I had to divide most of the Legacy of Evil chapters (all but Tenrou Island) into basically two parts for reasons. None of the chapter contents are any different, just split. I have the starting A/N of the original chapter at the beginning of the first 'half,' and the ending A/N at the end of the second split chapter. Generally speaking. *Le sigh. This was a drama. Sorry つ﹏⊂
However! There is one actually new chapter to make up for it! So please forgive me. （＞人＜；）
As a fanfic series, Fairy Tail the True Tale is based on Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail. I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters. I only own my story and Aki.
In the true spirit of Erika from Durarara, let's deny how Fairy Tail 'ended,' and believe in a different tale, the True Tale.
"Reality is such a pain. And for those of us who get fed up with reality, we simply choose to make a new one… If you make fiction just as valuable as reality, then any reality you don't need can be a delusion." – Erika-chama.
The build up was worth it, enjoy Fairy Tail True Tale!
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Lucy stepped back through the portal, her shoulders relaxing despite the prospect of trying to keep the Black Mages out of jail. It would be hard, she knew, but Fairy Tail would find a way to work it out. If only—she sweat-dropped—because of their weird ability to stay out of prison after all the years of property and physical damages.
After the events of that night, though, it felt like they might be pushing the limits of even Fairy Tail's uncanny, near-supernatural ability to stay out of trouble— well, out of jail— well, out of jail for longer than a single night as a scapegoat for blame…
What she and Yukino had learned that night had turned their conceptions of the Black Mages, the scourges of humanity, the cruel and maniacal overlords of death, completely on their heads.
She and Yukino, the two celestial mages who held all twelve of the Zodiac Keys, had been enlisted to go back in time and kill the vulnerable versions of the Black Mages, Zeref and Aki. As if that hadn't been enough of a premeditated debacle, it had been scheduled for the last day of the grand magic games, forcing her to be absent from cheering her guildmates on.
Despite not liking, rather, despite hating the idea with every ounce of her logical being that had somehow survived the years in her unique guild, she had been roped into yet another hair-brained scheme. Really, she had only accompanied Yukino to prevent the goal-oriented mage from committing the murders of two innocent people—people who had turned out to be children; infuriating, driven, thaumaturgic prodigies.
Apparently not enough of a dramatic night, those very same brats- children had felt the need to follow Lucy and Yukino back to the future. After fleeing the vengeful Colonel Who-Needs-Temporal-Continuity-Anyway Arcadios—as she was determined to scathingly call him in her head from then on (he was supposed to be an adult, a capable military man, not a revenge-seeking idiot that had so brilliantly lead the well-planned, well-informed, calculated, totally-not-world-ending 'Eclipse Gate Project.' In what universe-)—the two kids had searched for and somehow found their older selves.
They had returned desperate and despairing, but, ignoring the dull light of childhood trauma in their eyes, it had been a very good thing. Sobbing their hearts out on Natsu's vest—it was amazing how much liquid his scarf could absorb—the younger pair had revealed what they had learned; their older selves had been cursed with the Curse of Contradictions; cursed for bringing their brother back to life; cursed to kill what they loved; cursed to eternal insanity; cursed to never meet the brother they loved so much again.
Cursed, for bringing Natsu back to life.
Natsu, Lucy's teammate in Fairy Tail, the Fire Dragon Slayer who was fundamental to Lucy's Fairy Tail being, well, Fairy Tail. Natsu, who was her best friend, always there for her, and she for him. She hadn't known what to say when she had learned that his life, so precious to her, had come at the price of centuries torture for two precocious brats.
No, rather than the most evil mages in Earthland's history, Zeref and Aki had proven to be no more evil than the ones after their heads—proven to be, quite possibly, better, for they had been cursed for trying to bring Natsu back to life, denying all odds and fears in their conquest against death.
Before they could even make a decent start on thinking of a plan, the dragons had appeared, and Natsu, naturally, had thrown himself forward; she, too, had been confident he would be fine. It was Fairy Tail; he was Natsu.
The child versions of the Black Mages, on the other hand—and, as Lucy had soon learned, more appropriately—had plainly thought they were about to lose their brother again. After another bout of crying, the younger pair had run off again to trick their older selves into killing seven dragons—dragons, Lucy thought ruefully, that had been set loose by Colonel Who-Needs-Temporal-Continuity-Anyways Arcadios.
Lucy was still unsure of the finer points—those brats hadn't liked explaining things so much as telling her how stupid she was for not immediately grasping it—but understood that, by tricking their older selves into wanting the Curse of Contradictions, it, by its nature, had taken itself from them—though, not before they had put on a spectacular display of power, snuffing out the dragons razing the city like they were horseflies.
In the aftermath, their sanity returned to them, the older Black Mages had worked with the younger pair to find a way to preserve the present. The terrible answer they had come to was for the younger pair to return to the past without their memories, to return them to the nightmare they were precondemned to experience. While Natsu had rejected the idea, the younger pair had been unreasonably—especially in Zeref's case—happy to do so.
So it was that Natsu, Lucy, and the older and younger Zeref's and Aki's had returned to the past through methods Lucy couldn't even begin to comprehend, understanding only that they were causing the gate to self-destruct in order to function… Because that made sense.
And now, now, she was finally returning to the present; finally returning to a state of being that didn't threaten the very fabric of reality just by her presence; finally returning to normal life.
Unfortunately for her, her normal life was lived in the proper Fairy Tail fashion, a way of life in which time travel to kill the two Black Mages only to come back with the child versions and learning that Natsu was a reincarnated brother of theirs before they tricked the older actually good and cursed versions of themselves into taking down dragons that had inexplicably emerged from the massively complex gate that they had built without actually needing the Celestial Spirit Keys and breaking their curse at the same time before using said gate to send them back by destroying it was perfectly ordinary.
And, of course, a guild which had Natsu.
As she blinked in the sudden daylight of her own time, her already sore body was hit again, sending her, along with what had hit her, to the ground.
"You got a problem with it, Underwear?!"
Lucy, growling in annoyance, pushed herself up to see Natsu some feet away, looking furious. Behind him, the present's Zeref and Aki stood awkwardly, painfully uncomfortable and anxious just to look at.
The thing that had thrown her to the ground turned out to be Gray, an ice mage of Fairy Tail, who had lost his shirt (again). Lucy made to punch him off, but he leapt to his feet before she could.
"Egg yeah I do, Flame-Brain!" he roared, raising his fists. He ignored Lucy's scowl at the swear word, taking an aggressive step forward. Natsu shifted slightly, moving still further in front of his new-found siblings as Gray snarled, "Why the egg are you so buddy-buddy with the flapping Black Mages!"
Natsu's nostrils flared. "They're my siblings, exhibitionist!" he retorted, his pointed dragon teeth fully visible. "If you got a problem with them, you got one with me!"
Natsu started forward, but was stopped by Aki, who dashed forward to grab his arm. She shook her head as he looked back at her, her expression hidden by a curtain of hair. "No, Natsu-nii-chan," she mumbled, "don't ruin things with your guild-"
"Shut it, Aki-chan!" Natsu snapped, lighting a fist on fire. Gray, likewise, moved into a Making stance, readying for the fight.
"Both of you, stop," Erza interjected sternly, smashing both heads together so hard the owners dropped to the ground, hips in the air, faces pressed to the stone. "Oops," she added, looking down at them curiously.
"Hey!" Aki shouted indignantly, voice and demeanor abruptly not that of a cowed otter. She either didn't see or didn't care how Lucy shook her head as she started towards Natsu, past Erza. "Don't hit-"
A sword found her neck. Aki paused, looking down at it with an imperially raised eyebrow. "Not another step," Erza warned darkly, face overshadowed. A bead of blood dribbled down her silver blade; neither she nor Aki spared it a glance. "I am willing to listen to whatever Lucy and Natsu have to say about you, but for the moment I thoroughly distrust you both." She jerked her head towards Zeref, not taking her eyes from Aki.
Aki met her deadly gaze easily. "That's fine," she said coolly, "understandable – actually, it's a good decision." She tilted her head, disregarding how the blade cut a thin line across her neck. "But I don't see why that means I shouldn't move."
Erza's eyes flashed, sending shivers down the present Fairy Tail mages' spines. She towered over Aki, pressing her sword still more firmly against the small neck, but Aki didn't back down, not seeming to care whatsoever. "You-"
"Because, see," Aki interrupted, blatantly unimpressed—Lucy had to wonder at her courage— "-that's my older brother. And I'll be tailless if someone keeps me from him after all these centuries." She grabbed the blade with her right hand, not even wincing as the razor-sharp edge sank centimeters in. "So go ahead and try," she challenged, her expression turning more bone-chilling than even the one she was meeting. "Go ahead and try to stop me."
Erza was still for an agonizingly long minute, watching the other. "Very well," she conceded, lowering her sword to the dumbstruck shock of every Fairy Tail mage present. "If you make any move I find suspicious, though, I will cut you down," she added coldly.
Aki nodded matter-of-factly before side-stepping her, crouching beside Natsu. "Natsu-nii-chan, are you okay?" she could be heard muttering, patting his cheek.
Erza turned her attention, and blade, towards Zeref. "What about you?"
Zeref stopped his retreat, the realization that he wasn't going to kill the mage in front of him resurfacing in his mind. "Me… what?" he tried hesitantly.
Erza glowered, apparently not buying that a Black Mage could be clueless, but, when he continued stared at her, grudgingly jerked an elbow towards Aki. "Do you feel the same way as her?"
Zeref followed her indicated direction: Natsu was now sitting up, wincing, but laughing raucously next to Aki. She, too, was laughing, albeit more of an uncertain chuckle, accompanied by an aggressive rubbing of the back of her head. Her fear of messing up whatever had caused Natsu to forgive them was tangible to Zeref—a feeling he shared.
He had no idea why in the wide world Natsu was okay with their relation; the idea of doing something wrong, of him realizing they deserved no forgiveness, was excruciating.
But, watching as his little brother patted his little sister on the head, as she giggled and flushed with happiness that Zeref hadn't seen in centuries, he felt another rush of numbing relief. Natsu was grinning, too, clearly content himself; content with their being siblings, not just tolerant; content with them.
He may not know why Natsu was content with them, and he might be certain that whatever the reason was it was misplaced, but Natsu was; he really was.
Content, with them.
Still, he couldn't quite believe it, the only ounce of belief fed by the fact that he really was right there, right in front of him, not ten feet away, and he was alive, and he was smiling at them. After all those years, after all those years, after any hope to reunite with their brother had been coldly written off, they had the chance to be with him again – were right then with him.
It was unbelievable, something that felt like it came from another life, not their own tainted ones, something too wonderous a miracle to be bestowed upon them.
He felt another deluge of relief flooding through him, seeming to be trying to make up for four centuries of never-ending torment, as Natsu returned the hug Aki had just toppled him over with. Aki, who had never really smiled since they had been cursed, always fake laughs and distracting entertainment, was smiling, really smiling. Not a grin forced onto her face by the curse or plastered there by herself, a mask of marble entertainment. No, it was there, however timid and haunted, and it was real.
Watching, he hardly noticed his own lips twitching upwards, raising their heads after an endless winter, an eternal darkness—darkness that had seemed so never-ending.
He blinked as he found the blonde-haired mage – Lucy? – in front of him, arms spread wide as if in protection. She wasn't looking at him, instead standing with her back to him, speaking urgently.
"-self together, Zeref!"
He stared for a second, his mind taking a long time to process anymore than it already had in the last two hours, then shook his head vigorously. "What? Why are you- flap-" he blurted under his breath, finally noticing that the red-haired mage – the Fairy known as Titania – was oozing danger.
"See, Erza? He was just lost in his thoughts," Lucy appeased, waving her hands desperately in a vain attempt to pacify the Titania. "They haven't been around anybody in centuries; they just get distracted really easily!"
"What?" Zeref muttered, bewildered. He flinched, hanging his head in shame as the knight glowered at him.
Titania, huh? She's one of those involved with the Tower of Heaven.
He didn't notice as he cringed. "I was…" His words trailed off, his throat far too constricted for them to escape.
Just one, not even the only or a small group…
He shook his head again, looking up and saying more steadily, albeit meekly, "I was only thinking for a couple seconds, though…"
"You were staring at nothing for ten seconds, actually," Aki corrected him; Natsu – whom she was gleefully riding piggy-back – had wandered over.
Lucy sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. If by ten seconds you mean, like, a whole minute, then yeah, ten seconds…
Before Erza could say anything else, Natsu sidled over to Zeref, who had backed away from the group, eyes wide and strangely dull. He flinched reflexively as Natsu approached, but otherwise contented himself with staring at his interlocked hands.
"So…" Natsu started, but didn't seem able to continue.
"So," Zeref echoed, gaze shifting from thing to thing, finding everything except his brother.
"Yeah…" said Aki, confusion and discomfort chaining her voice to silence.
Lucy found it acutely disorienting to hear, contrasted against Aki's younger self's over-assertive confidence. Taking pity on all three, she slipped over to join them. Ignoring the two flinches, she asked cheerfully, "So, Aki, what did you get when we were in the past?"
Aki glanced timidly at her, as though afraid she would bite, but was distracted almost immediately.
"Oh yeah, what was it, Aki-chan?" Natsu said curiously.
Aki, eyes momentarily wide, shook herself. Slipping off Natsu's shoulders, she spun around, holding out a slip of burnt paper. "This is a- it's a f-f-fam- I mean," she faltered, confusion and fear quieting her again. "… well… uhm, that reminded me of- no, that's not right either… uh, well, a-anyways, here."
Natsu took the paper silently, turning it over.
"What is it?" Lucy asked curiously, peering over his shoulder.
It was a family portrait of five: A warrior looking, pink haired man in a toga was grinning in a way very reminiscent of Natsu's own warm smile, hands on two familiar boys' heads; the boys, the child versions of Natsu and Zeref, were standing in front of the two adults, beaming. Zeref appeared about nine years old, and was wearing scholarly robes, looking absolutely exasperated, but – Lucy only grudgingly made the connection – in the same amused, affectionate way as she when her guildmates were acting childish. The seven-or-so Natsu was challenging the sun for brightest thing in the universe, several missing teeth revealed by his broad grin. He was holding two fingers up in a peace sign, arm extended, his other hand on his hip, in front of a kind faced, beautiful woman with long, black hair. She was standing beside the man, also beaming, holding a tiny girl with the same pink hair as Natsu's-
Lucy stared. Pink hair?
She blinked, checking the little girl, then the current's Aki, the girl, and back to Aki, hoping to catch her eye. Unfortunately, the present's Aki was staring fixedly at the ground, her black locks curtaining her face and dashing any chance of eye-catching. Glancing again at the photo, she knew the child was Aki, if anything for having met a not much older version just that night, if with darker hair—never mind darker hair, she thought, staring at the picture, it changed from light pink to black?
She considered the photo might have been discolored in the burning it had clearly went through…?
She shrugged, leaving it for the time being, and returned to the picture: Aki seemed much younger than Natsu, despite them being twins, almost like a baby – thin and fragile looking. She wore an asymmetrical dress, peering curiously over her mother's arms at her brothers.
Lucy looked up again as Aki stuttered, "It-it's a- a, you know…" She shook her head violently, so vigorously it almost made Lucy jump. "A- a pict-pict-…" She trailed off again, leaving Lucy to wonder when she had forgotten her younger self's, well, normalcy—an idea she quickly stopped investigating, the answer instantly deemed too depressing.
"Is this…?"
Natsu's quiet voice grabbed Lucy's attention more firmly than any shout could nowadays. His hands were shaking almost imperceptibly as he examined the picture, his expression entirely hidden.
"Our family," Zeref finished for him, hand jumping to his elbow and joining Aki's attentive examination of the dirt.
Together, with all their heads bowed, they looked to be praying, or else mourning, or—Lucy considered amusedly—staring at a massive mole sticking its head out of the ground—wearing sunglasses and carrying a magic staff, by how attentively they were staring.
She thought this amusedly, that is, until she remembered a certain massive mole she and her team had been charged with evicting. Then she scowled, discarding the idea.
After a minute, though, she brought it back, the opportunity to dwell vengefully on it being a giant mole far too satisfying.
Yes, a giant, human-hating, grudge-holding mole that would be more interested in pink-haired Dragon Slayers, Ice Make strippers, and temperamental red heads in armor than—she sighed resignedly at the world's social standards—very attractive, young, perfectly blond girls. My good looks always do me one dirty…
Around the same time, outside her imagination, Zeref, the worry that Natsu was upset swelling alarmingly fast, glanced up, and saw the smile in the photograph.
He blanked; he was seeing that smile. That one, that- not only seeing it, part of- no, they were the cause? But, them? He definitely was- he was happy because of the picture that showed them as family. Them, he and Aki, and Natsu, and Natsu was smiling that way over it…?
He blinked, startled into realizing how wet his own eyes were by a tear tracing down his brother's face, falling to rest on the trembling photograph.
"Oi, Flame-brain, it's time- are you crying?" Gray's tone switched instantly as he caught sight of Natsu, who wiped his face on his sleeve and scowled back at him.
"Obviously not, Underpants-prince!" Words didn't seem to be enough of a denial for him, though, as he charged towards the ice mage.
"Cry-baby!"
"Stripper!"
"You wanna go?!"
"Why, you want to be beaten again?"
"You-"
Neither Zeref nor Aki heard a thing as the two rivals started brawling in front of the ravaged time portal, standing in the wreckage of the palace courtyard. Natsu was not only tolerant of the idea of them being family, not only content with it, but happy about it. He was happy about it. He clearly cared about the photo—cared about them.
Aki glanced at Zeref, who gave a small, encouraging half smile, lips twitching minusculey. She beamed, wiping at her teary face as though that would stop her flood of tears. Giving up, she ran forward, attaching herself to Natsu's back.
"Oi– hey, Aki-chan, I'm fighting here!" Natsu protested indignantly, trying to wriggle out of her grip as he had done with her younger self.
Well, no; now he was happy to hug her, only wanting to fight, as per usual. Unfortunately for him and thematic continuity, he found that Aki's embrace was, now, more like a straightjacket, the wearer of which was wholly incapable of removing it. Not to mention, he couldn't reach her on his back.
Lucy came back to reality to find Zeref hovering about three feet from the touching scene, an anxious, hesitant, yet undeniably longing look clear on his slightly beat up face.
She rolled her eyes, sighing. Knowing that the present's Zeref probably wouldn't be as confident as his younger self in hugging his brother, she strode over to him, ignoring his wince and unsettling gaze. "There we go!" she said cheerily, and, ignoring his stammered protests, she pushed the squawking ex-Black Mage to join his siblings: A Fire Dragon Slayer raised by a dragon being hug-attacked by his long lost, centuries old younger twin sister who had worked with the eldest Dragneel brother to bring the slayer back to life only to be cursed and then have their younger selves travel through time to trick them into breaking said curse and revealing that they were not the iniquitous Black Mages of legend.
I thought it'd grow normal—that I'd get used to it. But things in this guild, she concluded, watching as Aki foiled Zeref's attempt to clamber out of a hug he obviously wanted to be a part of by tripping him, never have been and never will be normal…
She chuckled as Zeref gave in, awkwardly hugging his brother, and as Aki tackled them both, gripping them tightly as though to never let go again.
… and maybe that isn't such a bad thing.
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Remember, the ending A/N is at the end of the next chapter.