HARGEON BRIDGE

There he stood.

His black coat draping over his suit.

Cold onyx orbs were fixed on the glowing moon's reflection on the river below the bridge.

Only the light of the moon made the figures of the earth visible.

There was no one else but he in that silent place, even birds and butterflies never dared to lurk. Not when the night was spine-chilling and the darkness was eerie.

Then light footsteps came walking towards him.

The steps of the person he was waiting for.

"Have I kept you waiting?" Invel spoke with a pleasant smile on his face as he stopped beside the Don.

But his presence was not acknowledged as Natsu kept staring at the tranquil river down below. Not a single glance.

"You have summoned me here, is there someone you want me to kill?" he spoke again.

And again, he received nothing but silence.

Invel fixed his eyeglasses as he let out a troubled sigh, making sure the Don heard it.

"I believe you're still mourning after the death of little Lucas," he continued in a pained tone, "My sincerest condolen-"

"He's alive," Natsu cut him off. The sound of his boy's name being called out by the traitor greatly added fuel to his fire. But his face did not reveal it, not yet.

Hearing the unexpected news, Invel's eyes showed obvious shock. How unexpected indeed.

"Th-That's a wonderful news!" he mustered a smile that was too good to be true, "I honestly thought he-"

"Enough with the pointless act...," Natsu cut him off again, "...Traitor."

This time, he turned his head to the side to look at Invel, his orbs still cold and void of any motion.

There was silence after that.

With such a display of gesture, Invel knew that the conversation was leading to something that wasn't what he had come for. Not what he had in mind.

"Don, I don't understand-"

"That's bullshit."

And that was when Invel realized there was no point in playing innocent anymore.

Figuring that there was no way out of it, he twisted his arm in a sudden movement in the attempt to reach for his gun tucked on his lower back.

But the Don stopped him. He had everything planned all along.

"Don't bother," Natsu sounded unfazed, "I already have someone pointing a gun at you right now. Make a move and a bullet will go straight through that scheming brain of yours."

Invel paused.

Seconds passed by as he thought it through, dropping his hands at his sides in defeat afterwards.

Then he started laughing.

Laughing at his own fate that told him it was game over.

"Alright. You got me," he admitted with a smirk on his face, "Congratulations."

Natsu turned his entire body to face him, finally getting the confession he was waiting for.

"And here I thought you came to meet me alone. How foolish of me," Invel continued with a mocking hurt look on his face.

But as always, Natsu kept his cool. A man of few words. That was always a character of his.

Invel turned his head everywhere. His eyes scanning the trees at both ends of the bridge. At whatever figure the light of the moon allowed him to see.

"So you brought along a sniper with you, huh? Laxus, I presume," he fixed his eyes back to the Don's, "I bet he's hiding somewhere in the darkness."

"You talk too much," Natsu said bluntly.

The other responded this with a laugh again. A laugh that would very much get into anyone's nerves if the person didn't have the same length of control that the Head possessed.

"I will never understand why a talented man like him left the armed forces...for a mere woman," Invel's voice didn't hide his amusement, "Nothing could be better than pulling the trigger and killing a person."

Natsu's eyes stared deeper into the traitor's.

"That's because you know nothing of love," and that was a fact he was sure of, "You don't have the heart."

Hearing this, the amusement in Invel's face disappeared. Now both of their expressions were equally blank.

"And you do?" he countered back.

Natsu's brows slightly creased at this.

"Come on, Don. Don't be a hypocrite. People like us don't need love. We are the Mafia. For us, love is irrelevant. No matter what you say...we are the same. We both kill for a living."

There was no word that could describe what Natsu felt when those words hit him back.

It was pure insult.

Within an instant, the crease on his forehead appeared even clearer. In anger, he swung the back of his right hand across Invel's face. It left a mark on his cheek.

"Don't put me on the same ground as you! Unworthy dog!" Natsu spat.

Invel just adjusted his glasses as he stared back at him.

"Why did you betray me?"

The question brought forth the silence in the air.

"I treated you like family and this is how you repay me...by siding with the enemy?"

The silver-haired smirked at this.

"It's just like what you always say," Invel's smirk turned into a wider grin, "It's nothing personal. It's strictly business."

Having enough of his stupid mind games, Natsu pulled out his own gun and pointed it at the mug's head.

Now anger and hatred were written all over his face. There was no hiding it anymore.

Invel chuckled at Natsu's patience that was slowly going thin.

"Since I'm going to die anyway, might as well tell you everything."

His smirk still plastered on his face.

"I never really had a grudge against you, Natsu. In fact, I even looked up to you like a role model."

The Don's face was unchanging, not flattered at all.

"But when the Head of the Chinese family came to me and told me that you've gotten soft...that was when my admiration towards you faded."

Natsu sneered at him.

"That Chinese fool must have paid you a great amount of money to kill me, didn't he?" he said in gritted teeth, "You even dragged my son into this."

Once again, Invel laughed. As if a gun wasn't pointed at him already. Like he already accepted the fact that he was going to die anytime. And that he was prepared for it.

"He did pay me...But it wasn't just all about the money," he replied, "Just the thrill and excitement of killing is enough for me."

Natsu understood it clearly that Invel was completely drowned with the addiction of slaughter that there was nothing left of his humanity.

"And you're mistaken," he continued, "It was never part of the plan to kill you."

Natsu's eyes hinted a trace of confusion.

"The Chinese family's only target was the heir. Not you. Not anyone else," he enlightened with an arrogant voice, "He only wanted to teach the Dragneels a lesson."

"That candy..." Natsu sounded quieter, "It was poisoned wasn't it?"

The other answered this with a smirk.

"Wendy found out about that, that's why you killed her so you'd get away with it."

And there was nothing that could be more irritating than the sound of a brutal man's laugh.

"Bingo!" Invel clasped his hands together, recalling the day he shot an innocent girl, "You really did your homework, huh?"

"You filthy scum..." the words escaped Natsu's mouth with disgust as the grip he had on the gun tightened.

"I lied. That candy wasn't really from England. It was made from the juice of a deadly flower. Only the rich families in China can practice making that poison."

With no further ado, Natsu moved closer and firmly touched the tip of his pistol on Invel's forehead.

"And now, that family is dead," his voice as cold as ice just as the look in his eyes, "And you'll be joining them as well."

Knowing that there was no other choice and no way of escaping, Invel mustered a mocking smile.

A sick smile plastered on his lips as he closed his eyes to receive the bullet.

But wait.

He just remembered something.

Something that was worth watching the Don's face turn into horror.

Invel's eyes shot open again.

"Oh, one more thing, Natsu. I have a secret that I think you should know."

The Don did not miss the excitement in Yura's voice when he said this. And somehow, he didn't like the feeling of it. In fact, he loathed it.

"I was ordered to kill only the heir, but...I wanted to have a little fun for myself."

Natsu's grip tightened even more. His face turning into a dark scowl and cold eyes narrowing as his teeth gritted tightly. He badly wanted to pull the trigger, but he had to know what the traitor had to say. He had to know what he was missing.

"SPEAK!" he shouted, his composure long gone.

Invel was enjoying it already.

The look on the Head's face...he loved it.

The way he looked like a merciless killer just like him.

"I decided..." Invel continued with his eyes turning psychotic,

"...TO TARGET YOUR WIFE AS WELL."

As if heaven and hell both clashed together and rained down on him, Natsu's face was washed with pale colors of shock and disbelief.

The look on his face that very moment, was priceless.

And Invel felt proud to be able to witness that before he died.

With all the threat surrounding the heir, he had not thought that his woman would be a target, too.

"YOU...WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!"

A sick maniacal laugh sounded loudly, travelling throughout the darkness.

"The tea I gave her," Invel answered with eagerness like it was the most brilliant idea in the world, "I poisoned it! I made it myself. It's even deadlier than that stupid candy!"

"BASTARD!!!" Natsu backhanded him again, the weight of the gun adding to the force of the hit.

"WHERE'S THE ANTIDOTE?!"

Invel still laughed hysterically, a trace of blood now running down the side of his mouth,

"There is no antidote."

"DON"T LIE TO ME!!!" he shouted as he hit him again. Invel spat out blood after that.

"I swear," he chuckled, "I'm a killer, not a doctor. I don't make antidotes."

Natsu's hand that held the gun was now trembling.

Trembling in rage and fear...fear for Lucy's life.

"YOU..."

"But Wendy..." Invel continued, motivated to make the fire even worst, "She could have made one...it's such a shame that she's already dead. Now nothing can save Lucy!"

"WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU THAT YOU SHOULD DO THIS TO ME?!" Natsu spoke with his hand still trembling as it pointed the gun to the other's head.

The look on Invel's face became more and more like that of a mental psychopath.

"The moment you let me into your House, her life was already doomed!"

The grin on his face curved even more.

"The Lady will die as compensation for the lives you took!"

He finished with nothing but pure satisfaction and pride written in his eyes,

"THE WOMAN YOU LOVE WILL PAY FOR THE SINS YOU MADE!"

And for that, the single thin thread of control that Natsu had finally broke, freeing the wrath and pain altogether.

"AAAAAAAAARRRHHH!!!"

He shouted as he pulled the trigger many times...more than anyone could count.

Each of the cold bullets landed on Invel's head. He wasn't even able to close his eyes when it happened.

Bullet holes with gushing blood disfigured his face as his body hardly smashed flat on the cold concrete surface of the bridge. Blood flowed in every direction of his face.

But even when Invel already laid dead, Natsu didn't stop.

He never stopped.

Not even for a second to take a breath.

"YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!!!" he continued to scream with the same expression, "ROT IN HELL YOU SCUM!!!"

He kept firing at the dead body's head. Blood splattering on the ground, painting the cement dark red.

Bits of the skull spread like glass shards.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRHHH!!!!" he cried out.

And the gun ran out of bullets.

But even then, he still kept pulling the trigger like there was no difference.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!!!"

As Natsu vented all of his anger out on the corpse, Laxus slowly walked out of the darkness.

He did not say a word as he went closer to the Don.

The blonde didn't hear what the two were talking about, but judging by Natsu's action, he knew better than to ask. That was the only time he'd seen him lose all composure and all control.

Whatever Invel had said to him, Laxus was sure it was not a pleasant one.

Without warning, he took the M24 from Laxus.

And with a new set of bullets, he continued to shoot at Invel's crushed head...

or whatever was left of it.

When the firearm ran out as well, Natsu let his arms fall to his sides. Dropping the rifle to the ground.

Now he stared at the headless body.

The bottom part of his black slacks had little splashes of the killer's blood, compared to the amount of red liquid on the ground.

He breathed heavily.

He could feel his own energy being drained.

Laxus remained quiet the whole time. Just waiting for any instruction to receive.

"Don't burry his damned body," Natsu spoke, still slightly out of breath, "He doesn't deserve such honor."

He then turned his back on the corpse as he headed back to where his car was.

"Burn him so his soul will know no peace."

These were his final words before the silence and the darkness engulfed the Hargeon Bridge once more.