered his head, unable to look her in the eye. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks.

"I was being… Influenced by someone, it was never my plan or intention to do the things that I have done, but the worst thing, by far, is the fact that I remember all of it with total clarity. I will never be able to seek forgiveness for the things I've done, or the people that I've killed," he said, eyes brimming with watery tears.

"The only thing I can do now is pass on whatever power I have left, and try to respect those whose lives I've taken," he told them, bringing his magic to the surface, presenting a volatile light in the palm of his hand as he backed up towards the ledge.

"Not another step," Erza spat harshly, "You don't get to feel sorry for yourself, you don't get to seek absolution through taking your own life, and you most certainly do not get to leave us to deal with Natsu after you're partially responsible for getting him this way," Erza demanded, glaring heavily at him.

"If you really are the same Jellal that I once knew, if you really want to make things right, then you need to live with the consequences of your actions, and you must help us deal with Natsu and the Oracion Seis, and finally Nirvana," Erza demanded, halting Jellal where he stood.

"I don't know how to help you with Natsu," Jellal admitted, "He lives solely to fulfil the purpose of his creation, and that is the culmination of the creature that is controlling the body,"

"What is that purpose?" Erza asked.

She was met with a brief silence before Jellal looked back at Lucy, "It is not my place to say, that is something that I will not rob him of," he told them quietly.

"His purpose," Lucy mused slightly, despite not finding it even remotely humorous, "His purpose in life, at least until he came to Fairy Tail was to-,"

"To kill the original dark mage, Zeref," his voice reached them before he dropped from above, a hand grabbing Jellal by the back of the neck and slamming him face-first into the rock floor. He immediately felt the body within his grasp lose almost all strength.

The jets of flames in his eyes faded and his skin returned to normal. The talon-tipped fingers receded until it was just the regular Natsu looking incredibly displeased with the subject of his wrath.

"I won't take your life today Jellal, but I am going to beat you up regularly for trying to hurt both of my…" he fell short, hearing Jellal groan from underneath his hand, making a weak attempt to push himself back.

"Mine!" Natsu said, mirroring his previous comment. He slammed Jellal's head against the rock again, this time feeling the Heavenly Body mage go totally limp.

"Are you fully in control again?" Gray asked, finally dropping his hands to his sides, the ice dissipating in seconds.

"I am," Natsu nodded slowly, "He and I had a well overdue talk about certain things," he added, tapping his head.

"What the hell does that mean?" Gray asked, mildly horrified that he was being so casual by it.

"It means he can't try to forcefully take over my body when my guard is down," Natsu explained, blowing a kiss towards Lucy who immediately flushed bright red.

"So you, we, um…" Lucy trailed off, lost in her deep thoughts.

"Perhaps not here and now," Natsu teased her, enjoying the blush she was sporting.

"Can you try to focus, please?" Erza scolded.

"Oh, sorry, did you want to go first? I don't know how to navigate this… Maybe I should just start with Gray to keep things fair." Natsu grinned.

"Dude," Gray sighed.

"Oh yeah, the rain lady, forgot about her. It's pretty hard to drown a Dragon, but she'd probably find a fairly creative way if I was responsible for taking her sweet darling Gray away from her" Natsu said in open mockery, resting his chin against a palm.

"You know it isn't like that," Gray sighed, having no real response or defence to the statement.

"Don't worry pookie bear, I won't let her take you away from me," Natsu grinned, the humour making them all feel better despite the dark situation they found themselves in.

"She has got terrifying magical potential though so maybe don't aggravate her so openly, I don't know what I'm supposed to do if the two of you end up getting in a fight," Gray added slowly.

"I have no interest in finding out," Natsu shrugged, "So, Nirvana, I'll be honest, I can't remember if they ever built a way to deactivate it, and my plan to destroy it doesn't really work with you guys on top of it, so, I'm open to suggestions," Natsu looked between them.

They all watched as Jellal's fingers twitched. He'd managed to get the slightest syllable of a groan past his lips before Natsu's hand slammed his head back into the rock.

"Not from you," he growled.

"Natsu, I'm not his biggest fan, especially after the Tower of Heaven, but don't you suppose that you might be taking this just a bit too far?" Lucy asked timidly, watching Jellal with growing concern.

"It wouldn't be too far if I decided to abseil down this walking city using his face as gravity break, but, fine, I'll stop so that he doesn't accidentally die," Natsu huffed, letting go of Jellal's blood-stained hair and standing up.

"How could that possibly be accidental?" Gray raised a brow.

"Because I haven't intended on taking his life? It ain't my fault if he's got the spinal consistency of toilet paper in a pond," the Fire Dragon shrugged unhelpfully.

"Now that Jellal isn't an additional problem for us, we get to the city above and put an end to Brain's plans and shut down Nirvana for good," Erza told them, making it clear that this was one of those times when her orders were irrefutable.

"Jellal!" Cobra's enraged voice filled their ears, he was almost blind with rage as he appeared on the horizon having recovered himself from Jellal's viscous heavenly body magic.

"Can you deal with that one?" Gray asked, pulling his hands into a defensive stance again.

"Deal with? I'm not killing a Dragon Slayer, they're rarer than diamonds," Natsu glared.

"Then make him bend the knee to a Dragon King, just don't let him stop us from getting to Brain, do you understand?" Erza asked, her tone so fierce that even Natsu didn't argue.

"The last time someone looked at me like that… Well, you were there, so-"

"Natsu!" Erza bellowed, her anger beginning to stoke a fire within her that she couldn't quite pinpoint the origin.

"Aye aye, cap'n Titania!" Natsu threw a mock salute before backing up and stepping over the edge.

He blew a kiss at Lucy and Erza, then offered a salacious wink to Gray before falling down, disappearing from view as a beckoning roar came from below.

It was an open invitation for Cobra to meet with the real Dragon among them.

One that Cobra hadn't been able to ignore.

A/N: Again, sorry this took so long. I really don't like this arc and that takes a massive toll when it comes to creative writing. There probably won't be too many more chapters before this one is wrapped up, and then we get to move on to the second original story arc.

Review?