Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me. w

Chapter 1: Some Memories Are Meant To Stay Hidden

Although Natsu certainly wanted to talk to Sting there was one other reason that he was going to Sabertooth that he had not told Gray about. He wanted to talk to Rufus Lore and after the events of the Grand Magic Games he knew that would be a touchy subject for the ice mage. Even though they had reached an uneasy truce while fighting the dragonlings they still disliked each other. Rufus' magic had something to do with memories and Natsu was hoping that he could look into his mind and see if he could find Zeref in there. He needed to know what their connection was before he was forced to face him in battle.

He arrived at Sabertooth quickly and was greeted by Rogue Cheney, the Shadow Dragon Slayer.

"Natsu?", Rogue raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought it was time I talked to Sting about Tartaros.", Natsu replied evenly, "Is he around?"

"Yeah, he's in his office for once. I'll take you.", Rogue led the way through the guild towards the Master's office, "I heard about Fairy Tail being disbanded by Makarov. That's a shame."

"Well, it's not really disbanded. Erza and Laxus are doing the Master thing until Gramps comes to his senses. The guild hall is almost completely rebuilt."

"Oh, I hadn't heard. Are you still--", Rogue asked awkwardly gesturing towards Natsu.

"Pregnant? Yes."

"How's Gray?", Rogue asked politely.

"He's fine. He went to Lamia to see his father.", Natsu looked at Rogue after they had dispensed with the pleasantries, "Can I ask you something?"

Rogue nodded.

"Erza mentioned that when you were giving Tiamat your magic she changed into Sting briefly. Why did she do that?"

Rogue immediately looked at the floor trying to hide his face from his fellow dragon slayer. "I don't really know why she did that. I didn't ask her to, if that's what you mean."

There was only one reason he could think of for Tiamat to have done that for Rogue, she knew of his attraction to the White Dragon Slayer. Sting had only gotten distracted because he thought Rogue was in danger. He wondered how long Sting had felt that way towards Rogue. Now that he was pretty sure that Rogue felt the same way, he would try to give his friends a little shove in the right direction.

Rogue knocked on Sting's office door and opened it when he heard Sting invite them in. Natsu saw Sting's face light up when Rogue entered the room and then become nervous when he saw Natsu walk in behind him. They had not seen each other since Tartaros. Once Natsu entered the room, Rogue left them alone.

Natsu sat on one of the chairs without being asked and to Sting's surprise immediately began asking about Rufus.

"Rufus? Why do you want to know about him?", Sting asked acting a little more at ease for the moment.

"I know he can make things from memory, but can he see into other people's memories as well?", Natsu asked with interest.

"I think so?", Sting said his face pensive, "I've never seen him doing it but I feel like I've heard him talk about doing something like it."

"Do you think he would be willing to do that for me?"

"What's this about, Natsu?", Sting asked, "I would think you'd be more interested in forgetting things."

"Don't worry about it, do you think he would do it?"

Sting sat there and thought about it.

"That depends, would it piss off Gray?", Sting asked with a grin, "Does he even know you're here?"

"He does, but he thinks I'm just here to talk to you.", Natsu said, "It would probably piss him off."

"I guarantee Rufus'll do it then. Stay here. I'll go find him." Sting left his office returning a few minutes later with the memory make wizard who looked at Natsu with interest.

"What is it that you are trying to remember?', Rufus asked.

"There is this person who acts like they know me but I don't remember them at all. I need to know if you can find him in my memories."

"Who is this person you are looking to find?", Rufus asked.

"Zeref.", Natsu said quietly.

"Zeref, are you mad?", Sting stared at Natsu, "He's a myth. He hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."

"That's not true, I've seen him twice now. At Tenrou Island and again at Tartaros."

Rufus looked at the Fire Dragon Slayer intently trying to determine whether he was being truthful.

Apparently satisfied by what he saw he asked, "Alright, what does he look like?"

Natsu grabbed his bag and removed a folded piece of paper from its contents. He opened it and showed it to the memory make mage.

"I had our picto mage draw this up for you." Natsu tried to hand the picture to Rufus.

"No need, I've already committed it to memory." He motioned for Natsu to stand by him. He put his hands on either side of Natsu's head. "This might feel strange but don't fight it, try to relax."

Rufus entered Natsu's mind looking for any signs of the man in the drawing but he could find nothing outside of the two instances the fire mage had already told him about. He continued to search going as far back as he could and found him one more time. He tried to see past that but he hit a wall. He tried pushing against it but it would not budge. He saw Natsu squirm with discomfort and he backed off. He had never seen anything like this before.

"What did you see?", Natsu asked eagerly.

"Well you're certainly as destructive as they say.", Rufus said giving himself time to consider what he had seen.

"And?"

Rufus looked at him "I saw him only one more time. When you were a child Zeref went to visit your dragon, and they argued about something although I didn't catch what. There is one other thing. Your memories have been tampered with. I can't see anything from before you lived with the dragon. The memories themselves are there but I can't access them, and I think neither can you."

"How do you even do that?"

"I have no recollection of coming across anything like this before.", Rufus shrugged, "My guess is there's something there that someone doesn't want you to know. I'm sorry, there's nothing else I can do."

Rufus exited the room leaving Sting and a frustrated Natsu in the office. Great, now he had more questions than when he got here. He was right though, Zeref had known Igneel. What had they been arguing about, had it somehow been about him?

"What is going on, Natsu?", Sting looked at his friend with concern.

"I don't know, I don't know what any of this means.", Natsu lamented, "Sting, do you remember anything before Weisslogia?"

"Not much but I was really young. I mostly remember feelings.", Sting answered. He tried to think as far back as he could remember. " I remember feeling scared and cold. I remember feeling hungry. I remember I wasn't alone, Rogue was with me. Not much else."

"You guys have always been together, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Have you ever wondered whether there's more there?", Natsu asked with as innocent a tone as he could muster.

"Just because you're mated doesn't mean we all have to be, Natsu. Why don't you go bug Gajeel about Levy."

"Because I'm here bugging you. Or would you rather talk about Tartaros?"

"Honestly? Yeah, I'd rather talk about that."

Natsu's demeanor changed instantly. He snarled, "Fine, mind telling me what the hell was so important that you got my son mauled and almost killed by Acnologia?"

Sting paled remembering Kai's horrible screams as Acnologia's fangs pierced through his body. He didn't like to think about what he had put Gray and Natsu through on top of everything else they had already been dealing with.

"Natsu, I'm so sorry. You have to believe I didn't mean for that to happen. I-- I didn't know anything about the plan and I thought Rogue was going after Tiamat by himself and I-- I panicked. I had no idea Kai was going to try to save me. It should have been me that got mauled not him."

"Damn straight.", Natsu growled, "Getting distracted in the middle of a fight is dangerous for everybody, Sting."

"I'm really sorry, Natsu. When I think about what could have happened I--", Sting paused trying to think of words that were strong enough for how he felt, "I would have never been able to forgive myself if he had died protecting me. I own him a great debt, I hope someday I will be able to repay it."

Natsu stared at Sting for a moment and let go of his anger. It had been an accident in the middle of an insane battle. All he needed to know was the Sting felt badly about it and he clearly did. They could move on now.

"Come here.", Natsu demanded.

Sting looked at him warily but moved towards him nonetheless. Natsu embraced his friend who had worked so hard to protect him from Tiamat. He was getting a little better about physical contact as more time passed.

"I forgive you, Sting.", Natsu said quietly, "Thank you for everything you did, you were there for me when I needed you."

"It's alright, man", Sting said somewhat embarrassed by the affection, "We're brothers aren't we?"

Natsu nodded. "Always."

Natsu let go and with an impish smile said, "As your brother I'd like to point out that if you feel so strongly about Rogue you should make a move."

Rogue walked into the room surprised to see Sting throwing objects from his desk at a snickering Natsu. To his confusion Sting blushed when he saw Rogue while Natsu laughed even harder.

"I take it everything is fine now?", Rogue asked ignoring their asinine antics as usual.

"Yeah, we're fine.", Natsu said once he had brought himself back under control. He ruffled Sting's hair playfully.

"We never talked about the dragons.", Rogue said evenly, trying to gauge Natsu's reaction. He and Sting had of course had many opportunities to discuss the events from Tartaros but they had not seen any of the Fairy Tail dragon slayers since that day.

"No, we didn't.", Natsu replied, "I still have a hard time believing they were inside us all along."

"There's something that confuses me still. I thought you had said that you and Sting had killed your dragons."

"We thought we had, the memories were so clear.", Rogue answered.

"Weisslogia and Skiadrum amitted they tampered with our memories.", Sting said, "I can only imagine that they were trying to protect us from the heartache that you guys experienced."

"Skiadrum mentioned that they went against Igneel's wishes.", Rogue said quietly.

"Igneel didn't want them to alter your memories?", Natsu asked, "Maybe he had already altered mine and it went badly?"

"Your memories have been altered?", Rogue asked with concern.

"According to Rufus they have.", Natsu explained, "My memories from before Igneel are not accessible."

"Why was Rufus checking your memory in the first place?"

Natsu explained his reasons for coming to Sabertooth and Rogue looked at him horrified.

"Zeref?'

Natsu shrugged. "I don't know what any of it means either, but I'm going to find out."

"It might not have been Igneel who altered your memories, you know.", Rogue said.

"I think it's pretty obvious that it was. The dragons had the ability to do so and he was my dragon. I just wish I knew why.", Natsu said, frustration evident in his voice.

The other two dragon slayers looked at him with concern and Natsu smiled at them.

"I need to get going.", Natsu said, "I promised the Ice Princess I'd meet him and his father for dinner."

They said their goodbyes and Natsu headed back to Margaret Town. He had a lot to think about.

A/N I'm very excited to be back in this world. I hope you are all ready to embark on a new adventure! Let me know what you think, it helps my motivation levels immensely! I'll also happily accept constructive criticism, it helps me grow as a writer.