Wishfull-star: (⌒ω⌒)
One chapter left after this one! It was fun posting this story, so I'll be a bit sad to finish it. I know what I'm posting next, not a crossover but a modern au for Ace and Marco. Been posting a lot of crossovers lately so I'm gonna do a non-crossover one. Enjoy~
Ace sat on the roof of Lucy's home, waiting for the moment they'd strike. Natsu was inside the house, and they agreed to tag team. If Natsu wanted to kill Zeref, and claimed he had a weapon trump card strong enough to do it, and Ace wanted revenge or the hope that he'd go back to how he was once that magic was gone, it made sense for them to work together.
The dragon and dragon slayer working together. Two fire wizards. They still thought he was a wizard, not a demon now. It was nice to be considered that way, even if his fire was never magic and now he had the curse power. Natsu was unable to eat his fire, so he couldn't fuel up while they fought. He, Lucy and Happy were inside, but Ace just needed to think.
The story Master Mavis told them had Ace seeing Zeref in another light. He hated him, and thought he was evil and dangerous, but he could understand why he became twisted like he was now. Why he cared for no life and instead defiled it. It was the power of loneliness that births someone like him.
When Ace thought of being lonely, he thought of his seven years awake. But he had Mavis sometimes. The animals, and the bodies of his living friends and family. Zeref had no life. Literally, every living thing around him died. It was a terrible curse that both he and Mavis suffered from. When they found one another again, awhile after Mavis learned she was cursed like him, they planned to live together.
Yet Zeref unwillingly killed her. It was tragic, and Ace wanted to kill Zeref also to put him out of his misery. As a human being who didn't like suffering or for others to suffer anymore, he wanted to put Zeref and the world out of pain. Nobody else seemed to see it that way, so he said nothing of his feelings.
Marco and Sabo were working together, with Ace having his own task. He was to take out any ships from the air. Natsu would be following him along during that, holding onto Ace's neck, as he was much larger now. The size of Lucy's building, though not as tall. He hoped that Acnlogia would not join the battle and ruin everything again.
Fairy Heart wasn't a spell to bring back or protect life. Fairy Heart was an eternal source of magic. They kept it hidden so it didn't throw the whole magic world into chaos and unease. It could also be used against them by an enemy. Ace thought it would be best to have it destroyed, but he didn't think that would be easy.
He felt safe knowing his book was not in that room, but inside the wall of the very restricted place. If only magic could damage the book, Ace would have dumped it in the middle of the ocean with a pile of rocks to make it disappear forever. But if a shark or some sort of other animal ate it, he'd be dead, then, too.
Ace's life was forever tied to his book. He hoped killing Zeref would fix that. He would kill Zeref for his sake, his world's sake, and Zeref's sake. If Natsu couldn't do it, Ace would. He stared at the stars, wondering how much of Magnolia would be damaged this time. And if they'd all survive. They didn't have Igneel and the other dragons to save their asses like in Tartaros. And there was nobody strong enough to beat Acnologia if not even Igneel could.
Just as Ace's and Natsu's goals aligned in killing Zeref, they also did for defeating the king of dragons. Ace knew he'd come after them eventually. They had a lot of dragon slayers and a dragon in one place. Natsu wanted to kill him for killing his beloved Igneel. Ace wanted to kill him for revenge of his seven years.
Ace would be the only dragon left standing. The only living dragon in the world. And after Acnologia died, Ace would never use his dragon side again. This world was no longer equipped to deal with them.
He saw Mavis fly over them like a real fairy, and smiled. "I won't let them get hurt again!" Ace called. She landed, and said, "You've become so strong. I believe in you." Ace smiled, and returned the sentiment. She left, and Ace sat back down.
It wasn't long later that Warren alerted them to an assault of fifty ships from the sky. It was Ace's time to shine. He dropped down and opened Lucy's window. "Time to fly," Ace said. Natsu nodded, and Ace transformed below, Natsu jumped onto his back, holding around his neck. Happy grabbed onto his tail, since he was faster than the exceed could keep up.
He flew high in dragon form, and made no noise. He was black and the sky was black. They couldn't see him before he slammed into the first ship, decimating it by the impact but also his skin. Looks like they didn't have enough time to alter their weapons. Ace was still poison to them. He and Natsu both bathed the area in flames, burning the sails on the air ships.
"Stop them!" Harpoons were shot at him, but went straight through his body with some flames. They next shot magic bullets, an Ace absorbed them on impact. "He-he's invincible!" The sand man he'd seen before looked at Ace in that terrified way again. Ace bathed his ship in flames before grabbing the sand man and punting him to the ground, where he died on impact.
Ace shuffled the plummeted airships to the side so they didn't damage the building. "The air force is taken care of!" Natsu declared proudly.
"Not yet. We don't need survivors," Ace said, and blasted fire where the ships had crashed. Neither Natsu or Happy seemed bothered by this. Ace had expected them to. It was better they didn't, though. "Should we split up?" Natsu asked.
"We should, yeah. It's not time to go after Zeref yet, we should take care of the city first." Ace landed and declared he'd help to keep the magic shield protecting them from breaking or being invaded by patrolling the area. He flew in circles, blasting fires at those trying to evade. They shot at Ace, but none of their weapons worked with his fire body.
Even when a weapon of water shot at him, it didn't hurt. It was harmless, so his body stayed solidified. But he had to give them credit for not running from the dragon with their tails between their legs. He kept the enchantment up, but there were holes inside. He heard screaming in agony from below, and saw a whole squadron of men screaming bloody murder, standing not too far from Marco. Sabo destroyed them all with touches of bright aqua, causing them to crumble. His least tiring form of killing. And one that he used the least.
Marco beamed up at Ace. "Good job, babe!"
"You, too! Don't run out of magic for us for tomorrow!" Marco laughed, and promised he'd do his best.
While Ace was circling the city, a massive shot of magic power came hurtling at Magnolia from fat away, advancing fast. He was worried about it braking through the forcefield. If it landed, the city would be destroyed, or at least a lot of it. That had happened to Magnolia enough times. He took a deep breath, ready to try and absorb it, before he looked up and his eyes widened. The Christina had come.
Ace shouted the name, not knowing who was on it, as it collided and protected Fairy Tail from the blast. He flew there immediately, turning into human form and picked apart the debris. "This is war! And not just for you! Fiore's sentrie communication network! Activate! Can you al hear me?! This battle involves all of us!" It was Ichiya. The guy that annoyed Ace during their adventure with the Nirvana so long ago.
The dragon grinned, knowing they'd get back up now. He was feeling tired, so he knew he should stop being a dragon right now and prepare for the battle with Natsu against Zeref. He didn't know if he'd need to take over, but he was giving the first try to Natsu. Ace smiled at Ichiya, who looked very beat up, and helped him out.
He was unsurprised by Ace's appearance given they'd been escorted back to Fairy Tail by the Christina back at Alvarez. Ace easily picked the small man up, who was breathing raggedly. He was very injured, even before the thing crashed. Ace helped him inside the guild to get treatment.
The small man was taken to the infirmary and fixed up, though his fight was over for this war. Everyone was being sent in different directions at the moment, and Ace found Natsu gearing up, stuffing his face with some food. Ace guzzled water and went outside to collect for ethernano from the air and ground to prepare.
"Ready, Ace?" Natsu asked with a grin. Though Ace knew it wasn't a happy grin, more of a determined and pumped up grin.
"Now or never. Wish I could have said goodbye to Sabo and Marco first." Happy insisted they weren't going to die. "I know. I woulda' had Marco kiss me, that's all." Happy blushed and Natsu grinned. Ace turned into dragon form, and Natsu climbed onto his back with Happy pressed to his chest. "Ready?"
"Yeah! It's time to settle the score, Zeref!" Natsu roared as Ace took off, following the directions to where Zeref was, in the east with his massive army. How many people would die in this war on both sides? Now they had many guilds and allies working with them, meaning it was possible that more or less would die.
Possibly more based on how many more people there were to kill, or less because of the force being stronger working together.
When they came across the marching army, there were so many and so close they looked like a rug, moving into the kingdom without a care of who they killed or how much they damaged the landscape. "We'll burn them to ashes, Ace!" Ace nodded, and they both rained fire as Ace flew above the, justifiably terrifying them with a living, breathing dragon that was blasting fire down. "Let me down!" Ace dropped low enough for Natsu to land and decimate those around him. Ace landed when he saw the black sphere appear. It was a nasty black, like a void. Not even just matt black, but a void of all color.
"You got here faster than I expected," Natsu said. Ace changed into half human form, harder to hit with a lot of magic being smaller and a leser target. He stood back, Happy behind him. Zeref ignored Ace, not even sparing a look.
"I was just eager to say hi… Natsu," Zeref said with a light smile. Natsu began to unwrap the bandages that always covered his right arm. The secret trump card.
"But now it's time to say goodbye, Zeref," the pink haired wizard said confidently. Zeref seemed unbothered, and asked the non-charred and killed soldiers in his force behind him to give them space, back up a few kilometers. Was his attack that big, or Natsu's? They already took out easily a few thousand, but it was nothing compared to just how many. But Ace would be backup for this monster, not his helpless army.
Natsu said, "We're not handing over the first Master."
"The only reason it's come to this is because you've been unable to destroy me." Finally he glanced to Ace. "It seems Tataros had some fun of their own. A dragon demon. Quite fearsome. I'm surprised Acnologia hasn't come for you yet. Oh, I haven't been looked at with pity in quite some time." He saw Ace's expression then.
Ace spoke. "More like a form of sympathy. I was alone a long time, but I can't imagine your pain over the centuries. But that doesn't make the things you do excusable. I just see a twisted and broken man trying to feel something." Zeref raised his brows in light surprise at Ace's words. Their honestly.
"Enough talking," Natsu said firmly, all of his bandages removed, showing a tattoo covering his upper arm and reaching down to his elbow. It looked a bit like Gray's marking on his arm, but this one was… cooler? It looked badass. Natsu told them to get further away. Ace grew wings and carried himself and happy a bit away more. Out of the line of fire.
"Here I come!" Natsu announced before shooting forward and nailing Zeref in the face. Ace watched the following beat down with wide eyes. Natsu had been even stronger already after the year of separation, but this was way more advanced and brutal. Ace was sure the power of this spell could rival the ethernano cannon that Ace had been able to produce before he got sick from it. All destroying, burning the ground away.
Ace was surprised Natsu's clothes didn't burn away, too. "I'm surprised, what is that power you have?" Zeref asked, sounding unbothered by the beat down, though he wasn't caught in surprise anymore, so he could fight back. He just seemed smug and entertained. Though, he was immortal and didn't fear death. Ace heard he wanted to die. So he wasn't worried over this at all.
What would it be like to both not be afraid of and wish for death? You'd be unafraid of anything or anybody. It sounded kind of scary, to not be afraid.
"I got it from Igneel," Ntsu said, bringing Ace back from his thoughts. "It's the last of his power he left within me. It took me more than ten months to be able to release it." Zeref was surprised. Ace was, too. No wonder he left for training if it took that long to unlock. It wouldn't do to have any distractions like friends or jobs. But the guild was disbanded regardless, so he wouldn't have had to worry about that. "Yeah, once this power is used up, it's gone for good. It was Igneel's resolve."
Zeref was momentarily lost in his shock before Natsu spared no time and attacked again. "Fire dragon king mode!" he shouted, covering himself in fire. The ground caught of fire and began to disintegrate around them, leaving scorched craters in a ring around the two enemies. "This is the end, Zeref!" And he punched him with the fire coated hand, with Zeref looking relieved. He really did want to die.
He was enveloped in the flames, and the moment it was released, Natsu fell to his knees, panting. Happy called his name, but he said he was okay. "I got one more shot." He panted. Zeref was damaged but not dead. "Igneel, give me power! Just one more shot, I can do it!" Natsu shouted to himself or the remaining dragon life left inside of him.
"I am truly impressed by your power, Natsu. I've always believed you might be the one to finish me off. But I am afraid you are a bit too late. You see, I came to desire the world's destruction over my demise. That is, until I met you just now. It is possible… that your next attack might kill an immoral such as I. Depending on how much strength you have left, that is.
"And so, while I still live, I have something very important that I think I should tell you." Ace frowned, now knowing what to expect. Happy looked worried, too. "My name is Zeref Dragneel. I am your older brother." Ace dropped his jaw, and Happy was shocked, too. Natsu clearly believed he was lying. And Ace couldn't say otherwise. Zeref could totally be lying to try and throw Natsu off.
The dark wizard gave none of them the time to recover from the shocking claim before he began to explain further. He claimed that he and Natsu had a family 400 years ago, but all but Zeref had been killed in a dragon attack. Including Natsu. So… Natsu died once, too? How did he come back? Ace squeezed Happy in his arms a little tighter.
"So I researched and researched on how to bring you back. In my research I came up with a way to create life. Etherious… demons from the book of Zeref. Though that one is not included." Ace was kind of insulted he was called "that one". "And you are the greatest of them. Etherious Natsu Dragneel. E.N.D."
Ace knew a normal person would be in shock and horror. Maybe fear of Natsu, after hearing the wild claim that Natsu was the king of the demons of the book of Zeref. But all Ace felt was sadness and sympathy. He would accept Natsu and help him through this, just as Marco and Sabo did for him.
Ace was a demon from the book of Zeref, even if he was maybe considered a second generation. But Natsu wasn't evil at all. He could be annoying and destructive, but everyone at Fairy Tail could be. He wasn't evil like the enemies at Tartaros.
Happy told Natsu not to believe a word he was saying. Natsu didn't. Ace stayed silent. "I'm supposed to be Zeref's brother and E.N,D?! That's way too much to swallow!" Natsu brought up the fact that Igneel was unable to kill E.N.D. If Natsu was that, it would have been easy for him to be killed by the dragon as a child.
"True. There was no physical reason he couldn't kill you. But he couldn't do it because he loved you." Natsu was angry and in denial now. But he'd been angry the whole time, so now he was thoroughly irritated. He wasn't E.N.D., he didn't create Tartaros like those demons claimed over and over. That E.N.D. was the strongest of them, the leader and their creator.
It didn't add up because Natsu had never been there before. Suddenly, Natsu's book appeared in Zeref's hand. Unlike Ace's, it had no strap and the letters E.N.D. were written on it. It was clearly very old and worn down. "Tartaros was founded by Mard Geer. He simply attributed its creation to this book, which he found on accident." Ace didn't know why it would ever be found on accident if it was such an important thing to Zeref.
Had he just left it laying around and Mard Geer just randomly found it? Ace wanted more context on why he would be so reckless to put Natsu - his brother - in danger by losing the book. It made him angry about it. Natsu continued to be in denial, furiously protesting that he was human! Ace felt for him. Truly.
But he was coming to the conclusion that this was the truth, and Natsu was both Zeref's brother and a demon. He was lucky he didn't look the part at all. Ace was worried when Zeref dropped the book to the ground and shot it. Natsu cried out in pain, his own safety and wellbeing tied to the book on the ground in front of him.
It made Ace's heart beat faster. That could happen to him. His book could get hurt, and then Ace would, too. It put him in a state of panic. He needed to get Natsu's book to safety, but he was feeling afraid to go that close to Zeref. He was embarrassed to be scared of him.
He explained that Natsu never wanted to learn anything as a child after being brought back, so he asked Igneel for help. It had been 400 years ago, after all. He and Igneel lived in the same time. Igneel offered to teach Natsu dragon slaying magic. But the story got more complicated, and explained further why the dragons had once been inside of he dragon slayers' bodies, and had come out during the conclusion to the Tartaros battle.
Ace had been hiding that whole time.
But the plan the dragons came up with was to teach children dragon slaying magic, and then implant themselves into them and send them to the future to defeat Acnologia. They were sent to the future because the dragons needed stronger ethernano sources to keep the souls of themselves in the children permanently.
Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue were all chosen. They were true dragon slayers, not like Laxus or the poison dragon slayer from Oracion Seis. "My goal was never Acnologia. I just wanted someone strong enough to kill me." Then the Eclipse Gate came into play, the thing Ace had never seen but was burnt by. It had been opened to send the five children to the future. The day they all thought their parent dragons disappeared was just the day they entered the future. The present being 400 years in the future.
"I'd waited for you. But it was simply too long. I'd been through too much. I had seen ages come and go… so many I forgot the value of a single human life. Then I met Mavis… and lost her, too…"
"Shut up! You expect me to believe that crap!?" Natsu shouted as he went in for the final attack.
Zeref stood in the same spot, ready for the blow and not going to fight to protect himself. "You are a demon of the book of Zeref. If you kill me… you'll die, too." It was probably the same for Ace. He let Happy go in case he exploded or something, and closed his eyes, ready for him to die, too. He wanted his family to live and be safe. If he lost his life in that process… well, everyone was ready for it.
But when it didn't happen, he opened his eyes and saw Happy had stopped Natsu short, not allowing him to hit Zeref. Natsu's attack faded, but Happy refused to let both he and Ace die. This plan was over. Ace took a deep, shuddering breath and used his zoom skill to grab Natsu's book to bring it to safety to rest with his own, probably.
Only he got a few meters away from Zeref and was planning to ditch the place when he felt the book burn in his hand. He didn't drop it, refusing to let Natsu's life be in danger by the stupid book. He screamed as the familiar feeling came back. From when he was in the tank, and he and was connected to the book.