"Everything has reasons, even if they're not good ones. And the reasons have reasons." – Johnny Rich

CHAPTER II: Reaction

"GET away from him! Do you know what he's done?! He could hurt you!" Erza roared and she charged toward Natsu. He had to stop himself from reacting to her, had to make himself stay still even though every instinct warned him to get out of her warpath. She looked angry. Very angry. And scared. Fear was not an emotion that showed its face on Erza Scarlet, but it was very prominent now.

"No!" he shouted back. "He saved my life!"

She drew up short and slipped in the mud. Happy zipped forward and caught her, his tiny paws grabbing ahold of the back of her armor until she had steadied herself. Gray stalked forward, and Natsu shuffled carefully so that he could keep an eye on Erza while directing his attention at Gray.

"Natsu," he said very, very calmly. The temperature dropped around them. "You do realize that this guy is the person who created Tartaros' demons?"

"Yes, actually, I do," he snapped. "I'm not stupid."

Gray snorted. Happy landed on Lucy's shoulder. She was watching him with a steady gaze he couldn't quite bring himself to meet. Erza looked ready to wrestle with a raging bull with her bare hands.

"He's evil," grumbled Erza. "He's the vilest creature on this planet."

"I know. He is." There was no denying that. "But he still saved my life. And Lucy's."

Lucy looked startled. Gray and Erza turned toward her, and she nodded reluctantly. "He did," she said. A heartbeat slipped into a moment of eternity.

"What are you going to do with him?" asked Happy. Natsu hesitated.

"You're not going to like it," he drawled. All of them stared at him. Their expressions were identically blank; it might have been funny if he wasn't on the receiving end of it. "I don't think we can just leave him here to bleed out."

Erza pivoted on her heel and stormed away in quick, mechanical strides. Something cold filled him as he watched one of his oldest friends – the one who had always been so quick to defend the defenseless – turn her back on someone.

"Natsu…" Gray sounded tired. He glared up at him but Gray's gaze was distant. He let out a long sigh. "You're asking for too much from us, you know that right? His demons ripped all of our families apart."

He dropped his gaze. "I can't let him die when he saved me." He owed Zeref what any decent human being would do. And he didn't think he could just leave the man here like this. Soon, Gray turned away too, leaving only Lucy and Happy with him.

"You agree with me? Don't you Lucy?" he asked, looking at Lucy. Her shoulders hunched forward a little as she curled into herself. One went up in a sort of half shrug.

"I- I don't know, Natsu. Part of the reason my mom died is because of him and his plans. And he's done so many horrible things…"

He swallowed. Out of all of them, he thought that Lucy would have supported him. After all she was the most forgiving or, at the very least, the most compassionate. Except her compassion wasn't enough for Zeref this time.

Maybe there was a reason for this. Perhaps he was being manipulated somehow, even though he knew he had good instincts when it came to people. Zeref had saved his life; surely that had to repaid somehow? It felt like there was a gulf between him and Lucy, her eyes were so downcast as she turned and walked away from them.

Eventually, Happy floated over and he glanced at his friend out of the corner of his eyes.

"You don't owe him anything," Happy said quietly. "One act of goodness doesn't cancel out a lifetime of evil."

Him too.

"It's not like us to judge somebody's past and decide they're irredeemable," he replied, looking back at Zeref again. Blood had already begun to clot around the wound.

"He's not like Jellal or Buchanan though. He's been the root of all evil for the past four hundred years!"

"But he saved my life, Happy!" His voice cracked and he wrenched his gaze away from Zeref. He didn't even know why he was getting so worked up over this. It just felt wrong to abandon him like the others wanted to. "Tell me how, how, that fits in some grand evil scheme."

"I don't know!" Happy shook his head. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

He blinked. Happy sounded distressed, and he could see the tears building up in his eyes. Quickly, he scooped the exceed out of the air and cradled him against his chest. Happy sniffled and head butted him a bit more than gently.

"I have to help him though," he whispered. "If I don't, I'll feel like I'm betraying myself."

Happy didn't respond immediately. "Okay," he said eventually, and for a wild moment, he thought he might agree with him. "I understand."

Then again, understanding was just as good.

"You should probably explain to the others though."

So he did that.

Natsu stared at Zeref. He crossed his arms and slid into Lucy's lap, willing himself not to vomit for the millionth time in his life.

Zeref almost looked peaceful in his sleep, which was strange because Natsu felt like he wasn't at peace with a lot of things. He didn't smile exactly, but there was a certain serenity around him that made him look… not quite as evil as the legends said. Drool dripped out of his mouth onto the ground, and he had curled his arm around his head, almost like he was using it as a pillow.

And this was the mage who everyone feared and killed First?

"You know, he could kill us in his sleep." Gray spoke up suddenly. "At least, that's how the legend goes."

"Ashes to ashes, all fall down." Erza chanted, almost like she was singing a song. It had an eerie quality to it, and he wondered if she had learned it when she was in the Tower of Heaven. His stomach gurgled and he curled into Lucy, breathing in deeply to try to settle it. "Lucy? Do you know anything? I still… I just really don't like this."

He doubted any of them had, even if they had agreed to take Zeref back with them to Fairy Tail after they had collected the award when he pointed out that he was too dangerous to leave on his own. For the first time since he had came into existence, he was at somebody's mercy – Not the other way around.

"He didn't even have to touch that man. There was just this wave of black ink and that man just dropped dead. And he was injured." Lucy sounded troubled. He rolled over again, feeling somewhat like he had to speak up and chip in with what he knew even though he knew he would probably regret it as soon as he did.

"I don't think he can control it. He keeps saying somethin' about the world rejecting him."

Then he gurgled when vomit surged into his mouth and he shut his lips, breathing in through his nose. Ugh, he hated motion sickness. Lucy ran her fingers through his hair, and he felt the strangest urge to purr of all things. Well, if he could, he would purr. But he couldn't purr, obviously. Probably. Maybe?

"Deloria. And Tartaros' demons." Gray murmured. "He made those. And a kingdom. I don't understand why though."

"Don't forget E.N.D." Erza commented.

"How could I?" Gray's tone was dark. They fell silent. Natsu opened his eyes again, hugging his stomach, and stared at Zeref. Nobody was touching him. He wasn't sure if that would save them if he woke up because he knew Zeref didn't have any control over that freaky magic of his. It just shot out and took everything with it. He didn't control it or anything. He wasn't sure if he deliberately targeted the people he killed or if he could target them even.

He didn't know anything about this creature. He couldn't even read his intentions, if he meant to do them harm or if he wanted to help them. He didn't know if he was a bad guy or if he was a good guy, and that made him confused, which made him angry. Usually, he could understand people pretty well—After all, people were simple creatures most of the time. But not this one. There was too much conflict around him to actually understand his motives.

"There's something I don't understand." Lucy sounded like she was thinking deeply over something. "Why would he save Natsu and me when he wants to kill everyone in the world? That doesn't sound like something a truly evil person would do."

Natsu grumbled and flipped over again. She didn't rub his head again, which made him feel sad, so he nudged her stomach with his nose and whined slightly. She laughed and squirmed a little—ticklish?— but before he could explore that further, she rubbed small circles into his shoulder.

"I don't trust him." Erza declared. Her voice wobbled slightly, but he doubted the others could hear it like he could. Was she still scared? He wouldn't blame her – or mention it to anyone if she was. Zeref been the reason Ultear had convinced Jellal to make the Tower of Heaven. "He-he's hurt Fairy Tail before. And he's done so much more evil to people."

"He made all those demons… they destroyed so many towns." It was Gray again. Natsu closed his eyes and fought back tears. He was not going to cry in front of that Popsicle again. Igneel died protecting me from Acnologia, who may be affiliated with Zeref… all of us has had some type of bad experience with him.

He wondered what he was doing again, convincing – or bullying – them into bringing Zeref with them back to Magnolia. Maybe the Black Mage's madness was affecting him? It would have been so much easier just leaving him at the town to bleed to death— that was, if he even could die. Zeref had implied he wouldn't die that way…

Is he immortal?

He honestly didn't understand anything. He couldn't believe they had actually brought Zeref with them to Fairy Tail even though he had hurt all of them so much in the past. He couldn't believe he had felt like he had to convince them.

No, that was a lie. He did know why they had brought him with them. They were Fairy Tail: it was their instinct to help people in trouble. Their conscious wouldn't have allowed them to leave this creature when he was so clearly in need of some type of help. They would have come around eventually to his reasoning.

"Go to sleep Natsu." Lucy murmured into his ear. He flinched slightly – her voice was too close – but her words were softly spoken and very soothing. He grumbled somewhat but he very much liked the idea of just going to sleep and pretending all of this hadn't happened…

Maybe he would wake up and this would all end up being a dream? Maybe he wouldn't go on any requests for a couple of days since this was a little too weird… At the very least, he wouldn't accept any requests for him specifically.

She began to hum something very familiar – it was an old lullaby, one he could only vaguely remember. He was pretty sure a woman used to sing it to him when he was really small. Perhaps his mother? That was the only thing that made sense, even though he was pretty sure he didn't even have any memories of his biological parents before now…. Funny, this song was really familiar for some reason…

Eventually, the rocking of the train and her voice somehow lulled him to sleep.

Natsu was the first to get off the train when they reached Magnolia Station. He spent the next five minutes reacquainting himself with solid, unmoving ground as he wept tears of joy. It was the rainy season, so there was a thick layer of mud which he rolled around like he was a little kid again. Grey clouds hung ominously low in the sky, threatening to burst open again soon.

"Oi, Pea Brain. Stop acting like a lunatic and carry Zeref since you seem to be the only one who can touch him. And hurry up. I don't want to stand out here and get wet."

Natsu stopped rolling around in his glorious mud and sat up, ready to set his palm ablaze. He nearly asked Gray if he wanted to have another go at it when he stopped himself. He was covered in mud. And Gray didn't want to get wet, which meant he probably didn't want to get dirty…

He smirked. Mentally. He stood up and strutted over to the Popsicle, making sure his movements were casual. As soon as Erza's back was turned, he leapt on him in the form of a "hug." Gray shrieked and began to bat at him with his hands— "GERROF, GET OFF—DRAGNEEL! AGGGH! YOU—"

Natsu stepped back and admired his handiwork. Gray had mud plastered all over his front from his shoulders down. There was some even on his face. It was a look that suited him.

"I'm going to gut you," Gray seethed, teeth barred as the air chilled. "I am going to gut and fillet you like a fish."

For once, he sounded serious enough to alarm him slightly—After all, there was a reason why Gray was his rival. Still, it was worth it.

"Natsu," Erza said, probably saving him from his imminent doom. "Are you taking him?" She was dragging Zeref along behind her with a rope attached to his wrists. He winced. Rope burns weren't fun to deal with (How did he know that? He's never been tied up in his life.). It was unexpectedly aggressive for Erza – unexpected, but not undeserved.

A part of him wanted to leave this cruel person to his fate with Erza – She actually liked him and Gray but she still would throw a punch at them if she thought they deserved it – but that wouldn't be fair to her. The distant look she got in her eyes when she was remembering her childhood reflected out at him.

Gray's temper is worse than it usually is. Lucy's quieter than normal.

Maybe he shouldn't have insisted on taking Zeref with them….

Too late to go back now. He had to own up to his choices and stand by them.

"Yeah. I'll take him."

He walked over to Zeref and knelt by his shoulder to cut through the rope. It was odd, how someone so evil could look so helpless. It tugged at something inside of him for some reason. He shouldn't feel angry at Erza, really he shouldn't. But he did. And he wasn't angry in the way that he wanted to burn something—It was different. Deeper. Almost like how he felt whenever Lucy cried, but not quite the same…

It didn't make any sense and that was what made him want to burn something.

Deftly, he fished his knife he kept inside the secret compartment in his boot and he sliced through the rope. He pulled Zeref over his shoulder and stumbled from his weight. He was heavier than he looked. Just a little bit heavier than Lucy, which was saying something since she was basically made out of muscle.

Once he adjusted, he nodded curtly at Erza. Then he tried to smile to take the edge off but he had a feeling it looked more like a grimace than a smile. It definitely didn't come as easily as his smiles usually did. "Let's go."

"You got back quick!" Mira sounded surprised. Natsu waited for her to notice him and his extra bundle, but she was too busy talking to Erza and Lucy to really notice him. He walked over to a table and dumped Zeref on top of it. He rolled his shoulders to loosen his muscles which had stiffened while he was carrying him. Happy floated over, carrying two fish, and sat down on the table adjacent to Zeref. He gobbled the first one down, barely chewing it.

"The job was fairly easy though we didn't get full pay."

"I still have enough to pay for my rent for three months. And I can still buy that really cute pair of jeans I saw at Stargazer the other day."

"What happened to Gray-sama?"

"Natsu. He hugged me."

Juvia had question marks floating all over her head, like even she wasn't sure how to react to the news. Natsu hoped she wouldn't go sprouting off that love rival stuff again even though she hadn't done it as often since they got back together and reformed Fairy Tail. Eventually, she clucked her tongue and waved her hand. Water leapt into the air and twisted around him, taking the mud away from his close. Gray smiled slightly.

"Thanks!"

"Who's that?" Wendy materialized out of nowhere, it seemed like. She rested her chin on his shoulder and tilted her head slightly. Huh. She must have hit a growth spurt. "He smells strange."

Natsu sniffed the air and then he wrinkled his nose. He couldn't smell Zeref.

"Him? He's a stray we picked up. Gray and Erza want to throw him out to the woods. I want to keep him. Happy and Lucy don't know what to do with him."

Wendy blinked. Lucy and the others wandered over, congregating around them. Happy steadfastly ignored him. "That's a first. Do you know what his name is?"

"Zeref!" He said cheerfully. And loudly. The chatter from the guild went dead silent and he realized his mistake a heartbeat too late when several heads turned with snapping sounds to stare at him. He was quite sure if something dropped a pin. he would be able to hear it.

"Did you have to announce it to the world, Natsu?" Lucy sighed. He rounded on her.

"How was I supposed to know they would be listening?"

"Natsu, you shouted the name of the darkest, evilest wizard in history in a cheerful tone. Of course we're going to hear you."

"…Oh."

She rolled her eyes. Another subtle difference in her behavior around him. Once, she would have stuck her tongue out at him and then smiled widely.

"What have you done?" Master Makarov jumped up onto the bar, and he stared at him with that glare on his face. Natsu pointed at Gray automatically.

"It was her idea. Not mine."

"You're the one who saved his life and insisted we had to take him back to Fairy Tail!" Gray snapped at him. He tried to put his hands in his coat pockets before he remembered that he had torn his coat pockets off in his attempt to make Lucy bandages.

"Well, I wasn't about to let him die when he saved me and Lucy."

"Hey, why are you bringing me into this? I thought we agreed that I stay out of this." Lucy shot him an irritated glare but didn't do anything other than that to him.

"We didn't talk about what we were going to say." said Erza. "We probably should have."

"ENOUGH!" Gramps roared, silencing them. They turned away from each other to meet Gramp's smothering glare. Natsu flinched. He'd only seen that glare directed at his enemies, not at one of his "brats." It couldn't be good that it was directed at them now… "One of you step up to explain how you got Zeref. Without dying, might I add."

There was a silence, and then Natsu heard three pairs of footsteps click away. He looked over his shoulder to see the others pointing at him without any emotion on their faces.

"Natsu? It looks like you have a story to tell."

Traitors.

Though not really, since he was the one who wanted to keep him and they had just agreed to it.

Natsu laced his fingers behind his back to stop them from wringing themselves and he cleared his throat. With every set of eyes on him, his mouth felt a little dry. There's definitely a difference between speaking out in the middle of a battle and speaking with an audience.

Oddly, it was slightly scary. He decided to focus on Gramps to try to ignore the rest.

"Well, we split up. Lucy, Happy and I went down to the perimeter of the village to look around when this weird guy with teleporting-fire magic showed up and held Luce at knife point." Several gasps. "He… forced me to solve his riddles, though on the second he got distracted so I managed to get Lucy out of the way and we knocked him out." He stuttered for a moment, realizing how strange that sounded. Why did it feel like Fairy Tail was judging him? He forced himself to continue, even though his voice wasn't quite as strong as it usually was. "Anyway, the mage woke up again and I didn't realize it until he was on top of me and Lucy. I didn't have any time to defend myself. And then Zeref jumped in front of me and took the blow meant for me. He's heavier than you expect for someone so thin…"

Silence.

"You were able to touch him? Directly?"

It was First. She was walking from behind him, but he didn't move as he nodded. "Yes."

"Odd…" she sounded like she was lost in thought. He turned around in time to see her walk pass Zeref. He noticed that her fingers touched his shoulder, and how he seemed to smile slightly. Nobody said anything. Then she stared at him, her eyes narrowed somewhat as she tilted her head like a curious child. "I wonder…" and then she shook her head. "Never mind. It's ridiculous." She stepped away from Zeref. Zeref mumbled something.

"Eighth, if you are going to detain him here for the council, you will need to somehow block his magic from lashing out when he wakes up. Somehow, he knocked himself out even though it shouldn't be possible."

Lucy said, "He was bleeding. We just assumed he passed out from blood loss."

First's eyes widened. She looked at Natsu for a split second – Why does she keep doing that? – then she nodded. "Right. Bleeding. I didn't know you could still bleed while under that curse…" She crossed her arms and tapped her chin. "Hmm. I'm not sure if there is a way to bind his magic. Probably something with runes… the opposite of death… maybe some type of script?"

"Well, Lucy's a Celestial Spirit Mage." Gray's tone was thoughtful. "Can you ask one your spirits if there's a way to bind Zeref?"

Lucy rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, sure." She fished around her chain again, probably looking for the spirit that searched through the Celestial archives. She must have been collecting them – she had so many now. How many did she have? She brandished a silver key in front of her and then snapped her arm to her side. "Gate of the Southern Cross, I open thee! Crux!

He heard a chiming sound and long ribbons created out of light exploded from the key. He shielded his eyes when the glare got too bright.

"Hello Miss Lucy!"

Natsu dropped his arm and a tiny smile crept onto his face. Out of all her spirits, Crux was one of his favorites (Plue was his absolute favorite). He always helped them get out of tight spots. Plus, he wasn't pervert like Loke or Taurus.

"Hey Crux!" She smiled widely at him. At least she didn't seem to be … disconnected with her Celestial Spirits, like she seemed to be with him and the rest of Fairy Tail. "I have a question. Do you know anything about binding death magic?"

"For him?" He pointed at Zeref. She nodded. "I need a few minutes." He closed his eyes and began snoring. There was silence again for a moment and then several heads rotated to stare at Lucy.

"Is he supposed to do that?" Cana asked. Lucy sighed.

"He's searching through the archives."

"The what?"

"The celestial archives," First expanded for Happy's sake as she sat down next to Natsu. She glanced at Zeref before looking away, and then she said to him in a lower tone of voice, "I don't like this, Natsu. You have no idea how many terrible things he's capable of doing."

"I don't like this either," he admitted quietly. He wasn't able to hide his reasoning from First—He'd never been able to. She always seemed to know more than she let on. "I don't think I can live with myself if I just left him there, bleeding out. Maybe we can break his curse somehow."

She looked away. "The only way to break his curse is through death. And he can't die, so…" she trailed off. She was looking at him with such a sad look in her eyes that it made him uncomfortable. "This is only temporary, blocking his magic. A band aid over the infected area. At some point, his magic will boil over and break through the locks."

That was a warning if he had ever heard one. He just didn't know why she was directing it at him.

"Then we'll deal with it when that time comes."

"I got it!" Crux spoke up, interrupting First. Relief settled on him and he stopped fidgeting. There was something about her that made him nervous to be alone with her too long. "Use celestial light, a bracelet made from solid script, and strengthening runes to hold the Celestial Light in to bind his magic."

Freed and Levy came up to stand beside Lucy. Several people had wandered off now that the drama was over. Erza and Gray looked somewhat reluctantly drawn in. "Celestial light?" Lucy repeated. "What's that?"

"It's a stronger form of Urano Metria. That was how the original Celestial mages bound Zeref's magic until…" He paused and looked at Lucy. There was reluctance written all over his face. "Until someone called Anna freed him."

There was silence for a long moment, and then Lucy nodded. Her eyes hardened as she smoothed out the front of her shirt and pushed the sleeves of her jacket up. Levy smiled slightly and, out of nowhere it seemed like, a pen materialized.

"We should make some type of band that isn't very noticeable." said Levy. She looked at Freed. "What material do you think…?"

"Silver or gold," he replied. Lucy nodded in agreement.

"Silver is probably better," she said. "Gold might be too flashy. Plus silver has more anti-magic particles than gold."

"Not only that but the metal holds Celestial magic better." Levy chewed on the end of her pen, eyes darkening in thought.

"Maybe coat it with something though—I'm pretty sure silver conducts electricity. And it tarnishes easily." said Lucy.

"Electricity?" interrupted Gray lowly. He looked at First in askance and she nodded.

"We don't use it as much as we did several hundreds of years ago. Pure silver was one of the best conductors of heat and electricity."

"Do you know what to coat it with, First?" asked Freed. First shook her head.

"I don't know."

Levy frowned. "Maybe some type of alloy…?"

"Copper?" suggested Lucy. "My dad mentioned once that copper makes silver stronger."

"Would that stop the electricity though?"

"It should," said Freed. "People make eating utensils out of that alloy."

Natsu was barely able to follow half of what they were saying – They were speaking too quickly for him to keep up. He had no idea Lucy knew so much about silver, let alone the others. It was humbling, to think that they were here in Fairy Tail helping somebody even though they had reservations about it.

"Okay," Levy said. She nodded once, firmly. "Solid Script: Bracelet made out of alloy copper and silver!" As she was speaking, she moved the hand holding her pen in the air like she was writing. Immediately, a thin silver bracelet fell on top of the table. It looked rather unremarkable.

"Is that enough?" asked Lucy. She looked at Freed who nodded. Suddenly, an odd light entered his eyes.

"How about I carve the runes directly into the bracelet? Then we can monitor his magic that way, and Lucy can strengthen it daily so that the bracelet can hold it back longer."

"Brilliant!" Lucy's eyes sparkled and she smiled up at him. Natsu blinked. Since when has she looked at him like that? No, stop! That's pointless! Pay attention to what they're doing!

"Right, I'll carve the runes first. You'll have to put Celestial Light immediately into it though. Without your magic in it—"

"It'll be unstable?"

"Uh-huh." He nodded.

"I can help stabilize to it while Lucy's transferring Celestial Light into it," Levy said. Freed nodded again once.

"Hopefully, this isn't going to blow up," he muttered. He looked at Lucy. "Ready?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't know how to cast Celestial Light?" Her voice lilted up like she was asking a question as she looked at Crux.

"Just chant Celestial Light," he said.

Lucy frowned. "That's all?"

"The more powerful the spell, the less you need to speak."

"Oh." She blinked. "Am I strong enough to then?"

"Miss Lucy," Crux's voice was a mixture of warm and weary, "you one of the most powerful Celestial Mages and you use one of the hardest types of Celestial magic to master. You are certainly powerful enough to handle this spell."

Lucy flushed and smiled. "Okay. Then I'm ready."

Freed exhaled. "Let's do this." he said, and his right eye burned purple. He lifted his fingers into the air. "Dark Écriture:…" then he spoke far too quickly for him to understand. Several runes were etched into the bracelet in a winding fashion. He heard Lucy gulp.

Freed pulled away with a stumble. Natsu moved to catch him in case he was going to fall.

"Celestial Light!"

A blinding light filled the room. Freed sank into a chair. There was a sssst ssst sound, like the wind was howling outside. Something crashed with a clatter.

Then it all stilled.

Lucy stumbled back and slid to the ground with a plop. The light seemed to wink out into Zeref's bracelet which Gray snapped onto the mage's wrist without missing a beat.

"Are you okay?" asked Wendy eventually. Lucy began to laugh but it quickly dissolved into a fit of coughing. Wendy darted forward, but she waved her off.

"I'm okay."

Zeref snored suddenly, startling all of them. Natsu traded a look with Happy, who started to laugh. He followed him soon after, along with everyone else.

Sorry for the delay in posting this update. It turns out that I'm still a horrible procrastinator.

The art is on tumblr under protectionunisonraidbang2015.