Chapter 24

Third Person POV

BOOM!

Lucy stared past Itachi in shock as he closed his eyes, signaling a loud roar of the lightning dragon from above.

The dragon's flaring red eyes streaked downwards toward Lullaby before causing a blinding explosion.

A blast of wind and dust flew outwards from where Lullaby stood, sweeping Natsu off his feet as he flew backward, tumbling into Gajeel.

...

The surrounding guild masters and mages all stared intensely at the receding smoke that covered the aftermath.

"W-What just happened?" asked Lucy in a shaky voice as she looked towards Itachi in awe.

"Dragon... Itachi made a dragon out of lightning!" shouted Gajeel, now even more convinced that Itachi had some connections with dragons.

Gradually, the dust and smoke blew away, revealing a jaw-dropping sight.

Makarov lightly gasped, as he saw the left side of Lullaby's mountain-like body completely obliterated.

'Itachi... Just how strong are you?'

The face of the beast was frozen in a look of terror.

Its remaining eye socket seemed to look left in horror as it realized what had just occurred.

A few moments later, the surviving half of its body gradually dispersed into purple lights.

Everyone looked up in amazement as the purple lights gradually recollected into a broken flute that fell through the air.

Crack.

The surrounding mages broke out of their stupor as they heard the crack of the flute breaking after the fall.

They looked towards the flute from afar, still in disbelief at what had just occurred.

Makarov continued gazing at where the "battle" had been fought and looked up as he heard Itachi approaching him.

"Itachi..." he began,

"That was... frightening."

Itachi cooly smiled, his eyes were no longer scarlet red, now pitch-black.

Makarov stared at Itachi for a moment, unsure of what to say and lightly said,

"Thank you, my boy."

Itachi nodded with a kind smile and began to walk away, heading towards the deep shadows of the forest.

However before he could flicker away, he heard the yell of Natsu and Gajeel.

"Itachi! Wait!"

The surrounding mages looked over at the two in wonder.

'Why are they stopping him?'

Itachi slowed his footsteps down to halt and then turned his head to look at the two.

"What is it?" he asked in a calm voice.

Natsu and Gajeel looked at each other as if debating who would talk first.

Itachi indifferently stared at the two for a few moments, waiting for their response.

Natsu then nodded towards Gajeel and then walked towards Itachi, stopping a few feet away from him.

"Hey man, what was that? That lightning dragon!"

He looked solemn as if hoping for something.

Itachi looked at Natsu and Gajeel for a moment before turning back around.

"You're wondering if I know about your dragons, right?"

Natsu nodded instantly, now eager for an answer to the whereabouts of Igneel.

Itachi remained silent as if thinking.

He then began his footsteps again, gradually heading deeper into the forest.

Natsu and Gajeel looked on at his receding back and were about to shout before they heard his voice that seemed to silently echo from every direction.

"Wait-"

"Igneel, Metallica, and Grandeeney will return in due time..."

Everyone stared around in shock as they also heard the seemingly omnipresent voice.

"-Do not harm yourselves looking for them."

As his voice faded away, Natsu blinked out of his stupor, noticing that Itachi was gone.

---

Erza walked towards Natsu and Gajeel who seemed to be in deep thought.

"Are you two alright?"

Gajeel looked up and smiled wryly.

"Are our dragons going to return? Just like that?"

Natsu then shouted in anger

"Yeah! What the hell was that about! He summons a lightning dragon and says our dragons will return! How does he know all of this?!"

Erza looked at Natsu and seemed to be in deep thought.

"Well... you believe him, don't you?"

Natsu calmed down in sat down cross-legged, looking at the ground.

"Yeah, I do."

---

As Team Natsu headed back home across a dry canyon...

Lucy slowly sped up to walk alongside Erza, hoping to have her questions answered.

"Hey, Erza!"

Erza continued to look forward as she walked.

"What is it, Lucy?"

Lucy seemed to hesitate as she was about to ask her question.

Erza noticed and said, "If it's about Itachi, I'll answer as much as I can."

Lucy nodded and then asked,

"Well, Itachi, how long has he been in Fairy Tail?"

"Longer than any of us. At least a dozen years."

Lucy nodded and then continued,

"Earlier, Itachi summoned a lightning dragon from the storm! How did he do that?"

Her eyes seemed to be shining in curiosity as she asked this.

Erza didn't respond and continued to walk across the desert-like land in silence.

Lucy looked at her apologetically.

"Should I... not have asked that?"

Erza then shook her head, smilingly wryly.

"No, no. It's not that. I was simply confused."

"It's just that four years ago, Itachi used magic similar to the one we saw today--A powerful fire magic that was succeeded by a lightning dragon from a storm."

Lucy nodded, understanding that Erza seemed to prior experience with it before.

"How did it go? What happened? Was it any different from today?! That dragon totally blasted Lullaby's whole left side off!" asked Lucy enthusiastically.

"Well... it was used on me." Erza seemed to grimace in pain as she recalled what happened.

Lucy looked at her in shock and almost tripped over some rocks.

"Woah! Was he trying to kill you?!"

She couldn't believe that Itachi would do something like that.

"No, of course not."

"Then why...?"

"That's why I said it was confusing. What he used back then was an illusion."

Lucy stared slack-jawed as she heard something unbelievable.

"So I don't know how that powerful lightning magic works since the only other time I ever saw it was during his illusion."

Lucy then asked in an awed voice,

"So then... that earlier was also an illusion?"

Erza then shrugged, unconvinced herself.

"Who knows?"