Chapter One: Friends Aren't Supposed To Keep Secrets, Right?

Authors Note: Here, sorry if you don't like it. This is right after the Grand Magic Games, but it won't hold any arcs that happen after it. Haters gonna hate, and if you are one well let me give you a news-flash: I. Don't. Care. Flames go to Natsu. I'm uploading this because it's a completed story with seven chapters, and I will put a chapter up weekly, when I can. I feel bad about my writers block, so I might as well do this.

After the battle against the dragons, and Natsu had somehow gotten away with stealing the king's crown, the guild went back to normal. It is once again at the top in Fiore and they are going to party until the sun comes up. Natsu, on the other hand, is still somewhat troubled from seeing Lucy die. Although it was future Lucy, it was still Lucy and in his eyes, she was... is his nakama.

Sighing, he walks over to the request board and sees a certain mission with an interesting reward. Perfect! His trade-mark grin appears on his face as he takes the mission and bolts out the door in joy.

"Come on, Happy!" The blue cat spins around just in time to his his master/father bolt out the door.

"A-aye?!" Lucy sees the two run out and chases after them.

"I'm apart of the team too!" She yells and as she runs a smile creeps onto her face.

"Gray." Erza taps him on the shoulder and he turns to her. She says no words but points to the door the three left through.

"They'll be fine, it's just a mission." He shrugs it off.

"I know that."

-x-

Lucy, Natsu and Happy sit on the train, the fire dragon-slayer slouched over in a defeated position, face a sickly green. Happy attempts to help his partner but to no avail.

"So, can I see the mission?" Lucy asks looking at the mage across from her. He struggles but eventually gets the paper from his pocket and into her hand. "Hmm... dragonoid creatures attacking the town... reward 7000 J and a celestial spirit key?" looking at Natsu in glee, Lucy sees him double over, saliva dripping from his mouth. "Ehh hmm..." The celestial mage sighs as she looks at her motion-sick friend. He took the mission for me, didn't he?

-x-

"Say," Gray sits himself down next to Erza at the bar, "have you seen Natsu or Lucy, or Happy?" She raises her brow at him and swallows her strawberry cake slice before replying.

"No." Gray sighs with a sweat-drop at her simple reply.

"Its been 3 days, that mission wasn't that hard, was it?"

"They are mages, and mages can take care of themselves." She then eyes the stripper for a moment, "Do you doubt your friends abilities?"

"What! No, of course not!" This gains a smirk from Erza.

"Then believe in them."

"Wait, friends!? Me and Natsu!"

"Clothes." He looks down to see himself only in his underwear, How the hell did I strip during that conversation?

"Gah!" He searches frantically for his missing garments. Taking another bite of her cake Erza zones out, Where are you guys? I know the mission wasn't that hard.

-x-

The guild doors slam open and a figure falls in the guild after taking a few steps. A small, flying ball right on its tail. After a moment they realize just who is lying passed out on the guild's floor.

"LUCY!" Everyone rushes to help their friend, and Happy flies behind her, tears marring his face.

"Happy where-"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The cat screams at Erza, who suddenly feels guilt washing over her. The cat is obviously not okay. Everyone stares in shock. Happy had just snapped at Erza. Surprisingly she doesn't do anything violent.

"What happened?" The cat looks up at her and sniffed a few times, landing on a table. They all realize upon further analyzation that he is covered in splotches of dirt which seem to be from falling a few times as he flew. His fur is out of place, not taken care of like his usual coat.

"The mission was easy, we-we-" He sniffles and wipes his nose, trying to continue on strong, "we finished it t-two days ago *sniff* b-b-b-but while w-we were coming back some guy j-ju-ju-just..." The cat burst into tears at this point, wiping his face furiously.

"Happy..." Makarov sees the blue cat and tries to comfort him.

"They w-were aiming a-at Lucy. With the-the-the knife *sniff*."

"Lucy's fine, Happy." He puts a hand on the cats head, watching his guild members access the girl covered in minor injuries of scratches and a few bruises.

"B-b-but N-Natsu isn't!" He screams out, shaking. "He got in the persons way and-and-and got sta-stabbed instead. An-an-and then they-they hit us all with a-a-a spell that dra-drained Natsu and Lucy's m-m-magic bu-but I was just out of range an-and when it was done Natsu smiled and said 'sorr-ry' and he-he-he turned into gold dust and... disappeared!" Everyone stares in complete shock at that, not knowing what to say. No one doubts the cats words, in a magical world anything is possible, even that, but for that to happen to Natsu seems surreal. It sounds like exctly what happened to Lisanna but the anima's are closed so that can't be it...

"You may spend as many nights as you need here, Happy. Rest, we will tend to Lucy."

"A-an-an-an-"

"I'll go search for Natsu." Erza volunteered, "where did this happen?"

"A li-little far from the bor-bor-border of Ma-Magnolia." The cat wheezes out before collapsing out of exhaustion.

"I'll leave immediately."

"Same." Gray follows the Titania out of the guild, both determined to find their friend. The guild hall fills with the hum of conversation as people mourn for Natsu in a silent manner. But no one truly mourning. People don't die that way, the way everyone thought Lisanna died, no one actually believes he is dead. Gone, yes. But alive.

-x-

Lucy woke in the infirmary after two days, dazed she finds herself staring at a blue furball.

"Happy?" She says blearily, not fully processing the situation she then searches the room for Natsu. She doesn't see any pink, or as he would say salmon. What happened? Why am I here? She shakes her head and slaps her cheeks to try and clear her mind. The mission. The man. The knife. "Where's Natsu?!" She shouts when she remembers everything that had happened.

Makarov then comes in and sees Lucy awake. He sighs and relays the info she's waiting for. After relentless searches through the areas between Magnolia and surrounding towns, Natsu or the man who had done it had yet to be found.

-x-

One Year Later

The team made up of Lucy, Erza, Gray, Happy, Carla and Wendy have been together for months. Ever since Natsu's disappearance Wendy became the groups dragon-slayer, but they all know she'll never replace Natsu.

"Hey, Lucy!" The blue-haired girl grabs a mission and brings it up to her, "Look at this mission, and the reward, too!" Lucy, after finishing her breakfast, looks at the mission Wendy shoved into her face.

"A key, huh?" She looks at Wendy's joyful face like that of a kid on Christmas morning before sighing, "Erza, Gray! How about this mission?" The two mentioned people analyze it.

"Sure." Gray answers, not really paying attention as he gazes off into the distance. He changed ever since Natsu's disappearance. No longer being one of the main fight-starters in the guild, since his fellow fight-starter, rival, and best friend, is no longer there. He is more distant and works harder on missions. He also tries to not destroy as much during missions, although that doesn't mean he's doing a good job at that. Their team is still named 'Team Natsu', he is one of the people working hardest to find their lost... 'leader', of sorts.

"Of course." Erza speaks up after finishing her piece of strawberry cake. She turns her gaze to the blond as she speaks. Her gaze is harder (which is an insane feat), more determined than it was a year earlier, as her determination to find one of her closest friends spiked. Since she wants to find Natsu so badly, her addiction to cheese cake isn't as large as she spends so much time following anything that could relate to Natsu with the rest of her team... of course she still eats it almost constantly at the guild.

"You ready Happy, Carla?" Wendy turns to the two exceeds with an almost forced smile. She also wants to find her fellow dragon slayer and brother of sorts.

"Yes."

"Aye!"

-x-

The mission was a breeze for Fairy Tail's strongest team, exasperated they head back to the inn they're staying at for the duration of the mission.

"That mage's magic was not easy to face!" Lucy plops onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. Gray and Erza look at her, then each other, and sigh.

"You're just out of shape." Gray comments, which makes Lucy have a twitch on her forehead.

"You guys are just monsters!" She screams out at them.

"Yeah, Lucy. You should work out more, you're too heavy!" Happy complains before sticking a blue fish into his mouth. Effectively making his cheeks the foods shape.

"Shut-it, cat!" She screams at her burden. Ever since Natsu had gone missing, the cat has been living with her. He refused to go back home if Natsu wasn't going to be there with him. It apparently isn't the same without him, but Lucy inwardly admits that her apartment isn't the same without him, either.

"You got a key, right? Let's see it Lucy!" Wendy exclaims and Lucy jumps too.

"Oh, yeah! Wait, I wanna see something first. Gate of the Lion: Leo! I summon thee!" She flicks her wrist and out comes the Fairy Tail member, Loke.

"Yes, princess?" He puts on his playboy act.

"Whose key is this?" She shows him the key. It's a bright-pink color with a tail-like design surrounding the dragon insignia. The key tip is that of a dragon head.

"I'm ashamed to say that I...don't know." Lucy looks at Loke *ahem* Leo in confusion.

"Aren't you the top of the Zodiac key?"

"The Zodiac, yes. And this is not one of them. I've never seen a key not colored silver or gold before, actually. Let alone pink." He stares at the key intently, "May I stay here while you summon it?" She looks at him, Of course he's curious.

"Yes." She sighs. "I am one that connects this world to that of the Celestial beings, I command you! Come forth! Open: gate of the unknown spirit!" turning the pink key in the air everybody waits with anticipation. A fire vortex then forms and spins in front of the key on the ground. In it morphs a dark shape of a person with a tail and horns.

"Dammit!" A familiar voice yells from the flames, and as they vanish the person finishes, "I'm not doing it!" He has a face red with anger, which softens when he sees that he's not where he thought he was. A sweat-drop accumulates at the side of his face when his eyes wander onto everybody in the room. "Fu..."He gives a half-hearted smile.

"Natsu!" Lucy, Wendy and Happy launch at him, tears in all of their eyes. Gray and Erza stare wide-eyed, and when he finally escapes from the pile of girls, Erza grabs his head with her gauntlet.

"I'm so glad you're back." She says, slamming his head into her chest plate while fighting back the tears in her eyes. Gray simply crosses his arms and looks away from the pinkette, acting as if he doesn't care, but the shine in his eyes gives him away.

"Took you long enough, flame-brain." Natsu smirks at this, freeing himself from the scarlet-mages grasp.

"Ice prick."

"So, you're a celestial spirit?" Erza fixates her stare on his fallen form. He looks much different, with a crown of golden horns protruding from his head. He has a red, scaly tail with a white underbelly that slinks on the ground. His previous onyx eyes have been replaced by bright, ruby red eyes with dragon-like slits for pupils. Otherwise he's the same other than the fact that the tips of his clothes are tinted an odd red.

"Yeah..." He looks over to see Loke/Leo towering over him.

"I've never seen a key of your color before." He states, everyone gets off of him, now wanting answers.

"Ah, well, black keys aren't like your regular golden Zodiac ones." He smiles.

"Wait, black? Your key isn't black." Gray says and smirks at the dumbfounded face of his rival.

"What? What color is it?" he asks the ice mage.

"Pink." Literal steam comes out of his ears upon hearing those words. With a face of anger he closes eyes and puts his arm out and his hand face-up and whispers something inaudible, and a black key with three flaming red sixes on it appears above his hand.

"Gate of the devil, I summon thee: Lucifer!" he shouts and he grabs the key and twists it in the air, shocking everyone in the room. A black hole appears in the floor, fire licking at the carpet above. A humanoid wearing a long black cloak with ghastly red eyes in the hood appears, the creature then jumps and lands on the rim of the hole.

"Yes si-" it has a male voice, which is quickly cut-off.

"Dammit Lucifer!" Natsu suddenly yells, punching the cloaked man into the wall with brute force.

"D-Draco-sama!" it speaks, red balls (its eyes) staring at the angry Natsu whose tail was now up, blinding white feather-like streams lighting up at the tip.

"Change the key back. Now." He growls but even Erza feels the power backing up his words.

"Hai, Draco-sama." He said, putting his hand above the pink key reverting back to its deathly black.

"You may leave." The shadow gives a bow before Natsu crushes the spirit's key, making the creature disappear along with the hole.

"You-you destroyed his key!" Lucy screams at Natsu, Leo also feels anger towards the 'Draco' spirit who just sighs at their reactions.

"Double-keys are different from Zodiac." He speaks, "That was just another Double-key."

"Is that how you treat your fellow spirits!?" Leo grabs the hem of Natsu's shirt, eyes ablaze with anger.

"Fellow? No, that's a difference between the Zodiac and the Double-Key set." Loke let go of the shirt but clenched his fists which began to illuminate in a golden color.

"So... the Double-Key set?" Lucy's eyes held determination, she knows Natsu wouldn't doom a comrade in such a way. She isn't worried about that, but this new Key set, now that got her attention.

"Yes, it was the first set created," he looks at them, "even better, I was the first key made by the Celestial Spirit King."

"What!" Lucy couldn't believe that her comrade, the Natsu Dragneel, could possibly be the first spirit key.

"I requested that the Double-Key set be created, therefore there is a whole other group of keys. But there are only ten."

"Ten?" Leo looked at Draco, "Why?"

"Ten not including the so-called 'neutrals', in all there are twelve. Those 11 are below me the same way the other 11 are below you."

"So you're the top of the Double-Key set?" He nods in reply to Grays question.

"Wait, so how could you destroy um... Lucifer's key?" Erza asks.

"Well, as the name of the set implies it is another one of Lucifer's many keys. Everyone in the Double-Key set has more than one key, and therefore more than one master." As he speaks Lucy becomes more and more interested on this new goal. "The first two keys for the spirit were made by the king. However, others can be created."

"Created! How do you do that?!" Lucy exclaims, if she could make the keys... Her thought process stops as she sees a shadow come over Natsu's eyes.

"Lets just say," he looks back up at them, "it comes at a hefty price." Natsu's face is dark and serious, they don't want to know what the price is.

"So, the key that we have for you. Was it created by the king or someone else?"

"Someone else, that's why Lucifer was able to tamper with its color. I can only tell who has the key with ones originally made by the King."

"How many keys are there for you?"

"Lets just say too many to count." Everyone stares at him, how did they not know about this? Natsu seems to read their mind and answers their internal question. "While I was with you, I took myself out of the link of my own free will. No one was able to summon me during that time."

"Then how come..." Happy began but Natsu answers the unfinished question.

"That man was probably from one of the dark guilds that owns one of my many keys. He weakened me with a poison then depleted my magic, forcing me to return back the the Spirit World."

"If he didn't do that, how long could you have lasted with out another magic source or summoner?" Leo asks his supposed superior, he could last a few years but... what about Natsu?

"Probably a few decades, but my power would've been at about... 10, no 5 percent by then." Shocked couldn't even describe the way everyone feels, especially Loke.

"Decades...?!" He nodded at Gray.

"But now I can only stay out about... five?"

"Years?" Happy asked, his face full of hope.

"Days." The hope is shot down like a bird in the sky.

"Why?" Erza asks the newfound stellar spirit.

"A curse." He said, venom coating his words. "As I said earlier, there's a price to pay for creating your own Double-Key set key, and Dark guilds are willing to pay that price."

"You don't mean..." Lucy knows the answer but couldn't help but ask, she wanted her guess to be wrong, for her best friend to be controlled by dark mages... she wouldn't believe it.

"Yes. The majority of my keys are in the hands of dark mages. Actually, at least two dark mages own each of our keys. Just more people own mine."

"So when you yelled when we summoned you..." Erza said, catching on to the situation.

"Recently a dark guild had ordered me to do something that... lets just say, I refuse to do. It's the same one that cursed me to being out five days actually."

"Then why not come back to Fairy Tail! We're still your nakama! We'll help you!" Wendy spoke up, staring at the dragon-slayer.

"I have no doubt you'll help me, but I'm not a member of Fairy Tail." This shocked everyone in the room.

"But I'm still a member!?" Loke spouts out, returning to the spirit world couldn't be the reason.

"I was, for a short time..." he then moves so we could see his arm, the place where the Fairy Tail sign used to be. It's not there anymore. It was burned off, the scars on his arm now a light shade of pink, a newly-healed patch of tissue.

"Who did this?!" Erza stared at the catastrophe in anger.

"Me." This makes the room go silent, he sits back down with a sigh,"Well, I did. But it wasn't my choice. The first time I refused to take their orders they told me to do... something or take away my own Fairy Tail mark. You can guess which one I chose. The second time I refused they cursed my key- one of my main keys, which affects all of them- so I can only be out for five days."

"They won't get away with this." Gray hisses, gaining a mocking chuckle from his rival.

"Is ice princess upset?" He gave his trade-mark grin, but before a fight could break out Loke intervened.

"Wait, how do you keep refusing to do their orders?" Natsu sits back down- from whenever he got up- and gives a heavy sigh.

"Well, as I said many dark guilds have my many keys. They send me to do their 'dirty work' so they can get away with things without the Magic Council knowing it was them. Of course I refuse on a daily bases, but they're not so nice about that." He gave a smirk that sends shivers down everyone's spine,"The good thing about being the second-best of the entire spirit world is I got my own rules. I also helped make your rules and my key-set rules. I can refuse a direct order but there are consequences. Either my summoner decides it, but if they don't do anything about it the... Spirit King does. With dark guilds you can guess the spirit king has yet to touch me." Everyone understands what he means, dark guilds are known to be ruthless.

"So... what goes along with your rules?" Carla stares at the flame mage in front of her.

"Well, thanks to me all other spirits exist, and thanks to me being at the top of my keys, even if the King asks for 'majority vote' what I say still goes. Thanks to that you Zodiac's are alive."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Loke stares at the 'Draco'.

"Well, when he asked for a vote of the Double-Key's on whether or not to make a Zodiac key set, I was the only one who said yes to it. And I... persuaded the other Double-Keys." He gave a devious smile and they could guess what he meant by 'persuaded', staring at him with half-hearted smiles.

"So, will you come back to the guild with us?" He looked at them, tilted his head, and smiled.

"Of course... as long as I can stay out the entire time." Lucy's smile quickly fades. "Don't worry, I'll use my own magic!" Everyone in the room brightens at that, Natsu is back... in a sense. Now to tell the guild.

Authors Note: Ta-da! I had to make this after seeing all those 'what if Natsu was a Celestial spirit' fanfics. Had to, so~ yeah. This will have a second chap. And a third, and a fourth, etc. Hrm, well I'll put this up, hopefully, weekly. Especially since this story is already finished on my story. Cross fingers! And hope my writers block decides to tip its hat and say farewell. But that's all up to me, isn't it... Well! Thank you for reading this and I hope you will review, follow, and hell even favorite if you like this story that much. Although I doubt it... OH! This is not a Natsu is E.N.D. story! Til next time, see ya!