"The accused are found not guilty on all charges!" the first Don announced dourly, glowering down at them.
Aki and Zeref, both rather thin looking and quite bruised by now, blinked at him, each other, at him again, then burst out laughing.
"What in the world-!" the frog started indignantly.
"I can't believe it only took a week!" Aki wheezed, chains clinking.
"You predicted it would only take that long," Zeref returned.
Aki wiggled her fingers, glancing sideways at him. "Sure, I bet on it, but that doesn't mean I thought it would happen."
Rodin, growling audibly, stepped forward, moving to release the chains.
"Oh, that won't be necessary," she added to him, straining to look round at him with the thick metal cuff attached around her neck. "I can get out just fine." She closed her eyes, and the chains broke apart, shattering from the inside out as a magical vibration ran through it at the molecular level.
Zeref did the same, leaving the entire assembly gaping at the two free, now stretching wizards.
"Here, Zeref-nii," Aki said happily, and he moved closer to Aki. She held out her hands, murmuring, "ヒール." Her hands lit up red, and slowly, Zeref's injuries began to heal. [Heal]
"H-how-?" the frog stammered.
Aki glanced over at it, then shrugged. "Oh, we could have gotten out at any time." Zeref's injuries having fully faded, though he remained skinny, she let the red magic dissipate. "It was just for good faith that we stayed in them. Though," she added, rubbing the back of her neck with a face similar to Natsu's when he had been fighting Sting. She moved toward Jason of The Weakly Sorcerer. "-I'm starting to wish we hadn't. My neck's gonna be sore for at least a week."
Aki stopped in front of the photographer, who, to his credit, didn't back down. "ぐげんおアーク:カメラ." [arc of embodiment: camera] She handed Jason the camera that had materialized in her hands, thinking that his boyfriend was a little too shocked to hold onto it.
"Cool, cool, cool!" Jason shouted, predictably, his antenna doing the conga.
Meanwhile, Zeref was saying in a business-y tone, straightening from a touch-your-toes stretch, "Now, we have some arrangements that must be sorted out." His demeanor switched, instantly becoming arch and regal. Even as he looked up at the court, he seemed to be looking down his nose at them. "Now seems a fine time to me, so if-"
"Have you gone mad again?" sneered a council member.
He looked at her imperiously. As the moment dragged on, she began to fidget under his cold gaze. "Oh," he sighed wearily after a long, painful minute. He shook his head in deep disappointment. "The Councils are all unaware of who we are. I had forgotten."
"Zeref, stop-!" Makarov whispered urgently.
"What in Edolas are you talking-" started a Wizard Saint.
"I am Spriggan, Emperor of the Alvarez Empire," Zeref said simply, innocuous smile shifting to one of smugness, clearly greatly enjoying himself.
A moment of silence, and the assembly erupted into laughter. "Y-you-" someone snorted.
"And she is Sluagh?" another wheezed, pointing at Aki, who had just finished healing her own injuries and was examining the sky out the window.
"Hmm?" she hummed, turning to face him, her attitude switching as swiftly as her brother's. "Oh, yes, I was distracted. We must renegotiate, amongst several" —she placed great emphasis on the word— "other things, certain banned sub-groups of-"
"Enough of this farce!" barked the First Don.
"Farce?" Aki returned loftily. "Enough of your ignorance, if you would be courteous enough to cease showing it off like it were your precious plumage." Angry mutters broke around, but Aki ignored them. "The main reason we are so keen to renegotiate these details is because of what fools you have already revealed yourselves to be during this travesty you labeled a 'trial.'"
Makarov's soul had long drifted away as Zeref and Aki challenged all of the court that had had them in chains not ten minutes previously; he didn't seem to have realized how befitting their actions were of a Fairy Tail member—or how befitting it had been Warrod's and Porlyusica's.
"The fact that you do not recognize the sovereigns of the greatest military power not under your jurisdiction is simply asinine," Aki said disdainfully, an almost cruel superiority in her voice.
The court was incensed. "Right after we pardoned-"
The council member broke off as Aki turned to it, eyebrows raised ludicrously. "Never mind how you treat the populace under your control, not carrying out a proper trial, not to mention permitting police brutality on government premises."
"Show us the seal then," the second Don sighed before anyone else could retaliate, waving a hand. "Let us move on from this absurdity."
Zeref smirked, eyes glinting. He held a hand casually up, and a piece of gold-edged paper appeared in it.
"Let me see that!" the chief of the Council of Fiore snapped, trying to hide the anxiety that had made its way, finally, into his voice.
A frog hurried forward, bowing uncertainly to Zeref and scurrying back with the paper. The Head's eyes sped back and forth, and his mouth opened in a perfect 'O.'
"へんしん:おうじゃのガイズ," Aki said, tilting her head smilingly up at the astonished court. [Transformation: Sovereign's Guise] Her body shone bright gold, the outline of her shirt and pants melting into long, flowing cloth. "It is quite unfortunate that I am unable to, as Titania does, use this magic to change my hairstyle," she continued blithely as the last of the light faded, revealing an elaborate, sleek black and white gown with gold accents. "Now," she continued, reaching up and undoing her hair, which fell, still fairly untangled, from its braided bun, "you morons blanch? I feel it is somewhat in ill taste to do so, at this point."
"So," Zeref continued, drawing attention to himself, suddenly in similarly regal attire, "the illicit magical sub-types-" He stopped, tilting his head as though listening to something no one else was privy to, then sighed. "-can be discussed at a later date," he said almost sulkily, reequipping to normal clothes and to the air of a guildmage.
"Before it's too late," Aki began, also instantly returning to her causal manner, "I don't know why in ever-loving Edolas-"
"Aki-ki, don't swe-"
"-you thought to use Nezothine for your cells, but if someone besides us" —she gestured emphatically to herself and Zeref— "is able to negate the magic suppression-"
"-ar here… They used what?!" Zeref squawked, leaping about a foot in the air.
"-and uses their magic irresponsibly, the whole place is going to blow up."
"Nezothine?!"
Aki grimaced, seeming to slouch slightly. "That's what I thought, too, when I realized."
"Are you trying to die!?" he shouted indignantly at the congregation.
Aki shook her head long-sufferingly. "They can't have known how unstable Nezothine is around certain explosive magics, or they wouldn't have dared to use it. It is a strong metal, and good with many magics, and, to be fair, it is unlikely that anyone but us would be able to use their magic, so-"
"And how, exactly, did you do tha'?" Rodin demanded furiously, interrupting. "I was watchin' you the 'ole time! You ne'er used an ounce a'magic!"
She grinned roguishly at him over her shoulder. "Well, I tried to tell you I could use my magic when I first entered that cell, but you didn't listen. It was really boring in there." She shrugged. "So I used some magic to cast an illusion so you wouldn't notice while I ran some tests on the material the cell was made of."
"You did what?!" a council member blustered. They didn't notice, or didn't think anything of the fact, that the five Dons were frozen, horrified.
Aki frowned, observing the council member superciliously. "You didn't honestly think that I would just sit there, bored, for an entire flapping week?"
She yelped as Zeref punched her in the side, sending her to the floor. "Don't swear here," he rebuked when she stared up at him in betrayal.
She scowled, getting to her feet and brushing herself off.
"So you destroyed the cell?!" demanded the council member.
Aki rolled her eyes. "Don't worry," she breezed, waving a dismissive hand at it, "I didn't destroy any-"
A distant explosion interrupted her, shaking the very foundations of building.
"-thing," Aki finished unconcernedly.
Another deafening crash resounded around them, and a wall collapsed, dust flooding the room, accompanied by a dragon's roar.
"NIIIIIIIII! AKIIIIIIIKIIII!"
Out of the cloud, Natsu hurtled, dust seeming to stream from his nostrils. He barreled into Aki, angled so that, as he straightened, she was slung over his shoulder, her dress—which she had not, as Zeref had with his own regal attire, reequipped out of—draped dramatically over him. Natsu then dived at Zeref, who yelped and teleported to the right before he could be caught.
Aki looked pleasantly up at the still stunned assembly as Natsu hopped around after Zeref, saying over-dramatically, seeming to enjoy the effect of the draped dress, "It does appear that our entourage has since arrived. We shall, after all, need to discontinue our negotiations at the present moment." She giggled slightly. "We will be-"
"ZEREF GET BACK HERE!"
"-in contact soon. Hope that's alright with you," she added sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head as Natsu leapt from railings to chairs to benches, chasing Zeref around the room, the latter looking thoroughly anxious by now that the beast was going to knock him out. "-'cause I don't think either of us have any say in the matter."
Zeref screamed as Natsu managed to grab his ankle, swinging him into another wall. It crumbled from the force, another cloud of debris filling the room. Dust surrounding his imposing figure, Natsu towered above Zeref as he struggled to sit up.
"Why were you running?!" Natsu demanded, his eyes gleaming red holes in his darkened face. {A/N: Why were you running?!}
Zeref shrank back, attempting a grin, looking like he was trying to laugh in the face of death (and failing to do so).
Natsu dived.
Zeref shrieked again, dodging and sprinting through the first hole Natsu had made.
"OI!" Natsu roared, appearing positively rabid as he took off after him. "GET BACK HERE, IDIOT!"
"YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME!"
"I'M WORRIED, YOU ABSOLUTE CHAMELEON!"
Another screech, followed by, "SEE?! YOU NEARLY KILLED ME! LUCY!? LUCY, HELP-PAAAAAAAGH!" A scream.
"Sorry, Zeref, but it's the only way Natsu knows how to express his feelings."
"YOU BETRAYE-AAAAAAGH!"
"THERE! YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY AGAIN!"
A final, distant yell, and the court room was silent – except for the continued crumbling of infrastructure, of course.
Makarov glanced at the debris covered assembly, half anxious, half amused. "It wasn't their fault!" he said hurriedly, seeing the council of Fiore's glowers. He shrugged. "That was all Natsu."
"FAIRY TAIL!"