Watching Zeref in the kitchen was like watching a slow-moving train wreck. All the cabinet doors were open and various kitchen utensils were sprawled out on the counter.

"I'm not used to all these modern appliances. A simple campfire has gotten me through the last four centuries just fine." He pulled out a flour sifter and began spinning the handle. "What the hell is this for?"

Lucy took the sifter from him and set it on the counter. "Would you like for me to make you something?" Anything was better than listening to the fusspot gripe. Besides, if he was serious about not-killing-anyone, she was willing to try a less hostile approach.

"Yes thank you." He sat down at the kitchen table. "I would typically have my servants make us something but they are all indisposed of for awhile—unless the one you almost killed can cook. What did you say his name was?"

Lucy cleared a blender and an ice cream maker off the stovetop.

"Azuma."

"Ah."

Lucy went to the refrigerator and opened it. It was fully stocked with all the basics.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Kain usually makes me a muffin with a slice of cured pork, and egg covered in a butter sauce. It's quite delicious."

Lucy sighed. "That sounds like Eggs Benedict."

"Yes, I'll have Eggs Benedict." He patted the surface of the table for extra emphasis.

Of course he had to pick something complicated. Lucy rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out the butter, eggs, pork and some lemon juice. She turned on the stovetop and started heating the pan.

"Are you happy that your friend escaped?" he asked.

"Yes, of course. You were going to torture her."

"Only as much as was necessary." He leaned back in his chair. "I probably wouldn't have had to torture her much. You are overly sentimental."

"Am not. You're just overly cruel."

"You were concerned about the life of one of my servants, your enemy."

She shrugged. "I suppose." She put the butter in the pan and began moving it with the spatula. Next, she filled a pot with water and put it on the stove.

Zeref was sitting comfortably, not bothering to offer any help. "Aren't you worried that your friends are going to die trying to save you?"

If she was honest, she was. Defeating an immortal-being might not be possible, even for Fairy Tail. Still, they always seemed to find a way when it truly mattered. "I have faith in them," she said without looking up.

Zeref picked up the toaster and began examining it. "Believe it or not, I would prefer to accomplish my goals with as little bloodshed as possible."

She poured the melted butter into a bowl to cool. "Then how about you just let me go?"

"That is out of the question." He pressed the toaster button down and seemed disappointed when nothing happened. "But perhaps you would be willing to help me if we had similar goals." He raised an expectant eyebrow at her.

"You and I have similar goals?" The water was now boiling so she added a couple drops of vinegar to help keep the yolk from spreading. It was her little secret for a good pouched egg.

"Perhaps."

"And what would those goals be?"

He looked around the room, as if he were checking for spies. He leaned forward and motioned for her to come closer.

Lucy checked the stove. Everything would be okay for another minute or two. She went to the kitchen table and leaned in.

"To kill Acnologia," he whispered.

The toaster popped and Lucy jumped. Zeref was watching her closely.

"Why do you want to kill Acnologia?" she whispered back. She wasn't sure why they were being quite.

Zeref sat back up. "That is a long tale."

"Well, I'm willing to listen. And for what it's worth, I am in full agreement that the world would be a better place without the Dragon King in it."

A grim expression had crossed Zeref's face. "I'm glad you're open to the idea. I suppose I'll tell you my story then."

Lucy assembled two plates of Eggs Benedict, and then poured herself and Zeref some orange juice. After she brought everything to the table, she hesitantly took a seat across from her captor.

"Before I begin, you should understand that the things I am about to tell you are for your ears alone. I'd prefer if you didn't mention any of this to the servants," he said.

Lucy gave him a questioning look. "Why not?"

Zeref took a tentative bite of the meal and swallowed. "I make it a habit to disseminate as little information about myself as possible. I've made many enemies." He pointed at the eggs with his fork. "This is excellent by the way. It may even be better than Kaine's."

She tried the eggs. Zeref was right, they were delicious. "You think some of your servants may be out to harm you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "It's possible. It has certainly happened before."

"And you trust me to keep this information to myself?"

He took a sip of orange juice. "That would be my preference. Remember, I told you that I had a plan where no one had to die. I haven't promised that no one will die. Keep that in mind if you decide to get your little friends involved."

Lucy swallowed hard and felt a bite of muffin slide down her throat. She had forgotten to chew.

"So, are we clear on the ground rules?" he asked.

"Crystal."

"Very well." He sat for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"This story begins more than 400 years ago in the year X360. I was a child no older than eight years. I lived with my parents who were wheat farmers and my brother, Aaron who was two years my junior."

Lucy's mind briefly flashed to the name carved in the wall of the cabin. Finding out Zeref had a brother named Aaron now confirmed that they had been sifting through Zeref's memories.

"One day, my brother and I were home when we heard screams coming from the fields. We ran outside where our parents had been working but we were too late. A dragon was in the field attacking our parents."

He clutched the napkin in his hand. "When the dragon saw us, he dropped my father's body and began walking towards us. As he approached, he laughed and joked that desert had just arrived. He had almost reached us when another dragon dove from the air and struck him from the side."

"As the two dragons fought, my brother and I hid in the wheat field. Eventually the attacking dragon gave up and flew away."

Lucy watched Zeref. For the most part, he was as emotionless as usual, but there were moments when he would look particularly pained by a memory and his eyes would flash red.

"That day… everything changed. We lost our parents and we had no one we could turn to."

"The dragon who had saved us was a fighter in the Great Dragon War. You see, the war was predominantly fought between two factions of dragons—those who wanted to annihilate the human race and those who wanted to co-exist with it."

"Why did the dragons want to kill humans?" Lucy asked.

"Humans were known to kill the occasional dragon who was either too young or too old to defend itself so the two species had bad blood between them for centuries but I think it really came down to competition of resources— most dragons feared that humans reproduced too quickly and were spreading across the land. They saw a future where they couldn't hunt game or find caves for shelter."

"I see," said Lucy.

"Humans tried to fight the dragons but their magic and weapons were largely ineffective—so a new strategy formed."

He paused, and Lucy understood what he was going to say next. "Dragon slayers," she whispered.

"Yes," agreed Zeref. "The dragon that saved us took us in and trained my brother and me to become the first dragon slayers."

Lucy sat up straight as she remembered something. "Is that why you derailed the train instead of hopping onboard? Do you get motion sickness?"

Zeref glared at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Anyways, my brother and I became dragon slayers. We joined the war when we had completed our training at the ages of 18 and 16. By the time I was 21, I had already become a general in the human army."

Lucy detected a note of pride in his voice so she tried to look impressed.

"My brother was my second in command. Between the two of us we killed dozens of dragons. We also developed strategies that made better use of human skills. For example we taught the human army to start fires near a battle to confuse the dragon's sense of smell and sight."

"Despite our best efforts, we were still losing the war. And things became even more desperate after the battle of Crocus. At that battle, both sides suffered heavy causalities but ours were crippling. We lost one hundred sixty-three dragons, nearly a third of our dragon forces."

"As my brother and I walked around the battlefield, searching for survivors, we felt the weight of the war bearing down on us—we felt certain that humanity was on the brink of extinction."

"What did you do?" Lucy asked. Her breakfast was beginning to get cold but she didn't care.

"We cast a spell so powerful and so evil, that it changed the course of the world forever."

He leaned closer, "We created Acnologia."

Lucy's jaw dropped. There had been many theories swirling about a possible link between Acnologia and Zeref but to hear it said from the man himself sent chills down her spine. Historians would have given a limb to try to get the information she was hearing now.

"How did you create the Dragon King?"

He smiled. "Ah, and this is the part of the story that is particularly important for you. You see, there are four things that are necessary to create a Dragon King—". He held up his fingers to count them off. "The first, is the blood of a hundred dragons. We were able to gather the blood we needed from the corpses scattering the battlefield that day."

"The second is dragon slayer who is willing to cast the spell." He pointed to himself.

"The third is a dragon slayer who is willing to become a Dragon King."

"Woah, woah, woah," interrupted Lucy. "You mean a dragon slayer can become an actual dragon?"

"Yes."

She thought about it. "So Ancologia is… your brother?" She stared at him.

"He was my brother. When we first cast the spell, it seemed that my brother would be able to handle the new magic. He did everything he was supposed to—he only killed dragons that were on the other side of the war and he even changed back into his human form when he wasn't fighting. However, he soon started spending more and more time in his dragon form and soon, dragon's from our forces started disappearing. Our conversations became increasingly argumentative. I could tell he was going mad."

He looked down at his plate. "I blame myself for what has happened. I should have been the one to become a Dragon King. My brother was already in a fragile state when we cast the spell. His wife and unborn child had been killed just a few weeks prior to the transformation. I think he used his new form to escape humanity."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." Lucy tried to take all the new information in. She had never considered that Acnologia may have once been human.

"Don't be sorry. These are the mistakes of my past and I am now trying to fix them. Which brings us to the fourth item. It is a charm of sorts. All dragons are believed to be the descendants of the first dragon, Brotan. He was considered more powerful than any other dragon. The First, as he is often referred to, died more than a thousand years ago but his spirit can still be summoned with a necklace that was made from his bones and scales."

Lucy felt a trill of fear. "You want me to summon a dragon?"

"No."

"Oh."

"I want you to open Eclipse so I can travel back in time and retrieve the summoning object. It was lost when Acnologia was born. If I get that necklace, I may be able to reverse the spell that gave Acnologia his power."

She shook her head. "No way, it's too risky. How do I know you won't try to kill your brother before he turns into Acnologia? That would cause a significant change in the world. What if things get worse? What if I'm not even be born?"

He nodded. "You are right to be concerned; changing the past can have serious consequences. Acnologia is evil, but if it wasn't for his existence, the human race may not even exist. He has killed hundreds of dragons and effectively ending the war." He stared at her. "You have my word that I won't try to change the past. I will be in and out before anyone is the wiser."

She looked at him doubtfully.

"There's something else," he added. "It may not even be possible to make significant changes to the past."

"Why's that?"

"There are stories about certain mechanisms in place to protect the consistency of time. It is hard to sort out what may be real or what may be fiction. I don't intend to test those theories regardless."

Lucy thought about it. "Isn't there a more simple way to kill Acnologia? Have you ever tried fighting him? I mean—you're supposed to be the most powerful mage in the entire world…"

"Of course I've tried fighting him, but it's completely useless. Whenever I try to engage in direct combat, I black out. When I come to, he's gone and I have no recollection of what happened."

"Why would that happen?" she asked.

Zeref pushed his plate away. "When I cast the spell that created Acnologia, our lives became linked—if he died, I would perish and vice versa. When he learned of this connection, he cast an immortality spell on me. I've tried killing myself hundreds of times but each time, I lose consciousness and my body goes into some sort of survival mode. Worse, if others try to kill me, the same thing happens and they are often killed."

"So, you've tried killing yourself to stop Acnologia?" asked Lucy.

"Yes."

"But if this plan works, you'll be able to undo the spell that created Acnologia so you two won't be linked anymore, right?"

"Yes."

"What would you do to your brother if he was human again?" she asked.

"That doesn't concern you. Whether I kill him or let him live doesn't matter. He won't be a significant threat as a human."

Lucy considered the new information. There was a lot of it. "Let's say I agree to help you… how can I trust you?"

He shrugged. "To be honest, I wasn't really planning on securing your trust—I was just going to torture your friend if you didn't comply." He scratched his chin. "Am I going to have to go with plan A?"

Lucy considered his story. For some reason, Lucy did trust him—mostly because he didn't seem to have a reason to lie. Plus, if she was working alongside him, perhaps she could keep an eye on him.

"Take me with you," she said.

"What?" Zeref looked at her blankly.

"I'll do it, on two conditions. One— you take me with you to ancient Crocus and two—you release me when we get back."

Zeref thought for a moment. "Very well. I can accept your terms."

She held out her hand. "You have a deal."