Looks like people are starting to lose interest in this story. Oh well, I have to finish it to set up the atmosphere for my next big project. This will be the last chapter. Keep in mind that Vector is very powerful and is a Wizard Saint. Enjoy and leave a review.

Gray sat alone in the old hotel in Magnolia's downtown area. His wounds were slowly healing but the fact that a jagged piece of railway had gone straight through his right arm was making recovery difficult. However, it was the emotional aspect that was making it difficult. Gray couldn't sleep well at night because of the guilt he felt. Had he really pushed his friend to the edge? The questions kept pounding inside Gray's mind as he sat in his hotel room, sipping a cup of water, trying not to go insane from the guilt. He was sitting in an old wooden chair, facing the window and looking out over the marketplace. He riveted his eyes towards the marketplace and never looked up. He couldn't face the ruins of Fairy Tail.

It was late in the afternoon when the door to his hotel room slammed open, sending the ice mage flying out of his chair, a sword made of ice in his hand, ready to face whoever had dared to enter his room without permission. Gray's expression only hardened when he saw the smug face of Sting in the doorway. Rogue quickly entered after the smug dragon slayer and Gray lowered his sword, still glaring at the two dragon slayers from Saber Tooth.

"What do you want, kittens?" Gray growled as Sting spit in anger and tried to attack Gray, held back by Rogue.

The white dragon slayer regained his composure and Rogue looked into Gray's eyes, knowing that the ice mage must have been traumatized by the attack. Gray and most of the survivors had been taken to the hotel to rest until the guild building was repaired. Rogue had to be careful not to make Gray angry. Violence was not what they wanted right now. Rogue took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to make this conversation as short as possible. Time was running out.

"Where's Natsu." asked Rogue bluntly.

Gray groaned and he threw the sword to the ground and moved the chair he had been sitting in to face Sting and Rogue. He sat himself down in it and he picked up the cup of water and started sipping it. He was not happy with the two dragon slayers. He glared at Sting especially.

"So, you want to find Natsu? Well you're out of luck because I don't know where he is. I've been busy trying to recover." explained Gray as he pointed to his wound.

Rogue grimaced on the inside. Wielding that sword back there must have been difficult. Gray smirked a little and continued on, feeling his guilt turn into anger at the Saber Tooth dragon slayers for bringing the subject in front of his face.

"Why do you even care about Natsu? I thought you kittens would be happy about Fairy Tail being destroyed, another rival gone and all that garbage," Gray asked darkly.

It was Sting's turn to smirk. Rogue didn't stop him from snapping back at the ice mage.

"Heh, yeah, I really don't give a rat's ass about Fairy Tail's wellbeing. But you see, I really hate it when I don't have someone to play around with and I considered Natsu to be my best plaything. With him gone, I can't have any fun. So will you just hurry the hell up and tell us where Natsu is hiding?" Sting sneered as Rogue put his hand in front of Sting.

"Stop it, Sting, Gray already told us that he doesn't know where Natsu is. Let's get out of here," Rogue said quietly as Sting smirked and turned to leave the hotel room.

"…Go to Vector."

Gray's single sentence made Rogue turn around to look at the ice mage. Gray was looking into his cup of water and the sun was starting to go down as the warm light started to escape the room, shadows crawling up the walls of the room.

"Go to Vector, the Wizard Saint. Natsu was encased in some sort of shield of darkness and none of our attacks could get through. I assume that light will be the only way we can even make a dent in such a thing. Vector will probably know where Natsu is hiding," Gray said sadly as Rogue nodded and left the hotel with Sting.

Maximilian and Bailey were waiting for them outside of the hotel and Rogue turned to Bailey as they walked down the sidewalk, the sun almost completely gone and the streetlights turning on.

"Gray said Vector of Illuminati would be able to help us. Come on, we should hurry." Rogue said as the group took off running towards the direction of Westcliff, home of the Illuminati.

Guild building of Illuminati

"We need to see Vector!"

The shout rang out through the guild building of Illuminati, the guild of holy monks devoted to the wellbeing of others. Most of the monks were asleep, but a few were on guard duty and the group of mages suddenly appearing at the door to the guild was a definite surprise. The doors to the guild were opened and the mages came in, out of breath. They continued to beg the monks on duty to allow them to see Vector, but the monks refused, saying that the guild master needed his sleep.

"No, let them see me. I do not mind."

The Saber Tooth mages looked to see an iron door with the name "Kane" stamped into it slowly open to reveal a lightly tanned man come from behind it, wearing white robes and his brown hair sticking up at any odd end. His eyes seemed brown from the torches hanging from the walls of the guild.

"What is it you wanted to see me about?" asked Vector, smiling a little bit.

"You've heard of the attack on Fairy Tail, right?" asked Rogue as Vector nodded, the monks around him bowing their heads, "Well, we need your help in tracking down the one who attacked the guild."

Vector stared at Rogue for a minute and laughed. Vector led the group of mages outside and into the cool night air.

"You said that you wanted to find Natsu, right? Well-" Vector's words were interrupted by a horrible screeching noise, like metal grinding against rock and the shrieks filled the air as the group covered their ears.

The line of sight seemed to twist towards a single area, a dense forest area a little ways from Westcliff. The world seemed to slant sideways as Vector grimly pointed towards where the slanted world was pointing.

"That is where your friend is at. Hurry, we must make sure he has not been completely corrupted with Evil." Vector said as he led the group towards the wooden elevator they had taken to get up to the guild.

While the elevator went down, Rogue wondered about what Vector had said before. Had this kind of thing happened before?

?

"Turn the watch, Natsu."

The hands of the watch were turning, slowly turning back time. Natsu held the rusty watch in his hand, moving the dial backwards, causing the world to shift around him. Metallic shrieks filled the air as Natsu joyfully turned the watch.

"L-Lucy." Natsu mumbled as he continued to turn the watch.

He was doing this for Lucy, his one love. He would bring Lucy back to life! Suddenly a bright light filled Natsu's eyes stinging them. The fire dragon slayer shielded his eyes as he growled at the group of five people standing in front of him. Sting and Rogue! Natsu growled as a man in white robes stepped forward, holding the lantern.

The man in the white robes passed his eyes over Natsu once and nodded. So Evil was at it again.

"Be gone, darkness! Purge!" Vector shouted as light shot from his fingers towards Natsu who quickly dodged, the tree snapping in half.

Natsu landed on the ground easily and counterattacked viciously. His fist erupted into flames with traces of black inside them. Vector grimaced. He was almost gone.

"Fist of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu roared as he rocketed forward with intense speed.

Vector tried to dodge the punch, but he was too slow, taking the full force of the punch. Vector's eyes were wide open in shock. How was Natsu this fast? The lantern fell from Vector's hands and broke open on the grass of the forest, a small fire starting. Vector smashed into the ground near the fire and quickly stood up, looking at the Saber Tooth mages.

"I don't want to kill him so I'll get rid of the shielding for you, but are you willing to go to your limits to defeat him?" Vector asked darkly as he stood up, grabbing his stomach.

The Saber Tooth mages gave him a nod and Vector put his hands together to finish off the barrier of darkness that encased Natsu. It was quite the barrier, but it was nothing a Wizard Saint who was famous for his intense light magic couldn't handle. Vincent had underestimated them. Vector put his hands together and laughed as light gathered in front of his hands.

"I'd love to see you try to dodge this!" he shouted as the light shot out, filling the entire forest.

Natsu tried to outrun the light, but it soon burned away the darkness that had protected him. He was still holding the pocket watch, Vincent battling within him.

"GO!" Vector shouted as Maximilian and Bailey shot forward, ready to subdue Natsu.

Natsu saw the two Saber Tooth mages running towards him and panicked, letting out a sudden scream of pure sadness and despair. He said only one word.

"Lucy!"

The world seemed to slow down as Maximilian's fist slowly came towards Natsu's face. The pocket watch ticked in Natsu's hand.

Tick tock tick tock

"TURN THE DIAL, NATSU!"

The dark voice that screamed from within Natsu broke the control that Vincent had used to control Natsup to this point. However, in the sudden panic, Natsu yanked the dial on the pocket watch back, the hands on the watch skipping past several numbers. There was a terrible shriek and then darkness.

…

Natsu slowly woke up, rubbing his head. He down at his muddy clothes and wiped some of the mud off of his clothes and slowly stood up, looking around the forest. Something had changed. Maximilian, Sting, Rogue, and Bailey were lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. The only person who was awake was the man in the white robes. Natsu looked around, slightly panicked. Where was he? Suddenly something drifted past his eyes. He held out his hand and black flakes landed on his hand. Black snowflakes?

"No, ashes."

Natsu looked up to see the man in the white robes giving him a disapproving look. He had an angry look on his face. He walked over to Natsu and reached down to pick up a rusty pocket watch that lay on the wet forest floor. He looked at, smiling.

"So this was his most recent tool…" the man said as he turned away from Natsu to leave the forest.

"Wait! What's going on here! Why are there ashes falling from the sky! Help me!" Natsu called after the man.

Natsu recoiled when he saw the man's angry expression on his face. The man turned to face Natsu, fists clenched.

"Then come with me and see what you have done."

…

Flames everywhere. Blood everywhere. Bodies everywhere. Natsu had been led to the small village close to the forest where they had been and they stood on a hill and watched as flames consumed a village. Vector stared down at the flames and then looked at Natsu.

"The pocket watch that you foolishly used to bring back Lucy altered the course of history. Fortunately for you, Lucy is indeed alive in this current world. However, she is a slave. I am forbidden from telling you who she belongs to, however, I believe it will be easy to find her if you look hard enough." The man said darkly, the ashes carrying over the hot air of the flames.

Natsu's eyes widened in despair as the village buildings started to collapse. He turned to the man, desperate to know if Fairy Tail was still alive.

"What about Fairy Tail? Please, I have to know!" Natsu begged the man.

"Call me Vector by the way. As for Fairy Tail, they are the ones responsible for the burning of this village. Your foolish actions have made the world so that it is almost like Edolas. You were tricked by the god of Evil. I serve the goddess of Life, and I am forbidden from telling you anything about what has happened because I am afraid that not even the goddess of Life can reverse this. Here," Vector handed Natsu a piece of paper, "This will help you understand everything. I wish you luck."

…

The paper read as this: The pocket watch was a tool to turn back time. Evil planned to use Natsu to turn back time in order to turn back time far enough to destroy Kane and the Illuminati. However, Natsu was disrupted during the process, warping the process. Now, the world is dark and is ruled by several warlords. The only patch of land that has not been touched are the Fog Isles. Fiore is ruled by a tyrant named Julius Silence and his secret police is made up of members of Fairy Tail. The stage is set. The world has been completely twisted, almost mirroring Edolas. People do not have the same personalities. Amose Keel is certain to rise among this discontent. This is no longer about the foolish actions of Natsu Dragneel. This is about holding the entire world together.

…

There you go. This story is more of a set up story for the next big project I have. Review if you liked it. FF