Chapter 8: The Truth

This is it. The chapter where everything is revealed. I'm so sorry for the really late update ((explanation in the description)).

Previously…

"Speak of your future and it shall become your will to live."

With those words embalmed in my mind, I grabbed my scarf and thought," I will succeed you Igneel, I shall not fail, for your sacrifices will not be in vain."

((Let's start with the story!))

Lucy's perspective:

Lady Brandish was in my bath tub.

The Lady Brandish was in my bath tub.

She was the one who attacked us on that island. She shrunk the whole island. Her magic power was anything but weak. It was immense. I could feel the magic just exuding of her. And yet, here she was, basking in the comfort of the warm water in my tub. My eyes widened as my hands quivered in fear. Beads of cold sweat clung to my face as I stared agape at the sight before me.

What did she want?

Am I doomed?

Oh no.

Where was Natsu when you needed him?

Oh, yeah, he was with Lisanna.

Tears threatened to fall as they stung my eyes.

Brandish noticed this and she inquired," What makes you so sad?"

"N-nothing…", I replied hesitantly, fearing for the worst of situations. It wasn't like I was going to openly talk about my feelings with one of the Spriggan 12!

"Mhm…", she looked away as though she was deep in thought, then she started again," Sit in the bath with me."

WHAT?! Was she mad?

From my face rid of shock, she could tell that I was startled by her random and somewhat inappropriate outburst.

"You know what my magic can do, can't you? Follow my orders or prepare to have every house in this neighborhood to be shrunk. You wouldn't want that to happen now, do you? Anyways, Marin is in the container there so you don't have to worry about him peeking at us or whatever. Now, come in here."

Glancing down, I noticed the pleas of her teammate resounding from the small container that used to be the empty bottle I kept around in case I needed to pour some newly bought soap (in a packet) into a container.

I stood there, rooted to the ground, my heart beating faster as the seconds ticked by. My legs lacked the willpower and the strength to move forward, as if the strength had been zapped out of them. Even though it was impervious that I moved forward, my body disallowed me to.

Brandish sighed, as she clicked her fingertips. In an instant, I heard the shaking of the neighboring house. "Hear that? The house beside you, just shrunk. Come in here now."

Trepidation filled my entire being as I immediately stepped forward and stripped down and stepped into the water of the tub. Even though the water was supposedly warm, it seemed cold due to the overwhelming amount of pressure that I was bearing at that moment. Here is my chance to help the guild in dealing with one of the Spriggan 12.

With that, the complex mind game commenced.

Natsu's perspective:

As out team made it to the south, Happy and I took the golden opportunity to sneak further away from our teammates. "Happy, are you ready?" I asked, a minute amount of anxiety blossomed inside me, only to be reassured by my long one-year training. Everything that I have endured up till now, all the times I thought it would be impossible to part from Lucy, to not be able to see her face. The amount of exhaustion. The crushing amount of fatigue experienced every time after training. Now, I was ready. To face the challenge. To jump over the towering hurdle in front of me. It was either a huge milestone in my life or my very demise. I would never know what would hit me, I could only charge straight ahead without a worry in hind sight.

Happy replied, his perky voice bringing me out of my thoughts," Aye, Sir!" His white, feathered wings appeared as he carried me with his blue paws and sped off into the air at Max Speed.

I'm sorry for not telling you guys, I need to be the one who takes down Zeref, once and for all.

We flew at break neck speed towards where Zeref was located. Never did I expect a black carpet of people. It was a bounty of people, seemingly to never cease in numbers. There were thousands of them.

I was never the one to hesitate, so I just jumped into the battle field.

I brought out the almighty flames from my hands as I conjured up the strength I had and pummeled most of the shoulders backwards. I swiped my scorching fire across the land mass and bringing out countless people to their knees. The soldiers were intimidated by my huge mass of power but that was not the last of my streak that they would see. I went on a rampage, fueled by the huge desire to protect Fiore, to protect Magnolia, to protect my guild members, Erza, Gray, Wendy, Happy and Lucy. Even in my flurry of rage, I reminded myself time and time again to not overexert myself as the main cillian of te story had not yet been defeated.

Speak of the devil.

He was there before me.

The icon of death. The root of everything evil. The Spriggan. The emperor of the Alvarez Empire. Zeref.

The black mage stepped forward with a peaceful look on his face, despite the animosity of that smile creeped me out. A lot.

"Natsu Dragneel, I see you have come to defeat me, and with a blue exceed at that. How courageous of you. Let's see if you can finally put my shameful and dreadful life to rest."

In the spur of the moment, I started to unwind the bandage on my arm. The dark wizard seemed to be intrigued by what was hiding the bandage that I had been hiding from my guild mates for such a long time. "Zeref," I muttered his name with such spite, it surprised me how such a tone could have come out of my mouth," This is the last of the power that Igneel left me. It took a year of training to finally bring out this power. However, this is just a temporary power up, so once I use it against you, it will disappear off the earth, without a single trace left."

Zeref chuckled, pleased at my prowess. "Come then."

"Here I go!" I exclaimed as I charged forward.

I landed a punch on Zeref and managed to move the great wizard backwards. That was considered to be quite a feat due to my inability to even scratch a millimeter of his body when I was battling him on Tenrou Island.

After which, he came at me with a burst of his Death Magic. I swiftly incinerated the black magic as it dispersed before my eyes, probably due to the heat of my flames. The magic of the Fire Dragon was not to be taken lightly by anyone. Its flames could practically engulf anything before it and in its way to ashes into its fiery clutches, just to satisfy its hunger. The radiant heat was magnificent, as though setting the earth ablaze would not be enough for it to be content.

Zeref seemed almost gleeful while battling me, it was really… strange. It was as though he had been waiting his entire life for a chance to battle me.

Putting my worries aside, I mustered up all my remaining energy after the string of attacks, setting the area around Zeref and I on fire. Everyone in the vicinity had looks of shock written all over their faces.

I gathered even more power.

The last attack is where it counts.

Zeref seemed at bliss when the fire was headed towards him.

Why was he smiling when a huge ball of Igneel's power was heading towards him? Is he taunting Igneel's mighty power with that smile? Or is he happy that he's finally dying after what he did to the first master? Gah, this guy is so frustrating!

As the fire cleared up, I was panting. The attack drained quite a bit of my magic power and the soldiers of that emerging army were totally petrified. They were reluctant to even step forward to help their dear emperor.

However, the inevitable fate was that Zeref was not brought down like he was supposed to.

I knew there was still enough power left for one last blow. Igneel's power was leaving my system fast and I could not miss my chance at beating the cause of everyone's troubles.

"I STILL HAVE POWER LEFT, I CAN DEFEAT YOU, ZEREF!" I exclaimed, frustrated at my temporary defeat.

As I was preparing to charge forward again, I heard something that stunned me.

"I met that Lucy girl a few days ago. I guess she hasn't told you yet."

L-Lucy…?

W-W-Was i-i-it th-the d-day that I-I sensed that eerie scent near her?

"What did you tell Lucy?" I managed to squeak out Lucy's name. Lucy was hiding something from me? And from the looks of it, it was seriously important information. Igneel's power was draining from my body as time passed by and here I was, conversing with Zeref.

"Natsu, you aren't who you thought yourself to be. And I'm not who you thought I was either," Upon hearing that sentence, I was utterly baffled by his statement," My name is Zeref Dragneel, and I am your brother. Our parents were killed by dragon ambers in the past. 400 years ago, to be exact. And in all actuality, you died along with them but I managed to preserve your body. However, in the midst of studying Life and Death, I managed to find a way to resurrect you. I gave life to you as a demon, also known as 'E.N.D', or in your case, 'Etharious Natsu Dragneel'."

My thoughts were at a disarray at that very moment. I never did trust Zeref ever since day one since I first laid eyes on him, but I was still compelled to believe him. He didn't seem like the type to lie to get out of sticky situations and at the same time. However, if what he was saying was true, how was I a demon? I was nothing like those bastards in Tartaros, I have always had a compassionate heart for my nakama, could I really be the enemy of everyone in Fairy Tail? And E.N.D was the one who created Tartaros, and I wasn't E.N.D. All the anger inside of me whirled into a storm as I yelled out," STOP LYING, ZEREF! E.N.D WAS THE ONE WHO CREATED TARTAROS. THAT'S NOT ME!"

His expression was kept calm even through my outburst of emotions. "Mard Geer made that up. He was the one who created Tartaros, and using your book to unify the demons of Tartaros and called it 'E.N.D's will', but I wouldn't say that your existence wasn't apart of the creation of Tartaros."

Fear-stricken, a wave of chills spread through me. Zeref continued sprinkling salt over the wound as he continued his explanation.

"You were always so stubborn, you refused to learn how to read or write, so I talked to my good friend, Igneel, to raise you. He willingly agreed."

Igneel? A close friend of his?

"IGNEEL SAID THAT HE COULDN'T KILL E.N.D! IF I WAS HIM, THEN IGNEEL COULD HAVE KILLED ME OFF INSTANTLY!" I shook from the rage boiling my innards. It was too unbelievable to be true, but then, why did I feel so constrained by this? Why do I think what Zeref is spouting is the truth? Did I really not know who I really was for my entire life?

And the last blow came.

"And the seven dragons didn't disappear. They went inside your bodies. But they weren't of this time either. They raised 7 orphaned children: Sting, Rogue, Wendy, Gajeel and Natsu. You had me but I gave my permission. It was all in order to defeat Acnologia, the needed more Etherano, so the dragons used special dragon sealing magic to seal themselves into your bodies and you were teleported to the future, 400 years later, where Etherano levels were very rich. We got help from Anna, a celestial spirit mage to use Eclipse to bring all of you to the future. And we had to wait. Wait for the other side, 400 years in the future, to open. And it did," My breath hitched," Her name was Layla Heartfilia."

My pulse raced, my feet were just pooling with cold sweat, my legs were numb and my eyes widened like there was no tomorrow. Lucy…Her mum…her mum died because of teleporting the dragon slayers here? I… I… was responsible for Lucy's m-mum d-d-dying?

He probably noticed how my whole body was paralyzed with shock and how I was choking to get a couple of words out.

"So, X777, the year your dragons supposedly 'disappeared' was when you woke up, 400 years later."

That statement made cold sweat appear beadily onto my palms. The confidence I had dissipated into nothingness as I stared long and hard at the figure in front of me. Was I really supposed to accept that my past had been an entire lie? That Igneel had lied to me all these years? And that I was the one Gray wanted to kill? The brother of the infamous Zeref? And lastly, that Lucy didn't tell me this or that I hurt Lucy emotionally?

I couldn't imagine being as strong as her.

Her emotional strength and willpower was probably chipping away slowly…and I wasn't there for her…

Stupid! Stupid! I'm too fucking stupid! Why couldn't I have been there for her? Why was I living happily when she had been trapped by so many fucking lies?! Why couldn't I have found out sooner?! I am so fucking useless!

I was brought back to reality when it Happy's voice reverberated in my ears," Don't listen to him, Natsu!"

"Y-Yea…" I charged forward, summoning whatever strength I had left. "Natsu, don't forget. I created you…so if I die," I awaited for the silent but obvious truth that was about to come, I had been waiting ages for the day to defeat Zeref, but this string of bullshit had to come. This string of truths that had finally clicked into place. But there was a need to clear a final piece of the elephant in the room that very instant." You die too." His face was contorted with pain as his eyes were glossed with fresh tears. He seemed genuinely hurt to say that. But I didn't care.

"I DON'T CARE! I CAME ALL THE WAY TO DEFEAT YOU! I'M NOT BACKING OUT NOW!" I prepared the very final blow that was sure and fated to destroy Zeref. But something stopped me. A pair of furry paws.

"Natsu! Don't do it! Aren't I your friend?! I'm not letting you die! I'm bringing you back home!" Zeref got further and further and seemed to waver off into the distance as I begrudgingly let Happy take me away. Was the one-year training really for naught? If I couldn't defeat Zeref, then what was everything for?

Lucy's face.

Her smiling face when she had gotten her Fairy Tail mark appeared in my mind. She was the reason I should stay alive. But why didn't she tell me? She should have told me. So that I could have rushed into this battle even sooner and let everyone live on their happy lives instead.

But you wouldn't want her to forget you. You wouldn't want her to lose you. And you didn't want to hurt her by dying.

That devil in my head spoke up. Even though hat he was saying was true, I couldn't let anyone else's happiness be less significant than mine.

I was prepared to lose everything. My resolution? To defeat Zeref, and to destroy myself.

Sorry, Lucy.

Hey, guys. I am so sorry for the REALLY late update. Again. I can't help it, my homework load is increasing and it is currently 2am right now where I live. School is killing me and I managed to somehow squeeze this 2000-word chapter inside here, so thanks for waiting! If anything takes too long, just know that that chapter will be at least of a thousand words, so you all can chill yourselves. Also, I will be changing the rating of the story because i added some unruly words in there? So...yeap. That's about it. Please don't leave this story! The next chapter is going to be even more intense, so yeapz! I'm going to tweak everything a little so yeapz. Now, the only Spriggan 12 that are left are Brandish, Ajeel and Marin, so i hope you all aren't confused by that. Thanks for following this story and thank you for all the kind reviews. And yes, i registered this as a nalu fan fiction already, I thought I did at first but then realised that I didn't register the pairing of the story afterwards, so thanks for the reminder, MarSOfTheGalaxies .

I hope the angst isn't too much for y'all but it's okay. The bigger the angst, the more fluff there can be!

Please follow and favourite this story ((And me if y'all want another story after this)). Hue hue.

Over and out!