Homeward Hours

By CrimsonStarbird

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Inheritance

"This is a stupid idea," Zeref stated.

"I think it's perfect," Natsu rebuffed.

"…You do realize that just proves my point, don't you?"

"Oh, stop whining. It'll be fine."

No one looked twice at them as they traversed the streets of Magnolia. Compared to some of the outlandish outfits favoured by working mages, the old-fashioned robes that Zeref refused to stop wearing were practically tame, and with Natsu at his side, they were clearly out on guild business. The odds of any random citizen making the connection between them and the man who supposedly died trying to destroy the guild thirteen years ago were negligible.

Still, Zeref would have been lying if he'd said he felt comfortable with this situation, and not exclusively because it had been Natsu's idea. It wasn't the first time he'd visited Magnolia since his incarceration had begun – but it was the first time he had been here with permission. Somehow, the fact that he hadn't tricked, threatened, or otherwise blackmailed his way out of his prison to be here made him even less sure about it.

"Hang on," Natsu said, coming to a halt in the middle of the road. "Why are we going this way?"

"This is the way to the train station, isn't it?"

Natsu blanched. "You mean you're not just gonna teleport us there?"

"You know perfectly well why I can't do that, Natsu," Zeref sighed. "Besides, it's just a train. How bad can it be?"

An amused voice spoke up from behind them. "You've never been on a train with Dad before, have you?"

Zeref frowned at the two girls following along behind. "I can't say that I have, no."

"Consider yourself lucky," Felicity sighed.

"It's like death," a wide-eyed Emilia told him gravely.

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"It's. Like. Death."

Exasperated, Zeref's gaze flicked to meet Natsu's. "Did you have to bring them?"

"Yes," Natsu shrugged, without explanation. "Oh, just so you know, Emi gets sick when she sees me being sick, and Felicity has trained herself to sleep through journeys with me, so we'll be relying on you to make sure we get off at the right stop."

"Definitely a stupid idea," Zeref muttered, trying to shepherd his dysfunctional family towards the right platform. It was never a good sign when the man who had been in prison for the last thirteen years, and had been largely withdrawn from society before that, was the most sensible member of their group.

Things only got worse once they were on board. There was nothing to distract Zeref from his own conviction – now buttressed by the truly dreadful sight of his brother and niece brought to their knees by a moving vehicle – that this was a terrible idea.

Oh, it had sounded reasonable from inside the Fairy Sphere. As much as Zeref hated to admit it, Natsu had put forward a good case. They were on their way to the annual Guild Masters' Conference in Clover Town. Although the forms naming Zeref as Lucy's successor were still in an envelope in the guildhall, with strict instructions not to be delivered until the last possible minute, the other Guild Masters had suggested that a representative from Fairy Tail go to the meeting informally. Natsu had thought it was a good idea to send Zeref.

Although Zeref's increasing involvement in the guild had been kept quiet from their allies thus far – largely because the more people who knew, the greater the risk of the Council finding out – Natsu had argued that the other Masters were still likely to take Zeref's appointment better than the Council, owing to their historic friendships with Fairy Tail. It would be good to get them on their side before the official announcement. Not to mention, it would serve as a good dress rehearsal for when they presented Zeref to the Council.

Zeref had protested, of course, but his arguments had relied too heavily on the fact that it would be too dangerous for him to walk into an enclosed hall with a lot of people he would be trying very hard not to kill… and then Natsu had come up with a genuinely good idea that neatly circumvented that line of defence, and thus here they were.

In his defence, Zeref had put as much effort into talking himself into it as Natsu had. He was not doing it for himself, but to make Lucy proud… and it would surely be easier than heading straight into a confrontation with the Magic Council.

But now that he was here, only a few stops away from his first meeting as a representative of the guild that had taken him in, he found himself wishing he was somewhere else – anywhere else. Admittedly, the wretched sight of the family sprawled around him wasn't helping matters, but he knew deep inside that they were just a convenient target for the unease fluttering within his chest.

It wasn't as though he didn't know what he was doing. He had more experience of this than all the other Guild Masters in Fiore put together. Sure, he might be a little out of practice, after a quiet few years of mentoring his guild from behind the scenes, but that short break was nothing compared to the centuries he had spent as a ruler on the world stage.

The thing was, though, Emperor Spriggan hadn't cared about being liked.

To the Guild Master of Fairy Tail, it mattered a great deal. The guild's bonds had always been its strength.

And there was no way this was going to end well.

But surely Natsu could see that. And while Zeref had no doubt Natsu would get a kick out of watching him struggle to be civil to people who despised him, Natsu would never put his guild on the line for the pleasure.

No, Natsu was serious about this. He'd grown up so much, whether Zeref liked it or not.

And that was why, when the train finally rolled into Clover Town, Zeref was still with them, helping Felicity to haul his brother and niece onto solid ground.

Once he had recovered, Natsu led the way to the hall where the Guild Masters were meeting, entirely oblivious to the willpower it was taking for Zeref to keep putting one foot in front of the other beside him.

"Last chance to back out," Zeref advised Natsu dubiously, staring up at the double doors of the meeting hall. "Admit this is a stupid idea, we can go home, and I promise I'll never bring it up again."

Natsu responded with a rude gesture and slammed the doors open.

At first, the noise from inside washed over them like a wave breaking around their ankles, bubbly joy and warm welcome. Natsu strode proudly into it.

Then a reluctant Zeref stepped – well, was pushed, by two pairs of small but insistent hands – after him.

That was when the wave of warmth retreated, and indeed the whole tide went out, and the sun vanished behind a cloud, never to be seen again. Silence reigned supreme as all the Guild Masters of Fiore stared in horror at the enemy they had either thought dead or safely imprisoned.

Zeref turned to the girls. "Who guessed 'dramatic silence' in the guild predictions?" he asked.

"Uhh…" Felicity fished a notebook out of her pocket. "Everyone. Keep going; we'll have to narrow it down a bit to get a winner."

It was Sting who acted first. All those years of walking a delicate line between the boring duties of a Guild Master and the exciting life of one of Sabertooth's Twin Dragons had ensured his instincts remained as sharp as any practising mage. As he lunged forward, the light of the White Dragon encircling his fist, he yelled a warning: "Natsu, behind you!"

"Hey-!" Natsu shouted. He snatched at Sting, but – perhaps because Sting had been anticipating a strike from the presumably escaped villain – he was already in his Dual Mode, and he slipped through Natsu's fingers like the silken shadow he was. Then he was back, body re-forming in time to strike Zeref with all his might.

There was a flash of gold. Sting's white-blazing fist skated along something invisible, not quite making contact with Zeref's skin – but that didn't matter, when he had more than enough momentum behind him to knock them both to the floor.

Sting's hands wrapped around Zeref's neck. Even now, Sting couldn't quite touch him, his fingers never coming closer than a centimetre from Zeref's skin, but he was doing his best to squeeze the life out of his enemy nonetheless.

Zeref stared into those eyes filled with hatred and genuine fear – and the determination to triumph over it, to protect his friends from this terrible threat.

How long had it been since someone had looked at him like that?

It was with a lurch that he realized this used to be normal for him.

"Oi, Sting, cool it," Natsu ordered, but Emilia got there first.

The girl delivered a solid kick to Sting's side. "Hey, don't hurt Uncle Zeref!"

It froze the room nearly as effectively as Zeref's entrance.

Sting demanded, "Uncle what?"

"Alright, that's enough." Natsu grabbed Sting's arm and pulled him to his feet, but not roughly. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't start a fight with the new Master of Fairy Tail as soon as he walks into the room. And you lot think my guild is rowdy…"

That casual revelation brought the chaos straight back.

As a dozen Masters converged on Natsu – ranging from incredulous to outraged, but all contributing to the stampede – Zeref brushed himself down and shuffled back out of the limelight, towards the girls. "Surely that narrows the field down a little?" he asked.

Felicity was frowning as she looked over her list of the guild's bets. "Nah. Pretty much everyone thought Sting would be the first to attack you, and most people hedged their bets by saying someone from the Fairy Tail delegation would physically jump in to defend you, not knowing exactly who was going to be there. Emi fits that bill. You're going to have to stick it out a bit longer."

Heaving a sigh, Zeref dragged his attention back to the rest of the room. He knew all the Masters of Fiore by reputation, just as they knew him – though while his knowledge had come from the newspapers and Lucy's tales, they only remembered the war. Hell, most of them had fought in it. To them, the past thirteen years of change and reconciliation had never happened.

And so it should have stayed. He'd been doing just fine in Fairy Tail, away from those who saw only what he had been, and not what he could be. Why did that have to change? Even by Natsu's standards, this had been a stupid idea…

"This is some kind of practical joke, right?" Lyon accused. He wasn't the Master of Lamia Scale – Ooba Babasama was too ill to travel, that was all – but no one would challenge his right to be here.

"Nope," Natsu corrected him brightly.

"But- but he can't possibly be the new Master of Fairy Tail!"

Zeref folded his arms. "Finally, someone with some common sense."

Natsu growled at him, far more hostile a warning than he was giving the crowd of his friends.

Unheeding, Zeref continued, "Well, now that I've proven my point, perhaps we can cut our losses and head back home."

Flames flashed in Natsu's eyes. It was a mark of his newfound maturity that only figurative things were set alight. Whirling around, he tried to seize the front of Zeref's robes, only for his fingers to skate along the same apparent forcefield that had prevented Sting from making contact. With a snarl, he grabbed Zeref's wrist, forcefield and all.

"Girls, keep them distracted," he snapped. As Felicity and Emilia stepped up to the door and faced down the worried Masters, Natsu hauled Zeref back outside.

The moment the door had closed behind them, Natsu kicked his brother back against the wall and pinned him there. "What the hell are you playing at?"

A shrug. "I'm just saying it as it is."

"No. That's not what you're doing. You're deliberately trying to make this go wrong!"

Zeref gave a disbelieving laugh. "I don't need to do anything to make this go wrong! It was always destined to be a disaster!"

"Only because you're not putting any effort into it. You could annihilate those guys in there if you put your mind to it."

Still pinned by Natsu's arm, Zeref raised his hands, an innocent gesture of surrender meant to draw attention to the underlying threat. "Not like this, I can't."

"I don't mean with magic," Natsu spat. "Like I'd let you attack my friends. But you don't need magic. Those guys in there – they're like me. They're leading their guilds because they understand family and want to provide a home for people who are lost and troubled, just like we used to be. They are not politicians; they just got landed with the bureaucracy of being a Guild Master while trying to protect their fellow members. They scrape through the political wrangling with the Council by the skin of their teeth. You, though? You excel at it. You ruled a continent for hundreds of years, and you enjoyed it. Forget about magic – if you actually bothered, you could annihilate that group in there with words alone!"

Zeref stared, wondering if this was the first time Natsu had ever paid him a compliment.

"But you won't," Natsu added, utter disappointment in his tone. "Because you've given up without even trying."

"It's not as simple as that-"

"Are you a Fairy Tail mage or not?"

Zeref glanced away.

It seemed he was the only one who had difficulty with that question, as Natsu continued, "Then get back in there and fight. Show them what you can do. Show them why we chose you!"

"…Let go of me, Natsu."

After a moment, quietly burning, Natsu released the pressure and stepped away. Whatever he had seen in Zeref in that moment, it seemed enough to make Natsu turn his back completely and push the doors open again. With one final sigh, Zeref followed him into the meeting hall for the second time.

"-and he made me this!" Emilia was in the middle of announcing, proudly displaying the runic charm around her neck to a room full of half-bemused, half-concerned Guild Masters, who apparently needed more than a birthday present to convince them of the infamous Black Mage's goodwill.

Indeed, they all converged upon Natsu again the moment they saw him. It was only with a stamp of his foot – and the ensuing burst of flame – that he was able to silence them.

"I'm only gonna say this once, so shut up and listen," he ordered. "Zeref's been helping with the guild for years. In fact, the only reason why Luce even considered becoming Guild Master was because she got on best with him and wanted to keep him involved. We've not exactly been publicizing it because – well, it was none of your business. But it's gonna be official from here on out, so you're gonna have to deal with it."

The silence stretched on as the shellshocked crowd tried to process his words.

Sting was the first to find his voice, weak though it was. "This really isn't a joke, then?"

"No joke," Natsu confirmed.

"Quite so," Zeref agreed coolly. "I think you'll find that I have as much right to be here as any of you."

A jolt ran through the gathering at his words, the consequences of Natsu's simple phrase hitting home. The Dragon Slayer's apparent burst of madness was far from the most dangerous thing here.

Zeref took one step forwards, and then another. Their eyes tracked his every action, all their instincts telling them to attack, yet terrible indecision held them in place. He, the intruder, was the only one who seemed free to move.

Beyond the Guild Masters lay the long table they had vacated at the shock of his entry, a bastion of celebration laden with buffet food and countless wine bottles. The annual Masters' conference was supposed to be a party. A time for renewing friendships and strengthening bonds. The hall had never known such tension as now built with his every footstep.

Halfway to the table, he paused and glanced back over his shoulder. "I'll let you off this once, but I would strongly advise against attacking me again."

A spark ignited in Sting's eyes, but this time, he managed to stay his fist. Good. They wouldn't attack him now; they had no choice but to listen.

It was Master Goldmine, the only one of the old guard yet to retire or otherwise pass the baton to the next generation, who spoke up severely. "The Magic Council don't know about this, do they?"

"No," Zeref confirmed, deliberately ignoring the implied threat. His attention had returned to the dining table, his back to the room as he surveyed the offerings, making it oh so clear that he had nothing to fear the way they did. "We have another five days before we legally have to inform them. They can keep their ignorant bliss for a little longer."

"You know they won't allow this," Sting asserted.

It was a warning to Natsu, his friend, but he had not been able to tear his gaze away from Zeref, and indeed it was Zeref who answered him. "Do you think so? As a Guild Master yourself, I naturally assumed you would be familiar with the Guild Regulations of X759… or is that not the case?"

The Dragon Slayer's glare drove into his back. Zeref let him seethe for a bit longer, helping himself to the most expensive bottle of wine the way he might have done at an imperial banquet. Only then did he turn back to face the angry Guild Masters, leaning casually against the table, glass in his hand.

"There are three circumstances under which the Magic Council can reject a guild's choice of Master," he lectured. "The first is if they can demonstrate that the Master is incapable of carrying out their legal duties. Quite aside from the fact that I have more years of experience than the entire Council put together, I also have the full support of my guild, and, I dare say, a better understanding of the regulations than any of my predecessors. That will never stick.

"The second is in the event of wilful misconduct or non-compliance. Given that we can prove that almost all the written correspondence between Fairy Tail and the Council for nearly thirteen years – correspondence which has markedly improved our working relationship – was in fact penned by me, they're going to struggle to pin that one on me, too."

Here, he paused, swilling the liquid in his glass. It gleamed in the lamplight, though not quite as brightly as his eyes.

"The third," resumed he, "is in the event of a criminal conviction."

A startled laugh escaped Sting's lips. "Are you honestly going to try and argue that you don't have a criminal record? After everything you've done? You're supposed to be in prison!"

"Well, that's where it gets complicated," Zeref said, affecting a frown. "My imprisonment was always about containing a threat rather than following the law. There was no trial, no due process; everything about it was improper. And once you start looking into the details, it becomes clear why they cut those corners. First, you've got the fact that I was born long before modern records began, and was widely believed to be dead through most of the intervening years – and, of course, I have been officially dead for the last thirteen years. Then there's the fact that, at the time of any potential wrongdoing, I was the Head of State of a country with very few legal agreements with yours, let alone any official formulation of dual criminality. That makes it extraordinarily difficult to charge me under Fiorean law – with potentially dangerous international repercussions if they did. To be honest, it's a legal quagmire, and I doubt the Magic Council could justify the expense of dragging me through the courts just to get a theoretical answer that is useless to them in practice."

"It wouldn't be useless if it stopped this," Master Jenny of Blue Pegasus pointed out, though she was frowning.

"But that's the thing," he corrected her. "It can't stop this. It is irrelevant whether the Magic Council can or cannot charge me with historic crimes. I have secular amnesty. They are legally prevented from taking any action against me in respect of actual or potential breaches of the law, including prohibition from holding office, without Queen Hisui's express permission."

"And you think she'll take your side?"

"Yes," he said. "I do."

Thanks to Lucy, of course.

Levy had had the good sense to approach the Queen of Fiore and lay out their position before they had set foot on the road that inexorably led to chaos, just as Lucy had done when this began so many years ago. This was the culmination of all Lucy's hopes for him and her guild. Hisui had agreed to trust her judgement one last time.

"So," Zeref resumed idly, "neither of the first two conditions apply to me, and the third is null and void. The Magic Council have no grounds on which to reject my appointment as Guild Master."

Sting shot back at once: "Other than the fact that you're supposed to be in prison?"

"I am in prison," Zeref shrugged.

The Dragon Slayer jerked his head towards the wine glass in his hand and the banquet spread out behind him, glaring as though Zeref's mere presence was forcibly preventing him from being able to take his own share of the food. "Funny-looking prison to me."

Zeref snapped his fingers. It was just for show, but half of them flinched, and he smirked inwardly. The forcefield which had prevented Sting from touching him changed from transparent to a pale, shimmering gold. It covered his entire body, a centimetre-thick layer of energy that sat atop his skin like a suit of armour, permeable to some things and entirely impenetrable to others. It fizzed silently at his fingertips, where the stem of the glass ran straight through it.

"It was Natsu's idea, you know," he said offhandedly. "Well, I was the one who had to work out all the technical details of the spell, as usual, but credit where credit's due, I suppose."

He could feel Natsu scowling at him, but he couldn't risk turning to acknowledge him. Couldn't risk breaking the atmosphere of control and apprehension.

"Natsu reasoned that if the Fairy Sphere could be cast with an alternate focus point than my house, there was nothing to say that the focus point itself couldn't be moveable. Not once I'd got the magic circles to remain stable in a variable reference frame, anyway. Then it was just a case of ploughing through the runework to adjust it from a huge cumbersome dome to something more convenient. No living thing can pass through it, nor any kind of magic – neither my own, nor yours, as Sting here can attest."

The White Dragon Slayer was glaring so fiercely that he might have been trying to shoot laser beams from his eyes to test that theory.

"So, as you can see, I am still very much within the prison Fairy Tail devised for me," Zeref finished easily. "My being here is not in contravention of the agreement between Fairy Tail, the Council, and the Crown."

Silence resumed, made all the more aggressive by the others' inability to contradict his logic.

Leisurely, Zeref pushed himself away from the table and strolled alongside it. "Now, while I would be the first to admit that untangling the intricacies of legal agreements isn't one of my guild's strengths, it's certainly one of mine. We wouldn't have revealed this to you if we weren't absolutely certain that our case is watertight." He seated himself at the head of the table and gazed up at them coolly. "I would highly recommend that you stop trying to refute my right to be here, and let us get on with the meeting."

"I don't care about the technicalities!" Sting burst out savagely. Each step forward cracked the floorboards beneath him. "You could have found a loophole to make yourself the King of Fiore for all I care. It's not about laws or politics. It's about right and wrong – and for all the wrong you've done, you don't deserve to be here! You should be locked up for the rest of eternity!"

Zeref didn't respond, at first.

Let them wait.

Let the tension crackle and jump.

Then he smiled. "You are right, of course."

"What-?" Sting choked, thrown.

"I don't deserve to be here. I waged war on your country. People died. Livelihoods were destroyed. And that's barely the tip of the iceberg of my long and rather eventful life. I have done things to which your darkest nightmares do not even come close. I did them deliberately and felt no remorse. I have no right to be sat here with you, participating in your quaint little gathering and sharing your excellent wine. And yet," he added softly, "here I am."

Leaning back in his chair, he propped both feet up on the banquet table, and fixed the Guild Masters with a look that reminded them why the only diplomats who ever complained that Emperor Spriggan rarely bothered to turn up to international summits were the ones who hadn't met him.

"So," he said. "What are you going to do about it?"

An uncertain murmur ran through the crowd.

Taking advantage of their disquiet, he continued, as if it was effortless, "Are you going to try and take vengeance on me right now?" He gave a pointed glance at the orb of light still blazing around Sting's hand. "Or are you going to ostracize Fairy Tail, your old friends, for their decision to give me a second chance? Did your friendship cease to mean anything the moment they welcomed me in? Have you already forgotten how quickly they forgave you?"

This time, Sting was not the only one to look away guiltily.

"After so many years of peace, do you want to make an enemy of me again?" Zeref dared. "Will you deny me my chance to contribute to the guild that took me in, and plunge us back into a cycle of hate? Will you throw away the future, all because you do not think I have paid sufficiently for the sins of the past?"

"So you're saying we should just forget about everything you've done, when you've not shown even a hint of remorse for your actions?" Sting shot back.

Zeref met his gaze evenly, and there was enough darkness in it to make the fearsome Dragon Slayer take a step back.

"I will not ask for your forgiveness," he stated. "The only people I care about have already offered it to me. Instead, I will say this: you can waste your time whining about how I don't deserve it, or you can accept it and move on. Maybe it isn't fair to those who died. But do you think a future governed by that grudge is better than one in which we work together, as Masters of closely allied guilds?"

One last time, his words were met with silence instead of knee-jerk opposition, and he knew he had them.

He pressed, "For the past thirteen years, Fairy Tail has faced up to the same questions you are asking now. This is their answer. Surely you…"

He tailed off.

"Emilia, what are you doing?"

The girl beamed up at him from where she had climbed onto his lap. "Being your mascot!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Dad said you were being too scary, and that you needed a mascot to make you look more friendly," she explained sagely. "Since Happy's not here, I volunteered!"

"Emilia," he sighed. "I'm in the middle of something here."

"Who cares? Pass me a jam tart."

In the corner of the room, Natsu was doing his best to stifle his laughter. The Guild Masters stared at the sight of Natsu's daughter being so comfortable around their hated enemy, all their fear forgotten. The moment was gone.

Reluctantly accepting that not even he would be able to bring the room back under control from here, Zeref passed her a jam tart.

Emilia shifted to give the startled Guild Masters a wave. She was heavier than she looked; he was glad of the modified Fairy Sphere absorbing some of the pressure, just as he was of it holding back his curse. He could feel her weight, though he couldn't feel her. He couldn't properly hug her the way he wanted to. Yet it was so much closer than he'd ever thought he would be able to get.

His family were all putting so much trust in the barrier. Emilia may not have truly understood the danger, but Natsu did, and he was perfectly relaxed about his daughter interacting with his brother – had instigated it, in fact, just to ruin his fun. The presence of the girls was helping to mitigate the difficulty of maintaining the Fairy Sphere away from the geographical centre of the guild: between Fairy Tail's new Master, its most famous mage, and two girls who had literally grown up in the guildhall, combined with Zeref's own phenomenal power, it seemed to be holding up as well as the calculations had promised.

And yet his family's trust in the Fairy Sphere was nothing compared to the trust they were putting in him.

He spoke of it like it was nothing to the Guild Masters, but the truth was, it was so utterly humbling that he did not know how to express it.

"Have a jam tart!" Emilia waved at the confounded Guild Masters. "They're really good!"

Zeref gave a sigh. "Why don't you all sit down?" he said to the assembled Masters. It was an invitation, not an order. He had let go of the power and the control. With his point made, and his right to be here established, he had no intention of antagonizing them for no reason; there was more to be gained now from showing them that he was willing to converse on an even footing. "We can talk about this over dinner. Natsu and I can fill you in on what you've missed these last thirteen years in Fairy Tail."

Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to be the first to move. More surprisingly – at least to Zeref – was the fact that Natsu came to his rescue, dropping into the seat next to him. "Don't mind if I do," he breezed, shovelling free food onto his plate.

"You know," Zeref observed, after a moment, "if any of us genuinely doesn't have the right to be here, it's you. You might want to go easy on the buffet. They'd have every right to charge you for it."

Natsu glared at him.

"I'm just saying, as the person in charge of Fairy Tail's finances for the foreseeable future-"

"Oh, shut up."

Zeref watched the others gingerly finding places at the long table. In an undertone, he murmured, "Why did you send Emilia over? First you tell me to stand up to them and assert my right to be here, and next, you're stopping me just as I'm getting into it."

"You looked like you were starting to let it get to your head," Natsu explained flatly.

"…I beg your pardon?"

"You're part of Fairy Tail now. You're not allowed to have overwhelming competence. It'll ruin our image."

"So," Zeref observed, "you admit that I'm good at this, then."

Natsu's face contorted in strange ways as he tried and failed to think of a way out of it. "Yes, alright, fine," he scowled. "But I knew that, obviously. Or I'd never have talked you into it."

"Mm. I think I'm going to enjoy being Guild Master."

Because the truth was, he did have skills that the guild needed. Fairy Tail had plenty of powerful mages, but by its very nature, it lacked those with both the capability and the will to represent them on the political stage. It was something only he could do. It was something he wanted to do. He would let no one stop him from becoming who he needed to be for his guild.

Lucy had wanted the best for him, but it was Natsu who had seen it through for her. And Zeref was going to live up to that, for both of them.

By this point, Felicity had settled into the chair on his other side, warily eyeing the little tower of jam tarts that Emilia was building on her plate. Zeref asked her, "So, do we have a winner on the guild predictions yet?"

Felicity flicked through her notebook once more. "Stunned silence… an unprovoked attack by Sting, averted by someone from the Fairy Tail team defending you… you giving up without even trying… Dad beating some sense into you… and you convincing the other Guild Masters to give you a chance through a combination of blackmail, logic, and emotion. Yup, looks like we've got a winner."

"That's almost spot-on," he acknowledged. "Who guessed that?"

"Mum, of course."

"What? How could she have-?"

"We talked about it," interjected Natsu, with surprising calm, stilling the frantic whirling of Zeref's mind as soon as it had begun. "About you. She'd been planning to step down as Guild Master and hand over to you properly. She had this whole vision for exactly how it would work… she just didn't think you were ready yet."

Then he shrugged. "Turned out you were."