Chapter 21
A/N By the way, if anyone is having some trouble following the Galuna island arc, Lyon is in Galuna island, he just doesn't know about Mavis and Zeref. He's doing the Moon thingie (I understand that in other fandoms, moon thingie usually means Infinite Tsukuyomi, but not here), which Zeref and Mavis are taking advantage of. Also, sorry for being late, but rest assured, this story won't be abandoned.
Gray, Erza and Zeref reached Galuna island at dawn. None of them was well-rested. Jellal had woken up in the middle of the night and had proceeded to yell about Lord Zeref. Zeref had apologized to Erza, saying that Jellal was still possessed, and flicked his fingers, sending a purplish pink orb shooting out of his body. Jellal was out cold, but the trio had not been able to go back to sleep.
Natsu had not slept either. That was, however, for a much more mundane reason.
His sister, or possibly sister-in-law, snored. Loudly. He pitied this 'Zer-bear', whoever it was.
Something fell on his head. Then something fell on the something that had fallen on his head. Natsu moved aside. Then, another thing dropped on the same area.
Natsu shook his head in irritation, and the several things followed.
Gray had no idea what had happened. One second, he was in front of a deep ravine, and the next, he was lying on top of Zeref and below Erza. Oh wait, he did know what happened. He fell.
Erza stood up and dusted off her armour. Her eyes fell on Natsu.
"Wait, what? What are you doing here, Na-", Mavis had stuffed some plants into her mouth.
Zeref gave Mavis a bright smile from his position on the floor. She giggled at him. In retaliation, he pulled her down on him.
Mavis was nuzzling her face into his chest as if she hadn't seen him for years, which she hadn't. Zeref kissed her forehead fondly. Then, his gaze landed on the pink-haired Dragon Slayer.
Staying composed, he raised an eyebrow at Mavis, asking if it really was him or not. Mavis gave him a tiny smile and nodded.
Zeref grinned widely and rolled over, so that he was on top of Mavis. They engaged in a passionate kiss, involving several things right out of a storybook. 'Strings of saliva', 'hungry animals', 'wild and forceful', stuff like that.
Erza spat out the plants in her mouth, which just happened to be poison ivy, and cleared her throat. Zeref and Mavis immediately sprang apart. Zeref stood up and dusted his clothes. He gave Natsu and Happy a broad smile.
"Hey!"
Happy beamed at being given somewhat equal importance as Natsu. Natsu himself, however, looked at Zeref suspiciously.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Zeref," said Zeref, causing Natsu to raise his eyebrows, which was the Natsu equivalent of pulling out his hair and screaming. "Zeref Dragneel. Pleased to meet you." At the word Dragneel, Erza and Gray gawked at him. He had not told them that little tidbit.
Natsu blinked several times.
"Are you my long-lost older brother or something?"
Zeref had still not wrapped his head around the fact that he had found his younger brother. "I guess?" he tried.
Natsu gestured around him. "In that case, isn't this supposed to be, y'know, more exciting and stuff? With tons of crying, and congratulations, and giant floodlights and stuff? Doesn't stuff like this happen during life-or-death situations?"
Zeref cocked his head to the side as he considered it. "Well, I don't feel like crying or fighting for my life right now. Do you?"
Natsu shook his head. "Nah, I'm alright."
"What about lights?" Mavis asked.
As if on cue, a purple light fell on the ice encasing Deliora. Mavis clapped her hands delightedly. Gray looked horror struck.
"It's melting! It's not supposed to do that!"
Zeref frowned. "When I told you that Deliora was going to be freed, what did you think I meant?"
Gray glared.
Zeref waved his hands in a peaceful gesture. "Fine! I'll help you resurrect your teacher if you 'allow' Deliora to be freed."
"No! That would completely demean Ur's sacrifice- Wait, what?"
Mavis looked at Zeref and smiled in a fake sweet manner. "Zeref, darling, what was that talk we had, about resurrection, and how resurrecting people twice, especially after being cursed the first time, is a bad idea?"
Zeref looked panicked. "No, no, you're misunderstanding, dear. His teacher is still alive. Her body is the ice. It just needs to be changed into something more mobile."
Mavis narrowed her eyes. "She?"
At Zeref's horrified face, Natsu decided that saving your long-lost brother upon meeting him was a must. He looked at Mavis.
"Don't worry. As Mira would say, Zervis shall sail."
Mavis raised her eyebrows in appreciation. "Zervis is a nice name."
Natsu corrected, "Nah, I made up the name Zervis. Mira used to say Grayza, and now she says Naru or Nalu or something."
Suddenly, a loud rumbling could be heard. Natsu immediately shifted into a battle-ready posture. Rumbling usually meant gigantic enemies.
After a few minutes of waiting for enemies that didn't appear, Natsu sat down. Obviously, that was when three distinctly villain-like people appeared. Natsu knew they were evil because of the middle one's distinctly evil eyebrows. He groaned and stood back up.
The middle one was short with bushy eyebrows. There was a maroon haired girl beside him. On his other side was a… dog?
The middle one was the leader, Natsu surmised, because he was in the middle. Also, he was the one that walked towards them to deliver a monologue.
"Well, well, well. Look who we have here. For months, I suspected that someone was down here. And behold, I used a spell to detect you, and it worked!"
Erza mumbled a question, which went unheard, because Erza's mouth had now erupted in rashes from the poison ivy. Gray decided to translate it.
"Excuse me, you thought people were down here, people who were potential enemies, for months, and you decided to detect them now?"
Their enemy looked embarrassed. He muttered something that sounded like, "not my fault", "recently got the rank", and "stupid emperor".
"Anyway," he continued, "We outnumber you, so you better surrender and let us take you to the emperor."
Erza mumbled something more incredulously. Gray translated it again.
"How, in what shape or form, do the three of you outnumber the five of us?"
"Six!" Happy exclaimed, exasperated with people forgetting his existence.
"Seven!" yelled Lullaby.
The guy glared. "Going by the calculation that one of us is equal to two of you, and that those two don't count, yes, we do outnumber you."
Zeref was getting irritated. "That's not what outnumbered means! That's outskilled, which you don't!"
The short guy yelled at him. "You couldn't even detect our detection spell!"
Zeref frowned. "When was that?"
The mage continued, "You idiots didn't even realize that a spell like Moon Drip cannot be done in the morning! That was the detection spell!"
Lullaby stepped forward. "Hey! Don't you dare call Gramps an idiot! Fight me if you dare, you-" Lullaby stopped just before he cursed. Last time he'd used bad language, Mavis had washed his mouth with soap.
Their enemies stepped forward with grins on their faces.
About half a minute later, the three mages were unconscious, and a giant Lullaby was jumping up and down in triumphal glory. It was just as comical as it sounds.
Zeref patted him on the head. "Good boy. That was bada- amazing!" he amended, glancing towards Mavis.
Gray was confused. "Then why was the ice melting?"
"Trick of the light," replied Mavis.
After some time, Erza went back to the boat to check on Jellal. And all of the prisoners. But mostly Jellal. Natsu was catching up on stuff with his brother and Mavis. Gray walked out of the cavern by making an ice staircase, and started exploring.
His explorations were incredibly uninteresting, but since they lasted until evening, I suppose a description is required.
He walked. He sweated. He cooled himself down. He walked some more. And some more. And then some more. Then he tripped. He got up. He walked. He went back. He saw Erza on the way, and asked her about Jellal. She told him he was alright and evaded further questions. He froze her lower face on her request, because of the poison ivy rash. He walked some more. He had some candy for lunch, stolen from Erza. He then evaded Erza.
Basically, boring stuff.
At nightfall, purple light started falling on Deliora. Gray glanced up once to make sure that the moon was in the sky. It was.
They all got ready to sleep. The others fell asleep easily, but Natsu did not. He had the ears of a dragon, and therefore, Mavis's snores sounded much louder to him than they were.
At midnight, Natsu felt like somebody had stabbed him. He felt a sharp spike of fear and realized it wasn't his.
"LUCY!"