The boat ride to Tenrou Island was a long one, but it was enough to make Lucy think about the mission briefing earlier that day. Makarov had told them that retrieving the first master was of the upmost importance. Makarov had informed them that Achnologia had not been sighted around those waters, so it was relatively safe. Nonetheless, he had sent out the best of the best: Natsu, Lucy, Gajeel, Erza, Jellal, and Zeref. Lucy remembered how Gray insisted on going with the group, but the minute Makarov mentioned Juvia, he instantly shut up and sat quietly in the corner.
"Listen, you need to be extremely careful when you get to Tenrou Island. We don't know if Mavis has had her memories returned yet and we aren't sure how she will respond to you guys. Be extremely cautious. You all leave tomorrow," he said quietly. She could see the concerned look on Makarov's face and worried about Natsu, who was eyeing Zeref angrily at the moment.
Now all five of them walking about the boat, hoping that the trip to Tenrou Island would be help their efforts in saving their home. As Gajeel took the lead as captain and steered the boat towards the island, Lucy sat reading one of the latest sorcerer's weekly magazine in her cabin, trying to ease her nerves about returning to a place where Achnologia had terrorized them. They were now four months in and had eight months left before Achnologia would attack Magnolia and its inhabitants. Everyone was getting stronger, but Lucy still couldn't get in contact with the Celestial Spirit King. As hard as she tried, there wasn't an inkling of contact coming through to her. Once this mission was over, she hoped that she could do something about this, maybe even asking one of her spirits to take her to the spirit world in order to contact him.
She thought about the idea even more when she heard a knock on her door.
"Come in!" she yelled. Zeref quietly entered the room and waved awkwardly at Lucy, who gently smiled back at him.
"Hey, Lucy. I was wondering if you had a moment to talk?" he asked politely. She nodded and he sat on the bed. There was an awkward pause between the two of them, but Lucy could tell that Zeref was trying to muster up the words he wanted to say to her. She placed her hand on his and smiled deeply at him.
"What's on your mind?" she asked.
"It's about Mavis... I'm scared to meet her."
"Zeref, you know that she's going to forgive you for everything."
"Yeah but look at Natsu! He won't even come near me whenever I try and come close to him!" he said. He stood up and scrubbed his head furiously, trying to figure out the situation he had put himself in. Lucy got up as well and patted him on the shoulder.
"Listen to me Zeref. Mavis loves you and you love her. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can ever change the way that you two feel about each other. That's just the way love works. And Natsu? He'll come around. I'll make sure of it," she said.
Zeref smiled at the young girl and hugged her tightly, which she affectionately returned.
However, the moment was short lived because Natsu burst in, his happy smile now angry and hardened. The sight before his eyes was a flushed looking Lucy and a messy looking Zeref due to his ruffled hair. The two quickly let go of each other and Zeref promptly left the room, but not before feeling Natsu's dark aura wash over the room and onto his shoulder. Once he was gone, Natsu turned back to Lucy, only to find her giving him an angry look.
"What?" he said. She rolled her eyes and closed the door behind him.
"You know, you don't have to treat him that way. People change Natsu," she said.
"Yeah, but he doesn't count. He's just as bad as Achnologia," he said.
"Well that doesn't mean that you can treat him like shit. He's trying Natsu. You aren't." At some point, Natsu had walked up to Lucy and glared her. He wanted her to back down on the topic, but she was refusing to do so.
"Lucy, I'm just trying to keep you safe, that's all. I don't trust him and I don't want to see you hurt again."
"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don't need saving Natsu? That maybe I can protect you?" she said.
"Well, I-"
"Listen to me and listen well. I am my own woman who is training just as hard as you to get better. Don't ever think that I'm going play the damsel in distress for the rest of my life because I will fight with every single breathe to protect the ones I love. I'll be fine."
At this point, Natsu was speechless, something Lucy could never imagine would happen to the dragon slayer. But after her little speech, there was nothing Natsu wanted to do more was kiss her until the end of time. But the moment was gone since he didn't realize that Lucy had left her cabin while he was lost in thought. He couldn't help but smile to himself and chased after the woman of his dreams.
"Ahh, there you are bunny girl. We're about ten minutes away from Tenrou Island," said Gajeel as he steered the boat closer to the approaching island. Lucy could feel the goosebumps rising on her skin, but her mind was on the memories that she had made the last time she was there. The events on Tenrou Island shook her to her core and sometimes she would find herself having nightmares. But she knew that this a new life for her and that she wasn't that same runaway teen long ago.
"I can already feel my magic power start to grow. Maybe I can finally get in contact with the Celestial Spirit King!" she yelled happily. Gajeel just nodded his head, returning his attention back to his task.
When the boat finally docked on the island, the first thing that Erza did was split the teams in to two groups: Jellal, Erza, and Gajeel would look for Mavis near her old hometown where her village was built while Lucy, Natsu, and Zeref would look near her grave site to figure out if she was resting there. Erza had made it quite clear to the three of them that it was better to work together than split up, but Natsu kept huffing, much to Lucy's frustration, as they headed towards the grave. Zeref was quiet for the most part, and stayed towards the front with Lucy while Natsu eyed him from behind.
Tired of the silence, Lucy finally decided to start a conversation with Zeref.
"So Zeref, what were your memories like when you go them back?" she asked.
"All I remember was the pain that I felt, the feelings of despair. Not much to talk about there," he said quietly.
Lucy internally cringed at her question and quickly tried to think of something else to change the topic. Even though it was awkward, she hoped that her next question wasn't as morbid and awkward as the first.
"Sorry about that. If you don't mind me asking... how did you die, Zeref?" The young black haired boy pondered over her question for a moment. But before he could respond, there was a rustling in the forest. The entire group stopped and Natsu quickly came up behind Lucy, using his senses to smell the surrounding area. His nose took him towards a small bush, which shook furiously the closer he got. Lucy had turned her attention towards him, but hadn't noticed the far away look in Zeref's eyes. Natsu quickly jumped at the bush and pulled out a shivering little bunny that shook furiously in his hands.
Just as Natsu was turning around to respond, he stopped dead in his tracks when a young girl with long, opaque blond hair came rushing at him to take the frightened bunny from him. She gently pet its head and glared angrily at Natsu before releasing it into the wild.
"What is wrong with you? You don't just attack a kit like that! Are you crazy? You need to learn some manners, young man," Mavis said.
The whole group was silent as she stared at them awkwardly. Zeref couldn't take his eyes off of her. He took in every detail of her physical features and eventually, he released the breath that he had been holding. To him, she still held that same beautiful smile since the last time he saw her. Her eyes seemed just a little brighter this time around. All he wanted to do was hold her petite frame and never let her go. But his memories of the things he had done came rushing back again and he found his legs moving as far away as they could from her.
Much to Lucy's surprise, Natsu ran after his brother and left her with the very confused first master of Fairy Tail. Mavis watched the two brothers go and wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"What was that all about? Who are you people?"
Lucy turned to the young girl and smiled awkwardly at her. "Um, maybe we should go sit down? This is gonna be a long story."
Zeref had made it to a large outing which led to a cliff opening. He walked towards the edge, wondering if jumping would be the right call. He ruffled his hair and sat on the edge, swinging his legs over the edge and deciding to watch the sunset. He could hear footsteps coming up behind him, but chose it ignore it's presence, hoping that that the person coming up behind him would take him away forever.
However, to his surprise, he saw Natsu sit right next to him, quietly watching the sunset as well. Zeref felt his stomach churning and just hoped that Natsu didn't lay it into him too hard. It took a few moments before either of them had finally broke the silence.
"Natsu, what are you doing here?" Zeref asked. He threw a pebble over the edge and wondered how long it would take it to fall until it splattered on the cold hard earth.
"I think that the real question is what are you doing here?" he asked.
Zeref scoffed and got up, quickly walking away from the scene and heading as far away from his brother as best as he could. However, Natsu quickly caught up to him and stopped his brother, who pushed him away.
"What am I supposed to do? Tell her I killed her in our old life and that I'm miraculously in in love with her and want to make things right? I can't face her like this!" Zeref said. Without even thinking about it, Natsu quickly punched him in the face and earned a nice punch back from his angry black haired sibling. The two brother kept throwing punches at each other, rolling all over the ground until Natsu managed to pin him down. Zeref struggled a little more but eventually gave up.
"Listen man. I don't understand what you had with Mavis at all. But if it's anything like what I currently have with Lucy, then you need to fight for it! Whether you like it or not, you're Fairy Tail family now. We take care of each other and if you're gonna take care of Mavis, then you have to stop being weak!" Natsu said. He pushed Zeref away and walked back into the forest. Zeref laid there and watched the day changed into night, wishing that he could change his life again.