The darkness circled around, slowly disappearing more and more each moment. Some of the rooms, as Natsu noticed walking down the halls that metaphorically represented his psyche, we're still dim. But most, by now were brightly lit, and he had no resistance in remembering the memories that burrowed themselves within. It was really relieving.

Even before he had come back from the dark guild, his days spent there had been uncertain, to say the least. Everything felt right, but at the same time, nothing did if that made any sense.. Hell, Natsu was the one thinking it and it barely made any kind of sense to himself.

Natsu opened his eyes. He meditated from time to time, fascinated by watching his mind reconstruct itself. But he still had things to do. Like leave the med wing before the day was over at least once. Pushing himself up he couldn't help but let his mind wonder. It went to the same place it usually went nowadays if not his own mind.

The victims of the dark guild.

Yes, they we're victims. As he indulged himself in the thought of all his fellow.. kidnappees? the scene came up again.

Natsu could feel exhaustion and pain caught up to his mind more fully making his legs give out. Natsu tensed as he expected the ground to be pretty unforgiving to his back when he met it, but.. relaxed as he felt someone from behind catch him. Natsu didn't get to give Erza a look very long before his attention was taken elsewhere, the ceiling. Up above him and everyone else in the circular room golden sand rushed up and out the windows.

What was that?

It wasn't for another hour before they were ready to finally leave this godforsaken place that Natsu got his answer. Littering the streets of this guild town were confused people all looking completely lost. Fairy Tail tensed, those who could take out weapons or whatever accessory they needed for their own unique bit of magic, pointing it at the foreign guild members.

Natsu turned his head to Gray, who had taken the role of a "crutch", "Help me over there." he requested. Gray looked at him, probably mentally trying to figure out if Natsu really did have a concussion as the evil guild master had suggested a mere hour before. "Trust me." Natsu pressed. Gray searched Natsu's eyes to check for insanity, or doubt or any reason to not take him up on his request, but when he didn't find any, he nodded.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Lucy called from behind as Gray lead him towards what they believed to be another dangerous challenge.

"I'm checking on friends." he mumbled, probably too low for anyone but Gray to hear. But Lucy seemed to have heard and looked at him with the same expression as Gray had before. "These were the people keeping you here though!" Erza stepped forward, pointing with her arm at the defenseless mages.

"No." Natsu raised his voice, "These guys are just like I was, taken from their real guilds and homes, and didn't know that anything was even wrong until now." Everyone in Fairy Tail blinked. He was right. These people were victims too.

Makarov walked forward, a look of uneasiness on his face, though his worries were legitimate, who wouldn't be wary of those whom he had placed his ill will towards for the last 5 months or so? He approached the same person Natsu was limping with Gray towards, it was a man, he had blue tinted white hair, and the remnants of the guild tattoo, much like the one on Natsu, was fading away from the side of his face. He looked frightened but ready to defend if necessary. "Josh?" Natsu kneeled down next to the person, tapping his side to get his attention, "Is everyone like this?"

Josh nodded, "After that sand came at us, a lot of people keeled over, some started shouting, and others like myself just feel nauseous." he explained, based on his glazed over expression he probably wished he could just go to sleep. Natsu seemed to catch on and began standing up, ready to leave Josh to get some quiet. "We need to help them." he grumbled to anyone listening, which was just Makarov and Gray. Makarov nodded, "I think so as well." he lifted an arm, "Anyone that has any ability in first aid skills or magic, start healing as many as you can and the rest, try helping in any other way." he ordered loudly to the rest of the guild.

There was few protest, but a glare from Erza hushed them quickly and they began to do as told. Natsu watched them start moving through the crowd of downed mages, and a sudden urge to go to sleep overwhelmed him. It was lucky Gray could sense his friends fatigue, and caught him in time, to slowly lower him to the ground.

Natsu had heard rumors of how well it went after that, only a few arguments about not wanting Erza to bandage them was brought up, and it all ultimately went smoothly. As much as that made Natsu happy, he was still a bit depressed about.. Iggy.

"Are you thinking about her again?" a small voice came from behind him as soon as he stepped out. Turning his head, he gazed on Happy. Happy still had dark circles under his eyes because of the lack of sleep that the stress was plaguing him with. "No." Natsu snapped, he didn't like talking about Iggy. As much as all of the events that transpired were riddled with lies while in the dark guild, his feelings had felt real enough that it still very much stung when he thought of the loss of his makeshift best friend.

Natsu frowned, "Sorry." The snapping at his friends' thing was something that had been happening a lot lately. Again, all the lies felt real for a long time, and even though his love for everyone here was shining brightly in his chest and mind, so were some of the lingering hateful thoughts towards them. He was working on it, and everyone seemed to understand even if it made a lot of them flinch, including Happy.

Happy nodded all the same, though, "It's okay." he mumbled, sitting down on Natsu's pink head, "So.. you were lying just now, right? This "Iggy" girl. She was really important right? What was she like?"

Natsu sighed, rounding the corner to get to the stairs and pausing at the top. "She was.. really nice, smart, and she made me laugh a lot. She was pretty and her death.. was my fault." he mumbled, feeling heat rise in his throat, he knew that a few flames of rage slithered out of his mouth as he continued, "If I would've just accepted my role, and stopped doubting my orders, they wouldn't have needed to give me incentive." he finished, knowing it was definitely true. Happy looked down from atop his friends head, "Did she care about you?" he asked, "Did she.." Natsu mumbled, "I.. I think she did." Happy nodded, flying down to float in front of Natsu's face, "Then she will forgive you. You said she was smart? Then she isn't so simple minded to believe that Kuro Oni would've allowed you to live had you kept doubting them. Friends love friends. She loved you, and she wouldn't blame you for what those terrible people did."

Natsu felt the fire die in his throat and a new kind of burning start in his eyes. "I.." he went silent, looking down so his hair would shade over his eyes. "Thanks, Happy." Happy may not have known Iggy, but he felt that even still his words struck true. Wiping an arm over his face, he recollected himself and sniffed once before smiling his signature smile, "Come on." he started back down the stairs, walking towards the bar to sit by Gray. "Hey." he greeted, feeling a bit awkward for some reason around the other. Gray glanced his way, a bit hesitant, "Sup?"

Natsu sat down on the stool, waving Mira away when she attempted to come take an order. He wasn't hungry and he had to get the answered to this question that had been nagging him since yesterday when a particular light in his mind flickered. It hadn't stayed on though, but it occasionally flickered as it tried it's best. "Gray.." he started, "Hm?"

"I was just.. Did.. Were we.. Before all this, did I ever speak to you.. romantically?" Natsu could feel another, different from the other two he had felt today,type of heat rise in his face. He looked at the bar, embarrassed. "Eh?!" Gray exclaimed, "Of course not, Natsu!" Gray felt heat in his own face, glancing around at the few stares that came his way, lowering his voice he leaned back into a huddle with Natsu, "Are you crazy?" he whisper-shouted. Natsu blinked at him, "Oh." he managed. "Why would you think that?" "I uh.." How could he explain his own analogy of how his mind was slowly returning with metaphorical lights? "I just start getting tidbits of memory or-or emotions as the sand starts making me me again." he tried. It seemed to work for Gray nodded, tapping his hand for him to continue, "And a particular emotion is love.. and your name comes with it."

Gray nodded, feeling a bit awkward as he straightened and put a hand to his chin in thought. It was a few minutes before anything happened and Natsu started to think he should just go before he suffered any more embarrassment when suddenly something seemed to click for Gray. "Ah!" he exclaimed a little too loudly before returning to the whispering. "You never had feelings towards me! But I do know who it was towards. You were asking me if you should tell her." Natsu nodded for him to continue. "Who was it?" "Shouldn't you know this?" Gray questioned, Natsu frowned, "I don't remember but if I started piecing who it was, the room might light up." Though Gray had no idea what that was supposed to mean he did kinda get Natsu's logic.

"It was..."

Natsu walked from the guild, his head hurt a bit at the new information. It was like trying to force a wound to heal faster by working the effected area more. It didn't work very well at first. Natsu walked out to the streets, heading towards the fields he remembered nursing Happy's egg with Lisanna in. He could remember doing some good thinking there.

The path to reach the place was hazy so it didn't surprise him when he got lost like three times, but finally, he got there. Sitting down in front of the grave marker he had made when he thought Lisanna had been killed, he leaned against it as he started meditating.

From within his psyche, he could see that even more lights had turned on, he didn't want to dwell on them at the moment so much as he wanted to help out the room that still refused to stay on longer than 3 seconds, though that didn't stop him from glancing inside each room. Erza and himself fighting. Him and Gray walking towards the campsite of some mission. Acnologia. That one sent a shiver down his spine. But soon he came to the room. It wasn't stark black anymore like it had been before this morning. It was dimly light with a consistent low light. He waited at the door, remembering the feeling he had when he had gone in a dark room before. It wasn't good. Maybe he should just wait for this.

No. The feelings coming from this room were too important to just leave to its own. He had to awaken them. Sucking in a breath of air into his outside body, he hesitantly took a step inside. Just like what happened the time he walked into a darkened room, he felt his energy drain, though this time, it felt a bit weaker, even still he felt so close to drained that the little bit that was left didn't matter much. Walking as far as he could, he came to stand under the light bulb before the other effect started kicking in the weight of what felt like a million people slowly pressed itself on his back, it was a minute before he had to take a knee, but he never took his eyes off the light bulb over his head. And then came the voices.

"Do you really think I still love you?" a female voice echo softly in his ears, it was hers. Natsu shook his head in the outside world as he brow furrowed.

"You're not real." both his spiritual and physical body mumbled.

"How dare you say such things about me."

Once again Natsu shook his head, maybe the simplest answer to this issue was to just fix it like a normal light bulb, slowly Natsu lifted his arm towards the item in question. Though in the outside world he couldn't fly, his spiritual body had no issue lifting up, until finally, his hand wrapped around the source of light or at least the lack of. As soon as he touched it though, the emotions in the room intensified, including little miss self-doubt and hatred at the bottom of the room who seemed to be weighed down by her own negativity.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE!" She screeched loudly, causing Natsu to flinch as more weight added to his hand, and her voice grew in volume.

Slowly though Natsu twisted his fingers, and steadily the light bulb followed along with them, tightening in it's socket, and finally.. everything went white.

"Natsu!"

-A few Moments Prior-

"Natsu!" Lisanna shouted, patting her friend's face repeatedly. Lisanna had came out here because Gray had told her Natsu would have something to talk to her about. He said he'd either be at his house or somewhere important. She just had a feeling this was the right place. But when she got here he had been leaning up against a stone which she hadn't known was even here till now, and she heard him mumble, "You're not real."

"Natsu?" she had asked, stepping closer. Leaning down she placed her hand on his shoulder, shaking him slightly when he didn't respond. When even that hadn't awoken him, she shook him again. "Natsu?" she raised her voice, shaking him harder.

Still nothing.

"Natsu!" and now she was here, his head lolled, and she had half a mind to run and get Gray for help when abruptly his eyes shot open, and a look of fear and wariness mixed within the dark orbs. The remained unfocused for a moment more before he blinked and looked at her face above his. "Li.. Lisanna?" he mumbled.

Lisanna smiled, nodding, "Natsu, are you okay?" she questioned, but never got a reply as suddenly she was pulled towards him. Blinking a couple of times she realized she was wrapped in a warm embrace, moving her head to look up, she could only see Natsu's shoulder, hair, and ear. "N-Natsu…?" His hold tightened. "It was you." he whispered.

"Huh?" she questioned, not sure if what he was implying was actually what he meant. Did.. he..rememb- "I love you." he breathed finally, and an unknown of breath escaped her lips as she sighed in relief. She body shook with it in fact. And she could feel tears appear in her eyes as she took in the love and heat that was radiating from Natsu. "Y-You're back." she let out shakily. Natsu pulled back to look at her face, a smile of genuine happiness on his face, he slowly lifted his hand from her lower back to wipe away a stray tear. "I'm sorry it took so long." he breathed as he leaned forward and his lips connected with her's.

Both could've stayed that way forever, because in that moment everything seemed back in place, as if Natsu had finally found that one finally puzzle piece that let him see the picture on the box even though there was definitely still some work to be done to make it perfect, it was still an accomplishment.

Fin.

I may or may not make a spin off one shot for these two, but eh, it's up to you if you want it. I'm FINALLY getting my own desktop so I will definitely be a more active member of , and now that my most successful (by a mile) story is over.. I may cry.. -sniff- Well I've finally provided peace to you all. All along it had been Lisanna. I saw comments saying they hoped it wasn't gonna be here but.. Well I almost went along with the cliche Nalu but.. then I wouldn't be happy with my own story, I just ship Nali so much more.

I hope you enjoyed this. I'm contemplating a spin-off as I said before, maybe a sequel, but I really want to revise this story first. I look back and see my 13 year old self making awful mistakes with labeling, explaining, punctuation, and shiz like that. So yea..

It's over. Until next time.

[ REVISED ]