Chapter 34 Meeting the Black Wizard

Well here is the final chapter of Part 2. This will likely heavily diverge from canon, I'll be checking the Fairy Tail wiki and watching some of the episodes as its been a whole six months since I last saw even the beginning of Tenrou Island, and about 4 years since I last saw the whole thing back when I first became a fan of Fairy Tail.

Also, OMG, I reached over a hundred favorites now! Never thought I'd reach this many back when I started in January!

The teams still in the trial scoured the woods looking for the grave of Fairy Tail's first master, Mavis Vermillion. Elfman and Evergreen fell off the path as they ran from the monsters chasing them. Evergreen felt her bones get nearly crushed at the weight from her muscular partner.

"Get off me you big oaf!" she shouted struggling to use her knees to push him off.

"Sorry!" he said.

They got to their feet.

"Now where are we?" Elfman asked looking around.

Before they could even answer their question, the bushes nearby parted and a young man in a black and white outfit with a locket on his neck emerged. He looked at them in surprise just as they did, for he wasn't a member of their guild.

"What? People?" the man said.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Elfman asked. "This island is our guild's sacred island! You're trespassing!"

"Yes… you can't be on this island vacationing if that's what you're doing here!" Evergreen said.

"No. I thought this island was uninhabited!" the man said raising his hands.

"Well its not so you better get off here now!" Elfman ordered.

…

Natsu and Wendy both heard the shout as they were looking around and gasped.

"What's wrong?" Lisanna asked.

"We just heard Elfman's voice!" Natsu said. "Sounds like someone's on here that shouldn't' be! Come on!" Natsu said as he took off.

….

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was trespassing. But please, don't come near me!" the man said.

"Why's that?" Elfman asked suspiciously.

"Please… stay back!" he began to back up before his body went numb and he felt excruciating pain. "No its coming!"

He screamed falling to his knees as an explosion of dark energy flew from him. Elfman and Evergreen stood frozen.

"Get down!" Natsu shouted as pushed them to the ground, the dark energy passing over them.

The energy cleared, leaving the nearby trees and plant life dead. The man looked at Natsu with wide, teary eyes.

"Natsu."

The fire dragon slayer barely heard him over his rage. "Who are you? What are you doing on our guild's sacred ground? Why are you attacking my friends?"

Wendy quickly arrived, followed by Lisanna, Happy and Carla.

"What's going on?" Lisanna asked.

"We found this guy here," Elfman said. "Then he just attacked us."

"What?" Lisanna exclaimed.

"I didn't attack you!" the man said. "I can't control this magic power! Please stay back!"

"Alright who are you?" Natsu asked once again.

"Natsu," the man said looking at Natsu.

"That's my name! Tell me yours already!" Natsu made to charge at the man and punch him but Wendy latched onto him.

"Big brother don't!" Wendy said barely managing to hold on to him.

Big brother? The man in black thought.

"Look at him! See the tears in his eyes? He doesn't want to fight or hurt us!" Wendy said.

Natsu growled. But he stopped resisting. "Alright. But stop trying my patience buddy! Who are you and how do you know my name?"

"I am… Zeref," the man said.

"Zeref?" Carla exclaimed.

Everyone knew the name. Zeref was the legendary black wizard that had created countless dark artifacts and creatures like Lullaby or Delliora.

"Zeref the legendary black wizard? No you can't be him! He lived over four hundred years ago. He must be dead by now," Wendy said. "You just share his name right?"

Zeref shook his head. "No, I am him."

"What?" Happy screamed.

"I have not aged in four hundred years. That is part of the curse I was inflicted with."

Wendy along with all the others were shocked and frightened to hear that this man was the black wizard who'd created the objects that had caused much suffering in the world.

"Zeref the Black Wizard?" Lisanna asked in fear.

"Stay behind me sis! You too Ever!" Elfman said putting his arm out in front of both girls.

Natsu immediately did the same with his sister, getting in front of Wendy to protect her.

"Alright, I don't care if you are some legendary black wizard or how old you are! If you hurt my friends you're gonna get it!"

"Natsu please don't anything!" Wendy said.

Natsu looked at her. "Why not! He says he's Zeref, the most evil wizard to ever live!"

"Does he look like the most evil wizard to ever live?" Wendy asked.

Seeing Zeref's tear stained face, Natsu couldn't say yes.

"Wendy's right. An evil wizard wouldn't cry like that after destroying life," Carla said.

"Lets hear him out," Wendy said. "Zeref… you say you're the Zeref? The black wizard who created demons and dark artifacts that still cause trouble to this day?"

"Yes… that's me," Zeref said.

"But you don't seem like you're evil, by the way you're crying," Wendy said.

"Perhaps not. But I've done many terrible things Wendy," Zeref said.

The youngest dragon slayer's eyes widened. "You know my name?"

"Yes… I know all the remaining five dragon slayers. You, Natsu, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue."

The last two weren't familiar to anyone present.

"What… are you doing on our island?" Lisanna finally found it in her to speak to the black wizard.

"I'm trying to isolate myself so that I don't hurt anyone," Zeref told them. "Thank you for stopping Natsu from attacking me, Wendy. That likely would have made me unleash another wave of darkness unintentionally."

"Um… you're welcome. But if you're Zeref… you don't seem like the legend makes you out to be," Wendy said.

"Legends don't always tell the whole truth," Zeref said. "Its true I created dark artifacts and demons. But those were meant to destroy me when I created them. Nothing else."

"Destroy… you?" Natsu said.

"But why?" Wendy asked.

"So I could be free of this curse," Zeref motioned to the dead trees around him. "The more I value life… the more I destroy it."

"That's horrible, I'd probably want to die too if that happened to me," Lisanna said.

Everyone else looked at Zeref with pitying eyes, their hostility gone now that they knew he wasn't truly hostile.

"So… you created all those monsters to destroy you and prevent you from destroying life. That's pretty manly," Elfman said.

"Such a tragic fate. And you are viewed as a villain by all," Evergreen said.

"Well I did leave those monsters to run amock. They could not achieve their purpose so I didn't bother with them," Zeref said. "The blood they've spilled is still on my hands."

"Poor guy," Happy muttered.

"Indeed. But everyone keep your guard up this cold be a trick," Carla said.

"Yes… and none of them were strong enough," Zeref answered Elfman. "None except you… Natsu."

"Huh?" Natsu exclaimed. "Me?"

Zeref smiled at him. "I suppose I should tell you the truth. I'm your older brother, Natsu. You, Wendy, and the other three dragon slayers were born over four hundreds years ago."

So, Zeref and the others are having a nice chit chat since Wendy prevented Natsu from attacking him outright. What do you guys think? I'm doing this mainly cause I want to wrap up the rest of the story at the end of Tenrou, but also cause I don't altogether like how the plot went with Zeref in the canon. Had I been there I would have seen he was not a villain or trying to harm people there intentionally. That was totally obvious by his crying and him telling them to keep their distance, even Happy could see it as I recall he said it looked like Zeref lost control. Is it just the Fairy Tail is composed of dummies thing?