A/N- I bet y'all will be able to tell I ain't know anything about chess from this chapter, I just thought this would be funny XD.

Zeref may have exaggerated a little bit when he told Jellal he didn't care for chess, the truth was he did but he didn't care for who he became when he was feeling competitive. Unfortunately for Zeref, and the rest of the guild, he got roped into playing a little "friendly" game of chess with Jellal. At least, that's how it started. It ended being the reason there was an eternal ban on chess within the walls of the Fairy Tail guild.

"I'm not so sure," Zeref said nervously, sitting down across from Jellal. A few people looked on curiously as the game was being set up: Mavis who, if she was being honest, was still irked about Jellal's noteworthy loss on Fairy Tail's behalf in the Grand Magic Games and may or may not have orchestrated this entire event to see what Jellal had been like to be one of the Ten Wizard Saints; Erza, who was curious to find out if Meredy was telling the truth about Jellal reverting back to his old self while playing; Freed who only bore an interest in chess and expected this to be a rather good game; and Lucy, who was hoping sorely that neither of the men before her would cause unnecessary damage to the guild hall.

"Too late to back out now, you've already agreed! No one else will play with me!" Jellal said.

"Because you're scary!" Meredy cried from the opposite side of the guild hall. She had cleared out quickly when Jellal had sat down at the chess table. "Nope!" She'd said, throwing her hands in the air. "NoPE! I do not want to be anywhere near this when this goes off!"

"Come on, Zeref," Mavis said, and he winced. He hated it when she had that look of mischief in her eyes. Something bad always happened. And people say he's the evil one. At least he'd never gotten her sloppy drunk in front of the entire guild. "You know you're good at chess." What exactly, he wondered, is your angle, Mavis?

Jellal opened the game, choosing to play with the white pieces. Zeref wondered if this was a jab at his reputation as "The Black Mage." Immediately after Jellal removed his hand from the piece Zeref thought this move was folly, and thought he had Jellal's entire strategy figured out in his head. These new dark wizards are all the same, he thought, all brawn and no brain. Then he caught himself, whoa there Zeref, calm down. He took hold of a piece and was about to move it, when he happened to glance up at Jellal's face. Holy shit, Zeref thought. He's scary.

His eyes were narrowed in concentration, somehow looking down on Zeref even though they were sitting down. His lips were split into an evil smirk and his eyes were glinting with a darker form of the mischief Zeref hated to see in Mavis so much. Darkness clouded the air around him. But more than that, it was the condescending look Jellal, as if Zeref were about to play right into his hands. Oh, we'll see about that. He ignored Mavis's hissed 'yes!' as a small smirk played on his mouth, and he moved his hand to another piece.

To his left he could feel Lucy's nervous energy building as she shifted away slightly. Mavis's delight was only feeding Zeref's mood, while Erza sat to Jellal's right, a sea of calm in the torrent of emotions. When he moved his piece Jellal's aspect lit up, and he laughed. Not the light chuckle Zeref had become accustomed too, but a louder, darker cackle, and Zeref knew this game was going to be fun. He tilted his head back and laughed his own laugh, and the nervous energy around him skyrocketed. Apprehension shown on every face, even Erza's, as Jellal and Zeref both leaned in, glaring at each other over the tops of their chess pieces, ready for a challenge.

"That's alarming," Jellal said, though he didn't sound alarmed. His voice was loud and demanding, and much more fitting to his current demeanor than his normal tone. "I thought Natsu was exaggerating when he said you're eyes turned red, but they're positively scarlet. How intriguing." Somewhere in the distance Natsu shouted "I told you so!" and Zeref smiled.

"I must say, I wasn't expecting you to have so much dark energy. In another lifetime we might have been good allies." Even now Zeref's voice was quiet, though it cut like a razor and it oozed with menace.

"I doubt that," Jellal said, "I don't think I could ever be friends with someone as soft spoken as you."

On the other side of the hall, Mirajane had seen the ever expanding dark aura and began evacuation. Some of the more faint of heart guild members were filling out, while Natsu scoffed.

"What're y'all afraid of Zeref and Jellal for? They ain't bad guys anymore!" Someone hissed something under their breath to him and he scoffed. "Whatever, I've kicked both their asses before." Zeref chuckled and returned his attention to the game, where Jellal had just made a rather clever move.

"You guys are going to regret this," Meredy said, approaching with caution and looking vaguely sick. Jellal laughed.

"I'm having fun."

"That's the problem."

"I think a permanent ban on chess in the guild hall was a bit much," Jellal said, and Zeref winced.

"You broke the table, Jellal," Erza reminded him.

"Natsu breaks stuff all the time!"

"I thought Zeref was gonna explode a death cloud again," Natsu said.

"That curse was broken," Zeref told him.

"You tried to send Freed into the shadow realm for interrupting you," Erza said.

"I'm still sorry about that," Zeref said, casting an apologetic look at Freed at the next table over.

"Jellal, you tried to make Zeref think he was in some weird nightmare realm!" Lucy said. "I didn't know you even knew illusion magic."

"Jokes on you, my entire life is a nightmare," Zeref said. Mavis rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, we only just finished repairs to the walls you broke. Why was that even necessary?" Lucy asked. "That area of the guild hall is still condemned because they haven't got the safety inspector to look at it yet."

"How did Macbeth even get those black eyes?"

"He always looks like that," Jellal said, "he just wears too much makeup!"

"I'm glad I wasn't there," Wendy said, "it sounds like it would have been scary."

"The lifetime ban on chess holds," Erza said. "Meredy was right, we learned our lesson."

A/N- I thought I published this a long time ago, oops. Sorry About that.