Kyandi: Hey Kyandiacs!

Rette: We apologize for taking so long.

Kyandi: I'm still trying to work out details on how to go about the end of this series.

Rette: In other words...she's waiting to hear more news on a possible second generation sequel to Fairy Tail.

Kyandi: I need more news!

Rette: For now, we have a chapter for all of you that is going to give you a little information on me.

Kyandi: I bet all of you thought there was nothing else you could learn about Rette, at this point.

Rette: Yeah, well, if you did...you were wrong. There are still more surprises.

Kyandi: Yep! So buckle up, enjoy and review!

Rette: Kyandi-sama does not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 65 The Queens of Dragons

As tension grew, and old feuds came to their last show down, in two different locations on the battlefield, a story over four hundred years in the making, unfolded.

At one end of the battlefield, somewhere lost in the ruins of the battlefield, Natsu had fallen into a deep sleep as a mysterious mass in his body grew out of control. Lost within the recesses of his own subconscious mind, Natsu found himself in a sea of nothing, a disembodied voice speaking to him.

"Natsu..."

Natsu's head whipped side to side, looking around him.

"What is this place...?" Natsu asked himself, before sensing someone, or something approaching. "Is somebody there?"

"It's me Natsu."

Natsu turned, finding none other than Zeref approaching him.

"Zeref!"

"Don't get any funny ideas. This is the inside of your heart." he told Natsu before Natsu could attack him. Not that Natsu listened. He attacked the image of Zeref, only to fly right through him. "And as such, I have no physical form here."

"Huh? The inside of my heart?" Natsu asked, rubbing his head where he had hit it.

"Indeed...at the very least, if only while we're in here together, I have no problem if you wish to address me as "big brother"." Zeref told him.

"Yeah right." Natsu retorted.

"As much as it pains me to say this...you are going to die soon." Zeref said, turning to look at Natsu. "And it's for that very reason that I've come here now, in your last moments, to fill in the gaps in your lost memories."

"Huh?"

If anything, Zeref was only confusing Natsu even more. He had no idea what the raven haired male even meant. And Zeref could see that.

"I'm referring to your memories prior to your waking up in X777." Zeref told him.

"I was together with Igneel!" Natsu replied.

"I'm talking before...even earlier than that." Natsu was taken by surprised as the scenery around them suddenly changed and a quaint little town appeared around them. Natsu found himself being transported into a little cottage where a man who looked similar to him, a young woman, and two little boys lived. "We lived peacefully in a small, quaint village. Those two are our mother and father."

The scenery changed once more and Natsu found himself in the same village, but with it destroyed, fires raging all around while a dragon flew in the skies above.

"However, one day...the village was attacked by a dragon, and completely annihilated. Father, along with Mother...and you. On this day, all three of you lost your lives." Zeref explained sadly. "But, even so...I tirelessly continued my research, and finally, I was able to resurrect you...as my last demon...E.N.D. Ah...I believe I already spoke to you earlier about the particulars of what occurred around this time. And so, I entrusted you to Igneel. But, from that point on...your memories are likely vague and cloudy. Side effects of the Dragon Soul Ceremony, I'd say. If you asked her, Amore...Rette, would probably say the same thing. She's become quite knowledgeable about various magics since she was a child."

The scenery changed again. Out of the void came an image of a younger Natsu and a younger Gajeel, the two butting heads as they argued. Much as the two did in the present day.

"Back then, you had already met Gajeel, Rette, and the rest of the Slayers. You and Gajeel were a couple of rascals...always at each other's throats." The scenery shifted to show a younger Wendy, crying as she tried to break the two up. "And Wendy, who would come to try and break things up, would always burst into tears. And then there was Rette..."

The scene changed again and Natsu was confronted with a younger Rette. He knew it was her because she had the same long, silver hair that trailed on the ground behind her, as she had when they had constantly shifted from child form to adult form back in the giant village. The scene showed the girl approaching the two, hair flying behind her, to shove the two apart before turning to comfort a crying Wendy.

"She was the oldest of you all, and I imagine, despite her dis-attachment from others, she felt responsible for you all. She took her responsibilities as the older adopted sister quite seriously." Zeref said as the scene shifted to show a younger Sting and Rogue. "As for Sting and Rogue, who were around the same age as Wendy, they idolized you and Gajeel as their adopted older brothers. Sting, even back then, always had the greatest crush on Rette. Not that she noticed. She was older, after all, and he was only a child. I suppose it was meant to be that she ended up the same age as him."

Natsu watched the scene move, watching as Sting stared after Rette as she scolded Gajeel and Natsu with an indifferent expression and comforted Wendy at the same time. It wasn't until he next spoke that Natsu realized that the image of Zeref had changed into an image of Sting.

"Several times a year...when our dragon parents would gather for their meetings, we'd all be seated together. Or so I'd like to say, but in reality, both Natsu and I have no such memories of those events." he said.

"Where did Zeref-"

"This is the inside of your heart, ain't that right, Natsu? Your "consciousness" erased Zeref's presence, that's all there is to it." the image told him.

"You completely lost me." Natsu replied.

"C'mon, follow me. You'll surely arrive at your answer."

"Answer?"

"The true identity of what it is that lurks inside your body."

Natsu, despite now really getting it, followed him. For a long time, they just walked through white nothingness. After so long, Natsu finally turned to the Sting image.

"How far are you planning on taking me, Sting?" he demanded, only to find that the image had turned into that of Rogue now.

"Huh? I'm Rogue."

"Wha?! When the hell did you...!" Natsu snapped.

"I told you already, did I not? This is the world within your heart." the image told him.

"Well if this really is my heart then quit changing the identity of the tour guide!" Natsu snapped.

"That just goes to show how terrible your attention span is, don't you think? That scarf of yours...you are aware that it's made out of Igneel's scales, correct?"

"Of course!" Natsu replied proudly.

"SO tell me, then, why exactly is a scarf made of Igneel's red scales...white in appearance?" the image asked.

Natsu drew a blank with that question, his expression deadpanning as he thought about it.

"You've...actually got a point there!" he exclaimed.

"You didn't even think to question it until now, I see. When dragon scales are separated from the body of the dragon, their pigment becomes faint."

"Well, whaddya know."

"However, that's not what's important here. When the scales of a dragon are removed, and their pigment fades, they are then able to be touched by humans. Surely you didn't actually believe that Igneel took time out to knit a human-sized scarf with his own two hands, did you?" the image asked.

"Huh?! You mean he didn't?!" Natsu asked.

"The one who actually knitted that scarf for you was a woman named Anna." An image of a woman knitting the scarf came to life before Natsu. A woman, he noticed, who resembled Lucy to a "T". "Although I'm sure that has long since faded into the recesses of your memory."

"Lucy?" Natsu asked.

"A striking resemblance, isn't it? To your friend, that is." Natsu turned to the image when the sound of it's voice changed once again. The image of Zeref was back. "Anna was such a kindhearted woman...she was especially gifted at taking care of others. Now then...your "death" has drawn near. The final answer is just a little further ahead."

They continued on their path, the image of Zeref soon replaced by the image of Wendy.

"The one who originally invented Dragon Slayer magic was a lady named Eileen. Or so I was told by Anna." Wendy told Natsu.

"Wendy?! When the hell did you...!"

Natsu cut off when, as quick as she came, Wendy was gone, replaced with an image of Gajeel.

"It's all coming from your own heart, dimwit. Quit acting so shocked at every little thing." Gajeel told him.

"It's just one thing after another with you guys! I thought you were suppose to tell me about the cause of what's got me on my death bed, or something!" Natsu snapped.

The image shifted once more, this time to Rette herself, the girl standing before him, arms crossed lightly over her stomach.

"This is all but a guide your subconscious conjured up in order to help jog your memory, Natsu. You already have all the answers. You just need to remember. It's just ahead now." Rette told him.

With that, Rette turned on her heel and disappeared off ahead of him. Natsu hurried after her, but soon lost sight of the girl.

"Rette? Where are you?" Natsu called.

"The Dragon Seed. It's the identity of what's inside your body." Hearing the change of voices to one far more familiar to Natsu than Rette's, Natsu turned, finding himself face to face with Igneel. "It grows with the darkness Dragon Slayers carry. It will cause dragonification. However, I had stopped that growth."

"Igneel..."

It was all Natsu could say as he faced the dragon that had raised him like a son.

"That seed shouldn't be growing anymore." Igneel remarked.

"Maybe it's because you left my body." Natsu suggested.

"No. In young Rette's case, I can see that being a possibility. After all, she carries two Dragon Seeds within herself, but that's not the case here. There's one more seed inside your body. Let's call it Demons' Seed. It's the proof that you are E.N.D. Those two seeds are trying to fuse together. That's what's happening inside your body right now." Igneel told him.

"So that's why I'm dying?" Natsu asked, clenching his fists.

"Yes. You're dying."

"I am...dying?" Natsu repeated, not quite taking it in.

"That's correct. The cause is the fusion between the Dragon Seed and the Demon Seed, and it disturbs your life force as a human." Igneel confirmed.

Natsu heaved a sigh as he was forced to realize that this just might be the end of his life as he knew it.

"There are many things I want to do, not to mention, I have to defeat Zeref and Acnologia." Natsu remarked, but was cut off when Igneel hit him over the head.

"What the hell was that for?! I am feeling depressed now, you know!" Natsu snapped at him.

"Are you willing to hear the entirety of the story?" Igneel asked. "I told you that the fusion of those two seeds is the cause. Don't try to fuse them, choose one. You aren't Rette."

"Fuse them, you said? You mean like Rette does with magic? Oh! That's right! She has to have both in her, too, right?!" Natsu demanded.

"That is true. Rette, much like you, carries within her a Demon Seed and two Dragon Seeds." Igneel confirmed.

"Is that what was causing her fits before?" Natsu asked, now curious.

"No. While she does have the two conflicting types of seeds within her, it was the presence of a demon within her, aggravating the Demon Seed, that caused her life threatening fits. If that demon had not been sealed within her, she would have lived a life unfazed by it as she does now." Igneel told him.

"How come she can live normally while it's killing me?!" Natsu demanded, pouting like a child.

"As I said, you aren't Rette. That child was born with a dual nature, Natsu. Not completely human and not completely demon. That dual nature is probably what has gifted her with the ability to fuse magic as she does. It gave her a way to survive as a creature that shouldn't exist. While she had her demon half, to feed and nurture the Demon Seed, it was her human half that fed and nurture the Dragon Seeds. If given the time and right information, she may even, one day, figure out how to fuse the two seed types." Igneel told him. "The point it, Rette is an unique existence, much like yourself, but how the two of you came to this point, is different. You are a human born of a demonic book and taught Dragon Slayer magic, she is a hybrid born of a demon and human and taught two types of Dragon Slayer magic. She can survive, and thrive, this way. You can't, so you must choose one."

"But how?" Natsu asked.

"Strengthen your will, decide for yourself. Are you dragon or demon?"

Hearing Igneel say that, Natsu was reminded of something Zeref had once told him about how he would be forced to choose between letting E.N.D live or killing it.

"Dragon or demon?" Natsu mused, crossing his arms.

"What is your answer? Natsu." Igneel asked.

"Hold no. It's not all about which one I will choose. I am human. I am Natsu Dragneel!" Natsu declared.

An answer Igneel completely expected from him.

"Well...who would've guessed you'd come up with the right answer?" Igneel remarked. "You were resurrected with demon's power, you were raised by a dragon, but you are human. That problem made those two seeds bigger. Now go forth once more. On your own two feet."

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed.

With that, Natsu awoken, finding an over joyed Happy and Lucy there to greet him and feeling better than he had in a while. Now that he was recovered, he could rejoin the battle.

Leaving aside the fact that Lucy was half naked, he had a job he need to do.

-0-0-0-0-

On another end of the battlefield, Erza and Wendy had been confronted by an enemy of their own. A woman who could have been Erza's twin, if not for the sinister twist to her smile that Erza, thankfully, lacked. Together, Erza and Wendy threw one combination attack after another at the woman. Nothing seemed to faze the woman.

Standing back after another attack, smoke filling the air, they waited to see if their latest attack had succeeded in doing anything.

"Have we done it?" Wendy asked.

"No...she's not an opponent who'd go down from just that." Erza replied just before the smoke began to clear, showing the form of the other woman.

"I see...you launch indiscriminate slashing attacks by means of your innumerable blades. Being able to control such a large number of blades at once is no small feat. I applaud you." the woman called out to them, clapping her smoke cleared to show that all of the sword Erza had just thrown at her, had been knocked aside and had landed to form a perfect flower circle around the woman. "For that, you have earned a flower circle!"

"Not only did she fend off Erza's attack...but she even managed to do that?! I don't believe it..." Wendy remarked.

"She's screwing around with me." Erza said lowly, not pleased.

"And yet, even after being strengthened by that little girl's enchantments, this is the best you can muster, Erza? How utterly disappointing." the woman said.

With a wave of her staff, the swords around her turned to water, evaporating into the air as if they had never existed.

"Identify yourself, you fiend!" Erza demanded.

"You've still yet to figure it out?" the woman asked, taking in Erza's expression at that. "No...in reality, you've vaguely begun to realize, but you simply refuse to acknowledge it."

"I know nothing of the likes of you!" Erza retorted.

Wendy, though, was starting to connect it, too. Of course, she had noticed the physical similarities between this woman and Erza, but it wasn't limited to just that. Even their scents were similar. The woman smiled as she met Erza's gaze, delivering four simple words that seemed impossible to Erza.

"I am your mother."

"That's a lie!" Erza spat. "I was completely alone in Rosemary. I never had parents, not even in my dreams!"

"And yet, here stands your parent, right before your very eyes. It is I." the woman insisted.

"There is but one person in this world whom I can call my parent: Master, who has been there for me my whole life!" Erza proclaimed, not budging.

"Well...I don't particularly mind. In truth, I'm also rather indifferent to the fact that I have a daughter. I was under the impression that you had long since perished, so...But, the fact that fate has led us to meet again under these circumstances is truly unfortunate for you." the woman said idly.

"If someone attacks my guild, regardless of who they may be, in my eyes, they are nothing but an enemy." Erza replied, perfectly serious.

"Well said...when someone dares to defy our Alvarez Empire, I can only see them as another bug that needs to be squashed. Even if that someone just happens to be my own child. However...it would be pitiable if you were to simply die in blissful ignorance of the secret of your birth."

At this, a serious expression crossed the woman's face.

"Secret?" Wendy asked.

"I have no interest in such tales." Erza replied.

"Oh, don't be so cold. We've finally been reunited under these fateful circumstances, so the least you can do is indulge me, don't you think?" Erza didn't agree. She tried to lunge forward, to strike the woman, but, before she knew it, the woman was up in her face. "My full name is Eileen Belserion...the former Queen of the Dragons."

With the full attention of both Wendy and Erza, Eileen begun to spin them a tale of a country in which dragons and humans lived together. A country she ruled over...four hundred years in the past.

"This was the beginning of the war that would later become known as the "Dragon King Festival". Yes...it was a war that was brought about by the kindness of dragons." Eileen told them.

"Four hundred years ago, you say...?! But your appearance is..."

"Not to worry." Eileen said, cutting Erza off. "Little by little, everything will be revealed. Now is when things start to get interesting, Erza. And that goes for the cute little Dragon Slayer as well. Mine was a country in which humans and dragons peacefully coexisted and walked alongside one another for generations. In Ishgar, many such countries existed during that era. However, the flow of the war was not favorable for us. In addition to the enemy's sheer numbers, we were also put at a disadvantage due to a small faction of Ishgar Dragons who were opposed to coexisting with humans and going to war against their own kind."

Eileen went on to explain how she had approached the leader of the dragons that sided with the humans, a dragon named Belserion, with the idea of implanting some of his power into her. An idea that effectively made Eileen the first Dragon Slayer.

"You mean to tell me you invented...Dragon Slayer magic?" Erza asked, shocked.

"That is correct. I am the mother of all Dragon Slayers. One could argue that the plan to grant humans the power to fight against dragons was a resounding success. It not only marked the birth of many Dragon Slayers, but the tides of that war finally turned in our favor. However, that enormous power began to gnaw away at the human vessels that housed them. There were those who could not contain their powers and were driven to go on an unstoppable rampage. Others were stricken with an extreme sickness caused by the large cap between a dragon's visual acuity and the perception of a human's semicircular canals. And in others still...the seed that would begin to sprout within their bodies, the Dragon Seed, it would mark the final moments of Dragon Slayers as humans and begin their irreversible transformation into a dragon. At that time, you were already growing in my womb. Erza."

Here, Eileen idly touched her stomach, the appendage dwelling over her womb for a moment, as if she was remembering something. Then she carried on with her story.

"Erza, your father was a general from a neighboring country. There's a thing called a political marriage when humans fought over territorial disputes. He kept me company on many battlefields. He also took care of me when Belserion died. The war ended without even knowing who won and who lost due to Acnologia making his appearance. As if laughing at countless dead people, the victory was his and his alone." Eileen added.

She went on to tell them how, when she started going through the initial stages of dragonifaction, her husband had feared she would become like Acnologia and had her locked away. She told them of the torture, violence, and humiliation she had to suffer for three years, all while she used magic to keep Erza safe in her womb, never letting the child grow. She told them of how, when her husband tried to split her belly open, she had taken the finally step, shifting quickly from a human form to that of a dragon. It was through that, that she had managed to gain her freedom, fleeing from her home for the deep woods.

"And then...hundreds of years passed. You were still in my belly. I kept looking for a way to unravel this curse in a unpopular mountain. Or, so I thought." Eileen told them. "It is actually quite interesting. There, on that mountain far from humans, I met a person who, unknown to me, would become a cardinal point in future conflicts. I met the next Queen of the Dragons...someone who, within herself, possessed the ability to hold sway over all that possess a dragon's power."

Erza already had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew who Eileen was talking about. It must have shown on her face, too, for Eileen's grin only grew.

"It was there, on that mountain, that, for the first time...I met Amoreta Banesbloud. Oh, but you know her as Rette Starrilia, don't you?"

"Wait...are you saying...Rette is the second Queen of Dragons from the prophecy the dragons had?" Wendy asked, shocked.

"I don't know about any prophecy, but I know what I saw in that girl's eyes. I can still see it to this day." Eileen replied.

"But...the prophecy Zicronis told us about said the second Queen of Dragons would have pale blue and silver scales. Rette's hu...she doesn't have scales." Wendy mused, catching herself when she came close to saying, "Rette's human.".

"As I said, I known nothing of a prophecy. I do know that when she appeared before me, hair trailing on the ground behind her, she knew exactly what I was, but there was no fear or pity in her eyes. For a child so young, I've never seen eyes more dead than hers." Eileen remarked. "And yet, she brought me food and was gone as quickly as she came. She only uttered one sentence to me. "You should take better care of your unborn child.". I never did quite figure out how she knew, though, now, she remembers none of it. I find it interesting, knowing what I know about her now. Especially since, the next person that found me...was his majesty." Eileen said. "He is a genius mage. He did what I couldn't do for hundreds of years. Very easily."

Eileen went on to tell them of how Zeref had managed, easily, to return her to her human form. How, through her joy at being back in a human form, she didn't care when Zeref tried to warn her that it was merely her physique that had returned to human.

"However, that incident came soon." Eileen said, telling them of how she could no longer taste her food, how she couldn't sleep, and how her body simply felt wrong.

It was in a state of being half driven crazy that an idea had formed in Eileen's head. An idea to give birth to her unborn daughter, only to enchant herself into the child's body, giving her back a human body. Erza said nothing to this, even as Wendy gasped, her eyes spread wide in horror.

"But I failed. It's was impossible to enchant myself into you. That's why I lost my interest in you, and I dumped you like trash. In the corner of some small village." Eileen continued.

"Was it Rosemary Village?" Erza asked.

"Who knows, I already forgot its name." Eileen replied.

"Erza..."

"It's okay." Erza told Wendy when the girl spoke up from behind her. "I'm grateful to you for giving me life."

"I don't need thanks from the trash." Eileen told her.

"How can you say it to your own child?!" Wendy demanded, getting angry for Erza.

Erza, though, ignored the trash comment, reequipping into another of her armors.

"And I'm grateful for you abandoning me. Because, thanks to that, I could meet my real family. Even though you're my real mother, I will annihilate anyone who dares block my path to the guild." Erza told Eileen.

"Me too...I thought, that maybe if I told you about our past, my child, my feelings towards you may have changed. Such a shame, but, just as Lachlan's feelings for his daughter will never change, none of my feelings will change."

Erza had a moment where her mind went to Rette, the girl somewhere on the battlefield, duking it out with Amoreta. Just as Erza wouldn't let anyone, even her birth mother, stand in her way of protecting her guild, she knew Rette would be the same. Though, a moment of amusement passed through Erza when she realized how much she and Rette were turning out to have in common. And just like how Rette was going to have to, eventually, duke it out with her own father, Erza was going to have to confront her birth mother.

All for their guild, their family.

It just went to show that blood didn't make a family.

While, in the end, Eileen chose to take her own life, revealing that, despite all she had said and done, she had always loved Erza, Erza knew that Rette would never get that from her father. While a miserable person, Eileen had still fostered some love in her heart for the child she had protected for over four hundred years. Lachlan had never, and never would, have love in his heart for anyone other than the man who created him. Not for the two women he used to spawn his children, his tools for destruction, not for his two sons or the youngest of his daughters, who he killed, and not for the daughter he had so carelessly scarred to the point that loving another should have been beyond her.

But Erza knew, just as surely as she had done through everything else, Rette would continue to prevail.

It was then that a sudden and sharp increase in a familiar magic power, washed over the battlefield, reaching to the far corners. Wendy and Erza, just like everyone else, knew, despite the sheer flux, the sharp increase in power, who this magic belonged to.

Rette.

As clearly as if the woman was standing next to them, they could feel the anger resonating throughout the magic. Whatever had happened, whatever had come to pass, Rette was furious, and when Rette was furious...things broke very quickly. None of them were sure if Rette's temper was still as volatile as it had been when Amoreta had inhabited her body, but very few of them wanted to actually find out.

Erza, for one, just hoped that Amoreta was what Rette broke.

END

Kyandi: Now, I know the chapter for this timeline and for the other, are similar, but starting in the next chapter, things are going to start to diverge a little.

Rette: After all, different timelines mean different types of fights.

Kyandi: And just like the rest of the Natsu gang have their own big battles they had to confront, so does Rette.

Rette: Amoreta and Lachlan.

Kyandi: Yep. I'm going to try to get the next chapter does sooner, which means I need to get a move on.

Rette: Yep.

Kyandi: So, everyone, enjoy and review.

Rette: Bye-bye!