Previously:      "The demon-boy. I have something of his." Mistral growled, clicking her fingers to make the healing book appear before clicking them again and making the book vanish once more. Freed was about to deny any knowledge of END, when a pained, animalistic roar rang out through the trees. The white haired woman shot a withering look at the two young men, before leaping, cat-like, over their heads in a graceful arc, in a way that did not fit her ageing frame.

            The leaf-green scales blended perfectly with her surroundings as curious topaz eyes observed the sight before her. Towering pillars of precious stones surrounded the main cavern, a gleaming decorative accent to the main feature. The cavern the creature was in spread in a curving arc, ending in a smaller cavern blocked by a fresh Lava flow. Sleek, powerful wings twitched at the intense heat blasting from the Lava-cave, heat which kept the cave's secrets alive, but dormant.

     A deep, soft voice rang through the cavern, a familiar voice clearly recorded and triggered by one of her kind entering the cavern she was currently in. The young Dragon smiled softly at her role-models voice.

      "Welcome, brother or Sister, would be heir to my most precious secret. I hope peace and coexistence reigns supreme in your time. Before you lies the legendary Dragon's Heart, my greatest treasure, not including the young Dragon Slayer I've tried to raise. Do not remove anything from this cavern without the assistance of a Fire Dragon Slayer or one of his descendants. This was once my secret to guard, and now, brother or sister, it is yours." The voice cut out, as if hesitating, but a muffled sound told the leaf-green Dragon the lacrima recording hadn't finished.

      "Hey dad? What ya doing?" A young human boy's voice butted in. A low dragon moan could be heard as soft padded footsteps could be heard.

      "You daft boy! I told you to stay out of here. The volcano gasses could kill you...if I Don't first...Get out, shoo, shoo, before I burn you again."

       "But dad!" The young human's voice whined.

     "For once in your life DO AS YOU'RE TOLD NATSU!" The voice roared, and a faint tapping of bare human feet leaving the range of the lacrima could be heard. "Curse that boy, I don't have time to re-record this, grrrrrrrrrrr, it'll have to do. It'll be a miracle he doesn't get himself killed." The deep voice muttered, before the lacrima cut out. The Forest Dragon smiled as fond memories flashed through her mind; a red nose, a warm lick of flame, softly spoken words. She glanced around the cave, taking a good look at the gleaming pedestals, surprised they'd stayed so clean despite the heat and the time passed.

The young Dragon remembered the day Igneel and four others vanished clearly, because she'd been caught in the temporal rift that momentarily flared up and had been flung through time too. She still had no idea if she'd arrived too early or not to meet the five young Dragon Slayers, so she'd laid low in a forest until she met that little girl, and named her Mistral.....

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Mistral saw him first. The sight before her was definitely not for others to see, especially if those two wizards had just seen the boy in his Etherious form. Deep red hair had faded to pink, red eyes replaced with green eyes, his wings and tail gone. The only thing that could give away this boy and the demon were one and the same was the crippled legs. She didn't think, she just flung up a wall of briars to shield them from view and offered a hand.

"You're an idiot, END. Flying off before I could heal you. At least take your book with you next time. Looks like you overdid it. Here, at least let me help you home." Mistral mutters, well aware that the blonde muscle-head she'd vaulted over was a dragon slayer, and the other one was clearly not human.

    "Surely someone of your.... stature could not lift a man such as him?" A familiar voice reached Natsu's ears. If he hadn't been suffering from using up so much of his magic and curses earlier, he'd have flown away already. Only one pair of footsteps approached the two slayers, and Natsu smiled nervously as Freed came into view, his tail lashing about behind him. "Don't worry, Laxus has gone back to the others. I told him you were intimidated by him."

      "I've beaten him once, I'll do it again." Natsu snarled out, his eyes flashing red as his demonic side showed slightly. Mistral held the book and whacked the fire demon/fire dragon slayer over the head with an ease that somehow reminded Freed of Levy. Or was that because the script Mage was the only one who hit people with books like that?

     "You'll do no such thing in your state young man. Now, either let me help you, or I'll tell the council just what you are." Mistral snarled to the much taller slayer, a gleam in her eyes telling both Freed and Natsu she wasn't kidding.

................................................................................................................................................................

The curtains were drawn, blocking out the late afternoon sun almost perfectly. A figure sat on the bed away from the window, hunched over and clutching their stomach in agony. The person was muttering something along the lines of 'I'm going to kill him'. Outside the darkened room, Lucy and Happy stood by the door, listening helplessly to the wizard inside.

      "Hey, Lucy? How exactly did this happen to Gray anyway? I know he's been using transformation magic to look normal recently, but why did he change in the first place?" Happy asked the celestial wizard, who just smiled and shook her head.

      "Gajeel and Gray made a bet. Obviously, Gray lost. Gajeel has no idea the potion hasn't worn off yet. I know they don't particularly like each other because of Natsu, but he went too far. Hopefully the potion wears off when Gray feels better."

     "I guess, but it is funny to see him as a girl!" Happy giggled, earning a fierce Lucy-kick to the head which had the little cat seeing stars. "Sorry Lucy. I didn't mean it Lucy!" Happy whined, curling up away from the scowling Blonde as she sat back down outside the door. Lucy just huffed at him and scowled more. Happy had no idea how much Gray was suffering right now, and if she could, she'd switch places in an instant.

       "Lucy!" Gray's slightly feminine voice cried out softly. "Where's.... Where's Natsu?" Lucy sighed. Neither Happy nor Gray knew where Natsu was, and frankly, neither did she. She'd gone back to the village she'd left him in, but other than a wounded soldier muttering insane remarks about an old lady calling up a red dragon from hell, no one had sighted him, and the old lady had apparently vanished, according to the middle aged man living in one of the nearby farms.

Lucy entered the room and shut the door behind her. "I don't know Gray. Something tells me he's headed this way, but I'm not sure how long he's going to be. He doesn't have his chair Gray." Lucy murmured, as the ice-make wizard flinched as another wave of pain hit him.

"I.... wanted him here Lucy. I... I feel safer with the Pyro around."

"I know. Even if he just sits and mopes about in his chair all the time, I feel better leaving you for a job if he's around. Happy does his best.... but he's well.... Happy." Lucy trailed off at the end, well aware the blue exceed was likely listening to them from the other side of the door. She just wished Natsu was here. He was better at dealing with Happy and Gray than she was.

............................................................................................................................................................

Somewhere quite a distance from the Fairy Tail guild hall, in an abandoned burnt out shell of a house, a small animal with glossy fur and soft, downy wings lay drowsing. It had been a long time, many lights and darks, since it's accident. The animal felt a strong pull to go home, but it had no idea where home was exactly. Flashes of human memory flitted through it's mind, a pink furred head, a bull like man, a glowing orange mane. None of the memories made much sense to it. However, the one face the creature knew, made it wail with sorrow. It remembered very little, likely a traumatic block, but it felt the need to go and reassure that one familiar face that it was ok.

     It stretched, long taloned claws reaching in front, soft lions' paws behind. The wings stretched and flexed, still covered with downy baby fluff. The paws and claws were too big for the little creature too. It was still a baby after all. The young animal knew what it was, and knew now that the legends it had heard in it's previous life were true. To be reborn as such a mythical creature, as legendary as a dragon but less well known, was a blessing, and a curse. Some new instinct told the young animal that it could not grow, could not age, nor mature, until it had found the one person it's previous life had truly cared about with all their heart. Why this was so was of no concern to it, but still.... it'd be nice to fly one day.

        The tiny animal was no larger than a medium dog, but if a human were to spot it, they'd recognise the baby animal immediately. the front of an eagle, the back of a lion. A Griffin. Thought to be as extinct as the dragons, and twice as rare. It got up and flapped it's downy wings. There would be no flying until it found the lady from it's memories and her friends. Who were they? Why were they so important to it's past self? Were they family? Lovers? Friends? Who? Did it even matter? All the young griffin knew was it had to find the lady. If it ever wanted to know why it was now a griffin, it had to find the brown haired lady and her friends. But first.....

      "Griff? Here boy. Here boy!" The little animal may be wary of humans, but not of Dragon Slayers. It wriggled it's whole body before pouncing upon the hare carcass. It glanced up at the human stood nearby, and paused in it's eating a moment to clack it's beak excitedly. The man crouched down and waited for the little animal to finish eating before he tried to pet it.

      "Hey Griff." He greeted. Griff made a sound not unlike a cat's purr, but was more a big cat's chuff. "You know, Nan went off with a demon this morning. I had to ride the water to get here." The man began. The little Griffin leapt onto the man's lap and curled up, tiny fluffy wings folded against it's sides. "She thinks I don't know who that demon was. I mean, how many pink haired fire dragon slayers could there be? He had to be fairy tail's Salamander Natsu. But that would make him a demon, wouldn't it?"

     "Rrrrrrriiiiiii" Griff answered. He understood the dragon slayer, but couldn't speak yet. Instead, he butted his eagle like head affectionately against the man's hand. The Griffin felt a memory begin to resurface. Pink hair.... pink hair? Pink Hair! A young man with pink hair and green eyes! Griff looked up at his friend, and clacked his beak, desperate to get his point across to Kody.

       "I don't speak Griffin, Griff. I take it you know Salamander then?" The Griffin nodded, pawing urgently at the man, mindful of his claws. "People will hunt you if they see you Griff. You can't go out there." Griff glared at him. He jumped off of the Dragon Slayer's lap and reared onto his hind legs before smashing his front paws down into the ground, creating a wave of controlled explosions around him. Kody stared. This little Griffin had crash magic? Seriously? Crash magic?

.................................................................................................................................................................

       "Here young man, this is as far as I take you. Do you think you can make the rest of the way alone? I have to get back to Kody and the farm." Old Mistral told Natsu, as the dragon slayer heaved with the effort. The crazy old woman had practically dragged him back to the edge of magnolia, not that far from his house. She'd used the book and her magic to heal him a little, just enough to reactivate something she called a 'rapid regeneration' that should have been already healing him, but hadn't because his nerves in the lower back had been torn slightly. Or something like that anyway. It didn't make much sense. All he understood from it was that his body would heal properly now and he'd walk again someday. But maybe not for a long time.

     "Yeah. I can get home from here. Thanks. Fairy Tail owes you one."

    "No, END, we owe you. You saved our farmland, and our village, when that young girl could not. You proved to me that not all Etherious are as evil as they're made out to be."

     "I wasn't always like this you know. I don't know what the history books say, but I'm human. Or at least, I used to be. It's why I didn't die when Zeref and the others did. Why on earthland am I telling you this?" Natsu replied, wondering if this was some Forest Dragon Secret Art she had. He smiled and changed smoothly into his Demon form. Using his wings, arms and his partially functional tail, he managed to stagger to his feet.

      "You sure you'll be ok from here young man?" Mistral asked, well aware of their current proximity to the town and how panicked civilians would be to see a crippled demon staggering along. Natsu nodded to her, assuring her that his home wasn't all that close to the town so his appearance was not likely to cause panic. (Which was a blatant lie, fairy tail was so famous for the trouble it attracted that a small demon in town wouldn't be a new or scary thing at all. The townspeople were sadly used to it now.) Mistral nodded, bid the young wizard farewell and left.

      As soon as he was sure the elderly Dragon Slayer was out of hearing range, Natsu reverted back to human form and yelled out for Happy. He was close enough to home for the little exceed's ears to hear, but not close enough to drag himself there. Despite the weird tingling in his lower back he always got when his body quick-healed, there was no fierce burning sensation of healing anywhere. Maybe it would take a bit of time for the healing to kick in. He was practically crippled after all.

      It didn't take long for Happy to appear, tears in the corners of the little exceed's eyes. He looked relived and worried at the same time. He barrelled into Natsu's chest and wailed loudly.

       "Natsu! I was so worried! Gray's been screaming really loud and Lucy kicked me for trying to tease him and I smell something weird and Gray keeps crying for you and Lucy's gone really REALLY scary, like Erza Scary!" The little exceed wailed, burying his nose in Natsu's scarf. Natsu let the exceed calm down a bit before sheepishly asking if he could carry him back to their house so he could see Gray. The Dragon Slayer knew what Happy meant though. Gray and Lucy had agreed to keep Gray's.... condition from Happy, just in case something went wrong. That and Happy was the biggest gossip in fairy tail if you paid in fish for information.

     Happy picked Natsu up, already wondering how on earthland he was going to put his friend down. It's not like Natsu could walk on his own, Hell, he couldn't even stand properly.

      By the time they reached the house, happy realised Gray was no longer screaming in agony. The little exceed panicked, dropping Natsu by the front door and flying in through the bedroom window. Natsu didn't really mind. It wasn't like the fall had hurt him. Well, not that he could feel anyway. He could smell what was going on clear enough, even through closed doors. He wondered if Happy knew yet. If the exceed did, then he certainly didn't show it. Natsu would've thought Happy'd be reacting far worse if the little cat knew what was going on.

He managed to drag himself inside after opening the door, the door swinging shut behind him. He hauled his useless ass over to the wheelchair and, somehow, with great difficulty, got himself into the chair. By this point he was exhausted, and barely had the energy to announce his arrival. He hoped Gray was ok. Natsu wasn't the most mature member of Fairy Tail, nor was he all that educated, but he knew enough to know he should be worried by the silence.

Upstairs, in Gray's room, (they all had separate rooms in Natsu's extension, but usually all slept together) Lucy sat next to the bed, gently caressing the ice-wizard's hair. Happy was out cold on the floor, having been knocked out with a well aimed kick from Lucy. Gray looked up at Lucy, an exhausted smile on his face. She smiled softly back.

      "Gray? Luce?" The two wizards exchanged a glance. They knew that voice. Lucy glances down at the unconscious Happy. The cat had been trying to tell them something when she knocked him out. Had Happy been trying to tell them Natsu was home? Lucy got up and left the room, turning to smile warmly at Gray before she closed the door.

     The celestial Wizard hurried down the stairs, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw him. He was stood up. On his own. Unaided. She opened her mouth to speak, but her mate shook his head. Lucy watched in awe as the pink haired man before her took an unsteady step, legs nearly buckling under the strain as he took four more shuffling steps forward, before sitting down in a crumpled heap on the floor. That was the furthest he'd gotten unaided since the accident, and proof of Natsu's eventual recovery.

"Gray?" Lucy's eyes softened into a warm maternal look as she heard the unasked question. She carefully picked her dominant mate up and carried him upstairs to Gray's room, where Happy was still out cold on the floor. The ice-make Wizard was sat up in the bed, cradling a little bundle in his arms. It was odd, how beautiful he looked like this. Sure, he was one of the best looking guys in the guild, but like this?

Yes, Gray made a very fine looking woman too. Though Lucy would never, ever dare say it to his face. That would be on the same level of suicidal as destroying Erza's cake whilst teasing her about Jalal. The normally short, choppy locks hung around him in a cascade of raven silk, framing (ever so slightly) more delicate features.

The tiny bundle chose that moment to make a noise, maybe because they could smell their dad, or maybe it was just because they'd just gone through hell being born and were hungry. Not that it mattered. All that mattered was the lost, frightened look on Gray's face that screamed 'I'm a first time mom and I haven't got a clue!'.

"Gray, you daft popsicle. The baby's hungry." Natsu advised, twisting free of Lucy's grasp and dragging himself over to Happy. The little exceed was still out cold, though he didn't seem to be hurt. Gray glared at Natsu for a whole three seconds, before the baby's cry intensified. How did one feed a newborn anyway? It wasn't exactly something he'd needed to learn, so Gray had never bothered before.

"Oi, snowflake! Stop being stupid. Didn't Bisca tell you how she fed Asuka when she was a baby?" Gray scowled. He wasn't a... oh. Wait. Yes he was. For now anyway. Natsu scooped happy up into the crook of one arm as he sighed in Relief. Finally, their child had stopped crying. Though the current noise she was making was weird, when thought about in human terms. Not that Natsu thought much like a person; he had the intellect of a dragon and the instinct of a wild animal; so the sounds of the baby right now weren't bothering the demonic dragon slayer at all.

"So...." Natsu started, as he dragged himself into a sitting position on the floor, Happy still in the crook of his arm. "Which is it? Igneel or Nashi?" They'd agreed on names way back when Gray had found out (s)he was pregnant, after he'd gone to Porlyusica about why the gender changing potion's effects hadn't worn off after a week. They'd all agreed on Nashi for a girl, and Igneel for a boy, if the baby made it that is. Nobody, not even Porlyusica had known how the pregnancy would go, only it seemed fairly normal, for a woman at least.

"Nashi Urtear Dragneel." Lucy replied softly, watching Gray cradle the tiny girl in his arms until their newest family member drifted off to sleep.

"Luce? Can you go get Porlyusica? Take Happy too. I don't want him waking up here right now. Leave him with Wendy or Gajeel for now. Please?" Lucy picked up on what Natsu was not saying easily. Clearly he could either sense or smell something, and he wanted Happy out of the way, and a healer brought in. She nodded, hefting her stubborn Alpha over to the chair by the bed, plucking the blue Exceed from his arms, and smiling softly at the pair.

"I'll be back soon. Ok?" Twin nods, assuring her it was ok to leave then alone, even if it was only for an hour or so.....

(Back at the guild hall.)

         "Is anyone else worried about Cana, or is it just me?" Heads turned to stare at the speaker, then to the still sober Wizard hugging a cup of tea at the guild's bar. Most just turned back to what they were doing; Cana had been acting weird since that day. She was acting out of character, sure, but it was grief. She was allowed to act a little odd right now. Though three months was pushing it a bit.

"Ah, leave her alone Macao. She'll be fine." A gruff voice asserted, before the crunch of metal resumed. People stared; Gajeel wasn't exactly the sort to be overly concerned about others, much less actually stick up for others, unless he wanted to fight them later of course.

Gajeel had his reasons for keeping others away from Cana, he just didn't want to share them with his guild mates. He wasn't completely stupid; a bit slow on the uptake sometimes like every other dragon slayer maybe, but definitely not stupid. He could smell her easily, and it bothered him. To smell like that, and to be obviously aware of it... (Well, Cana wouldn't go sober for much, so she had to know. Right?).

Gajeel was willing to bet all his jewel that Wendy, salamander and Laxus knew too. Gray might, but the Iron Dragon Slayer wasn't all that familiar with Demon Slayers, and despite being fairly good friends with Gray, the ice demon slayer had never once touched upon the subject of his powers, except to say they were weirder than Salamander's. Which was hard to believe; salamander could call up way more 'dragon modes' than any normal slayer. Not to mention all the other freaky stuff he could do.

(Black fire mode, celestial black fire mode, lighting flame dragon mode, dragon god mode, fire dragon king mode... yeah, the idiot certainly had more than his fair share of magic powers, and that wasn't including his second origin, or the strange takeover spell he used to turn half dragon... and then he was half demon and zeref's little brother on top of all that, not that he'd ever betray salamander by telling anyone.

Yeah, sure, the first master and gramps knew, and so did the blonde chick Lucy, but Gajeel knew not to talk about it. He wasn't even sure if salamander could still go Etherious or if he'd lost that along with Zeref and the book. It must suck though; to know you weren't human despite smelling and looking like one. Well... maybe the salamander had a human base? Scratch that, he must have human blood in him if he was zeref's blood related brother. The black Wizard had been human after all.)

...................

       Laxus cast a surreptitious glance at Freed as he talked to bickslow. It was still kind of eerie how... normal Freed could be, considering just who and what the green haired mage was. Laxus could hardly believe how different he was compared to the frightened, soaked, starving little half-kitten he'd been when they'd first met.

      Not that Laxus would ever say anything about it. As far as Evergreen and Bickslow were concerned, Freed had been the final member of the thunder legion. Bickslow had been first, then Evergreen, but Freed had know Laxus longer.

      Laxus remembered hiding Freed from the guild in his room for weeks, until the green haired, cat eared boy had found a way to hide his ears, though he still had lightning bolt cowlicks where they should be. The tail had been harder to hide, and for the first few weeks after Freed joined fairy tail, he'd had the furry green appendage wrapped around his waist like a belt.

       Eventually Freed had learnt nearly total control over his appearance, but sometimes he still slipped, though luckily never around anyone but Laxus. Well. Up until the old lady and that demon saw him. For some reason Freed trusted them though, and that  was good enough for the Lightning Dragon Slayer. Freed was a fairly good judge of character after all.

      But, back to business. He and the thunder legion had chosen to camp out last night, on the way back to the guild after a particularly fun job. Note the sarcasm. Well, Laxus hadn't enjoyed it, nor had Freed, but Bickslow? Yeah, he'd likely had a ball. At least that dark wizard had been stopped. And Bickslow had a few more souls to play around with now.

         (Bickslow was actually fairly nice to his little 'babies', as far as Laxus could tell. He treated them in the same way that Lucy chick treated her celestial spirits. Like friends.) they'd spent a nice quiet (for them) night in the woods, then Bickslow had to go and undo the concealment around Freed's ears accidentally whilst they were all sat around the fire eating a late breakfast/early lunch.

          Freed had bolted into the woods, somehow managing to hide his ears and tail, leaving Bickslow and Evergreen confused. Laxus had bolted after his kitten, and then they'd come across END, only he was supposed to be dead, but clearly wasn't, and Freed even said that the monster could speak.

      ...and then after that, once Laxus had calmed down a bit, the odd feeling of knowing a scent dawned on him. END... smelt like someone else he knew, namely someone who not only used a similar magic, but also happened to be a freaking member of fairy tail. But.... if Freed trusted the demon, then if it was who Laxus thought it was, then that was ok.

Like it was okay for Freed not to be entirely human, okay for Laxus to be (unwillingly) enhanced by dragon slaying lacrima implants, okay for Juvia and Gajeel to be in Fairy tail despite being former enemies, it was okay if Natsu was a demon from the book of Zeref. Though that did raise the question of zeref's death, because weren't the demons from the books of Zeref supposed to die when Zeref did? Although... this was Natsu. Defying logic was kinda his thing, along with accidental destruction of property that is.