**I don't own Fairy Tail. I don't own the characters. It all belongs to Hiro Mashima.

As you can probably tell from the summary, this story starts during the Tenroujima arc. Paring will be Natsu x Wendy.

This will also be the last story I start for a while. Hadn't planned on starting this, but I had the idea after browsing a few other fanfics and not seeing any like this, and it seemed to interesting to forego writing. Rated T right now, but that might change in future chapters. I'm not sure yet.

Anyway... Enjoy.**

—December, x784—

"He's too powerful! We'll never beat him!"

Fairy Tail was beginning to panic as they saw their combined strength do zero damage to the enormous dragon. The dragon reared its head back, ready to attack.

"Laxus! Wendy! Gajeel!" Natsu roared. "We're dragon slayers, right? We'll take Acnologia! The rest of you get as far from this island as you can!"

"But…" Makarov started.

"No way!" Erza yelled. "We're staying here together!"

"We can't leave you to fight this beast alone!" Lucy cried.

Natsu turned back to his guild. He hated to do this, but he knew that he had to. Forcing his body to its maximum magic power, he entered the dragon force, causing an enormous fire dragon to appear to the other guild members around him as scales appeared on his body. "I said get going!" he roared. "We'll catch up with you when we can!"

Apparently they realized he was serious. Very serious. Finally Makarov gave the command. "You heard him, brats. None of us have magic that's meant to kill a dragon. Right now we just have to trust our dragon slayers!"

Natsu kept a tear back, not even daring to look at the other dragon slayers who stood courageously beside him. Slowly the guild left as they master had commanded. And the four dragon slayers turned, all ready to fight with their greatest power.

The dragon launched another attack at them, but the dragon slayers all managed to avoid his massive claws. "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" Natsu, still in dragon form, landed the attack on Acnologia's leg. As he fell back, he saw… blood?

"Way to go Natsu!" Laxus cheered. "Lightning Dragon's Roar!"

"Sky Dragon's Roar!"

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

The three combined roars hit the injury, causing the dragon to bellow in pain. A sound that pierced the ears and shook the land, heard and felt even out on the ship where Doranbolt had just finished teleporting the last Fairy Tail member aboard.

~~~On the ship~~~

"That sounded like it was hurt," Gildarts said in amazement.

"Well, they don't call it dragon slaying magic for nothing," Makarov said. "But I'm afraid that even all four of the brats together don't stand a chance. I only hope they can escape him."

As they spoke, the dragon lifted off, high into the sky. Immediately 3 of the four dragon slayers left the ground, speeding up toward the black dragon. But as the guild watched, Acnologia released his breath. There was a huge flash of light that enveloped the whole island. And when it was gone, the island was too.

Satisfied with its work, the dragon flew away as the members of Fairy Tail looked on in shock.

—x791—

"Master Makarov, I have some news for you!" Warren exclaimed.

"What news?" Makarov asked.

"I just got a telepathic message from Pegasus. It seems there's some strange activity in the ethernanos around where Tenroujima should be.

"Tenroujima?..." The old man's eyes widened.

"Erza, Gray, Juvia, Lucy, Mira. Come with me!"

"Where are we going master," Gray called from the second floor.

"Tenroujima," Makarov answered.

"But Tenroujima's gone. We've long since given up searching…"

"Blue Pegasus has detected some strange activity around that area. We need to check it out immediately."

"Coming master," Gray said, and Juvia came down on his heels. Erzza, Lucy, and Mira joined them as well.

~~~In the ocean, where Tenroujima once was~~~

"As I suspected, no sign of the island." Erza sighed.

"Who's that little girl, though, and why's she floating over the water?" Lucy asked.

"First master?" Makarov said, surprised.

A moment later he was a lot more surprised as the air around the girl shimmered. Suddenly Tenroujima appeared again, just as it had been when they'd left it, and waves from the sudden appearance bombarded the boat.

"We've got to get to shore, quick!" Makarov said. They pulled the boat in and got off quickly. The girl was still there.

"First master…" Makarov called, but she ran away from them toward the center of the island.

They chased after her till she suddenly disappeared, just as they stumbled into a clearing with four familiar figures, lying on the ground.

"Ugh, what happened?" A pink haired mage groaned as he sat up.

"I dunno." A mage with long, black hair pushed himself off the ground. "One minute we were partying… The next…"

"Dammit, I know I'm not that drunk," the blond-haired man said.

"Aye sir!" exclaimed a familiar blue exceed.

The blue-haired woman said nothing as she stirred. The white exceed was also silent.

Then all six of them realized who was near them.

"We're… back?" They said almost simultaneously.

"Natsu! Laxus! Gajeel! Wendy! Happy! Carla!" The five from the guild were still staring, their mouths hanging open. "You're alive?"

"Ge he." Gajeel grinned as he stood up. The rest also stood, slowly.

Natsu got up as well, giving them his trademark grin. "Guess we're finally home."

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled, running to the dragon slayer and hugging him. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to see that stupid grin again!"

Suddenly she felt an intense, very unpleasant aura. She looked over to see Wendy, who had grown several inches since the dragon slayers all disappeared. And she'd grown in other areas as well. Especially the chest.

"You might want to back off of Natsu," Gajeel said. "Wendy gets rather possessive."

Lucy let go of the dragon slayer, looking between the two. "You mean?..."

Wendy answered the question by quickly closing the distance to Natsu, capturing his lips in a very intense kiss. Natsu's arms wrapped around her waist as her arms encircled his neck.

"Aaaww," Mira said with a grin.

"Hey flame brain!" Gray grinned. "Too bad for you, you'll never catch up to me now. I'm an s-class wizard now."

"So am I," grinned Lucy cheerfully. "And Levy even made S-class. She's out on a mission right now though."

"Juvia is an S-class mage also," Juvia informed them.

"Yeah, and Erza and Mira are both wizard saints now!"

"Really? Congratulations." Natsu grinned. "But now I want to fight you."

"Are you crazy Natsu?" Gray asked. "Didn't you hear what we said? She's a wizard saint now. You don't stand a chance!"

"I just want to see what it takes to be a wizard saint here," Natsu grinned.

As he threw off the jacket he'd been wearing, the guild members now saw that his body was lined with scars. Apparently he hadn't been leading a carefree life since they last saw him. "So how about it Erza?"

She sighed. "Show me you're worthy of a fight and I'll fight you, Natsu. Otherwise, I have other things I'd rather be doing."

"Is that right?" Natsu shrugged. "How do you want me to prove it?"

"Easy. Beat Lucy or Gray, and I'll kick your ass."

"How about I beat Lucy and Gray… together?"

"Ok you cocky jerk," Lucy growled. "You're so going down."

"If you really think you can… But even you should know taking down two S class mages at once would be difficult even for a wizard saint."

"Yeah, I suppose…"

"Ge he," said Gajeel as Laxus and Wendy both smirked. Gray and Lucy got ready to attack.

"Here we come!" Gray said. "Ice Make, Absolute Zero Dragon!"

A huge dragon, almost the size of Acnologia, made entirely of ice formed and charged the dragon slayer. At the same time Lucy summoned Leo, Taurus, Capricorn, and Sagittarius all at once. All four charged the dragon slayer. The ice dragon and the four celestial spirits all hit at once, causing a huge cloud of steam to erupt.

When the steam cleared, the four spirits were all unconscious on the ground around Natsu, and the ice dragon had disappeared completely.

The two gaped in surprise. The other dragon slayers just seemed amused.

"Now it's my turn," Natsu said. "I'll try not to hurt you too badly."

In the blink of an eye he was behind Lucy. "Fire Dragon's Iron fist!" The blonde mage went flying over 100 feet and smacked into a tree, falling to the ground.

"Ice Make Hammer!" Gray slammed an enormous hammer down on the dragon slayer, but he caught it with one hand. Then he turned it to steam in an instant.

"No… No way…" Gray muttered, staring at him in shock.

"You should focus on fighting," Natsu said as he hit him with a Fire Dragon's Talon, taking him out. "Not that it really would've mattered."

Mirajane, Erza, and Makarov all stared, their mouths hanging open.

"I may not even need to fight Erza if that's what an S-class mage is," Natsu said, cracking his knuckles. "I wouldn't even call that a proper warm-up."

"Just how powerful have you become, Natsu?" Erza asked as she stepped forward, now in her flame empress armor.

"You have no idea…"

"Let's get started then," Erza said, and she charged at him.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu hit her with a cone of fire, but she charged through, knowing her armor could handle the attack because of its fire resistance. But then she heard a crack. And another. As the flames receded, she realized that her armor now had steaming cracks running everywhere through it.

"How?..." She gaped.

Natsu suddenly grinned, remembering something that Gildarts had done in the S-class examination. There, in front of everyone, he entered his dragon force, releasing the full aura of his magic power. Erza stared at him for a few moments, and he saw the amazement – and a hint of fear – in her eyes.

"I… I yield," she said, slowly putting away her sword.

Natsu grinned, suppressing his magic power once again.

"Alright," Makarov said. "We've got a new boat specially designed for dragon slayers, so on the way you four are going to tell me exactly where you've been these last 7 years."

"Alright gramps," Laxus grinned, locking his fingers behind his head. "But I hope you're ready for a long story."

Moments later they were on the boat. All the dragon slayers were surprised to discover that they actually didn't get any motion sickness from the rocking. Natsu sat against a railing, with Wendy cuddled up comfortably against him. Not far from them were Laxus and Gajeel, with the two exceeds cuddling on Natsu and Wendy's laps.

"Alright, I guess I'll start." Laxus said quietly.

~~~STORY ARC 1: The world ruled by dragons~~~

—x791—

"Ugh…" Laxus groaned as he woke up, looking around. "I can't believe we're still alive."

Natsu was already awake, sitting nearby and staring off into the distance. "Yeah, but there's something weird. This ain't Tenroujima."

"What do you mean?" Laxus asked. "Where else could we be?"

Natsu shrugged. "Beats me. But it doesn't smell like Tenroujima. And it doesn't feel like Tenroujima. Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

Laxus sighed. "I just woke up dumbass."

Just then Wendy started stirring. "Nnn… We're alive?" The girl asked as she sat up.

"Ge hee." Gajeel grinned from the ground. "Looks like the bastard didn't get us after all."

"Happy, Carla. wake up!" Natsu yelled.

"Natsu," groaned Happy as he stirred. "I was having such a wonderful dream. I had all the fish I could eat."

Suddenly the group was interrupted by a roar and an influx of flapping wings.

"Is that?..." Wendy asked.

Natsu looked out and nodded. "It's a dragon, but not Acnologia. This one's a lot smaller… and it breathes fire." He grinned. "Hey dragon!" He yelled. "Do you know Igneel?!"

As the dragon got closer, it was pretty clear that it had no intention of talking. Even though it was only half Acnologia's size, it had the look in its eye that the large black dragon possessed. The look that didn't want reason. Only destruction. With a roar, it unleashed a powerful cone of fire at the dragon slayers. Even before the fire got close, Wendy, Laxus, and Gajeel all shied back from the heat.

But Natsu jumped in front of them, and the fire all disappeared into his maw. "I see you're an enemy. Too bad for you, fire doesn't work on me!" He leapt at the dragon, meeting it in the air. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus Exploding Flame Blade!"

The dragon seemed to be caught entirely by surprise, as it made no attempt to defend against the move that connected with its head, cracking its armor in a few places. It roared loudly, bathing its opponent in flames again.

"I told you flames don't work on me!" Natsu grinned. "But thanks for the meal! Now I can finish you!"

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" he struck the spot where the armor was cracked, breaking through and tearing out the arteries in its neck. The dragon fell to the ground, blood spurting from its neck, and slowly its flames died out.

"So it is possible to kill them," Laxus said as he looked on. "Although I thought they didn't exist in Earthland anymore…"

"Hey!" A voice called out. "Get over here, quick!"

"Huh?" Natsu went to check it out.

"Are you guys crazy? You need to get in here quick! You should know better than to be out when the dragons are hunting!" They could see a girl with long, purple hair, a loose black shirt, and black pants through some shrubs that sat against the side of a cliff.

"What do you mean? We just killed the dragon!" Natsu grinned.

"While that was very impressive," the girl said quietly, "The others will be here shortly. You need to get inside before you're overwhelmed. Come on!"

They followed her into a tight cave that was a little uncomfortable to squeeze through. After about 50 feet, the enclosed space widened out, and they were able to stand.

Once they were up, she led them off to the side a ways.

"So who are you guys anyway?" She asked, her voice in a whisper. "I've lived in this village my whole life and I've never seen you before."

"I'm Natsu," Natsu said, not too quietly.

"Shh." She hissed. "We don't want them to hear us. They might not be able to eat us in here, but they won't mind roasting our asses. Especially when they find that dead dragon outside."

"Why don't you introduce yourself?" Laxus said quietly. "And tell us what the fuck is going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what the fuck is with this dragon. Dragons died out a long time ago, so how is it that we suddenly saw one living and flying around."

"Umm… My name's Lydia. As for the dragons, I think you guys are delusional. Dragons have plagued us for years. It's why we live in these villages. Now how about you answer my questions. Starting with where you're from."

"We're Fairy Tail wizards!" Natsu whispered loudly. "I'm Natsu, this is Laxus, Gajeel, and Wendy. Happy and Carla are exceeds."

"Fairy Tail?"

"Yeah. It's a big wizard guild." Natsu said. If there were enough light to see, he would've seen the others glaring at him.

"What's a wizard guild?" asked Lydia.

"It's a place where lots of wizards get together and take job requests from people," Natsu replied. "It's lots of fun."

"Sounds like a dragon buffet to me," Lydia whispered. "The dragons seem to especially like eating magic users. Which is why, if we survive today, we need to get as far away from here as possible."

"So wait," Natsu said. "You're saying not only are there still dragons, none of them are friendly toward humans?"

She sighed. "Tell me how you ended up here…"

Natsu recounted the story of Acnologia's attack and their battle against him. Her eyes went wide as they described the huge black dragon and his breath attack that they were sure was large enough to obliterate the whole island.

"But if you got hit with that, how are you here?"

"We don't know," Natsu said quietly. "We just woke up here. Now, can you tell us what's going on?"

She sighed. "In this world, there were lots of mages – and some dragons who really believed they could co-exist with humans, at least that's the legend. But 400 years ago, after the great dragon wars, all that changed."

"What happened?"

"According to legend, the pro-human faction trained a man named Acnologia to become a dragon slayer. The man was so strong that he eventually became a dragon, and made it his goal to destroy every dragon in the world."

"But in the end, the fire king, Igneel, destroyed the black dragon with the help of a few loyal dragons of the peace faction. Unfortunately, the anti-human faction took advantage of their weakened state and killed them. With the leaders and strongest dragons in the faction gone, the anti-human faction won out. And they wanted to make sure no human ever gained the power to kill dragons again, so whenever they find powerful mages they quickly hunt them down and devour them."

"Wow," Laxus said quietly. "That's a lot different from our world. In our world, Acnologia is the only dragon that still exists. All the others died out 400 years ago… Our world is full of people, cities, and mages everywhere."

"Wow. Your world sounds nice," Lydia said dreamily. "We all live in these caves, and we can't even build fires in here. We don't go out very often because of the dragons, and every wizard who starts getting strong is hunted down by the dragons and killed. In fact," her whispered voice changed, a sad heaviness in it. "Many tribes will kick wizards out of their safe havens and leave them to fend for themselves, just so they can be sure they dragons won't attack again."

"That's terrible!" Natsu exclaimed in a loud whisper. "You mean people can just leave other people to die?"

Lydia didn't answer, but he could hear her quiet sniffles in the darkness nearby.

"I'm so sorry," he heard Wendy whisper as his mind was still putting the pieces together. "Have you been living alone this whole time then?"

"Yes," she responded quietly. "Ever since I was 12 and my magic was strong enough that they were afraid we might be detected."

"This world sucks," Natsu whispered, staring off into the darkness. "But we're here now! We're gonna' change everything and make this a world where humans can enjoy living!"

There was silence for a few moments before Lydia whispered, "As much as I think that's impossible… As hard as it is for me to imagine anybody standing up to the dragons… I really want to believe you. My heart already feels a little lighter somehow."

"That's our Natsu-san.." Wendy's whisper came from right next to the dragon slayer, and she laid her head against his chest. Natsu started slightly. When had she gotten so close?

As the dragon slayers fell asleep, Natsu could only think about how this world was going to change.

~~~The Next Morning~~~

"Oi," Gajeel said as he sat up. "How long have we been asleep?"

"About 7 hours," Lydia responded in a quiet voice.

"7 hours?" Laxus's voice broke into their conversation. "That's not nearly enough sleep!"

"Aye sir!" Happy's normally loud voice said in a loud whisper.

"Pff." Lydia snorted. "Natsu and Wendy are already up."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know… They said something about hunting dragons."

"That idiot! I don't mind so much that he did it, but why'd he take Wendy with him?" Growled Laxus. "How long ago was this?"

"About two hours."

Gajeel started up. "We'd better go find them."

"We're going with you," Carla said.

"It's too dangerous!" Laxus said. "You two stay here. I promise we'll bring them back safely."

With that Laxus and Gajeel left the cave. Gajeel sniffed at the air. "They're not far… They're this way." Gajeel started running toward the forest that was a few hundred feet from them.

Suddenly Natsu burst out of the woods, carrying a rather limp Wendy in his arms. Behind him, Laxus and Gajeel saw a dragon that was a good deal bigger than the small one that he'd killed the day before in the air, chasing the fire dragon slayer.

"Take care of Wendy for a minute!" Natsu said, laying her gently on the ground. Then he turned and headed for the dragon, leaping into the air.

"Oi Gajeel," Laxus muttered. "Is it just me, or has his magic power increased a lot since yesterday?"

"I feel it too," Gajeel whispered back as Natsu entered dragon force. "He's definitely a lot stronger than yesterday."

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" Natsu cried out as he hit the dragon squarely in the chest, barely dodging its claws as it struck at him.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He struck at the same spot. This time a claw grazed his back, sending him flying a hundred feet into the trees.

"You think you, a puny human, can kill me?!" The dragon roared, spewing fire at the dragon slayer. "Be assured, human. After I roast you I'll find all your friends and kill them one by one!"

"You're not gonna get that chance! Fire Dragon's Piercing Spear!" Natsu charged, his fist forward and extended, and then suddenly seemed to blink out of sight. In almost the same instant, he hit the dragon, piercing through the dragon's thick scales.

"Puny human!" Roared the dragon in pain, swatting Natsu, who went tumbling through the air. But this time he stopped less than 20 feet away.

"You just don't understand, do you?" Natsu grinned, his eyes glowing red under the power of his dragon force. "You're outmatched. Fire Dragon's Killing Strike!"

Laxus and Gajeel watched as the dragon slayer plunged both his fire-coated hands deep into the hole in the dragon's chest, emerging with an enormous, still beating heart. He held his trophy up over his head.

"Im… Impossible," grunted the dragon as he fell to the ground. The heart beat stopping in Natsu's hands.

Natsu came down, panting hard. "Man, that took a lot out of me," he said, staggering a little.

"Natsu," Laxus said dangerously. "What happened to Wendy?"

"She'll be fine," Natsu grinned. "She just exhausted her magic power… like me. But she killed the dragon!" He grinned, then toppled to the ground.

"Idiot…" Laxus muttered as he picked him up.

When they were back in the cave, they laid the two a few feet apart. Wendy whimpered softly and scooted closer to Natsu in her sleep. Natsu responded, despite his unconscious state, turning toward the other dragon slayer and wrapping him in his arms.

"Great," Lydia said quietly. "Now we can't move today either."

~~~Several hours later~~~

"What were you thinking Natsu?" Gajeel growled. The dragon slayer was finally awake and sitting up. Wendy was sitting next to him, leaning against him. There was a little light in the cave at the moment due to Natsu's fire.

"Don't yell at Natsu-san." Wendy said, clinging to the dragon slayer. "I wanted to go with him."

"He shouldn't have let you," Laxus said, glaring at the pink-haired dragon slayer.

"Actually I think it's a good thing she came," Natsu said. "It let me confirm something…"

"What's that?" Laxus asked.

Natsu grinned. "First let me ask you a question. Do you feel anything different about Wendy?"

"Different?" Laxus blinked. Now that Natsu mentioned it, the younger dragon slayer did have a more impressive magic aura. As though her magic power had nearly doubled while she slept. Similar to Natsu's…

Natsu must've been able to see what he was thinking. "That's right," he said. "Killing dragons increases our strength. As near as I can figure, your first kill nearly doubles your power. And each one after that provides a smaller boost…"

Laxus noticed Natsu's magic power had grown again as well, fairly significantly. "How many dragons did you kill?" He asked.

"This time? 3, including the one that was chasing me back…" Natsu grinned.

"I guess that means we've got some catching up to do," Gajeel said, cracking his knuckles.

"I hate to break up your chat," Lydia said. "But if you've killed 3 dragons… No, 5 now, if the girl killed one too, then we'd better be moving. The dragons will be sure to know we're here now, and they'll be back in larger numbers."

"She's right," Gajeel said. "We'd better head out."

"Aye sir!" Happy said cheerfully.

It was a long, silent trek. They stayed close to the forest, burying themselves under leaves and branches whenever a dragon was approaching. It was several hours before they finally found another cave that went deep enough for Lydia to feel comfortable with where they were. Similar to the other one, this cave had a very small entrance that they had to crawl to get through, and by the time they reached a larger space it was too dark to see anything.

"Well, I'm exhausted," Gajeel said, slumping against the rock.

"Me too," Laxus said as he laid down. "Who ever though stone could be so comfortable?"

"I wish I had a change of clothes," Wendy whispered as she snuggled in to Natsu.

"Get used to it," muttered Lydia. "Around here we're lucky to have clothes at all."

There were a few minutes of silence. Then, as his eyes were about to close, Laxus heard. "Hey Gajeel, Laxus. Tomorrow we need to get you guys your first kills."

"Ge he," Gajeel agreed.

"I'm fired up," Laxus grinned, and then the two fell asleep.

"Natsu!" They were awakened by an ecstatic moan from Wendy. Instantly Laxus activated his lightning, filling the cavern with light. "What the fuck are you doing Natsu? She's still a child!"

"Wendy, it's shameful to be doing those things." Carla said. Then they all looked at the two dragon slayers.

They were both fully clothed, but wrapped in an embrace. A trickle of blood ran down Natsu's neck, and as Wendy's long hair fell off her neck they could see a trickle of blood on hers also.

"I wasn't doing 'those things,' Carla," Wendy said. "Natsu and I both know I'm too young for that. But I had to mark my mate before some other girl took him."

"Your mate?" Laxus blinked a few times. Had he heard that correctly? Did the little girl even know what that meant?

Wendy blushed a little. "Shouldn't we get rid of the light?" she asked.

"Oh right," Laxus extinguished his lightning. "But you still need to explain yourself."

Wendy sighed. "Well, I guess the short of it is that killing my first dragon did a little more than increase my magic power. It also awakened some… well, instincts that I didn't even know I had."

"You mean you initiated this Wendy?" Carla sounded shocked.

"Of course I did," the girl defended herself. "Natsu's a very desirable mate. He's of age, and it'll be a few years before I am. If I didn't claim him quickly, someone else might have…"

"Ge he," Gajeel chuckled.

"What do you find funny about this?" Carla snapped at the iron dragon slayer.

"Well," Gajeel said with a smirk evident in his voice. "Of all the possible couples in the guild, I never expected Wendy and Natsu… and I certainly didn't expect Wendy to actually initiate anything."

"With that blockhead any girl would've had to initiate," Carla snapped irritably.

"You know what this means, Gajeel," Laxus said.

"What?"

"It means out of the four of us from Fairy Tail, all that's left are men."

"So?"

"So it could take us years to figure out how to get back!"

"Oh…" Gajeel was starting to see where this was going. "Shit."

"Yeah," Laxus said.

Suddenly Happy's voice interrupted them. "You liiike each other!"

"Well duh!" The others snapped.

"I mean Gajeel and Laxus."

"EEWW!"

"Not so loud," hissed Lydia.

"Meh, it's time for us to head out now anyway," Natsu said. "We've got to make these dragon slayers into authentic dragon slayers."

"Sounds good to me," Gajeel said. And Laxus fully agreed.

"Let's go dragon hunting."