Wishfull-star: Oh yes. Yes indeed.
When he passed a cage, he saw Natsu and Lisanna were there. His friend didn't recognize him, and that hurt. Ace must look completely deformed if his close friend and a smart person didn't see who he was. Ace couldn't leave them there. Natsu was glaring at him. A look that told Ace he wanted him dead. He… wasn't Ace anymore, was he? Would Marco accept him? He had no doubt Sabo would still love him. Would never leave him again.
Ace grabbed the metal of the door, and crumpled it, tossing it through the nearby room. Fuck, he was strong. Alarmingly so. He walked down the hall. "Why did you help us?!"
"If you find an old book with a strap, keep it safe." Then he kicked in a wall. His voice didn't sound familiar to Natsu either. Ace jumped out of the wall, and landed hard on the ground. He had no way to smell anyone else or anything, so he followed the sound of fighting. He came across various fights between his guild and the other demons. God, who had his book? He was scared of it getting harmed.
His life was supposedly now in the hands of some old rotten book. At least it looked unique and easy to spot. He ran past battles, staying behind things to see If those demons had his book. But they were all consumed with the battle. He heard the echoing shouts of his brother above. He was there. Maybe he could help him look! He was good at that stuff with his magic.
But what would he think of Ace? Natsu didn't even recognize him, and he had no idea what he looked like now. He could be the ugliest creature on the planet. Oh, Marco would hate him. He always love Ace's skin and freckles. He was so worried. Would the guild welcome him like they did with Acnologia? After all, that dragon tried to kill them. It wasn't Ace's fault.
He couldn't stand around and daydream doomsday theories about his life. He grew claws, dragon claws, and climbed up the side of he broken building. A lot had happened while he was asleep. Or in hibernation or something! He was an experiment, after all. He jumped up and called Sabo's name.
Ace also had a tail now, as well, which felt beyond odd. The horns he knew were on his head were also heavy, but at least they were equal on both sides. "Ace?! What happened to you?!" Sabo gasped in horror. Tears fell from his eyes. Of course he knew his brother! Sabo ran forward to him, and Ace looked away. "Oh, what happened?" the blonde asked again, both hands on Ace's face, his own fallen with sadness.
"I was changed… They made me into book of Zeref. I have to find the book. They said if it's harmed, I am, too. I'm sorry, I know it looks bad but we have to hurry!" Ace insisted. Sabo grew serious and nodded. He didn't react to the awul news, but he firmly said they had to find the book. "Is everyone else okay?"
"No, they're fighting against Tartaros. Having a hard time." Ace asked if Sabo should be helping him. "Me and Marco have spent the whole time looking for you. Maybe it's wrong, but you're our number one priority." Tears came from Ace's eye as they ran side by side, checking every room they passed. There was even a library, but all the books were in piles from the shaking of the building.
They dug through them, but found nothing. They didn't find Ace's book. They moved to the next room. "Sabo!" Marco shouted in fear of his friend seemingly being chased by a demon. Ace was lost in hallucination of being blind and deaf. But it was dispelled quickly as Sabo explained briefly what he knew.
Ace left the black to a hug, Marco hugging him tightly, Ace's face pressed to his chest. "I'm sorry-"
"What do you need, Ace?" Marco said soothingly.
"The book."
"Then we find the book. First and foremost. Everyone is distracted right now, enemies and friends." Ace asked if they should help them out first. "On our way of searching, maybe we can find other enemies." Ace bluntly said he had killed one of the demons already. "Great!" Marco said, taking Ace's black hand with a loving smile, even at the monster that Ace now was.
They tore apart every room they came across, but in the middle of searching one of the largest rooms in the whole floating cube, with the base of the dark guild on it, as his brother told him, shuddered. They looked around in surprise, wondering what on earth would happen next. They had no idea what was going on anywhere else. Sabo wanted to help them, and so did Ace, but finding the book while they could would save Ace's life.
But then some sort of red, thick paste seeped through every hallway. Ace immediately shifted into a dragon form and protected his loved ones. But the red paste covered over Ace;s back and wings, trapping him there. Sabo and Marco were alive, and Ace, too, but they were trapped. "What happened?" Sabo asked before creating a light on his hand to show around. They were in an enclosed space, Ace's wings taking most of the force.
"I don't know, but I can't move at all," Ace said. He straight his back to get out, use his new strength to spread his wings and get them out, but it didn't work. Looking down with the light they saw the red paste had hardened below them. But they weren't covered in it or locked down. They were just trapped, three breathing people in one space, with one of them having much larger lungs.
"What should we do, now?"
Ace told Sabo to try and melt the paste below them. He used a hand that was the temperature of melted steel. It did nothing. It didn't harm it at all. Using ice, acid, fire, everything didn't work. "We'll run out of air at this pace," Marco said quietly. Ace apologized for getting them into this. "You protected us. Or at least prolonged our lives a few minutes. You can shrink at all?" Ace shook his head, the only part not trapped. Using any fire in there would use up all their remaining oxygen and possibly burn his beloved to death.
Ace closed his eyes slowly, and then opened them, keeping a sigh in. "I'm sorry I put so much stress on both of you. It's constant, isn't it?" Marco touched his face, and said that it was worth it. All the other times that aren't stressful were worth it. Big tears dripped out of Ace's eyes. "I'm not human anymore. I… I can't live how I used to, how we used to. Things will be different."
"You're beautiful no matter what. Besides, if I'm with you, maybe I can help, with some practice. I'll plant a hallucination on you that affects everyone but you. Make you look how you used to. At least until we can find the book. If we don't find it today. We'll find it, though. No matter what."
"Promise. We're in it together, no matter what," Sabo agreed. Ace smiled and nodded, all three of them getting lightheaded with the dwindling oxygen and increasing carbon dioxide. They were each unconscious when the red stick thinned, and Ace was released from it, getting air to all three of them.
Ace laid on his back, breathing deeply in his new form. He crawled to the other two, and shook them awake. Both of them opened their eyes slowly. Marco sat up, and looked around. Sabo, too. "It'll be even harder to find any books, now." It appeared that the cube had crashed, and the red stick had blocked a ton of paths, gluing stones together and making everything just less convenient.
Looking at his hand, Ace moved to the wall and formed a fist. Even if it didn't work, it wouldn't hurt. He was still made of fire, he checked that. Thank goodness, he didn't need another change. Though it never was magic in the first place. Ater this, Ace would tell Marco everything. Everything both he and his brother knew.
He thrust his hand into the wall, and pulled out, gripping on the other side to open a large hole. "We'll get around this way," Ace said quietly. They didn't know where the enemies were, and wanted to avoid people in general. Marco wasn't able to carpet Ace in a hallucination to others, so he needed practice.
Searching the rooms, they still saw nothing helpful. No books, only rubble and broken objects. Ace was starting to fear the book was unreachable. He knew it existed, he'd seen it with his own eyes. He felt it in his hand, and then felt when it was pulled away. He clenched his sharp teeth, cutting his cheek.
They ran past a broken mirror, and Ace paused to look in his terrible appearance for the first time. He had horns like that other demon woman from before. The tail was kind of like a lion's. Furry until the fluffy tip. One eye was red and the other was still brown. His skin on his arms and legs, along with some of his face, was black. All of his teeth were sharp, not just his canines. Eating food might be harder now.
"C'mon, let's go, sweetie," Marco said soothingly, pulling a crying Ace away from his new appearance. "You're still beautiful to me. And you still have one cheek full of freckles." Ace didn't deserve Marco, but he would never let him go.
They were digging through a bedroom that hadn't been affected by the red sludge, and found a trunk with multiple books inside. It was only broken when Ace squeezed the lock. He pulled the books out, and saw they looked like the one he had. But none were strapped or the same color as his was. These were clearly suspicious.
On the binding, there were names on them. He was sure that these were the books of Zeref, the demons of this guild. This nightmare place. One of them had the name Kyoka on it, and the center of it had burnt a hole. She was dead. "Guys, if we destroy these books, we could kill the enemies," Ace said quietly. This room had been an accidental find. No doors to it. And if one of them had the book, they'd drop it and leave it to be found by Fairy Tail. Surely they'd help search the place for it.
Sabo set them all on the bed. "Okay. we'll destroy them," he said firmly. "Kill those that did this to you. I just wish we could see their dying faces." He sounded livid, and both of them burnt the books to ashes. They crumbled, and a loud wailing sound filled the room before it was over, and their ears were all ringing.
The three climbed back out of the mystery room, and got back to searching the barren, broken hallways. Ace wished he could have smelled it and traced it something like that. Nastu would have a better sense of smell, but who knows where he was? While they hurried down the halls, they could hear cheering noises.
From other people, meaning the battle was over. They could all treat the injured and wounded, and search for the book that now determined Ace's existence. It sucked, it felt like he was walking on glass, not knowing where to turn. Almost like he was sensory deprived and walking on a tightrope. It was an extremely unsettling and uncomfortable feeling.
They were about to exit the main building and search the remnants when they all froze, their bones chilling and breath catching. They all heard it. The familiar roar, that one that haunted them all for weeks. Ace for months. But they were frozen in place in fear. It was here. The dragon that gave Ace temporary and permanent powers.
"Natsu said that Acnologia killed all the dragons." Ace had been told about that incident. Gajeel had found under the stage at the arena in the Grand Magic Games, deep in the earth below the stadium ground, there was a dragon graveyard, filled with countless bones and skeletons. Wedny was able to use her magic to call a dragon spirit to them. One they later encountered when the Eclipse Gate opened and dragons came out.
According to the dragon spirit they spoke to, Acnologia was once a human, but after being taught dragon slaying magic, he committed geniodiece on them, bathing in so much dragon blood that he became one. Acnologia was that man who turned into a dragon.
Ace knew what Sabo was getting at. Ace was the dragon. And he was one created by Acnologia. Who knows what his reaction would be to Ace's existence?! "Hide, you have to hide," Marco insisted. Ace looked around, but Sabo used a blue hand to blast a hole through the remains of the big demon cube, and they dropped inside. Deep down, they entered a sort of sewage system. It was rancid.
But it lead somewhere. They weren't looking to leave, but to hide. Hopefully Ace wouldn't be found. They heard the roars echo through the whole structure. "We have no idea what's going on up there," Marco said, plugging his nose. "At least we managed to destroy the other demons, though."
"...It just shows how easily I can be killed, doesn't it?" Ace asked quietly. The other two had nothing to say to the grim but true statement.
"Well, they were full demons, weren't they? Born from the real books of Zeref. You might be different. You were sort of just bonded with one, and are part dragon. You're not a normal creature from the books of Zeref," Sabo mused. Then they all silenced when the blows started coming from above, making the whole place shake. Sabo put a forcefield around them in case the place collapsed, and Ace wouldn't be hurt dragon to change forms by protecting them.
Ace mumbled that he hoped everyone was okay. "Why hasn't Acnologia just gone by now? Why are we still alive?" he asked with a deep frown. "I can't hear anything, and I'm afraid to move," he said honestly. "What if he kills everyone again? And I'm the only one left?" he asked, holding onto his new horns, curling up.
Sabo sat next to him and lead against him. "We're not weak. Plus, we have you. If you're half as strong as the weakest of those demon guys, we'll be safe." Ace said his physical strength had gotten stronger.
Then he confessed to decapitating one of the demons that changed him. "She wasn't human," Sabo said.
"She was still a person, wasn't she? She had thoughts and feelings. But they were all just tied to Zeref. That's all she cared about. But it was a dream I ended." Marco took the younger man's hand and said that he was allowed to feel guilt about kill anybody or anything. "...Yeah. she was going to do bad things, but what ticked me off was she was ordering me around right after doing this to me. Like it was no big deal, and I was supposed to be fine with it."
His brother and boyfriend listened to him, and didn't interrupt. It was a good distraction from the sounds above him for now. And the sounds passed after maybe an hour, and they felt safe to go out. Sabo and Marco climbed out, and Ace was afraid to. He wanted to go home. But looking in the direction of town, home was decimated. Thatch had been in the bar at the time, and everyone had been spared by Cana turning them all into cards before the guild was blown up.
It was the second time in one year that it was destroyed. No, wait, the second time in eight years. There were seven in between the first destruction and the second.
"I don't want them to see me. I want to find the book before." He was scared they'd look at him in hate or disgust. Sabo pressed a hand to Ace, making him invisible.
"There, now we can talk and you can be there, but undetected. I'll say you were found injured, and so I sent you home to heal. My power is mysterious enough for that to be possible, after all," Sabo offered. Ace nodded, but since they couldn't see him, he said he was fine with this. The three of them walked to where the crowd was. Of the former enemy guild, on top of the cube monster.
It was gross and stank, but it didn't hurt them now. Something had really hurt it and caused it to crash land into a rocky mush. Ace wondered what it was. He was silent beside the two of them as they stood in a group, looking relaxed and happy. The fight seemed to be over. Something big must have happened, and Sabo asked that.
"The dragons stopped the faces! You missed them!" Ace looked around for Natsu. Memories of his excitement of finding Igneel was one of the first times Ace spent any time with him. Ace wanted to ask where he was, but Marco did that for him. "Igneel did come, and fought Acnologia for a long time. But in the end, he didn't make it," Macao said, voice much sadder at the end.
"He's over there, we're giving him some space…" Ace went running to him. Everyone wanted to give him space, and they knew him longer than Ace. he found him mourning at a crater that was empty. Ace stood there, not sure what to do. He finally decided to go to him. Even if he was invisible, Natsu smelled and heard him, whirling around.
Ace had to smell different now, since he got on guard. "I… it's Ace." Natsu's fire died out, and he asked where he was.
"Are you dead, too?" Natsu asked, voice breaking.
"No, I'm here. I'll just be invisible for awhile," Ace said softly. Natsu asked why, where he'd been. "It's a long story. I'm just… different now. I'm sorry, I saw you crying. I don't know how you feel. I never had a father figure or anything. I just… thought you wouldn't want to be all alone. I remember the first job we went on, you dragged me along to go search the city for Igneel. Based on what I see and all, he was much too big to be in the middle of the city."
Natsu seemed more comfortable to cry when nobody was there to look, it seemed. He wiped his eyes, and said that was true. "Your first chapter of your life seems to have been closed. What's in the future, then?" Ace asked softly. "Your second chapter starts now."
The pink haired teen looked back at the crater and stood up. "I'll get stronger. So I won't lose anyone else again. I'll get strong enough to beat you." Ace smiled, and said he was sure that would be a big accomplishment. "Ace, did something happen to you?" Natsu asked slowly. He was suspicious, and it was justified, given that Ace was invisible.
"If you find a dirty old book with a leather strap, will you bring it to me? And not open it or destroy it?" Natsu's eyes widened. "What's wrong?"
"Ace, are you a demon?" Natsu asked, somehow coming to the right conclusion. "There was another book, too. And Zeref came to take it. It was the book for E.N.D. I lost it, but I-Igneel told me to steal it away."
Ace was silent for a long moment, but Natsu knew he was still there. "Some stuff happened, and I'm not the same as before. But I have Sabo and Marco, and we'll try to fix it. You don't need to worry right now. Focus on you, only you." Natsu moved to hug him, and Ace hugged him back.
"No matter what you look like, you're still Ace. Part of our guild." Ace nodded, and pulled away. "Guess I really gotta power up to beat a dragon demon, huh?"
"It's not really funny, but I think you do have a long way to go," Ace said softly. They returned to the guild building as Master asked. He told Natsu to play along with that he was already taken home and was being treated. Natsu agreed, and Ace felt he would keep this promise and not bring attention to it. Ace walked to Sabo and Marco, and touched their wrists.
Romeo asked where Ace was, if they'd found him. "We did. Sabo sent him back with his magic. Our apartment is in good enough condition right now, so he's resting there. We'll need to search the rubble, though."
"Why?" Cana asked. "I never want to return to this thing again," she said spitefully. So much had happened. To everyone, not just Ace. Sabo said, in a solemn voice, that the demons took half of Ace's life force and it was buried somewhere.
He lied, and said, "Ace doesn't remember much about it, so we want to search for it ourselves. He seems to not be able to remember it, so it's up to all of us to find it," Sabo finished firmly. They all promised to help. For now, they showed support of Ace, determined to come back to the rubble to search. Even though the place had bad memories.
The guild was decimated. Everything was gone, nothing was left. Ace was just glad it wasn't only him that was the reason this happened. Maybe he was just an unfortunate bystander who was picked. It wasn't his fault, and hopefully he helped by getting rid of the demons.
While they were gathered, Wendy able to heal very light injuries. Her hair was cut and she was all scratched up. Ace wanted to ask her how she did and praise her. But he and his brother and boyfriend really had no idea what went on outside their search for Ace's book. The freckled demon saw Natsu hadn't come. Maybe he was out mourning at home with Happy. Didn't want to be in a crowd full of people who pity you. Ace knew that feeling well.
But they were all stunned when the Master said they had things to talk about. As he looked down at the decimated place that the Fairy Tail guild had always truly been, whether the design was the original or not, he bluntly told them the guild was disbanded. It was like a nightmare. Everything had been a nightmare, and now this?
They protested, but the Master was serious about it. They had to go on their own paths now. The guild was disbanded, splitting up. The only place Ace remembered being at. Now what? Where the hell would he go to be accepted now? Now what?!
While everyone was reacting to it slowly, some crying, others in shock, a tearful Sabo reminded them to all come the next day to search for Ace's thing. They nodded, and everyone went home. Ace and Marco and Sabo did, too. Sabo went to Ace and Marco's apartment, though. Thatch was already there, looking at the damaged building.
"Hey, brother," Marco said tiredly, and hugged Thatch. He asked where Ace was, and Ace voiced his presence. He was only invisible. They entered the house, and Sabo was able to fix it enough that there were no holes in the walls. He couldn't clean it up perfectly, as it had been awhile since it was destroyed.
Sabo asked where Thatch had been. "I was in a card for a long time. I think they forgot about me until near the end. My card popped open and I was in the middle of the city! Pretty sure I was blown away. Kind of pissed about it, honestly. But how's Ace? And why are you invisible? And what happened on that freaky cube?!"
The oldest of the three told him about what happened until they found Ace. about the plan to erase magic from the world with the Face plan Tartaros took advantage of, but that both he and Sabo were only trying to find Ace and they found him. "But they experimented on him. Thatch, you have to stay calm, okay?" Sabo said firmly. Almost like a threat. Thatch swallowed and nodded.
The invisible spell was wiped off of Ace, and showed his new appearance. Thatch put his hands over his mouth, and Ace looked away. It was how everyone was going to look at him from now on. He should get used to it. To looking like a true monster, not just being able to turn into one. "Are you okay? Do you hurt?"
Ace wasn't surprised he accepted him. It was Thatch, after all. "I'm not hurt. But they turned me into one of them. A demon from the book of Zeref. But I feel no attraction or pull to him. I just look like this, and have super strength. Nothing else it seems. Yet. But I was told if my book is damaged, I am, too. If the book is destroyed, I'll die with it."
"Where's the book?!"
"We couldn't find it, but tomorrow we'll go with the guild to search for it. We have to find it, and with the help of everyone else, I'm sure we'll manage some how. I don't know how the book would have gotten anywhere else from the cube and all. It might just be a pain finding it," Ace explained. "I don't want to look like this," he said in a broken voice. "I'll never be able to go out in public again and not be treated differently."
Sabo hugged him. Ace also lamented that he couldn't be a wizard, as nobody would hire him. His life was kind of over, now. Sabo swallowed, but seemed to know he was right. Nothing would ever be the same unless they somehow returned Ace to normal by finding that book. And hopefully finding someone to teach them how to fix it.
Harming the book was harming Ace. Or so he was told. So they had to be extra careful. It was lucky the book wasn't destroyed in the rubble and Ace wasn't dead. Ace knew they had to think of that, but no one said a thing.
Ace was surprised Marco slept in the same bed with him like they'd been doing for awhile. They said nothing, but Marco kept pressing soft kisses to Ace's neck, the back of it. "You're still the man I love, no matter how you look, how you change. I love you." Ace cried quietly, and nodded, unable to speak without risking falling apart.
He didn't have the guild to accept him anymore. They were disbanding after all. But these three would stay together. Thatch was fine living without them, and would be by himself if it was easier for Ace. They'd visit him. Ace could fly them, of course. Any time he wanted, they could visit.