Chapter 3: If I Could Turn Back Time

"To all young women, if you can help it, don't let two men fall in love with you. It's never ends well."

There were many, many times when Zeref would question his actions. When no one seemed to understand him, he wondered if that meant he was wrong?

Was it wrong to try to save someone you loved? To bring them back no matter the cost? Was it wrong to want to end it all? To want end all the suffering? To hope he could finally be free? No. It wasn't wrong. It couldn't be wrong. Deep in his heart he was certain that he was meant to end this, once and for all.

No matter the cost this would all end soon.

XXX

Lucy could no longer remember how long she'd been at the castle. Perhaps it had been hours, days, weeks or maybe even months? It was hard to explain but it was as if time pasted differently here. Somehow warped in a way she could not explain and never dared to ask.

But it did not matter much now anyway. Because she was close to perfecting her spell, any day now it would all be over. What would be left she wondered? Would she finally be at peace? Would he finally be at peace? Yes. Her spell would bring them all peace.

Her spell would finally set them all free.

XXX

Natsu demolished the circle of trees around him, each one bursting into flames one second and vanishing to dust the next. Flames burning so hot they did not burn so much as consume. He could not control it. No matter how much he tried, the anger, the need to destroy, to kill, would not go away. He needed to kill Zeref.

After the fall out they had made it back to the guild. They'd all made it. Except for Lucy.

He was not good enough. The guild would never be the same so long as she was gone. It may have existed before her, and perhaps it would exist long after her, but Natsu could not accept a Fairy Tail where he existed but Lucy didn't. He'd being her back. No matter what the cost, he'd bring he back. He had too.

He was lost in this thought until he heard Gray approach from the direction of the guild.

"Natsu you need to come back" Gray said.

"Not now" he answered.

"We have to sit down and discuss what we are going to do next."

"There is nothing to discuss Gray. I am going to the castle as soon as I can, and I am going to rescue Lucy. I will bring her back."

Gray scoffed, "Natsu, Zeref is too powerful of an opponent for you to bring down alone and without a plan."

Natsu knew deep down Gray wasn't wrong, he failed defeat Zeref before, but he was just so angry. So angry he could not stop himself from hitting Gray square in the jaw and sending him flying into some of the remaining trees.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Gray shouted as he quickly recovered and got to his feet.

"Lucy is missing and no one is doing anything! She is gone and everyone is just sitting around as if nothing is wrong. If it were anyone else, if anyone else were missing you can bet Lucy would not be sitting around doing nothing!"

Again as if without his knowledge his body moved and started attacking Gray. Fortunately, Gray managed to keep up and dodge his attacks.

"Oi! Do you think you're the only one who cares about Lucy!? That you're the only one who is worried about her!? We are all her friends too!"

"But it's different for me! I was the one who brought Lucy to Fairy Tail. I was the one who left her alone for a year without ever facing her. I was the one who was too weak to defeat Zeref. I was the one who failed to protect Lucy!" Natsu found himself screaming now, throat raw, tears streaming down his face. He finally stopped attacking clutching his face in his hands.

Natsu felt Gray place a hand on his shoulder then.

"You will get her back Natsu. We are going to get her back."

XXX

When Lucy entered the great hall she found Zeref standing off to the far end in front of the large glass window that ran from the ceiling to the floor. He stood there still and silent, not moving the slightest until she came to stand beside him.

"How is your progress?" Zeref spoke without turning to her.

"I should have the technique perfected and set by week's end at the latest." Lucy returned.

Zeref finally turned to look at her then. "So soon?"

"The sooner the better. Then this can all finally be over. Is that not what you want your Majesty?"

Zeref did not even attempt to correct her. Tried as he did to get her to call him Zeref, she still often fell into habit of calling him Majesty like the rest of Spriggan. But she was not like them. He knew that. And he did not see her that way. Deep down he hoped she did not simply see him as her sovereign.

"Why do you follow me Lucy?"

"What do you mean Majesty?"

"Do you fear me Lucy?"

"No."

"Do you think I am an evil person?"

She seemed to think about this for a moment before finally shaking her head.

"No. I do not think you're evil."

Zeref brow knit in mild disbelief.

"I believe you're a lonely person."

Zeref stiffened then.

"You have been alone for so long. No one should ever feel the type of loneliness you've felt, watching everyone, everything you know wither and die."

Lucy grasped his hand then.

"And thanks to us, soon no one will. We will bring an end to it all Zeref, and the world will be better for it."

Zeref pulled her to him then. Her face falling resting on his chest, he placed a light kiss on the top her head. Then took a step back to look her in the eye.

"You, Lucy, have been one of the greatest sources of joy that has come into my life in a long time. Though neither of us has much time left I am glad to have met you."

Lucy placed a hand on his cheek, "And I you, Zeref."

Zeref gasped her hand then, he placed his forehead against hers and rested it there. They stood there for a long time, and said nothing. Finding comfort in the fact that whatever happened next they were in this together. They would end it all together.

Sorry it took so long to update my fellow Fairy Tail friends, I was quite behind and rather uninspired. But after catching up on Fairy Tail I finally felt like I wanted to write again.